When was the last time I cooked a nice dinner together with a group of friends? I know for sure that it must have been a rather long time ago. And then along comes ONL topic 3 and with it our topic leads Christian and Lynette who proposed a nice little social learning experiment for our group. We did not actually prepare food together, but what we did cook up was at least as fun and inspiring – and actually a really interesting experience of a kind of social learning that was new to me: We spent the past two weeks engaging with the material proposed for this topic with the help of the social annotation tool perusall. By (as a group) actively trying out a tool dedicated to enhancing asynchronous social learning, we added an experimental, practical approach to our theoretical reading on the matter – and we continuously reflected on both aspects during our (synchronous) Zoom sessions as well as (asynchronously) in the FISh document. 

I think that the kitchen metaphor that we picked in our presentation video works well to describe how I felt about it all: The entire process was actually a lot like trying out a promising recipe for the very first time. Being a little nervous about the outcome during preparation (Will it all work out as planned? Did I get the instructions right? Is it going to suit my tastes at all?), filing mental notes for “next time” (What can be done differently to fine tune the dish and make it even better?), being super proud of the final dish when it is served in the end… 

But the experiment was not just rewarding in terms of a nice social activity – it actually helped me get a deeper understanding of the literature and videos we worked with, as I did not only have my own thoughts and interpretations to go on but also got to dive into the thoughts of others, exchange ideas with them and discuss both strengths and weaknesses of the material. I think there are a lot of applications for this kind of work in my teaching, especially now that i only teach online and opportunities for social interaction among the students are few and far between outside my (virtual) classroom. I can’t wait to try this on them and see if they like it, too! 🙂