Looking at ownership of learning was something we did recently, including a Elluminate 'lecture' with James Farmer. Part of the education process is obviously taking ownership of the learning and as my earlier post hinted at the transition to a digital learning medium I don't see the control/ownership transfer as clearly as I would in a face to face class.
It is pleasing to see that I am not alone in wondering about how our learning community can develop - my learning (or should I say more learned) colleagues are also following similar lines of thought. I particularly like the idea raised about how [I] as teacher can put ' the essence of who you are as a teacher' into an online learning course. James stated that you can project yourself as a real person over time.
Can you really project yourself as a real person over time - and a lot of the time would you? If you look at the availability of ways to project yourself to the world wouldn't you want to project your strengths and mask or even omit your weaknesses. (Random thoughts to follow up on later - lonelygirl15 and SecondLife).
I guess I still see (from my limited elearning perspective anyway) that the digital learning community has issues regarding getting the necessary engagement to produce a quality learning opportunity. Social interaction is simple because we as people need company - but as learners we need more motivation. Just because I say to read and comment on my blog doesn't mean you are going to...
Thursday, August 23, 2007
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3 comments:
the motivation is a problem hey.. but then, does receiving a comment on your blog give you some sort of energy? (that is if you have set your comment settings to email you everytime someone leaves a comment). At the moment the comments are limited to only comming from the people YOU have reached out to.. that being the online learning communities email forum (you forgot to include a link to your blog there Gf)... so, if you spend some time customising your blog, displaying your strengths just as you would before going out to socialise around town, make it fancy, stylish and a demonstration of the skilled command you have over this technology, and then head out into the big smoke Internet and find other people's strengths to comment on and add to. With persistence (and assistance) you will slowly reach out to people wider than the online learning communities group and find people more in line with your interests and motivations (not just school work either ;) - they will come back and comment on your blog, or may even write an article about you on their own blog! From this you will gain the motivation to continue and position yourself on this 3rd classroom space called the Internet.
Then the question expands from motivation to responsibility... will you continue to use this connectivity to enhance your learning and model learning to those you are charged to teach, or will you use it for some other business and not model ways to use this technology for 'learning and education'?
I wonder if you have actively gotten to know me online? Have you explored who I am, my photos, my presentations, my house renovations? Its all there Gf, you can get to know me (my strengths) but I still can't really get a feeling of who you are... your profile may as well be a spam robot! ;)
Nice, thought provoking post Gf.. I hope you'll maintain the motivation and discover the responsibilities.
yeah GF (Mark?) the human factor again. Think about when you are in class with your students - what is it they enjoy in their interactions with you? Your stories about what you did at the weekend? or the intricacies of a maths formula? hopefully for the NCEA stats there are some who will respond to both.
i guess something like a blog can put a human face on an online and liven your abstract presence. so lots of pics on your blogs, some audio and even video can humanise your presence.
I'm still working my way around the idea of podcasting. It comes down to having time to do it on a regular basis really. I tend to get bogged down in the work stuff and the theory and forget to bring in my human stuff. We don't want to bore our students either always talking about ourselves but there is a balance to strive towards.
At the moment I have different blogs for different occasions, but I wonder if this is wise. Why can't I put the video about my sick goat on my education blog? would it offend or make me appear more human? I wonder?
Bron
Yes I have made similar comments on my blog mark. Like Bronwyn says the use of pictures and video may help. In fact if you could get a snippet of yourself in class as post that then yes the real you may be more evident.
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