What is your experience of being a learner?

My recent experiences as a formal learner are with distance learning in one form or another. Starting with my Bachelors degree in the late 80’s where I learnt on my own with books, the odd tutorial and summer school but in the main alone. Then there is the MAODE program where I have again learnt at distance but with more regular tutor and peer support via forums. I also completed my PGCE in Further Ed with monthly tutor support and the support of 3 other colleagues that were also taking it in my institution at the time

What tools and resources do you use?

I use the Internet a lot for research. I make use of Diigo (social bookmarking) to bookmark all of my Internet searches. This service also lets you highlight and annotate your bookmarked sites. I use the firstclass forums for Asynchronous discussions with tutor and peers and have also used Elluminate for synchronous discussions. I currently read all of my papers onscreen, and used a PDF reader that allows me to make annotations that the Adobe reader sometimes will not. Annoyingly, neither would work on a couple of the papers in Weeks 21 & 22 (The ESCAR ones). I use my WordPress blog to make notes into Private postings initially and then these are made public if I think they are suitable. I use the external rather than the OU blog for its extra functionality and the fact that it will be available after I finish H800 and my MA.

What are your views on different technologies?

I think it is useful to be able to choose some of the technologies that you use as a student because inevitably you will have your favorites that may not be the same as for others. I can however see that particularly if assessment is involved, the institution needs to have some control over what is used.

Can you think of examples where technology has made a significant difference to the way you learn?

Yes, before being able to use the tools described above, I would have printed everything out, written over the paper based readings (which are not search-able like the notes made in Diigo or using the PDF reader).

Also using a computer to word-process assignments has made a considerable difference to the level I am able to write to. As somebody whose highest ‘English’ qualification was a grade 3 at CSE, I would never have been able to achieve Masters level literacy without the grammar and spelling checker that have improved my written English out of all recognition. I am forever admirable of the efforts of my peers to whom English is not their first language.

Can you think of counter examples where you had a bad experience of a particular technology?

Yes, the e-portfolio used in the first presentation of H808 (eportaro) was not particularly intuitive to use. Also it did not work well without broadband if you were uploading large files and I was still using dial-up at the time. This was particularly annoying as I made a pod cast that I thought was good but had to cut the quality right down to get it to upload before the site timed-out! I do not like doing good work fro nothing!

What did this do to your motivation for learning?

It certainly did not motivate me to make more pod casts for my portfolio!

How did you deal with the situation?

Made sure that file sizes were kept to a minimum and arranged a higher upload limit to the system from work which was not ideal but helped

I was particularly interested in reading this account of the OU deciding to use Moodle as I was responsible for implementing Moodle at my previous institution and it was the fact that the OU were involved that sparked my interest in it. I have also been to a good range of events where I hear of institutions migrating from paid for commercial systems to Moodle and have not heard of anyone going the other way!

The institution I worked for was very small and so the installation was a standard evrsion with a couple of third party extras that included the OU wiki talked about in the paper. I had very few problems or issues but he couple I did have, were quickly solved by posting a question to the Moodle community on the community forums.

Some notes I made whilst reading this paper about the introduction of Moodle as the VLE for the OU

• Extensive interviews revealed a long list of features that could not be satisfied by any available commercial system (p.3).
• Commercial systems that faculty perceive as inflexible can lead to resistance to the adoption of e-learning  (p.3).
• Faculty believing they have more control appears to increase acceptance (p.3).
• Building complete system from scratch was seen as a project that was too large for the available staff resources to achieve (p.3) .
• Open source development seen as a possible solution as with a basic framework in place there  would be less re-inventuing the wheel (p.3).
• Funds relaeased could be re-deployed to enahnce the open source product.(p.4)
• Fundamental change to functionality to allow students to set up their own ad hoc groups and forums is underway which will bring some of the empowerment provide by popular social systems to the LMS. (p.6)
• Giving back what is developed to the Moodle community enhances the partnerships made and integration of OU modifications into core Moodle decreases problems at upgrades.(p.8)
• This can have a downside in that a concensus within the community is required before changes are added to the core. (p.8)
• Lessons from elsewhere used to show others what can be done with LMS to encourage adoption. (p.9)
• Mixture of face to face and online staff development used (p.10).
• Considering recognisition of innovation in e-learning through salary enhancements and changes to promotion procedures (p.10)

Consider to what extent you agree with the arguments Conole makes.

