I have just collected my first TMA01 results and I am very disappointed with my results. I did not expect these kind of results as I have tried very hard to complete it and some concepts were for the first time known to me and this did not help me at all.
I want to say so many things but I do not have the courage to do so...
Guess I will try harder for the second TMA02!
Case Study: Swansea University, Collaborative teaching and video-conferencing in Classics
Why this elearning approach was used
The context in which it was used
The design
Implementation of this learning approach
Case Study: Newcastle University, Use of e-portfolios to develop a reflective approach in medicine
Why this elearning approach was used
The context in which it was used
Anticipated problems and challenges:
1. Students are dispersed over a wide geographical area, spending 3 years located at various hospitals administered by one of the five regional base units, thus, reliable access to web-based resources is essential.
2. Students with high workload and tight deadlines require an efficient and reliable system. Challenge: the creation of a system which is easy to use and intuitive.
3. Students might wish to continue using a paper copy.
4. Curriculum leaders were rightly cautious on introducing new technologies, particularly "high stakes" assessment.
The design
1. Provision of a framework for recording and evidencing "high level" programme outcomes during the year to support an end of year appraisal.
2. Provision of a framework for recording and evidencing student derived objectives when they will be summative assessed.
3. Supporting personal tutoring.
4. Support for recording, reflecting and sharing information including structured and unstructured information.
Implementation of this learning approach
Case Study: University of Glasgow, Use of podcasting in Philosophy
Summary
Why this elearning approach was used
The context in which it was used
The design
1. Watching and responding to students reactions in real time.
2. A dynamic and reciprocal interaction that lends itself to a rapid contingency in her teaching and student learning.
3. A lot of dialogue in her lectures-students think, puzzle, ask questions.
4. Additional comments on the Moodle for all of them to think.
Implementation of this learning approach
Case Study: University of Edinburgh, The Virtual Farm
Summary
Why this elearning approach was used
The context in which it was used
The design
1. General information on location and personnel
2. "Farm tours"
3. Regular newsfeeds
4. Webcams streaming live images from two separate farm sides
1. Electronic identification and recording of all milking cows-neck transponder
Individual health, production and movement records for every cow.
2. Electronic identification of calves allowing them to be fed and predetermined amount of milk via a computer-controlled feeding system-automated concentrate feeding-electronic weighting facility.
3. Automatic identification and recording of all health production and movement records for sheep via electronic ear tags.
Implementation of this learning approach
I have decided to summarize on the four following cases:
Hello there...time to focus and start getting into the climate of the new course H807 Innovation in elearning! I suppose that it will be an interesting course and I will learn more things about innovation in the teaching world and when I will gradually get my job as a teacher I will be able to use and evaluate them accordingly in order to be an innovative teacher
Looking forward to see what this course unfolds for me...
This is the end now for this course...
I have already submitted my ECA and now I am looking forward to the results of this. I am worried as I was sick for 8 days when I had to write it and submit it...however, I am sure that I did the best I could.
The whole course, as it was my first one, was a challenge for me. Everything I went through was quite new to me, except the blogging tool. I like blogging and I consider it as a must tool in education nowadays that technology has captured many of the education matters.
In addition, I am sure that I have learnt things that I did not consider before taking this course in this depth and these would be useful in my future career and also in my own personal development and life generally. The learning environment was friendly and I liked the discussions, the forums structure etc.
Looking forward now to H807..
See you there....
Learning and Teaching Committee report
By Elena Kondyli/11.01.2010
This report is aiming to the use of wikis within a higher education institute, whether it should adopt an institution-wide policy to wikis and if so, what the policy should be and what the potential issues are. The main findings of this report are:
Wikis are pedagogical applications in education supporting writing instruction
Wikis invigorate writing
Wikis provide a low cost but effective communication and collaboration tool
Wikis promote the close reading, revision, and tracking of drafts
Wikis discourage "product oriented writing" while facilitating "writing as a process"
Wikis ease students into writing for public consumption
Wikis are invaluable for teaching the rhetoric of emergent technologies
According to Charles Mingus "making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity". In practice the term wiki is applied to a diverse set of systems, features, approaches, and projects (Lamb, 2004). There are arguments on what constitutes true wikiness. Some fundamental principals apply like anyone can change anything since they are quick because the processes of reading and editing are combined. Also, wikis use simplified hypertext markup as wikis have their own markup language that essentially strips HTML down to its simplest elements. Furthermore, wikipage titles are mashed together, often eschew spaces to allow for quick page creation and automatic, mark-up free links between pages within wiki systems. Finally, the content is ego-less, time-less and never finished, anonymity is not required but it is common. There are multiple contributors and notions of page authorship and ownership which can be radically change. Wiki pages are organized by contexts, by links in and links out, and by various categories or concepts emerging in the authoring process. They are constantly in a state of flux and the entries are often unpolished with gaps left on purpose by the creators, hoping that someone else will fit in and fill in the gaps left behind deliberately.
