tisdag 4 oktober 2016

Topic 1. Reading the Scenario

“I have just signed up to do an online course and I am excited to be there. But I have little experience of online courses and it feels really challenging to get started to connect and find my way with all these new sites and tools. I guess that other participants will be more experienced than me and I feel stupid asking about things. We are asked to create a Learning blog on the web; it feels a bit scary to do this. I do share things on Facebook with friends, but here in the open? I want to keep my private life separate from my professional life. But on the other hand, my students seem to share and discuss in social media and use all kinds of tools and resources. I think I need some guidance in how to become more digitally literate and what competencies I need to develop to keep up with what is expected of me” - ONL website

 Introduction

So we have finally gotten a scenario. In this blog post I will react on what I read and try to put two different types of perspective on that, that of me as a student and that of me as a teacher.

 “I have just signed up to do an online course and I am excited to be there. "
Student perspective: I guess this is the way most students feel, they have enrolled in a new course, they enrolled since they have an interest or a desire to get something out of the course. Me as a student of this course is excited since I have the motives to learn new tools, meet new people, and to get new perspectives.

Teacher perspective: It is good that the student is excited. I want to keep the students excitement over the entire course. But their excitement is caused by their motives for taking the course. By understanding those motives and see if they are the same as the course goals. There might be a gap between what the student thinks and what is given.
"But I have little experience of online courses and it feels really challenging to get started to connect and find my way with all these new sites and tools."
Student Perspective: I have taken a few MOOC's and also online courses so I'm not that challenged by the technologies, sites and tools themselves. For me it is more a matter of trying to understand how these tools are used in this particular course and when to switch. The communication strategy is missing.

Teacher Perspective: As a teacher I need to be super-clear with the communication regarding the basics. What to read, What to do, and How to do it. I also need to understand that there takes time and effort by the student to process the information I give them. Don't give to many things at the same time, one document, organized. Give them time to master that and then give another.
"I guess that other participants will be more experienced than me and I feel stupid asking about things."
Student Perspective: I know that my students sometimes feel this way and some classes are better than others at this, I don't know why. Some students are worried that them asking questions are going to affect their grade, not sure why?

Teacher Perspective: As a teacher I want questions, I want discussion, I want student answering each-others questions, I want to be challenged and I want to get feedback. To provide such an atmosphere the openness is not helpful (for some). I make sure to answer all question and give credit (I say thank you) for asking and answering questions. I try to encourage debate and critique, and hope that students will understand the importance of it, and also how to do it. They need to learn how to criticize and ask questions!
"We are asked to create a Learning blog on the web; it feels a bit scary to do this
Student Perspective: This is not my first blog so I don't understand the problem. The students may be semi anonymous and just create a persona? Technical side, register, advertise in plus etc...

Teacher Perspective: I have learned that other learners of this course felt this was a big step, would be interesting to hear their side of this.
"I do share things on Facebook with friends, but here in the open? I want to keep my private life separate from my professional life"
This was one of the things I liked about Dave Whites videos, the scale between the personal life and the institutional! I myself have experienced this and uses a lot of mixed accounts.

Students of Facebook makes me not want to share personal things. But when they leave academia its an asset.

Students on Skype makes me not want to open Skype at home, since a student once was sort of undressed in her image.

I put a lot of my lectures on my YouTube account and I don't see much of a problem with it. I have started to put videos on a university account instead.
But on the other hand, my students seem to share and discuss in social media and use all kinds of tools and resources. 
Teacher: I think we have to provide the students with good tools and maybe we have to go to where the students are. In our case we moved to Slack since the students use it and many programmers.

I think I need some guidance in how to become more digitally literate and what competencies I need to develop to keep up with what is expected of me”
I agree, I think we should not just give the students a new tool expect them to excel in it, we must also give them a way of working within the tool!















3 kommentarer:

  1. You've shared some interesting observations here, and the scenario is very rich with a lot to work with; a great start to the course!

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. Will be very interesting to see the groups view!

      Radera
  2. The Studen'ts perspective is, of course, important, and I agree that communication/information is a key issue. Perhaps we shuld develop models for "simulating" the studen't experience, i.e. models for experiencing our teaching from the student's point of view. Not sure how one should go about doing that, though...

    SvaraRadera