brain fizz on e-learning

I found this great website by Educational Broadcasting Corporation. It is an American educational organization therefore it’s discusses inquiry based learning from the perspective of American education. It is quite thorough when it comes to describing the characteristics, goals and application of inquiry based learning whilst maintaining plain english language – that’s to say it is easily understood. Makes for a great change from reading academic articles!

Interestingly I was not far off with my last post hypothesis of what this unit may be about. In short it deals with a constructivist approach to learning. So, I hear you ask. What is constructivism? Good question! I’m going to have to refresh my understanding and dust of the educational bible by Kerri Krause – Educational Psychology. From what I remember constructivism in a quasi nutshell is:

Learning happens within the learner
Learner comes with their own prior knowledge and understandings and experiences
Learners construct understanding and build on understandings and knowledge
Learner connect new understandings with existing knowledge and understandings
Information processing model

OK gone blank!like I said in a nutshell…I know there is much more to this learning theory than what I have said and inquiry based learning is one part, or segment to this.

The challenge is to go home and dust of edu psych and read up on constructivism, information processing model and connectivism…and any other ism I have forgotten about.

I have enrolled to start a Masters of Education starting March next year. The unofficial core unit is understanding educational inquiry and probably correlates to a group of contemporary learning theories which are most probably based on a student centered approach. I look forward to conducting some preliminary research on the Internet and will arrange to talk to some staff at work who I know has completed the unit. It will be good to get a heads up on what the underpinning focus is and of course it would be good to get an idea of what is required for assessment.

How fantastic I managed to pick a workshop that was the perfect lead from the previous key note speaker (moodleman) who talked about PLN.

Blackall starts with a presentation setting the background through anecdote.

He continues by sitting with the group and kicking of a discussion about the value of networks, information, content, copyright and the idea of open content/learning.

Discussion on the power struggle between a contemporary teaching practice which values the power of the global community and the teachers whom struggle with outside the box.

How does open content work in an institutiion/organization ?

How do we deal with public in an institution/organization?

Talking about life long learning and student centered approach addressing the students needs.

Talking about national structure to education, national value of education,

We arrived late at the Tassie e day due to the fact we got lost in the maze of UTAS.

Key note speaker Julian ( moodleman) kicks off the full day event with showcasing his own tweetdeck and observes how crazy it is that of all places the uni lecture hall does not have Internet access.

Bridging the digital divide – creating an effective PLN online ( personal learning network)

Julian is talking about something which I feel strongly about. It’s a way of working and philosophy. Using a network of educational professionals and others to help support our own education/learning. If we as teachers are embracing this way of working, collaborating and bouncing of each other then we example a way of working/learning for our students.

We are talking about connections, social learning and it’s not limited by country, location, specialization, culture or race. We are all there to help each other for the love of simply supporting one another.

In the past and certainly before technology this was achieved face to face, family, friends, church and who lived in your community. Books then helped if you were privy to know how to read or write, then came media and now the world wide web which allows us to connects with all the prior mentioned and much more. It can become a global connection of people.

It relys on you engaging and contributing to the community on a regular basis.

Julian says that PLN on currency, relevancy,

Shifting and chagging world of knowledge – how does modern teaching practice keep up?

Julian effectively talks about a teaching and learning toolkit.

Julian talks about the stages of a pln. 1= barrage of information ( overwhelming, don’t want to leave it, may miss something)

2=evaluating what’s out there, which ones are relevant

Very interesting and entertaining workshop.

3=know it all,

4=perspective. I control it. It becomes a part of your toolkit. Apart of the way you work.

5= balance

24/7 learning

So today is the third interaction I have had with the LMS Moodle.

When I first had a play with the platform it was a few years ago at an e-Gems conference at UTAS. Initially I was not impressed. I didn’t like the action icons and I hated the scroll down also known as toilet paper. The uni also had very slow network access which made the experience even more frustrating. Hence the second meeting I had with Moodle was only a few days ago.

Fortunately a learning leader spent the time taking me through a course he built and customized with a CSS stylesheet. The look and feel was beautiful and it appeared very web based like. He demonstrated the different levels of access, the customizing that can be done and the views. I still think that it is a complicated process of admin rights pages and editing processes, however the look, navigation and customization coupled with the ability to plug in other applications out weigh the inevitable in-depth of professional development required to build courses.

So yesterday was my third encounter and actual meaningful play with Moodle. I enjoyed the fact I could customize the template of Moodle to suit the learning platform. It has been advised that most of the trainers (anita’s) experience was with the Topics format, however I became more interested in the fact I could choose a social format.

So what does the social format mean for a Moodle course. Well mostly forum discussions. However the neat thing is that the forum discussion topics can be initiated or created by students. This means somewhat the holy grail of online courses may or could be addresses. Student centered discussion based peer learning.

What I am trying to say is that with online courses it can be difficult to move towards a enriched facilitated participated in online space. A lot of the time we create an online course, stick content up, add links maybe we add some audio and video content we may even splurge and create interactive games based activities.

Wow…so I am now using a life scribe pen. This is a smart pen which records what I write and can also record audio.

