Core Activity 9.1 Desktop Research into Blogs

In this activity, I studied several papers, visited Warwick University's Website and Blog listings, reviewed a number of Blog accounts on Blogger.com, and considered the Zoe Corbyn Times HE article. Several educational uses of blogging are:

Student
1.Reflection:
Individual maintenance of a blog to enhance reflective thinking. Students at universities like Warwick and the Open Univerisity are encouraged to keep a blog. These can be used to encourage reflective thinking, and to develop skills of self expression and articulation. "A blog offers interaction with reflective comments and also the ability to interlink to related ideas." (Duffy et al, 2006)

2.Organisation of Learning:

Some students find that the structure of blogs provides them with helpful functionality to organise their ideas. Brady (2005   ) reports "For some bloggers their blog is a way of keeping notes and useful URLs in an organised way." These functions are supported by the capability of tagging of blogs, as well as being able to hyperlink to other web based documents and blogs.

Issues:
In both of the above cases there are a number of potential pitfalls;

• the public nature of the blog raises issues of confidentiality and privacy
• learners may be reluctant/nervous to publish their thoughts
• the learner must be able to cope with the technology/software
• the learner must develop skills of self expression and articulation

Group
3. Collect/Give Feedback:
Where blogging is added as part of the course structure, as it is in the OU, students can be encouraged to comment on each others' work and to provide feedback. This enables them to learn critical review skills, and also to experience the use of peer review.

Issues:
However, the same learner reluctance that was mentioned in 1 and 2 above may well come into play. The use of blogs as part of a course requires an understanding on the teacher's part of the underlying pedagogical needs of the case. Duffy et al (2006) explain "Which tools are used by learners and teachers, and whether such tools will be used at all, will always depend on the specific pedagogical needs of a teaching situation."

Teacher
4. Additional Resources

Some teachers use their blog to post additional information and references that emerge as being of interest from class or online discussions. In blogs such as Peter Smith's Logic Matters blog http://www.logicmatters.net/, lecturers share their latest research and engage in discussions with readers. As well as providing a forum for academic expression, this application of blogging enables teachers to model good practice in blogging to their students.

Issues:
One potential issue with this use of blogs is that a teacher may be concerned about falling foul of the politics of their academic institution, by expressing ideas that are judged inappropriate
Other academics are anxious that original research will be plagiarised by others.
In order to be willing to engage in this practice, academics require technology skills

5. Supervision
In courses in which students use blogs to record their learning, teachers are in a position to conduct formative assessment of students' work. I have myself experienced the benefit of timely and focused tutor comments on my published work, enabling much swifter lessons to be learned.

Issues:
Students who sense that their work is being checked may be more reluctant to express opinions

And in conclusion.....

The explosion in the use of blogs in every aspect of life (personal, corporate, political, journalistic etc) makes their use in education increasingly compelling. "It could be argued that it is the connective and contributive attributes of blogging that has caused it to spread so virally throughout the web" (Brady, 2005) The speed of their take up seems to be turning them increasingly into an everyday tool of reflection, and as educators, we are likely to miss a trick if we do not wrestle with the incorporation of blogging into our pedagogy.

Brady, M. (2005) 'Blogging: Personal participation in public knowledge-building on the web.' In 'Participating in the knowledge society: Researchers beyond the university walls'. R. Finnegan. London, Palgrave Macmillan.

Duffy, Peter D. and Bruns, Axel (2006) The Use of Blogs, Wikis and RSS in Education: A Conversation of Possibilities. In: Online Learning and Teaching Conference 2006, 26 Sep. 2006, Brisbane.

Farmer,J. and Bartlett-Bragg, A. (2005) Blogs at anywhere: High fidelity online communication, ASCILITE, www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/brisbane05/blogs/proceedings/22_Farmer.pdf (accessed 10th January 2010)

Times Higher Education - By the blog: academics tread carefully

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=403827 Zoe Zoe Corbyn, 9 October 2008, Accessed 7th January 2010.

Evidencing Technology Related Competencies: MMM

Notes from H808 briefing documents:

• The evidence of technology-related competency you produce needs to demonstrate the ability to: learn about using a new piece of software or a new technology
• appreciate some key features as they relate to your own educational practice or context
• identify potential issues for other users

During the course of H808, I have experimented with several new technological applications which I intend to incorporate into my professional practice; the most important of these are podcasting, collaboration on Google Docs and Eluminate VLE.

Podcasting

In Block 8, part 1, I decided to experiment with creating and uploading a podcast. This is a technology that I have not used professionally before, and looks very promising as a contribution to my PDP goal of increasing the range of technology used on my own Distance Learning Programme.

