Thursday, 5 June 2008
Read the question!
My son is in the middle of GCSEs and I've been giving him the best piece of advice I know for success in exams - read the question!
It sounds basic, but it is surprising how easy it is, especially in a stressful situation such as an exam, to miss the obvious, to answer the question you wanted to answer or that you thought was being asked. Taking some time to really read and ponder on the question before starting to answer is an excellent tactic - and then halfway through, and at the end, reading through what you've written to see if it really answers the question.
It is a tip worth bearing in mind in many aspects of life, not just exams. In my workshops and courses supporting University and college lecturers in developing elearning, I emphasise again and again how important it is to be absolutely clear and explicit about the task the students should be doing, how they should do it and when they should do it. However, even my own students don't always read the questions I so carefully frame - they often leap in and give their opinion - even if it's not what was asked for!
To some extent, it doesn't worry me - especially with adults, who are in charge of their own learning. Sometimes it can be frustrating, yes, when you've carefully framed a question for discussion and the students go off and discuss something else entirely - but if that discussion furthers their learning, then it's perfectly valid. Yes, it's more work for me to reframe the questions that follow, or to moderate the discussion in a way that brings in my original learning points (because they can't just be abandoned), but that's my job as a tutor.
In the Best Practice Models community discussion on online communities yesterday, we were discussing whether a community of practice can be used for learning, and I made the point that a community of learners is something I aspire to, but that ultimately learning is planned and guided within that community. A community of practice is much more member-led, and the learning is more informal - though obviously it can still be facilitated, one example being that very discussion yesterday in a community of practice that was focused on communities of practice... I'll probably come back to the differences between learning communities and communities of practice in a later post.
There are deep challenges for the tutor in turning the learning over to the learner, but it's wonderful when it all comes together. One encouraging example for me was yesterday when one of my students on our How to Blog course posted exactly the material I had ready for that day's posting. And she hadn't even SEEN the question yet! A learner taking control of learning in a very real way. Wonderful.Labels: ACL, adult learning, BestPracticeModels080604, blogging, e-learning, e-moderating, elearning, emoderating, exams, How to Blog course, informal learning
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:40 AM
Friday, 23 May 2008
Places available on eModerating and Online Tutoring course (online)
5 weeks - online - in MoodleStarts 4th June 2008
contact helen@reachfurther.com
I am running an eModerating and Online Tutoring course in partnership with Park Lane College in Leeds. This is an introductory course for those starting to or planning to teach online in HE, FE or even in schools. The format - 5 weeks online in Moodle - is based on successful courses I have run in the past with local, national and international participants and builds on my work with Professor Gilly Salmon at Leicester University. I'm delighted to be able to offer the course to teachers and tutors inside and outside the college as I know that a mix of participants from different institutions will, as in my previous courses, form a lively and mutually supportive community.
Although it's in Moodle, the skills taught are generic and not VLE-specific. Moodle is very easy to use :) £295 plus VAT
More information at http://reachfurther.com/?page_id=82
Contact me for more details helen@reachfurther.com
Labels: courses, e-facilitation, e-moderating, emoderating, Moodle, online learning, online tutor, online tutoring, VLE
posted by Helen Whitehead 2:18 PM
Monday, 12 May 2008
Technology stewardship
A post from 2006 in Learning Alliances defines the concept of "technology stewardship"
"Technology stewards are people with enough experience of the workings of a community to understand its technology needs, and enough experience with technology to take leadership in addressing those needs. Stewardship typically includes selecting and configuring technology, as well as supporting its use in the practice of the community."
I guess that's certainly what I am - a technology steward - but if the phraseology hasn't caught on in the time since Dec 2006, then it obviously doesn't mean as much to the IT and community-using population in general. Neither has "e-moderator" caught on outside the UK, although it's a very similar role - while the e-moderator doesn't necessarily select and configure the technology, many do have this function and expertise, and I suspect they are of more use to a community if they do.Labels: communities of practice, e-facilitation, e-moderating, emoderating, online communities, online community, technology-stewardship
posted by Helen Whitehead 10:28 AM
Monday, 21 April 2008
Analysing communities for the key participants
There are all sorts of reasons why one wants to analyse an online community - finding out who are the busiest and most informative posters is one possible requirement. I just spotted an old article from New Scientist (well, July 2007) that describes how researchers at Cornell University, New York, and Microsoft Research in Washington State have developed a way to analyse postings and the relationships between them to find out who are the movers and shakers in a community. Of course as they studied Usenet groups, it isn't exactly cutting edge research, but it reminds me that there are many methods for analysing interactions, and i really should bring more of them together in a blog post some day.
Research as far back as usenet analyses let alone more recently has shown that the activities of certain influential people are key to the success or otherwise of a community. Anyone who has lost a community due to a strong individual or group stifling or driving off others, knows it can work both ways. Any community manager worth their salt will have developed ways to deal with such people.Labels: communities of practice, e-moderating, e-moderation, emoderating, online communities, online community
posted by Helen Whitehead 5:18 PM
Saturday, 4 August 2007
E-books on online community
Useful resources, especially for beginners
Otis Online Tutoring e-Book
NCSL's e-learning facilitation toolkit and 70,000 heads are better than oneLabels: e-learning, e-moderating, e-moderation, e-moderator, ebook, elearning, emoderating, online communities, online community, online learning, online tutor, online tutoring
posted by Helen Whitehead 5:53 PM
Thursday, 19 July 2007
Blogs vs communities of practice
A community of practice defines itself along three dimensions:
- What it is about - its joint enterprise as understood and continually renegotiated by its members
- How it functions - mutual engagement that bind members together into a social entity
- What capability it has produced - the shared repertoire of communal resources (routines, sensibilities, artifacts, vocabulary, styles, etc.) that members have developed over time? (Wenger 1998)
I've been reading an interesting post from back in 2004 comparing blogs and online communities of practice.
In summary:
What blogs provide that other web-based collaboration tools do not:
- Blogs are more respectful of their authors and of their audience
- Blogs are better connecting tools.
What Communities of Practice provide that a network of bloggers cannot:
- Communities are better social structures for problem-solving, knowledge stewarding and innovation
- Communities of practice are better social structures for learning
How blogs and CoPs live together?
- Blogger networks generate communities of practice (and communities of practice generate projects)
- Communities of Practice can use blogs to communicate with the outside world.
I wonder how that discussion would be updated now? Certainly you wouldn't talk about "weblogs" now! I might have a think about this and post my thoughts at a later date.Labels: blog network, blogging, blogs, communities of practice, emoderating, online community
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:06 AM
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
Motivating online students
Keller's ARCS model of motivation
Attention
Relevance
Confidence
Satisfaction
How can I offer all these elements in an online course?
Attention: make sure the activities are engaging and interesting, perhaps even a bit controversial
Relevance: meanwhile, being completely relevant to the subject of study and the context in which they are studying - which varies depending on the student - the context of a full-time undergraduate is different from that of a work-based learner on a short professional development course.
Confidence: making absolutely clear the objectives and activities in the course so that the student knows exactly what is expected of them. Good design and navigation helps here too. It is also the job of the e-moderator to be supportive of learners.
Satisfaction: provide a certificate at the end of the course which is perceived as worthwhile. Provide positive and motivational feedback from the e-moderator. In a self-study multimedia course it might be achieved via short formative quizzes reassuring the student of their learning.Labels: ARCS model, e-moderating, e-moderator, emoderating, emoderator, motivation, online learning
posted by Helen Whitehead 1:48 PM
