Category: Ideas and thoughts

The end of the beginning

s1690803/ / Ideas and thoughts, Who I am and what I think

Here I am, after 12 weeks and 35 posts later, here I am, writing the last post of this blog. It is Sunday night, and like the last 3 months, my plan for today is a date with my laptop, some snacks and a post to write. However, it feels different this time, I feel calmer than usual, more confident and even I would be bold and say I feel proud of myself.

When IDEL started I felt insecure, ashamed because the last time I was not able to continue, and even though I was ready for the challenge I was scared of not being able to finish. I had doubts about my ability to follow the course, doubts about my tenacity and my capacity to persevere and not get lost in excuses and thoughts to allow me to drop it out again… I basically didn’t trust myself, or my skills to follow the demanding pace of the course. But, here I am,  many things have changed since my first post, and I am writing this last one from another (better) position. I am writing it from the serenity and peace that you have after conquering the top of a mountain. Looking back to the last 12 weeks, I can say that I feel more comfortable in many labels.

First of all, I can identify how I have improved organising the workflow of the week. The first weeks I felt overwhelmed and stressed about the number of articles to read and the pressure to write. The fact that each week or each fortnight was focused on a different topic, it has been interesting and difficult at the same time. Sometimes, I felt that I was not able to go deeper to the topic, having the feeling that when I was immersed I needed to stop and starting another thing from scratch. After some weeks, I felt more comfortable with the dynamic and I enjoyed the transition and learned how to connect one theme with the other.

Week after week I have been learning how to organise myself, managing my IDEL time in a more efficient way and learning how to prioritise tasks in order to deliver on time and with the expected standards. I have to say that not all weeks I was happy with my posts. But, this has been a learning experience as well because I have had to accept the reality where I don’t have the time to dedicate and dig deeper. I have learned how to condense ideas and thoughts, and above all, how to show and express my thoughts in an efficient way. During the course, I needed to show the most relevant reflections and proof of my progress. In that way, I needed to be careful with the content I was generating, being aware of choosing my battles,  and accepting that probably some of the reflections I had during the week were not very visible or as well represented as I would have liked.

Despite this, I feel I have been able to show my reflections, I have shown that I was following the course connecting the post with the content of each week and I have linked my personal and professional experience with the syllabus.

Furthermore, and thanks to my tutor guidance and support, I have felt confident to try and experiment with different technologies. Analysing my old posts I can see my progress using different tools and betting on multimodality formats like video, sound, image or creative presentations. At the beginning of the course my tutor wrote to me: “What I really hope is that this blog becomes a place where you feel comfortable exploring ideas, challenging your preconceptions, reflecting on your experiences and scrutinising the different theories and concepts we encounter across and beyond the readings“.

I am happy to say that yes, I think the blog has become a personal playground where I have felt safe to investigate and comfortable to challenge my skills, knowledge and pre-thoughts. Thanks to the constant and good feedback and support from my tutor I can say I have developed my confidence. As well as noticing the pressure to deliver. James feedback it has served as the perfect accountability I needed in order to keep motivated with the course. I knew each Monday he would read what I wrote and I felt the responsibility to fulfill the task and the expectations.

Moreover, recovering more ideas from my first post, highlight this sentence where I said: “I am willing to read, research, and learn. I want to be a new version of me that is actually a good student.” I am very aware that I could have done much more. Some weeks I only have time to read the mandatory readings, and as I said I was not always happy with the final post, I do autocritique. Even though I am aware that I can improve and be more ambitious in the next courses, overall I am satisfied and happy with my work in the blog. I feel I can have some redemption from my previous enrollment in the course and I feel that I am a better student version of me. 

In summary, I can say that IDEL has been a great challenge to face. I have seen IDEL as an introduction to the masters as a whole and it has been the perfect presentation to Digital Education. IDEL has not only allowed me to learn new concepts and question myself. The design of the course also has offered me the space to be critical, disagree and take a personal position when discussing the content. And of course, discussions with classmates (on formal and informal spaces) have been the perfect combination to enrich my personal learning path. IDEL course it has been a nice journey to challenge previous ideas and build the fundamentals to keep growing and specialise in future modules.

