Should podcasting of lectures become common use?

Coursecasting

Summary: This benefits no one. There is absolutely no way that a recorded lecture can capture the benefits of interaction made possible through the dynamics of a classroom setting. The learning process is an active process and its potential would be greatly diminished if the core method of transferring knowledge became dependent on such passive means. It should be admitted though that there may be room to use some form of podcasting as an aid.

On second thought, it must really depend on the quality or should I say interactivity of coursecasts. It is certainly a new filed, and as with everything in e-learning, there is a need for a sound methodology for podcast use in education.

MII7008 Assignment #3

3. Kodutöö: Evalvatsiooni printsiipide rakendamine empiirilises lühiessees, mille abil hinnataks enda poolt loodud enesejuhitud õppimise ja ühesõppe tegevusmustri rakendumist. Töö valmimise tähtaeg 31. mai. Kodutöö esitatakse blogis või wikis.

Prerequisites & Limitations of Self-Directed Web-Based Learning

If it were not that serious, I would say that there were no demerits of self-directed learning as long as you were capable of studying on your own. In other words, there are a number of prerequisites or limitations for that matter.1.  I’ve italicised part of the subheading to emphasize the idea that there are several types of self-directed learning: one is traditional (offline), another is web-based (online), and the other is hybrid, which is a combination of the first two.  It is certainly a challenge in countries where all educational institutions provide for regular access to the Internet to study entirely offline. Nor is it possible to study online only as  it is limited to typing, listening & watching/reading: the thinking and the actual studying are still done by the learner at their convenience, and it is unwise to forbid offline resources when those are relevant to the subject matter. To sum up, most self-directed web-based learning is actually hybrid, ie it is web-based up to a certain extent only.

2.  Another consideration is that depending on the learner’s background, experience & skills, learning goals and objectives along with available resources, and most importantly the degree of dependence on other people (ie tutors, sponsors, dependants, etc), he or she may opt for different systems,  learning styles, means, tools, techniques & methods.  What I’ve been meaning to say is that no self-directed learning is ever entirely self-directed, it is always a compromise between the intrinsic and the extrinsic. Thus, self-directed learning is likely to take place and be successful when either the actual process of learning has an intrinsic value, eg the learner enjoys learning, or the consequences and benefits of learning hold certain extrinsic or, to be precise, instrumental values, ie achieving learning objectives is perceived as practical or pragmatic, or there is a sound mix of both. In other words, the learner has to be sufficiently motivated and possess the necessary skills along with equipment to direct his or her own learning in a virtual space.

3. As regards my both personal and personalized web-based learning space (www.englishlab.net), it is hybrid  and holds both intrinsic and instrumental values. It is hybrid, because it is part of a bigger learning space, which exists both offline & online. The most notable affordances I tend to attribute to it are as follows:

INTRINSIC

• to ensure privacy
• to reduce anxiety
• to provide for opportunities to experiment
• to provide for opportunities to socialize with visitors
• to be in control of the content
• to be in control of the pace
• to maintain a sense of personal value and worth
• to satisfy the need for achievement
• to satisfy my curiosity
• to enjoy the experience of having a personal & personalized virtual space

EXTRINSIC/INSTRUMENTAL

• to learn teaching
• to practise online teaching
• to boost my carrer potential
• to make whatever I do online tangible, ie the whole system is a kind of visual summary of all activity
• to record achievement
• to record failure
• to take personal notes
• to network (ie formal communication) & to socialize (ie informal communication)
• to systematize, categorize, classify, label, archive, retrieve, etc data
• to seek and provide feedback

Prerequisites for  Collaborative Learning

This type of learning has a number of prerequisites which are similar to those of any group or project work. No learning can be truly collaborative unless

• there is a clear, preferably measurable, expected outcome to the task
• participants are willing to collaborate and share the same idea as to what collaboration is
• there are both analytic (ie those who tend to focus on the details) and global or holistic (ie those who tend to see the “big picture”)  learners in the same group
• participants are ready to “sink or swim” together while working towards the common goal

In addition to all of the above, in case of web-based (which could be either synchronous or asynchronous or both)  collaborative learning, it is necessary to provide for the necessary equipment, tools and virtual space as well as sufficient time and opportunities to communicate. 

