As part of the preparations for the Connectivism and Connective Knowledge course I’m taking this session, students are asked to post their responses to four questions:
- Where you’re from
- Why you’re interested in this course
- What has to happen in order for you to consider this course a success
- Random information about yourself – your work, your experience with networked technologies, etc.
I’ve responded on the Moodle Forum, but given my preference for blogging and dislike of communicating by forums it’s likely my contributions to this course will take place largely outside of the Moodle installation. As such re-posting my thoughts here makes sense:
Introduction time! My name is Mike Bogle, and I am an eLearning Researcher from the University of New South Wales. My primary role in my unit, Learning & Teaching @ UNSW, is to research innovative technologies and evaluate how they can support learning and teaching, pilot new services, and provide consultative support for local academic staff interested in incorporating emerging technology into their curriculum.
Why you’re interested in this course
The subject matter slated for discussion in this course ties in quite closely with what I do at UNSW – either presently or areas I’d like to explore further. It’s also a phenomenal use case for devolved online learning. The massive nature of the student cohort in particular makes it even more fascinating. So my interest in this course is both as a student and researcher in the same field.What has to happen in order for you to consider this course a success
I’m quite open minded about the course in terms of the aims and objectives, because I believe the ultimate responsibility for nurturing and maximising the learning experience lay with the entire community and with each of us as individual – as such this is yet to be written.What I’d really like to see happen is a sustained level of engagement and interactivity throughout the duration of the course, and in particular after it has drawn to a close. I don’t see this as being Stephen and George’s sole responsibilities, but ours to a far greater degree.
Success to me will be characterised by vibrant interaction, sustained discussion and importantly the preservation of networks long after the course is completed. The latter in particular is quite in keeping with the central theme of the course and more than anything, will testify to the degree of its success.
Random information about yourself – your work, your experience with networked technologies, etc.
I expand on this quite a bit on my blog, so please see that post for an extended version.
The abbreviated version is that I’m a passionate user of new media in all of its forms – both professionally and personally – and have the tremendous pleasure of being (almost completely) devoted to its exploration at UNSW.
In closing I should also add that I don’t personally like communicating via discussion forums, so you’re not likely to see me post much here. My favourite modes of discussion are via blogs, and to a lesser degree tools like Twitter, Seesmic. I also like to contribute presentations and screencaptures on YouTube and Blip.TV. See my blog for more on this.
Hi Mike – thanks for the intro!
We tried to set this course up to allow exactly what you mention – namely, the ability for participants to contribute where they prefer. Bloggers can happily blog. People who prefer centralized conversations can hang out in Moodle.
I saw your post on Seesmic – I’ll be using it through out the course for short presentations. It’s a neat tool, but I haven’t been able to make it a part of my digital lifestyle yet. Not sure why…
With regard to your research focus – we’ll tackle this a bit later on in the course…I think there are some great research opportunities available on this subject
.
George
Hi George,
I quite like the layout of the course and in particular the fairly open-ended opportunities being afforded to the students. I realise this is partially borne out of necessity – as you say there are 1,900 students as of right now – but as an ideal it bears a lot of merit too I think.
As far as choice of tools goes, I’m happy to use just about anything. This whole experience will be insightful to me because it’s been a while since I was a student of a course and it’s useful for my work/research efforts to see things from this perspective again.
I think we can’t fully appreciate the needs of learners until we become them ourselves.
Cheers,
Mike