Alistair: Good afternoon Martin, thank you for joining us today. 

Martin: Thank you for having me, gentlemen.  It is so nice to be able to meet face-to-face finally! These scones are scrumptious!  Did you make the strawberry jam yourself, Lars?

Jörg: I made the jam from the strawberry I grew in my hoophouse.  There are such great companion plants to the cannabis.  

Martin: Kudos, Jörg!  Please share the recipe!

Alistair: From your own cannabis hoophouse, Jörg?!!  please share the architecture plans!!

Lars: Did you sprinkle any cannabis on the Oolong tea, Jörg?  The taste is so flavourful and complex and refreshing at the same time.  There is a sparkling after taste that lingers long enough on the palate.  

Martin: Oh the tea came from me.  I brought it along from China.  I’ll pass on the nice comments to the tea makers.  I don’t think they added cannabis.  I’ll find out.  One can never be sure. 

Alistair: So speaking of China and comments, Martin.  Can you share with us a few of the most important things you have learned through your engagement in the ONL course?

Martin: Most certainly, Alistair.  I would classify the learning into two categories: organization of the course and the course content itself. 

Alistair: Interesting.  Please, go on. 

Martin: So on the organization of the course.  I have written on the challenges I faced due to the “hygiene” factors or non-organization of the course.  If the facilitators can get the zoom addresses sorted out in the first instance, and stick to ONE zoom address consistently right from the very start and have no changes in between, stick to the tried and  proven way of sending out email reminders instead of letting things be buried under the padlet board, AND stress the time change during the day-light saving week, I think my anxiety level would have been much lower and the learning more enjoyable as well as impactful.

Lars: Ah yes.  But it was a good learning experience for you to go through, wasn’t it?

Martin: Errrrhhhh….. NO.  Lars, it certainly wasn’t.  Organisational negligence and incompetency should not be chalked up to “learning experience”. 

Lars: We call it baptism by fire.  Here in Sweden, we teach our children not to play with fire by letting them burn themselves while playing with fire.   They’ll remember after the experience. 

Martin: Interesting concept.  But I don’t buy for it for our situation.

Jörg: Moving on Martin.  You mentioned the course content itself?

Martin: Ah yes.  For me, the most important take away from this program was gaining a clear and comprehensive overview of the online + offline learning approaches and configuring a learning content that is most suitable for my students within my specialised context. I really enjoyed the freedom to explore ways to solve the problems and having no pressure to come up with a fool-proof solution at the end of the day.

Jörg: Nice!

Martin: Yes indeed.  It was so liberating to be free to just have fun while finding solutions. 

Alistair: Marvellous! So going forward, how will your learning influence your practice?

Martin: Well…. To be honest, the Chinese learning eco-system is completely different from what I have experienced in the ONL program.  There were many teaching and classroom engagement techniques that I picked up through out the course.  The session with Dr. Maha Bali was probably the most dynamic online session I have ever encountered, and I will try to use many of her strategies ad techniques in my own classroom. 

Alistair: You wrote in one of your blogs that there is now a proliferation of MOOOCs in China.   Will you be able to share what you have learned in the ONL program with your Chinese counterpart?

Martin: I will certainly try!  The teaching style in China is still very much a one way street with very little student engagement.  In online classrooms, the presenter / lecturer continues the in-real-life tradition / practice of dictating “knowledge” by giving long uninterrupted lectures using powerpoint slides, with very little use of other materials and minimal learner participation.  

Alistair: Hmmm. 

Martin: Perhaps with these new tricks I have learned in the ONL program, I could gently influence my fellow Chinese instructors to take a more inclusive and learner-centred approach.  

Lars: We would love to see that happen!

Martin: Fingers…..eyes, legs, arms and toes crossed!

Jörg: And what are your thoughts about using technology to enhance learning / teaching in your own context? 

Martin: I think many of the Chinese educational technological tools are really so much more superior and easier to use compared to the ones I have encountered on the ONL course.  It is a real pity the tools are made for the vast Chinese market and not available in other languages.  

Jörg: Perhaps I should learn some Chinese and experiment with the tools!

Martin: Yeah…. we wasted so much time trying to figure out how to use the tools during ONL sessions when I think our energies could have been better used to explore the course topics.  I have seen the power of leveraging technology for online learning, and I will certainly explore the Chinese tools in greater depth and combine the western pedagogy with the Chinese tools to make my lessons more impactful. 

Alistair: That sounds promising. 

Martin: This strawberry jam is really delicious!  I’ll try growing cannabis next to my strawberries next time.  May I have another scone please?

Lars: Of course, knock yourself out!

Jörg: I am so sorry to hear that you feel time was wasted on exploring technology in your ONL group sessions.  Do you have any recommendations to overcome this?

Martin: Yes, I think there should be a compilation of the best and worst practices from the previous ONL sessions for new course participants to read.  To wade through so many many many blogs is impractical.  One of the salient lessons for me would be to have a clear division of labour.   Instead of everyone doing all the same thing, we could task a technologically savvy person to explore the new technology and share all the know-how, while someone who is more adept at doing research share lots of different researching findings.  And during the group meetings, the participants discusses the findings whiles the week’s facilitators moderate the session.  

Alistair: interesting thought.  

Martin: I think it is the cannabis-infused strawberry jam talking here. 

Jörg: Wouldn’t that mean the technology person will have less time to engage in his PBL activities and be “trapped” in figuring out technology stuff for the group?

Martin: A clear division of labour in the ONL course is like functioning in a market economy.  Every economy focuses on something that they have the most advantages producing and trade with another economy.  That way both economies benefit.  

Jörg: What about the participants who want to take this opportunity to explore technology in teaching?

Martin: I say go for it! But for goodness sake, please don’t suggest a technological tool, invest no time in figuring out how it works, and dragging everyone through the course session with you to figure it out.  I think our time can be better used to explore the course content than figuring out new technology.  Why reinvent the wheel when it is not broken?  Go explore in your own time, don’t drag everyone along with you.  

Lars: And what if no one in the group is technologically savvy?

Martin: There are enough tools available out there aren’t there?

Alistair: That’s true. 

Jörg: More strawberry jam, Martin?

Martin: Yes please!!