This is the structure of the Abaceria market, in the Gracia neighbourhood, where I live. They are cleaning the old asbestos and rebuilt it. I thought it is a great image to represent the IDEL journey. Reviewing and rebuilding to have a good base to follow the Digital Education programme.
This is the structure of the Abaceria market, in the Gracia neighbourhood, where I live. They are cleaning the old asbestos and rebuilding it. I thought it is a great image to represent the IDEL journey. Reviewing and rebuilding to have a good base to follow the Digital Education programme.

Multidisciplinary teams are the solution for everything?

s1690803/ / Ideas and thoughts, Is that the future?

The Society for Learning Analytics Research defined learning analytics as “the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs” (Long et al., 2011). 

Using this definition as a framework, my first question is: who is responsible for measuring, collecting, analysing and reporting the data? As we can see in this week articles the answer is not easy, and there is a discussion about the role and responsibility of the educational institution, as well as the role of teachers and the external tech experts. Gašević et al article (2019) contextualise this idea that higher education is not adopting learning analytics as systematic as they should.

Adoption of learning analytics cannot be deemed as a simple fix to address the challenges of contemporary education. Rather, learning analytics must be considered in a broader context of interconnected organizational, social and political structures that form modern educational institutions. Effective adoption and impact of learning analytics can only be achieved if multidisciplinary teams responsible for and representative of all relevant stakeholder groups are formed and charged with implementation.

Gasevic et al. article (2019)

From the teacher perception, I have the feeling that there is no much control of capacity when we are talking about technology use to collect and analyze data. If we add this task to the list of teacher responsibility it seems that we are asking teachers to know about everything and do everything. In the other hand, if teachers are left behind in the decisions, they lose control of the situation, and learning analytics is presented as the solution to solve a variety of problems. Gasevic, et al. (2019) suggest stakeholders get involved from the start, I wonder where the ‘start’.

On the other hand, it can be argued that teachers or institutions are not responsible for this process, and developers are the ones taking control of their products. They are the ones how should adapt the product and make it appropriated for each content. Making sure, design and implementations are adjusting to the reality where research will be performed.

At the beginning of the course, I recall having some conversations in the formal forum where these elements were discussed. We talked about the responsibility and knowledge of the teacher and discussions about the real value of being in co-creation between developers and educators. Actually, I wrote that to one of my early posts: I wonder if this is because of lack of knowledge? Maybe because all the LMS are predetermined programmes that not allow enough customisation, companies don’t want educators to have this power? lack of resources? we should assume that teachers need to work closely with UX, designers and even developers in order to offer a good interface that can guarantee the needs of their students. Or do we prefer to pay software that is already designed and we scramble to use it in an efficient way?

In this post, I was referring to the design of the platform, thinking about the front end of the interface. But I think same questions apply when we are talking about the back end and data collection and analysis.

Talking about data, I would add, is Learning analytics simply enhancing something you would do in person? Is just making the process faster and more efficient? Or on the other hand, are offering a real opportunity to perceive and detect information that is beyond human interaction and observation? If that the case, are educators ready? Collaboration and having multidisciplinary teams where tech perspective is included seems quite obvious. 

As I have done it before, I am going to use my background as a QA engineer working very closely with developers and basically being part of the tech team. Nowadays, Agile is the most used methodology in the tech business, sometimes it feels that Agile will solve all the problems that a team or business can have. Similar to the claims and benefits that Learning Analytics seems to bring…

An interesting element of Agile, that came to my mind having these conversations about the role of the institution, teachers and techy people, is the Three amigos agile perspective.

The implementation process needs to be seen as a task that requires multidisciplinary teams with active involvement from all relevant stakeholders, as also suggested in the literature (Tsai et al., 2018).

