1. I feel like a digital resident, and I think of the online sphere as a world in it’s own, in which I live as much as the real world. I think of social media for example as communities in a very tangible way, like places I visit.
2. Creating a sense of community is harder than it seems. For me personally, I initially felt intimidated in the zoom room and preferred not to speak as much. I think it might have been because I missed the first week, and hence probably missed parts of the “getting to know each other”-activities. Some people in the group were more comfortable with taking their space, which meant they also used that space and spoke more than others. I also believe Garrisons words are relevant: “A face to face environment can have a dampening effect on critical discourse and create an environment of “pathological politeness”.
3. When planning courses it’s important to sift through the intended activities and choose only the most important ones. As a student in the ONL course I felt overwhelmed with all the activities that were presented. I know that we were not supposed to take part in all of them, but that really doesn’t change how I felt as a student. It was a constant case of “FOMO” – fear of missing out. I didn’t take part of the tweetchats, which made me wonder which interesting insights that were expressed in that forum. I didn’t read all the other students comments in the padlets, which made me feel like a bad co-student. There wasn’t enough time for me to read all the suggested reading, which made me feel like I didn’t do my homework. I had difficulties to attend the seminars, because it was during work hours and I was in meetings, and that made me feel like a teenager skipping classes. I felt like everyone in my group knew more than I did (which they probably do anyway since they seemed extremely competent and I was so impressed by their blog posts).
4. When designing a course based on cases, which I very much enjoy, it’s important that the suggested reading or viewing material is closely related to the scenario. Otherwise the students get “off track” and end up discussing things that aren’t actually what they’re supposed to discuss – even if it’s interesting and in itself part of a learning journey.
