elearning reflections

Having spent a considerable amount of time participating in my chosen e-community: The Paulo and Nita Freire International Project for Critical Pedagogy, I started to question what and how I was learning by being a member of this community. I found that any analysis of my learning experience needed an understanding or framework of learning with which to explore my experiences. This took me right back to questions such as “what is learning” and “how do we learn” and can this be easily applied to an e-learning community?

I knew from previous studies that I was drawn to the work of Kolb on experiential learning and constructionists theories of learning but felt as a person committed to social change I also needed to consider the work on transformative learning of Mezirow (1991). Having read about the social theories of learning and Bandura’s work I also felt drawn to these propositions and found them particularly relevant to learning through community. However, it took some research to find more contemporary work on the particular quality fo learning online and found the work on Siemens (2008) just what I was looking for to reflect the uniqueness of learning online.

So feeling that I was on my way to a very sound framework for conceptualising and analysing learning a friend recommended I read the work of Illeris (2002) on the Three Dimensions of Learning and I felt that Illeris summed up very nicely the complexity of learning which I was trying to arrive at with all the above mentioned theories (except perhaps Siemen’s work on connectivism).

So the framework which I am using to analyse my learning is based on Illeris’ (2002) propositions that there are three dimensions to learning: cognitive, emotional, and environmental, and I have been able to fit in constructivism, transformative learning, social learning, and connectivism into that framework using Illeris (2002) as a foundation. I feel that this model, although rather complex, is apt to describe the amazing and diverse process of learning, particularly online with the inclusion of the more recent work on connectivism.

As I interact and participate in the Freire Project I am questioning how it is that I am learning – through the particular online experience that allows such a broad sense of social networking; through the emotions that come with belonging and being affirmed or ignored; through agreement and  feedback; through the connectivity inherent in the community; am I learning such that I can change my practice; and most of all I ask myself am I questioning and reflecting on my own assumptions and being open to challenging them?

Next of course are thoguth around learning design – what aspect of my community foster or hinder learning?

References:

Illeris, K. (2002), The Three Dimensions of Learning, Roskilde University Press, Denmark.

Siemes, G. (2008) New Structures and spaces of learning: The systemic impact of connective knowledge, connectivism and networked learning, available at http://www.connectivism.ca/ accessed on 17 April 2009.

Mezirow, J. (1991) Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning, Jossey-Bass, San Franscisco.

Tags: learningtheory

I have spent much of today exploring the Freire Project community and I am feeling very excited about my choice of community. I enjoyed being lost and found amongst blogs, forums, wikis, You-tube videos, articles, etc learning more about critical pedagogy and its applicability in my personal and professional life. At times I did feel frustrated at not being sure where to follow the thread of a topic – was it the blog, forums, etc. But by the end of the day my skills at navigating were much better.

I have spent quite a bit of time before today just observing or lurking as the literature refers to it (Nonnecke and Preece 2000) – this was however not as passive as I thought it was before doing some reading on participation on online communities (Gulanti 2004, Williams 2002, Siemes 2008). As I lurked I observed patterns of interaction or non-interaction, response rates, type of knowledge being shared, “loud” contributors, and I made decisions about where to look in this new community.

Today as my first active day on the community I felt rather nervous and some what hesitant about sharing my ideas and many questions of an established community of thinkers and practitioners. However, the more I participated the more I felt confident and like I had something to contribute. I found some fellow Australians in the community and exchanged hellos which definitely contributed to my sense of belonging and value – by the end of the day I felt part of a global community of critical pedagogues which is something I had not felt before.

I saw that the site is a place where much sharing occurs about ideas in the area of critical pedagogy and where research in the area is encouraged. People share their reflections on practice and ideas on current issues which are of concern to critical thinkers – it was great to see my fellow Antipodes presenting a critical view of Australia – its politics of oppression and what is being done to challenge such structures.

The community definitely satisfied my need to connect with like minded educators and critical thinkers and activists and felt elated to read that others share the same concerns for social justice within the field of education. Many of the contributions come from people that are very well versed in critical pedagogy and are highly sophisticated in their arguments and thoughts. I really enjoyed that kind of engagement and look forward to more. I found the referencing of ideas to be very useful to my further research in the area and went of on some every interesting side trips like seeing videos on Avenue Q which I had not heard of before.

The founder of the community Joe Kincheloe has sadly died last December and I feel he was key to keeping the dialogue flowing and encouraging people to contribute to the community. I wonder whether his passing will have a negative impact on the continuation or further learning in this community.

I am keen to continue my participation in the community to see how people learn – that is – do people reflect their learning in the community? Is it evident when someone learns by being a member of this community? I think that more active participation by members helps the learning of others because the interaction in crucial to the learning (Saunders 2000, Conford 1999). I am finding that if the original blogger does not respond the learning can be truncated – will explore this further as time goes by.

To finish off I am still thinking about the framework with which I will be able to analyse learning in this community but I am finding that to be a complicated decision as I think learning is a dynamic process that defines one particular theory. So I leaning towards blending a few theories and applying them to my experience in the Freire Project.

