Personal Blogs
Sharing on MyStuff
Tuesday, 14 Oct 2008, 12:50
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Edited by Owen Barritt, Tuesday, 21 Oct 2008, 10:51
So far, MyStuff doesn't seem to make getting formative feedback on your work very easy, especially as it's very difficult to know when someone has commented on items.
With regards to sharing, I'm not really sure that this is serving much purpose with H808 at the moment. I'm not sure if anyone other than Alan has looked at any of the items I have shared, and I haven't looked at any one elses items (another thing I will have to make time to do, but where to start? What benefit would it offer?)
If these were referred to in reflections and discussions on blogs, then there would be more incentive to view them. Links could be included in the discussions to help view the items. This would be easier if the URLs were more user-friendly (in general all the OU technology could benefit from reviewing the URLs used, but I'll save this for a separate post).
Week 3
Tuesday, 14 Oct 2008, 12:43
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Edited by Owen Barritt, Tuesday, 14 Oct 2008, 17:05
I wanted to continue my reflection on the first 2 weeks with some on the rest of the course as we go along, so in an attempt to catch up I shall start now considering week 3.
The activities for week 3 seemed to be mainly reading the case-studies and considering how they related to our own situations.
Personally, I haven't had a large amount of experience with ePortfolios, so MyStuff is coming as a first introduction. However, I am interested in seeing how they can be used for formative assessment and progress tracking.
My version of Activity 2.1 may have benefitted from including more critique as I felt at the time I was being mainly descriptive of the applications I read about. However, as these are just notes on the papers we read, maybe it's better that it is descriptive. There was some reflection in the posts on the forum.
At the end of that week was the optional reflection activity. I was keen to do this before starting on the reading about reflection and this did push me well into week 4, but I think it was worthwhile to get my thoughts together for the first 2 weeks.
The activities for week 3 seemed to be mainly reading the case-studies and considering how they related to our own situations.
Personally, I haven't had a large amount of experience with ePortfolios, so MyStuff is coming as a first introduction. However, I am interested in seeing how they can be used for formative assessment and progress tracking.
My version of Activity 2.1 may have benefitted from including more critique as I felt at the time I was being mainly descriptive of the applications I read about. However, as these are just notes on the papers we read, maybe it's better that it is descriptive. There was some reflection in the posts on the forum.
At the end of that week was the optional reflection activity. I was keen to do this before starting on the reading about reflection and this did push me well into week 4, but I think it was worthwhile to get my thoughts together for the first 2 weeks.
Tutors' Reflection
Sunday, 12 Oct 2008, 21:54
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I haven't looked at the any of the tutors' blogs yet, but as I wrote the last post, it struck me that it might be interesting to read any reflections they had on how the course was going to see if it highlighted the guidance they were offering and the issues they were perceiving with it.
I shall have to look into those over the coming week
I shall have to look into those over the coming week
Reflection on my personal PDP
Sunday, 12 Oct 2008, 21:53
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Edited by Owen Barritt, Sunday, 12 Oct 2008, 21:55
I've just posted my own PDP analysis grid and learning objectives on MyStuff (shared with Alan and the rest of the tutor group).
Going through the grid, I feel fairly confident with most of the technology related aspects. I am comfortable working online and feel happy with my ability to communicate online (although there are always new things worth learning in that respect including how the lack of voice intonation can effect how written comments are perceived by other readers). There are a couple of items I haven't really tried out, but I feel fairly confident to pick these up quickly once I've given them a try.
My main weaknesses appear to be in how to apply these for effective teaching and learning.
I am currently fairly unfamiliar with elearning research (except for the bits I read so far during this course - which have already help to start to rectify this situation) and different learning models, etc and will be looking to acquaint myself with more about these as we go through the course.
What research I have seen in the first few weeks of the course and the experiences of using MyStuff, the webforum/Firstclass and this blog have already given me some ideas I can use in my practice and highlighted some issues which may arise. It will be interesting to see how I (and the other students) find the rest of the course, what issues we hit and how our own online community develops as the course continues.
H808 Week 2
Friday, 3 Oct 2008, 21:11
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Edited by Owen Barritt, Friday, 3 Oct 2008, 21:12
The group discussion task of the drivers for ePortfolios was an interesting experience for week 2.
