Personal Blogs

My initial definition:

An approach to describing, evaluating, and planning learning based on the collection and exploitation of big data.

Activity 22: An open education technology

Timing: 2 hours

•Write a short blog post suggesting one additional technology that is important for open education, either from the role of a learner or a provider. The technology can be one that has been significant, or one that you feel is going to become increasingly relevant. What you include as a technology can be quite broad: for instance, it can be a general category (such as social networks), a specific service or a particular standard.

•In your post briefly explain what the technology is, and then why you think it is important for open education. The emphasis should be on open education in particular, and not just education in general.

I'd suggest that cloud/remote file hosting (Google Drive, iDrive, Dropbox, etc.) is extremely important for open education for both roles, learner and provider. However, for this post I will focus on the learner role.

File hosting services allow learners to manage and curate content in ways and with convenience that was impossible before. For example, file hosting services allow for the development and deployment of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) that have sophisticated and useful applications. Content can be centralized in a digital location of the learner's choice, outside of institutional boundaries; content can be added or removed as the learner sees fit; content can be accessed from any number of devices as well as physical locations; learners can create content and upload it themselves. That is just the start.

In open education, this sort of control over content management on the part of learners makes a lot of sense because it lets learners personalize their learning and determine what content they need or want. 

Big OER

Benefits: uniformity, collected and curated, support, stability, production value

Drawbacks: limited by project/budget demands, formal and/or informal entry barriers (i.e. coding skills)

Little OER

Benefits: low-cost/no-cost, flexibility, anyone/anywhere production

Drawbacks: potentially low presentation/production value, dispersed and unorganized

The benefits and drawbacks of big OER seem, to me, to indicate that they are probably more applicable to open courses. Open courses benefit from uniform designs, high production values, and uniformity. The drawbacks are easier to overcome because of the institutional resources that can be devoted to designing courses. I see these as being aimed at administrative and management personnel (or, if designed for learners to use, to motivated subject-specific learners).

The benefits and drawbacks of little OER seem to be geared more towards teachers (or for modular, unplanned, spontaneous, or casual learning). The flexibility of little OER lends them to both planned and on-the-fly use and adaptation in classrooms and other learning environments. The drawbacks are minimized by this flexibility.

• Consider each of the questions below and log your reflections in your learning journal/blog.

  On the basis of your own experience:

  • Do you sense that your innovations (as supporters of learning) have been valued, encouraged, supported?

  Yes, in general. It depends on the level of the admiistration. The very high-ups support it rhetorically, and they have made executive decisions to expand the technological capability of the institution. However, they have 'set' notions about how they want the tech implemented and used. My immediate superiors are much more supportive and encouraging about trying new things and experimenting with tech and pedagogy. 

  • What evidence do you have to support your view?

  Besides personal communciations, there are official documents sent by the administration detailing their ideas about pedagogy and tech use. At the same time there is a lot of sharing and collaboration among the faculty, outside the purview of the upper echelons of the administration, using products such as Google Drive.

  From the perspective of your context:

  • How widespread is innovation in your organisation?

  It really depends on the individual members of the faculty. Tech use is widespread, but how the tech is used differs significantly from instructor to instructor.

  • Are there policies or statements that relate to innovation? If yes, how are they implemented?
  • What implications, if any, does this have for your attitude towards innovation? Select a couple of the issues you consider most relevant to H817 and post a short comment to your tutor group forum. Discuss in your group and reflect on what this tells you about how innovation is encouraged and managed, or otherwise
• For me, on the the most relevant issues  is merging innovative ideas or pedagogy into existing curriculum and institutional goals.
  

This blog will be for my studies during H817 only. For my first post, I'm copying my response to Michaud's (2010) article about reflective writing.

I’ve tried to keep learning journals before, both paper and online, but have always failed to follow through with them. I usually don’t give up on them completely, rather they get absorbed into larger things. For example, a paper journal turns into a regular notebook with scattered reflective writing throughout. A blog that was meant to be a journal turned into more general topics and writing.

That’s not meant to sound negative. It has worked for me so far. I have a notebook now that will be both for notes and reflective writing. The Gibbs Cycle of Reflection, however, has made me think about some elements of reflective writing that I have not usually incorporated in mine. Especially, the documenting of an Action Plan. I don’t usually write anything like that, so that is something that I would like to incorporate more into my own reflective writing.

As to how this applies to writing TMAs, I think the Gibbs Cycle will be useful in organizing thoughts. Additionally, it will help in bridging various sections of my writing; such as theory to practice to findings to conclusions, etc.