Connections within
I must admit I was struggling a little with keeping up with the course activities and determining what needs to be included in our Blog posts; however, reading through other student's Blog posts, I now feel slightly more sure of the direction. I think I keep mixing up my role as a learner and my role as a student. My understanding is that our comments "as a student", relate to our experiences in the course and our musings about the course content and readings; whereas, our comments about the learning activity we have undertaken (Mine is learning about Blackboard collaborate Ultra), should be written under the category of "as a learner". Or have I got that mixed up? What is everyone else's take on that? Feedly - a useful tool! Feedly has been quite useful for keeping track of participants' contributions; so, I think I will use this to follow blog posts and other activities. I feel like I haven't really made connections with many students in the course. Hopefully, if we have another Zoom session, we will have an opportunity to interact with the other participants in the session. Also, as participants post more blogs, there should be more opportunities to make connections. For me, one of the differences between a standard online course and a course about NGL, is that the connectedness between participants is essential. The participant most like me. I would have to say that I agree with Brigitte - we do appear to be quite similar. Brigitte and I obviously enjoy interaction with other participants, and find satisfaction and energy through this interaction. We also both work professionally in Higher education institutions performing support roles that aim to improve communication. The participant least like me. I'm going to say Melissa, mostly because Melissa is obviously skilled in music. Although I love music, I've never learnt a musical instrument. I have a reasonable singing voice (in the shower), but I am one of those people that is totally jealous of anyone who can play a musical instrument. It will be interesting to hear your thoughts about how to integrate NGL into the curriculum area of music.
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Describe your prior experiences as a learner in this program. What did you like? What didn’t work? What haven’t you seen that you would like? This is the second course that I have taken in the program; so, my experiences are limited. I do, however, feel as though I am finding my feet more in this course. Last semester, I found myself adjusting to the digital world. I considered myself proficient at teaching online and somewhat over-confident in my ability to operate in the digital environment. In the first course, I realised how little I did know, and how much I had to learn. This realisation was overwhelming at one point, and I became frustrated and obstinate about the learning experiences offered. I now realise this was probably a change-resistant reaction against the newness of the concepts being presented. Fortunately, the second assignment of the course was inspiring. We were required to provide an online learning event, using a web tool. I thought this activity would be the least enjoyable of the courses activities; I’m happy to say it was the highlight of the course. It was challenging, but the inspiration I received from other students’ learning events was very reassuring. I think the fact that the success of each learning event depended on other students’ participation, gave the activity a collegial, collaborative feel. I enjoy collaboration in the right context; so, I participated in many more events than I was required to because I felt personally and professionally motivated to do so. I would like to see and experience more collaboration, if possible – particularly collaboration relating to documents (ie. Google docs). It is an area that I hear about, but I have had little exposure to. Professionally, I would like to be able to work collaboratively on a document or project online. What is NGL? What do you currently know about it? As for the question: what is NGL? My idea of it is vague and disconnected, as I have not really participated in NGLs. My children will often talk about forums they visit if they have some issues with their Mac; and often I have Googled something and ended up with a forum in my Google search, but as for participating in one- I have limited experience. The definition I give here will be simplistic, consistent with my level of experience. Networked global learning for me at the moment means: learning that develops as a response to contributions made by those connected together digitally. How have you previously performed your student role? What practices and tools do you use? How do these fit with the idea of NGL and what you know so far of this course? Previously, I have played my role as a student mainly in the traditional way – on-campus and face-to-face. I thought that this was the only way to really learn. I practised under the misconception that digital learning was for isolated introverts or time-poor workers. To my surprise, I have found that I have adapted to this environment, and now enjoy the flexibility and accessibility of the digital learning environment. The considered way that you can approach the course materials has its advantages. I agree with Bell et al. (2010) that the online environment can be less “frenzied”, and provide more equity in participation. In most of my traditional on-campus courses, there has been a requirement to post in forums; some of these posts have been collaborative, whereby students are required to critique and comments on other students’ posts. I suspect that other forum activities have been included for the sake of providing an online, participatory activity. What do you want out of this course? What aren’t you seeing from the course that you’d like to see? Ultimately, at the end of this course, I would like to consider Networked Global Learning as a integral and practical teaching tool; using it frequently to enhance the students’ learning experience by providing a meaningful way of navigating the information labyrinth. I would also like to use it proficiently myself; not only professionally, but to also enhance personal experience by making it easier to locate information and construct knowledge in a digital world. It is early days yet, but I would love to participate more in actual networks, and with other students in the course. References Bell, A., Zenios, M., & Parchoma, G. (2010). Undergraduate experiences of coping with networked learning: Difficulties now, possibilities for the future. In L. Dirckinck‐Holmfeld, V. Hodgson, C. Jones, M. de Laat, D. McConnell, & T. Ryberg (Eds.), 7th International Conference on Networked Learning 2010 (pp. 904–911). Google. (2016). Google Docs. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/ |