As I mentioned in my post to the forums reflecting on the activity, I am currently looking into using discussion forums in an online course I administer. I hadn't considered how much extra time you need to allow for online discussion tasks as opposed to their face-to-face equivalents.
John and Mitchell had initially suggested using the wiki to collaborate our efforts on this task. As the task was based around filling in a template, this seemed ideal as it would allow all members of the group to add their thoughts directly to the template.
However, this only highlighted the delays in online discussion, which I feel many of us had not taken into account, as no general concessus was reach over it. In the end as it was getting towards the end of the week and the task would need writing up anyway, I created the wiki page using the contributions on the discussion forum from various members of the group (particularly those of Brian and Colleen).
Mitchell added his additions to the wiki directly later.
As of week 4, the only people who have editted the wiki page for this task are Mitchell and myself. I'm not sure whether this is because the task was essentially done by the time it went on the wiki or whether people are unfamiliar with using a wiki.
Although, it was in some of the introductions, I'm not sure how familiar the rest of the group are with technology. It could be that they are all experts or all complete novices, but assuming there are some people there who are not familiar with wikis, this may have been another factor which slowed getting our work online.
Reflecting on this, I can see that, although it was a useful eye-opener in my experience and so a useful activity for this course, in general, activities using the wiki and discussion forums would benefit, at least in the early stages of a course, from more guidance as to:
As I mentioned in my post to the forums reflecting on the activity, I am currently looking into using discussion forums in an online course I administer. I hadn't considered how much extra time you need to allow for online discussion tasks as opposed to their face-to-face equivalents.
John and Mitchell had initially suggested using the wiki to collaborate our efforts on this task. As the task was based around filling in a template, this seemed ideal as it would allow all members of the group to add their thoughts directly to the template.
However, this only highlighted the delays in online discussion, which I feel many of us had not taken into account, as no general concessus was reach over it. In the end as it was getting towards the end of the week and the task would need writing up anyway, I created the wiki page using the contributions on the discussion forum from various members of the group (particularly those of Brian and Colleen).
Mitchell added his additions to the wiki directly later.
As of week 4, the only people who have editted the wiki page for this task are Mitchell and myself. I'm not sure whether this is because the task was essentially done by the time it went on the wiki or whether people are unfamiliar with using a wiki.
Although, it was in some of the introductions, I'm not sure how familiar the rest of the group are with technology. It could be that they are all experts or all complete novices, but assuming there are some people there who are not familiar with wikis, this may have been another factor which slowed getting our work online.
Reflecting on this, I can see that, although it was a useful eye-opener in my experience and so a useful activity for this course, in general, activities using the wiki and discussion forums would benefit, at least in the early stages of a course, from more guidance as to:
- what is expected
- how to use the technology
- how online group tasks differ from face-to-face ones
- the allowances students need to make as a result
E-Learning Professionalism
Thursday, 2 Oct 2008, 21:20
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Edited by Owen Barritt, Thursday, 2 Oct 2008, 21:24
Going back over the introductory podcast from week 1 of H808 now, I share some of the views of each of the presenters.
I can see, as Robin Mason highlights, that professionalism in elearning should be built upon both practice and research. As Gill Kirkup points out, factors contributing to educational professionalism in general will still be valid in an elearning context. We still need to respect the student and to offer commitment to incorporating research into our practices, developing communities, encourage participation and continuing professional development and evaluation.
I would agree with Robin Goodfellow's thoughts that elearning professionalism should include a "a commitment to learning for civilisation as well as personal development", i.e. a commitment to contributing to the field for the aid to all those involved in it, including students, tutors, administrators, etc and also to make it more approachable to those not currently part of the elearning community in any respect.
However, I do not see professionalism as being as clearly split into "big P" and "little P" as in his discussion. A couple of the speakers mentioned membership of professional bodies and qualifications as being possible contributions to professionalism. Although, I can see these has having a place in ensuring professionalism, I can't see that they define it. People who have these qualifications/memberships aren't necessarily always professional and vice versa.
Finally Chris discussed of the development of elearning and the introduction of the world wide web being one of key factors in this. I would agree with this, and would see it as being quite difficult to have viewed elearning as a profession before this, as it seems it is the web which has really allowed the building of educational communities within distance education.