I had a meeting with health services north and while I took notes I also recorded our conversation. When I got back to my office I uploaded into the live scribe software and I can digitally look at my notes while listening to the recording. Not to myself – don’t be so passionate – I can come across so forceful. More questioning techniques and don’t lead the discussion.

You need a special notebook to write on and the pen is not cheap, but well worth it.

So there is a technology blackout. I am not able to access my works network and I witness a mass exodus of teaching staff leaving the campus siting ‘can’t work therefore I must go home’…well not quite, I think everyone has gone for a coffee, but where does it leave us when the network is down, power is out and…on a freezing day taboot.

So I am sitting in my very dark office, clicking away on an iPad, posting to my blog because…let’s face it. I have some free time.

I got this iPad last week and I have had three days and a weekend to see how I can use this technology in my work practice and to also brainstorm how teachers may use it for learning.

Well… I’m still at work, while everyone around me has all but disappeared. This must be a big tick for the iPad on an organizational perspective. Because it has not stopped me from working.

I love the darn thing. Just the other day I was sitting with a teacher observing an induction to the webct online course. The teacher noticed a few things that were not working and as she directed the student to something else, I went onto the trusty iPad and started to troubleshoot in the course. A few minutes later the teacher was able to demonstrate the links that were previously not working. All due to the fact I could get the job done on the iPad.

I must say though there were some limitations. It looks like the iPad does not like java. It would not let me edit content in the wysiwyg editor. But that I can live with.

I theorize the teachers use of the iPad. As a mobile device for induction face 2 face for students, to keep in touch with posts in discussions and comment on them more redly. To post a result just after they have met with a student to discuss the submission. To troubleshoot broken links in the course and re-establish them. To conduct mobile assessments. To use in class with small groups, maybe an elearning interactive game.

And….what about me…it is still dark in here and I can not get access to the network, so I am still plugging away. On this iPad, and having fun. I might toddle away now and do some research on leadership on my iPad and post onto that blog…

This morning Chris and I sat down to have our first play on the Smartboard. First things first – we had to download the Notebook software onto our computers. Luckily Chris had a mac book which meant we could test the smartboard on both the Windows and Mac operating systems.

It was not long before I realised that I would need an updated version of the Notebook software – a version which was operable on the Windows 7 platform. Luckily my computer combine with quick wireless Internet access enabled me to download and install the latest version.

After an initial 1 hour of troubleshooting, turning computers on and off it was Chris and the Mac notebook that started the ball rolling. Firstly we had to configure the board, which took around 10 seconds. Then we had a discovery session looking at what the tools were and how we could use them. It was amazing how engaging the Smartboard was. Once all the technology boundaries were overcome, any issues we had to start with were long forgotten. Chris came prepared with a gamut of resources including interactive e-games.

It was not long before a colleague of Chris’s walked in. I could see the excitement in her face as Chris demonstrated some of the features. It was not log before the colleague was picking up a pen and trying out the tools for herself. She disappeard soon after only to return with the rest of the team in toe. They all wanted a quick look at what the smartboard could do. Of course Chris showed off her snakes and ladders literacy game.

It was time to pack up, but I was intent on staying until I had got the Smartboard working on my windows notebook. After the installation of the updated software the configuration was a breeze, all was working well.

Next thing for Chris and I to do now is become familiar with the Notebook software and the tools of the Smartboard. We need to become gurus in all things to do with smartboard.

Today I had a meeting with a teacher. We were discussing how her newly designed simulated environment – model office was going. I wanted to get an insite in how this project came about, what the goals were, what they did, how they implemented it and how it is being evaluated.

Well the conversation led into a completly deep and new level of understanding. Here I am wondering if they had achieved the goals of engagement, simulated office environment, knowledge building, making connections and constructing their own learning…yada yada yada…to the students demonstrating self motivation, accountability and responsibility for their own learning, applying the knowledge build to a deeper level – almost changing and defining some students maturity.

omg could this be really working. Your probably thinking about now – ah yeh so what – they are taking responsibility for their own learning – my five year old does that in Kinder! but read a snipet of the case study I am writting and hopefully you will be as excited as I am about what type of environment this teacher has created…

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A situation arose where the teacher could not show up for class. Students had not been previously notified therefore they turned up to the face to face class as usual. Previously when situations like this occur, students usually leave. This time it was different. Instead of leaving, the students accessed a staff member and requested the room to be unlocked and available to them. They then proceeded to turn on the computers and go about their day as if they had arrived at work. They accessed the model office and continued on with the class program with no teacher.

Somewhere along the line students were now driven by their own intrinsic motivation to learn. They were taking responsibility and accountability of their own learning, a sense of ownership. Somewhere along the way the teacher stopped being at the centre and the students put themselves at the centre. On this day it was not important that the teacher was not there, the importance rested in the fact they could access the room and equipment as usual and they could access the model office in the same way they had been doing previously.

All of a sudden they are applying the very employability skills they are learning about…and then some. In addition they are acquiring the life long skills of taking responsibility for their own learning and applying initiative. They are applying the learning and knowledge they have built through past lessons.

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and it goes on and on but this is a great significant event for us in our org and us in our State – especially when our government is spending millions of $ to address retention rates for post year 10.