Well… we have a different kind of course Our course is about football which is rather practical thing (requires practical skills) therefore our course environment has to be different as well. We can not have only electronic learning environment: practises have to take place with real football. When science gives us haptic-tools (or something like this) then it would be interesting to have only electronic environment, but I'm not sure whether it would be wise considering our goals, tasks and practical character of this course.
But of course: learning environment has to support deeper learning, motivation of students.
I strongly believe that it must allow discussions (dialogue and argumentation). As humans are social beings and learning is social activity - discussion (forum) in electronic environment (our environment is divided: practical environment and electronic environment) is extremely important (in practices discussions and communication takes place anyway).
It is important to support curiosity of learners. Curiosity supports intrinsic motivation.
Of course it would help students if the material would not be statical (just articles to read). Some videos and pictures might do the job here. At the same time you must be careful because to much of videos, sounds, (moving) pictures might disturb the learning.
Learning environment must support achievement of goals and it is very important whether this environment supports assignments we have for our students.
For reflections and tasks we might use blogs. Although I don’t like using blogs in learning too much: first - academic writing disappears and in the universities this is not a mark of quality. Blogging is like writing a diary (very personal) and there is a certain group of people who like to do that. But not most of us. I know that blogging is becoming very popular and it helps to reflect, but still: reflection does not have to be visible to everybody.
But as we have rather practical subject then academic part is not a problem and blogs are easer to follow. So blogs it is.
Some other thoughts:
About the role of facilitator: domain novices don’t have strong domain-specific cognitive schema and therefore they cannot determine which information might help them. Here again the power-questions rises to me. And at the same time it seems to me that self-directed learning can not take place in this stadium (novice) of learning because all the preconditions of self-directed learning are not met.
Organising your own learning - personal learning environment - this was interesting idea. I have never thought about it in systematic way: how to organise my own learning.
Pedagogically neutral software - somehow this troubles me. At one point I think this is not a real problem (different tasks need different approach - Ertmer and Newby’s idea of taxonomy of learning - so there is no problem with neutrality of software. But then again the question of self-directed learning and democracy rises.
For conclusion:
For every task there are professionals in the world. I can brainstorm with them, but environment is not my 'thing'.
Showing posts with label group2reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label group2reading. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
How to formatively evaluate e-learning course designs? week11
All assignments beginning with the word "how" somehow bring into my mind some "10 steps to hapiness" handbook. And I want to begin my answer with the words first take some ….. after this …. I'm not sure whether I should come up with some handbook or not.
In the reading material page 16 there is a cycle how to do it. It just needs some supplementary components like create evaluation form according to the objective what you expect to reach. Then collect data, analyse it and of course make some conclusions and improve your course.
It is possible to use electronic advises for this, but it is also possible to do it without them (let students write an essay).
Answering in this way seems a bit … meaningless to me. Sorry.
So I just write my thought about the reading material of this week.
About first- and second-hand learning. I'm not familiar with this concept and it seems a bit strange to me. The example about computers raised a question: is online course/ university really a place for first-hand learning (taking a part and rebuilding a computer)? Don’t we have vocational schools for that? Is it a degradation of universities? I know that there are different schools about 'pure knowledge' and 'learning', but I'm kind of 'pure knowledge' girl. I expect universities and e-learning/online courses to share/create with students knowledge (and meta-knowledge) and not so much of practical skills.
This week reading materials had a lot of suggestions what we could take into consideration in our course:
1. to have flexible course with a basic level of content to be mastered and as well some supplementary material for those who are more capable of interested.
2. we should think about how to encourage engagement in our course and how to provide two-way communication between student-facilitator, but also student-student
3. we need to provide students plenty of motivation and written feedback for students
4. virtual office hours where students could log on to the chat area and ask questions
5. satisfaction survey in the end of the course.
6. weekly e-mails and weekly assignments would be a way to keep students engaged
7. criteria for online discussions/reflections/analysis
About constructivism: knowledge is constructed rather then transmitted… Well, I agree, but before we can construct something we still need to transmit/gain some knowledge. It is not possible to construct from nothing, we still need something: facts, experience, ….
So I rather see it like a cycle or spiral: first transmission and then construction. (Before we can create online course or develop design we need to know what it is; or before we will integrate something into our mind/beliefs, preconceptions, world of thinking) and they are both equal parts of learning.
About results: i think that for the students who participated in this course the online part was very exciting because for them it was a variation from their everyday work or learning. Some variation is usually more interesting then routine.
In the reading material page 16 there is a cycle how to do it. It just needs some supplementary components like create evaluation form according to the objective what you expect to reach. Then collect data, analyse it and of course make some conclusions and improve your course.