According to Henrik Ibsen "a community is like a ship: everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm". The University of British Columbia is using a number of varied applications, like the Faculty of Applied Science Instructional Support which links wikis into its course management system authoring environment so that designs teams can quickly collaborate to build reference lists and outlines, brainstorming instructional strategies and capture suggestions. Another example, the Romantic Audience Project at Bowdoin College is a collaborative study collecting entries focusing on poems, poets and topics related to Romantic literature. The students chose the wiki framework. Another example comes from the professor Joe Moxley, a professor of English at the University of South Florida, who lists a number of medium's strengths for the teaching of writing skills such as "fun" and "wiki" are often associated. Low cost, effective collaboration and collaboration tool are some of the basic characteristics that a wiki is characterized.
In many respects, wikis contrasts vividly with the traditional approaches of standard groupware and collaborative systems. Access restrictions, rigidly defined workflows, and structures are anathema to most wiki developers. One unique characteristic of the wikis is that users define for themselves how their processes and groups will develop, usually by making things up as they go along. In addition, wikis work great as shared online sketchpads or as spaces for brainstorming. They are also, excellent for creating perpetually updated lists or collections of links and most users can instantly grasp their utility as informal bulletin boards. One way to use wiki is for a meeting planning where a provisional agenda can be drawn, then the URL is distributed to the participants, who in turn are free to communicate with each other, comment or add their own items. Once the meeting is under way, the online agenda becomes a note-taking template and when finally the meeting is completed, the notes will be available online, allowing again the participants or anyone else to review or annotate the proceedings.
There is lack of hard security and privacy and a typical absence of an explicit organizing structure. In addition, it is easy to recognize a wiki page from a mile away since all the pages more or less are alike. They lack of colors, aesthetic appeal and they are plain. Moreover, tracking work in a wiki page may become a logistical nightmare and the management control can easily spin out and as a result a set of protocols to regulate or index them is needed. Another policy issue that threatens to complicate the widespread adoption of wikis in higher education is the specification of intellectual property (IP) rights by contributors to a wiki page. Also, as users apply wikis more commonly in their practice, they increasingly come to depend on them. There is no unified set of software characteristics that are shared by all wikis.
Ferris, S. and Wilder, H. (2006) 'Uses and potentials of wikis in the classroom', Innovate, vol. 2, no. 5. Available from: http://www.innovateonline.info/pdf/vol2_issue5/ (accessed 11 January 2010).
Lamb, B. (2004) 'Wide open space: wikis, ready or not', Educause Review, vol. 39, no. 5 (September/October), pp. 36-48. Available from: http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0452.asp (accessed 11 January 2010).
References:
Lamb, B. (2004) 'Wide open space: wikis, ready or not', Educause Review, vol. 39, no. 5 (September/October), pp. 36-48. Available from: http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0452.asp
P.S. Very difficult activity for me. I do not even know if the requirements of this activity are fulfilled with this report.
I would like to make a review on Imran's podcastAudio player: Imran-Ali.mp3 who is in Trevor's Group which is mainly concerned with the pros and cons of the use of e-portfolios in education and their different use in the teaching practice. First of all, the sound quality is a very good one and his voice is clear and loud and you can easily follow up his sayings and the flow of his sayings. I do not think that the sound quality could improve as it is pretty good as it is now. One step further, the broadcasting quality is again as the sound quality a very well constructed podcast and an intelligible one. Imran starts from the beginning mentioning his ID and inform the audience of the theme of his podcast and then he gets in more details describing the pros and cons of the e-portfolios. After that he concludes and he is thanking his audience. It has a very good coherence and intelligibility. One more characteristic of Imran's podcast is that it is suitable for the needs of the intended audience. It is exact to the point and he does not give too much information so that it would have been "heavy" if too much information was presented to the audience and the result would have been confusing. However, it is a very simple and easy-going podcast with a nice flow and it is understandable. Moreover, the length of the podcast for this specific subject is short, not too much, but it is short. I suppose that some more information could have been added for the pros and cons of the use of the e-portfolios in education. But, as it is, the audience is not getting bored and enjoy the podcast. In addition, it does not actually engages the listener but since the podcast is short and straight forward to the listener, this makes the podcast an interesting one as your whole attention is on hearing the podcast. In contrast, from the academic quality view, I believe that it was based on opinion mostly and in some parts on research through the different online articles provided for the course H808.
