Tag: personal

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.

Digital humanism – in a bank

s1690803/ / Random

Today I found this ad near to my home. I need to take a picture because clearly it ring some bells! The text is is Catalan, but I think it is quite clear: Digital Humanism.

Bankia is not my kind of Bank, but I decided to check their website and see what they mean by Digital humanism. It is interesting what they sell for digital humanism, basically that you can manage you account from everywhere, attention through whatsapp and the use of an app.

After all the influence of Bayne, I cannot see this ad as something interesting or good for me… (well, is Bankia I would never consider it as my Bank, hahaha)

 

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.

 

 

 

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?

Learning space – first thought

s1690803/ / Weekly task, Who I am and what I think

A learning space is 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.

I like the Reggio Emilia view that considers the physical space as the third teacher. I could try to say it with my own words, but I think this quote of Loris Malaguzzi is a perfect description of what I understand for a learning space, what should have and be.

We value space for its power to organize, promote pleasant relationships between people of different ages, create a beautiful environment, bring change, promote options and activities, and its potential to unleash all kinds of social, affective and cognitive learning. All of this contributes to a feeling of well-being and security in children. We also think that, as has been said, the space has to be a kind of aquarium that reflects the ideas, values, attitudes and cultures of the people who live in it.

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.

 

I am here, again!

Blog administrator/ / Who I am and what I think

Ok, this will be a long post… When I started the programme for the first time I wrote this post. I have thought to copy and paste the same text because I think it explains who I am and why I landed here very well. In addition, I will add some comments (in italic) to update information, or make comments I think can reflect the current reality.

Enrolling to the course has been one of the biggest decisions of my life, I feel it is a great opportunity to make a significant change for my professional future and I am excited and scared.- as I said back then, enrolling to the course was and is a huge step. I was ready to start the programme, but life happens and after years and years of waiting, finally my partner and i had a baby, that brought instability and craziness but also a lot of love! And I must take care of him, I needed to focus on that. So, once again, I dropped off my studies. But here I am again! –  In order to explain my personal expectations, hopes and concerns about the course I think I should start from the beginning.

I was never a good student, well, some teachers would say that. My grades were fine, but I never fit in a traditional classroom. I talked too much and l distracted myself and everyone around all the time. So, I decided to drop off high school and find a job. After a year of working I decided to go back and get my certificate. I also did some professional training as social worker while i was working.  I was lucky to find a job in a non profit organisation where I worked with children and teenagers in an informal education environment. At some point, I felt the need to learn more about theory and definitely, it was necessary to obtain a degree if I wanted to get a better job. So, I ended up going to university.

I studied Pedagogy-Education Science. When I started I wanted to learn different ways and methodologies to teach. At that time, I thought that I could do a better job that all my former teachers. When I finished the degree, I was convinced that the problem of formal education was beyond issues with methodology or motivation. And the fact that I did not fully enjoy classes was not 100% responsibility of my teachers. Ratios, money, rules, security, curriculum, Pisa test, politics… there are many factors affecting the education system and the way we learn.

During that period, I never stopped working. I knew that doing was my favourite way to learn things. However, in uni I learned a lot of theory of education and sociology. And I became very interested in the questions of “why do we learn? Or why don’t we learn? ” and “how we learn?”. Is there a magical way that works for everyone? Can this method be created? I always felt that my time in the university led to more questions than answers.

I never felt the need to continue with my studies. As I said, doing is my preferred way to learn, and I have been lucky to find jobs where I have developed new skills and knowledge. Also, I never found a course that I found interesting enough to invest my time and money. – I feel for the first time now, study is not only a need, a requirement or tool. For the first time, I want to do this. I feel this change completely the paradigme. I always faced my studies from a perspective where i needed to get the certificate, I must get it in order to achieve something else. Today is not the case. Today I want to learn, I want to interact and nourish myself with knowledge. i wanted that time ago when I first enrolled to the programme, but now as a mother, it is more clear! I want to this for me, of course it will open new doors I am ready to cross, but i study for myself. –

So, why now? Why this programme?

First of all, the last 6 years I have been working in tech. I moved from teaching to testing. I have learned a lot, even to code a bit in java! But, I feel it’s time to go back to education. I miss the field and, most importantly, I feel that there is a lot that my knowledge in tech can bring.

Secondly, I left the university almost 10 years ago, and I have been working since I was 16. I felt the need to stop a little and for the first time don’t prioritise my work. I decided to follow the part time version of the programme because I need to work, but I want that the course to be my main priority. I am willing to read, research, and learn. I want to be a new version of me that is actually a good student.

Thirdly, I live in a foreign country. English is not my native language and I think doing the masters is the next level of my learning process. I am scared and excited to do such an intense course in a second language. I know it will be challenging. But, I hope it will be the final step to feel comfortable with the language. Also, I think it will open more doors to new job opportunities and it will allow me to feel confident to organise and lead a group of people in the same way I do in Catalan or Spanish. The language it has been one of the reasons why I have been away from education in the last years, and now I am ready to break the cycle and allow myself to find a job where I need to speak at a very high level.

Finally, I still have lots of questions about education that need an answer. I am looking forward to sharing thoughts and theories with other people!

My expectations about the course are very high. I am making an financial effort –– OMG! double effort!!! – to do the course and I hope to learn more about theory and methodology, especially in digital environments. I spent a lot of time thinking and deciding what course to do and when I found this one it was not easy to make the decision.   In fact I applied two years ago, but I never started because I felt it was not really the right time. Now it is. – And it wasn’t!!! (face palm) what a journey with this programme! our story started a looong time ago, but it seems that never is the time, but now it is? we will see. I hope it is, and I will do my best to make that happen, but life have taught me, not to plan, absolutely nothing! So, I will go one step at the time, week by week. –