Dear Linzi,
Thank you so much for your comment! Maybe it takes people like you (and me) working with and having children to truly understand the troubles we have and cause as a society with identity. Thank you for having understood đ
from Comments for Argonauts of the Western Pathetic http://ift.tt/2mbRSio
via IFTTT
Hi Dirk,
I really appreciate this post and it’s a subject that has come up frequently. The use of ‘identity’ and our perception of ‘identity’ is important. I talk about this with my pupils all the time particularly in the ‘performing arts’. Pupils are so uncomfortable within themselves that they prefer to hide behind a ‘character’ and media platforms. They change their behaviour in certain situations which then affects their social skills and can cause confusion. I understand behaviour different to identity but it is all connected. In Scotland the education system is structured around 4 capacities to enable young people to be successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. As a teacher I believe it is important to inform young people that it is ok to be who they are and to embrace their ‘identity’. In a world where teaching at times can be seen as a ‘performance’ I makes sure that I am true to myself and enable a connection to happen rather than keep pupils in the dark or at a distance.
Linzi
from Comments for Argonauts of the Western Pathetic http://ift.tt/2lPqN1y
via IFTTT
I can not believe that it is Sunday already…or that I have made it through another week. Gracie’s dad has been away traveling and I thought that the idea of juggling work, blog, ethnography, home life and Gracie’s academic calendar or extra curricular activities impossible. However, I made it through this week with only a few hiccups (I went to work with my top inside out!!).
This week I was conscious of my overuse of Twitter particularly during week 6 and tried using a few more platforms through IFTTT such as Youtube and Evernote.
I shared a video which I found fascinating around the importance of visual demonstration when educating viewers about functional anatomy. I also considered how our memory is affected by the distractions and overuse of technology, then extended that thought to our behaviour as social creatures and if its more important to build community online than maintain the communities we have in person. Parents are no longer looking at neighbours for babysitters, they are instead turning to apps. I took an online class via Youtube on Autoethnography as I began to consider this for my assignment. It became apparent through my experience of a MOOC and this article that MOOCs are not just for the learner, we are guinea pigs, as course providers use online education to assess how we learn. The expectation of technology is to enhance the classroom and this video also describes technology as an extension of us as humans. Should we use technology within education just because we have the resources? If so, who creates the course or resources? The technologists or the specialist who understands the nature of the subject? I am conflicted as I feel technology can at times dilute the subject of dance but it can also help in many ways including the health and wellbeing of the teacher and student if it can provide more time and a platform for discussion.
I also looked at the importance of words and how words are not just our most powerful weapon but enables us as to understanding our audience. We need to listen. I uploaded my autoethnography using Adobe Spark which I found very easy to use and made the presentation of my work a little less bland. I finished the week with commenting on other ethnographies and blog posts.
There is also a wonderful post within my lifestream that uses 360 degree video footage to connect the viewer with the performer within the online community of dance performance…..Enjoy! đ
That sounds like a nightmare. It sounds like it would be difficult to keep a conversation going unless taking it âelsewhereâ. Although I didnât experience this on my MOOC, it is something that I have experienced over the past three weeks âonlineâ and in reality.
I am an observer by nature. I like to watch and assess a situation before I contribute. When I have a conversation with someone I take everything in BUT online itâs impossible. I canât seem to âget a feelâ for them or what they are trying to say. In situations where you are forced to communicate with others are you doing it because you are listening to them or because you need to comment and show your knowledge and critical thinking??
HmmmâŠâŠ
Linzi
from Comments for RenĂ©e’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2lOQJuj
via IFTTT
Thanks, Linzi. Collecting the data was time consuming! Good question about the nature of participant questions. At the time I thought they were genuine – but I could have been wrong. I did have a person who had lived in similar countries to me comment on my introduction, with questions, and someone asked about the University of Edinburgh as I mentioned it in my disclosure. However, by the time I realised they had commented on my post (it’s really hard to find your original posts owing to the limited search functions/tools that don’t work on the platform) both had seemingly left the course.
Perhaps they weren’t genuine questions though – I hadn’t thought about that.
from Comments for RenĂ©e’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2lO1ixX
via IFTTT
Hi Renee,
I really enjoyed this and think that you did a superb job considering your situation. Using a conversation to demonstrate a lack of conversation was entertaining. The visuals were a great supplement and it was clear. Iâm guessing it was time consuming getting data from the forums?
I wonder if the questions asked were genuine questions or rhetorical ? Were they ever really listening to each other?
Linzi
from Comments for RenĂ©e’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2lNKeb3
via IFTTT
Thanks Linzi,
I think we have two things to consider when we are creating a plan for a MOOC: distribution and scale.
Open education and in particular the MOOC is often described as a disruptive force which questions some of the basic assumptions of education because it is seen (I think falsely) as open due to its availability online. There’s a great paper I came across “Open education and critical pedagogy” by Robert Farrow and he argues that much of this talk of disruption can be linked to the digitisation of learning materials, allowing for new collaborative and flexible models of learning and the ability to post digital learning materials online, anywhere, at a marginal cost but this in itself does not need a radical change to pedagogy. Teaching is still teaching and educational courses do not need to be created differently just because the medium is different. Video lectures are a great example of the good and bad in this. You can still have a lecture, as we do in almost all uni courses, the teacher is just no in the same room as the student. Peer review is still peer review but again, the teacher is just not in the same room.
Difficulties arise when we talk about scale, though, the Massive in MOOCs is a problem not because the class sizes can be in the tens of thousands, but because we have upscaled the number of students but not the number of teaching staff, so how does one or two teachers and a handful of tutors provide the same level of support (guidance and scaffolding) to these massive sized courses? More importantly, to keep with the insinuation of open, how do we do this, without increasing cost? I hate to say it, but even when universities are on board with the opportunity MOOCs provide in scaling up the delivery of their wares, they rarely want to do this using the same model for on-campus, they want to do it cheaply.
So in summary for what turned out to be a huge waffle, the internet has provided the opportunity to distribute educational material quickly and cheaply, but the opportunity of scaling up class sizes (which we all hate when we do this in schools), is the area that needs some thought and possibly a new pedagogy. Knox (2014)
Farrow, R., 2015. Open education and critical pedagogy. Learning, media and technology, pp.1â17. Available at: http://ift.tt/2ls67kn.
Knox, J., 2014. Digital culture clash: âmassiveâ education in the E-learning and Digital Cultures MOOC. Distance Education, 35(2), pp.164â177. Available at: http://ift.tt/2lMzYQu.
from Comments for Eli’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2ls2Otb
via IFTTT