Last but not least, every podcast is not perfect! Everything lucks something or needs some more technique to become perfect. For this podcast, I think that a small addition of more information concerning the matter would have been great! Finally, this is a podcast concerned with the advantages and disadvantages of the e-portfolios in education and a very good and clear, coherent presentation of the different pros and cons of their use in the different educational practices in everyday's practice.
Learnitology 02 - November 14, 2005Audio player: LTLpodcast02.m4a : An interview with Dr. Ken Bain, author of "What the Best College Teachers Do". Topics include simulations, online discussion, Powerpoint and wikis.
Very good sound and very clear and the music used as background was great!
The broadcast quality is a good one and it's well constructed, straight forward and you can easily follow up the whole interview, there is clear distinction of the questions and the answers too that made the podcast intelligible.
It meets the needs of the intended audience as it is referring to simulations, online discussions, Powerpoint and wikis. This is a sort of educational technologies used in everyday practice.
It is around 21 minutes and it is an appropriate length for the subject and the intended audience.
Actually, the information provided was really interesting and obviously very important and informative to all the teachers. But, at some point I got a little bit tired from all this information provided to us but this was due to the tiring of the day.
In some cases it is based on research and argument but most of the time it was his opinion.
Be a little bit shorter in time and definitely the information could be condensed in a way so that it will not be like a river of information and the people listening to it to lose their interest or get confused.
This podcast is a very useful one, especially for the plentiful and different information provided for simulation, online discussions, Powerpoint and wikis as these are tools needed in everyday practice in the life of an educational practitioner.
"InterviewAudio player: 20051215-ple.mp3 with Oleg Liber: personal learning environments"
Sound quality was good. Some improvements could be made though as sometimes we hear some sudden knockings and the voice of Mr. Oleg Liber is very soft and not so loud so we could be able to hear it clearly compared to the interviewer voice which is loud and very clear. There is no music background during the interview and I think that some music could make it better as it is very dull hearing a person talking for so long without some seconds of music for break.
The podcast was well-constructed but definitely not so intelligible.
It meets the needs of the intended audience as it is very detailed and informative on the subject and it get in much detail.
Too long podcast for the subject and the intended audience. However, if a person is very interested in this subject I do not think that he will get tired listening to it.
At some points I was losing my interest as the voice was so weak and soft and I had to put all my attention there and as it was too long I could not manage it for all the podcast.
As far as I have understood it was based on both argument and opinion. Mostly on opinion.
A shorter podcast should be better on this matter. Also, the voice of the speaker should be louder and clearer as the interviewer's voice. Some seconds for a break with some kind of music could be a good idea and a clearer icon of the ideas expressed.
It is a very good podcast for elearning practitioners who are interested mostly in the area of the personal learning environment used in the technology and everyday's practice.
References:
FeedBurner (2006), Learnitology. Available from:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Learnitology (accessed 30 December 2009).
Morrison, D. (2005b) 'Interview with Oleg Liber: personal learning environments', The Auricle podcasts. Available from:
http://www.auricle.org/auriclewp/podcasts/20051215-ple.mp3 (accessed 30 December
2009).
This is my podcast for CA 8.1 Using new technology and I am concentrating on reflection-blogging and some advice on what constitutes a good refelctive writing. Hope you enjoy it as much as i did! Thank you for listening. Please, also, feel free to comment here if it is possible.
