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Category: Week 7

Week 7 summary

Week 7 summary

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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! 🙂

 

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That sounds like a nightmare. It sounds like it would be difficult to keep a conversation going unless taking it ‘elsewhere’. Although I didn’t experience this on my MOOC, it is something that I have experienced over the past three weeks ‘online’ 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 it’s impossible. I can’t seem to ‘get a feel’ 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??

Hmmm……

Linzi

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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.

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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. I’m 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

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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.1–17. Available at: http://ift.tt/2ls67kn.

Knox, J., 2014. Digital culture clash: “massive” education in the E-learning and Digital Cultures MOOC. Distance Education, 35(2), pp.164–177. Available at: http://ift.tt/2lMzYQu.

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When you connect through MOVEment

When you connect through MOVEment

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In Block 1, I made a connection between online learning and dance as a subject that is physical. To embody the movement, one must master the steps, quality, rhythm and space. If we were to use 360 degree footage would it bring another layer to the learning experience ?
Now, this video can be viewed either on a smartphone or a laptop but I suggest viewing with your phone. I guarantee you will need room to move in order to follow Vince (the dancer) as he moves around the dance studio. It is a feel good video and I know Thomas and Vince had great fun creating it. Technology is something that Shaper/Caper, a dance company I work for, value as a tool to connect with their audience. Whether it’s live stream footage of a workshop/performance or an interactive performance, technology enables Shaper/Caper to reach an online community that goes further than the location of the company. Here, we have a moment where the viewer can interact with the performer. In order to view the footage the viewer has to move, get up and turn. The movement begins to resemble a dance sequence. I let my mother watch the footage on my smartphone this week and I really wish I had recorded her experience. She began to bounce in time with the music, feeling the beat and swaying with Vince. She had a smile from cheek to cheek until she began singing along escalating to a full rendition of ‘Young Heart’. Now I’m not sure if the connection was enhanced through my mother and I having a personal relationship with Vince or if we would have reacted the same without that connection. If you stumble on this lifestream post I would love to hear your experience……
This post connects with a reading of Hayes (1999) and Valverde & Cochrane (2014) where I consider the body-mind skill through online learning and a computer/smartphone function to interconnect environments, channels of communication and perceptive experiences.
References:
Hayes, N.K (1999) How we become Post-humans: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press
Valvarde, I., & Cochrane, T. (2014). Innovative dance-technology educational practices within senses places. Procedia Technology, 13, 122-129. do:10.1016/j.protcy.2014.02.016

Liked on YouTube: Shakespeare Shuffle 360 – Romeo & Juliet
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Technology Made Us Human?

Technology Made Us Human?

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This video was brought to my attention by Philip one of my peers on the EDC course. Whilst viewing I was on the fence but believe that technology and todays culture is enmeshed. Whenever there is discussion around technology and dance particularly dance education, there is fear. Dance like technology is continually evolving. However, if the inevitable will happen should pioneers within dance turn their back on technology as a teaching tool and leave a technologist to create the software and implementation? If technology is to be used within dance pedagogy, should it not be the dance specialist(s) that look at ways to enhance teaching?
Kozinets (2010) states that we choose technologies through our actions and ideas proposed which in turn adapts and shapes how we use them. Our beliefs and attitude towards technology come to play and the culture and technological interact is a ‘complex dance’. Wouldn’t it be nice if the dance specialists and technologists created a collaboration that intertwined?
References:
Kozinets, R. V. (2010) Chapter 2 ‘Understanding Culture Online’, Netnography: doing ethnographic research online. London: Sage. pp. 21-40.

Liked on YouTube: Technology Made Us Human https://youtu.be/WIR0nwhesGw
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*peer-orientated

Stewart (2013) states that learners on xMOOCs are exposed to a ‘fledgling’ network. You highlight important issues regarding peer-review, where as I have experienced a very isolated xMOOC. After reading Stewart’s paper I considered peer-oriented communication (particularly feedback ) along with a strong course structure which provides in-depth content and resources as a successful MOOC. However, I have not experienced this so it would be premature to consider and I wondered if you thought it would be successful?

I’m guessing in a large scale environment peer feedback would need parameters and tutor surveillance?

Linzi

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