I thought it would be worthwhile to reflect on our e-Learning Experience class. What a steep learning curve it has been, it really has been an e-Learning experience. I have learnt so much over these weeks. The social bookmarking is fantastic and I have introduced it to fellow workers. One of the admin girls is in a Quilting club and she has set up a site for her fellow club members to share. Netvibes is such a versatile program with seemingly endless possibilites and then there is the wiki which we haven’t had much to do with so far. 

As I mentioned in a previous blog, When I commenced this class I knew nothing about all this stuff and now I am boring people senseless talking about it. I am sure its not just my imagination but I’m certain I hear the word ‘geek’ as they run away from me!! Oh well back to my e-Zine…

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The lesson began with a discussion on the reading as summarised in the previous post. Particularly on the section relating to dealing with problematic students. Genearally the class felt that with face-to-face learning environments you were able to pick up on students body language and perhaps head off any problems before they become major problems whereas with online teaching the problem could readily get out of hand. Particularly with 24/7 internet activity between students.

One of the unanswered questions was with online learning how much time should the teacher put in and when should he/she be avaliable to respond to students who may be online at any time?

The remainder of the lesson was spent preparing for the last assignment which is to participate in a short online course and critique it.

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In her excellent report, ‘E-learning 101′, Janet Clarey provides a very much needed resource for newcomers to the world of e-learning. The language used and the layout of this document makes it very easy to read and understand and includes a 16 page glossary.

By way of introduction Janet provides a brief history of e-learning and in that introduction we are told “Although e-learning has only been around since the 1960s, distance learning – which e-learning can be categorised as – has evolved over the past 100-150 years when study was offered via ‘post’.” (Clarey 2007, p.9)

This statement caused me to reflect on my own experiences and it got me thinking of life before computers, dvds, compact discs, videos and even television. (Yes I am that old !!!!!!). I am not the sort of person who can readily recall my very early years however whilst reflecting a random memory turned up.

I was lying in the lounge room as a preschooler (mid 1950s) listening to a radio program which consisted of New Australian women (that was the terminology in those days ‘Ethnic’ and ‘Multicultural’ were yet to be invented)  engaging in normal day to day conversations. I think they were run along the lines of modern day soap operas.

I believe the program was called ‘English for New Australians’ and it was aimed at the predominately Italian and Greek housewives to help them learn to speak English. I have contacted the ABC archives section to get more information but so far no replies. The Australian Sound and Film Archive centre does have a listing for one episode of this program which went to air on the 7th July 1951.

 My next memory of “e-learning” would have been in the late fifties early sixties in primary school. We used to have ABC songbooks and at certain times the radio would be brought into the classroom and across Australia thousands of schoolchildren would be ’singing’ their heads off learning great Australian songs.

Television has obviously played a major role in preschoolers education. I wonder how many kids learned to count from The Count from Sesame Street.

Another form of early e-learning was provided by records. Some years ago I was given a collection of ‘Learn to Speak French’ 78rpm records which date from the late 1940s.

So it can be seen that e-Learning has been part of the evolutionary process of ‘distance learning’. And as e-learning is evolving it is branching out into what may be termed the ‘traditional’ learning world. 

It is importat that as teachers/instructors we need to be part of this evolutionary process and wherever possible we should be seen as leaders, not followers.

References

Clarey, J. 2007, E-Learning 101: An Introduction to E-Learning, Learning Tools and Technologies, Brendon Hall Research, New York

The reading for Week 9 was from Palloff & Pratt, 2001 Lessons From Cyberspace  chapter 7 ‘Working with the Virtual Student’.

One of the key points in this article related to the need for the learner to be aware of, and prepared for, the differences between traditional learning and online learning. One case is mentioned where the learning organisation actually ran a course to teach the learners how to learn online.

The often repeated comment is how the learner must take responsibility for their own learning and that online training relies heavily on collaboration between the learners and less reliance on the teacher. As a matter of fact the teacher is more a facilitator and guide. The article also notes that not all learners are suited to online learning and that research has found the most successful learners are self-disciplined, self-motivated, generally older and have voluntarily sought further education.

The article finishes with a number of tips for successfully working with Virtual Students. These are: 1) Do not assume students will automatically know how to learn online. 2) Provide some form of orientation to students as they embark on an online experience. 3) Construct a course that is varied and addresses different learning styles. 4) Encourage and empower students to take charge of the learning process. 5) Pay attention to changes in participation levels and address them promptly. 6) Stay present and be responsive to students needs and concerns.

Reference

Palloff, Rena & Pratt, Keith, 2001, Working with the Virtual Student in Lessons from Cyberspace, Jossey-Bass.

http://drr.lib.uts.edu.au/file/17282/013966_palloffworking.pdf

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This article is about the need for organisations to have an e-learning strategy and raises some issues regarding the dangers of not having an e-learning strategy when developing e-learning courses.

It is interesting to note that a common theme in articles about e-learning is the degree of frustration and negative attitudes towards e-learning that can be directly traced backed to not having a strategy in the first place. So many organisations appear to see e-learning as a quick fix solution to their training needs, and rush in without being prepared.

