Tag: learning

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.

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. 

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.

Castanyada i panellets

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

Today we are celebrating “La castanyada” a Catalan tradition. The translation would be something like “The chestnut party”. Like other regions, countries and cultures today and tomorrow are important days to celebrate: Halloween, El dia de los muertos, Samhain or Todos los santos.

In Catalonia we have our particular party to celebrate the Autumn and be warm. Like any other celebration food it is so important, and we eat cooked chestnuts and Panellets. You can buy panellets, but the best ones are the ones you make at home. We could say that each family has its own recipe and bake the favourite flavours. The traditional ones are made of pine nuts, almond, coconut or lemon, but nowadays you can find so many different ones and everyone will tell you that theirs ARE the original ones!

This year, I have made panellets with my son for the first time, he is only one and I was sure that making panallets would be difficult, but I wanted him to participate at his level and get familiar with the tradition.

Two weeks ago we went to the library and took some books that talk about chestnuts, La castanyada and La castanyera (traditionally an old woman who sells chestnuts and baked sweet potato), and of course a book about panellets. We have been reading and observing the books for the last two weeks, singing songs about this party and getting familiar with all the elements.

Finally, yesterday was the big moment, the moment where we are ready to make panellets and let them ready to eat today. As I said, I knew Blai was too young to follow the whole process, so I adapted the way he will be involved. I considered his materials, the ingredients he was using, the place where he will be placed and what I would be doing. I actually, spent a lot of time thinking WHERE he would be doing the panallets. And of course, I related all the process to this week’s topic.

I thought that all of this was a great metaphor of a learning space. Starting from the concept I had in mind, how I planned the information, how I prepared the space to do the activity and selected the materials and the final moment: where Blai connects all the dots and realises what we are doing!

This blog reflexes my opinion about education, and as a reader, you know that I think that learning can happen everywhere, not only with a very directed instructor, and I believe in promoting daily activities and make connections from there. However, I recognise when I consider a “learning space”  I think in a specific time-space. I think in a specific goal, at least a specific concept/idea. What is a learning space then, shared space and time? Is the environment that, as teachers, we recreate in order to guide students to conquer the concept we had in mind? In my case, I think the learning space are all the steps I have taken (going to the library, reading the books, signing the songs, buying ingredients together, prepare the materials, etc… ) in order to have this “aha” moment where my son listens “panellets” and looks at the camera making the sign I have been doing every single day for the last two weeks. So, learning space are all the elements we use and recreate in order to help students to get to our idea/knowledge?

Aesthetics matter: interface design shapes learning.

s1690803/ / Weekly task

 

  • My  job as QA

I would say that I have always cared about aesthetic. When I was a child I cared that my work was ordered, inmaculate and I liked to present everything neat as a pin. I think with the pass of the years I have lost part of that perfectionism. However, this is a quality that has helped me to find a job in the tech industry. I care about details and process and that makes me a good Quality Assurance. Also, that job has brought me the opportunity to learn from other professionals that their main job is to take care of how things look and work. I work closely with UX and designers, and I have learn how the design and the position of elements are relevant for the users and how they will interact with the platform, this is crucial.

“Where academics are,rightly,asked to be well-versed in how to ensure accessibility of digital teaching resources to all students regardless of their specific learning needs, we are rarely asked to reflect on the every day design decisions we make as we carve learning spaces out of institutional LMS’s for our selves and our students”

I have learnt that having the power to create an interface gives better answers to your users, the communicate better with the platform and this something important, because it keeps them hooked, that is the main goal! It makes all the experience better. The authors of the Manifesto pointed out how usually teachers rarely have control of the LMS interface. I wonder if this is because of lack of knowledge? Maybe because all the LMS are predetermined programmes that not allow the 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 a software that is already designed and we scramble to use it in an efficient way?

  • Sharpening pencils

When I got my first job as an educator of teenagers I had an older colleague that every day, after the activity with the group, he spent some time sharpening all the  pencils of the class. He spent time ordering by colours and making sure that all the material was well presented, specially the pencils were sharpen as new. I remembered I asked him why he was doing it? what was the point? he said: well, the guys are more cautious, calm and spent more time with the task when everything looks like new. Aesthetics matter!

Back them I learnt how important is to have a good presentation of materials. Motivation, creativity and expertise are important to teach a good class. Moreover, having great materials, clean and neat helps that the students to get evolved and feel more motivated to participate.

  • Toys and games

Another example where I am thoughtful about aesthetics is how I present toys to my son. I see how my he interacts with his toys and games depending how I present it to him. If everything is well organised, in order and a few things presented, he spends more time playing with them. I observe him and learn what he likes the most and what kind of toys he prefer to play. I take on consideration his preferences and I try to find other games that are related to the things he likes. At the same time, when he has been playing for some days and I want him to be more adventurous and try other things, I present other elements/materials I think he would enjoy. I prepare the space in a way he will find the new items in motivational way. I know that way, the new item will attract his attention and he will discover other things that can become the favourite one!

In general, he leads his day activities, he chooses if he reads a book, plays with a ball or paints. However, I know I have the power to condition his actions.

  • Structure of power

As is pointed out in the Manifesto, teachers have more  control of how users/students will interact with the interface. The teacher has the option to choose how to structure the interface and manage the information, for example, as the Manifesto suggested, considering the structure of the forum.