Here is the link to my podcast: http://elenakondyli.podbean.com/mf/web/7dse37/CA81Usingnewtechnology.mp3Audio player: CA81Usingnewtechnology.mp3
Starting from Table 7.1, which describes a four-dimensional learning domain framework for making learning choices, indicating the inherent risks in choosing to "stretch" or "play it safe" in present situation and areas of new learning (Dealtry, 2004), I would like to describe or reflect on my own present situation on course H808 in which I believe that I belong to category D, where the learning task is unfamiliar and the situation is unfamiliar too. This involves a high risk which I strongly agree since from the very first time that I had decided to make my masters degree online and I was discussing this case with some other people who already made it and they graduated I was really confident hearing them saying various benefits for taking your masters online. However, inside of me, I thought that I am going to get into a new situation, with new perspectives, new responsibilities and a completely new environment without even knowing the learning tasks. This surely was risky for me. But when I finally decided to do it and go for it I was very happy and surely glad that I did it, because it's a new experience for me which I like very much as technology is one of my favourite hobbies! Now instead of hobby is one method I am using to gain my masters degree and that is even more exciting and new to me! Another risk for me was the worry of the time...meaning that I was worrying if I would find the time to complete its task on time and hand in the assignments on time. At last, I found myself that I was in time limits most of the cases! I remember that only once I did not manage to hand in an activity.
Moving on further to Table 7.2, which describes the types of practice in continuing professional development (Clegg et al., 2002) and the group in which I belong taking into consideration the course H808, is D where reflection is following action and is often prompted by formal assessment processes-this also happens after a period of rumination. Sometimes, I believe that box B also is connected with this course but also with future work context as a teacher because reflection-on-action, most usually happen by experienced practitioners with relevant and immediate opportunities for reflection.
Reading the two papers I have found out that there is a clear difference in the way of their thinking about professional learning as one is more intuitive and the other more academic and I am in favour of the more intuitive one as it is more general and not academic as Clegg's et al. paper. Dealtry's paper is actually concerned with learning which is self-directed as Delatry's mentions in his paper "Learning to become an effective self-directed learner is probably the greatest intellectual and psychological challenge that an individual can face in a lifetime". This is very important nowadays, as to be an effective self-directed learner is difficult and it needs great strength, intellectual abilities and psychological challenge as mentioned in the paper. Having also the personal strength of each ones character, leadership and achieving social cooperation in a competitive and often selfish world, this is where the important decisions are to be made in our learning now but also in the future. Dealtry mentions many critical points which need to be considered from all of us in order to succeed and be self-directed learners.
References:
Clegg, S., Tan, J. and Saeidi, S. (2002) 'Reflecting or acting? Reflective practice and continuing professional development in higher education' (online), Reflective Practice, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 131-46. Available from: http://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14623940220129924 (accessed 06 December 2009).
Dealtry, R. (2004) 'Professional practice: the savvy learner' (online),Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 16, no. 1/2, pp. 101-109. Available from: http://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13665620410521567 (accessed 06 December 2009).
Comparing the 3 statements in exercise 7.1, some professional values are clearly identifying me. For example, my professional values are:
The above are more or less the same requirements for a HE lecturer. Adopting and having such values and others that might apply for other colleagues in the e-learning field is a good start for being professional and continue to develop other values or develop further the existing ones.
|
Higher Education |
Medicine |
Counselling |
|
Respect for Individual learners |
Recognise the ethical dimension of every healthcare encounter
Understand the nature of values and how they impact on healthcare |
Respect for human rights and dignity
|
|
Commitment to incorporating the process and outcomes of relevant research, scholarship and/or professional practice |
Identify the values that patients, families and members of the healthcare team bring to a specific healthcare decision |
Integrity of practitioner-client relationships
|
|
Commitment to development of learning communities |
Demonstrate moral reasoning skills in the process of choosing an appropriate course of action or resolving conflicting values |
Enhancing quality of professional knowledge
|
|
Commitment to encouraging participation in higher education, acknowledging diversity and promoting equality of opportunity |
Demonstrate the knowledge skills and attitudes for effective communication in eliciting and understanding the values of patients, negotiating an acceptable course of action and justifying that course of action
|
Alleviating personal distress and suffering
|
|
Commitment to continuing professional development and evaluation of practice |
Demonstrate knowledge of the professional ethical guidelines and legal framework within which healthcare decisions should be made
Recognise their personal values and how these influence their decision-making.
|
Facilitating a sense of self that is meaningful
|
As can be seen from the table above, there are some similarities and some differences for the professional values from the different statements.
