Look no further. Most of this blog is nothing more than a ramble. What do the likes of Virginia Woolf, Norman Mailer and Henry Miller call it? 'Stream of consciousness' - a vomit of thoughts. There's rarely flow. I just find an idea is better off it isn't stored in my head. 

No word count to stick 2. No critical eye seeking relevance. But this is not a tutor marked assignment. Just as well, 'writing up my reading ...  in a descriptive formulaic fashion without exploring the content or the process .. [I] ... am going through' will not get a tick. Creme (2010) 

Looking at all I grabbed or mentioned on reflection 10 years ago I can see that I had little intention of following the guidelines. My modus operandi is to get it down however it comes out. Not for me a flow chart of prompts to get me from confused to enlightened in six clear steps or a spin cycle set on 'Cool Wash' to get me round the bend and not quite back where I began.

I'm a Dewey man. I just "turn a subject over in the mind". If I get lucky I even dream about it. These dreams are so vivid that I have been searching through my notes over the last 24 hours determined to find a recording, notes and screengrabs from an EdTec session that I believe I attended online on Tuesday afternoon which doesn't exist. Maybe the dream version will do for something, though getting a screenshot from my mind might prove tricky.

'A reflective thought' is nothing more than an 'active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends' (Dewey 1933: 118). Read that back. An editor would limit this to an 'active, persistent, and careful consideration of something'. 

REFERENCES

Creme, Phyllis (2010) 'Should student learning journals be assessed?', Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 30:3, 287 - 296

Dewey, J. (1933/1998) How we think (Rev. ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Ask yourself some questions. Narrow the topic. 

Then go out and ask your respondents. One or two will do to start with. Take the view that you may interview two or 50. Sit them down. Record it. Ask questions and keep asking as long as they are willing to respond. Some of the greatest insight will come when they think it is over; something will come to them. A throw away thought, recollection or metaphor will put a smile on your face. THAT is what this research is about. And if you are their tutor/teacher too, that is fine. Don't let it get in the way. It shouldn't. Afterall, don't you listen actively to feedback from your students in any case? 

And to justify my approach I can provide a list of papers and quotes: 

In action research, the educator is both researcher and teacher (Kuhn & Quigley, 1997).

And try different approaches, say 'informed observation' - The Human Lab at the Institute of Education at the Open University have made a business of this. You put learners into a space designed to look like an office, or home, even a student's bedroom. Then you give them a device and ask them to fulfil various research and study tasks. By watching closely what they do, and recording it, you get an insight that might otherwise be impossible, on how people use the technology.

We don't follow our guinea-pigs into bed or the bathroom though. Yet, these are places where people 'work' too. 

'Ethnographic fieldwork' makes up part of this research process too. All this requires is that while teaching you make notes that go beyond the teaching framework in order to understand the context of what the students are doing. 

Victor Lally calls it a 'participatory and iterative approach'. (Lally et al. 2012 : 02) Something he undertook to understand how students interacted in the virtual world Second Life. 

‘Different methodologies can be taken to embody different views of the nature of meaning’. (Snyder, 1995)

Indeed according to Patton (1982), a framework should be created whereby "respondents can express their understandings in their own terms". 

A wide literature review is necessary. 

Not only does it give credibility, but it also finds out what has been done by whom already. If research such as this has been done before and elsewhere, in all likelihood it has, let's see it. 

"It should be extensively and systematically woven into the paper to provide background and balance and even trying hard to offer contrasting perspectives so setting out clearly the pros and cons of the methodology and past experiences with these techniques in this kind of setting." (I believe I am quoting myself from 2013). 

This is worth looking into:

Oxford Research: Department of Education 

Digital youth and learning

This area examines how young people are using new technologies in their everyday lives and the potential learning that occurs as a result of this use. Work in this area includes the Learner and their Context study – a 3-year study that explores how and why young people learn outside formal educational settings using technology. Previous projects include the ESRC seminar series The educational and social impact of new technologies on young people in Britain that was jointly run by the Department of Education and LSE.

Lally, V; Sharples, M; Tracey, F; Bertram, N and Masters, S. (2012). Researching the ethical dimensions of mobile, ubiquitous,and immersive technology enhanced learning (MUITEL) in informal settings: a thematic review and dialogue. Interactive Learning Environments, 20(3), pp. 217–238.

Patton, M.Q. 1983, (p. 205). Qualitative Evaluation Methods 

Wiggins, B J (2011) 'Confronting the dilemma of mixed methods', Journal Of Theoretical And Philosophical Psychology, 31, 1, pp. 44-60, PsycARTICLES, EBSCOhost, viewed 13 February 2013.

Digital literacy surveys of students may show high confidence levels but this confidence is often with highly intuitive apps rather than digital tools required for the world of work or independent learning.

As presentations go, this one broke the ground. Once I'd unstuck my jaw from my chest, I ordered his latest book (it arrived 22 hours later). I then got down to taking notes and grabbing screenshots.  They always say that a recording will be available later, but I have found that to be a half truth: later can be weeks, not days or hours and 'available' can mean after an edit. I need to reflect on this now, not after my brain has been scrambled several times more. 

Back then I become a snob about digital over analogue. I went all Kindle. Books were dead ... so were libraries. My library was Amazon. It saved me time but was expensive. 

