The web has its stranglehold on me. I'm struggling to keep up with what I want from it. Aaaarrrgh! How do I handle it.
Ok, settle down. This is simply a matter of prioritisation. I have yet again taken on more than I can handle. Most is voluntary, personal learning and the sort. Reading blogs, trying to comment on blogs. I need to find ways to fit all this in.
I don't have the answer yet. I'll let you know when I do.
What it does highlight is that there is no way to keep up with everything as it evolves. Impossibility. I just need to let some stuff go.
Initially, this will be FOC08 and CCK08. These will both be useful courses but I am not keeping up with the requirements within them. I'm also trimming my blogroll. This will be reflected in the sidebar soon enough.
I'm getting more involved in Diigo and can see how this may make me slightly more productive.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Further exploration of facilitation - Web 2.0 in my classroom
I have been reflecting on my role as a teacher versus my role as a facilitator, and how these may differ. I understand my role and place when teaching is required. I know who I am teaching yet realising this may be a different group of people who wish to learn from me, different in group definition anyway. I have tried to represent this in a concept map, below;
The left hand side represents what I am referring to as teaching. The right, facilitation. As I develop this the key component that I realise is in a facilitation relationship, the learner holds the power. They determine whether to engage in the learning / interaction / action, the level of engagement, and perception of quality is based on their prior experience and expectations. This says to me I need to "let go" when facilitating. I needn't be in control of direction, pace or outcome. However my knowledge can still be useful.
In my concept map I have only considered two entities, myself and the learning community as a whole. I know communities will interact within themselves, however as a newbie to concept maps I am not ready to represent that yet. Consider this a work in progress.
I am now attempting to implement some real facilitation within the boundaries of one of my classes. (As I said, little steps.) I am still restricted by assessment criteria and somewhat by timelines. But I can "open" the remainder of the learning. I'm attempting to establish a Diigo classroom where we can share research. Vicki Davis (teacher extraordinaire) is attempting something similar and you can read her dedicated post here.
I have established a netvibes universe that will provide RSS feeds for relevant information including lesson materials. I intend to include materials developed by the learners which could be anything from text to whiteboards to photostreams to video etc. This universe also provides a blog feed on my thoughts about the class, which the learners will be encouraged to respond to and therefore have input into activities and direction of learning. I intend to have them all sign up to netvibes, and then become owners of the universe also.
Facilitation, a new challenge.
The left hand side represents what I am referring to as teaching. The right, facilitation. As I develop this the key component that I realise is in a facilitation relationship, the learner holds the power. They determine whether to engage in the learning / interaction / action, the level of engagement, and perception of quality is based on their prior experience and expectations. This says to me I need to "let go" when facilitating. I needn't be in control of direction, pace or outcome. However my knowledge can still be useful.
In my concept map I have only considered two entities, myself and the learning community as a whole. I know communities will interact within themselves, however as a newbie to concept maps I am not ready to represent that yet. Consider this a work in progress.
I am now attempting to implement some real facilitation within the boundaries of one of my classes. (As I said, little steps.) I am still restricted by assessment criteria and somewhat by timelines. But I can "open" the remainder of the learning. I'm attempting to establish a Diigo classroom where we can share research. Vicki Davis (teacher extraordinaire) is attempting something similar and you can read her dedicated post here.
I have established a netvibes universe that will provide RSS feeds for relevant information including lesson materials. I intend to include materials developed by the learners which could be anything from text to whiteboards to photostreams to video etc. This universe also provides a blog feed on my thoughts about the class, which the learners will be encouraged to respond to and therefore have input into activities and direction of learning. I intend to have them all sign up to netvibes, and then become owners of the universe also.
Facilitation, a new challenge.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Expanding my mind - What is a community?
After a recent email discussion and a direct comment on my misunderstanding of the Facilitating Online Communities course (FOC08), I have retreated to the corner for some quiet reading and thinking time. As our facilitator had stated and challenged, teachers were hesitant to step outside their experience of education to contemplate community facilitation in a broader context.
So I've chased some reading and listening, and some thoughts, to expand my understanding of what Leigh Blackall is attempting to get us to consider. These thoughts below are not inter-related, but have stemmed from my thinking, reading and listening.
Firstly, I should consider the concept of community similar to what is my PLN. There are a range of connections I utilise to provide me inspiration and knowledge, but I do not manage them. The information they generate is independent of me, however they form a significant part of what is me. My facilitation of these is simply seek, sort and utilise. It was when I considered this that I began to understand (hopefully) what Leigh is talking about. So what roles exist in this community. Certainly I am the moderator, selecting to digest and utilise only the information I deem important or interesting. My moderation does not extend to influence over what information is published or posted within the PLN, simply what is attended to. In regards to facilitation, I believe this relates to the environment I establish for the PLN. For example, I use a netvibes account to aggregate the blogs I read and juice for podcasts. Times of aggregation and distribution from there is my facilitation. Do I have a teaching role in this community, I don't believe so.