I would agree with Chris, that elearning includes aspects of other professions, but I don't think this makes it any less a profession in itself.
I don't think it's entirely clear what an elearning professional is, but I would say that it would include aspects covered in each of the 4 viewpoints of the speakers in the podcast.
I can see, as Robin Mason highlights, that professionalism in elearning should be built upon both practice and research. As Gill Kirkup points out, factors contributing to educational professionalism in general will still be valid in an elearning context. We still need to respect the student and to offer commitment to incorporating research into our practices, developing communities, encourage participation and continuing professional development and evaluation.
I would agree with Robin Goodfellow's thoughts that elearning professionalism should include a "a commitment to learning for civilisation as well as personal development", i.e. a commitment to contributing to the field for the aid to all those involved in it, including students, tutors, administrators, etc and also to make it more approachable to those not currently part of the elearning community in any respect.
However, I do not see professionalism as being as clearly split into "big P" and "little P" as in his discussion. A couple of the speakers mentioned membership of professional bodies and qualifications as being possible contributions to professionalism. Although, I can see these has having a place in ensuring professionalism, I can't see that they define it. People who have these qualifications/memberships aren't necessarily always professional and vice versa.
Finally Chris discussed of the development of elearning and the introduction of the world wide web being one of key factors in this. I would agree with this, and would see it as being quite difficult to have viewed elearning as a profession before this, as it seems it is the web which has really allowed the building of educational communities within distance education.
I would agree with Chris, that elearning includes aspects of other professions, but I don't think this makes it any less a profession in itself.
I don't think it's entirely clear what an elearning professional is, but I would say that it would include aspects covered in each of the 4 viewpoints of the speakers in the podcast.
H808 Week 1
Thursday, 2 Oct 2008, 21:18
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Edited by Owen Barritt, Thursday, 2 Oct 2008, 21:21
It took a while for me to get started in week 1. Work and issues with having 2 versions of Acrobat preventing me from viewing pdfs via either IE or Firefox slowed the start a bit as I couldn't initially access the course and assessment guides. However, once fixed (I told firefox to open pdfs externally using the latest Acrobat rather than trying to open them in the window) things got started.
The first activity was interesting, in that everyone seemed to approach it from different directions. Some people focused in their posts on the introduction of themselves and why they were taking the course whilst others focused on their thoughts on the team members views on elearning. Not many people went into detail in both aspects. Personally, I was in the former group, but I shall take the opportunity to consider the latter in a separate post shortly.
I found staying focused on the podcast for 30 minutes challenging. My attention drifted off several times. Although the podcast was split into sections it was presented as one file on the website, with no way to easily skip to the next section.
As podcasts historically developed to present radio-style shows, which can be downloaded to mp3 players, I can see that it would seem normally to compile all these pieces into one "show". However, as most mp3 players will happily play a playlist of mp3s and the world wide web has developed to be able to present information non-linearly, there seems no requirement for them to be 1 file.
As it is presented there are 3 ways to access the content of the audio
The first activity was interesting, in that everyone seemed to approach it from different directions. Some people focused in their posts on the introduction of themselves and why they were taking the course whilst others focused on their thoughts on the team members views on elearning. Not many people went into detail in both aspects. Personally, I was in the former group, but I shall take the opportunity to consider the latter in a separate post shortly.
I found staying focused on the podcast for 30 minutes challenging. My attention drifted off several times. Although the podcast was split into sections it was presented as one file on the website, with no way to easily skip to the next section.
As podcasts historically developed to present radio-style shows, which can be downloaded to mp3 players, I can see that it would seem normally to compile all these pieces into one "show". However, as most mp3 players will happily play a playlist of mp3s and the world wide web has developed to be able to present information non-linearly, there seems no requirement for them to be 1 file.
As it is presented there are 3 ways to access the content of the audio
- download the mp3
- listen to the audio on the web
- download/view the transcription
Start of Blog
Thursday, 2 Oct 2008, 20:04
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Edited by Owen Barritt, Friday, 3 Oct 2008, 21:13
I was meaning to start this blog earlier than this, but as the core activities (and work) have taken priority it has slipped a bit.
I'm going to use this entirely for posts related to the MAODE course, as I have a personal blog elsewhere.
I'm going to use this entirely for posts related to the MAODE course, as I have a personal blog elsewhere.
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