Method

I created the podcast very simply on a portable digital recorder, and then uploaded the file to my pc, tidying up the audio quality by using WavePad Sound Editor. I then converted the file from a WMA file to an MP3 file using switch pad sound converter.

The next step was to upload the mp3 file to my own website storage file, and I was then able to create a link to this file from the Technology page of my e-portfolio.

I subsequently discovered that I may have been better supported in this effort by the podbean platform, which many of my fellow H808 students used for this exercise. I certainly intend to continue to explore the podcast options after H808.

Lessons for my own practice

Reviewing the work of others and my experience of creating a podcast, I have made a number of resolutions which I am keen to apply when I incorporate their use into future Distance Learning Programmes.

1. Be absolutely clear the intended audience of the podcast, and how the subject matter contributes to the DL programme
2. Target the content at that audience, taking account of their existing level of knowledge and any communication or understanding issues that may exist
3. Have a clear structure for the podcast, and let the listener know this
4. It is preferable to have more than one speaker, and for the speakers to engage with each other using a conversational style
5. Restrict the length of each podcast to no more than around 20 minutes
6. Adopt and engaging and enthusiastic tone of speaking
7. Offer some kind of backup notes, or document for collecting thoughts

I am left feeling that podcasts could be an extremely valuable technology which will upgrade our current Distance Learning Programme. My colleagues, who tend to lean towards a transmission approach to teaching, will find that an acceptable way to ensure that the key messages are conveyed to students. This will free up live Webinar sessions for discussion and question and answer sessions, which I believe is a more appropriate use of this dynamic medium. We can also easily update, and add to the podcast library based on student demand.

Collaboration on Google Docs

Google Docs has been used on several occasions in H808 by my colleagues. Alice Kearly created one to help the group when we attempted to collaborate around a group discussion in Block 3, but my most successful application was when Adelaida and Eugene set up a grid to help us assess our case studies against e-learning principles.

As a result of these experiences, I have attempted to use Google Docs with my own colleagues, with varying degrees of success. My most successful was with my Distance Learning Students, who are learning about our company's organisation diagnostic model. This will need to be translated into Spanish, and the translator will require a glossary of terms to help them do a good job. I therefore posted the full diagnostic on Google Docs, and invited all the students to identify phrases that they think require greater explanation. Four students joined in, including one who was not a Spanish speaker.

Having identified the phrases to be included in the glossary, I have now invited all the students to have a go at articulating short descriptions of these phrases so that we can create a much richer glossary than I would have been able to create alone. It has also occurred to me that this is actually an exercise which all students would benefit from - it will surface just how much of what they have learned they really understand!!

Eluminate

This is a VLE, which enables synchronous as well as asynchronous communication, and which operates using VoiP. Having heard about its use from my H808 Tutor, I signed up to attend a webinar that was hosted by CMALT. Not only does this seem to be a seriously viable and less costly platform for our DL Programme, it also has additional features, such a the virtual whiteboard which offer us extra functionality. I am optimistic that the cost benefit argument will make it attractive to my (reluctant to change!) colleagues, and having made the switch, I can gradually take advantage of the extra functionality for teaching and learning purposes.

Core Activity 7.3 Approaches to assessment in my setting

The background research on this subject highlighted a number of aspects of assessment that I want to incorporate in my practice.

 

In the PLOT webspace, they refer to a LAMP of learning model which has seven stages. from bottom to top, the stages are; use, connect, internalise, synthesis, apply and use. Progression through these stages leads to Deep Learning, and puts students in a position to interpret and adapt their learning to suit their own situation. Learning activities are designed to prompt learning through these various stages.

 

This progression is essential in my situation, where consultants sign up for training so that they can incorporate our new organisation model into their existing practice. The PLOT website offers a series of structured assessment and personal planning tools to underpin this approach.

 

Burgess has an excellent structure for creating personal development plans around identified areas of weakness.

1 Learning Objective

2 How will you work towards this

3 How will you know about your progress

4 Progress in reaching objective

5 Evidence

6 What got in the way

7 Further work needed

 

Step 5 requires evidence of progress, which enables the learner to create revised learning plans, taking account of step 6 (what got in the way).

 

In my experience in business, tangible evidence is often absent from the assessment process of an individual's performance. Even in peer assessed situations gut-feel scoring is much more typical and tends to lack objectivity. A client of mine has recently introduced a succession planning process in her company which attempts to overcome this assessment weakness. The leadership competences that have been identified for the future have a spectrum of descriptions which are assigned to be low, medium or high performance indicators. Tangible evidence of performance against the competency spectrum is required in the assessment process with the rating being given after consideration of this evidence. Human Resource staff have been trained to use a positive questioning process with managers who are doing the assessing to ensure the robustness of this evidence.

