Category: Uncategorized

For this reflection I am using the guiding questions:

• What are the most important things you have learned through your engagement in the ONL course? Why?

That collaborative work can be fun and enriching! In the ONL course I have learned how a functioning Blended Learning course can be designed, how much influence the participants have (facilitators as well as group members) and that different experiences can be really valuable. I have also learned that group work can be fun and that there does not necessarily has to be the phenomenon of people not engaging. It can be really motivating when the group dynamics are good and the meetings are well-organised and well-documented.

• How will your learning influence your practice?

In the future I will work as a teacher at school. My vision is to implement Professional Learning Communities within school and exchange ideas about Didactics, paedagogy and generally good-practice examples.

Another thought is to try out a Blended Learning course but I am not sure whether I could implement that at school. For projects it might be a good idea to blend synchronous and asynchronous meetings.

Also, I would like to share more openly and make my teaching material open access. That would take some time (and more experience) in the teaching world but it is always good to have a vision, I guess.

• What are your thoughts about using technology to enhance learning/teaching in your own context?

I really like the idea of using technology to IMPROVE my learning and teaching. For my personal development there are great MOOCs or other courses on coursera. Also, I can imagine to use AI to make lesson plans better or get ideas for different methods. A good way of using AI for the students would be to use it as feedbacker. The only issue is data protection and the regulation from the country/state/ministry.

• What are you going to do as a result of your involvement in ONL? Why?

I tell others about it! Also, I really much appreciated the idea of a Professional Learning Community and want to engage more with people who have same interests. I think I can learn so much by exchanging ideas, sharing ressources and just work together on the same topic!

Thank you for the great time and getting to know inspirational people. I have really enjoyed it.

When thinking about a Blended Learning course I am a bit hesitant. I love the idea of blending synchronous and asynchronous phases as both offer a variety of opportunities and can encourage learning in different ways. The perfect mix can get the students to great learning outcomes. But why am I hesitant?

Because there need to be some things to be thought of when using such a course design. Here are some I found really helpful:

• Collect general data, content data and background data from the students to track if the students understood the material, have further questions and adapt the teaching to different backgrounds. (Ameloot et al., 2022)
• Be clear and transparent in learning goals and  course structure. Also, it might be helpful to give students time at the beginning of the course to plan how the want to work. It might be useful to also block specidic times for asynchronous phases. Communicate the assessment at the beginning and from our discussions I found it really helpful to mix summative and formative assessment.
• Only use synchronous meetings to discuss and reflect on specific aspects so students have the feeling it is worth attending these sessions.

As I have also tried a BL Design now as a student, I can reflect on those experiences as well:

To paraphrase Baldwin-Evans: The most effective blended learning design offers a learner-centred approach that is personalisable and accessible. (Baldwin-Evans, 2006) I can agree. Without evaluating the ONL Course, I can say that it was a really valuable experience so far. The learner is definitely in the focus and is guided by meaningful input and the facilitators who keep track that the group is going in the right direction. Also, the focus areas can be personalised and it is basically up to yourself what you take from the course and how much effort you put in. I feel like, the more I engage with a topic and with my group, the more I get out of the course. This is a great motivation for me. I am just wondering if this format works for people who do not have an intrinsic motivation, might not be engaged in the topics and do not like self-regulated learning.

I found the “Guide to Blended Learning” (Cleveland-Innes & Wilton, 2018) really helpful for the general idea behind Blended learning and how I could start designing such a course. Maybe it helps you as well. 🙂

Literature: 

Ameloot, E., Rotsaert, T., & Schellens, T. (2022). The supporting role of learning analytics for a blended learning environment: Exploring students’ perceptions and the impact on relatedness. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 38(1), 90–102. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12593

Baldwin-Evans, K. (2006). Key steps to implementing a successful blended learning strategy. Industrial and Commercial Training, 38(3), 156–163.

Cleveland-Innes, M. & Wilton, D. (2018). Guide to Blended Learning. Burnaby: Commonwealth of Learning.

Learning communities are not an unknown concept. We basically start when we are students at school. Mostly, we do not see the advantages (except when you are the person who is free riding). Mostly it is more work and less efficient. BUT when I got older and started university I realised that there are some courses where it might be beneficial to work in a group. Now, in this Open Networked Learning course I fully see the potential. Our group makes so much out of each and everyones strength but I feel like there are some prerequisites:

• everyone has to put in effort
• the internal motivation
• shared values
• common goals
• fixed meeting times
• efficient work during that time
• good documentation

I really like Wenger`s quote: “On the one hand, a community of practice is a living context that can give newcomers access to competence and also can invite a personal experience of engagement by which to incorporate that competence into an identity of participation. On the other hand, a well functioning community of practice is a good context to explore radically new insights without becoming fools or stuck in some dead end.” (Wenger, 1998, p. 214)

Especially by using technology, it is easy to work collaboratively. Firstly, there needs to be a space for proper documentation and best would be a structured format (e.g. in a google doc or Etherpad). Secondly, there needs to be a virtual meeting room for the fixes meetings. Thirdly, there should be a platform, where people are encouraged to share knowledge. Something that is easy to access (e.g. Miro board or a Moodle). Also there should be a chat for quick communication (liek google chat)

How would I like to establish a community of practice?

