Topic 5: What have I learned during ONL?

What are the most important things you have learned through your engagement in the ONL course? Why?

• As I actually don’t even own a degree in pedagogy this has probably been more of an introduction to that whole topic than for most other learners. But what an introduction it has been. Even if we ignore the different topics, simply taking a PBL course has been a real eye opener for me and If I were to choose I would make this mandatory for every teacher at my school. How can one design a good online course if one hasn’t attended one?
• Of all the topics, the things that come to mind is the part about Creative Commons, Open Education Resources, how to avoid social loafing and finally how to design an optimal course using what we learned during the pandemic and mixing it with good teaching design, such as Community of Inquiry.

How will your learning influence your practice?

• I’d say that I finally understand what people mean when they say that we should stop talking about online pedagogy and instead just call it pedagogy. It’s not about the tools. Actually, as I stated during the last topic, I hope that educators finally have realized how few tools they really need in order to teach. A laptop, a LMS and Google Workspace basically. 

What are your thoughts about using technology to enhance learning/teaching in your own context?

• As I work in ICT it’s my job to work with the physical tools in the classroom. Despite that, I do think that we shouldn’t be buying technology for the sake of technology. Using technology in combination with good teaching design we can give learners not just an educational experience that is a bit more flexible than old school classroom teaching (and pedagogically worse), but instead an experience that really is better in every way.

What are you going to do as a result of your involvement in ONL? Why?

• I will write a piece about this course for our staff and also advertise it to our teachers. 

What suggestions do you have (activities and/or in general) for the development of eLearning in your own teaching or context?

• As mentioned earlier: don’t overwhelm yourself by constantly changing everything in the way you teach. Keep the number of tools down to a minimum but get to know them well. As I work in ICT I also should mention: never underestimate the importance of good sound quality, i.e. a good microphone and good acoustics.