In the other blogs posts, I have summarized my insights on each topic. 

The ONL course has given me confidence to navigate in the digital world of learning and pushed my boundaries beyond what I could have ever imagined.  The topic on creative commons licences was new to me but helped me understand sharing of IP on the web.  Before this topic, I wasn’t sure on issues of infringing copyright and how to go about it. 

The course required a good commitment of time and I had to be highly organized.  Thanks to the digital world and resources, it did not require being in a specific physical place so long as I had wifi and a good laptop for connection.  This is the beauty of online learning.

Am now in a position of designing online and blended learning and all that goes with it.  I have shared my experiences with colleagues at work and a number are ready to join the September iteration.

This was an interesting topic and I was looking forward to learning new tools and methods of developing online and blended learning.  To my surprise the module contained topics that I had had in mind but never quite separated conceptually.  The social presence, the cognitive and the teaching presence. These three are important for a meaningful educational experience.  I had always taken for granted the emotional presence but never quite categorized it as so important.  The video got me thinking how important this dimension was; it is easier to visualize it in face to face learning and how many times I had been aware of it.  It’s a challenge to factor it in online and blended learning, yet we must do so because of the role it plays in the educational experience.

On of my group members introduced the ABC method of blended learning and I found it fascinating. It maps the face to face traditional way of teaching and online learning; what elements are contained in one or the other and how to transpose it to online learning which now becomes a blended learning.  This made me appreciated the PBL method of collaborative learning. Using this method, one can design an online blended learning. This is what am reflecting about and how to change all my courses using this method.

On the issue of engagement with learners, the assessment triad approach is accessible and is one that I will try out during my teaching albeit the scarce resources in my environment. There is always a way that one can circumvent the situation.

This is a module I found very useful to improve my delivery of course material and move away from the purely traditional face to face learning.

This was topic 3 that proved an initial challenge to get deep into the subject matter.  Due to change in time zones I missed the webinar and the tweet chat (this latter due to the late hour).  I later accessed the recording twice but it was not the same as attending the synchronous event. This made group work even more challenging, hence my blog this time be winding.

However, the guided resources were an interesting read and watch.

In a collaborative learning environment, the learners, or shall I call them students, do not come with empty ideas or knowledge.  Each comes with some knowledge to share and exchange with the rest and in the process, grows in knowledge in areas that perhaps one would not have thought of.  To quote from one paper, Learners are not passive receptacles but are active in their process of knowledge acquisition as they participate in discussions, search for information, and exchange opinions with their peers. Knowledge is co-created and shared among peers, not owned by one particular learner after obtaining it from the course materials or instructor. The learning process creates a bond between and among learners as their knowledge construction depends on each other’s contribution to the discussion. Hence, collaborative learning processes assist students to develop higher order thinking skills and to achieve richer knowledge generation through shared goals, shared exploration, and a shared process of meaning making (Brookfield, 1995; Christiensen & Dirkinick-Holmfeld, 1996; Jonassen, Davidson, Collins, Campbell, & Haag, 1995; Palloff & Pratt, 2005). This passage clearly explains what we went through in our group.  I realized that at one time, I was lost but had something to contribute to the group.  When we had group discussions, my thoughts and ideas were clarified, and refocused back to the theme; outcomes were important as well as the processes; but how does one go through the process? The role of the instructor here is certainly necessary to keep us on track. 

I do not have a PLN and I had never thought about this concept, but doing this course, my mind is shaping to many new aspects of PLN. So first, I want to develop it and see how it moves forward.   Am thinking of subscribing to kay’s blog to learn more about it.

So far so good in use of new technologies.  I can only use so many……As I said before, I registered in twitter but do not ask me how I have faired so far… dismally.  Of course, I have learnt to use Vt, canva (not too successful yet), coggle which I like very much but still I have to get proficient in it.  I will keep it thus far; no more. Am looking forward to next week’s topic. 

This topic got me engaged as I had to study newer concepts in depth on licenses resources.  I have never reflected on what openness would mean to me in my teaching and in social engagement. Having gone through topic two, openness can mean the materials being taught and sharing with colleagues. Openness is also about sharing knowledge and in this process, one also gains in knowledge. Openness can also mean the resources used in teaching and in education.  Openness and sharing in education is essential to education; that has always been the case even in traditional settings where the teacher shares what they know with students.  Due to the nature of knowledge, the more given out, shared more, the more one gains.  Openness has now broadened to include tools to use in education.  The ability to give without giving away expertise and the expressions of expertise has made sharing attain unprecedented levels (open education and the future, TED -talk, David Wiley).   

