26th Novembe 2008

Looking through the site you asked us to spend time in.

I find myself wanting to ask you how do you find the role of Online Tutor? Do you find it as lonely as we do? Do you find communicating with us the same as your classroom students? Or do you feel the same as Robin Mason in his quote below:

"In my view, too much is made of training tutors and this makes online tutoring seem more difficult and more unknown than it really is. The components of learning to tutor online are:

• familiarity with the conferencing software and how to get online
• comfortableness with the process of interacting online
• knowledge of what the particular online course requires of the student

The rest is commonsense and intelligent transferring of the art and skill of teaching to the online environment. Ultimately there is no substitute for getting online and experiencing a range of ways of interacting online."

http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/InfoKits/effective-use-of-VLEs

Basically, what I think he is saying is:

• The tutor needs to know how to get online and know how to use the environment he is teaching in.
• The tutor know how to interact online.
• The tutor needs pass onto the student course material and information for that student to achieve the learning outcomes.

So in the style of a reductionist.

Get Online --- Interact Online ----- Teach the students what they need to know.

This makes me feel a lot more comfortable. It allows me to focus my attention back on the art and skill of teaching. Using my emotion and enthusiasm to communicate in a stimulating and enriching, human way in an environment that is clearly not human.

I think that the Online teacher has an uphill struggle to inject these attributes into the partially sense deprived environment. A human has five senses and a range of emotional senses and I know that the Internet cannot support all of them.

Where a traditional classroom succeeds is in providing a learning space that students have the ability to speak with everyone around them, sychronised and instantly, even though it is a teacher controlled environment. A subtle nod or raised eyebrows speak volumes in a boring class.

How can I create a stimulating human experience through the CMC with the limited way when all I have is a limited means of adding emotion into my interaction? :-(

24th November 2008

You may wish to upload your drawings or diagrams, screenshots or just provide a text description of what you believe an effective CMC enviornment would look like and why.

I have included screenshots of elements that I consider are the best features of websites I use, or have used and that I know about them. There would be others available that I probably want to include if I knew about them. Also, because the technology is advancing so quickly, tomorrow there could be others that I find more useful and then these could be taken off my list.

I believe this list will definitely be different in the long term and I look forward to these with great excitement.


These first tools I use in blog.spot and feel they would work effectively within eBridge.





















Slideshows http://www.slideshare.net gives visual support to learners and together text or audio information can support cognitve learning. Ruth Clark states. "To aid learning image(s) must be relevevant to the subject matter and not simply decorative, ." The New Virtual Classroom.

















Functionality should allow digital elements, within the environment, and third parties websites to be include and exclude. This ensures that the learner has the opportunity to personalise the environment and collect everything at their fingertips that they feel they need. "A more seamless link for greater collaroration." http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearningcapital/heinfe/spacefd.aspx

















I prefer cool blue and green colours and thats probably why I prefer eBridge to Merlin. Others could prefer reds and browns. Flexibility is the key to personalised learning learning styles. Therefore the ability to change colours and fonts is an important option that should be included.
"Maybe useful to learners with disabilties such as Dyslexia." http://www.techdis.ac.uk/resources/sites/accessibilityessentials4/modules/user%20personalisation/background.html



















The option to add and update a reference list would help when referencing assignments enabling learners to copy and paste the standard university format. I cannot understand why the referencing format is not supported more effectively, if it has to be so precise. Does it add anything useful to a learner's knowledge and understanding of the content? Quotes and pages numbers could also be included. This is Harvard Reference tool. http://www.neilstoolbox.com/bibliography-creator/index.htm Could the university provide one to suit ours?



















Live e-learning with synchronised real time sessions will, I believe, be used much more in the future. Instant messaging, sharing applications, and breakout rooms where students can collaborate online, all aid learning. It is important for E-Moderators using this facility to monitor these activities, preventing over enthusiastic learners from dominating the breakout room that could become a barrier for other learners.

http://www.elluminate.com/index.jsp















This Wetpaint functionality offers users access to third party digital elements to use within the Wetpaint site itself. The University should allow third party websites access into their "locked in" domain. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/buildmlehefe/lifelonglearning/mlebriefingpack/3.aspx














Ability to access the University Library http://www.hull.ac.uk/lib/index.html and other acaedemic websites inside the eBridge environment would be extrememly useful for learners. It may also speed up access to the correct type of literature. Easy access to acaedemic standard information could help prevent learners from obtaining content from the first page of google or wikipedia. Providing teachers with a variety of content and ideas to mark.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/home



























Facebook provides a small and light functionality for online chat and notifications. Enabling learners to access online friends whilst still working on other pages. I think this aspect of chatting whilst working could help learners to feel less lonely whilst online. It could also provide stimulus by collaborating together for another opportunity for learning to take place .