 

'So what' for my learning disciplines?

1. 
   
   Establishing meaningful criteria against which to assess progress and make action plans is essential. These can be compared against the LAMP model. As I assemble my H808 e-portfolio, I will consider the extent to which the goals I have set myself will provide me with the right framework and revise as appropriate. 
2. 
   
   The PDP structure that Burgess recommends also looks very valuable.
3. 
   
   Incorporating peer review of my progress, drawing on feedback from colleagues is a genuine option for me. I hope that this review process may also serve to educate and inform my colleagues about the potential of new approaches to learning.

 

References:

Burgess, H (n.d.) Self and Peer Assessment (online), The Higher Education Academy: Social Work and Social Policy (SWAP). Available from: http://sorubank.ege.edu.tr/~bouo/DLUE/Chapter-08/Chapter-8-makaleler/Assessment%202_%20Self%20and%20peer%20assessment.htm (accessed 19 August 2009). Professional Learning Online Tool (n.d.) Demo (online). Available from: http://www.plotpd.com/Demonstration/Demonstration.htm (accessed 20 December 2009).

 

Reflective practice and action?

In the model of situational learning presented by Dealtry (2004) , I find myself involved quite regularly in all four categories of learning.

Situation
		Familiar	Unfamiliar
Learning task	Familiar	A A learning task in an area you know well (low risk)	B A familiar learning task but applying it to a new situation (moderate risk)
	Unfamiliar	C An unfamiliar learning task but in a familiar work situation (moderate risk)	D New learning in a new part of the organisation (high risk)

In my case, Box A represents courses of mine that are popular and well established, which customers request on a regular basis. The learning that takes place on/after these events is driven by feedback from participants, which encourage me to consider making small modifications to the way I facilitate the course. Box B learning takes place when one of these familiar and popular courses is booked by a new client. The preparation needed in this case is to research the new context, including interviewing typical course delegates. This research provides material for reflection, which will be converted into modifications to the way that the course is delivered; content, style, duration, assessment etc. Both Box A and Box B are well established routines in my company. Box C is my company's preferred forum for Product Development. We get feedback from our regular market research that there is a potential demand for a 'new' course. Having conducted our research, we would aim to find an existing client who would be willing to partner us in prototyping the event. This means that the only learning that needs to take place is learning about the impact of the new course. Box D is altogether more risky, and would not be my chosen place of learning. However, in order to make that Box as safe as possible, putting a lot of effort (would that be reflection?) into getting to know the context by researching and interviewing the client's business, invariably gives a new course a better chance of success.

The Clegg et al (2002) model of reflective practice in academics has less obvious application in my practice.

	Action	Reflection
Immediate	A Immediate action that follows workshops, often characterised by an instrumentalist approach to instruction	B Reflection-on-action, most usually by experienced practitioners with relevant and immediate opportunities for reflection
Deferred	C Action following reflection does not happen because there is no immediate opportunity to put anything into practice	D Reflection following action is often prompted by formal assessment processes – this also happens after a period of rumination

Reflection takes place in a number of situations; following an event, to respond to a new client need, to respond to competition in the market place, to create a new dynamic in my own business, as a result of fresh research, reading etc. 

Perhaps because my clients are business people, there is a tendency to value tangible ideas, rather than theoretical ones, and whilst many clients require a report at the end of a course or courses, they would expect a series of action recommendations based on our experience. That seems to me to put these reflections in Clegg et al's Boxes B and D. However, in both cases the reflection would result in action, so the separation of these two activities feels forced in my situation.

One other situtation bears consideration; reflection to stimulate action. In my experience, committing to make a presentation or facilitate a course on an unfamiliar subject is a valuable method of forcing myself (or colleagues) seriously to engage in Deep Learning about a subject, and to integrate it into my existing knowledge base. 

Both of these models (Dealtry, 2004 and Clegg et al, 2002) have reflective journals as a key mechanism through which reflection takes place. In my case, summaries of my learning are made, but rarely purely as a learning journal. Much more typical is that the learning is recorded as part of the report given to a client, or appears when the next proposal for a course of a similar type is written for a new client. This may practice may lack academic rigour, but in my experience, it does inform and support the incorporation of my learning into future projects. This enables me to discover whether my reflections had any validity. However, the weakness of this approach means that the drive towards CPD is left to chance.

In creating my e-portfolio for H808, I hope to experiment with creating new routines around reflection that I can incorporate in my professional career.