Admittedly, group-oriented learners are more likely to benefit from collaborative learning than solitary ones. However, there is an exception to every rule, so I would not be so categorical about this assumption.

Lastly, in order for all the participants to enjoy collaborative learning it is necessary for them to be on a par with each other. Curiously enough, it is not always necessary for the participants to enjoy the learning process to succeed:=)

Further to the collaborative project I have happened to participate in since the start of this course, I would like to say that all the preconditions outlined above but for the clear, measurable, outcome to the task were met.  The latter is probably the reason why I did not enjoy that activity – we did collaborate, but it was not very clear what we were aiming at or how it was going to be assessed. All the affordances associated with the activity, the partner and the learning environment were extrinsic/instrumental on my behalf: to share information, to seek and provide feedback, to negotiate meaning, to record the solution/final product, etc. Despite my occasional frustration, we did come up up with something eventually. Here is a peer assessment form to go with the collaboratibe activity I engaged in  mii7008_peer_assessment-_form.doc

The Pros & Cons of Accumulating Large Amounts of Teaching Materials in One Place

had a look at LeMill – again the question is the same as the one which I have kept asking myself over the past two years regarding MOODLE:

How is it possible to manage all those materials, users and statistics efficiently in the long run?

I have been using Moodle alone for about 5 years and have generated more than a 100 subcategories of materials, about 20 courses, and ca 10,000 test questions, which I already have difficulty navigating through. It is a full-time job.

About 200 people use the website actively each year and about half a thousand try to regsiter out of curiosity (luckily, they do not have enrolment keys and do not generate much traffic). Over the past month alone the website has got hits from 96 countries. I dread to imagine what would have happened if all those people had enrolled on available courses and started doing whatever activities generating internal statistics and traffic.

On the one hand, it is great when everything is seemingly free and readily available; on the other hand, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and someone has to bear the costs and responsibility at the end of the day. Likewise, it is necessary to have someone to deal with technicalities, and that might take ages. You can’t hold anyone responsible for free nowadays, and pure enthusiasm does not last forever, either.

A VLE is like a library. When it is small and private, it can be managed by the owner. When it goes public, it generates jobs. The questions is who should want to be the sponsor? National libraries are funded by governments.  There are hardly any international libraries (hope it is self-explanatory why). If a public library were made freely accessible by anyone, went self-service and no one were responsible for its maintenance or management, it would very soon cease to exist. You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.

Teaching Adults

learning contracts http://home.twcny.rr.com/hiemstra/contract.html jeez, I wish they would stop calling this oldie a brand new idea … I’ve been using something very similar with my adult students since the early 1990s, needs analysis and tailor-made course design are the key concepts here

Wiki Project #1 – THEME: the Natural Environment, YEAR 11

I have finally figured out how MOODLE Wiki works and managed to set up the first ever collaborative groupwork activity in the technical sense of the word.

Here are a few interesting observations. I’ll try to organize them into two groups: PROBLEMS-SOLUTIONS and INSIGHTS/TIPS.

TIP 1: It is very important to tell the students that although anyone in the group has access to their group wiki at any time, it is still not possible to edit its content using two or more computers simultaneously. It is something that many students find both annoying and difficult to grasp and account for.

