Back on WP now, had a break, time to think about social learning and my own CPD!

I’ve decided to start using the blog again to save notes from things I read/experience about elearning. At work we are developing a new DL programme which “should” be more interactive using online technology.

Just read  Purvis, Alison J. , Aspden, Liz J. , Bannister, Philip W. and Helm, Paul A.(2011) ‘Assessment strategies to support higher level learning in blended delivery’, Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 48: 1, 91 — 100  http://pdfserve.informaworld.com/791450_751308121_934325870.pdf

I found this paragraph particularly relevant:

Interaction is essential to students’ learning experience and achievement (Paloff & Pratt, 1999; Laurillard, 2000; Garrison & Anderson, 2003) regardless of the type of interaction (Jung, Choi, Lim, & Leem, 2002; McGugan, 2002). Students who participate in interactive elements of course delivery have shown increased satisfaction with their learning compared to students with limited interaction (Althaus, 1997). Research has also shown that learners learn more effectively if they are actively involved in the process rather than being passive thinkers (Webb, Jones, Barker, & van Schaik, 2004). However, interaction is only successful when it is a planned and integrated component of a course with a strong rationale for its use (Jung et al., 2002; Etzioni & Etzioni, 1999; Williams & Murphy, 2002).

This is what I need to get over to senior management and academics where I work. The DL programme is huge and provides a massive income to the University. I don’t believe that letting students to learn at a distance with no interaction is satisfactory. This is my battle!

learning behaviours are highly affected by assessment requirements (Gordon & Debus, 2002),  and a key consideration for any learning delivery is the use of assessment to enhance learning (Carless, 2007) rather than simply using it to measure learning (Taras, 2002).

Yes this is true, I’m guilty of it too. When pressures are on, or the topic or mode of learning isn’t grabbing me I do what’s required for assessment. I know most of the time I do the opposite – I do loads extra and do everything as asked, I understand why many DL students look at the assessment and respond accordingly. Time is very previous in the adult learner world,  most of our students work full time or more, have families and very senior roles. They need to be efficient and selective in how they spend their time.

It is perhaps to be expected that as students become more accustomed to collaboration throughout their learning experiences, the processes of collaborative working will become more accepted.

This is another battle I have, someone commented to me the other day that our students (who are an average age of 30-35) might not be ready elearning,  but there is evidence that it is getting easier.  I understand the resistance to ebooks over text books/online journal articles over printed papers, but this barrier should not be so difficult to overcome for social learning as long as the learning experience is designed to be interesting and relevant, bearing in mind those time pressures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The VLE

Some blog notes:

Paraphrased notes from this video of James Clay debating the argument “the VLE is undead”. See: http://elearningstuff.wordpress.com/2010/04/03/the-vle-is-undead/, April 3rd 2010

Students like to come together in institutions. VLE is an online version of a physical learning environment. More than a content repository – like saying a library is a content repository and learning doesn’t happen there. If all you use it for is as a Content Rep then you are missing an opportunity. Great if all learners could choose their own Web 2.0 tools to support their learning, but that assumes they know what is out there and how to use them. VLE allows learning to happen without having to worry about Web 2.0 tools and when it is facilitated by a guide for the learners.

Some more affordances of elearning

Now I’m back to just doing one full time job (whilst studying, being a mum and being pregnant) I can catch up with some blogs I like to read.

http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2010/04/social-enzymes.html

Steve Wheeler, on 5 April blogged about social learning.

Learning has rarely been a solo activity. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I have learnt something significant without the help or influence of others (and counting on my fingers wasn’t learnt without help, believe me). No, we are not isolated learners, but learn our most important lessons whilst in conversation with others. Conversation is of course often technologically mediated in this digital age. You and I no longer need to occupy the same location to converse. We can use text, audio or video in a number of modes and through a mind dazzling range of technologies. And there is a record – an archive – of our conversation if we want one.

This is how the current tools and services found on the Web are being used in so many new ways to connect, share and converse. Wikis, blogs, podcasts, social bookmarking, RSS feeds, microblogs, social networking… all are very powerful tools for people to use to make connections with each other… and to learn.