It is possible to use electronic advises for this, but it is also possible to do it without them (let students write an essay).
Answering in this way seems a bit … meaningless to me. Sorry.
So I just write my thought about the reading material of this week.
About first- and second-hand learning. I'm not familiar with this concept and it seems a bit strange to me. The example about computers raised a question: is online course/ university really a place for first-hand learning (taking a part and rebuilding a computer)? Don’t we have vocational schools for that? Is it a degradation of universities? I know that there are different schools about 'pure knowledge' and 'learning', but I'm kind of 'pure knowledge' girl. I expect universities and e-learning/online courses to share/create with students knowledge (and meta-knowledge) and not so much of practical skills.
This week reading materials had a lot of suggestions what we could take into consideration in our course:
1. to have flexible course with a basic level of content to be mastered and as well some supplementary material for those who are more capable of interested.
2. we should think about how to encourage engagement in our course and how to provide two-way communication between student-facilitator, but also student-student
3. we need to provide students plenty of motivation and written feedback for students
4. virtual office hours where students could log on to the chat area and ask questions
5. satisfaction survey in the end of the course.
6. weekly e-mails and weekly assignments would be a way to keep students engaged
7. criteria for online discussions/reflections/analysis
About constructivism: knowledge is constructed rather then transmitted… Well, I agree, but before we can construct something we still need to transmit/gain some knowledge. It is not possible to construct from nothing, we still need something: facts, experience, ….
So I rather see it like a cycle or spiral: first transmission and then construction. (Before we can create online course or develop design we need to know what it is; or before we will integrate something into our mind/beliefs, preconceptions, world of thinking) and they are both equal parts of learning.
About results: i think that for the students who participated in this course the online part was very exciting because for them it was a variation from their everyday work or learning. Some variation is usually more interesting then routine.
Monday, May 5, 2008
What are the best ways of finding a social network of your interests? - week6
Hmm…
Reading material was interesting (as usually), but the reflection theme of this week is not perhaps the best. Maybe it is just me, but i did not find an answer to the question. I can list here what are the possibilities to find the social networks:
1. through people - you know somebody who is a member of some community or you just know some names and you will start looking for them. And then you see who is connected with whom and so you can go on.
2. through material - i read something what is interesting to you and you choose some keywords and start looking for them
3. through web - web pages of different associations, social bookmarking tools, Blogs, links, tags, ….
But: important is the ability to understand the content and assess the quality of the network (or regular web-page).
Could this week assignment be about communities of practice and learning networks? How to build it up (model) or describe a successful community of practice or learning network? Or how learning networks support learners?
Reading material was interesting (as usually), but the reflection theme of this week is not perhaps the best. Maybe it is just me, but i did not find an answer to the question. I can list here what are the possibilities to find the social networks:
1. through people - you know somebody who is a member of some community or you just know some names and you will start looking for them. And then you see who is connected with whom and so you can go on.
2. through material - i read something what is interesting to you and you choose some keywords and start looking for them
3. through web - web pages of different associations, social bookmarking tools, Blogs, links, tags, ….
But: important is the ability to understand the content and assess the quality of the network (or regular web-page).
Could this week assignment be about communities of practice and learning networks? How to build it up (model) or describe a successful community of practice or learning network? Or how learning networks support learners?
How can a conversational personal contract improve self-directed learning? week5
I read reading materials of week 5 twice. At first I something happened and I just did not have time to write reading reflection. When I started to write this blog I realised that to understand my own comments I have to read it once again.
What I liked in this week reading was the practical guidance was practical part: quite a lot practical samples how to write/create learning contract.
First some thought about/ from material:
Self-directed learning requires intrinsic motivation and this can not be underestimated. But we are not alone in this world. Learning takes place in social environment. If this environment does not support intrinsic motivation then adults don’t want to take the responsibility. In the middle of learning process almost everybody need support: from relatives, friends, facilitators, learning environment, …
So we can not count only on students intrinsic motivation - they do have a lot of influencies from outside. So we have to talk about external motivation at the same time.
"Self and self-direction are the subjective concepts influenced by many factors. Self-directed learning activities take always place in a certain social context and cannot be separated from that social setting and other people (Brockett & Hiemstra 1991). Thus, we cannot talk about pure autonomy and absolute freedom, rather self-direction is framed by other individuals and groups (Lindeman, 1926). Furthermore, environment and surrounding culture, social spaces and communities we create and belong to, people we communicate determine our consciousness and dictate our self-directed activities."
I really liked efficiency matrix.