Reviewing the CMALT (2009) prospectus at first from Unit 5, the professional values are situated on the academic performance and professional development standards. Actually, there is an intrinsic reference on interpersonal learning through other e-learning professionals. Of course, the importance of reflection throughout the prospectus is mentioned and it can be seen within the professional values and statements.
But, in the HE (2006), as can be seen from the table above, there is a clear concentration on the development of an effective e-learning community by promoting respect of the individual learner. The diversity of the individual student is another value which has to be incorporated in the development of this community. Being a professional though, it is clearly mentioned in HE (2006), that research and continued professional development of their skills and acquiring new knowledge, are some commitments that he/she has to deal with.
As far as the Royal College of General Practitioners (2007) is concerned, is actually involving some values from the two previous statements but practice here, needs to be found on the evidence based on the medical practice and not on the ethical principles seen in the area of medicine. Now, learning is not a single or simple process, but it has to be included and added to clinical practice.
Lastly, the British Counselling and Psychotherapy (n.d.) statement, gives emphasis on the need for ethical practice which is rather associated with the professional development of the practitioner. There is a clear setting of the rights of the client at the centre of their own professional values. Also, it is clearly shown on the 2nd column of the table that ethical as well as a number of professional values are needed for this person oriented profession.
(501 words)
References:
British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (n.d.) Ethical Framework (online). Available from: http://www/bacp.co.uk/prof_conduct/ (accessed 04 December 2009).
CMALT (2009) CMALT Prospectus: "The Association for Learning Technology Certified Membership Scheme [online], http://www.alt.ac.uk/docs/cmalt_prospectus_v3_2009.pdf (accessed 04 December 2009)
Higher Education Academy (2006). UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Education, Higher Education Academy, UK. Available from http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/ourwork/professional/ProfessionalStandardsFr29 mework.pdf (accessed 04 December 2009).
Royal College of General Practitioners (2007) Curriculum Statement 3.3: Clinical Ethics and Values-Based practice [online], Royal College of General Practitioners. Available from: http://www.rcgp-curriculum.org.uk/rcgp_-_gp_curriculum_documents/gp_curriculum_statements.aspx (accessed 04 December 2009).
Reading the article from Martin Oliver (2002), something captured my attention and really shocked me because I did not have an idea that the practices of the learning technologist are little understood and of course the most shocking is that even their own community do not understand them. I definitely had the wrong impression on this matter. However, I believe that the profession of the learning technologist is emerging and in the future it will grow even more and more since people involved in this field will be able to recognise the great importance of their contribution in the teaching, academic world and generally in the technological purpose that they are contributing in as experts. According to Oliver (2002), learning technologists are centring on a collaborative curriculum development, usually initiated by an academic and focused on a particular piece of technology. This is rather a very good approach for collaboration in the development of the curriculum involving the main professions of the academic and the learning technologist focusing on a certain piece of technology. Of course, in addition to the academic, other administrative, technical, research and management functions are needed and some other characteristics should be adopted from the learning technologist like being educative through discussion, case studies and using reflection when there are problems within the context of collaborations and also seeking to transfer the academic from certain themes of implementation to more general educational themes. Furthermore, the needs to learn is equally important to the need of teach during their collaboration and thus they have to target on communities of practice. Every learning technologist should rely on his own goodwill and without authority to be responsible, expertise in his field and rhetoric in order for him to be able to create opportunities either practical or educational and influence policy too.
(302 words)
Reference:
Oliver, M. (2002) ‘What do learning technologists do?’ (online),Innovations in Education and Teaching International, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 245–52. Available from: http://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13558000210161089(accessed 13 November 2009).
Profession is an occupation which combines knowledge with practice. It involves responsibility, organisational skills and professionalism in the specific area that is situated.
Elearning is the way that knowledge, either this is learning, training or educational program, is delivered to someone, through electronic features, like computer, mobile phone, CDs, radio etc.
Elearning professional is an occupation with an element of intellectual training or large mental expertise. Quality is an important component of being an elearning professional (both as a character but at the same time to the work done by the professional himself). Improvement in professional skills and competencies is relevant to an elearning professional.
