Mark’s Blog!

On 25th October 2010, as part of the requirement for H808 Unit 3, I elaborated a number of professional development objectives, among which I listed the objective of making an entry in my Learning Journal (i.e. blog) at least once a week. Clearly, I have failed in meeting this objective given that the last entry in my learning journal was almost two months ago.

I have, however, made more of a contribution on the H808 course forums (as also stated among my professional development objectives in October), including posting an audio blog, or podcast (I have only just realised it is not possible to actually upload a podcast in blogs.ie, but the link is sufficient this time, as I uploaded on podbean. I imagine if I were using this blog as an educator/researcher this would be a draw back for students/collaborators).

I must say in terms of the place blogging (macro-, micro-, audio-) has in my own professional development, I have not been entirely successful in embedding the habit within my own professional practice. That is not to say I do not subscribe to the usefulness of blogging in an educational context, and found it extremely interesting to conduct some desktop research on the topic.

I found the following uses (non-exhaustive and sometimes overlapping):

1. Learners/teachers using blogs as e-portfolio to showcase professional development
2. Learners using blogs as learning journal for personal reflection
3. Teachers using blogs for relating with/providing course-related information/instruction to learners
4. Teachers/researchers using blogs for sharing research /knowledge/opinion for debate in their field of expertise

The opportunity to take a look at some of these blogs, particularly those in category 4 above e.g. Martin Weller’s and Niall Sclater’s blogs has, I suppose, opened my eyes somewhat to the (potential) place of the blog in professional practice. This is a challenge I hope to take up, post H808.

I’m a little confused about the value in considering my own definition of a ‘learning technologist’. I think the perspective from which I joined the H808 course, i.e. as a teacher/development worker interested in using ICTs to enhance student classroom/learning experience and enhance professional practice, has left me less able to appreciate (or even understand!) some of the theoretical debates around “the e-learning professional”.

Here I am required to write my own "preliminary and brief definitions of ‘profession’, ‘elearning’ and ‘elearning professional’" based on my reading, and post them to my blog. So here it goes:

Profession: full time, paid for the job, qualified (apprenticeship or formal vocational/graduate training).

E-learning: learning or facilitating learning using a range of ICT & web-based technologies.

E-learning professional: a teacher able to competently exploit a range of ICT & web-based technologies to enhance learning.

Rather worryingly, I am beginning to see forum discussions as more of a distraction. On the one hand, they convince me I don’t have very much in common with peers in terms of the experiences and the huge depth of knowledge of the subject on display in the forums. I get that this diversity should be a rich source from which we can all draw. Much is made of the international make up of students taking part, and the diverse backgrounds we are drawn from, but I get the impression (rightly or wrongly) that my peers are mostly involved in third level education in the UK. I don’t have much experience or interest in either (that is, third level ed or the UK!).

On the other hand (despite the depth of knowledge I referred to), postings on the forum suggest to me that I should be in nothing less than a panic over the forthcoming assignment, particularly the part of it on reflection. I was quite calm about it, and still am, largely! However, when I read a posting by a colleague who is threatening not to submit anything as she is convinced she will fail, I just wonder what the use of it all is. 

I found Moon’s description of a ‘deep approach’ versus a ‘surface approach’ to a learning task and the part reflection plays in the former very useful for understanding the link between reflection and learning.  Reflection is really fundamental (which is almost intuitive, I suppose). Having spent a number of years teaching in Kenya, where the approach at all levels of education is very definitely ‘surface’ (e.g. rote learning and memorising material “for what it is, not trying to understand it…”), I can appreciate the need for teachers to understand and promote reflection in their own work and among students.

I can also appreciate Creme’s case for incorporating (in some agreed way) the process of reflection into assessment as ‘what gets measured gets done’. She seems to go for the approach adopted by H808 (insofar as I understand it) in that the summative assessment is going to require us to draw on the journals (blogs) but they will not themselves be graded.

At this stage I can say I find the focus on reflection (and how it links with the e-portfolio) a little curious. It seems from a policy level (in the UK anyway) and across UK universities and higher education entities a consensus has emerged that there is a need to focus on the process of learning (PDPs, e-portfolios, reflection…so far!) presumably secure in the knowledge that this will have a positive impact on learning itself. But there are clearly so many factors that influence learning. Are we going to try to assess all of these? Is assessing a journal like counting the number of times a student goes to the library? The cynic in me wonders what the next focus of attention will be.

I suppose my main issue with this task was the fact that I found myself coming to it so late (though within the two weeks set aside for the task in Unit 2). There had been 93 posts to the group forum on this task with four of the six group members active at the time I joined. As with another group member’s experience in the forum, "I was spending such a long time reading the messages that actually reading source material was ending up on the back seat"!

In consultation with the group members, I set myself the task of reading each of the texts that had been divvied up among them (in my absence from the forum) to see if I could add my perspective to that of the lead member on that text. I was able to make a number of comments on several texts in the group wiki table set up to record our inputs. I’m not sure how valuable this was to the group, as my comments were coming as members had likely moved on to the next assignment. I did however find their perspectives interesting, and noted how they extracted "drivers" from certain texts which I had not picked up on.

In terms of the "Framework for personal and professional development", I would think this task shows evidence of (growing) competency in technology (e-portfolios), communications (posting here, to the forum and to the wiki), and, to a certain extent, research. Perhaps at the level of reflection as opposed to critique. A certain degree of proactivity was required having come to the task almost completed by the group, to suggest a relevant role for myself.

A short reflection on my first impressions of H808…

The course guide and introductory readings and podcast have been quite interesting. The first four core activities have been pretty straight forward, though this one has required that I dust of my blog! My last posting was in 2008 and the previous one to that was in 2007.

My perception of blogging and bloggers was not a hugely positive one, I suppose. I saw blogging as a kind of pursuit of self promotion with bloggers a species believing what they had to say was worthy of being published and read globally. The prize is to get noticed and have people link to your blog, or better, ask for permission to re-print ones ramblings in the established media. 

This course has already challenged that perception I nurtured! Blogs are described as "learning journals" for reflection on personal and professional development.

I’m really looking forward now to developing my own learning journal. I have not done this before, despite it being recommended in previous OU courses I have undertaken.

I recall my teacher training back in 1995 when the talk was of the teacher as "reflective practitioner". The hope was that we would continue to reflect on our practice as teachers with a view to improving it. The tools we were introduced to then, such as the "Flanders Interaction Analysis Category System", were not very practical though for self reflection purposes.