Conversational contract
"Learner defined contracts (e.g. in ePortfolios) are facilitated and periodically evaluated by other knowledgeable persons when learning proceeds. Conversational contracts presume that, as learning procedure continues the contracts should be updated according to facilitators comments. "
In my opinion conversational contracts are just feedback and they influence self-directed learning in the same way any feedback influences learning. This offers to the learners the possibility to review their learning and improve their aims, expected outcomes, resources required. Facilitator can support learners development and (intrinsic) motivation, give some suggestions/ directions how to move forward. Conversational contract supports interaction/discussion between learner and facilitator and therefore can
• increase the quality of learning and
• be a basis for mutual learning (facilitator from learner and learner from facilitator).
What I liked in this week reading was the practical guidance was practical part: quite a lot practical samples how to write/create learning contract.
First some thought about/ from material:
Self-directed learning requires intrinsic motivation and this can not be underestimated. But we are not alone in this world. Learning takes place in social environment. If this environment does not support intrinsic motivation then adults don’t want to take the responsibility. In the middle of learning process almost everybody need support: from relatives, friends, facilitators, learning environment, …
So we can not count only on students intrinsic motivation - they do have a lot of influencies from outside. So we have to talk about external motivation at the same time.
"Self and self-direction are the subjective concepts influenced by many factors. Self-directed learning activities take always place in a certain social context and cannot be separated from that social setting and other people (Brockett & Hiemstra 1991). Thus, we cannot talk about pure autonomy and absolute freedom, rather self-direction is framed by other individuals and groups (Lindeman, 1926). Furthermore, environment and surrounding culture, social spaces and communities we create and belong to, people we communicate determine our consciousness and dictate our self-directed activities."
I really liked efficiency matrix.
Conversational contract
"Learner defined contracts (e.g. in ePortfolios) are facilitated and periodically evaluated by other knowledgeable persons when learning proceeds. Conversational contracts presume that, as learning procedure continues the contracts should be updated according to facilitators comments. "
In my opinion conversational contracts are just feedback and they influence self-directed learning in the same way any feedback influences learning. This offers to the learners the possibility to review their learning and improve their aims, expected outcomes, resources required. Facilitator can support learners development and (intrinsic) motivation, give some suggestions/ directions how to move forward. Conversational contract supports interaction/discussion between learner and facilitator and therefore can
• increase the quality of learning and
• be a basis for mutual learning (facilitator from learner and learner from facilitator).
Monday, April 28, 2008
From the perspective of my tasks in our workgroup, what did I learn from theoretical materials, how to make/use the course materials/activities/assessment/tools? week8
As we have not shared our roles in group it is difficult to read something concrete from theoretical material. So I write here just few short comments/thought about reading materials.
• One main question in elearning is probably: what supports intrinsic motivation? And there is no concrete answer. At one point while reading theoretical material I felt that this material is about everything and nothing at the same time. Although materials write that this is important I did not find good answer how to support intrinsic motivation.
• The importance of attention can not be underestimated. Learners participation supports this attention needed. The content and the way the content is reflected or brought into experience and the environment where it is happening are very important to get the students attention.
• HOTS-model I did not like. Don’t even know why, seemed kind of not finished.
• Fischer compared human and technology-based learning and this shows that technology is great enabler, but the question is how to use these possibilities what technology offers. At one point Fischers model seemed not objective and a bit favour of technology based learning. But this was still good reading.
• Online learning is still in its early infancy (Fahy, P. J). - and so is the theory behind it. This is very important to keep in mind.
• Garrison, Anderson, and Archer model about "community of learning" I found brilliant.
• Getting the mix right between opportunities for synchronous and asynchronous interaction, and group and independent study activities remains a challenge (Daniel & Marquis, 1988; Anderson, 2002) - this is also good to keep in mind. But again: from theoretical point it is good to know, but how to bring this into good practice?
Very often small (practical) tricks (behind the theory) will do the game. Sometimes if everything seems so complicated and "challenging" some small tricks / activities (without any deeper theory behind it) can help. I was looking from materials something similar. But probably my expectations are too high and I need to remember that "Online learning is still in its early infancy".
• Most online students are practical adults with much competition for their time; thus they are unlikely to participate in activities that are marginalized or viewed as supplemental to the course goals and assessment schema (Anderson) - goes together with learner participation and attention.
• … how these instructions guide students on both the quantity (“two substantive postings” per discussion question) and the quality of contributions expected - Levines assessment framework) - this was one practical thing I read (so 10 points for that) and this goes together with Terjes reflection. I not sure whether I like the quantity part - learning must always be qualitative change. I'm not sure whether quantitative measures are the best way to reach/create qualitative change. Assessment is always very complicated.
