Reflections

I am having a go at embedding an audio file in my Blog as part of the learning process of facilitating in the course. The start of it is a couple of 'Famous last words" and then a little comment on our next Elluminate session.



Well , the audio didn't work and it all looks a lot more complicated than I first thought. Another day perhaps!


I have three themes for today and part of an article by Russell Brown (noted media and IT commentator).



1. Famous last words - contained in the sound bite and meant to reflect that the way we think about something now may have no relevance in the future. This could favour the acceptance of the current technologies or could be a warning sign against false prophets.



2. Blind acceptance - a reminder to always critically evaluate any information that you are given. Just because it's new, flashy, looks promising -doesn't mean that it's wonderful. There are some guides available to critically evaluate.



3. Groupthink - remember the Bay of Pigs? , remember the Challenger Space Shuttle fiasco?, remember George Bush's invasion of Iraq and the weapons of mass destruction? All Group Think where powerful individuals with an unquestioning audience made decisions which caused massive death's and injury.




From Russell Browns 'Hard News" http://publicaddress.net/default,4576.sm

Real Media | Oct 25, 2007 10:09

I spoke to a group of Media teachers at a development day at Unitech yesterday, and the subsequent conversation was quite interesting. These courses have flexible curricula (actually, according to Geoff Lealand no curricula), but they all teach secondary students basic screen production skills.

Yet none of them were teaching what ought to be a core skill in handling video these days: the optimum way of encoding clips to play on YouTube and similar services. In many cases that's because YouTube is dangerous ground for schools. Some of them just filter it at the gate.

It's the same with other social media; especially Bebo. And yet, when I had a wander through surrounding pages after Rory English's Bebo comments became a story, it struck me that this was a form of media that would be really useful to get kids to discuss. I got the impression that a lot of these kids were behaving as if they were in a private bubble, whereas they were actually on the public internet.

Same with blogs. Our kids start making PowerPoint presentations at intermediate level. But no one talks to them about a medium they're much more likely to actually use. It doesn't take a lot of skill to pimp your MySpace, but wouldn't working with WordPress be useful for Media students?

Even Wikipedia seems problematic. It's much easier to declare it unreliable than to impart some basic skills in assessing the merit of an article -- as the cornerstone of the vital modern ability to scrutinise information online -- and then how and when to edit. I think that's much more useful than faffing about with Second Life (yes, I probably do have a bias against Second Life).

As a result, I've promised to talk to some scholarship students about these things before the end of the school year. I'd also be interested to hear from teachers -- in the comments here, if possible -- about how they're approaching these issues.

I have Been Thinking

After last nights session on Elluminate I fell to thinking about facilitating and communities and this Blog is about what I came up with.

1. To sustain a community there needs to be rules and boundaries that clearly define what a community is. These can start with what the philosophy of the community is and why we meet, why we are a community.
2. There needs to be a clear structure on how to join and leave the community and some process in place that monitors ongoing activities or lack thereof.
3. Once the community starts to develop through warming up exercises, or structured internal community activities then the community can invite or entertain guests, but only with the communities approval. This can be facilitated by the facilitator who should possess expert knowledge as to what can be offered from outside.
4. Have a Plan A, B, C, D to cope with technology failure
5. Community members should be honest in their feedback and processes should be in place to ensure that honesty is met with open discussion.
6. Online meetings should have the same standards as face-to-face interactions. No chatting off the subject, keep to the point, observe time. Facilitate well.
7. These rules should be subject to debate and renegotiation as the community develops.

I came to these conclusions because I feel as though our online learning community has some difficulties.

I looked at the list of members (that is the official members) in the course and at best, 4-5 of the original 15 members take part in the Elluminate sessions and sometimes only 1 or 2. I have not heard much from Kerry, Grant, Debbie, Kevin, Jackie, Danny (I know has left), Gary, or Donna.

As noted last night the Alumni have largely been absent. What happened to them?

To speculate that members have either left or are negative because of lack of motivation or because they are struggling with the material is malicious in that is unsubstantiated rumour.

It is only plain courtesy to ask to join if you are late.

Reflections in Blogs should reflect what a session says, not what has been read around the subject.

Do we have a community philosophy? Do we all buy into the notion that Web 2.0 is a wonderful new tool that is revolutionizing education? Here is an interesting article that looks at how we might apply some critical analysis to our Web2.0 experience http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=47102021.

Do we think that face-to-face teaching is forever doomed to be paternalistic?

Do we all buy into the notion that using the best of all teaching methods is a better way to go?

Here is an interesting link to the world of Virtual Worlds

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/10/digging_deeperyour_guide_to_vi.html

It sums up a lot of my feelings (and frustrations) with this new technology.