What is interesting about the Three amigos perspective is that the roles are well defined, they all work together in the whole project, but they have an important role during the process. I can relate the three characters with Institutions (Business – what is the problem we want to solve), development (building a possible solution) and teachers (testers – testing solutions and finding new possible cases that can happen). AS I said, even that each amigo has their specific role in the project, all three are involved in the whole process, end to end. That facilitates the description of the problem, the design and development of the solution and the implementation and testing. “It’s also good practice to review increments of the product that have been implemented to make sure it’s correct from those different perspectives.”

For me, this is a good example of how a diverse team can generate something better, and it is an example of that tech teams can be configurated with people that maybe doesn’t have what we understand a traditional tech background. People who bring knowledge about the context, reality and specifications, elements that are essential when we are talking about education. As Wilson et al. reading pointed out trying to predict academic failure, for example, through learning analytics alone seems rather useless and ignores the social and political lives of students.
As a conclusion, we can say that having a multidisciplinary team can guarantee a better definition of the process, where technological expertise and educators work together to produce a product. Such a product, not only offers a better framework, scheme, design, development and application. The product also is presented with a more obvious identity and pedagogical values behind.

Open vs. digital?

s1690803/ / Ideas and thoughts, Trying tools, Weekly task

Considering the fact that the link that was facilitated to do this week’s task is not working. Actually, it has not worked for the whole week, plus all the conversation that had happened on the formal forum and the other informal chats, I think it is safe to say, that Open badges are not in their best shape.

Also, reading this week articles didn’t help me make a real picture of what an Open badge, I felt jumping from one site to another without really figuring out what was related to the Ahn et al table. I have the feeling of finding better and clearer information on Wikipedia’s site (the open project par excellence) Reading information there helped me to understand and consider what is a real open initiative or, just mere use of digital badges.

I have to thank my classmates for this week because it is thanks to them that I am able to produce something. Thanks to the conversations and uncomfortable questions I had challenged my opinions and thoughts and I have been motivated to find information.

I think I have been very optimistic about the use of badges. Once again, I think my personal experience and my background in tech have created a biased view when considering the current use/success of open badges. I have to say, that part of my optimistic view has been demolished. I still believe that the use of badging is a tendency and it will increase. However, I wonder if it will be the use of OPEN digital badges or only DIGITAL ones.  Like Henry Jenkins (2012), I am a sceptic of open badges, especially for educational purposes, because many people in the field consider they don’t carry the same weight as other qualifications. As I mention, the culture and history of badges and the idiosyncrasy of the educational system is a barrier for the open badges to success. However, I think digital badges will be used as an extra validation, motivation and gamification component. 

Pre- thoughts about badges

s1690803/ / Ideas and thoughts, Who I am and what I think

I would say that I like badges, I actually use several apps that use badges in order to show improvement or just the fact that you have earnt what kind of achievement. However, when it comes to the use of badges in education I have some questions and doubts.

I am quite familiar with the use of badges for different contexts, I could say that I am a user/fan, and I don’t miss the chance to win one if I have the option. I see the effect they have on me and the satisfaction I have when I get one. I definitely see the engagement power they have.

One of my favourite ones, and probably the first one I started using is Swarm. I actually started using this app, a long time ago when all the company was under Foursquare. Now they are split into two different apps, Swarm kept the social and gamification aspect, earning badges, while Foursquare,  it become a rating app, similar to Yelp.

I confess that I have the secret routine of checking in places and earn coins and badges for my unlocked places, like you have been in 5 Thai restaurants, here you have the Thai restaurant badge!

Inspired in this app, in 2011 I worked designing and creating the education proposal Agora: Citizen participation activities. (Everything is in Catalan, sorry). I did the educational foundation and methodology for children aged 8 to 12 years old. I designed the methodology and some activities as an inspiration to the teachers who will use the guideline.  The main idea of the proposal was that students needed to create their own city using the elements and values they wanted. In order to do that they needed to pass some activities. For example, if they wanted to have a green area in their city, they needed to pass the “green area activity”, then they earned the proper badge, and they were allowed to build a green area. The idea was that they had the virtual and the physical city in their classroom. I didn’t have many resources and clearly, the badges handmade, you can check the website I did for this programme here.

