Personal Blogs

I have often used my blog as a method of unleashing some frustration that I have been unable to release in our on-line environment. But today, Father's day, it's all positive. Hannah-Rose joined the Duff clan 2 weeks ago at 5.30am on Friday the 5th of June - she is just perfect!

So yes I am using the few hours of me-time allotted to me annually on Father's day to catch up on my OU, please note Dave!

In week 18 we were asked to read Weller's paper on the on-line learning environment and how learning organisations incorporate change. Firstly, I enjoyed reading the paper and I think it's one I'll be re-reading and drawing on in the future.

Secondly, a few notes: I like Weller's approach and it sync's well with a belief I have formulated of the course of my study where I have come to conclude that elearning is not learning online! It may be part of learning as a whole but it is not the same process just in the OLE, it represents different ways of learning and therefore different challenges. A key example of this is that practitioners cannot simply go on-line and replicate the success they had in the classroom.

Weller claims when new tech is available we often replace existing activities with the same activity just incorporating the new tech, and it takes awhile before we really see the potential of the new tech (radio on TV). For me this is what Technology Enhanced Learning is all about. Are we just going to tweet instead of txt? or write on somebody's wall instead of emailing? In the classroom we have to understand the potential, engage it in the learning design rather then just getting learners to blog as a straight replacement for writing.

The concept of the Long Tail appealed to me as I was familiar with it from its business mgt origins, I think it's a great analogy to describe how we will learn and develop in the future. Personally I can't see myself locking into a taught degree in business where I have to learn marketing, finance, HR as well as the mgt module I enrolled for. The long tail could be thought of as consumer/learner driven but practitioners can drive this change and org's engage with it. My Business Mgt course has been streamlined from 26 weeks to 10, where we cover just mgt.

Weller's argument of higher education trying to enculturate learners hit a nerve too, accessibility is an objective of all educational org's yet most are guilty of enculturation.

This is not to say that the answer is barnstorming into facebook to enage with the "yoof" culture, as I pointed to before in TMA2. If this is learner led then we need to listen to the learner voice is block 2 ended on.

Cheeryo Karl