The hype is greater than the reality. Here’s a down-home take from a banjo player http://tangiersound.wordpress.com/2007/06/15/digital-folklore/

Some random provocations

In New Zealand broadband is so crap that YouTube, Virtual world, and even some things like Elluminate just don’t work fast and well enough that they cause frustration and therefore are not a viable teaching tool

There is no intellectual rigour with Web 2.0 content. Here is a link to a site which shows some promise in developing effectiveness practices

http://www.sloan-c.org/effective/

Most Bloggers can’t write to save themselves and a large proportion have nothing useful to say (that’s partly why they Blog). Some useful advice

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/writebetter

There is some use for this technology but we should not blindly accept it. What are the organisational factors that have driven us to think this is the next best thing?

Storing a learning tool

Progress?

I have been doing some detective work on what is on offer around the world, online learning wise, in my subject of Psychology.

Here is what I have found!
http://inst.santafe.cc.fl.us/~mwehr/0indexComPsy.htm

which seems to be an interactive course of sorts with a lecture and then online exercises for poeple to do and really self directed learning week by week.

This second one http://psych.hanover.edu/KRANTZ/tutor.html#Learning

is more comprehensive but basically follows the same format as above. A lecture ( most of the content is blocked unless you are online student ) and then a tutorial which is usually some online test or exercise and then a homework assignment and then some reflection on the experience.
I couldn't really get a handle on how this is all assessed but I see there are discussion boards and emails but no mention of Blogs or Podcasts or any of the other things we have been discussing on the course.

My overwhelming feelings are
1) very low tech
2) content is ...... well ----- hard to judge but more pop psych than what you would expect in a psychology course
3) minimal facilitation and feedback from course supervisors
4) what seems to be on site activities that encourage students to see Psychology in action

Any thoughts from course members and have you had a look at what your discipline offers?

Progress?

I have been thinking this last week about Assignment One and what is the best way to go about it. I also have been reading with interest Sarah and David's blogs and what their thinking is shaping up to be.
I think it is extremely hard to completely do away with some face to face interaction course such as Psychology in Occupational Therapy. Ot's are expected to work with people one on one and probably about 75% of their work involves that nebulous 'non-verbal' part of human interaction. This includes the subtle nuances of body language, reading patients fear and joys, seeing an environment and how best the occupational practice might enhance 'occupation'.
I have therefore come to the conclusion that blended delivery is probably the path that I will take. I do, however, have a plan which I will develop through my Wiki http://www.wikieducator.org/Psychology_in_Occupational_Therapy.

I must admit that I am a bit in favour of the 'secret squirrel' approach so I will initially develop some solid ground rules. By this I mean a solid foundation of what are course requirements, what equipment is needed, what level of expertise participants must have with soft and hardware ( I might even have a course pre-requisite). I do this because I still see at eight weeks a number of technical and competence problems surfacing in a group of experienced learners.
Next I will establish a solid line of communication and one central method of conducting the course. At the moment I see nothing that is better than Blackboard ( please someone - enlighten me) but participants will be encouraged to have an individual Blog and to be actively involved in group discussion. Indeed, this will be one of the assessment requirements and I will quantify how much is expected. I will also designate one person who is the central point of contact for course concerns with a guarantee that queries will be responded to within 12 hours in business hours.
Assessment will be at three stages. Stage one will be withing four weeks of the course starting and will essentially consist of an informal assessment of work completed so far. It will not count toward a final mark for the course but will encourage participants to complete by giving guidelines as to what they need to learn, what they have done well, where they may look for resource to help them. I have used such an approach in my face to face teaching and found it to be very successful and appreciated by students.
I will have a clearly defined course structure ( more detail in the Wiki) and although there will be some room for flexibility this will be negotiated with the group. Because I am delivering this course to 40+ students I will have to develop some method to overcome this.

As to the content of the course I will provide resource that will encourage students to develop specialist areas of the Wiki which will form part of their assessment. I will also consider having students rate each member of their small group using a specialist scale of have developed for my face to face classes. Although this usually gives an overly optimistic mark it does encourage active participation.

I still have a ways to go but this is my starting point.

recent surveys

A couple of interesting sites that examine online learning, uptake, and hopes for the future



http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/us_media_Media%20Democracy%20Survey_062507.pdf





and





http://www.nsba.org/site/docs/41400/41340.pdf



which has some answers for some of the discussion that has been going on.

Wiki set up

I have set up a Wiki page about Psychology in Occupational Therapy which I would encourage people to add content and edit. In particular, I am wanting links for the first part of the introduction on orientating people to the content etc. , although additions to other areas would be welcomed.

The image does have meaning!

http://www.wikieducator.org/Psychology_in_Occupational_Therapy#Working_Online