I prepared the following presentation this morning in the interests of inspiring some discussion on the topic at work and thought it might be worth sharing here as well.
Please feel free to leave comments on this post as I’m interested in exploring the practicalities of blogs in more traditional course structures. Personally I prefer the model we’re exploring in Connectivism, but this model isn’t going to be widely accepted in higher education I suspect – at least initially. So undoubtedly there will be many logistical questions to address and resolve.
I am using a blog as a ‘teaching’ platform instead of a LMS. It is a closed blog, so I am afraid I cannot show it to you (just don’t ask!). A colleague of mine used a blog as a platform for a role play activity in nutrition. Whilst the numbers were extremely small, it worked very well: http://sarah-stewart.blogspot.com/2008/09/joys-of-open-access-education.html
No worries Sarah, I completely understand the need/desire for privacy. It’s good to hear that people have begun to explore other online learning opportunities besides the LMS too. Something about the management of learning has never sat right with me. It should be about the nurturing of learning or the empowering of learning. Management speaks to the requirements of administrators, not those of learners. But that’s just my opinion
Cheers,
Mike
Thanks Mike. You are keeping me on my toes. I did a piece back in April 2008 for a specific context about educational blogging based on the work one of my colleagues who is actively teaching literature with blogs. I have now posted it (http://tinyurl.com/6p2es6) and am re-reading this myself in light of connectivism. Micheal’s teaching blog is at http://michaelgriffith.livejournal.com/
Hi WL,
Really nice piece of work! I’ve read through it once already and will be doing it again on the way in tomorrow. I’m also really looking forward to reading through the references you included.
Unfortunately I am not a course facilitator (or instructor), so I don’t have any opportunities to explore my theories on the use of blogs first hand with learners. So it’s fantastic to read what your experiences have been – as well as those of your colleagues.
Has this paper been published? If not I think it should be
Cheers,
Mike
Thanks Mike for your feedback. The paper was a class project so not published. Most of the work in this paper was based on my colleague’s blogging with his students.
In a sense, networking and connectivity is opening up avenues for people who work in different areas to share and exchange ideas. I have read some interesting ideas from your blogs and I am sure someone out in this ww space will take up on the “theories” that you have thought of. There are some of us who “theorise” but do not have opportunity to see in in action; there are those who are practitioners who are busy blogging but never really have time to reflect on theory. And therefore, we meet somewhere in the “middle” and there is a discourse and we take away something in both directions (theory informs practice and practice informs theory) and we make adjustments to both the thinking and practice.
Hi WL,
The fact it’s not published is all the more reason to thank you for sharing it
It was really informative reading.
Regarding your thoughts on networking, I couldn’t agree more. One of the key opportunities that edublogging has presented for me is the opportunity to interact with educators with an interest in emerging technology.
My experiences with them have definitely echoed your sentiments in that respect. Through their insight I’m able to gain a better appreciation of how activities actually unfold in practice, which serves to inform my research by incorporating real-world outcomes – good, bad or indifferent. For my part, they can brainstorm innovative ideas with me they may not have thought of otherwise. It’s a fantastic arrangement really.
The odd thing is that this happens almost exclusively online and rarely in conjunction with people at my own institution. This is one of key points I’d like to change this year – start making a greater difference at the local level and start to bridge the gap between the awareness and experience I’ve developed in the virtual realm and the one I inhabit in the physical one.
For some reason though locating people with whom I can connect at a local level is a far more difficult prospect that doing it online. Equally as interesting, there are one or two people I know from my uni who I’ve never met in person; the entirety of our interaction has been online!
Surely this is a unique circumstance of the internet era?
Cheers,
Mike