Reference:
Warrior, B. (2002) 'Reflections of an educational professional' (online), Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education, vol. 1, no. 2. Available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/hlst/documents/johlste/0030_warrior_vol1no2.pdf (accessed 09 November 2009)
Perkins in this chapter justified his view of modern society very well and with a unique way in which he separated each stage (Neolithic Revolution, Industrial Revolution and Post-Industrial Revolution) and in each stage he is using some very good examples and characteristics so as for us to be easier to understand better what was going on and how each revolution changed the professional values around the world. As he mentions in the first stage in Neolithic Revolution, it was the time when the development of agriculture was settled and "this enabled human beings for the very first time to make nature grow what they wanted instead on what she grudgingly provided". He comments that it was actually a mega-revolution in human society where different professionals, officials, priests, doctors and lawyers played a key role in the process, since they invented all the arts and sciences. From there on, when Europe became the birthplace of the next great social revolution, the Industrial one, there was a similar rise in organisation, the means of life and the standard of living. One sentence that really grabbed my attention is that "the difference is in the qualitative outcome, not the quantifiable rate of average growth". Having a population greater than five or more times than before, meant to create urban centres, factories took the place of small workshops and there was as a consequence changes in the working hours which became more and conditions of working became dangerous to health and crime started to give its presence resulting in a clear exploitation. This was seen through the vast gap between the rich and poor. Actually, the professionals started to emerge and show their presence too in the services sectors which were private in general, but also there were state owned corporations. These professionals led to the third stage, the post-industrial revolution. In this stage the professional knowledge is based on human capital which is created by advanced education and experience on the job, and is itself the scarce resource that enables the professionals to command high "rents" and rewards in kind. Of course, technology as it is mentioned in the chapter, does not invent, install or maintain itself but needs human beings to bring it into production. Therefore, professionals are needed to be the key players in corporations and government. Taking into account all the above, Perkins' view is justified perfectly. In contrast, from an article I have found, concerning the "network society", it is mentioned that "we are passing from the industrial age into the information age. This historical change is brought about by the advent of new information technologies - particularly those for communication and biological technologies. Society remains capitalist, but basis of the technological means by which it acts has changed from energy to information. This information is of central importance in determining economic productivity. Communications technologies allow for the annihilation of space and for globalization; the potential for rapid and asynchronous communication also changes the relationship to time" (Castells, 2000a; 2000b).
(498 words)
REFERENCES:
Castells, M. (2005) "Manuel Castells's Network Society geof" (online). Available from: http://www.geof.net/research/2005/castells-network-society (accessed 09 November 2009)
Perkins. Available from: http://learn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=264620 (accessed 09 November 2009)
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
One elementary school in Cyprus is using a pilot version of ePortfolio.org as a system for their assessments of their students and sometimes it will be used for the evaluation of the teaching process and results of the teachers by completing an eportfolio themselves. Before accepting to test this system, they discussed in several meetings about the advantages and disadvantages of this with all the users and persons responsible, like the learners, teachers, principal, trainers of the system and the vendors too. They have thought about the cost and the storage space as two negative approaches to this system.
Furthermore, introducing another system used by the Open University of London, called MyStuff, has its own pros and cons, like big storage space and it is not paid, but it is used free by its members (students, tutors etc). Since both systems are in the field of Education then the main users for both systems are the learners, teachers and Principal together with the trainers at the beginning if any, because in ePortfolio.org there are trainers, whereas in the second system there is no training due to the ease of use. Both systems have the same objectives, like introducing to the students a system where they can write notes, upload different kind of files they like to have in their repository (presentations, word documents, excel documents, images, videos, etc), exchanging comments and feedback through discussions and also reflect on their thoughts and others where teachers or tutors can come in the discussions and insert comments or make necessary clarifications, making resumes for future use in their employment status and keep their thoughts and stuff private to them (privacy is a strong advantage).
As far as the teachers are concerned, the perspectives are more alike to the above which students need to have in their personal eportfolio. The most important feature though is that they are able to see their students' thoughts, reflections, beliefs and different aspects of their assessments in order to check them and reflect on them too. Also, in this system the teachers, principals are able to make evaluations, assess their students, and the principals the teaching stuff by checking on their eporfolios at any time they consider appropriate. Even the vendors will be able to see the good and the bad features of their system and make the necessary improvements on it.