Reflect on your own experience and how technologies have changed the way you do things and how you work. What changes have occurred in your own institution over the last decade in terms of the use of technologies?

Conole makes the point about how e-mail has changed the way in which we communicate in organisations. My early teaching experience was in a very small work-based learning organisation where it was not necessary to use e-mail to carry out day to day communication. I have only been in what is a relatively small FE college for 6 months and have been amazed at how many e-mails fly around the place. It seems that you ask someone a question that I would used to getting an answer about immediately only to hear ‘you’ll have to e-mail me and then I will e-mail you an answer’! Surely in the days before e-mail there were not the same number of paper memos flying around!

I think there is a danger in emphasising the almost ubiquitous access to the Internet, as I have at least one student that does not have any kind of Internet access beyond that which he can use at college. Conole does go on to say that whilst the widening of access to Internet is narrowing the digital divide, the more we institutionalise the use of web-based tools for learning, the deeper this divide becomes for those without access.

I would have to agree with what Conole describes as ‘a fragmentation of voice’ due to the multitude of opportunities to find resources and communicate meaning that there is no longer one definitive source of knowledge in the form of the teacher. It is quite clear form my own experience that learners do not exhibit the skills necessary to to find and validate appropriate sources, so perhaps the shift in emphasis for the teacher should be towards providing students with these skills.

Examples of Web 2.0 tools being used:

Professor at University of Dallas using twitter to, as he describes ‘bring down the walls of the classroom’.

A wiki being used by students of microbiology

The SOS Classroom

With summer school canceled in LAUSD and elsewhere for K-8 students, parents, teachers and students are banding together to Save Our Summer School by using Web 2.0 technology to get resources to the kids who need them most.

Where would you place your own use of mobile devices in comparison with those of the alumni in the paper above? I don’t mean, ‘Do you do more than them, or less?’ After all, they varied considerably. But what are the similarities and differences, and is this connected with the fact that the data for the paper was gathered in 2005?

I would personally concur most with interviewees C and D in a sense that I cannot do without my laptop. I have a PDA but find doing any kind of lengthy work involving the creation or editing of documents too awkward and slow. One thing that I cannot get on with with laptops is the touch-pad so I always carry a small wireless mouse which when plugged in is set up to disable the touch pad. I am not one who recieves e-mial on my mobile as I do not have a contract and any kind of mobile internet to me is just too expensive. At one time, I did share transport with a colleague, and when he was driving, like interviewee E, I used a PDF reader on my PDA to read papers whilst travelling.

Which areas would you explore if you were carrying out research into mobile practices now?

In the paper, the authors suggest that ‘individuals will engage in learning at times when formerly they would have been doing something else; that they will be motivated to learn partly because the devices are attractive; ‘ Being fully aware of how my own FE students are attracted to their mobile divices such as smartphones, iPods etc, I would like to investigatre further whether there is scope to foster the attraction of the use of these devices to better engage my students with their learning.

What kinds of distress do the authors report students experiencing?

Firstly, the students became frustrated with technical problems such as slow Internet connection. Also, some pre-requisites for equipment (web server) and skills required (HTML) for the course were assumed and not communicated to the students.

The students also became frustrated by not knowing what to do in the virtual environment & could not solve the problem,  there were broken links and some materials from f2f presentation transferred to web-based without modification, surely a recipe for disaster!

There were a number of frustration related to the day to day process of completing the course work such as the assignment specifications not being available, and e-mailed or web-based instructions being unclear and open to interpretation. There were also frustrations over the amount of time required to reply to the large number of forum and e-mail posts.

The students also complained of feeling isolated without face to face instruction from the tutor with the lack of direct feedback and immediate help meaning they could not determine expectations

Do you think this kind of experience is common?

