Personal Blogs

Here is my collage of retweet URL

Reference

Hplengr.engr.wisc.edu. (n.d.). [online] Available at: http://hplengr.engr.wisc.edu/Rubric_Presentation.doc [Accessed 29 Jan. 2019].

Mostéfaoui, S., Ferreira, G., Williams, J. and Herman, C. (n.d.). Using Creative Multimedia in Teaching and Learning ICTs: A Case Study. [online] Eurodl.org. Available at: http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2012/Kouadri_et_al.htm [Accessed 29 Jan. 2019].

When I started designing a website for H818 project and wanted to have a discussion forum appended to help female learners to share their thoughts and ideas at the time of distress, I had no idea that my idea would clash with female learners. I asked female learners on a private WhatsApp group if they are willing to participate in an appended discussion forum for conversations.  The refused and instead suggested for the inclusion of private chatrooms. After incorporating it, one of the learners further suggested to include different types of chatrooms such as one with an expert for guidance.

It makes me realize how important it is to network with the target population to reap productive outcomes.

A month ago, when I was planning to look for an alternate medium for my project, I planned to networked with my fellows.

I was fortunate to ask a few expert female educators at my workplace about their choice of platform, besides a website. One of them suggested me Google Drive. Another introduced me to OERCommons platform. I was naive to use it but I searched online and learnt how to upload content online. After a three trial, I was successful!

I am fortunate to have networked with actual females, who are familiar with Pakistani context and situation and suggested me the best alternatives

Munir

I am not in favor of adapting complete open or closed approach to being a networked practitioner. I prefer balanced approach. It also varies by situation, experience and context.

Open scholarship expands the horizon of sharing resources with wider community. However, we need to look at the socio-cultural contexts, copyright laws of each country, our own preferences as well as our previous experiences towards openness before making any decision about what to share with others. My online work was copied several times, and I had no power to claim those work. I agree with Weller that we can disseminate our work online to wider community through open sharing culture, but Creative Commons has many loopholes. If anyone plagiarizes your work, then it is hard to trace it. If in case the person is caught, you can’t penalize him/her as each country has different copyright laws. Reliable open publishers are looting people and asking for a huge amount for publishing my book or article. Certainly, each individual has to take ownership of open scholarship and must understand the ethical responsibility towards the term ‘openness’.

I also have set my own boundary for openness. Resources which are not supportive to my country ideology, is never shared by me with others. Similarly, I cannot talk about every topic openly online with others due to strict cyber laws. In the same way, I don’t feel comfortable sharing my private life or matters on social networking websites. Openness does not mean that we MUST have to have online accounts on twitter, linkedin, etc. For me, openness is to embrace only those social sites, which makes me feel comfortable in sharing ideas with like-minded people.

Weller said many people get benefit from open publishing to get more citation. It is very hard to ensure whether a writer publishes through open platform to promote open sharing culture or to gain more citation for academic growth?

Please guide how can a person trace how his/her work was reused? Searching online will not always give all the results!

Anne Adams rightly said, “Many virtual learning environments, do not provide adequate feedback or control rights to allow individual students this control.”

We can’t completely trust close ended approach! I am always in fear how my data will be used by social networking administrators. We cannot completely belief them. The option of privacy setting is only abstaining others from looking into our matters, but what if the administration of the social networking site misuse out data? Recently one of the Car apps in Pakistan was caught red-handed selling users data to other companies. In short, to me, openness has deep personal and cultural connection.

Hello

OER has helped me to gain access to quality resources at low cost. During the last module, it supported me to prepare quality assignments. But openness is not always secure. Many socio-cultural environments discourage the open culture of learning such as in many areas of Pakistan, people fear of using open access resources. We have to think thousands of times, before accessing any online resource due to strict cyber laws. If by mistake we access any resource which is against the socio-cultural norms, we might face severe consequences. Like we cannot access resources on LGBT community. Our internet is under surveillance. I disagree that a privacy setting is a suitable option for online networking, Many extremists across the world have access to individuals as well as government information.

Secondly, a good number of educations institution have weak technology infrastructure. In addition, digital literacy is very low. Thus, open learning is not a viable option for all the learners unless we have the infrastructure.

Figure 1 reflects on the classification of types of questions asked by the teacher during the investigation. But I am not very much satisfied with the drafted questions!

The goals of learning analytics are highlighted in table 4. It highlights that learning analytics can be used to assess data in different ways. It can be used by teachers and learners as well for self-reflection. Learning analytics is used to gather data, to provide decision support, to track user activities and to provide feedback. Teachers use it to monitor student progress, to highlight challenges, to improve teaching and to discover learning patterns. They can also use it to find which activities were useful for learning purpose.

Data-driven questions:

When and how long are student accessing specific learning offerings (during a day)? 

Pedagogy driven questions:

How often do students use a learning environment (per week)?

Is the performance in e-tests somehow related to exam grades?

Will the access to specific learning offerings increase if lectures and exercises on the same topic are scheduled during the same week?

Do native speakers have fewer problems with learning offerings than non-native speakers?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

The webpage says “If learners are asked to reflect at a certain point, then the time spent on site in that period, and any postings, will be relevant. If they are asked to work together and collaborate on a project, then their social networks will be of interest.”

Disagree with the first statement! I always read and prepare answers to the activities on MSWORD. I then post the responses at once for few activities. For learning analytics, it might be a dubious activity as it cannot find that I spent less time on site and posting, but more time on completing the task out of the OU forum zone.

For the second point, social network will be of interest to learning analytics, but learners consent MUST be taken to access collaborative project work information. Many times, hidden agendas of learning analytics can breach the trust and ethical rules.

I read the article given on the links.

