We are now working with Topic 2 for the first week in the course. And the topic is Open Learning, Openness and Sharing. Topic 2 started with a online presentation by Alastair Creelman and Kay Oddone. The presentation was about Openness and sharing in education. By watching the presentation I got the feeling that I’m doing quite okey. That I’m quite open in my work. But then I started to think am I really Open when it comes to my work? Because I work as an amanuensis (study counselor) my primary work task is to help our students with their study plans. Meeting with students can of course not be open because they are confidential meetings between students and I. Sometimes I of course corporate with the program director and other support functions we have at my school. But a side from study plans I’m also involved in a couple of courses and in one year I have about 10 lectures in total.
So am I open? I would say yes but I have a long way to go. I use our Learning platform for sharing my lectures and task with the students. I don’t have my documents for myself I share them inside my institution for those who also no need them. And I take the student right in consideration in my work. But I do not share my lectures world wide.
In the suggested literacy was a blog post about the ONL course by Kay Oddene (2016). Oddene has named the blog post to PLE or PLN or LMS or ONL?. The only shortening I know from before was ONL aka Online Network Learning. So what does PLE, PLN and LMS mean?
PLE = Personal Learning Environment
PLN = Personal / Professional Learning Network
LMS = Learning Management System
Thanks to Oddene I know have a wider view but also big gaps. I have a PLE I just didn’t had a name for it before. And I have big thought about how I can wider my PLE thanks to this course. With this course my PLN will grow from a national level to a international level. I also think that this course is a way of build a LMS for me or to collect my PLE into a LMS.
I think openness is a mandatory in this digital world we are living in and I really need to think how I can open my lectures more and adapt different digital tools to make my lectures more interactive. There is just one thing and that is that our students wants to have lectures in the “old fashion way” they don’t want to study online. We need to find some kind of solution for how to mix traditional lectures and online learning.
Reference:
Oddone, K. (2016). PLE or PLN or LMS or OLN? Blog post about the ONL course.