PROBLEM 1: Some students objected to doing whatever project online/using computers (the most important Estonian colloquialism every foreigner should learn first thing even before they learn to say hello or goodbye - “ma ei viitsi” (approx: I can’t be bothered) -  manifested the setup of the activity)

POSSIBLE SOLUTION 1: I printed out all the questions and answer grids and gave the students a choice: now those who do not want to use computers are allowed to submit handwritten projects, and those who find groupwork stupid can go on solo. And then guess what? All the alleged technophobes (aka shirkers and/or lazybones) all of a sudden admitted that they had access to computers outside class and didn’t really mind collaborating with their classmates. Conclusion: it is important to give students a choice. After all, the point is to make them learn and not use whatever technological advance for the mere sake of the latter.

PROBLEM 2:  Some students tried to spice their answers with images. It turned out that images that were linked to were not displayed properly when the work was saved, but were nevertheless visible while text was being edited.

SOLUTION 2: Having killed about half an hour, I finally figured out that it was necessary to upload desired images rather than link to them. It took another hour to create a step-by-step tutorial.

PROBLEM 3: Occasionally students object to answering questions that require specific knowledge justifying their reluctance by the fact that they are studying English and not biology, chemistry, geography, maths, etc.

SOLUTION 3: I haven’t come up with a foolproof solution to this problem yet. Sometimes it helps when I say that every educated person knows whatever it is they find too technical. Another viable proposition is to refer learners to online encyclopedias (it is important to stop them copying and pasting large chunks of text they can hardly undertand after that, though).

MII7008 Assignment #2 (Groupwork: Anastasia Andros & Svetlana Kozlovskaja)

 http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddcgndh5_1fn25×6

Distributed Online Collaborative Learning System Design is a variety of managerial task and therefore should be dealt with accordingly. Firstly, you should clarify all the (instructional) goals and objectives. Right after that you must make an inventory of available resources and do needs analysis.  Once you know what you have at your disposal, you should estimate possible costs and map all the data. Then you can proceed to plan your work, organize it, monitor (or lead or direct)  and control it. Depending on the outcomes, you might want to redefine your goals and objectives on a regular basis, which will most certainly mean going through all the stages of the design process again.

Are we reinventing the wheel?

Huvitav on, et õppejõu järgi lubavus on tegemine (Lubavus selline tunnus, mis avaldub, kui keegi teeb mingit tegevust mingite töövahendite abil. Lubavus pole otseselt keskkonna ega tegevuse “oma”. Iga inimene tajub ja rakendab tegevuse käigus mingi töövahendiga erinevaid lubavusi. Lubavus saab kirjeldada, kasutades omadussõnu, mis iseloomustavad tegusid (näit. vaatlemine, jagamine, jälgimine, saatmine jne.) ja isikuid iseloomustavaid sõnu (nt. igaüks, kõik, tuutor, õppija, liider) ja õpiobjekte iseloomustavaid sõnu (nt. interaktiivne, jagatud, ühine). Kui lood tegevusmustri, siis see koosneb teatud tegevuste plokkidest, iga tegevuse sees teeved inimesed teatud tegusid ja nende tegemise ajal kujunevad ja avalduvad lubavused.) kuigi inglise keeles on lubavus see, mida tahetakse endale lubada saavutada midagi tehes (you do sth in order to afford to do something / sa teed midagi selleks, et endale lubada midagi teha/saavutada), mis ei tähenda alati seda, et ilmtingimata saavutad. Teisisõnu on see lihtsalt tegevuse eesmärk.

As activities can be of different length, so can the respective affordances. Once collaborators have managed to meet whatever objective/have managed to afford the meeting of the necessary objective or performing the desired action/, they proceed to redefine their objectives, and thus new affordances and respective activities emerge. So the so-called affordance-based learning is somewhat similar to task management by objectives, in which one has to plan-organize-lead-control in a loop, constantly checking whether the desired objectives have been attained (ie if they have managed to afford to achieve them). Since goals can be short-term and long-term, so can affordances. It is possible for several affordances to exist simulataneously, and it is also possible for affordances to be in conflict with each other, especially when collaborative learning is concerned. 

