I cannot believe there was a seminar this Friday. I got the mail the same morning. Why can not you Vogons tell about it? Or mail – or update the WEBSITE? And why do we have this “online information” if it is not updated ????? Why is it not announced in the web? On time?
It is almost deliberate excluding. You do NOT want to have ONL schedules like this. Publish a schedule for the entire semester in advance – times, and also tell where the recordings are to be posted.
All of this is totally hap hazard here. Impossible to follow ONL and to be able to keep up with the info. What an exclusive community. If you do not put up with the rules, you are out.
So, I jumped right in. I wrote on the padlet and added postits. I have added many many comments. And then I hear – (I cannot believe my ears) that people think “some speak all the time”…It is the same people commenting? Well? Is that not what you want? To have ENGAGED students? Now it sounds like “I was bad for being engaged”. I really felt sore. And – what is your problem? Did anyone take your air-space? Speak up yourself then. No – I am not sure about this is a good way to foster learning and network. Too much social BS – Not as inclusive as you think.
Ask all the people why the drop out. There is one for you organizers. I best “I do not have time” will be a major thing. And why? Because people cannot plan. It does not fit the schedule.
So – we need to set this up in advance. Do you want to follow this course? where the seminars are not announced until the same day?
This last post will not have any references. I am exhausted, sad, and bewildered. It started so good – and it ended so… I do not know what to say… Should we be pirates?
I for sure do not want to sit with a chest of gems on an island by myself playing pirate.
So glad our group decided to have one more talk. I hope they read my post.
ONL for me in the future? Undecided.
But I see this as a lesson in “on line socializing”, with a touch of Jante-law back-swing. Yes, I learned a lot.
Play the game – be positive. After all – I love on-line! I love “self-made”. I love meeting new people and learning new things. And some has really been superstars in this context! Thank you for being there!
Topic 5? Lessons learned? for online (new) tools – a group is invaluable. For pedagogic tricks – good seminars (Especially Topic 4 seminar). For the rest? I rather read myself.
“Goodbye – and thanks for all the fish!” by Douglas Adams
3 responses to ““Goodbye – and thanks for all the fish!” Topic 5”
This was a reflexive rant, thank you.
I think that commenting is an invaluable thing, both to give and to get. If asked for, well then it must be expected that someone take it up. As long as it is constructive, go ahead.
Is it a problem that someone use their space to voice criticism? For sure not, that is a necessary part of academic work, as are that the arguments need to be clear and understandable. There might be a bit of a problem with the clarity in your post. A message goes through, but I find it hard to fully interpret as it is cloaked in some form of dismissal of a 12 week relationship.
I got to think about a passage that Paul Spicker once wrote, nothing spectacular in a sociological perspective, but I think it is quite interesting. I got to think about the quote reading your “I rather read myself” statement.
“Myths are important, because they change the way in which people understand problems. It
is a fundamental axiom of sociology that, if people believe something to be true, the belief is true in its social consequences. The idea of the solitary individual is one of the most pervasive myths in western society ….” Spicker, P. (2000) The Welfare State – A general theory, p. 19.
Still, what I really bring with me from thinking about your post is twofold: First that ONL has an aura around it of being a self-evidently positive learning journey, but something which it is necessarily not. Second that an ONL course is not what you get from it, but what you make out of it.
I hope you find some good stuff to read …
/Lars
Hi again! I’ve actually read all of your posts now and found it to be easiest to comment here. As a narrative, it is interesting and joyful to follow you through a process I have to some extent shared with you. In comparison with many of the other reflections, yours provide me with some new thoughts on what happened during the course and the paths our collaborations have taken.
I can definitely see your point of having a scientific basis for discussions and things we present in a forum such as this. But I do think this course have given me some new perspectives on “what counts” in that matter. If you want to share still, what did you hope for when it came to references and scientific basis? Or what were you hoping for when it came to the PBL meetings?
I myself remember imagining that we would have more discussion about the things we had read and maybe compare different approaches or discuss their benefits and drawbacks. What I have learned during ONL is a much more practical approach, and that by having an open almost transitory context, we only make the process difficult by constraining discussions too much. Instead working together on solving problems in whatever way the group can agree on is a way of actually familiarizing myself with the material I’ve read and seeing it in use, by myself and by others. This is to me more valuable than reading by myself – even if it has been a somewhat irregular format. I hope I get to see you around the MDU campus at some point!
Firstly, I am sad to hear that the information was not in place and that you felt excluded. That is all wrong! The dates SHOULD be out before the course even starts. That is what we strive for. Sad that it didn’t happen. Then you felt excluded because you took too much space? That is also sad to hear. In writing I see NO problem with this because the space is rather endless. In meeting we all have to balance this of course, so that everyone’s points are equally met.
You see this course as learning about online socialization, but also about being a pirate? For me higher education should be a little bit as being a pirate: I want us to foster change agents. And how do we do that? By a clear reading instruction? By individual flexible learning? Yes that could be a part of it, but mainly I think we need to do it like this! By Inquiring deep in comfortable groups!
-Thank you for sharing both success and frustrations so openly!
/Lotta