References

Nonnecke, B. and Peerce, J. (2000) Silent Participants; Getting to know Lurkers Better? Chapter 6. pp. 110-132. In. From Usenet to CoWebs. Available online: http://www.cis.uoguelph.ca/~nonnecke/research/silentparticipants.pdf. Accessed on 2 April 2009.

Gulati, S. (2004) Constructivism and emerging online learning pedagogy: a discussion for formal to acknowledge and promote the informal, Annual Conference of the Universities Association for Continuing Education. Available online: http://leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00003562.htm, Accessed on 3rd April 2009.

Williams, C. (2002) Learning online: a review of recent literature in a rapidly expanding field, Journal of Further and Higher Education, vol. 26, No. 3.

Siemes, G. (2008) New structures and spaces for learning; The systemic impcat of connective knowledege, connectivism and networked learning, Available online: http://www.connectivism.ca/. Accessed on 3rd April 2009.

Saunders (2008) and Cornford (2008), respectively, provide a detailed analysis of the psychological processes involved in social learning and the usefulness of Badura’s observational learning model to social learning. I found both of their work useful in exploring (to great depth) the various influences on how we learn in a social context, particularly Saunders’ focus on how learner’s may change their attitudes and behaviour as a result of social learning (particularly relevant to my work practice). Conford’s work was equally useful for unpacking the factors/process involved when we learn from the observation of others, but at the end of reading both articles I felt uncertain about the applicability of these theories to learning online, such as that which we are doing as part of EMT1.

This concern was particularly strong with Cronford’s work as I read his his focus to be very much on face-to-face (physical) learning, that is, that which can be observed and performed, skills and practice based, enactment of what was learnt, etc. I saw the usefulness of his work to analyse how someone might learn to perform a task being modelled by a mentor/teacher or learning about behaviours such as toilet training (his example p. 83), but unlike the theories examined by Saunders I could not imagine applying to learning as part of an e-community.

Saunder’s work on the other hand focused much more on learning through inteaction with people (which happens in an online learning community) and how processes such as comparison, judgement, disclosure, feedback, conversations and self-monitoring affect the learning process. When I was reading Saunders’ article I could apply the theories more easily to our experiences in EMT1. For example, as participants on the Ning community we watch how others communicate in it, how often, what is said, how others respond (if at all) and what is disclosed, the group’s cohesion and dynamics, etc to decide what and how we will contribute in a new terrain (for some of us) – that is what we learn. I am very aware of my interaction with others in my participation on Ning and can apply the theories summarised by Saunders to my learning process in EMT1 across the other platforms.

I am however, not satisfied that the work by Saunders and Cornfordadequately describes the way we learn on an online or networked environment. I say this because I have felt that I am learning in a different way in EMT1 as I have done in the past. PreviouslySaunder’s and Cornford’s theories would have been applicable and satisfactory to my more linear or cyclical way of learning. In a f2f context I felt I learned as Kolb (1984) describes in his learning cylce and as Knowles (1978) describes in his theory of andragogy, of course adding the constructivist and critical theories of learning to their understanding. But in EMT1 I feel I am learning differently, at first I felt very forieng to it and now I think I am getting more use to it, but it feel different in my learning experience and that it is much more about connections (so many connections!), sifting through knowledge, finding the right information and people, navigating new platforms, and accepting I cannot cover it all.

I am keen to find people writing on how the tools we use to learn now, are influencing the way we learn and whether it is possible to incorporate work such as Saunders’ and Conrford’s in an analysis of the new way we are learning. Perhaps, I will find that scholarship is sticking to its guns and using existing theories to describe online learning – following the notion that learning is learning no matter where it happens – but my suspicion is that there are some interesting new ideas out there about this learning in a networked world. Actually, I have found a few leads but need to explore further.

It has taken me a rather long time to get through the two Horizon Reports because of the new language that I had to learn and the numerous sites that I visited through links in the reports. I think that reading the reports followed on well from the Seely articles in terms of painting a comprehensive picture of technological developments of relevance to teaching and learning from the late 1990’s to 2014.

Firstly, I’d like to note that unlike the statement in the Aust-NZ Horizon Report “While it is striking that there is little overlap between these six topics and those in the global edition of the 2008 Horizon Report” (pg 5) I think that there is significant overlap in the 6 technologies identified in the report. The main difference, I thought, was the time-frame issue of when the technologies would have an impact. In both reports, cloud computing, geo everything and mobiles featured and deep tagging I think is linked to the idea of personal web and semantic aware applications. The geographic location in the Aust-NZ report and access to technological developments was definitely a factor distinguishing the two reports.

What I learned of most value from the reports was the extent of new technologies – that is their applicability into areas that I had not imagined. For example, I was not aware of the capacity if geo everything technology to facilitate learning in such a mulifaceted way – I really liked the Marco Polo Travels site where a goggle map was tagged at different locations and information provided under each tag either as text, visual or sound(http://idlethink.wordpress.com/2008/08/31/indulgence-sin/). The potential for experiential learning through these technologies and those that facilitate games is significant.

