digital lifeboat

Our course met in a flashmeeting for this weeks tutorial. This seemed to be a great sucess. Although I was not present, I watched the replay, and felt I gained from many of the learning benefits expressed by the group.

Firstly the enjoyment and social aspects of the experience. Putting faces to those I had never seen, putting voices to those I had seen, but never met. These aspects encourage and develop the trust and openness that are pre- requisites to learning together.

Secondly the ease of the transactions. I noticed that some members of the group participated more freely than they do in text format, and were comfortable venturing opinion verbally. This enhanced the shared learning. One member noted that the discussion moved faster, and there was a sense of ground being covered much more quickly. The hour seemed to pass by…in a flash!

I hope we do more of this. As a group we used msn privately a lot last year to build up the social cohesion of the course. We felt that web ct did not create an environment where we could relax and be ourselves. At the time, some described the experience in web ct as “intimidating”. In the flashmeeting, the first participant expressed anxiety as they began to contribute, however they soon got into their stride, and use many tools to illustrate their points fluently.

The tutors expressed that from a technical point of view, they had seen the technology improve over time. Greater bandwidth in home broadband had also meant that this is becoming a viable tool for teaching and learning.

Here is my visual response to viewing the discussion! Hope to see you virtually soon!

Enjoyed working with various tools to make collaboration easier for the group work.

Was sorry to miss the flashmeeting conference, but enjoyed the replay very much posting a response to that.

On the work front, sliding behind, but having to cut out some activities. I have found in previous semesters gaps of time arrise at odd and unexpected points, so work can be caught up with then. Not yet been able to get my planning done for the individual assessment so thats a priority today.

Work on the group project going well and its relevance to my work means I can chip away at it at work.

There does not seem to be much point in continuing to post my completed lists of work especially as they are not very complete at the moment! so going to abandon that.

Gradually assimilating the knowledge our group has built up. Having to refine it down several times to extract the key issues.

General Thoughts

The first thing I want to note is that I’m slightly out of step with the breakdown of work from week to week. My week runs wed to wed as that is the key concentrated study day. Week 2 was a tough one at work in fact the first two weeks were so I don’t feel that I am on top of work at the moment. Trying to compensate through half term but catching up and wanting to�get ahead in some areas.

Generally I think the blog is now up and running to my satisfaction, with different elements for myself the wider group and the tutors in place. I will have to curb my enthusiasm for blogging to keep up with other work. I have found some very useful discussions going on in the main eduspaces forums and have bookmarked them to follow. I think one regarding upgrading vle’s could inform the group project this semester,�and also confirms that the right decisions have been made regarding the vle roll out to schools in west sussex.

Group work has begun, here my major concerns are being able to maintain communication and not to let the goup tasks dominate the individual assessment.

On the CBT not sure I am on the right track with my ideas, its getting that first spark of inspiration which takes so long.

So blog you may see slighly less activity compared with the first two weeks but, I’ll be back…..

The discussion re tags made me think about what roles we are adopting by “publishing” online in this way. By roles I mean professional skills sets. In the past to get such thoughts out there I would need to have been a:-

Graphic designer, software programmer, editor, author, publicist, photographer, librarian, journalist ….others I can’t think of do join in here….distribution manager, communications expert, ………..

Each of these professionals has trained for years to master their field. Here we come to a point of controversy.

Should we expect in a vehicle such as a blog to demonstrate high level skills in each of these areas?

On the one hand yes. If we want to reach a wider audience, be understood and communicate clearly, be referenced and searchable.

On the other hand no. It’s my space, I have ownership and authorship, its primarily for my benefit, the whole purpose of this software is to free the author from such constraints, and encourage participation.

Will we in the end, become jack of all trades and master of none, or will the availability of a little knowledge set us free? Or can we work on this together?

The designer comments on issues within his expert field, the librarian helps me to think through my use of key words, the usability expert has already influenced my post titles.

Can we build a social network of those willing to freely give their time and expertise?

Discuss.

So now hitting an issue of how to organise and keep track of other interesting blogs I am finding in here.

Should I book mark? Should I add a feed? What is the protocol for being a *friend* is it ok to add a stranger to your friends, or should you only do this if there is a two way connection?

What are your thoughts folks.