• In learning process rapid feedback is important - so there must be somebody who will give you the feedback (and has some authority) and it means that teacher/facilitator can not be equal as students (they never can because of the power)! Power-issue has followed me for a long time. As like very much the idea that facilitator is part of learning group (equal member of the group), but I'm not sure whether this can happen in real life. Only if facilitators delegate their power, but I'm not sure that this is a good idea. With power there is always a question of responsibility and competence. So this is a tricky one!
• Formalising reflective learning outcomes takes time. It is good, but if you want to do it in qualitative way, you have to take into consideration that this takes a lot of time! If you just write something quickly then this formalisation does not justify itself.
How far away is theory from practice…
• One main question in elearning is probably: what supports intrinsic motivation? And there is no concrete answer. At one point while reading theoretical material I felt that this material is about everything and nothing at the same time. Although materials write that this is important I did not find good answer how to support intrinsic motivation.
• The importance of attention can not be underestimated. Learners participation supports this attention needed. The content and the way the content is reflected or brought into experience and the environment where it is happening are very important to get the students attention.
• HOTS-model I did not like. Don’t even know why, seemed kind of not finished.
• Fischer compared human and technology-based learning and this shows that technology is great enabler, but the question is how to use these possibilities what technology offers. At one point Fischers model seemed not objective and a bit favour of technology based learning. But this was still good reading.
• Online learning is still in its early infancy (Fahy, P. J). - and so is the theory behind it. This is very important to keep in mind.
• Garrison, Anderson, and Archer model about "community of learning" I found brilliant.
• Getting the mix right between opportunities for synchronous and asynchronous interaction, and group and independent study activities remains a challenge (Daniel & Marquis, 1988; Anderson, 2002) - this is also good to keep in mind. But again: from theoretical point it is good to know, but how to bring this into good practice?
Very often small (practical) tricks (behind the theory) will do the game. Sometimes if everything seems so complicated and "challenging" some small tricks / activities (without any deeper theory behind it) can help. I was looking from materials something similar. But probably my expectations are too high and I need to remember that "Online learning is still in its early infancy".
• Most online students are practical adults with much competition for their time; thus they are unlikely to participate in activities that are marginalized or viewed as supplemental to the course goals and assessment schema (Anderson) - goes together with learner participation and attention.
• … how these instructions guide students on both the quantity (“two substantive postings” per discussion question) and the quality of contributions expected - Levines assessment framework) - this was one practical thing I read (so 10 points for that) and this goes together with Terjes reflection. I not sure whether I like the quantity part - learning must always be qualitative change. I'm not sure whether quantitative measures are the best way to reach/create qualitative change. Assessment is always very complicated.
• In learning process rapid feedback is important - so there must be somebody who will give you the feedback (and has some authority) and it means that teacher/facilitator can not be equal as students (they never can because of the power)! Power-issue has followed me for a long time. As like very much the idea that facilitator is part of learning group (equal member of the group), but I'm not sure whether this can happen in real life. Only if facilitators delegate their power, but I'm not sure that this is a good idea. With power there is always a question of responsibility and competence. So this is a tricky one!
• Formalising reflective learning outcomes takes time. It is good, but if you want to do it in qualitative way, you have to take into consideration that this takes a lot of time! If you just write something quickly then this formalisation does not justify itself.
How far away is theory from practice…
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The goals and objectives, design principles and process (roster) of your course. week4
This weeks reading assignment was kind of fuzzy to me. I read post made by other students (course-mates, in our group there are only 2 bloggers left) and found out that:
• there are only few posts about this reading reflection and
• these posts have very different background and very different understanding about the subject.
Different viewpoints are absolutely normal for our elearning group (different cultures and understanding) but in some point I started to feel that perhaps everybody do still not get what this is all about. But then again - I did not understand the level of generalization either …
I read the material through and tied out the approach Terje suggested: first read diagonally and then decide what to read more deeply. So I tried and was not very successful, it is perhaps not my way of working. If I do get materials to read and if they are not absolute crap then I want to take more time and go more deeply through them.
Principles
1. goals must be carefully thought through: analyse need needs of students and curriculum, what skills and knowledge will be the outcome of the course and what is needed to for the task ahead.
2. Methods must involve students and enable use of active learning techniques.
3. Instructional materials are created
4. Implementation - registration, distribution of materials and teacher-student interaction
5. Introduction to course and statement of goals
6. Direction and advice regarding the preparation and submission of assignments
7. Grading scheme is provided
8. Style of course: academic or conversational
9. provide a study guide
10. program announcement - provides date and time, objectives
11. Ask good questions
12. Observation of students
13. determine the need for instruction
14. organize and develop content
15. select and develop materials and methods
16. Co-operation between students and teachers
From theory I think that our course might be grounded socially situated learning (I can't believe that I'm writing something like this!). From what I believe this might be perhaps the most motivating approach to online course.
to be continue ...