24th November 2008

Initially, I thought the eBridge CMC environment was going user-friendly and easier to use. But I have been disappointed with the functionality and suggest, if it is possible, change some design aspects and remove some of the unused side content and pages.

Not surprisingly, I have used the forums the most, followed by messages. I have also frequently accessed the links to the two tandem modules.

I miss the notification of any updates in the forums (as was the norm in Merlin, to my personal email account) very annoying. I find the method of uploading content via my home folder or student page, then linking it to the page where I wanted the content to originally be, de-motivating. Ultimately it has proved one step too many for me to bother with.

I would like the chat room to open up on a separate tab so that I can have it open whilst I am working. Instead I have to chose either to work, or to chat, and as I found out when I tried to chat with Simon one evening, even though we were both there, I was on my own because users cannot see someone is there with them, unless they actively seek out the chatroom.

I do like the calm blue colours the site uses, much better than the gloomy black of Merlin. I do like the undo and redo buttons.

I do not like how quickly the site logs users out. Especially when you are in mid flow, writing in the forum or messages. I have had many ideas lost because I have not written my answers in a word document first now I have learnt my lesson. If sites such as blogger and wetpaint can cope, why not eBridge?

The option to save a draft version would also be very useful and I do not like when I press the enter button and a double line space is created.

I do like the tools available to post messages, although there seems to be overkill with some, such as _subscript and ^superscript.

Overall I prefer eBridge to Merlin but I hope the gremlins are sorted out soon. I await with interest other opinions.

23rd November 2008

I have uploaded some pictures into flickr of my first experience of teaching in main stream schools for you to have a look at me, in the front of a class. Wow it’s me!

In response to your comments about writing on the wall, I would love to write on my walls, so you are very lucky. If I lived on my own, my walls would be covered in scribblings that help me sort out my jumbled-up brain. I also liked how you highlighted how long we have to complete the next task. Letting me how long I have complete a task is very useful, so thank you for that.

On reflection, this delay in not contributing earlier, may have helped me to define authentic and active learning more clearly for me.

I would define authentic learning as genuine learning. Has the learner learned something that they did not know/understand before? In creating my learning object I used http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/ to support my own authentic learning in how to be a teacher. The website helped me focus on how to teach the children key points that were the underlying objective of the learning object and helped me to understand that the learning object is just the path chosen by the teacher to access those objectives.

Now I can appreciate much more you asking these two questions and can see you are asking me to take part in authentic learning through active learning in searching and reflecting, my answers to you.

From working with the children this week, which was quite a wonderful and enriching experience for me. I think it taught me that most learners want to actively learn. Give them a task and they will fulfil it.

The trick I think, which is what I think great teachers have, is to make the task stimulating and enjoyable and very simply produce authentic learning that goes beyond the original task – transformative learning.

Having my my own learning object to make has enabled by to conclude, that I think you spend much more time supporting our learning than Theo does. I also know that a five minute video created by you to introduce a subject and summarise it, takes much longer to create than Theo’s fifteen minute round up in our face-to-face meetings. So I thank you for your efforts, of which I am only just beginning to appreciate fully. Thanks Simon.

Thinking about a 100% online module. It takes time to get used to no face-to-face contact at all and I must admit I prefer your videos in conjunction with the forums. I think this is because video fits into the traditional way of face-to-face contact.

Now, I can feel you smile and wanting to question me. – “In what way is a digital video made thousands of miles away in an asynchronistic virtual learning environment, the same as face-to-face contact”

And now I shake my head and say, “oh boy, I set myself up right there, just up Simon’s street for a conversation about what constistutes face-to-face contact.”

I would direct you to the learninghouse website which describes it so well.

“By watching pre-recorded clips or video demonstrations, students are able to notice the subtle nuances of movement or voice tones and draw a more concrete understanding of a lecture or lab demonstration.”

I think this is why websites such as YouTube and Video Google have become so popular. It can be much more interesting and unexpected than text alone. Praise from you smiling, is much better than text and a smiley face symbol.

I hope that you would consider my learning has been not only authentic, but also active and thanks to your support, I can now appreciate it myself. Lynn.

28th October 2008

Tuesday 28th October 2008.