References

Clegg, S., Tan, J. and Saeidi, S. (2002) ‘Reflecting or acting? Reflective practice and continuing professional development in higher education’ (online), Reflective Practice, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 131–46. Available from: http://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14623940220129924 (accessed 4th December 2009).
Dealtry, R. (2004) ‘Professional practice: the savvy learner’ (online), Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 16, no. 1/2, pp. 101–109. Available from: http://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13665620410521567 (accessed 3rd December 2009).

My own professional values.

My beliefs:

• When people are able to do work that matters (paid or unpaid) they feel useful members of society and therefore feel good about themselves as human beings
• People doing work that matters make a difference to businesses and organisations enabling them to do well
• As a result, society benefits from the above virtuous circle
• Everyone can improve their personal skills and performance, as long as they are willing to take responsibility for this change
• As a learning professional, my job is not only to help people to learn, but also to help them to see the benefit of learning

My professional values therefore include the following:

1. Maintain and develop my skills as a learning professional in business
2. Take an active interest in the context in which my clients are operating
3. Promote excellence in all of my professional interventions
4. Embrace innovation as a key technique in professional and business development 
5. Provide relevant and useful tools and learning experiences to support clients in their pursuit of excellence
6. Keep up to date with technology so that I can offer enhanced learning experiences for my clients 
7. Contribute to an extended global community through which best pratice and learning can be shared
8. Above all, give great service that clients love;-)

Core Activity 5.5 LSN certification

Having reviewed the CMALT and LSN E-learning competency frameworks, it appears to me that each approaches the challenge from a different angle; the ALT approach focusing more on adding learning on to technology skills and the LSN focusing more on adding technology to learning skills. The LSN approach fits most closely to my own situation, where I am aiming to add an e-learning dimension to my learning portfolio. I have examined how my PDP outcomes might earn me credit under the LSN accreditation scheme.

Not surprisingly, since my learning goals are focused on a current live e-learning programme, the majority of my goals fit under the Practitioner section of the Framework, but since the programme is a pioneering one in my own company, there are also a few design, leadership and staff development angles that will emerge from this PDP.

1. Awareness of Students and their learning needs
My plans to increase my awareness of student knowledge and special needs and to incorporate the learning into future programmes sits under the following LSN competencies:
LSN Competencies:
Practitioner: induct and guide learners entering and e-learning programme.
Developer: Develop e-learning materials and content
Core:What systems, resources and support are required for implementation

2 Creating the right online atmosphere
My plan to monitor and respond to learner participation and interactions fits under the following LSN competencies:
LSN Competencies:
Practitioner: monitor utilization of e-learning and related technologies
Practitioner: Interact with e-learners online/monitor utilization of e-learning and related technologies

3 Generating stickability
The study on learner motivation will qualify under the following LSN competency:
LSN Competency:
Practitioner: monitor utilization of e-learning and related technologies

4 Ability to use IT appropriately
4a Understanding of online course design: how to write online teaching material, how to design online activities, how to transform teaching or training material for the online environment.
LSN Competencies:
Design and Planning: Design and plan programmes that incorporate an e-learning component.
Practitioner: Identify resources for e-learning interventions/establish an e-learning environment.

4b Experience of audio and visual facilities of the web; for example, Netmeeting, Skype, digital photos, webcasting, podcasting
 LSN Competency:
Practitioner: Use specific e-learning tools relating to one’s own work role

4c Understanding of the different text-based communication systems: computer conferencing, bulletin boards, listserves etc
LSN Competency:
Practitioner: Use specific e-learning tools relating to one’s own work role

4d Skill in developing online community: what works and what doesn’t; providing focus, animating online groups, developing collaborative activities
LSN Competency:
Practitioner: Monitor utilization of e-learning packages and assessing effectiveness

5 Student Assessment
5a&b Ability to mark to the department’s standards
LSN Competency:-leadership: Evaluate performance of e-learning systems, tools, policies and procedures.

5c Written feedback on assignments
LSN Competency:
Practitioner: Interact with e-learners online in…..assessment roles.

6a Steps taken to improve your teaching
LSN Competency:
Advisor: Support staff development in e-learning.

