When I signed up for the ONL211 course I had not really any clear idea of what I was in for. To be honest, I was expecting something a little bit more traditional and something certainly more boring. At some times also something a bit less time consuming, although I think I managed to balance the time aspect quite well in the end.
I think it is safe to say it has been quite a ride. The time just rushed by, while on the other hand, looking back at the first meetings, I was really confused and feel I have learned a lot. One thing with this type of learning – at least I think that is what it has to do with – is that it can be hard to put your finger on exactly what you have learned. But one thing I brought up when reflecting with the group is also a change in attitude. I think I had a lot of prejudices towards on-line learning tools when starting. It might sound silly, but that is how it is. For example Twitter I had no interest in, although I had briefly tried it but (with an account that was not my private one), but now I tweet every now and then for my workplace (I still don’t do private tweets, as I think that would lead to one more time-consuming internet habit, and having an active art account on Instagram already takes up too much time!).
When we started our PBL group, we made a decision to try a new tool each time. Sometimes we even used two tools for the same assignment, one for supporting the in-group work (like, for instance, padlet or mentimeter). This has naturally lead me to accustoming myself to using on-line learning tools and I see my own prejudices drop away, while I instead think about how I could use this or that tool in my own work, and whether it would help the goal of learning or just cause confusing with using too many tools (that is also always a real risk, I think!).
I still have to figure out how to blend these technological tools with classroom situations. Having come into the world of teaching during the COVID-19 era, I have no experience of teaching in a classroom yet. We are, however, planning to get back to campus in Autumn, so things might be changing soon! It will be an interesting experience and kind of like starting at the new workplace all over again! Probably the synchronous activities will take place in the classroom and the asynchronous outside it, but it could be interesting to see if students could be lured into taking part in, for example, a tweetchat.
Of course I have also learned from the more theoretical aspects of the course. I especially enjoyed the part about communities of practice and it got me thinking about how the theory could be put to practice also outside work – I mentioned back then having been part of communities of practice outside the learning context, but with all this theory in mind things could be made more consciously and effectively.
As you can probably tell from all this, the ONL experience has been a tremendously positive one for me and for that I also have to thank my PBL group. There has been a kind of mutual understanding within the group from the first meeting, with everyone taking part actively and all being very driven and supportive of each other. I don’t know if things always work out that well – and I have understood that they do not necessarily, as I’ve spoken to others about it – but it is very far from what doing group efforts back in school seemed to be, when usually most task ended up with one person and others did nothing.
Thank you, ONL, for the experience!
