Di’s E-learning Experience

This is my final reflection before the end of this semester.  As I look back over the entries that I have made in the last three months it is interesting to see how my ideas have developed and attitudes changed.

Last week I read an article by Anne Bartlett-Bragg called “Blogging to Learn“.  (It was a little bit of a light-bulb moment). In this article Anne outlines the different stages that learners go through.  I could see my blog fitting in quite well with these stages.

1. Establishment- set up an initiating blog, my two posts on “Hello World” and “Sunday Reflections” fit into this stage well.
2. Introspection – start paying attention to emotions, learning to record events, and often dealing with software challenges.  Aptly displayed in by blog on “e-Frustration“.
3. Reflective Monologues – starting to become aware of their reflective process,evaluating experiences from structured questions and reviewing articles, e.g. my post on “The Virtual Student“
4. Reflective Dialogue – more enthusiasm, contributing to the blog regularly and a sense of self direction.  e.g.  my blogs on Virtual Class Room and Second Life.
5. Knowledge Artefacts – move to reflecting on knowledge learned and providing guidance to readers.  I did attempt this in “Can the Virtual Classroom replace the traditional Classroom”

When I first commenced my degree in Adult Education we were asked to keep a reflective diary and I must admit that after a couple of entries I found this tedious and didn’t keep it up, even though I recognised the value of reflecting on my learning. I have found using my blog a great way to reflect on my learning. However, I must admit that I think I have taken to the idea of blogging and find it a much more rewarding medium for reflection. I like the fact that you can link with other resources, e.g. your photos, del.icio.us, and other blogs of interest.  It is also a great way to receive feedback  and hits from other bloggers who are interested in similar topics. Yes! I agree with  Anne Bartlett-Bragg “Blogging does provide the learner with a creative interaction”. 

End of semester is drawing near.  The pressure is on to complete assignments. Where has all the fun gone!! Now I have to focus on my final assignment! No more flicking from one web page to another trying to take in as much information as I can.

My focus for my final assignment is on developing an evaluation criteria which can be used to assess the effective of an online course.  Where do I begin??  In the recent experience of doing a short online course I have come to realise there are a many issues that need to be considered.  It is a little overwhelming trying to think where I should start.  I then realised that a good starting point was to look at what I expected to gain from the course and move on from that point.  I have started of with a short list of issues that I think are important in assessing the value of an online course.  They are:

•  course design, structure and resources
•  technical support
• technical skills
• resources
• Language
• interactivity and feedback.

I think this is a pretty good starting point.  Lets see how it develops.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been doing the online short course in Spanish as part of Assignment 3 for this subject.  At the same time I have been looking at some articles on virtual classrooms and their advantages.  It seems to me that the virtual class room lends its self the learning of languages.

I was interested to find that Second Life has recognised this and established a virtual language lab called Languagelab.com.  They are at present running this program for English language classes for free and asking for feedback.  There are future plans to run a similar program in Spanish.

I think that the development of virtual classrooms in an online virtual classroom is the next step in online language learning.  I am looking forward to when Second Life develops it’s Spanish site.  Learning a language in a virtual environment will give the learner a more realistic experience and a virtual immersion in the language.

Some interesting additional resources on this are:

Avatar English:  Language Classes in SL, http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/09/28/avatar-english-language-classes-in-sl/

Norman Cole, The Virtual Language School for university students, http://www.uoc.edu/humfil/articles/eng/coe0303/coe0303.html

Micheal Erard, A boon to Second Life Language Schools, http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18510/

Howard Vicars, Language Teaching Gains Second Life:Virtual Worlds Offer New Methods to Teach Languages, http://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/secondlife.php

Semester is drawing to a close, assignments to write, exams to study for!!! no time for fun. Just have to hang in there for another week.

Yesterday I did manage to take some time out to explore the Second Life site.  I logged in, and yes I managed to enter the imaginary world again.  I reflected, it is a little like being on site for the production of a Shrek movie. (Don’t get me wrong, I love Shrek). The graphics are amazing, (think I have said that before).  Today I made the bold step of actually communicating with a couple of the other avatars.  (just a quick wave and hello, can’t be too friendly on the first meeting.)   To my amazement, one of the other avatars did the whole flex the muscle macho bit!!! and then ran away.  It cracked me up!!!

I then thought I should explore some of the options that Second Life had to offer and discovered their Education Grid.  Very Interesting!

After reading through the extensive information provided on this site, and joining their education mailing list, I am beginning to see the value of using Second Life in virtual education. 

As the Web page states, it creates:

“ a safe environment to enhance experiential learning, allowing individuals to practice skills, try new ideas, and learn from their mistakes. Prepare your students or employees for real-world experiences by using Second Life as a simulation”

The Site features a variety of mailing lists to keep you in touch with new developments in many fields of education, opportunities to share information on Second Life wiki  and information about  the Education Campus on Second Life.

I am now looking forward to the end of next week, when all my assignments and exams are over and I will have time to explore this a little more.  I will keep you posted.