Di’s E-learning Experience

Only a week and a half until we complete the work for this semester. As I was making some notes for my reflection on my short online course experience, I started to reflect on the benefits I had gained from blogging over the past 12-13 weeks.
Initially, I struggled with the concept of putting my thoughts online. The main reason (I think) being that I wanted to post a complete and researched thought. However I have now come to terms with the idea to just write my thoughts as they come and let my blogs be a way of organising my thoughts. The interactive aspect of blogs also has allowed me to get feed back and new ideas from others on the way. I still remember the first contact I received from an outside blogger, what a buzz!! Someone actually took the time to read what I had written.

In the short time I have been blogging I have found that I am now looking at issues in a more critical and analytical way. I plan to keep up my blogging habit, even thoughI have almost finished this course. I really like the way you can collect your thoughts under a tag and just go back to them later for further development.

It is Saturday already!!!  This week has flown by.  I have almost completed my Spanish Steps Online Course and I have to admit I have enjoyed the experience.    As I have been working my way through the lessons and reflecting on the experience I have become more aware of my learning style.  A couple of weeks ago, when I completed the VARK questionnaire in class it concluded that I had a multi-modal learning style. 

Apparently this learning style accounts for about 60% of the population, so it certainly is not to be ignored when looking at program design.  People who fit into this learning style generally use a combination of learning styles, switching their learning styles to suit the learning project.

During my experience with the online Spanish course I have noticed that I have enjoyed the variety of ways the information has been presented.  When learning the oral Spanish I have found the interactive video and conversations very rewarding.  However, when it comes to learning vocab and rules of grammar I prefer to write down the words and rules. This process seems the reinforce my learning and I can recall the vocab and grammar more clearly. Another good resource on multi-modal learning style is an article written by Neil Fleming in September 2007 Multimodality

In our lesson last Wednesday there was some interesting debate on the virtues of the virtual classroom and if it could successfully replace the traditional face-to-face learning environment.  Generally I think it was felt that e-learning was a new and innovative form of education, however for best results a learning program should include a combination of e-learning (in the virtual classroom) and face-to-face learning. 

I was interested to see the that the example of School of the Air was brought up as an example of a successful virtual class room, especially since I had recently posted a blog on School of the Air. I think we must agree that School of the Air presents a very successful example of a virtual classroom.  However, the administrators and teachers of School of the Air recognise that the virtual class room experience does not provide a fully balanced learning experience for its pupils.

Recognising this, they have introduced several initiatives to complement the virtual classroom.  These include:

• at least one face-to-face visit by teachers to all students per year
• each student spends one week a year at the School of the Air headquarters in a classroom with other students.
• Camps – where groups of students,parents and teachers meet for a weekend camp (at woolshed or shed on one of the properties). These camps include sports, games, music and other interactivity as well as feedback and information sessions for parents.
• group excursions are organised for students to places such as Canberra and the Snowy Mountains
• annual sports day where students all meet at a central place to compete in athletics and games
• at the end of the year there is  presentation day and christmas function

All these functions and activities are designed to complement the virtual class room and give the students a better balanced learning experience.

Some Interesting Resouces on School of the Air:

Canarvon School of the Air

http://www.carnarvonsota.wa.edu.au/Information/Information%20Booklet%202006.pdf

Evantheia Schibsted, “Bringing the outback in: Distance Learning Down Under”

http://www.edutopia.org/bring-outback

 Russell, G. “Virtual Schools, A critical view”.

http://www.idea-group-ref.com/downloads/excerpts/1591401542E.pdf

Crump, S. and Goodyear, P.”Interactive distance Learning in Australia: Replacing Radio with Satellite Technology for “School of the Air”.

http://www.newcastle.edu.au/campus/ourimbah/professorcrump/InteractiveDistanceeLearninginAustralia.pdf

I can’t believe how quickly this semester is passing by us!!!