All the proposal was website based, all the instructions and activities were placed in WordPress and basically, the kids just needed to read an do it, in real life. I think I created something blended without knowing… Also, my plan was that all the classes shared their results: how many badges they have earned, pictures of their cities and everyone would be able to see what others were doing, share ideas and get inspired by others. Everything with the Open spirit on.

It was quite sad because the proposal was not very successful. Many teachers found that kids were already spending too much time in front of the computer (at home!), and they didn’t want to encourage the use of the blog as a guideline of the activities… Surprising, right? Also, another complaint was the fact of earning badges. Many educators considered that this was not the best way to motivate students. They argued that they should learn and that is the real reward, learning! The majority of the professors considered that giving the badge or points was not a really good way to measure their motivation. I have to say that at that point I shared part of the arguments, and I knew the proposal was quite risky.

A year after that, I moved to San Francisco, and I started teaching Spanish to young children and teenagers. Teaching in a different country I had many shock cultural moments, but one that makes sense to mention is the fact that part of my kit tool class they gave me, was a lot of stickers and an ink buffer (star shaped). I was supposed to give stickers every day and at least use the ink buffer with a couple of kids… Many days I forgot, and when my manager noticed told me that I was not motivating enough the kids because I was not giving enough stickers. The stickers were the motivation? It is true that students were clearly into stickers, but I thought it was quite sad.

In my experience, badge culture is something Anglo-Saxon. It is clear than the UK and US have more tradition on badging and there is a clear influence on other countries. Is it for the better or for the worst? Are there any viable or credible alternatives at the moment? Gamification it’s a very interesting approach, however, doesn’t undervalue what is really important (the learning for the pleasure of learning)? Or is that really important?

At the end of the day, we all go to work because we know that we will have a salary at the end of the month, and if we do good, even better than expected, we will be able to ask for more rewards…

Learning from informal conversations

s1690803/ / Ideas and thoughts, Trying tools, Who I am and what I think

This week I have discovered that there is a Whatsapp group of the IDEL cohort, as well as a Facebook group! I joined both of them and it has been nice to share thoughts and know people from the course beyond the University platform. This week I feel quite different than other weeks where I felt overwhelmed, intimidated and alone. being part of this informal context has allowed me to see that we are all in the same boat, struggling with the readings, time and blog post.

We have crossed the equator of the course and people are experiencing the pressure and tiredness. Probably because of that, we organised a Zoom call to comment on the MOOC task and share some ideas. I guess we all had the need to share and get ideas from others because our brains are starting to get dreined, I am sure we have been able to produce better individual ideas and blog post after that videocall.

 

In my opinion, I think we were being very critical with MOOCs, embracing the attitude learned from this week articles. At some point, I felt the need to take part in the positive side and here are some of my optimistic way of analysing open education.

  • We have to work with what we have. Reality is that the world is not fair, there are so inequalities, however, I believe that OER and MOOCs, in particular, are a good way to lower some high walls.
  • I think we were all having an education bias here when evaluating MOOCs, in general, everyone in the group comes from a similar professional background (working in education), and probably MOOCs don’t have a good offer here. However, I think they make a change when we are talking about technical skills like coding and programming. I have learned python and some coding thanks to Coursera and other platforms. That makes me positive considering the value of a MOOC and seeing the potential to improve my CV for example.
  • I don’t see MOOCs as the “fast food” of education, I think the conversation is more nuanced. Using the food metaphor I would say that MOOCs are the GMO products. It is not easy to take an extreme side when we are talking of GMO. Many people would argue that are bad because are genetically modified food, or maybe because there is a huge economic empire behind and it the food sovereignty is in danger. However, it cannot be denied the arguments that claim that GMO products are offering developing countries to sustain themselves and reduce worldwide hunger.

