Hejsan nätverk! The first topic of ONL 202 is now almost completed. This topic was focused on online participation and digital literacies. Our group, Group 13, has worked on a scenario about a teacher who is struggling to engage into digitalized participation in the context of an online course. The FISh (Focus – Investigate – Share) approach [1] has been employed for the analysis. Through online meetings, analysis tools and lots of brainstorming, the group was able to understand the challenges of digitalization in education.
This first topic has been a challenging but at the same time interesting activity, since, apart from the analysis itself, it required the establishment of communication channels and development of chemistry within the team. I believe it was successful!
While working on the topic, I’ve tried to put myself in the position of the confused teacher. At MDH, I work as Post-Doctoral Researcher, which also involves teaching. Sweden has anyway been up to date when it comes to online education, however, 2020 has been the year of transformation of many courses, from physical to digital. Although I am competent in terms of online participation and digital literacies in the work aspect, I’m realizing that I learn new things every day! Exciting! ONL is of course a major source of inspiration.
On the other hand, I’m someone who does not use social media in personal life, as I appreciate real contact and physical meetings. Equally, I enjoy teaching in the classroom and physically interacting with the learners. Hence, I still tend to be a bit skeptical about over-digitalizing education and personal life. Ι haven’t yet figured out what is best, but it is certainly a period of realization for all of us. And also an opportunity to discover the pros and cons of each side and perhaps, determine a better balance for the years to come.
[1] Beckingham, S. and Nerantzi, C., 2015. Scaling-up open CPD for teachers in higher education using a snowballing approach. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practices, 3(1), pp.109-121.