• there are only few posts about this reading reflection and
• these posts have very different background and very different understanding about the subject.
Different viewpoints are absolutely normal for our elearning group (different cultures and understanding) but in some point I started to feel that perhaps everybody do still not get what this is all about. But then again - I did not understand the level of generalization either …
I read the material through and tied out the approach Terje suggested: first read diagonally and then decide what to read more deeply. So I tried and was not very successful, it is perhaps not my way of working. If I do get materials to read and if they are not absolute crap then I want to take more time and go more deeply through them.
Principles
1. goals must be carefully thought through: analyse need needs of students and curriculum, what skills and knowledge will be the outcome of the course and what is needed to for the task ahead.
2. Methods must involve students and enable use of active learning techniques.
3. Instructional materials are created
4. Implementation - registration, distribution of materials and teacher-student interaction
5. Introduction to course and statement of goals
6. Direction and advice regarding the preparation and submission of assignments
7. Grading scheme is provided
8. Style of course: academic or conversational
9. provide a study guide
10. program announcement - provides date and time, objectives
11. Ask good questions
12. Observation of students
13. determine the need for instruction
14. organize and develop content
15. select and develop materials and methods
16. Co-operation between students and teachers
From theory I think that our course might be grounded socially situated learning (I can't believe that I'm writing something like this!). From what I believe this might be perhaps the most motivating approach to online course.
to be continue ...
Monday, March 24, 2008
What are the components of course design? week3
It is a bit difficult for me to understand what is meant by components. Short answer would be: learner, teacher, and environment. After some thoughts I added to the list content and materials. After materials structure, methods and goals came. Then it seemed like an outline. To create some circle development and analysis are missing. I tried to draw these components, but it needs some improvement as learner and teacher /coach / facilitator are missing in the chart. But as I can not show this drawing here, I just type keywords:
* goal and need analysis
* content
* environment
- structure
- methods
- materials
* improvement / evaluation
- feedback
- analysis / reflection
* in the middle of this is construction of knowledge
* motivation
* interaction
Now it seems to me that feedback is very important component in elearning course. In classroom it is possible to see and hear the teacher talking and commenting the content, answering to the questions, opening the context in the same moment. In elearning course this is not happening and therefore continuous interaction and feedback are very important to compensate that.
I hope that I will come back to this and perhaps add some more thoughts about components. There are too many terms/words to have a nice chart...
About materials of this week ...
Somehow I don't like problem-based approach or activity-based approach. I call it "pragmatic view" to learning – shoot, shoot, shoot – think when ever you have time, analyse, discuss, reflect not before but after. First it was teacher-centred, then student-centred and now it is activity/problem-centred approach. When I read materials of problem or activity-based learning it makes me wonder: isn't this actually behaviouristic approach? Yes, it takes into consideration context, but something is missing, something what student-centred approach had. I don't like very much the name: problem-based learning. I believe in learning-by-doing, but I don’t see that this takes place only while solving problems. As in that case the base of learning is some situation from real life then it is perhaps better to call it case-based learning. Not every case is a problem!
I‘ve got it now: I don’t believe in student-content interaction. I believe in student-teacher interaction. But problem-based approach has student-content interaction background. Human part/role of/in learning is missing!
* goal and need analysis
* content
* environment
- structure
- methods
- materials
* improvement / evaluation
- feedback
- analysis / reflection
* in the middle of this is construction of knowledge
* motivation
* interaction
Now it seems to me that feedback is very important component in elearning course. In classroom it is possible to see and hear the teacher talking and commenting the content, answering to the questions, opening the context in the same moment. In elearning course this is not happening and therefore continuous interaction and feedback are very important to compensate that.
I hope that I will come back to this and perhaps add some more thoughts about components. There are too many terms/words to have a nice chart...
About materials of this week ...
Somehow I don't like problem-based approach or activity-based approach. I call it "pragmatic view" to learning – shoot, shoot, shoot – think when ever you have time, analyse, discuss, reflect not before but after. First it was teacher-centred, then student-centred and now it is activity/problem-centred approach. When I read materials of problem or activity-based learning it makes me wonder: isn't this actually behaviouristic approach? Yes, it takes into consideration context, but something is missing, something what student-centred approach had. I don't like very much the name: problem-based learning. I believe in learning-by-doing, but I don’t see that this takes place only while solving problems. As in that case the base of learning is some situation from real life then it is perhaps better to call it case-based learning. Not every case is a problem!