For me is difficult to have a strong opinion against MOOCs, because even though I am aware and acknowledge all the limitations and problems, I think they are not a bad idea per se. I think they can be a good ally to minimise the world inequalities.

 

Open. Equality. Reality

s1690803/ / Ideas and thoughts, Weekly task

I have to admit that I didn’t find this week articles as much as interesting than the weeks before. Maybe because articles are quite old, and they didn’t offer a real new idea to me. I would say that the only bit  I take with me this week, is the importance of having a critical perspective on the term “open”, and probably this is the most important element when we are talking about Open Education. As I said, nothing completely new, but it is good to have the reminding alert turned on. I would highlight ideas from the articles: Bayne, S., Knox, J., & Ross, J. (2015). Open education: the need for a critical approach. and Knox, J. (2013). The limitations of access alone: moving towards open processes in education where the importance of having a critical perspective is well-argued.

I have been an active user of open education for the last 10 years, I have done so many MOOCs, I have just enrolled to some of them, but in general, I finish the course and I have paid to get the certification for a few.  My partner is a computer scientist pro-Linux and open source, and of course we use it at home, and I am not new to the conversations behind… So, I guess this makes me quite familiar and aware of the reality of what we understand and assume for “open”.

During my professional and personal background, I have been lucky to get familiar with the new paradigm that was Web 2.0. Web 2.0 as an umbrella of changes that created a new way of how content, information and knowledge travels and is created.

While open access to learning resources may be of significant value in education, this paper will ques- tion whether free admittance to information is enough to realise the goals of universal education and economic prosperity often promised by the open education movement (see Atkins, Brown & Hammond, 2007; Caswell et al., 2008; Daniel & Killion, 2012).

Knox (2013)

I am sure, that thanks to open education people who never had access to a certain context, now are able to enjoy a variety of programmes at any time, from anywhere without cost. If we think in a 0-10 scale to measure the accessibility to knowledge, I would say that someone that had 4 in a level of access to the information, with OER and MOOCS could rich a level of 7 or 8. Of course, this is not solving the big issue that is that we still have so many people at the level of 0-2 of access to knowledge.

Five years ago I lived in San Francisco, CA and I volunteered in some public Highschools helping students to improve their Spanish skills. I was amazed by how many activities and extracurricular projects students did in order to be competitive when applying for the university. I never saw that in Spain, being accepted in the university doesn’t work like that.

Anyhow, I knew some students were taking Coursera courses of coding and programming, some at a very high level. They wanted to be ready for university and show that in their applications, but the truth was that they would probably be more than ready before starting studying. Clearly, these students were able to do this where the most privileged ones, usually white guys. They have the time, the resources and the support from home*. The group of students I helped, had other kinds of problems, and their goals were others, nothing that could be improved by joining to a Coursera course and learn by themselves.

Learning autonomously it is not easy at all, and MOOCs and OER assume that everyone will have the ability to work and learn independently, which is not easy and it requires a specific set of skills. Also, having access to open education is not that easy, some people still struggling to have a computer and wi-fi at home. Sure, the options are there, but it doesn’t mean that all barriers are demolished.

I acknowledge all the limitations described by Knox, and I embrace the need for a constant critical eye. However, I would say that we cannot deny that for the first time in the history information (and the creation of content) is not owned for a small bunch of people. Of course, there are barriers and power hasn’t flipped as much as I would like, but technically there is an open canal of communication for communities and groups that never had the option to create content and publish it before.

I am not being naif here. I now that even we have the technology and resources to open the knowledge and the creation of content to everyone, the truth is that who rich that information still a privileged percentage of people. What do we have to do then? As I said at the beginning, I agree with this week authors when they point out the importance of being critical, but at the same time, I want to be optimistic, I think MOOCs and OER are not solving the biggest problem, but they are a good step to rich changes. In fact, I am not sure there is a possible solution for the bigger problem that can be tackled from education by itself.