Secondly, I reflected on my experience within my son's soccer team. As the coach I have a direct role for teaching, and this is obvious. I then thought of community as how the parents interact. We organise outings to the park, volunteering for reffing and washing jerseys, collecting match payments etc. No-one takes control of this, is just happens. This to me represented the community aspect. A group coming together under similar interests, and interacting within the environment. Each person offered to contribute, and the others supported the contribution. Again, within this community there is no teaching and I perceive we all facilitate to a degree. With this particular community I perceive moderation would be personal and internal.
To delve back into my world as a teacher, I can see how this developing understanding could produce interesting learning experiences and outcomes within my classes. It certainly ties in with my beliefs about connectivism and transformative learning.
I believe I am beginning to develop a true understanding of community and how their existence and function does not necessarily have to end in an educational goal.
So I've chased some reading and listening, and some thoughts, to expand my understanding of what Leigh Blackall is attempting to get us to consider. These thoughts below are not inter-related, but have stemmed from my thinking, reading and listening.
Firstly, I should consider the concept of community similar to what is my PLN. There are a range of connections I utilise to provide me inspiration and knowledge, but I do not manage them. The information they generate is independent of me, however they form a significant part of what is me. My facilitation of these is simply seek, sort and utilise. It was when I considered this that I began to understand (hopefully) what Leigh is talking about. So what roles exist in this community. Certainly I am the moderator, selecting to digest and utilise only the information I deem important or interesting. My moderation does not extend to influence over what information is published or posted within the PLN, simply what is attended to. In regards to facilitation, I believe this relates to the environment I establish for the PLN. For example, I use a netvibes account to aggregate the blogs I read and juice for podcasts. Times of aggregation and distribution from there is my facilitation. Do I have a teaching role in this community, I don't believe so.
Secondly, I reflected on my experience within my son's soccer team. As the coach I have a direct role for teaching, and this is obvious. I then thought of community as how the parents interact. We organise outings to the park, volunteering for reffing and washing jerseys, collecting match payments etc. No-one takes control of this, is just happens. This to me represented the community aspect. A group coming together under similar interests, and interacting within the environment. Each person offered to contribute, and the others supported the contribution. Again, within this community there is no teaching and I perceive we all facilitate to a degree. With this particular community I perceive moderation would be personal and internal.
To delve back into my world as a teacher, I can see how this developing understanding could produce interesting learning experiences and outcomes within my classes. It certainly ties in with my beliefs about connectivism and transformative learning.
I believe I am beginning to develop a true understanding of community and how their existence and function does not necessarily have to end in an educational goal.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Connectivism
As I embark on the massive open online course that is Connectivism and Connective Knowledge, I reflect on what the concept of connectivism is for me. Its important to note as I explore ways of working and experiment with my practice that my understanding of connectivism and its application to education within my context is fluid.
Firstly, my practice is based in beliefs of three (3) learning theories; constructivism, connectivism and transformative learning. Within my practice they are entwined and do not exist without the others. I have explained this through an analogy of the body's energy systems. There are three chemical systems that build ATP within the body's muscles (ATP is the chemical broken down to provide energy for muscular contraction). These three systems work simultaneously to provide energy dependent on the activity undertaken by the body. At any one time, a specific energy system is dominant but this will change with activity change.
This is how the three learning theories I follow are implemented into my practice. At any particular time they are all present, however a specific one will be dominant. The dominance is managed by me, but not necessarily decided by me.
Within constructivism, I am particularly emphasise social constructivism, which aligns with connectivism. Clearly within a constructivist environment the learner is building their own knowledge. Its important to teach them how to connect to the knowledge of others (I term this collaborative knowledge in my classes, although networked learning possibly describes this better) and therefore not rely on themselves holding all knowledge - an important lesson for teachers!!
I am yet to facilitate a completely open environment where learners seek and make their own connections, as I have been concerned with the productivity of such connections (social friends vs critical friends). This does however work against transformative learning theory where the power in the learning relationship is passed to the learner.
I've used a connectivist approach to vastly increase my pool of knowledge for a range of things. Technology has enhanced my ability to do this, exponentially increasing the connections I can make and maintain. Yes connectivism is possible outside of technology hardware and software, its potential is however limited.
Firstly, my practice is based in beliefs of three (3) learning theories; constructivism, connectivism and transformative learning. Within my practice they are entwined and do not exist without the others. I have explained this through an analogy of the body's energy systems. There are three chemical systems that build ATP within the body's muscles (ATP is the chemical broken down to provide energy for muscular contraction). These three systems work simultaneously to provide energy dependent on the activity undertaken by the body. At any one time, a specific energy system is dominant but this will change with activity change.
