I started my first blog ever, also to meet people from other institutions by using adobe connect and to work according to PBL. It was necessary for me to do a mind map. New ideas, perspectives and concepts were going on such as pedagogical transition, digital literacy, visitors, residents, infrastructure, ONL, PBL, FISH etc. (Conrad, 2004).
We decided in my PBL group to do a map, to visualize the course as I had problems as a participant to know my way. I was very grateful to all my group members. I also started slowly to be more into what to do from the front page. My work was improving little by little.
The group PBL1 shared the experiences of the first topic, Digital Literacies, with everybody by presenting a map. I was trying to understand the process, the topic and all the different tools. We were different participants on this journey with different understanding. Therefore we started a map. I was pretty sure it was going to make me understand far more about all the different places I was supposed to go to and meet everyone. However, next day I was the one who had not only problems to understand all the different places. I also had technical problems during our meeting. It was something really funny going on with the sound. Somehow a good experience as I felt immediately I was an outsider/nonparticipant because of the technical problems. How do you deal with those feelings when you supposed to focus? The map we started had mountains in the horizon. I was the one still walking and looking for the little boat to get on. It did not worry me. I was still able to see what was going on in the landscape. We all tried to be structured. We had different boats to get on. I wrote: ”Maybe I will not manage to catch all the different boats during the course. However, I have such nice colleagues in my PBL-group. They communicate with me. Today I feel somehow I have experienced the dynamic of a PBL-group. We will be back again after next topic.”
Summary: The map with all the tools clearified where to head as a PBL-group.
Topic 2, Open Learning, made me realize I have to change all my power points in the future. Very irritating as I am more interested in how to interact with the students more than anything else. I think I lost energy during the course when I realized that. Yes, it was overwhelming with all the different tools. It was also difficult to be into any deep discussions when my group had a meeting online. However, I had my individual goals which was to learn step by step how to use a few new tools. It was also a new experience for me to work in a PBL-group. I was hoping to be more focused from now on as if there is no sharing it is no learning (Brindley, Blaschke & Walti, 2009).
Summary: We used ”Padlet” to present collective information.
I continued to have question marks more than anything else during the course. Topic 3 was about collarobative learning (Brindley, Blaschke & Walti, 2009). People need to recognize the value of being part of a learning community. Everyone needs to value the collaboration as both teachers and students. What makes us very individual? School? What happens? Do we learn not to collaborate? I did not know my PBL-group from the passed which bothered me sometimes. It was also difficult to understand all instructions online. Somehow the content was not that important to me during the course. I was busy with different tools and to understand which page/space/file was now in use.
Summary: We used ”Prezi” to design and work collaboratively.
Topic 4, Design for Online and Blended Learning, was going on when life was crazy. I prioritized the webinars within the PBL-group. My group was a very creative one. Four people within the group communicated with each other very well. I have never experienced anything similar. However, on the whole I still recognize the same dilemma within digital learning as from traditional learning and teaching. How do you create motivation, deep learning, critical thinking, longlasting knowledge and how do you give feedback (Biggs, 2014)? I doubt I will ever become literate in the digital world. However, I feel more curious now and fascinated about many tools people have used during the course.
Summary: We designed a course.
Reference:
Biggs, J. (2014). Constructive alignment in university teaching. HERDSA Review of Higher Education.
Brindley, J., Blaschke, L. & Walti, C. (2009). Creating Effective Collaborative Learning Groups in an Online Environment. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning.
Conrad, D. (2004). University instructors´ reflections on their first online teaching experience. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks.
Stockholm 2016-12-30
Katarina Falk
Webbplatstitel 