I‘ve got it now: I don’t believe in student-content interaction. I believe in student-teacher interaction. But problem-based approach has student-content interaction background. Human part/role of/in learning is missing!
Friday, March 14, 2008
Which principles of groupwork, communities of practice and collaborative learning should a distributed group consider, when planning the design of an e-learning course? week2
Short answer would be: build trust: towards members of the team, towards technology used and towards learning process. Let learners decide how they want to learn (let them set the rules and roles). Support interaction between learners and give them feedback.
What is important: to give learners time to build trust. It does not happen overnight. Trusting each other means that learners must have time to develop common "language" and common understanding. They must learn to know each others' strengths and weaknesses.
Technical apprehension - this is definitely a problematic question when planning an e-learning course.
How can learners see what they have learned: reflection period and assignments must be thought through? How will they communicate and collaborate.
Networking, knowledge how to communicate, collaborate, how to communicate effectively, how to create opportunities for learning and growth, collect and provide feedback.
And of course: you can not forget the "fun" - this celebration idea in article was great!
But I want to share my thought about the article in the way which does not match perhaps the title of the blog.
First I did not like this article very much (readings last week were much better from my point of view). This one was not very well structured, cases described were not well bounded with literature analysis and differences/similarities of described cases were not deeply analysed. I did get too little new information and they raised more questions than I found answers.
Still there were some moments when I realised that this is something we are trying to do or what is still ahead of us in this class. Like we are trying to "learn about" and "learn how to" at the same time.
As team members know each other before then of course it was easier for them to build trust and to be more successful with online learning/working (this is similar in classroom as well).
What really disturbed me in this article was the approach of authors to the knowledge and more specifically to tacit knowledge. It might be because tacit knowledge is quite obscure term and authors did not explain what they meant with it or how tacit knowledge develops. From my point of view in successful e-learning groups learning process begins with explicit knowledge except for the teams who have worked together before or who previously have had e-learning courses (and have some technological skills), but this is not very common now. Otherwise e-learning is explicit and bounded with "aha"-effect or conflict situation (in both cases learning is explicit). Every team member has his own understanding about the process, has his own learning experience …. So to create a successful e-learning group, the first stage learning must be explicit.
There is one sentence in this article with what it is hard for me to agree: "once team members trust, they are more likely to make their tacit knowledge explicit, transform explicit knowledge into tacit knowledge …" First: if a learner makes (!) tacit knowledge explicit then it must be explicit already. Otherwise tacit knowledge becomes (!) explicit to others. And knowledge becomes more explicit more learners communicate/interact with each other. I'm not sure in the second part of this claim: if trust is the reason why explicit knowledge comes tacit. It has more to do with learners' competence development then team members trust.
Other question for me is: whether learners can learn something "tacitly" or tacit knowledge is something what expands from explicit knowledge?
Now about "Teachable Moments". Of course conflict situations and failures are teachable moments and the best way to learn is from one's own experience. Authors bound teachable moments with failure. It gives an impression like all valuable learning would happen through failure or conflict.
To create secured environment for failures, it means that the feedback to failure (learner does not always recognise this) must take place practically online. As e-learning tends to be more time consuming then it is not easy to do (it is a huge pressure to facilitator).
Other thing is that "teachable moment" can happen through positive success!
About "inciting conflict". I would be very careful to encourage inciting conflict. I have seen (so this is not based on academic knowledge ) some training where facilitator knowing that conflict in the group would take place trying to encourage conflict. The results of that were not great. If one wants to do something like this then one must have perfect knowledge in psychology and perfect sense of individuals so that the group could be put back work together again. Conflict appears in group processes usually anyway - so let it be normal and real conflict what is usable to all group members as well.
It is hard to agree with authors that learning "does not become "real" until conflict occur". Unfortunately authors do not offer definition to "real learning".
What is important: to give learners time to build trust. It does not happen overnight. Trusting each other means that learners must have time to develop common "language" and common understanding. They must learn to know each others' strengths and weaknesses.
Technical apprehension - this is definitely a problematic question when planning an e-learning course.
How can learners see what they have learned: reflection period and assignments must be thought through? How will they communicate and collaborate.
Networking, knowledge how to communicate, collaborate, how to communicate effectively, how to create opportunities for learning and growth, collect and provide feedback.
And of course: you can not forget the "fun" - this celebration idea in article was great!
But I want to share my thought about the article in the way which does not match perhaps the title of the blog.
First I did not like this article very much (readings last week were much better from my point of view). This one was not very well structured, cases described were not well bounded with literature analysis and differences/similarities of described cases were not deeply analysed. I did get too little new information and they raised more questions than I found answers.