As a result, I think that MyStuff will be the most appropriate one for the students in this elementary school as its features are more attractive and it's easier to use than the eportfolio.org, since there is no need for training. Also, it is free for the people who are in to it whereas the other system ePortfolio.org has a fee and if you need more storage you have to pay more in order to get more space. Since, it will be used lifelong this is the most appropriate system because it can be exported to other eportfolios too when you wish to do it.
References:
EduTools (2007) Product Listing (accessed 17 October 2009) http://eportfolio.edutools.info/item_list.jsp?pj=16
ePortfolio Platform (2009) Overview of the ePortfolio platform (accessed 17 October 2009)
http://eportfolio.org/about.cfm
Open Univeristy MyStuff (2007) MyStuff info (accessed 17 October 2009)
http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/MyStuff-info/?page_id=39
Windows Live Spaces
Windows Live Space
In my opinion this is a very nice place to share ideas, reflections and everything we want between us provided that we have a windows live ID. If you want to check it up then follow this link http://home.spaces.live.com/ and feel free to create your own place. I already have an account there but i am not using it as i think that i will use My Stuff provided from the university suggestions as i think that it would be better to have them all there. However, this live space is interesting and is associated with blogging, sharing videos, photos etc amongst us. it has great features and give it a little time to explore it
thanks.
Elena
An advice to students on what constitutes good reflective writing is the following:
In my opinion, reflection is a deep thinking procedure that enables us to look inside of us and develop ourselves to reach to its optimum. It is very important to realise how this reflection endeavours our thinking. It's like a challenge for all of us. Since it is not all of us who are able to reflect on our thoughts and be able to demonstrate the necessary changes in order to improve it and make it clearer both for us and for our assessors (if they exist).
(445 words)
"Reflection is a form of mental processing that we use to fulfill a purpose or to achieve some anticipated outcome. It is applied to gain a better understanding of relatively complicated or unstructured ideas and is largely based on the reprocessing of knowledge, understanding and possibly emotions that we already possess" (Moon, 2005). According to Moon (2005), reflection as it shown above is a form of mental processing and I agree with her. As for the use of reflection in the course H808 it is associated with diaries, learning logs, blogs and portfolios. It aims to students' capacity to assess and transform their e-learning context, through reflection in their practice (H808 Course Guide, 2009).
Usually, we are reflecting on difficult things, things that have a specific goal and we want to meet this goal. It's not easy to reflect, it's not a simple addition, or subtraction or any maths problem, it's more than that. In a reflection we put ourselves, our thoughts, experiences, emotions, knowledge (that later can be generated and become new one), ideas, and theory. This is reflection for me, to be able to express your thoughts, feelings, ideas, theories etc in a blog. This is in fact very useful for reflection. Blogging is one of the most important key to reflection as this is a platform used to deposit your reflections and in the blog you are able to communicate, share ideas, comment, add valuable stuff for you and interact with other people from the world. Generally, reflection is a must for us in order to be self-improved, to develop our critical thinking, decision making and academic or non-academic learning.
Metacognition, as also is suggested in Moons' (2005) article, is an important result of reflection, because it helps the learner to consider his/her own learning behaviour which is associated with effective learning. Furthermore, whether the reflection should be assessed or not is a matter for debate.
Despite the fact that, Moons' (2005) opinion matches with the H808 Course Guide (2009), as far as the tools used in a curriculum like journals, logs, portfolios as mentioned above too, the assessment of reflection is still a matter for discussion. In a reflective document the learner puts himself/herself, sometimes with non-formal language and describes, concludes or discuss, exchange ideas and share thought with their peers for themselves. Whereas, in education, this might be quite different because this work in a way has to be assessed.
In my opinion, this is good since by assessing the learning journals as Creme (2005) suggests, formally would demonstrate that the academy recognises and values this different way of constructing and writing knowledge in its students. According to Creme (2005) again the assessment may undermine the very qualities that we value in the journal. Some issues should be taken into account if the reflection will be assessed, like the provision of some good examples to the learners on reflective writing, discrimination between the ability of the students to reflect or the product of the reflection, what is the purpose of reflection, the role of it in the curriculum and inform the learners on how their reflective writing will be assessed (criteria of assessment).
References:
Crème, P. (2005) 'Should student learning journals be assessed?', Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 287-96. Available from:http://www.informaworld.com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/smpp/section?content=a713605501&fulltext=713240928 (accessed 3 August 2009).
