So, I’m in the
ONL192 online course and this is my first experience with online
learning.
Or is it really? Now
when thinking about it I realize that I everyday use the internet to
learn loads of different things. Both practical stuff where the
searchability and video format are incredibly powerful tools,
detailed information that I could easily but don’t bother to look
up using other (more credible?) sources like an encyclopedia, and
things that I only learn about because a link attracts my attention
while reading about something completely different. In this way maybe
the internet is like a huge mindmap where everything is connected by
links. I don’t know if it’s true but I heard that every human
knows each other by a distance of maximum of six people, could the
same be true for the internet?
So this really is
not my first experience with online learning, but maybe it’s my
first online teaching experience?
Well, even though
I’m primarily a lurker I do occasionally write in forums. This
happens when someone asks a question and I feel that I have a very
good (and not too obvious) answer or solution. Obviously this is a
kind of teaching but unfortunately I very rarely have the commitment
to keep answering follow up questions. This is actually really shitty
behavior of me as it limits the usefulness of the forum, both for the
person asking for help or advice but especially for everyone else,
lurkers like me, that come to the forum way after the conversation
has ended but seek guidance or knowledge from the flow of information
that took place.
I also did work
quite a bit with websites and online presentation. This is definitely
an area which is extremely creative and a lot of fun to dabble in but
at the same time it made me realize how difficult it is to make a
logically structured and highly accessible webpage.
Right now, I feel
that two questions inspired by the above mentioned scearios will be
the primary focus for me during this course.
1: How could I
change my attitude and behavior in order to be a more effective
online teacher or distributor of knowledge?
2: What is the most
appropriate and accesible way to structure knowledge online? I’m
quite sure that it’s very different from how information is spread
using more traditional media.
For the first topic
we used free software to make a mindmap. It will be highly
interesting and satisfying spending the next months learning what
other tools and possibilities are out there.