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Another e-learning journey is coming to an end...

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Sitting on my desk at work...taking my mind back in the beginning of this module...thinking of everything that I have gone through this module...the time I wanted to find in order to make my journey worthwhile...the decisions taken before starting the module and then the decisions taken while in the module...difficult ones...however, I believe that I had succeeded in my goals.

I have worked a lot, during night hours in order to study and read all the learning materials provided for us and even extra materials in the weekends in order to gain something more from the module and apply it later on.  We had to infer to other readings too in our TMAs and ECA if it was possible.  I think that it helped me a lot...

I have contributed in the forums more than my previous course because I have put myself in a more tighten schedule than in the previous one in order to be up to date till the last minute.  I am a little bit worried though for the last collaborative activity that I do not know whether I will be able to make it...but this is minor to all the rest work that I have done during the course and I am satisfied from myself.

In the TMAs though I am more or less satsifed with myself.  But not completely. I could make even better. Especially in the very first ones. Most probably, as I was really stressed at the very beginning this reflected bad on my psychology and in my mind mixed as a result, I was missing actually the point or I did not give 100% of myself.

For the ECA...what to say?  After a terrible accident I had with my hand and having to moderate an e-tivity and at the same time to work on my ECA was really painful for me.  But it was a fantastic experience!!  I wish there were more!! tongueout The e-tivities should have come up earlier in the module in my opinion, as we are gaining from this experience a lot!  Especially when you are moderating!! Back to our theme...ECA!!!!  I had to take 2 days off from my work in order to make it and submit it on time and even earlier as there is a chance to travel abroad with my work for a seminar.  But this is still pending...However, I was in such pain with my hand...I was using the left hand in order to write and to be honest it was not at all easy to make it, but I did not have another choice!  I cannot say that I am satisfied from my ECA because I am sure I could do better!!!  The only thing I am wishing is to get the right feedback and a passing mark!  So that all my work during this module will not go just like that...

I guess that after this module, I am moving to H810 and I am sure that it will be another surprising module for me! Again I will have to get myself in the right schedule in order to make it...

Time to relax now though!!!  And let my hand healed before starting the next module!  This is a strong desire!

Have wonderful holidays!!!

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Core Activity 2.4: Reflection and Learning

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Edited by Elena Kondyli, Thursday, 18 Feb 2010, 12:56

"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).

 

 

 

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Core Activity 2.2: Reflection

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Edited by Elena Kondyli, Thursday, 18 Feb 2010, 12:55

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.

 

 

 

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