Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.
Hy everyone,
I am Christiane, a postdoctoral researcher from Germany. I am a verterianrian by training and focus on immunology, the body’s system of defense.
Pursuing a career in academia I am concerned with learning and teaching.
Now, I am a participant of ONL 192. Yay!
Before the start of this ONL, I was on vacation, camping. I did not think much about the course until I got back last week. So, I better get started now – what to expect? This is my first blog about my first PBL-based course. There will certainly be a lot of new experiences. I guess I can’t help but learn a lot. 
I actually
consider myself to have a modern concept of learning and teaching that takes individual
learning types into account. In my opinion, teaching and learning will
inevitably involve digital options and online-based learning more and more as life
involved digital options more and more. However, I have little experience with
these topics. I could now just blame the conservative institutions I have
mainly worked at, but that is likely a bit too simple. So, do I really have a
modern concept of learning? – And of teaching? Just because I do not use
old-fashioned projectors and try to make lectures (more) interactive does this
suffice to get me up to date? – We will see about that.
I have had
an introduction to PBL for lecturers here, at the university. That half-day
seminar provided a rough idea of how PBL works, but still I have never
participated in PBL as a learner. The ONL is a great opportunity to do that
now, as I would like to imply PBL in my teaching as a facilitator and I
strongly believe you should ideally have learning experience with the methods
you use in teaching. Well, ideally. There are many cases when this is
not possible, but I still like to aim for the ideal.
This gets
me to another point I have been wondering about: Do I have sufficient digital
literacy for online based learning? How would one know? In blended learning
classes or using online platforms to provide teaching material I have not had
problems, so far. If I have a choice, however, I prefer ‘regular’ seminars over
online classes, usually. I don’t really think this will change, but I am very
likely unaware of many options online-based learning can provide. So, I am looking
forward to ONL to understand more about the opportunities and get a better handle
on where to imply online-based learning and PBL.
And then, ‘connecting’
is up now. Usually, I get to know people in person, and then connect
with them online. This time, we will connect online. I somewhat expect that to
affect the relationship within the group and with single participants. Spontaneously,
I would guess that you get to know people better if you meet in person, but
maybe we just think that? Maybe the online platform is a great chance to get to
know people in a less biased way than in everyday life? I am not sure If one
would even realize if this was the case, but we might find out. I am looking
forward to the new experience!