(*)Around May of this year I finished a MOOC on Coursera, it was quite interesting, and I linked some thoughts from a video I saw in the course. You can check it here. The main idea I wanted to highlight is that after 40 years of different studies (In the US) have shown that the student’s success is more impacted by the reality at home and society than by the school. Even, we can create the perfect school, with the perfect teacher, with the perfect content, society and family environment will have a huge impact on a student’s life. And we cannot pretend to reform that from the education without pointing the issues of the world’s reality.

 

Bayne, S., Knox, J., & Ross, J. (2015). Open education: the need for a critical approach. Learning, Media and Technology, 40(3), pp. 247-250.

Hodgkinson-Williams, C. A., & Trotter, H. (2018). A Social Justice Framework for Understanding Open Educational Resources and Practices in the Global South. Journal of Learning for Development, 5(3), 204-224.

Knox, J. (2013). The limitations of access alone: moving towards open processes in education. Open Praxis, 5(1), pp. 21-29.

Learning space – thoughts after these two weeks.

s1690803/ / Answering comments, Ideas and thoughts, Weekly task

On my first post of this block, I described a learning space like “a prepared environment where the student can interact, play and learn from it. We can find a learning space in real life, however, I am thinking in a place that is designed, it pretends to simulate the real world in a challenging but also no-threatening way. It is a safe space of not judgment and where the student can feel free to investigate and challenge their abilities with the support of materials and knowledge.”

After these two weeks, I have been going back to that post to examine my previous thoughts after reading the articles,  everyone’s metaphor, and especially the comment you left. This has been resonating in my mind the whole week. “I wonder whether this accommodates the contemplative walk where we find ourselves working through a problem, or the moment in the middle of the night where we might be struck by an original idea, and so on? Can a learning space not also be somewhat more impromptu and unplanned? I suppose it depends on how we define learning?“

It is well exposed on Bayne et al (2014) and Nordquist, J. & Laing, A. (2015) articles, that we are in the situation to affirm that technology has changed the way we can work and learn such that the constraints of time and place are re-defined. Learning space is a fluid and mobile concept and it goes beyond a class or virtual class. However, ‘contemplative walk where we find ourselves working through a problem’ can be defined as a learning space?

I completely embrace the idea that learning can happen everywhere, anytime! Also, I totally share the idea that you can learn while you are walking around or sitting in a cafe. However, where do we draw a line here? depending on what is happening in our brain? I mean, if we are in a cafe solving a problem, then we are learning and the cafe becomes a learning space? but if we are in a class thinking and planning the next summer (without following the class activity), we are not in a learning space?

Going back to the idea of “prepared environment”, I am still thinking that a learning space requires some preparation/intention behind, of course, a cafe can become a place where learning might happen, but not sure if it should have the category of learning space. I hope I can explain myself.

When I think about “prepared” I mean, that someone (the teacher) has an idea in mind, they is thinking in a specific goal to achieve by the students. This set up doesn’t mean that the activities and steps to rich the goal will happen in only one space, in a specific time or with concrete resources. If I use this course as an example, I would say that the prepared environment is: the IDEL virtual portal, with all their elements: announcements, forum, materials and curated articles. Teachers of the course don’t know where the students will engage with the materials and when this will happen, but you know and have some ideas and expectations of what students have to do in order to show progress and learning, don’t you?

That way, I would say that even that I can find my self walking around thinking about the course, and having unplanned learning moment, I would argue that this moment was somehow planned by you (James, as a teacher). Because you were anticipating (and hoping) I would have an “aha moment” and I would learn something. I guess for that reason, we could call ‘learning space’ to all the places I have been thinking and engaging with the materials (physical or virtual).