7 Organisation and record-keeping
I am not convinced that this objective is specific to an e-learning goal.

8 Collaboration with teaching colleagues
LSN Competency:
Design and planning: Support staff development in e-learning.

EC: Web Tutorial 4 Some random thoughts

The fourth and final FSW web tutorial focused on the Excellence audit results and how to interpret them. As pre-work, delegates were all asked to complete the audit themselves, so that they could understand the experience their clients will be going through. They were also provided with results from  a real audit, and were asked to read through the practitioners guide section on the audit, and to begin to work out how they would interpret the data.
From the outset, it was clear that a couple, notably Gary and Berta, had spent time studying the data. Others may well have done the same, but did not speak out so confidently in the discussions.
The content delivered by us was quite significant, and I am still very thoughtful about whether this was the best way to deliver the material. For those who had studied the case study, it was probably fine, but others may have been a bit overwhelmed.
The dilemma over whether we should present any content in the webinar format is still on my mind. We will be issuing feedback questions to investigate the experience of the learners, and I am most interested to explore this question. There is no doubt that the students are hungry for input, but I am wondering whether that input needs to be more driven by their questions than by our description of our model.

TMA 1, What was Different?

TMA 1 was the first experience of putting together an assessed academic document in my new 'e-portfolio' era. I want to step back here and think about what was different, compared to my previous H802 and H804 experiences of TMAs.


The TMA 1 fell into two parts, one of which was a reflective summary, and the other of which was a more traditional critical reflection on the main learning of Blocks 1-4 of the course. 


What was noticeable to me was that, as I had gradually cottoned on to the discipline of recording, organising and tagging my course work, the orderliness of my TMA reflections improved. So the least well organised thinking was from blocks 1 and 2 of H808, when I had really failed to grasp the full significance of what the modules were meant to be teaching me. This was a point that I had picked up in a couple of earlier blogs.


The reflective summary felt a great deal easier to complete than the normal academic assignment, as I had kept a pretty good record of my thoughts using my blog right from the very start. I suspect the other reason that it was easier was that I was working with material that had come from my own head, rather than having to describe material that is presented by others. 


A second piece of learning, picked up from previous H80X experience, was that in my planning for the TMA, I outlined the main sections of the assignment, and limited myself to the right general proportion of words per section, in order to meet the TMA requirements. Although there then had to be some editing and reshaping of the final version, I am convinced that I wasted much less time than previously on too many words.


Another discipline that was new was that, having outlined the main sections of the assignment, I left the sections that I thought were the easiest (usually the introductory sections!) until the end, beginning with those where there were the most significant 'gaps' in my thinking. This had the emotional effect of me feeling relieved the closer I got to the finishing line - rather than the opposite effect of feeling like the steepest hills were still left to climb!


One slight confusion was that I have material stored in a few different places. I am tending to gravitate towards Google apps as the main organising centre for my thoughts, as it is such a ubiquitous application, and is incredibly easy to access. However, the formats and range of files types supported do make its use a bit limited. And the fact that the labelling of documents across the Google apps family is not identical is a bit frustrating. But I suspect the main issue for me to come to terms with is the need to be orderly right from the outset - not a natural mind set for me, as I have reflected previously.


So the mental notes to carry forward for the rest of H808 (and maybe my life?!) are;

1. When reading and studying, store and oraganise new material with future use in mind (TMA/EC/work projects)
2. At the outset of every piece of academic work, be clear what I want to get from the activity
3. Where word limits apply to a piece of work, set these limits at the "organising of thoughts" stage
4. Where possible, convert outside inputs (academic or otherwise) into a blog posting, so that these thoughts can begin to be incorporated into my own more fully.

In conclusion, I suspect that the big breakthrough on TMA1 was that being more organised makes the compilation of thinking for TMAs much more efficient. It remains to be seen whether the quality of what was produced is as good as, or better than, previous attempts;-)

My Mental Block around E-Portfolios

The first six weeks of H808 have been a period in which I have felt extremely confused. I have had these same emotions on previous H80X programmes, and I have found that if I can trust the expertise of the Open University's course designers, the fog will eventually clear. Or perhaps to be a bit more theoretical about the description of this process, I will find a way to integrate the new knowledge into my existing knowledge bank.

My confusion has largely been around the use of the e-portfolio. The idea of having an electronic place to store, organise and retrieve pieces of work or pieces of interesting research or information is a straightforward enough idea, particularly in the era of Web 2.0. My confusion has arisen around how an established professional, with many years of experience and insights, and with a multitude of uses for an e-portfolio, would begin to set up and organise one.

On reflection, maybe the root of my problem is that I am not someone who thinks in a linear way. My first degree was in Music, and my Belbin team role is Plant; I have always considered myself to have a more creative than scientific mind. Organising thoughts at a meta level is not my strength, and I am lucky to have a business partner for whom this comes naturally. This may therefore have let me off the hook with this discipline in a work context.