The traditional models of learning which is teacher centered, does not favor open learning because many professors may not know how to integrate open learning practices in their courses. If we want to call our courses truly Open we need to remove all barriers to learning. This is not always possible given that most universities are still traditional to their approach to open learning. Open learning must be scalable but also flexible.   Almost every course curriculum in most Universities have a pre-requisite and  this means if you are not a degree student it is more or less impossible to participate in the course. Therefore, following this criteria,  opening up  courses would  need a redoing of the  whole curriculum. 

This idea of having the education space opened up is still new in my setting but is gaining ground.  The University bureaucratic systems and ownership of curricula and other education issues gives a challenge to anybody wanting to open up; this would include issues like minimum required grade which is out of the competency of the individual.

Open learning can be facilitated by using open educational resources (OER), like online lectures,  (Bates 2016, chapter 10). Most often, this type of material is designed with potential students in mind, such as for an online course such as this. Other times however, OER can be designed and even co-produced together with people, communities or groups outside of academia.

There are four key areas that have been central to the developments within open education: open access, MOOCs, open education resources and open scholarship, Weller, M. (2014). Battle for Open: How openness won and why it doesn’t feel like victory. London: Ubiquity Press.

 

These are direct benefits for the University in the 21^st Century.  There are also many benefits to be gained by open learning such as international visibility; new collaborations with other academics and non-academics.  MOOCs for example have expanded rapidly in the last few years because of the need, flexibility, scalability and accessibility.  There are also risks in open learning which can be hidden.  These may include course materials developed by non-tenured staff and useful for career progression.  If opened, they may lose the opportunity for upward mobility.

Getting digital content legally using Creative Commons (Creative Commons. Org) in its variants has opened learning without having to go through the rigours of copyright issues.   The video session on this topic was clear and accessible.

What about closed and open technologies, their advantages and disadvantages?  A closed technology like a Learning Management System guarantees flow of information between students and staff, handling of assignments, statistical analysis of the learning process but on the other hand, these systems come with some financial obligations that may not be affordable in our part of the world.  These always also have a licence attached and an enabling technology support on the ground.

The open web allows for collaborative learning and innovation ( such as the ONL); engaging with students in an environment which they feel comfortable is also easy as most of them are digital residence. Naturally issues of assessment, records, grades can be a problem.  What is proposed is a more blended system of both which gives a more structured environment and seamless interface.

I have done several MOOCs which were engaging but running at my own comfort. I have had to be more disciplined with this course due to the synchronous learning.  Most of the MOOCs are structured in a way that you do the course at your own flexible hours but meeting the course deadline.  ONL has both synchronous and asynchronous learning and this can be challenging sometimes although the opportunity is given to listen the recording of the lesson; its never quite the same. However, the community in the ONL course spurs one to engage and to learn from each other.  One would say, it is blended between the closed and open systems in a way.

 

Having shared and heard experiences on the digital age, I must say it was a steep learning experience. I thought I was digital literate but I soon found out there was much more to learn in the digital space than I had anticipated.  These last two weeks have suddenly opened my horizons in the digital space.  Initially, I could characterize myself as a digital visitor but gradually becoming resident to use the current terminology (White, D. & Le Cornu, A. (2011) Visitors and residents: A new typology for online engagement. First Monday, 16(9).

I had tended to separate my professional life and personal life in the digital space but with use of twitter and other technologies, am learning to overcome by reservations (Developing digital literacies (2014) JISC guide).  Certainly, one cannot just have the two apart having nothing to do with each other; sooner or later they mix as I become more comfortable in the digital space. 

This course, ONL, has meant a lot to me so far.  I was a bit skeptical initially, but I have gradually become passionate especially in trying out new technologies that I thought were for the younger generation. One aspect that helped in this journey is the use of resources availed in the topic. This required extensive reading and so I had to fight to get extra time from my usual study to keep up.  Sometimes I travel a lot; a good opportunity to have uninterrupted reading on particular publications.

After this course, am reflecting; what next to go deeper into these aspects.  Let us wait and see.

Connecting week

Funny week this was;  I thought I knew and was conversant with some digital tools but I soon realized I had to learn to connect to my group.  This gave me a challenge I had never expected to carry through.  Learning how to set up twitter and a blog.  I do use other digital tools such as zoom and whatsup but not these two.  I have received encouragement from some of my twitter addicts and they welcomed me to the team.  Am still watching from the sidelines; consuming and wondering where I’ll get when I become an active user. Initially setting up the blog was a nightmare, but soon I managed to navigate the issue.  I now have a blog!

This a new exciting course am taking; ready to learn new things i never thought I’d get to learn.

foloo

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton