This course has been for me a very interesting
journey. In the beginning, I didn’t even understand what the course was about.
It was highly important that we met and fixed everything we needed (google
drive, blogpage etc). My digital literacies were not advanced and this first
part was necessary. 

I learnt that there are many digital literacies and
that I was both a visitor and resident in the digital space in different
contexts. That was encouraging as I realized that I could improve my different
literacies in order to be a better teacher and facilitator. I also realized
that it takes time to learn the digital space as it happens with every foreign
language. That means that I believe that both the resident/visitor theory and
the immigrant/native theory are valid and should be appreciated; we don’t have
to choose.

I have learnt a lot of new things not only concerning
online learning but also learning in general. The community of inquiry with the
cognitive, social and teaching presences, the combination of synchronous and
asynchronous activities enhancing both discussion and reflection as well as
specific digital tools, making the theoretical frameworks possible to implement,
are the most important things I have learnt.

The community of inquiry as well as other theoretical
frameworks (five stages etc) have already influenced my practice. I believe
that we need to change our seminars from in-person only, as they are now, to
blended, integrating both synchronous activities (online and face-to-face) and
asynchronous online activities giving thereby more time for reflection and
asynchronous interaction. 

We already use problem-based learning in our seminars,
but I now realize even more the importance of this learning method compared to
more traditional ones. We ‘solve’ all the problems and answer all the questions
synchronously during the meeting. In the future, I intend to leave some
questions unanswered. The students should reflect about these questions and
contribute with their answers to a collaborative online tool. Further, all
students (6-8) should comment all the other contributions. Such, we will
advance as a group from cooperation to genuine interaction and collaboration.

I have also already somewhat modified my role in our
seminars acting more as a facilitator and less as a traditional teacher. Our
discussions have been even more risk free and open. I am constantly trying to
enhance the cognitive, social and teaching presences in all our students and I
am sure that this will lead to deeper learning.

I also believe that it is possible to create efficient
communities of inquiry even if the synchronous activities are not face-to-face.
Online meetings have many advantages and we should not consider them as inferior
compared to face-to-face meetings. Importantly, they are also environmentally
friendly as we don’t need to travel. My intention is to integrate online synchronous
activities in our course.