Completed a voicethread video in response to Simon's question "Am I a different learner online to that of a face-to-face learner". I don't think a different learner. I still don't know what type of learner I am.

I feel I am a mixture and not one specific type. What I find is the learning space that I am in, provides me with the type of learner I have to be at that time. May not be the best for me but that space is all that I have, I get on with it.

Simon then talked about being an online tutor. Am I the type of person suited to online teaching? Yes, I think I am. Much more so than in a classroom anyway. I have been reading "Approaching Sociology" by Margaret Coulson and Carol Riddell (1976). In it she likens society to that of a watch because "a watch is more than the sum of its parts". Maybe because I feel more like a teaching support to the children that a teacher's assistant. Meaning that I do not get up and teach small groups at all. I sit at the side of one or two children and help them by reading the questions out loud and encouraging them to complete the work. This I feel is totally different to Jenny or Wendy's roles in school where they delivery lessons for absent teachers. I feel my part would be better suited to online tutoring than face-to-face but as a learner I prefer my role in a classroom.

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN VERSUS LEARNING COMMUNITIES

Both instructional design (ID) and DLCs can lead to learning. However, other things being equal, we believe that open systems are preferred because they address more fundamental learning outcomes, e.g., self-directed inquiry, learning-how-to-learn, etc., and tend to be more closely situated within an authentic performance environment. The following table presents an outline of variables to consider when choosing between DLCs and designed instructional systems.
Conditions working in favor of instructional design:

--content is stable over time; --content is well-defined or rule-based; --expertise is available; --representation demands are heavy; --mastery of discrete knowledge is valued; --culture is conservative, slow to change.

Try DLCs if these conditions apply: --content is change, new, complex, or ill-defined; --expertise is scarce or distributed across a number of people; --literacy and metacognitive skills are available; --community-directed, situated support for learning is valued; --culture supports risk-taking, innovation.

http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~bwilson/dlc.html

3rd October 2008

Friday 3rd October 2008

Sharable Learning Objects.

I am being to appreciate the difficulty in finding suitable reusable digital learning objects that fit into another teachers lesson. For example the length, meaning and interpretation of a learning object is usually created by the author. Whereas to share it, the user has to try and fit it into their lesson and the learning object may not suit that lessons meaning or interpretation.

For example: I created a large smart notebook resource for Teacher A on sign language symbols. The learning object worked effectively because it was tailor-made for Teacher A's lesson. Whereas recently I working with Teacher B who was also delivering a lesson on sign language, I felt that although there maybe some value in my resource for her, it was too large for the theme and idea of her lesson. The only way this resource could have provided value is if I had known that the lesson would have been on sign language (just as I did with Teacher A) shown Teacher B my resource and then adapted it to suit her shorter lesson. May what Teacher B delivered to her children was just as relevent and as efficient in comparison to my resource.

Newsfilm online is a great website

How do I create effective and interesting resources that can compete with childrens interest and time such as social network sites. When users can create their own websites and resources easily and without permission. Do I have the imagination and creativity to teach and motivate and empower them.

Michael Cole says that these websites eg facebook, digg, or wikipedia only exists through use and it is their engagement that changes the face and popularity of these websites.

Jilly Salmon e-tutoring 5 step model - social constructivism.

Do we need a VLE at all? With so many free websites available such as wetpaint and blogger, can file repositories inside the educational structure survive?

Google Earth can it be used to produce resources which is freely available and downloadable and can provide effective online learning.

There is a saying.

There is no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing.

These is no such thing as a bad subject only bad teaching.

If you are having difficulty creating resources for a subject, think....

What would make this subject a pleasure to teach.

Encourage them by liberating the students.

Student assessed work is a difficult problem to include online because the teachers are not in control of the sites. Generally, the students know more about the websites than the teachers and so have been empowered.

2nd October 2008

I have just watched Simon's video and it has given me a lot to think about.

I am starting to read a book on Theo's reading list called Online Education Using Learning Objects.

I think this wetpaint website can be made into a learning diary/record and an online learning object because it is editable by the creator and invited members. Attachments can be added making it easy for students to access core material of their course..

Widgets help display other websites such as slideshare or YouTube videos to enhance the wetpaint website.

The two resources below have become part of the Chris Anderson's 'long tail' because they were initially created for a specific lesson, and then uploaded onto the Internet means that they can be found by users and are durable. Shared or downloaded by whoever and whenever. This means that I am teaching people, over a period of time, who I did not originally intend to.