Our first online gathering

Today was the first webinar to get connected with the larger group if participants. I have participated in webinars most frequently as a silent participant meaning I never had to speak. More recently I tried to use Adobe Connect to host a webinar and I was fortunate as it was an extremely small group as we had many technical difficulties. Not that it was good that we also had some technical difficulties today, but it gave me some reassurance that I wasn't the only one facing these challenges when trying to connect online! While there are so many benefits to meeting online, there needs to be the proper support in place. I think Alastair did a great job being in the room 15 minutes in advance to help as many of us individually as he could. With Adobe Connect I did my audio check and everything was working, but shortly after when my participants were online, things broke down. A quick hello and reminders of how the functions all work was really useful. This was the first time I engaged in a webinar of such a big size - I think 58 participants in total. After this session, I am definitely getting a bit more brave to try to deliver with larger groups as now I have seen that it does work - maybe not perfectly but it all comes together at one point or another. I also look forward to trying the breakout rooms the next time I lead a session!

Comments

Topic 3 - Learning Communities

This week I was one of the co-facilitators for the topic of learning communities. I had an idea in mind of how the week would go (or some big questions I was focused on related to communities of practice). After the webinar and the focus on personal learning networks, I also thought perhaps we would move in that direction, but our discussion focused on collaboration and how we as educators can use scaffolding for online learning design and facilitation (and how that fosters collaboration). While we used the word collaboration, as I reflect back on our work I think of an article that I proposed to the group which references Siemens (2014) and his proposed continuum of e-learning learner-learner interactions. The 4 stages are presented as follows: 1. Communication: General talking, discussion 2. Collaboration: Working together and sharing ideas in a flexible environment 3. Cooperation: Working together but each with his own purpose 4. Community: Working together for a common purpose...

Topic 4 - Design for Online and Blended Learning

The past two weeks we explored the topic of designing online and blended courses. Our group revisited the COI framework but also focused heavily on constructive alignment and how this can guide our planning and design. For me I moved into thinking more about the facilitation (perhaps because we had great facilitators this week who I really learned from in terms of online facilitation), but the idea of phases of an online course also relates to planning. Boettcher and Conrad (2016) describe every course as a planned sequence of learning experiences that has four phases. These phases are summarized as follows: 1. Course Beginnings : Focus on presence, community, and clear expectations. In our discussions, our PBL group has focused on setting expectations for learners and communicating them right from the start. The beginning is also the phase where the COI model should be implemented to assure a coherence between teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence. 2. Earl...

Final Reflections

This week we have been summarizing our learning in the course and I think we are all a bit emotional about the course "ending" but one of the concepts remains at the forefront - personal learning network. I now have a new group of colleagues from different countries and with different areas of expertise that I can continue to remain in touch with and more importantly continue to learn from. In my mind one of the main benefits of online learning is the autonomy for the learner. I was like my students in the fact that I anticipated a lot of independent work and perhaps a bit of working with others. However this course showed me that online learning is about active learning through collaboration. To facilitate this learning, the course was designed with activities that enhanced opportunities to collaborate together - and that is what sticks with me! For example this blog (although important for individual reflection) was something I tended to forget about because working...

Reflections from Open Networked Learning - Fall 2018

Search This Blog