podcast review - activity for H808

Review of Caroline's Podcast about online collaboration but with a slightly different slant - some thoughts on improving online collaboration.

http://leung.podbean.com/mf/web/k9bf4i/CarolineLeungH808podcastonimprovingonlinecollaboration.mp3

· Sound quality – could it be improved?

I had no difficulties with the sound quality. When I compared with my own, Caroline has managed to avoid too much ‘hiss’ on sibilants – very nice quality I thought.

· Broadcast quality – is the podcast well-constructed and intelligible?

Very good. Caroline had obviously planned this carefully, including reference to some wider reading. It flowed very well and was easy and pleasant to listen to.

· Suitability – does it meet the needs of the intended audience?

Yes, the fact that Caroline was basing part of the podcast on an activity which we had all undertaken meant that any H808 student or tutor would find this a suitable topic. In addition, others would be equally likely to find the topic matter of interest.

· Length – is it of an appropriate length for the subject and the intended audience, or too long or too short?

Just right, I felt.

· Interest – does it engage the listener?

Caroline has a very pleasant voice which maintained interest.

· Academic quality – is it based on research and argument, or on opinion?

Caroline was using both her own experience as a student and as a lecturer as data so it could be termed anecdotal research. She made it clear that the podcast contained her own opinions and justified these with reference to well known and accredited authors.

· Suggestions for improvement – if it was possible to improve it, how could it be altered to better suit the needs of the audience?

This is a general comment and not really related to Caroline’s podcast at all: I felt that if each podcast on the course wiki had been accompanied with a short paragraph and perhaps a picture of the speaker, this would make it ‘feel’ a little more like the ones which we are asked to listen to as part of the course – such as the introductory podcasts.

· Suggestions for use – if were to be part of an information source for practitioners, what brief notes would you put on the site to place the podcast in context?

I thought that this would make a great rationale for the collaborative aspect of H808 and could be used (with Caroline’s permission of course) for future course descriptors.

Uses of blogs in education - activity for course H808

Educational blogs

1. Sharing resources or teaching and learning materials

Blogs are used by educators at all levels as a means of sharing resources or teaching ideas – a kind of extended staff or senior common room where conversation can take place about new ideas, ‘what went well’, or learning styles.

Blogs are basically one way communications – unless they are designed with the aim of attracting comments from others. They can be publicised, for example through social networking sites, and they can be designed with key words which will make them more likely to be found in internet searches.

Dan Roberts’ blog http://chickensaltash.edublogs.org/ is an excellent example of sharing ideas and innovations globally.

2. Informal publication of educational research

Even for academics who have a good record of publication in books and peer reviewed journals, blogs provide a means of getting their research published very easily and with a wide audience. For those who have yet to build a publication record, or who do not wish to do so in the traditional way, blogs provide an ideal platform.

There are possible concerns about intellectual ownership. However, I would suggest that plagiarism can take place in any format. It could be argues that it might be harder to detect in an online setting. Similarly, like any other critique, the research credentials of the author would need to be checked.

A good example is the blog by Mark Elliott which links to his doctoral thesis on stigmergic collaboration. http://mark-elliott.net/blog/?p=55

3. Informal publication of personal views and opinions

Like any diarist, going back to Samuel Pepys, the blogger is one who wants to share her/his opinions with a wider audience. The huge advantage of blogs is that followers can get e-mail alerts when a new post is made and thereby keep up to date with the diarist’s latest thoughts. As for both of the earlier two categories, the diary format can be designed to encourage comments, or not, as desired.

The blog as publication method means that costs or rejections are things of the past. However, it is important to take all that one reads with extra care since there are no quality assurance measures in place apart from the software owner’s rights in terms of unsuitable material.

There are very many that I would have liked to use in the category. I have decided to use Steve Wheeler’s since I find some resonance with many of his views. http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/

4. Personal study or learning logs

This is certainly how I began my use of blogs and I would recommend it to any student for several reasons. It is a simple way of practising writing with an opportunity for informal peer review. I believe that writing is one of the hardest skills for students at any level to develop; this is particularly true of academic writing. Secondly, a blog can be accessed from anywhere in the world, eliminating the need for notebooks or even laptop computers. A final bonus for me has been the chance to crystallise my thoughts and use the feedback and comments to help improve my critical thinking skills.