I agree that we learn socially or at least under the influence of others. Doing an online MA myself with NO contact at all, I rely on social media for interaction with others.  Can people learn as much from Distance Learning alone, when I say DL alone I mean just reading notes provided by an institution. Some students think they can, they probably can and they probably pass the exams with varying degrees of success but isn’t the learning experience richer and more motivating with interaction? In a meeting this morning someone raised the issue of learning styles and some people just “like” to learn alone, should we accept this?  Should learning be more dynamic?

Formal learning is not the only type of learning possible, you see. More often, we are learning informally, while playing a massively multi-player online role playing game for example, or listening to a podcast about a news item. You are learning something new now by reading this blog post, and I learnt something new while I was writing it. We are aware of each other. When we search for an item on the web and get sidetracked down one or more other routes because they look more interesting… we are informally learning something new. When we eavesdrop on Twitter conversations, and simply ‘lurk’, we are learning informally. When we watch a YouTube video because several thousand people have already given it 5 stars …. we are learning informally. You may see this as serendipity – a kind of happy accident – and you may be right. Informal learning, more often than not, is unplanned. But that does not make it less worthwhile than formalised methods of learning.

My reading Steve’s blog is informal learning linked to my formal learning, my formal learning on the MAODE leads me to want to informally learn, I hope I continue to have this motivation afterwards. I’m really starting to see how reading blogs can keep someone interested in an area.

Week 2a – Activities 1 and 2

Activity 1 and 2 notes are here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfjp86bs_89txxt3fcv

Activity 1 – watched a web cast by John Seeley Brown http://stadium.open.ac.uk/stadia/preview.php?whichevent=1063&s=31

Debate about participation being the most successful way of learning. Very engaging webcast. I get the message from Brown that group work is about helping the learner to understand the knowledge that has been given to them before the group learning takes place; so having only watched to 13 minutes I would say that no he doesn’t devalue reading/viewing/listening alone, the message I am receiving is that you need both. I liked the iceberg metaphor, the tip being the explicit learning (reading, listening etc) but the mass of the iceberg under the water is the social learning where you become to understand the knowledge in your own context.
This extract of the video has really helped me to understand better why we encourage our students to be members of study groups and use the discussion boards. I could use this information to help in the process of encouraging this to take place more. I can transfer the ideas about the architects lab and you learn by teaching, to the discussion forums for the DLMBA. We are also looking at moving away from a face to face induction for the DLMBA so the idea of using Second Life for the social side of the induction day is interesting to me.
found his style very easy to watch and listen too. Much more engaging to me than the Rowlands screencast from Wk 1 Activity 6. The use of video in this presentation really did add something to the experience – but when you have a more engaging and lively presenter that is bound to happen.

Actiivity 2
Learnt about citizen science and citizen journalism.
Citizen science is a term used for projects or ongoing program of scientific work in which individual volunteers or networks of volunteers, many of whom may have no specific scientific training, perform or manage research-related tasks such as observation, measurement or computation. The use of citizen-science networks often allows scientists to accomplish research objectives more feasibly than would otherwise be possible. In addition, these projects aim to promote public engagement with the research, as well as with science in general. Some programs provide materials specifically for use by primary or secondary school students. As such, citizen science is one approach to informal science education.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_science)
Citizen journalism, also known as public or participatory journalism or democratic journalism[1], is the act of non-professionals “playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information,”
Heat magazine gets people to send in “spotted” messages when they spot a celebrity in public, these are then printed in the gossip pages.
BBC news often ask people to send in photographs of their local area to contribute to the delivery of news stories (E.g. pictures of snow, floods, etc)
Mark Glasser, a longtime freelance journalist who frequently writes on new media issues, gets to the heart of it:
The idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others. For example, you might write about a city council meeting on your blog or in an online forum. Or you could fact-check a newspaper article from the mainstream media and point out factual errors or bias on your blog. Or you might snap a digital photo of a newsworthy event happening in your town and post it online. Or you might videotape a similar event and post it on a site such as YouTube.