Effective use of ICT with campus based students

I read an interesting paper today  from esculate.ac.uk. I have read some of Anna Pincas before about older learners and ICT."  Information and communication technologies are increasingly used on campus often as optional ‘add-ons’ to face-to-face teaching (Saunders and Pincas 2003)  Now blended learning and multiple mode are being presented as the way forward in providing flexible and accessible learning for a widening audience. However, blended learning is more than merely mixing online learning with face-to-face methods. The term ‘blend’ indicates that there is a seamless transition between the different modes and it has been suggested that the learner should not feel any disruption as they move between the classroom and the Web."

This is a way of saying the tutor has the control over what they have to look for. In my experience with the first years on the 2+2 course a list of topics is all they need to find some excellent materials. It seems adults can develop critical evaluatrive skills through life experience.Altghough they feel like newbies to the web they do know what is good and adds to their topic.As  they redistribute their individual finds they create a well resourced course that gives an opportunity for all course members to see their choices and comment on them. 

Learners also need to understand the rationale for a blended course and there is evidence that a poorly blended course can cause confusion, especially for weaker/disadvantaged students (Hughes & Lewis, 2003).

Here is one for the glossary on my e learning course .when is blended learning not blended learning?
"There also needs to be much more discussion on the much touted term ‘blended learning’. The term is often used to describe mixed mode delivery where a course mixes face-to-face with some online delivery (usually of content). The term ‘blended’ implies a seamless transition between the different modes so that online work would be a continuation of face-to-face, and vice versa, and not an adjunct or optional extra. Examples of this more sophisticated approach to campus-based online learning are not easy to find: only 2 out 8 presentations of blended learning at the second seminar would fall under such a proper definition of blended learning"Pincas 2010

It is not the technology but the experience

The purpose of using technology in the classroom is based on sound pedagogy in that i believe by co-creating deep learning and meaningful links the students can belong to a real experience. By  creating an effective and engaging learning environment they improve their identity as scholars and achievers. as the year goes on and they find ways to generating meaningful learning experiences and promoting high student satisfaction.

 The student is able to focus on the course itself and the medium of delivery becomes almost   inconsequential as the materials are posted first to blogs , then redistributed to far book pages and e mails. the first years have warmed to  to this process of sharing finding stuff from all over and posting in a collage of interesting subjects.to me it makes sound pedagogical use of the tools available in order to engage and immerse the student in the learning experience. It also creates learning groups, activities and situations that put the students in charge of their own learning. These groups make social activities and fun times so the personal and academic parts in students are catered for.All of this takes place within a supportive and safe environment, allowing them to construct their own understanding of the subject material.

. Measuring quality in the online world is elusive (Oblinger, Barone & Hawkins, 2001) and complex (Alley & Jansak, 2001).I believe the students should be the one to measure the quality of their blogs and on line experiences.

TH PURPOSE OF AN ON LINE COMMUNITY

http://www.fullcirc.com/resources/online-community-toolkit/online-community-purpose-checklist/

I love Nancy White's blog. She works for open university and is keen to crete open resources that all can use for free.this list helped me to reflect why  i have helped students to set up blogs in a college where there is very little connectivity. The students are expected to collaborate to complete research but they live far apart. They are new to blogging but this cohort obviously like to use them.
I must ask if i can research with them to find out why they think it is useful to blog.

Rhizomatic learning

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 I watched a youtube this week from educators around the world http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_uo0lhH-2I&feature=youtu.be       Rhizomatic learning is a way of thinking about learning in a community. the nodes learners or web sites create the knowledge by joining together. 

 A rhizome, sometimes called a creeping rootstalk, is a stem of a plant that sends out roots and shoots as it spreads.  A rhizome has no beginning or end… like the learning process. 

Dave Cormier wrote his first article on the topic ‘rhizomatic education: community as curriculum’ in an article I wrote in 2008.

"The whole idea of rhizomatic learning is to acknowledge that learners come from different contexts, that they need different things, and that presuming you know what those things are is like believing in magic. It is a commitment to multiple paths. ". I’m going to try and create some context for a conversation about rhizomatic learning by offering four questions about education… and explaining how i’ve tried to answer them with this theory.

• Why do we teach?
• What does successful learning look like?
• What does a successful learner look like?
• How do we structure successful learning?

Why do we teach?different learning theories say we put the knowledge into people's heads then test them to see if it is there. Another learning theory says we co-construct meaning but the teacher always has the power and control. in the digital age we should expect our students to know more than we do at the end of their search for connections that make sense to them at their level.
 I teach to try and organize people’s learning journeys… to create a context for them to learn in.A successful learner would be one that can learn how to learn, learn useful materials from bogus flimsy stuff. The successful learner would be able to way find by them selves and develop the discipline needed to find and collate knowledge for different purposes.They would learn for life not just to pass this one assignment.

To structure learning for all to go at there own pace and level the module booklet would have to have a guide to reading areas and perhaps some high level papers to set the standard. Tutorials should be on line aND IN CLASS TIME SO THE LEARNER CAN ACCESS HELP AS THEY NEED IT.

knowledge synthesis on a course using blogs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8avYQ5ZqM0

This youtube shows the stages the learners could take to ensure they get the best out of using their blogs alongside the class teaching. The task for learners is to collaborate to make a presentation about a topic using good references and collections of materials that have the focus of ICT and children,Class and Children, ethnicity and children or Specific educational needs and children.
My observation is some learners  go ahead and find their subject area and post some excellent materials and others share and post materials for other groups. The amount of learning materials has tripled by asking the students to find their own learning artefacts and they are doing a brilliant job.

The impact of blogs on students. The self organizing aspects.

This reflection is on the effective self organizing going on in the course blogs. It is impressive that the first years have posted such a lot of things but also organized such a lot with each other .

Wiley 2003 "on line self organizing social systems" . Updated in 2007 (he did a book chapter to follow it up.)  stated basically that  a group of people interacting with each other can  do self organizing without one person giving out orders.

 I see that  just by giving students a tool ,the blog, they go onto co-ordinate their own e mail and face book and trips. No central person telling them to attend additional lectures and buy useful books  from third years or see vital web sites to construct homework .

I see evidence that the learning objects they make are much better than the tutor made moodle and list of papers to read in module handbooks.

 One tutor cannot serve so many complex learners easily .

A good tutor needs to find out  what they know , don’t know and intelligently choose learning objects and then teach by putting them into order… then they judge the usefulness for each student by evaluating the effects for each student. 

So the work for me is to design Intelligent tutoring systems or  support a tool for a group  of students so they can spend time solving these problems. the work is carried out  not on behalf of the group but by the group themselves .  

Just like an ants nest students just get on with work, support , filter and help each other  for each other’s success in learning.

 Now the question is what is the difference of blogs and facebook for student conversations and learning?

free books -what do you think?

How do academics feel about free books?

David Wiley has written  about some excellent stuff on “flat world knowledge”. Text book problems such as high prices and new editions are being tackled by this project.

 Affordability and accesability is important to students so our librarian has used government money to buy e books. Open content is published by flat world. If we have open content how could publishers charge so much? "Flat World Knowledge: an open-source textbook revolution?" http://bit.ly/o4blFM

Makes me think do you see push-back from professors, who are the authors of the books their students are buying? Also I am

not sure how we sustain a pool of authors without being able to compensate them financially here's an academic press that similarly goes open: http://www.aupress.ca/

Accademics may get increased reputation from giving their academic text for free or supported by the university.

http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/960/1860 this looks interesting.

I have ensured my book on Lulu Dyslexia in the college is totally free to download or you can buy it!

Lastly gigapedia gives free books.