I have also used blogs as a means of encouraging discussion between students both at High School and post-graduate level. I am convinced (via my own anecdotal evidence over several years) that students who get into good habits of learning logs (paper based or online) develop higher order skills like metacognition and go on to achieve better results.

A good example is Alice Kerly’s blog http://allies-in-elearning.blogspot.com/ . Alice is a fellow H808 student.

General issues with blogs

Blogs are relatively easy to set up and there are quite a few free websites where the necessary software can be downloaded and customised. Ethical and internet safety are the two main areas of concern with using blogs. This is particularly the case where teachers set them up for young students to use. However, they can be made private access only and, of course, normal safeguarding measures should always be followed, as should any ethical standards, such as permission to cite from a blog. It can be very time consuming to maintain blogs, although they tend not to need as much housekeeping as, say, a wiki.

using wikis for reflective practice

In this podcast for the Open University course H808 'The eLearning Professional', I will talk about how we used wiki technology in my school in an effort to encourage reflective practice amongst school teachers.

I refer to an article in Education Today Vol 59 no. 3 pp 25-28 by me and also to our oublic wiki www.splatshs.wetpaint.com The original wiki which I talk about in the podcast was a private wiki for school staff only.

I would welcome comments on the SPLAT wiki or on the podcast.

podcast for H808

first try at a podcast

phew this took ages - hope it works

What inspires us to learn?

I have just been reading this great blog post from Andrew Green-Howard aka @charlie1312 and it really made me think about why I love to learn. I have commented on the blog but I think I'll re-state that comment here (with improved spelling):

We had a public speaking competition at school recently where a 13 year old beat all comers up to age 19 with his talk about why our students in the west don’t want to come to school, and – exactly as you have written – in other countries they walk miles for the privilege. What’s the solution? How do we make learning seem to be the privilege?

Last evening my mother-in-law (an ex primary teacher, UK) asked what or who had inspired me to go so far with my education and why I still feel the need to keep studying well into my cough cough -ties. I gave it just a little thought and then said, ‘my parents’. Dad was a scholarship grammar school boy from the East End of London who took me to the library every Saturday that I can remember. We didn’t have lots of possessions but boy were there a lot of books in our house – mostly from the library. Mum left school at 14 to help look after all the younger siblings but never failed to praise and support me – even when I didn’t do so well. Neither was there when I graduated with my EdD but both my big brothers were – one flying several thousands of miles for the weekend!

Recently I interviewed a year 12 boy to join our school. He had come from Poland. His father asked me why, in the UK, education is only prized for the job it can get you and not for its own sake. I couldn’t answer him and felt sad.

What’s the solution – I just don’t know – but as long as lots of keep looking we’re sure to find it some day.

I've been thinking some more and I am wondering why it is that I just love to learn. When did that happen? Well it certainly wasn't upper most in my mind during late teens and early twenties, if I am honest - umm parties were more interesting generally. Yet even then it was true that I didn't study with career development in mind, I did it because it seemed that was what I was meant to do. In other words, I was fulfilling an expectation. At first that expectation was probably based on my parents' expectations for me - later it became internalised.

Something I've been asked a few times is whether or not I have gained qualifications in order to get promotion - well I don't suppose they've hindered me but, again, no this was not the prime reason.

I think somewhere along the line learning became a passion. Maybe it was teaching others that gave me that passion to learn. Maybe it's a chicken and egg kind of thing.

Any comments gratefully accepted.

What have I learned in 2009?

At the risk of starting a bit like A Tale of Two Cities: It’s been a long year and yet it’s passed very quickly.

Just as a reminder I have very diverse roles in life (it keeps me young thinking, I hope): I am a Deputy Head Teacher in a comprehensive school in an outer London borough (this includes a role as Professional Development manager), I teach on the Masters and EdD programme for the Open University, I study with the Open University for my second MA, I have a family to look after and some writing/research to do.