In terms of mobiles – I recently got an iPhone at work so I can work on the way to work. I am slowly dicovering the potential of this mobile device and my ability to be online eg UTS Online and listen to the Horizon podcast whilst on the train. If we apply that technology further as presented in the Horizon Report within a higher education setting, there is much potential to facilitate learning for today’s students who do not seem to spend much time at university learning f2f. I like the numerous applications available to mobile phones in term of music, art, and of course ability to tweeter if that is what you are into!

In terms of the trends and these technological developments I do not work in a context (university administration) where we use much technology to facilitate learning or even networking, so I do not feel as if I am part of the global community that is available through the web and I do not engage with the collective intelligence that is out there. It is only through my studies and in particular what I have read so far in this course that I am feeling more aware of what is out there and I am starting to re-think my conceptualization of knowledge, privacy, intellectual property, etc. It is also only now that I am excited by the use of the new technology to facilitate learning in my area of passion: social justice and human rights.

I like the thought that we could develop a game that people could play on their phones which allowed them to take roles in virtual situations geo located in places unknow to that learner, that might lead to a tranformation in attitudes or at least how they view the world and others – and all this available through cloud computing so that the capacity is not restricted by a personal computer.

The podcast of the report added examples to some of the technologies that I was still somewhat unsure of but I wised that I could see the slides they were referring to – that would be great an audio file with the powerpoint slides used by the presenters. It is probably possible with all the new technology at our finger tips.

I found the difference and similarities in articles written by Seely  ans Seely and Adler very interesting. There was definitely a feeling that the 1999 article was dated compared to the second article but the 1999 article was very exciting for its time – a new horizon.

The main change that I detected from the first article to the second was that of the teachnology available in Web 1 and Web 2 and the role of such teachnology in the lives of learners. It seems that web 1’s function was much more aimed at the information/knowledge needs of individuals who used the web as a tool to gain further knowledge in the Cartesian understanding of learning – it facilitated explicit learning as opposed to learning to be.

Web 2 on the other hand is more able to support relationships and participation – through communities of practice learners learn by acting/participating/being part of a social network of learners. I like the ability of web 2 to support more experiential ways of learning and therefore thin that it has more capacity for transformation.

I think that there will be a gradual increase in the interest and use of the ideas put forward by Seely Brown & Adler (2008) as the use of virtual spaces and relationships for learning become more prominent – this is highlighted by the existing projects such as Terra Incognita and Decameron. I think this will increase with time as we become more familiar with the technology and new ways of learning, as well as generational demands. Also the more opportunities we have to experience and evaluate these spaces the more we will take them as possibilities.

I see the following challenges to the ideas proposed by Seely Brown & Adler (2008):

• fear of the unknown/unfamiliar
• lack of technological literacy
• lack of resources – time, cost, etc
• preference for f2f learning
• unknown rules for participation
• issues around facilitation and leadership

I can see these developments being applied in my workplace where the university increasingly relies on electronic and web based forms of communication and knowledge sharing. We have U-Tube clips on our home page and we use a range of visual and audio aids as part of online learning systems. Within my work with general staff, I adminitrate an online course on equal opportunity which as been designed by another university and one which I would like to expand and improve but lack of expertise and resources impedes this development.

I found the articles very exciting and inspirational to explore new ways of learning and being part of community.

Tags: elearning technology, web 1, web 2

Hello fellow elearning students,

After having forgotten my password and struggling to gte a new one I am very pleased to be in here writing in my very first blog – very exciting or is it?

Do you enjoy blogging and for those of you that blog what do you mainly use blogging for? To participate in discussion, share ideas, etc?

Ok well on a more serious note I am starting to think about the group work task althoug I am still looking for my community but I thought I would share some information about my paasions to see if there are any of you who may have similar interests and woudl liek to form a group with me for the second assessment task.

I am deeply committed to social justice and worked in the community legal sector for many years as a community development worker and a solicitor focusing on the areas of law that affect the lives of marginalised communities. The area of my owkr that I was most passionate about was community legal education because for me that was about assisting people to become empowered citizens that felt willing and able to change their circumstances. I also did a lot of work with the broader community with regards to racism, homophobia, disphobia, etc.

To cut the long story short I am very interest in the broad area of human rights education – not so much teaching about human righst and its antional and international framework but more working with community around cultural and attitudinal change in the area of human rights – in other words working towards a world where there is a celebration of diversity and where respect and inclusion thrive.

I am looking for a e-community that focuses on this kind of education – what we may call transformative educaiton and I am not finding much on point but there are some education based communities that are of interest.

So let me know if there are any of you that would be intersted in looking at the design of a community that is intersted in social change and action.

Cheers,

Tatiana

PS – I don;t even know if you sign off on a blog??

Tags: elarning, social action, social change

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