This is how the three learning theories I follow are implemented into my practice. At any particular time they are all present, however a specific one will be dominant. The dominance is managed by me, but not necessarily decided by me.
Within constructivism, I am particularly emphasise social constructivism, which aligns with connectivism. Clearly within a constructivist environment the learner is building their own knowledge. Its important to teach them how to connect to the knowledge of others (I term this collaborative knowledge in my classes, although networked learning possibly describes this better) and therefore not rely on themselves holding all knowledge - an important lesson for teachers!!
I am yet to facilitate a completely open environment where learners seek and make their own connections, as I have been concerned with the productivity of such connections (social friends vs critical friends). This does however work against transformative learning theory where the power in the learning relationship is passed to the learner.
I've used a connectivist approach to vastly increase my pool of knowledge for a range of things. Technology has enhanced my ability to do this, exponentially increasing the connections I can make and maintain. Yes connectivism is possible outside of technology hardware and software, its potential is however limited.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Podcasting in education
Well, I managed to get through my first full day professional development offering (me as presenter) unscathed. Despite forgetting a critical piece of equipment and having to rush home (return trip of 40 minutes) to get it, I really enjoyed the day. It has reinforced to me though that there are a worrying number of teachers out there that have little knowledge or ability with technology - even basic technology. This has reaffirmed that our targeting of PD at this level is warranted.
An unexpected outcome from the day was the interest in my Asus EeePC. Many people were both interested in what it was, some more significantly in how I used it in my teaching. I've posted here previously on the EeePCs usefulness, and as I develop greater competence with it more will come.
My section on the day was podcasting, and essentially the basics of music creation and voice recording. There was a little time for editing and mixing. Many ideas of mine for podcasting in education were related to the group, and they offered as many interesting ideas and uses also. During my presentation, two ideas came to me that I had to try.
When discussing RSS and its ease of use, I related my posting of lesson content which parents and students could set up a feed for at home and be readily updated on lesson materials. As the group was discussing how this could relate to students I thought, why can't the students contribute to the creation of lesson materials. I use an online whiteboard so I can save the work completed, why not have a second one open that the students can contribute to. I could use the end of the lesson to record student interviews where they summarise the lesson and material. I need to think more about involving the students. I'll let you know how it goes.
Then, when showing the groups equipment that can be used, I pointed out that most students carried a voice recorder in the form of a phone. My brain then ticked back to my year 8 class where I was asking them to script and record an interview using either my EeePC or a Sony Voice Recorder I had purchased. At this (inconvenient) point I thought "Why not get them to use their phones at home, then bluetooth it to me?" So I did.
First of all, why bluetooth? Simple, they don't need my phone number to do this. Also it can be done from their phone to my desktop computer.
The most interesting occurrences were;
1. The number of drafts I received increased.
2. All submissions were punctual.
This was a first for me with this class. Some students even recorded a video, one girl interviewing her stuffed toys! I thought I was tapping into their digital lives, but this has taught me I need to let go of my traditions even more and allow them space to experiment. Now I'm off to change that boring workbook assessment item they are to complete next.
An unexpected outcome from the day was the interest in my Asus EeePC. Many people were both interested in what it was, some more significantly in how I used it in my teaching. I've posted here previously on the EeePCs usefulness, and as I develop greater competence with it more will come.
My section on the day was podcasting, and essentially the basics of music creation and voice recording. There was a little time for editing and mixing. Many ideas of mine for podcasting in education were related to the group, and they offered as many interesting ideas and uses also. During my presentation, two ideas came to me that I had to try.
When discussing RSS and its ease of use, I related my posting of lesson content which parents and students could set up a feed for at home and be readily updated on lesson materials. As the group was discussing how this could relate to students I thought, why can't the students contribute to the creation of lesson materials. I use an online whiteboard so I can save the work completed, why not have a second one open that the students can contribute to. I could use the end of the lesson to record student interviews where they summarise the lesson and material. I need to think more about involving the students. I'll let you know how it goes.
Then, when showing the groups equipment that can be used, I pointed out that most students carried a voice recorder in the form of a phone. My brain then ticked back to my year 8 class where I was asking them to script and record an interview using either my EeePC or a Sony Voice Recorder I had purchased. At this (inconvenient) point I thought "Why not get them to use their phones at home, then bluetooth it to me?" So I did.
First of all, why bluetooth? Simple, they don't need my phone number to do this. Also it can be done from their phone to my desktop computer.
The most interesting occurrences were;
1. The number of drafts I received increased.
2. All submissions were punctual.
This was a first for me with this class. Some students even recorded a video, one girl interviewing her stuffed toys! I thought I was tapping into their digital lives, but this has taught me I need to let go of my traditions even more and allow them space to experiment. Now I'm off to change that boring workbook assessment item they are to complete next.
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