Still there were some moments when I realised that this is something we are trying to do or what is still ahead of us in this class. Like we are trying to "learn about" and "learn how to" at the same time.
As team members know each other before then of course it was easier for them to build trust and to be more successful with online learning/working (this is similar in classroom as well).
What really disturbed me in this article was the approach of authors to the knowledge and more specifically to tacit knowledge. It might be because tacit knowledge is quite obscure term and authors did not explain what they meant with it or how tacit knowledge develops. From my point of view in successful e-learning groups learning process begins with explicit knowledge except for the teams who have worked together before or who previously have had e-learning courses (and have some technological skills), but this is not very common now. Otherwise e-learning is explicit and bounded with "aha"-effect or conflict situation (in both cases learning is explicit). Every team member has his own understanding about the process, has his own learning experience …. So to create a successful e-learning group, the first stage learning must be explicit.
There is one sentence in this article with what it is hard for me to agree: "once team members trust, they are more likely to make their tacit knowledge explicit, transform explicit knowledge into tacit knowledge …" First: if a learner makes (!) tacit knowledge explicit then it must be explicit already. Otherwise tacit knowledge becomes (!) explicit to others. And knowledge becomes more explicit more learners communicate/interact with each other. I'm not sure in the second part of this claim: if trust is the reason why explicit knowledge comes tacit. It has more to do with learners' competence development then team members trust.
Other question for me is: whether learners can learn something "tacitly" or tacit knowledge is something what expands from explicit knowledge?
Now about "Teachable Moments". Of course conflict situations and failures are teachable moments and the best way to learn is from one's own experience. Authors bound teachable moments with failure. It gives an impression like all valuable learning would happen through failure or conflict.
To create secured environment for failures, it means that the feedback to failure (learner does not always recognise this) must take place practically online. As e-learning tends to be more time consuming then it is not easy to do (it is a huge pressure to facilitator).
Other thing is that "teachable moment" can happen through positive success!
About "inciting conflict". I would be very careful to encourage inciting conflict. I have seen (so this is not based on academic knowledge ) some training where facilitator knowing that conflict in the group would take place trying to encourage conflict. The results of that were not great. If one wants to do something like this then one must have perfect knowledge in psychology and perfect sense of individuals so that the group could be put back work together again. Conflict appears in group processes usually anyway - so let it be normal and real conflict what is usable to all group members as well.
It is hard to agree with authors that learning "does not become "real" until conflict occur". Unfortunately authors do not offer definition to "real learning".
Monday, March 10, 2008
E-learning course: week 1
As this is my first experience with e-learning then there was a lot of confusion with this environment, requirements and materials: lot of links where to orientate and too much information. So first few days I was only looking around and tried to make sense of it. Some links were very good and some did not open :).
What are the trends in e-learning and how do they influence online course design?
This is a good question and frankly I don't know yet the answer. Trends in e-learning we might say are the same as regular learning: it is movement from behaviouristic explanation of learning to constructivism. I really liked Ertmer and Newby's idea of taxonomy for learning (behaviourism = what, cognitivism = how and constructivism = why) - this is brilliant.
Although these learning trends reflect in e-learning as well, it is still hard for me to see behaviourism as ground of e-learning. If we want to train students then e-learning is perhaps not the best method.
But as understanding of learning process is changing the way how to plan (how to motivate, assess,…), create materials and learning environment (does it enable interaction; is it ease to understand and orientate), communicate with each is changing.
In behaviourism students do get the learning materials, in constructivism learners should be allowed to construct their knowledge. So the roles of student and teacher are changing: student activity changes from passive learner to active (therefore student motivation is changing as well) participant of learning process. (From personal learning to collaborative and cooperative, interactive learning). With taking active role in learning process student takes more control of his/her learning. Instead of cram facts deeper understanding of content is important.
For teachers understanding what is most significant rather than what most easily assessed is very important and at the same time this makes course design difficult.
About trends (what is going to happen next) - it is very hard to predict. Probably a lot of discussion/communication and therefore learning will move to web. This might cause the overload of information and people don't have time to deepen anymore.
It might happen that brilliant guys will get more brilliant and other will have problems with information overload and orientation and therefore they might give up and satisfy with secondary/ light information. So this is the worst what might happen…
We can not say now that e-learning makes learning more accessible when there are many people who don't have a computer and internet.
But for those who have access e-learning … It is still hard to predict. Two main things can cause learning: the will and the need. Will depends on motivation (inside motivation). But how many people you do know who have constant will to learn in formal or even informal way? So a part of learning comes from need (outside motivation). It might even depend on economy …Although form economy-side the future is bright: knowledge-based and flexible economy requires (constant) learning and if e-learning is more accessible then it might become more successful.