I would really like to establish a learning community in my class or at my school. As I will be a teacher, it would be great if people get a platform where they can share knowledge and see the value of sharing.

On a small scale: When I am a teacher, I would need to give the students a task, where they are not limited in their creativity so that they can use the full potential of working collaboratively. What I learned is also to give them enough time to discuss how they want to work as a group. Also, I should be aware of the challenge of everyone just working on their part.

On a bigger scale: I wanna introduce a platform where teachers are encouraged to share research, teaching material or tools to be used in science classes. The benefit would be immense but I guess much patience is needed!

I really enjoyed working on topic 3 and I hope to be part of big learning communities in the future. I realised that I can extend my knowledge so much easier by learning from others. Thank you!

Literature:

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511803932

What is openness and which value does it have in my private and professional life? The two past weeks made me reflect on my own practices and my attitudes towards openness and sharing. What I learned is: Always start with yourself. How can I expect others to be open when I have not shared much myself yet? In my professional life, sharing OER is part of the job description. I have not much thought about possible disadvantages yet. The usual understanding is- Being open is great – Sharing is caring. In my group`s work we have discussed a lot of personal experiences, positive ones but one cannot deny negative aspects as well.

I feel using OER has a lot of advantages for me. The quality assurance is more work, for sure, but other than that it is great to use MOOCs or reuse material. Nevertheless, when sharing openly as a creator, the workload cannot be denied and also the feeling of being judged is a thought I have had as well. I am trying to navigate through and try to start in small steps.

Later, I will teach at Secondary School. So, my thoughts are partly in academia and partly in the role as a teacher. Which platform could I use to share teaching material openly? How can I encourage my colleagues to be open as well and introduce a “culture of sharing”? Which benefits will I have from being open? Is it enough to not have disadvantages from it?

Really interesting was the Reusability Paradox by Wiley (2004, in: Weller, 2014, chapter 4) which says that the potential to reuse material is lower when the paedagogical value is higher. So, does it make sense to share all material? What I understand from that is that sharing material that does not need much context is better suitable for reusing them. Other material with more context could be shared in a whole teaching unit. Generally, Weller (2014) names the three factors reusability, standardisation and culture that shape and are shaped by the development of OER.

Another topic I am unsure about (as so many others as well) is the influence of AI. What impact AI tools might have on me and my career? – I do not know yet. Will intellectual property be harder to protect than before? Probably. Will I benefit from AI tools for my teaching? For sure! Will it change a lot in the way we teach and learn? Yes. I am happy to dig deeper and exchange ideas.

So, in summary I have a lot of thoughts about openness and sharing and try to reflect on my own practices. This topic was a good opportunity to think about how I can be more open 🙂

Literature:

Weller, M. (2014). Battle for Open: How openness won and why it doesn’t feel like victory. London: Ubiquity Press.

Wiley, D., Waters, S., Dawson, D., Lambert, B., Barclay, M., Wade, D. & Nelson, L. (2004). Overcoming the Limitations of Learning Objects. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 13(4), 507-521. Norfolk, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved November 1, 2023 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/6586/.

These two weeks of the course thinking about online participation and digital literacies I am now more aware of what it contains. I want to see the meta level where I am a student and on the other hand a teacher. Not so long ago I have been a student at the university, being thrown in the online learning environment. And now learning about what a visitor and residence (terms from White and Le Cornu, 2011) is – I can say that I have been a visitor not only on social media but also at the university. Using the chance to really interact with people in an open online environment was out of my comfort zone having data protection and misuse of information in mind. I have always seen the online world as a way to consume but never to contribute, interact and get valuable social interactions from it. At the end of my studies and start of my job at the university, I realised that there are so many opportunities hiding out there. When collaborating with colleagues and using ways to interact with people online, I realised that this is a valuable experience and adds a lot of value to my work. My personal identity stayed the same – I am still a visitor I would say. My professional identity has changed towards “making a trip” towards residency every now and then.

I am really thankful to get the experience of learning in a group setting where collaboration and exchange is focused. It is definitely a different way of learning and I am sure I can learn a lot. It would be good if one result of the course would be that I am “making a trip” towards residency more often and use more opportunities this online world offers!

The first week of working in the ONL group I was surprised that we are a small group – and to be honest I was not sure if I am happy about that as each and every person has to contribute more to get a good result. I did not know a lot about the process and what to expect so first I was not sure if I was able to fulfil the expectations. Now, after these two weeks I am convinced that it is not about quantity but how motivated each person is, and I am impressed how extensive our presentation has gotten.

White, D. & Le Cornu, A. (2011) Visitors and residents: A new typology for online engagement. First Monday, 16(9).

/Here some thoughts: Before starting this course I didn’t know what to expect from it. My colleague recommended this course and said that this is a really valuable experience. So here I am writing my first reflection post on my own wordpress – I have already learned something for sure! I am excited to start this collaborative group work, exchanging ideas, getting new insights and hopefully have a lot take-aways for my life and career!  The meeting today was already really interesting: Meeting so many people from all around the world – a lot of them joining the course repeatedly. There must be something special about it and I will for sure find out what that spark is! I am quite excited but feel as if I am good to go now after meeting the PBL group and the connecting webinar. See you in the next reflection post. Annika/