In the given case, Netflix runs a contest and lure people for prize money. It is a longitudinal contest means they received lots of data. In this way, they collected lots of methods and techniques.

Amazon uses various tactics such as item-to-item collaborative filtering which is based on our browsing history. They also use customer reviews and recommendations to attract customers. Amazon employee plays an important role to catch our purchasing and browsing behaviour. They also create occasional hype like BLACK FRIDAY SALE.

Privacy Crisis and Big Data

I searched for “big data” for Facebook. I read that Facebook is using our data for the business purpose. Our information is being shared with others without letting us know.  In fact, data to target US, voters were sold to Cambridge Analytica is accused of using that data to target US voters during 2016 elections. Recently Europen Union has passed data privacy bill to ensure the right to privacy.

I then searched for the Google big data. It says that big data means a well-structured data, which is produced in the form of text, video, images and audio. Google has developed open source tools that are used for big data purposes. Example, Google use semantics for the purpose of Google search engine.  Cloud computing is one of the best data storage and analytic place.

Visit: https://datafloq.com/read/google-applies-big-data-infographic/385

It has lots of information about Google big data working.

I am not in favour of the idea of digital native and digital immigrants because it depends on context and engagement and productivity of using technology by anyone regardless of age. I saw both the videos and liked the idea of David White, who rephrased the idea as digital residents and visitors. Everyone engage with technology in different ways. In each context, one can become digital resident or visitor. In fact, we all are digital resident as well as visitors in the different continuum.

I have created a Visitors and Residents map for me in bit different way. I haven’t blurred the boundary, rather tried to list technologies with borders. It was not much difficult for me to design my technology map except for email account, as I really use each technology in different context.

HI

I think that Rhizomatic learning pedagogy is particularly applicable in informal learning environment. MOOC is a good example! However after watching the video (Cormier, 2012), I realized that it could be accommodated in formal education, subject to the conditions and contexts. The features of this type of learning are:

No fix structure of learning

Create chain of unbounded network

Develop critical thinking, problem solving and decision making skills

Contextual

Ownership

Offer complexities to resolve issues at own

1.    Were you convinced by rhizomatic learning as an approach?

Yes, I am! Cormier talks about the changing knowledge, which demand learners to engage in building unstructured networks. Making connections building communities out of  communities is what work well to develop critical thinking skills

2.    Could you imagine implementing rhizomatic learning?

I think that each one of us is already engaged in rhizomatic learning in some way or the other. I am not sure to implement it for my students, but I am looking forward to apply it.

3.    How might rhizomatic learning differ from current approaches?

It is a liberal approach to learning and making unbounded network. There is no fix structure of start or end of learning. It offers critical thinking and appreciates diverse viewpoints. Curiosity to learn and explore and learning through realization make this pedagogy unique.

4.    What issues would arise in implementing rhizomatic learning?

1.       Context

2.       Skills to form unbounded network

3.       May rise complexities

Open Textbook is a unique idea. In Pakistan, this concept is not yet introduced, but hopefully, I will pioneer it in the future. Rosa has used Pressbooks to begin her Open book project and it worked! For the first book project, she utilized her own resource but for the second project, she received a small grant. Just curious to know, if the Open University provides a grant to the students to develop textbook?

Like Rosa did, a tutor or a learner can set the framework of the book. They can create a call for collaborative work via Google doc. It can be a volunteer work, so those who are intrinsically motivated would work!

Tasks can be assigned to each tutor and learner. Like students can collect the text, while tutor can edit and load them into Pressbooks. The book can be built in stages.

Open text can also be used as a part of assignment or class activity. This is the sustainable approach to improve textbook and built on the existing resources collectively in a continuous cycle. The concept of Open Textbook can be used in MAODE as collaborative TMA, where each one can contribute and modify the identified textbook in the given context to develop something more creative. This would help to create more resources through the lens of learners. In return, learners would get marks.

Tutor and learners can also create Open Textbooks as the part of the tutor-marked activity. This will help (i) learners to collect and edit resources (ii) collect, add and moderate the textbook project (iii) share ideas with each other to compile best resources in a consolidated manner. When learners participate in creating books, they can feel more connected to the text. It also saves/ reduces money.

Barriers

1.    Hidden cost: In the case, Rosa used Pressbooks, which is an online business. They don’t remove watermark unless you pay some amount

2.    Funding OER creation: Require funding model

3.    Affordability of laptop or other digital devices to ensure each one owns or carries it.

4.    Digital Literacy skills: One of the interesting aspects is familiarity and proficiency of the team members in working with Open textbooks. Rosa initiated training on important aspects such as copyright and open licensing. Familiar with digital tools such as Hypothesis is also significant before initiating the digital textbook project.

5.    Privacy and safety issue when working in public

Below, there is a list of subject areas available and explore to select any course, according to your interest

You can find the list of few subjects I completed on Coursera

Here is how certificate looks like

My Experience in MOOCS

I have completed few of the online courses through Coursera and edX. The courses and the verified certificates were earlier available free. But sadly, these platforms have now taken a business approach. They charge some fee for the verified certificate. Of course, a pool of courses and resources are available for free. But still, certificates or badges play an integral role in motivating many learners. I emailed the MOOC course instructors quite a few times but never received any reply!- Maybe limited staff!  No peer support! No social connections! I never knew about other participants’ presence!  Also, I never found discussion forums active! Assessment methods were quite weak as they mostly assess your knowledge! Security and transparency are two of the serious issues! Unfortunately, you will not find any research report highlighting all the loopholes about MOOCs since the REALISTIC data of learners’ dropout and their experiences on large (MASSIVE) scale is concealed by the MOOCs provider.