This first week of the programme, we all have experimented how the forum can develop. In this case we see how the structure is very open and all students are allowed to create new threads. Is this facilitating the communication and the sharing of knowledge? Honestly, in my opinion, it has been kind of chaotic. Many threads have been opened with a similar title/topic. Considering that the discussion was focused on the Manifesto, it would be easier if all the conversations about the same statement would have been together. I have felt a little bit lost and unable to follow conversations. I think this a great example of what the manifesto talks about.

  • Homogenization vs. individuality

It is pretty clear than aesthetic follows tendencies and fashion. The culture, context, era, everything has an influence in what we understand what is aesthetic or not. Obviously, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but there is a huge influence from the context on our perception. In that way, I feel sometimes we are trying to fit our work to the current standards. Some how, we are not respecting our individuality, or we are not being as much creative as we would like in order to follow the current moda.

If we assume that aesthetic has a significant influence in shaping education, we should be careful and refuse to create a learning process where students are not motivated to be creative, playful, original and respect their individuality.

 

Online teaching should not be downgraded into ‘facilitation’

s1690803/ / Weekly task

No? why? That was my first reaction when reading this fourth statement. What is wrong with “facilitation”?

When I started checking this point of the Manifesto I quickly linked it with an old debate and discussions I had my last year in uni when I heard about Sugata Mitra and his project of The Hole in the Wall. He has been trying to prove why teachers are necessary in the learning process, and if they can actually be replaced, or eliminated. I have to say, that Sugata Mitra doesn’t focus his studies on high education, actually that project for example is with children. And this is very relevant when reading the Manifesto.

While I was reading the manifesto I went to re-watch an old tedTalk of Sugata Mitra about the child-driven education concept. Actually child led learning process is something I am being very obsessed lately. This is something always had my attention, but now as a mother I am more invested on learning more and I have taken some short online courses to learn more. This is something and I truly believe, that the child should be the protagonist of their learning process and has control of the activity and the adult can adapt their language to gain learning and further the child’s development. (1) I basically think (though) that the adult is a facilitator of the process of learning, but the child/student is in control.

Considering previous thoughts about the process of teaching/learning, I would said:

  • Children (and I would say, everyone) learn what they are interested about.
  • If a teacher can be replaced by a machine, then they must be replaced. (Note: this is considering the theories and studies of Mitra)
  • Learning happens when there is interest.
  • If information is on the Internet, why do I want it in my head? (Do we understand learning as a process to get knowledge or to get skills and abilities, both?)
  • Motivation, encourage, support and love as the fundamental elements of the learning process.
  • We can learn by ourselves, but the information is retained when we discuss and interact with other people. We need others, but do we need that those others are experts (meaning teachers)?

Because all of that, my reaction to this 4th statement of the Manifesto, was like:

“The assumption that the individual student is an autonomous learner with a pre-existing, fully developed sense of individual agency and purpose leads to a shift in the perceived role of the teacher, who in ‘learnified’ discourses is often demoted from professional, expert provider to supporter and conduit for the self-determining inividual learner. Learners are assumed to be competent to navigate the complexities of learning in ways which best suit their ‘needs’, and can be best supported by making subject and discipline knowledge-objects available as efficiently as possible.”

What is really wrong with that? and why we believe that being a facilitator is a “demoted” of our profession as teachers? Is this a problem of perception of the language? is this, again a issue of not being English native speaker?  I was reading and I asking all this question! why, really why is a problem with learnification (Biesta 2012)?

Actually, I was convinced, I thought that good educator is the one that guides the process of learning, not the one who actually delivers. I believe that teachers are facilitators. They are responsible of creating the environment where the learning process can be developed, respecting the pace and motivations of each student. Can this be done if you are not a good expert on the subject? Because for me, only a good expert can become a good facilitator. I mean, a good teacher that knows a lot, is motivated and cares about the subject is the one that knows how to guide and create the environment where the learning happens.

I want to think that students know how to detect their needs. I still thinking that they are the ones who should take control of their learning process and be responsible with it. They should be “autonomous learner with a pre-existing, fully developed sense of individual agency and purpose leads “, and I think that if we don’t have these kind of students on higher education is because we haven’t allow them to take that responsibility during their previous educational years. Maybe everything has been regulated, and scheduled and students don’t know how to manage their own learning process? Maybe this is another story and it deserves another post, maybe in the future!…

After reading the arguments in the Manifesto and I have changed (a little) my mind. For me still very clear that facilitation role is not a problem on primary education, but is it the same on higher education? I am not that sure any more.Probably the level of expertise is more required when we are talking about higher education. Probably it is essential that the teacher is involved in constant research about the topic and can answer all the question the students have, not only being able to point where to find answers….

I guess for me it is not about using “teacher”, “expert”, “instructional designer” or “facilitator, is going backwards and asking ourselves what is the role of the person who will accompany the students in their learning process. But I agree that as the Manifesto pointed, is really important that the “teacher” role is not des-professionalised. And it is important that the role is not undervalued or perceived as something that is easy to automated or replaced.

“Movements in digital education which emphasise automation, scale and on-demand access often contribute to this de-professionalisation, making the delegation of the ‘teacher function’ to automated systems or an under paid,under-valued academic precariat seem supportable or even inevitable.”