For all out there who think that they are over the whole e-learning thing!
A dear friend of mine has told me she is so excited as she is going to get a computer–a lap top at that !
She is 89.
She has rearranged the furniture so that it will be handy.
So next time you get annoyed, impatient, cranky etc. spare a thought for my friend.
Palloff, Rena M. & Pratt, Keith, 2001, “Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom: The Realities of Online Teaching”’ Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
Watkins, R., 2005, “Preparing Learners for online success”, Learning Circuits
I have found that the reading byPalloff and Pratt (2001) which was written in 2001 is dealing far more with the learning styles online and how they can change fromface to face instruction. There is an assumption that if the teachers decide to run an online course that the student will automatically know how to follow. This has not been the case as most students have sat and been taught to. It is very hard to encourage students in a collaborative environment. One word that is cropping up is ‘motivation’ as stated by Palloff and Pratt(2001) that it includes decision making styles, values, and emotional preferences. This processing and transfer of information can take new learning styles for this to be carried out. Motivation in an isolation can be very hard to find,as students are expected to take responsibility for their own learning. A students’ attitude towards the subject being taught can impress upon the discipline required to achieve the results. Teacher awareness is paramount to the success rate of an online course.
I was interested to read that the majority of students are older and working so this theory of only younger students embracing the e-learning is completely changed. Does this bring about more reflective learning as suggested? Because there is more time in an online situation to sit back and reflect, then this in itself brings far deeper thinking and so the learning style changes again.
The reading by Watkins (2005) being more current, finds a similar set of issues. He refers to the transfer of skills in the e-learning capacity in whether a student is technologically savvy to be able to participate. Adapting old skills to new. The design of e-learning courses so that a student does not feel unable to participate due to lack of technology but more to the use of what is readily available to them in the way of emails, the internet, chat rooms and such. this encourages the student to be far more interactive in their learning without the pressure of face to face confrontations. the quiet student in a classroom environment can become quite ‘noisy’ in an e-learning environment.
Watkins (2005) recommends a ‘readiness survey’ so that the student can self assess, so that they monitor their own ability. This can also be a little daunting for the student who may not want to admit inability to grasp new technology and so may hold back from a course thinking they are not good enough and this leads to lack of motivation.
I am MULTIMODAL.
This definately reflects on how I learn and teach as I try to fit with what is being delivered. My weblog layout i cannot see reflects this at all but there may be hidden clues that I am not aware of.
I like what I have chosen for my short course as it is functinal and will be used. It will push me into the ‘accomodator’ realm as I will have to do the trial and error. That will be my only hold back, as I am by nature not a risk taker.
I tend to be a bit of a mixture of styles. I tend to find that I am a converger as I do like to to have a solution to a problem, but I am also aware of the meanings and values of alternatives so this makes me a bit of a diverger. Sometimes I take on too much information and suffer from ” not seeing the forest for the trees” so this makes me a bit of an assimilator. I don’t think I am much of an accommodator as I dont take too many risks.
In e-learning this hesitancy to use trial and error is something that holds me back as I have to force myself to be adventurous. Whether this comes from an era of education where we are worried about breaking something and then ‘how much will it cost to fix?’
Other areas I have no problem with except that by wanting a resolution of a task I spend too much time on one thing when I put my mind to it.
I have just been reading the comments on the wiki and am sorry I didn’t go for more. I reead Pete’s and was very impressed. I think my wiki is just about wiki-ed out as we have been at this degree for two and a half years. At this stage I think that most are counting the days as I know that I am. I have enjoyed the experience and hope to expand a little more,
I have decided to do a course on learning Italian. Many years ago I worked mainly with Italians and would like to do some visiting of that beautiful country when I have finished this degree.
The course will give me conversational Italian which will be an advantage when not only visiting Italy but as it is a Latin language I will have some idea when I visit other countries like Spain etc.
This course should take me the full 4 hours if not more as I was trying to see if there was a timeline but there isn’t.
I have the advantage of working in Petersham so it is only across Parramatta Rd from Leichhardt so I will hopefully be able to practice a little. Oh no! Does that mean I will have to eat Italian more often and I thought I was going to lose weight!
Ciao, Ciao.
this has been an interesting opportunity to work with the rest of the team. I have found that we basically all think along the same lines and once the ball starts rolling we just want to get moving with it. I have discovered for myself that there are definate opportunities with it to have group work as long as there is respect of others efforts. The respect within this team has been a pleasure to work with. Other peoples ideas about how they are going to incorporate e-learning into their work and what PD they have had till now. One of the team talked about training with the det portal and I would like to add that our institute at present has a part time CLAMS help desk, which in regards to our wiki was one of the things that came up in my article was the ’support’. We are trying to be proactive by keeping up with technology but the organization is not supporting our teaching strategies. We struggle to make our lessons as interesting as possible but at one stage there was not even a lap top in our college to attach to a light pro to deliver a power point presentation. What hope do we have?
Why didn’t I get to this sooner? That will teach me to do as the teacher says!
This reading brings to the attention the problems faced with open and distance learning. Where most think it is a good idea there hadn’t been a great deal of evaluation of these methods. Some of the issues that she writes about are what we are facing.
(I was trying to check all dates of this reading as it was kindly printed for me.)
The resource availability is directly linked to the cost of implementation. In TAFE, the separate departments other than IT find that they have to fight tooth and nail to be adequately funded for the required resources.
On top of the resources it is another hurdle to jump to get staff development funded. I realise that different institutes work independantly but some are quite mean with funding when it comes to SD. This directly links to the organizational aspect of problems.
This directly links to the wiki that we are doing on ‘trainer readiness’ as some teachers in TAFE will not move out of their comfort zone when it comes to new innovations.
‘The tried and true has always worked for the last umpteen years, so why not now?’
Once over these initial set up problems Robinson then addresses one of the more ongoing issues of ‘expertise and technical support’.This is linked in the reading with the design of the project being a successful learning experience for the student.
One can only hope that we keep up with the innovation of new technology and accept the change and mould it to what suits us.
what a great surprise to find that when I got home that I am now the proud owner of a flat screen monitor! Won’t I be able to work wonders now!
I have found once again that the time factor has been the biggest issue. I think that all are time strapped. Hopefully that by the time that the holidays are up I will be able to catch up. It is a different mindset that takes a bit of adjusting to. I have not explored the whole wiki thing as yet and I am sure that it will be a good learning tool given half a chance.