This week we looked at Ryan Watkins article on e-learner readiness”Preparing E-learners for Online Success”. This article promoted an interesting class debate on the essential skills for e-learning and the level of preparedness than young (and older learners) have.  Some class members felt that younger learners would find covering the basic technicals involved with e-learning very boring.  However other members of the class advised that it was their experience, that some of the younger learners in their class had low technical skills.  It was agreed that it was important when starting an elearning class to use some form of Assessment Tool to give you an idea of the levels of technical skills and computing knowledge amongst the learners.

Watkins also also pointed out that successful elearning was a combination of traditional learning skills and the development of new and adapted elearing skills.  It was the general concensus in the class that a successful learning program did not consist of only an elearning program.  A program which combined both elearning and face to face learning was more appealing to both learners and teachers. 

A final reflection for this week:  It is interesting to observe how all the class members now seem to have worked their way through the initial hurdle of elearning.  We all seem to be more responsive, motivated and accepting of the new technologies and ideas.

One of the requirements of our e-learning class is to do at least one blog a week, possibly two.  There seems to be the emphasis on blogging for the sake of blogging, to write something even if you don’t have anything to say.  I find this concept a little difficult to deal with.  It is easy to just go on line and say hello world!!!!! (Possibly I am a little constricted in my approach to blogging and worry too much about the content on my blog). As a novice blogger I am quite in awe of some of the blogs I have read.  I feel when I put something up on line it needs to be of some interest to others, not just that I have had an interesting day in class!! What do you other bloggers think???

The topic of today’s class discussion was Jennifer De Vries article “E-learning strategy; A Framework for Success”. I found this article gave a very concise and easy to read examination of e-learning strategy.  The main gist of the class discussion was to  emphasise the importance of having a well thought out and planned strategy.   The importance of identifying needs of all the stakeholders involved in a program was discussed. Issues such as attitudes of learners/teachers, motivation, hardware and software , experience levels and internet connectivity were  identified as items that could make or break the success of an e-learning program.  Once these issues have been considered it is possible to establish the goals of the program.

De Vries points out that once you have set the goals for your program it is time to move on to your e-learning strategy.  She suggests that you consider the following points:

• Technology (synchronous – learning time between teacher and learner, and asynchronous- when the learner decides the time, place and what they want to view.)
• content  (what, how, and when).
• adminsitration and support
• communication  – attracting learners to the program.
• financial analysis – proof that the costs involved will eventually be recovered.

 The most valuable information that I have gained from this article and our class discussion today is how important your strategy or planning is to the success of an e-learning program. 

Over the past week I have been reflecting the first four weeks of my learning experience in e-learning.  Some of the aspects that I have observed are:

• an enormous amount of information, (how do I take all this in? should I focus on one area?)
• endless opportunties to research further
• an obvious balooning of information available
• an opportunity to completely rethink my outlook on the availability of information
• an opportunity to develop a new style of learning and sharing my learning
• an opportunity to receive feedback from all corners of the world
• an opportunity to share ideas with others interested in the same areas as myself.
• how do I keep a hold on educational values.

Also I have observed a variety of reactions to the new concepts of e-learning which I think I need to take on board if I am to utilize components of e-learning in my education and the education of others.  Some of these are:

• different learning styles
• different levels of enthusiasm towards e-learning
• A level of uncertainty related to publishing your thoughts on line for all to see
• the need to cater to these different styles and levels of uptake
• availability of resources to the learner
• different cultural values and expectations of the learners

To day we looked at the article by Bernadette Robinson, “Innovation in open and distance learning: some lessons from experience and research”.  An interesting discussion followed which covered the areas of innovation, availability of resources, willingness to adapt and change, different learning styles and adaptability. I think the breakdown of adopters was extremely relevant as I have observed these characteristics in my workplace and classes. This places quite a challenge to those who are trying to introduce innovation whether it be in the workplace or classroom.  I believe that the person who is responsible for introducing any innovation needs to develop a number of strategies that will cater for all the different styles and rates of uptake.  Quite a challenge!