Two of the most important elements of an e-strategy are 1) conduct a needs assessment and 2) review training team readiness. Most of the articles relating to bad e-learning experiences are created by not having attended to these two elements.

The remainder of the article contains some very helpful information on how to develop your own e-learning strategy.

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I have noticed over recent weeks that we have a number of i-learnists in our midst. These people have identified themselves by their fairly negative comments about the use of e-Learning. So I thought it would be worth looking at the differences between e-Learnists and i-Learnists

Perhaps I should clarify what an i-Learnist is. We all know about e-Learning but i-Learning is all about (i)nstructor-based training. Hence i-Learnists follow the traditional ‘chalk & talk’ learning philosophy.

The Fundamentalist i-Learnists do not use any form of electronic training resources. They strictly adhere to the black/whitebaord, flip charts and hand written or typewritten notes.

The Reformist i-Learnists have made small concessions to the electronic world in that they use overhead projectors (with hand drawn slides) and have a video player to show their 1970s and 1980s training videos..

On the other hand the Fundamentalist e-Learnists see a classroom filled with computers. Classrooms with individual booths where each student has a computer with multiple monitors so they can be sending e-mails, joining chat rooms, blogging, checking out Myspace and Facebook and visiting Netvibes for the latest RSS feeds. The students communicate using e-mails, blogs, chat as well as sms to their fellow students in the booths next to them.

The Reformist e-Learnist has conceded that there is a need for personal contact so has added webcams and headsets so the students can see who they are talking to.

Somewhere in between are the Progressives. These see a world where both philosophies are embraced and the good points of each one are used as required.

So where do you stand??

Where do people get the time for all this internet chatting etc. I have only just checked out TWITTER. Referred to as MICRO-BLOGGING . I have enough trouble getting time to do more than one blog a week for uni. What’s going on??? Is anyone actually doing any work out there?

Twittering is confined to 140 characters but hooks up with e-mails, sms as well as instant messaging and when you check out some of the twitters it’s obvious there are a lot of people with nothing else to with their time.

Check out this example quoted from the Wall Street Journal:

9:51 a.m. Tweet Tweet… Just checking in… Happy Friday Twitter-ers

11:02 a.m. Getting ready for my 1sy Yoga class of the year! I’m scared.

2:02 p.m. Late Lunch – Tomato Soup & Pretzel. 4hrs till Happy Hour! (Yoga was good)

4:11 p.m. Falling asleep at my desk. 2 more hours till cocktails!

5:40 p.m. Shutting down & Heading to the Bar. Might turn on twitter-txt (you’ll hate it I’m sure)

5:43 p.m. Just for DougH, I will Twitter-intoication

8:01 p.m. Hi twitts miss ya etc.

Really exciting eh?

Visit the site below to read the article titled “Friends Swap Twitters and Frustration”

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117373145818634482-ZwdoPQ0PqPrcFMDHDZLz_P6osnI_20080315.html 

In this article Kevin Kruse offers a well balanced look at this subject. He opens by warning that “…it is important to know exactly what e-learning advantages exist and when these outweigh the limitations of the medium.” 

His first section looks at the features that are unique to e-learning with some of the key points being that e-learning “…accommodates the three distinct learning styles of auditory learners, visual learners, and kinesthetic learners.” It also offered reduced publishing and distribution costs and can target a globally dispersed audience.

The article then goes on to provide an evenly balanced list of the advantages and disadvantages of e-learning to the Trainer, Organization, and Learner.

The article concludes by asking the question “Do the Benefits Outweigh the Drawbacks?” and the response given is “The pro’s and con’s of e-learning vary depending on program goals, target audience and organizational infrastructure and culture.” This is a refreshing view amongst some of the hype surrounding this subject.

I have found the whole social bookmarking thing to be one of the better things to do on the internet. Since being introduced to it this semester through the del.icio.us site I have found so much potential for it. If you visit my site – del.icio.us/mikeringo.com – you will get see how far ranging this concept can be and I am still exploring the possibilities. My work groupin Energy Australia is the Operating Standards & Accreditation group (OS&A) and we deal with other supply authorities across Australia as well as needing to be aware of current government Acts, Regulations, Codes of Practice and so on so you will see a bundle called OSnA with tags of sites that relate to my group.

You wil also see a bundle under the tag of UNISTUFF. Note that I have a tag for Research.Inquiry. This is one use of this site that we should have known about in our very first semester. Each one of us since beginning uni would have visited hundreds of useful sites. If we knew about this program we could have set up our own database of useful sites specifically for this course with separate tags for each subject.

I intend to add tags for Educational Management as well as Effective Program Delivery. If anyone already has sites bookmarked for these subjects we should use our del.icio.us site to share those resources.

I have already set up another Edublog site called BEdinAdEd and will progressively add sites for all subjects of this course. If you visit it now- del.icio.us/BEdinAdEd-  you will see that it is in it’s infancy. I have started by adding sites to help in writing essays, punctuation, referencing and some sites on Bloom and Maslow. In the end I intendto have bundles for each semester with the subjects for that semester.

I hope I can set up a generic password so everyone can login and add sites to it. Just imagine if we had access to something like that right from day one.

I would like to hear what you think about that,

see you in class