I remember, when I was teaching people that will become educators of after school classes, normally people with a little background in education. I remember I selected and designed some activities that I thought it was a journey to arrive at a certain point. I expected they would be able to change their view and preconceptions about children. I didn’t want to arrive at the class and make a statement. I wanted them to think about and arrive at their own conclusions, obviously with my particular bias because we know that education is never neutral! I wanted them to have an “aha moment”, and probably that didn’t happen during the hours we were together in the class. I also prepared reading, poems and song for them. I am sure they engaged with those on different places, and probably they critique, answered or made questions about the materials in their minds, far away from the class. I would consider those moments as something prepared. Does it make sense?

Of course, I think that someone can learn without anyone acting as the puppet master of their process of learning! this is not what I am thinking. But, for me, in order to consider a “learning space,” there is involved this idea of preparation and of course interaction with someone acting as a guide, and the design behind.

Learning environments are successful because users are motivated and educated to learn how to use them in particular successful ways. They are helped, educated, and supported to use environments in new ways. This is particularly the case when technology becomes an increasingly significant aspect of the learning environment. This means that the planners, managers, and leaders of learning environments have themselves also to become active agents in the curation, facilitation, and activation of the networked learning landscape that they have helped to brief, design, and construct.

Nordquist, J. & Laing, A. (2015)

 

As a conclusion, I would say that my previous idea of what is a learning space has not been changed completly, but it has been enriched with more arguments and thoughts. Today I would say that learning space can be defined as the structured context that has been designed to let students play, think and learn. The prepared environment is not only a place where students can learn from, the kind of preparation can make that students engange and learn from a huge range of fluid and open spaces.

 

IDEL MAP

s1690803/ / Ideas and thoughts, Trying tools, Weekly task

 

Following your suggestion about trying to go further into exploring the use of different resources this week I have intended to use tools I never used before, for example, ThingLink, actually, I think it is the first time I do an interactive image.

In this image I am trying to express what is my engagement with the IDEL course, making special attention to this week’s topic: learning spaces.

I used the University ID because it is my personal connection to the programme. I wanted to make the ID the protagonist of the image story. I carry my ID everywhere, basically because I have it in my phone case. An interesting fact is that I don’t carry it in my wallet. When I got it, I decided to put it on the phone case where I don’t have many spaces for ids, but I keep the important ones: bus ticket, debit card and university ID. Why did I decide to carry it there? I am not sure, maybe I am giving some mysticism, but I have realised that this ID is what makes me feel connected to the course and makes me identify as a student, probably it what makes me feel to be in the campus, whatever I am, embracing the concept of new mobilities paradigm’ that is discussed by Bayne, Gallagher and Lamb (2014), which supports learning in unbounded regions and terrains.

It has shown that the material campus continues to be a symbolically and materially significant ‘mooring’ for a group of students who may never physically attend that campus.

Bayne, Gallagher and Lamb (2014)

With the image, I want to present the different places where I have engaged with the IDEL course and the different tools and resources I have used so far. I would say that my laptop has been my main moored item. It is quite funny because my laptop is not portable anymore, it only turns on when is charging, so it really moors me. However, I feel that my learning space has been fluid in terms that I move around my home depending on what is space is free and quiet to be. Usually, the headquarters is my living room, a comfortable armchair in a nice corner where I like to sit to read and, of course, to write all the post in my blog.

Sometimes, I go to use the uplift desk (usually when I want to keep my eyes open and don’t fall asleep), or a read in the bedroom when everyone is sleeping. On this week Padlet I have discovered that some classmates use a voice reader to hear the articles and be able to do another thing at the same time. I have been inspired by them, and I am sure I will use it in the future to brake more bounded and rigid container that is “reading”.

As you can see in the image, I have used a Kindle, which helped me to be freer and bring my learning space outside the house, for example checking the materials from a playground. But I have also used inside, reading in the Kindle and writing in the laptop. Many times I have found myself having two virtual places used at the same time, for example playing Minecraft on my phone while I was checking tutorials on the laptop. I can say that I have deflated the sedentarist claims.