I have written a few blogs posts before, but always in a professional context as accounts of things done. This is the first dipping of a toe into the water of more personal blogging. Fortunately, within the ONL 212 course, there is no real question of what to write about, and even the first meeting with the rest of my PBL group gave me plenty to think about in the context of the questions proposed for the blog.
The idea of digital visitor and digital resident [a] is something I have come across before. Where I fall on this varies with context and is largely needs-driven. Moreover, as turned up frequently in the PBL (problem based learning) group, the purpose of an online action is crucial. If we are doing something, then why?
ONL requires that I change my online presence to a more public one, especially with this personal blog (things I think). This part of my online presence will be connected to me more directly, read by people who know me from a particular (even synchronous) context, and require continued activity without pre-provided structure. My online (largely asynchronous) presence overlaps with my face-to-face (synchronous) presence.
From the first discussions, this seems to be a common concern and practice – at least for those who are not digital residents. That social norms may drive a level of ambivalence to personal privacy [b] is something that makes intuitive sense, but that does not mean that I will embrace said social norms more than I already have, and I may well choose to do the opposite.
The PBL structure itself is also a completely new experience. I have been aware of PBL for a long time, but it has always been intriguing but alien. Moreover without experience (now being ganed), it has been difficult to see how PBL might fit into established educational norms for the discipline areas with which I am most familiar. From the first two weeks of PBL group work, I have a deeper understanding of the origins of my scepticism towards the relevance of PBL to the context that I am most familiar with. To implement PBL would require a significant change in education norms and so long as success continues to be judged on obtaining a pre-determined ‘correct’ technical answer to an instructor-determined question or problem, PBL will not appropriate to the educational format.
Being part of a PBL group as a student has also helped me understand what difficulties and uncertainties students may experience, particularly in the early stages. While we are ‘advanced’ or ‘mature’ learners, able to self-regulate, undergraduate students are unlikely to have sufficient experience to behave as we do without a strict structure. It is interesting to look back on the week and consider where explicit structure, expectations and direction may be relevant or helpful and yet not constrain students to a pre-determined route. Moreover, the large amount of control we have over our outputs and our approaches to a topic heavily rely on our personal experiences which, for me, is an unusual consideration for learning. A human ecology model for learning [c] provides a structure that enables me to appreciate these experiences and be specific about ideas that others have recounted without reference.
[a] White, D. & Le Cornu, A. (2011) Visitors and residents: A new typology for online engagement. First Monday, 16(9)
[b] Riyanto Y. E., Zhang J. (2020) Diminishing personal information privacy weakens image concerns. PLoS ONE 15(4): e0232037.
[c] Kek, M. & Huijser, H. (2015). 21st century skills: problem based learning and the University of the Future. Paper Third 21st Century Academic Forum Conference, Harvard, Boston, USA.