Assignment #2 MII7008 Groupwork – this was a draft, which was finally discarded

WIKI recent screenshot (12.05.2007, ca 8:30)

Provided I got it right, here is the link to the wiki we have to work on and develop as a group http://123.writeboard.com/addf7dafbfd09f2db

It is password-protected at the moment, we still need to discuss it in our group. Just in case someone wants to have a look at it, I am going to upload a recent screenshot (8:30 this morning)

As for the hosting website, it is writeboard

WHAT IS A WRITEBOARD?

A Writeboard is a web-based text document that people can write, share, revise, and compare.  You can invite and be invited to a Writeboard so you can collaborate on the text.Writeboard is free and doesn’t require you to even create an account. Just use the URL and password provided by the Writeboard creator and you’re in.You can find out more about Writeboard at: http://www.writeboard.com

Assignment # 1 MII7008 cont’d

Please describe a pattern of a few activities as a sequence and in relation to each activity describe which affordances of the Moodle you perceive when you realise this activity.

T=teacher, S=student

NB! I didn’t draw any arrows connecting activities and perceived affordances to avoid clutter, however, it is possible to figure out what matches what if you consult the text below.

an interactive quiz

The sequence is not rigid, most activities could occur in any order

The global sequence

test creation / students take test / feedback

T / administering a quiz  - affordance>  to assess students                                 

T / viewing results   - affordance> to find out  how each student is doing/has done in general                                          

T / reviewing results  - affordance> to find out what mistakes students have made, what they find easy/difficult, whether there are any typos

T / setting the number of attempts to 3 and taking into account the average score - affordance> to motivate students to do the quiz again and get most of the answers right

T / choosing to shuffle quiz questions and answers within – affordance> to limit the amout of cheating             

T / viewing logs - affordance> to obtain information regarding user activity and preferences                                     

T / configuring a quiz so that it is displayed in a secure window – affordance>  to minimize cheating  

T / enabling feedback – affordance> to provide feedback to interested students   

T / disabling feedback – affordance> to limit the amount of cheating amongst those students who have not taken the test yet  

T / private messaging – affordance>   to facilitate information exchnage between system users

T / editing quiz questions – affordance> to enhance quiz validity, to account for alternative answers  

T/ uploading screenshots (as opposed to emailing them to the S) – affordance> to facilitate information exchange, to allow multiple users to access the same files and comment on them using the main forum should that me necessary   

T/ password-protecting a quiz – affordance> to restrict access  

T/ setting a
time limit – affordance> to discipline test-takers, to ensure tests are taken in one sitting  

T / enabling / disabling penalties for wrong answers – affordance>  to limit the amount of gueessing, to encourage students to revise better

T / enabling students to upload files, eg screenshots   – affordance> to facilitate peer teaching, to promote greater sharing of knowledge

S / doing a quiz – affordance>  to demonstrate what they have learnt 

S / private messaging – affordance> to facilitqate information exchange, to facilitate peer teaching, to promote greater sharing of knowledge, to improve group dynamics by involving shyer students  

S / using online reference piblications – affordance> to look up the necessary information quickly    

S / reporting bugs using the respective forum – affordance>  to provide feedback as regards technical difficulties and to obtain technical support 

S / saving answers without submitting – affordance> to provide for an opportunity to amend answers before submitting them for grading later    

S/ submitting answers – affordance> to obtain feedback and assessment  

S / viewing results – affordance>   to get to know the grade

S / reviewing results – affordance>   to find out which answers are right and which are wrong, and why

S/ attempting a quiz more than once – affordance>   to get a higher grade, to check whether the alternative answers to the questions the students initially got wrong are this time right

S/ uploading screenshots (as opposed to emailing them to the T) – affordance>  to show the T and fellow students what exactly went wrong /they have difficulty doing and to speed up problem-solution  

Presentation Software

and this a great guide as to how NOT to do a presentation

http://www.aston.ac.uk/current-students/welfareservices/studyskills/how_not_to.jsp