My H808 confusion has arisen because I did not grasp quickly enough that to use tools like My Stuff, de-licious, and Google apps (these latter two highly recommended by H808 colleague Eugene), I must first decide how to sort and store my data. When I went back into My Stuff after 5 weeks of collecting, the tags were chaotic, to say the least.

So, I decided to become intensely practical, and to organise my thoughts around the immediate challenge; H808 activities. With that in mind, I was able to organise the My Stuff tags, which meant renaming a few tags, housekeeping the tags I had set up to avoid duplication, and revisiting those artifacts already stored there to include as many tags as are relevant. I then moved on to my Google Docs Application, and carried over as many of the My Stuff tags as are relevant to this (work based) project. Some additional tags were needed to reflect the H808 Skills and Competencies requirements of the EC. And lastly, I revisited the tags I had set up on De-licious, and discovered similar chaos to the other two repositories. Again, I have done an editing and clearing out job here, and have tried to maintain tag consistency with Google and My Stuff.

This all feels as if I have managed to clear out a cluttered kitchen drawer;-)

It will be most interesting to discover whether I am able to hold myself to the discipline of organising my thoughts, my work and my reading beyond H808. I suspect that I will, as my unease with the early clutter of H808 mirrors my general unease with the amount of data that is available in the world today. The explosion of information over the last 10 or so years that the internet and the other publishing media are generating has felt, at times, overwhelming. Having a way of categorising and then storing information which adds value to my practice and my hobbies is beginning to feel like a watershed in my cognitive mapping process.

Core Activity 2.5 Criteria for Reflective Writing

Hazel has focused on one of the aspects of the PENNState Reflect: Providing Insight website pages that gave me pause for thought, namely the selection of the subject for reflection. Hazel wondered whether this advice would lead to what she called 'sterilised selection', and I am inclined to agree.


On the very first page of the website, they describe what reflection can help learners to do; understanding yourself, reflecting on experiences, reflecting on yourself as a learner by discovering what kind of a learner you are, are three of those outcomes. The four stage Reflection process they describe in the Reflective Writing Steps section mirrors precisely the four stages in the Kolb Learning Cycle, referenced by Moon (2001), and whilst Moon observes that this process has proved very popular with teachers, I wonder if, for professional self development, there is enough emphasis on critical reflection. For my taste, the tone of all of the Reflect pages is rather introspective, and I wonder whether this introspection might focus the learner too heavily on what is already known or experienced - 'sterilised reflection' to extend Hazel's point;-)

Moon (2001) also considers Schon's work on professional learning. Schon's research has concluded that professional practice is not derived from theory, but rather develops when the professional adapts their theoretical learning to apply in the practice area in which they are engaged. This practice over time become what Schon calls tacit knowledge, and professionals can be unaware of the personal mental models upon which they are basing their professional practice. As I reflected in my blog on activity 2.4, "Making this 'knowing in action' explicit in order to reflect on it critically is seen as an essential trigger to professional development." On that basis, a model which focuses unduly on what has happened and what can therefore be concluded about the learner may make the learning process 'sterilised' (to use Hazel's term). My favourite writer on the subject of Transformative Learning in Adults is Jack Mezirow. His research (1991) highlights the predisposition in adults to develop a set of assumptions which, over time, become strongly held, and are rarely open to question. Yet if, as professionals we are to make our 'knowing in action' explicit, as Schon recommends, the subjects that we choose for reflection are surely vital. To make our tacit knowledge explicit, we must surely reflect on experiences which were, for us, routine, and which we handled instinctively?
Having made that selection, the Penn State advice does not cover how learners go on critically to reflect on that experience to surface an assumption. Mezirow's (1991) model includes a reflective stage in which an assumption is critically reviewed, "to re-establish its validity or to correct distortions"(p15). Moon's (2001) input-output model of refection imagines a number of possible outcomes of reflecting on an experience, two of which are; critical review and material for further reflection. Looking outside of the experience for material that challenges the assumptions, and brings an alternative perspective to supplement the existing mental models would seem to me to be important stimulus to engender transformational learning.

That said, the basic structure of the PENNState Reflection advice seems solid and logical, and gives learners an understandable structure which, for many, may de-mystify the process of reflection. In particular, I found the Rubric in the section Description vs Reflection gives valuable questions that learners can use to critique the extent to which their reflective writing has progressed beyond the purely descriptive to the sharing of meaning. The advice about writing style in the Reflective writing steps is most practical and makes what could be a most challenging task seem eminently do-able.



Madeleine


Note: this blog duplicates my posting on the H808 website, and is included on my personal blog for completeness of records.



Mezirow, J. (1991) 'Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning', Jossey Bass, San Francisco.