Well, I think that it could be, my own experience is only with the OU for my own study. Problems seem to manifest mostly when a course is in the first year of presentation. I must admit it was a bit frustrating at first on H800 when the assignment specifications were not available. There was also problems experienced by most of the students on the first presentation of H808 with the e-portfolio software. I have however never felt isolated.

What recommendations do Hara and Kling have for addressing the problems they have identified?

Firstly they caution against advertising only the virtues of computer mediated distance education, the trade-offs must also be recognised and conveyed. They also point out that it needs to be made clear that despite the importance of the instructor having the necessary skills in the management and use of computer based communication, it is also important that even the skilled instructor is aware of the need to develop new pedagogies as well as different approaches to manage on-line courses

Do you think these kinds of solution are effective?

I think that being aware is a start, however it is only when you actually trey something and learn from the successes and mistakes made that you can really make progress, and that is also true when pushing the boundaries in f2f delivery.

• As you read consider the following questions:
  1. What does Noble see as the motive forces behind the introduction of new technologies in university?
  2. Why does he use the term diploma mill to describe the changes?
  3. Do you think these dire predictions made in 1998 were born out in the following years?
• Post your thoughts on these questions to your tutor group forum. In your forum comments consider how Noble’s article relates to the video you watched about students today.

Noble see commercial interests as the main motive forces behind the introduction of new technologies, for example;

• institutions can make money from re-sale of instructional materials
• institutions can use cheaper less qualified faculty to teach on-line courses
• charge students to access new technology
• receive money from technology providers whose products are used/endorsed

He use the term ‘Diploma Mill’ because in 1959 Robert Reid studied diploma Mills and characterised them as having no classrooms, non-existent or untrained faculty and unethical self-seeking officers. Nobel likens this description to the institutions attempt to replace highly qualified faculty with on-line materials.

I do not think the dire predictions have happened, at least in the UK, although it does seem sometimes as though using technology is being forced down the necks of teaching staff and students. There was certainly evidence in the readings of Block 2 that students do not want on-line presentation of courses to replace f2f instruction. It is also my view, that on-line tuition, if it is to be successful (which I think the OU’s largely is), requires tutors that are more skilled rather than less skilled than their f2f counterparts.

• Consider the overall impression this video creates and jot down your feelings about the student life it portrays.

• Now watch the first minute with the sound turned off.
  1. What images are brought together in the portrayal of the empty lecture theatre?
  2. What message do they convey to you?
• Now watch the video while the students hold up statements and statistics (from 1 minute to approximately 3.30).What message do you take from this sequence?

• Finally, watch the conclusions from the point when the following text appears on screen: ‘Some have suggested that technology can save us …’What message does this conclusion lead you towards?

To me, the video  portrays a slightly depressive view of students that are somewhat disillusioned by the way they are taught in lecture theatres like thene in the film.

It is to me an image of a room where lots of people that want to learn gather together but learn alone. Where is the opportunity to collaborate, discuss and share apart from with your immediate neighbours? What opportunity is there for dialogue between student and teacher?

Statements that jumped out at me where;

1. 18% of teachers know my name-that means 82% don’t!
2. only have the readings completed and only a quarter are relevant to life
3. is 8 good books or 2300 web pages better? and as for face book profiles!
4. Hey, wake up, you’ll need to multitask, particularly if you teach!
5. If the job being graduated for is not there yet, how is the degree relevant?

My final thoughts are that technology alone cannot and will not save us, learning how to use it properly and wisely to learn collaboratively with others could make a difference.

1. Utility and ease of use are key factors in the appreciation of ICT tools provided by the course
2. The relevance of ICT tools to the work context can fuel study commitment
3. ICT elements in courses introduce a practical element into study, which is much valued by students
4. Online study methods are valued where they support students’ feelings of control and being able to make progress
5. ICT tool usage can help to connect study with application to practice in the workplace
6. Students’ different work contexts influence their attitudes towards the ICT in their course.

As you read each vignette, look out for statements illustrating each of the six themes.

Vignette A: There is clear evidence here that the ICT tools on the CISCO course provide a practical element which allows students to practice what they would do in real work situations.  The student clearly says he can apply what he learns to real equipment. It is also clearly evident that the use of the ICT tools has fueled this students enthusiasm for his studies and he seems to like the way that the online tools allow him to control what he learns and when he learns it.