In January 2009, I was looking forward to enhancing my knowledge of e-Learning with an Open University course H809. Little did I realise that this would lead to blogging and Twittering like – especially as I had only an inkling of what these even were! I had been dabbling with wikis for High School students and teachers for some time but these took off in a big way and I even ended up having a short article published in Education Today about using wiki technology to assist reflective practice for school teachers. I ran a workshop about this at the EdD residential weekend in July and have just been asked to run a workshop on the same topic at a conference at the Institute of Education next February.

I have gone on to study another Open University course which looks predominantly at the use of ePortfolios for teachers at all levels. This has been a challenging course, not least because of the online collaboration we were asked to so. It has helped me to restructure my own Masters level online forum and has led to greater participation levels on that.

That’s mainly about my study opportunities.

I have learned some other truths this year. I’ll call them truths although we all know that truth is elusive and possibly a personal perspective on reality. I have struggled with why some people feel they have little left to learn and with my role in that. On the positive side, I have been thrilled with the people (aged between 11 and 80 approximately) who have taken on new ideas and even run with sharing these with others – especially some of my younger colleagues at school.

I have learned the joy of achievement – even at my age.

At home, I have learned that one’s family do best when not nagged or goaded – actually I’ve learned that before and will probably learn it again.

It’s been a good year.

What have you learned?

The sustainability of learning

How many of you know someone who is self-employed (sorting out their own National Insurance etc.)? Here is something funny I read recently about being self-employed:

The problem with running your own business is that you have to be your own boss and your own disgruntled employee...

Yes, you end up having some pretty interesting conversations with yourself... "Why isn't this done yet?" "b***y authoritarian..." ( @englishraven )

It’s not the same but it made me start to think about being responsible for your own learning at any stage. I started asking myself some questions:

• What did you learn today?
• What did you learn yesterday?
• What did you learn last week?
• What have you learned this year?

Learning lessons can cover all sorts of areas in our lives of course.

It’s taken me a long time but I’ve learned that there are some people in the world who just don’t think that they need to learn any more. Some arrive at this point in their lives earlier than others – it’s not about age or the amount of time you’ve spent doing a thing.

I’ve been forced to teach myself some things – only to find I needn’t have bothered (for example when critical path analysis was put into the Maths GCSE syllabus a few years back, so I taught myself how to deliver it, only for it to be taken off again a couple of years later).

There are some things which, to be honest I just never got around to learning:

• how to keep score at cricket “oh sorry, don’t know how to do that”
• how to drive the school minibus “oh sorry, haven’t passed that test”
• how to programme a video recorder – if I miss a TV programme it’s not that big a deal, and anyway i-player came along!

I think if you were to take a cross section of me, it would probably say ‘teacher’ right through like a stick of rock candy. I also love to learn new stuff, despite what I’ve said above. If someone, anyone, shows me something I didn’t know, that’s fascinating for me. Sometimes, people say that I have an overactive imagination. Sometimes people ask me how come I still have so much to learn when I am already well qualified.

In my opinion, a good teacher must have a passion for learning – when that goes then it really is time to stop. I am prepared to have folks argue with that opinion. After all, perhaps it is my responsibility as a professional development leader to keep reigniting that passion amongst teachers. What do you think? Am I fighting a losing battle with some people or should I battle on?

last few blog posts as wordle

quick reflection on online collaboration

Please see post below about synchronous and asynchronous collaboration as well.

This is just a brief description of how my study group went about our collaborative task to produce a presentation summarising the principles of eLearning using some case studies.

1. We shared the reading of the case studies and presented notes on the course wiki.
2. We voted for the two case studies we would concentrate on
3. We agreed the key principles through discussion on our online forum.
4. We set up a new wiki with a page per person to look at one key principle each using the case studies as examples of practice in that area.

The discussion threads on the wiki enabled us to comment on each other's work and then our chosen leader summarised and generally tidied up.

On reflection, we could have used some of the other wiki features - perhaps next time.