Moon, J. (2001) ‘PDP working paper 4: reflection in higher education learning’ (online), The Higher Education Academy. Available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase/id72_Reflection_in_Higher_Education_Learning.rtf (accessed 29 June 2007).

Penn State University (2006) REFLECT: providing insight, http://portfolio.psu.edu/reflect (accessed 10 July 2009).

E-Portfolio thoughts

I have been feeling rather overwhelmed at the prospect of compiling an e-portfolio, but in the last few days, my H808 colleagues have added some balance to this perspective.

Perhaps what was concerning me was the technology of managing an e-portfolio, such as My Stuff on the OU website. And although this technology can be a lot to take in, as I look at the way I presently organise my professional learning, I have to admit it is a bit of a shambles ;-)

When I read something of professional or personal interest in the press, I often cut out the article, or store the URL. I wish I could say that I have an orderly way of storing this information, but I can't! When I read a new book of interest, I mark up the points that seem relevant and make notes in the book; when it seems important enough, I write a summary and action list. My professional activities are stored on our work server, but are filed by customer. When I make a public contribution; press article, blog, facebook, twitter etc, these are stored on the site/journal that published the item.

When I think back to my two previous years of Masters study, the process I used to collect my thoughts was essentially manual; hand drawn mind maps, printed out articles and journals, key themes on post-it notes, word documents summarising key quotes and themes......it makes me wonder how I ever got my act together!

My photographs, professional and personal, are stored in several different places. My hobbies are almost totally unreported, even though my choral performances are regularly broadcast publicly, and receive critical acclaim. I save the programmes and sometimes cut out newspaper reviews, but not in any systematic way. Isn't it a pity I don't keep track of this?

An e-portfolio approach to my life's documentation and learning would enable me to link various learning streams together, and better still, to be able to search and find information that has influenced my thinking. It would also be excellent to have a focus for summarising key learning points and for cataloguing my development as a professional, rounded human being.

I am not sure that I have ever aspired to be an E-Learning Professional. Rather I want to be an excellent learning professional, who helps people get the most out of their lives, not just their work. Having a good grasp of how E-Learning can contribute to that ambition is, in today's world, essential, as technology is a major enabler of learning, particularly for younger generations. For this to be a meaningful exercise, I am inclined to think it needs to be focused on me as a professional human being, not just on me as a professional educator.

So, here is my latest thinking on how to organise my e-portfolio. The organising concepts will be threefold; the professional skills that I feel are important to doing a good job today; the professional skills that I feel are important to my family, friends and hobbies; how my professional and personal skills must develop in future.

I am inclined to think that I should not spend too much time looking back to collect data for the e-portfolio, but if choose the right meta categories, and then begin to break them down into smaller organisational units, I can, if I choose, add historical information for posterity.

And the sooner I set up these organising themes, the more organised I can be about making H808 matter in my life, not just in order to gain a Masters Degree;-)

What is H808 about? First thoughts

As the E-Portfolio seems to be central to this course, here is a definition:

"The process of creating an eportfolio consists of collecting pieces of work, assessments, presentations, websites, blogs etc., explaining how the learning experiences relate to course content or learning objectives and documenting this with evidence from the pieces submitted. Students can share their eportfolio with staff and/or other students, who can add their comments."

(reference p44-45, Elearning, the Key Concepts, Robin Mason and Frank Rennie, 2006, Routledge, Taylor and Frances Group, London and New York.)

The first TMA has two parts.

1. To show understanding and awareness of what an eportfolio is and the functionality that they offer. I will need critically to examine the arguments for and against the use of such systems in my chosen context. I will need to read the background literature on these learning environments, to develop my knowledge of eportfolio teaching and learning practices, to describe the teaching context of my own situation.
2. To use the eportfolio system to reflect on the development of my own skills as an elearning practitioner; defining the skills I will need, reflecting on my own development, learning to critique the practice of others, identifying the kind of proactivity that is productive in the elearning environment.

It is beginning to dawn on me that one of my key pieces of professional learning will be to create a learning space in which I organise my thoughts in a completely different way. The way I understand it at the moment is that I will have to get much better at identifying meta concepts about which I want to collect my thoughts and develop my thinking. The eportfolio will be a place to organise and link material that illuminates the (new?) concepts and enables me to construct new meaning and argumentation.

Key Learning Points from H802

My first year of the MA ODE programme looked at the use of technology in the learning environment.

In the final Examinable Component, I was challenged to describe the comparative strengths of using technology to enable learning, versus the medium of Print.