Vignette B: In this vignette, although the ICT has been integrated into the social work course so that students can learn to use it in ways that a social worker would use it, the student does not seem to like doing the IT activities. It seems to me, that although she admits to having learned from it, because she has a busy work life, she seems to begrudge the time spent on this part of the course as she thinks she is already quite IT literate.. It seems that she would rather spend the time on the social work side of the course and sign up for a separate IT course. It might be that she could be disappointed with this option as a separate IT course would likely have generic content that would have no relationship to how a social worker would use IT.

What do these vignettes suggest about the importance of the student’s work when designing courses where ICT plays a key role?

Pay attention to how ICT relates to work experience and vice versa, how (if at all) applying learning to work influences the study process, and so on.

These vignettes suggest top me that if you can make technology use relevant to a students work context, it can in some cases encourage student engagement and enhance their experience. This is particularly the case, if like in the first vignette, the student can carry out work that is directly transferable to a real work context. However, it is also evident that the students initial experience as well as their workload should be taken into account where possible to ensure that they do not have to carry out work they see as unnecessary or irrelevant to that which they want or need to learn.

The board

First of all, the chairman and chief executive have resigned. This to me was inevitable, something had to change at the very top. I don’t have anything specifically to say about these two people other than they just did not do enough to make a difference.

Players

First of all, Marshall has gone, Croft is going and possibly Hoolihan. Marshall was good in spells, but is definitely not anywhere near the best keeper we have had over the years. The only pity is that Joe Lewis was offloaded by Roeder before he had an opportunity in the first team. We could do with him next season. Croft won player of the season almost by default. does not score many goals and the final ball is more often useless than effective so no great loss there. As far as Hoolihan goes, if we can get Alan Lee as part of a swap deal the GO AND DO IT BRIAN, he is just the type of player we will need in league 1.

The last comment on players is related to the lady who after the Charlton game said that she would be sending her season ticket rebate money back because the club need the money. They won’t be getting mine back, the players were over paid for what they put in front of us this season, let them pay some money back!

Management team

In principle, I have nothing against Brian Gunn being given a chance to get us back up. I only have one worry. Brian is a legend as far as I and many supporters are concerned and I would hate to see him vilified should things go wrong next season.

Mike

the strengths and weaknesses of the different methodologies

I am not really experienced with widespread research data collection, but I think the strengths of the different methods of gathering the learner voice are;

The online or paper based surveys allow a lot of information to be gathered that can give numerical comparisons between users that differ in gender, area of focus, age, discipline etc. It can also, if used year on year as in the case of the ECAR study, give information about trends in technology use and give an indication of emerging technologies. The strength focus groups to obtain qualitative data allows the researchers to get a more detailed view of why a particular technology is or is not used and for what reasons. It’s main weakness for me is that it is likely to be more time consuming to evaluate and provide realistic comparisons. The strength of the audio logs were definitely their immediacy. They are likely to give a very realistic snapshot of the learners feelings at the time the technology is being used. One weakness of their widespread use could be that some students who might have a lot to offer the research, might be uncomfortable with recording their thoughts for others to hear. A similar thing could be said for the video diaries which also seem to present a more reflective and rehearsed log from a student than does the audio log.

your views on the findings and your views on the implications, including for your own practice

I have to say, I was not particularly surprised by the main findings. It is patently obvious to me from observing my own FE students that they like to keep in touch using SNS or Instant messaging. In fact, their obsession with these sides is often distracting to the learning that they need to do. This was in a way supported by Laura’s video when she said that the videos and CD’s in her study/bedroom often proved to be a distraction. It also does not surprise me that they do not use these methods in general to contact academic staff. I would be surprised, if any of my students used Facebook et al for learning in the first place, let alone keep in contact with me and my colleagues although I do know that some teachers in the college use it. What is definitely not surprising is students reporting that they do not use the institution’s VLE   because the teachers do not go there. If teachers do not regularly update the information and answer any questions there, then why should the students bother.

Mike