What was the most important thing you learned this week?
There were several interesting approaches in articles: content-content interaction; Ermter-Newby's taxonomy and many more. Idea that web's in-built capacity for hyperlinking has been compared to the way in which human knowledge is stored in mental shema.
What was particularly interesting/boring in this week?
Boring - there was no discussion this week, but this is normal.
Interesting - everything is new and therefore interesting.
Was there something you didn't quite understand and want to know more
about it?
Two things:
1. content-content interaction - I have always thought that interaction takes place between to subjects (student-student; teacher-teacher; student-teacher). It is hard to me to accept that interaction could take place between subject-object or even object-object. How can to contents interact with each other?
2. "agent"-idea in Online Learning and the Semantic Web I did not get. It would be great to know a little more about Semantic Web.
What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week's activities raised for you?
It is too early to say. Second chapter of the book was very interesting for me.
Which tools did you use this week, explain what was the purpose of using these tools (eg. social talk, to regulate my team activities, to work on documents)?
Scuttle, Moodle - to get started :)
MSN - to communicate with my friends, but it had nothing to do with this course.
With whom did you communicate during this week, how many times, with which tools, and for what purposes?
There was no communication with co-students during this week. I read introductions/blogs of co-students and facilitators.
What are the trends in e-learning and how do they influence online course design?
This is a good question and frankly I don't know yet the answer. Trends in e-learning we might say are the same as regular learning: it is movement from behaviouristic explanation of learning to constructivism. I really liked Ertmer and Newby's idea of taxonomy for learning (behaviourism = what, cognitivism = how and constructivism = why) - this is brilliant.
Although these learning trends reflect in e-learning as well, it is still hard for me to see behaviourism as ground of e-learning. If we want to train students then e-learning is perhaps not the best method.
But as understanding of learning process is changing the way how to plan (how to motivate, assess,…), create materials and learning environment (does it enable interaction; is it ease to understand and orientate), communicate with each is changing.
In behaviourism students do get the learning materials, in constructivism learners should be allowed to construct their knowledge. So the roles of student and teacher are changing: student activity changes from passive learner to active (therefore student motivation is changing as well) participant of learning process. (From personal learning to collaborative and cooperative, interactive learning). With taking active role in learning process student takes more control of his/her learning. Instead of cram facts deeper understanding of content is important.
For teachers understanding what is most significant rather than what most easily assessed is very important and at the same time this makes course design difficult.
About trends (what is going to happen next) - it is very hard to predict. Probably a lot of discussion/communication and therefore learning will move to web. This might cause the overload of information and people don't have time to deepen anymore.
It might happen that brilliant guys will get more brilliant and other will have problems with information overload and orientation and therefore they might give up and satisfy with secondary/ light information. So this is the worst what might happen…
We can not say now that e-learning makes learning more accessible when there are many people who don't have a computer and internet.
But for those who have access e-learning … It is still hard to predict. Two main things can cause learning: the will and the need. Will depends on motivation (inside motivation). But how many people you do know who have constant will to learn in formal or even informal way? So a part of learning comes from need (outside motivation). It might even depend on economy …Although form economy-side the future is bright: knowledge-based and flexible economy requires (constant) learning and if e-learning is more accessible then it might become more successful.
What was the most important thing you learned this week?
There were several interesting approaches in articles: content-content interaction; Ermter-Newby's taxonomy and many more. Idea that web's in-built capacity for hyperlinking has been compared to the way in which human knowledge is stored in mental shema.
What was particularly interesting/boring in this week?
Boring - there was no discussion this week, but this is normal.
Interesting - everything is new and therefore interesting.
Was there something you didn't quite understand and want to know more
about it?
Two things:
1. content-content interaction - I have always thought that interaction takes place between to subjects (student-student; teacher-teacher; student-teacher). It is hard to me to accept that interaction could take place between subject-object or even object-object. How can to contents interact with each other?
2. "agent"-idea in Online Learning and the Semantic Web I did not get. It would be great to know a little more about Semantic Web.
What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week's activities raised for you?
It is too early to say. Second chapter of the book was very interesting for me.
Which tools did you use this week, explain what was the purpose of using these tools (eg. social talk, to regulate my team activities, to work on documents)?
Scuttle, Moodle - to get started :)
MSN - to communicate with my friends, but it had nothing to do with this course.
With whom did you communicate during this week, how many times, with which tools, and for what purposes?
There was no communication with co-students during this week. I read introductions/blogs of co-students and facilitators.
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