I focused on three aspects of learning; transmission of complex information, Interaction with Learning Material, Interaction with Learning Community. The adoption of technology as an enabler of learning becomes more valuable as interactivity (many to many) that is provided by electronic media is demanded.

The theoretical approaches that emerged as most relevant for the professional and managerial population that I serve are:

• Social Constructivism as articulated by Vygotsky and others
• Cognitive apprenticeship as articulated by Brown, Collins and Duguid
• Situated Learning as articulated by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (First published 1991).
• Minimalism: Boyle (1997) describes the work of Carroll (1990)

As I look ahead at H808, it would be most helpful if I could use this programme to intensify my understanding of the technologies and methodologies that will increase my competence as an E-learning Professional.
My own advice to myself is to use my forthcoming Distance Learning Programme to expose the learning processes of my professional learners using the minimum amount of 'technology', but to use the experience of observing how the learning actually happens to consider ways of scaffolding learners, and to improve the learning environment for future groups. I intend to discover whether it will be possible to substitute asynchronous communication for the combition of synchronous and asynchronous which will be used in the first version.
I will also be keen to understand what further support material and/or activities will be of use to learners.

First Impressions of H808

The experience of beginning a third module in my MA ODE holds mixed emotions for me. After a gap of almost 6 years since I completed my first two modules, I know that the course will be hard work, but it is wonderful to feel the energy and enthusiasm of my tutor group colleagues, and having done it twice before, I know I can do do it.

Since this module will be encouraging me to reflect on my own development as an e-learning practitioner, the early interactions on H808 have challenged me to consider the rather disappointing progress I have made to date at integrating e-learning into my own personal practice. Do I have any right to consider myself an e-learning practitioner?

My previous two years of MA ODE study were very interesting academically, and encouraged me to experiment with adding modules of online learning to supplement (and hopefully enrich) my face to face teaching practice in the world of business. I feel that understanding more about the disciplines of Distance Learning has helped me to be much more thoughtful about how I plan and structure my face to face work; taking better account of my students' needs, and being more structured in my learning design. But, being honest, the experience and the learning have done little to change the nature of my work - the vast majority of the training I offer is still face to face. If the final year of my studies is to result in a more fundamental change in my practice, I will do well to approach this year with the benefit of the legacy learning from years one and two.

In my previoua MA ODE experiments, I had convinced myself that if I could engage my face to face learners in an online dialogue around their application of the new ideas and skills we would be teaching them in our face to face sessions, we would create greater momentum around them putting these lessons into action. Success would come as a result of; more thoughtful reflection on the part of the students; the sustaining of the learning community beyond the face to face training; and a sense of peer pressure through seeing others being successful with the new ideas. Probably the most telling lesson that I learned was that it is the students' motivation to engage with the subject matter, not the ingenuity of the online interaction that really made the difference. Over the course of three experiments, which became more and more sophisticated in the technology and learning methodologies that I deployed, the engagement of my students became progressively lower. When I step back and ask why, I feel that the excitement of the first group at being part of something very different ignited their interest to participate, and made them feel like pioneers. To be honest, I had some of those same feelings myself. But by the time my more sophisticated third group came together, this 'new' medium was no longer so new or such an adventure and their participation was similarly lacklustre. Online participation became a chore like any other work task!

As I embark on module three, my mental note to myself is to guard against my own enthusiasm for a new approach and to consider what I can do to use distance (and e-) learning in situations where I can generate genuine engagement. The excitement and dialogue that my colleagues on H808 are showing for the intellectual ideas is infectious, but I must guard against getting carried away with best practice and stay focused on what will deliver results that my customers/students are looking for.

The really good news is that I now have a real Distance Learning project that has many motivational factors working in its favour. I have been able to assemble a small group of consultants who really want to learn about and use my company's newest consulting model. Since they are located literally all around the globe (from Costa Rica to New Zealand), the only practical option is to offer Distance Learning. This medium makes the learning process much more cost and time effective for delegates, and I have a strong sense that they will be 'model' learners. Likewise, their participation in the Distance Learning modules will be used to assess whether they will be granted a license to offer our consulting model in their market place. Finally, the participants have all had to pay for the training out of their own pockets, and so will be keen to get value for money, I'm sure.

But I must be very careful not to fall into the same trap of convincing myself I have the perfect solution once again. My personal resolution both for H808 and for my latest work DL project is to have the motivation of others (learners and work colleagues) very much in mind. Enthusiasm on my part may have made me blind to the realities of my situation in the past, and I now have a great opportunity to tune in to the feedback and any reluctance of others and to find other ways of responding to this feedback than simply to press on vigorously.