H808, Course Guide, (2009). Available from http://learn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=198871&direct=1
Moon, J. (2005) 'Guide for busy academics no. 4: learning through reflection' (online), The Higher Education Academy. Available from:http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase/id69_guide_for_busy_academics_no4.doc(accessed 2 July 2008).
At first, when I saw the activity I was wondering what is this all about, what are the drivers and for what reason do we need to make this comparison between the countries. I thought while I was scanning the table of what information should we need to put in in order to fill it and be precise. Even when I saw that this activity should be collaborative I felt a little bit panicked as to how we were going to collaborate with each other and reach to a final conclusion. After this, while I started reading and discussing in the forum with the members of my group, I was not so much stresses as I was at the beginning. Many things cleared for me and I was able to continue on with the activity. However, I have noticed that collaborative work is, in my opinion, more difficult to organise and function it. Some people were absent, some were doing one thing, others were doing something else. Of course, I do not know if this is the way that it should have been but I prefer the non-collaborative activities or activities with fewer people involved e.g. 2 or 3 people because the functionality and organisation would be easier for all of us. In addition, the readings we had to do were straight forward, although that at some points I faced some difficulties in my way to recognise the drivers and put them in the drivers template. Even when I have finished my reading and put them on the table I was not so sure. After, re-consideration and re-read of my colleagues opinions I cleared my mind a bit more. Then, I placed my table with my comments in MyStuff.
In addition, this drivers template is connected with the proactivity and technology related competencies for the Framework for Personal Professional Development as it is related to the e-portfolios which is an electronic framework emerging with the area of technology and also it is considered to be as proactivity since the creation was collaborative between members of our group and we all work together to reach to a conclusion through discussion, leadership and motivation amongst us through an e-learning context which we shared.
Drivers Table
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Region |
Key drivers |
Comments |
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UK |
Government (DfES): lifelong learning strategy, e-learning strategy, learning transcripts, Personal Development Records |
Strong government push to lifelong learning/e-learning, etc. |
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QAA, progress files, LTSNs, Centre for Recording Achievement, etc. |
Professional organisations in post-compulsory education have a 'best-practice' agenda that promotes PDP |
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JISC e-portfolio projects: lifetime learning (application, transition, learning-teaching and assessment, Personal Development Planning -PDP & Continuing Professional Development - CPD) |
Push from research organisations, software developers and international standards organisations |
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Institutional e-portfolio systems: Promote PDP or CPD, embed learner-centred pedagogies, tutorial programmes |
Individual universities and colleges promoting their own practices and systems |
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Europe |
Europass readiness study: Euro portfolio contributes to the definition and implementation of eStrategies to promote innovative practice and technology, and encourages the adoption of technical standards that will enable interoperability, between a range of e-portfolio systems and with other information systems (Interoperability is the key to maximise the number and quality of services offered to e-portfolio owners) |
Engagement upon an orchestrated effort involving both educational and corporate institutions to define, design and develop digital portfolio systems that meet the needs of all stakeholders
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Finland, Norway, Italy and Catalonia: Strong policy drive to integrate the use of portfolios in educational settings for different levels of education |
Different portfolio initiatives, some of which are more technology driven, whereas others focus more on introducing the concept of portfolios in education. |
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USA
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Existing systems: integrated assessment facility or interoperable with separate assessment systems
Some study programs: Refer to an e-portfolio as a diagnostic profile |
This allows evidence to be collated, presented and assessed and feedback given within the same user environment and suggests that assessment and moderation of e-portfolios could be considerably streamlined
Information should be recorded in order to help learners understand how they learn and to share this information with learning organisations and tutors/mentors
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Elsewhere |
Australia: The VET e-professional roadmap, a national strategic plan designed to support the diverse requirements for e-portfolios in vocational education and training (VET), was released on 18 June 2009 by the national training system's e-learning strategy, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. Developed from extensive research and national stakeholder consultations, the Roadmap aims to assist in the development of a national standards-based framework to support the use of e-portfolios across VET.
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RPL (recognition of prior learning), fast tracking apprenticeships, traineeships and work-based learning, reengagement, retention, reintegration and supporting learner mobility, empowering learners. The Roadmap outlines nine strategic goals with a focus on portability, verification, privacy, ownership, access control, infrastructure, storage, embedding and transitions
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