A decade on I buy second hand hard back books if I want to read; I still don't go into a library (even if once again I have a student library ticket). The physical artefact matters. If I am reading a the physical thing I am better able to concentrate. On an iPad (long ago replaced the Kindle) I am always a click away from the news, emails and social media. 

If I really care about the author and what they have to say I may get an electronic version of the book too; different things are revealed on the screen compared to the page. Either way a collection of handwritten notes or Post Its are used to build up my impression of what I am being told. No longer do I trust 'highlighting' or note taking electronically as a way of engaging with the text; you don't. You just copy and paste, risk being caught by plagiarism software and more importantly learn little as what you produce hasn't been through the composting process of your mind. 

QQ: What does it mean to be reflective in education?

• The ability to reflect on an action so as to engage in a process of continuous learning. 

• Deliberate reflection is essential. 

Is that what I am doing here? Am I supposed to spend as long reflecting on a thing as I originally spent doing it? Is two and a half hours reflection on a class that lasted two and a half hours over the top? 

One 'active learning' exercise followed another. A pattern was established. We were going to have to think, to engaged our brains. There'd be no concentrated note taking while she talked, no lengthy quotes to grab from multiple authors. Though I have them here. 

QQ: Analyse why the process can be helpful (what happens if you don’t reflect)

ACT: Compare and contrast how mere reflection is different from critical reflection.

We were introduced to Kerouac: fixed mindset or growth mindset? 

"There should be a culture where mistakes are not frowned upon." 

And I stumbledupon Carol Dweck

In a tour de force example of the value of face to face teaching in a class over learning online our PGCE tutor took us through the power of reflection. Look at the title of this blog 'Reflection on e-learning'. 10 years and eight months ago I was keenly filling these pages (on an ever so slightly different platform) as I took the first module in the Masters in Open and Distance Education (MAODE). Search 'Reflection'.

Ten years on, while being invited to dig around in my head for an understand of the what it means to 'reflect', and while listening to my fellow students express their views and share their insights, we collectively construct and shape a meaning.

The beauty of this blog and its value ten years on and 5,000 entries later, is that I can search 'reflection' or seek out the tag 'reflection' and immediately be shown what I was reading, what I was being invited to read and what I was writing about it all. The beauty of this blog and it simplicity is that I can post and keep private, or post and share; it is as much as a private, even intimate scrapbook, mind dump and learning journal, as it is a potential resource for others. 

Reflecting on 'reflecting on teaching' and the profound differences between learning online (as it has so far been able to manifest itself) I see that one cannot replace the other, that certain elements are different to the point of being incompatible, that trying to recreate the class experience online is foolish and bringing the online way of doing things into the class just as wrong.

We have a long way to go yet to distinguish these differences and play to their strengths, rather than thinking one is superior to the other; neither is going away. The class I attended last night in which seven of us where there in person with the tutor and four were online is one I will return to again, and again for two reasons: first of all, to pick through what I was exposed to, what I was taught, the learning journey I experienced and the voices and words of others - everyone, in equal measure, was given the time and chance and encouragement to talk. And second of all, to contemplate the difference between the classroom and the online experience. What worked and what did not? What needs fixing to make it work better? 

50 delegates, a conference video call, with an interactive 'Miro' board. Frenetic, but engaging and balanced doing and therefore thinking with consultancy like top level conclusions offered. I took notes and screenshots throughout so plenty to digest or to post here PRIVATELY. Looking back it is extraordinary just how much we got through. Thank you Mark Ayton from JISC. 

Not just the ethics, but the practicalities.

Wanting to be in two places at the same time I now find I can. I need to be vigilant and not engage with either session and get it wrong though!

Town Council Meeting and Club Zoom

Two conference Meets running simultaneously

All are recorded so I could pick one or the other up later - but I don't want to. I want to 'two track' and get the gist of both then and there.

Today I have two EdTech sessions. I'll sign in on two screens and see if the software filters me out. I can get around that by signing in with a different gmail account: college, me, digital editor, 'e-learner at Mindbursts' even as a Town Councillor. 

This an industry series of presentation and panel discussions hosted by Kineo showing how far ahead the world outside education has advance in terms of online training, developing its staff and solving business problems. 

The Changing Landscape 

Keen to include what industry is doing with elearning to compare this to learning. This is the from the Kineo website. Digital First 

• Increased agility – ability to respond to ever changing needs at great pace.

• Learner-centric UX – content and delivery are in a medium that suit and engage the learner.

• Self-service approach – access to content, where and when learners need it.  

• Enhanced collaboration – facilitate better learning, knowledge sharing and problem solving.

• Improved impact – better results for business and employee performance.

• Increased satisfaction – higher levels of engagement through improved experience.

• Innovation – continuous improvement, adding value faster with less disruption.

• Reduced costs – a shift to just in time delivery and learning in the flow of work.

ELearning in industry is not produced and delivered by a teacher; it is designer, producer and managed by a team within a business

We should be contributing to this conversation. 

Changing behaviours takes time and involves others. Educating young competitive swimmers on the benefits of eating a nutritious meal three times a day - with suitability healthy snacks too - is one thing, getting them to change their behaviour is quite another.

Pushing it to the post-grad level here is some further reading: