How to…

Dear Kai,

could it be possible to give students a little bit more information about the “course prototype plan” they are doing/preparing

- many have asked me what should the course content be like etc. - I have answered that it’s not so important to think about their course content (if they want to do biology course etc.) but to think about the course design issues… I hope I have adviced them right.

Tiina Hamalainen

Prototype plan should involve
- main aim of the prototype course (what competences, knowledge will be given), - target group description (who are the students),
- topics (eg. experiences from new e-learning, plusses and minuses of using blogs in education, how does social networking work etc.),
- materials of the module (2-3 lessons for example, this can be solved as the links to materials, but they can compile something by themselves preferrably they could use what they learned at this course and what they wrote in their reflections as source for compiling prototype course materials),
- activities in these lessons (descriptions and tasks, eg. presentation rules, groupwork instructions),
- assessment plan and methods (eg. peer assessment is done how? final test is done etc)
- description how facilitation takes place
- resources (tools) for the activities, facilitation, assesment (eg. concept mapping tool, synchronous chat tool).

Secondly the course environment description is needed (can be a figure, scheme too) in the beginning and later these materials need to be compiled into this environment.

Notes on web 2.0 collaborative work

Today i was looking what the group has done so far.

One thing what i see is that in general we are well in line with other groups.

Secondly, this group has been very self-directed - that is good, it is one of the aim of the course to let people experience self-directed work.

Third thing is my assumption of the rivalry of collaborative and individual spaces seems to be true.

People tend to neglect individual reflections when they are involved in collaborative activities.

Fourth thing is that until the group is satisfied with the affordances of the collaborative space, it keeps shifting and changing dynamically. I think it is very notable that the group has decided to neglect the first collaborative space for the sake of finding one that seems more compatible with their activities.

We will see is it so, and what faults we will discover in wiki. For me, for example the feed does not work as i would have liked if i pull it to my blog.

All in all, it seems what we learn from this course is how learners feel and act in such spaces if they are involved in distributed workspaces in self-directed settings to do something collaboratively.

I suggest that all the experiences what you learn can be part of the course materials what you develop - you just need to backup it with theory arguments from some literature sources.

Our new group space

Thanks to the active Finnish guys, our new group space is now in the wiki:

http://guno.wikispaces.com/Course_Design

Google Groups didnt work out well:

Here is some from our Google groups opinions:

Sami: As the wiki provides a better environment for text editing, I think it would be in our groups best interests to change the whole course design over to the wiki. (Damir and Mikko have already expressed their distaste to Google Groups on this matter.) This way we would have our design documents and our proto course in one place where everything would be accessible. (As wikispaces also provides excellent RSS options and high-lighted version history, we would be able to see the changes very easily.)

Another thing is that we are supposed to create the environment for our course this week.

So my suggestion is that we will transfer all our work over to wikispaces.

My question is, will our course prototype be in wiki?

Basically we are gooing to develop a wiki-based course about blogs?

Skype meeting

I have been a bit away of guiding the group. However for this week i have a proposition to find a common time and have a Skype conversation. This will give the push to the course preparation.

I suggest that you could initiate doodle poll to find out when this week we can all meet in skype.

Social networking

I suggest that you take a look at some of the Ning communities.

Find people who write something interesting of blog-based teaching. Try to find their weblogs as well.

Try to search in del.icio.us and Technorati.com with certain keywords like elearning 2.0 

This will help you to find out interesting cases people have done.

Re:5. Week (30.3.-5.4.): Learning contract (Mikko)

I was reading 5. Week (30.3.-5.4.): Learning contract (Mikko) on Blogs for the red sun.. and i think the contract has been elaborated very clearly and will probably serve as a useful tool.
When you make any changes in the contract, please use new post every time and link it with the old contract postings - then it is possible to trace back and see changes.

Mart has used the iLogue tool for contracts. That is another alternative how to do it. However, pay attention that the contract should reflect your OWN activities rather than those of the whole group!

Those who have not managed to write down your personal contracts yet, please do it! It is part of how you get grades.

Re:5. Week (30.3.-5.4.): Reflection (Mikko)

I was reading 5. Week (30.3.-5.4.): Reflection (Mikko) on Blogs for the red sun.. and just to comment shortly of my absence - ther was an e-learning conference last week and then i fell slightly ill, so i try to catch up all the actions.

Have you already posted/mailed the calls to all the members to use the Google groups. maybe some of us are not aware how to use it?

what goes on in our group space

We have had group space for a week but since not all of the members of this group have become participants of it yet, i make today a small mirror post here. Please try to make yourself an account to google groups to contribute in our own space!

Here is what Mikko, sami and Kai have written so far:

The function of this page is to list all of the matters concerning our course design, and also work as a template that we could use to give suggestions to the design. The ideas and topics presented here now are mere suggestions on behalf of Mikko & Sami and are ment to raise conversation. Every member is allowed to give their ideas and comments either to this page or by posting to the discussion area.
General matters concerning the course
Course subject

• Suggestion (Sami & Mikko): Use of blogs as tools in an eLearning course. 
  • Comment (Sami): This is an example comment. 
  • Comment (Kai): One principle of selecting learning environments is to pick teh same learning environment for the course participation what you want to teach as a course topic. This is wise because then people can start getting feeling of how learning in different types of blogs might work out. Besides working in one environment and trying to understand the principles of an another environment may be taking too much cognitive resources. 
  • You can leave your comments here by following the notation above: Suggestion (Name) or Comment (Name)
    

Course goals

• Suggestion (Sami & Mikko): The course would explain the main principles behind blogs as tools for eLearning and also provide the skillset for concrete use of blogs for university level students. 
  1. The course would also cover how to use RSS feeds effectively and give examples to different software solutions. 
  2. After the course students would be fluent in using these technologies and they would be able to profoundly understand the characteristics of the used technology and its limitations as media. 
  3. In addition to this, the learners would understand what is required to make these solution work as effective learning tools.

Course design principles

•  Suggestions (Kai): you could think at what kind of learning experiences blogs would give, and if the course needs more teacher- or learner-centred design.
• Secondly, one design model we keep in mind is for general instructional design approach, meaning how we as ateam will work. Another aspect is  what are the important comonents in the course design and how we put it together.
  

Learner analysis 

• Suggestion (Sami & Mikko):The learners possess basic Internet skills (surfing, email,…). Some learners might already have previous knowledge on blogs, and for them the course would provide guiding on how to use apply this knowlege in a pedagogically “correct” manner.
•  (Kai): Will the learners start new blogs or come with their different existing blog solutions? Will the solution be communal blog for the group or the aggregation of individual blogs?
  

Design process

• Suggestion (Mikko): One week iterations in which the group would generate a small portion of the course and evaluate it.  
• 
  

Course process 

Course design

Pedagogical model

Used technologies

• Suggestion (Sami & Mikko):
  1. Blogs (Reflection of learning)
     
  2. RSS Aggregators (Client software and web based)
     
  3. Wiki (Main access point, asynchronous communication, group work)
     
  4. Google calendar (scheduling)
     
  5. Instant messaging (synchronous)
  • Comments (Kai): Maybe wiki is too much? I suggest to take a look at widgets for integration with other tools (eg. what are supported and what are not), another issue might be what kind of artifact mashups weblogs enable? This would limit the software issues. How about possible pedagogical uses of blogs (individually, groups, aggregated groups?) The roles of the students and tutor in blog-based learning? Premises and pitfalls of blog-based learning?
    

Roles (of course design)

• Suggestion (Sami & Mikko): Question: Is this what the week task was after? Kai: We need to think what working model we follow, cooperative or collaborative work? basically if we divide tasks or share and recruit tasks.
  
  1. Pedagogical expert
  2. Technology expert
  3. Evaluation and instruction designer
  4. Task designer
  5. Content designer
  6. Course managament designer (schedules, resources, concrete matters, etc.)

Roles (of course implementation)

 (kai):I would integrate designer and implementation works since you end with the small prototype but will not teach there.

Content design

• Suggestion (Sami & Mikko):
  1. Course introduction (background of the course, goals, tasks, schedule, general “how to” for the course)
  2. Reading material for background of blogs
  3. Reading material for technological background of blogs
  4. Reading material for pedagogical use of blogs
  5. Guide to setting up a blog
  6. Guide to using a blog
  7. Guide to using RSS feeds and aggregators
  8. (Kai): Will the course focus on one blog provider or many? This will increase the number of technical solutions that kingt be discussed

Task design

Schedule

Evaluation design

Course implementation 

week 5 activities

This week we are continuing to form the group space.

From last week we are still a bit delayed in preparing the very first draft of how our course will look like as an outline. Here are some ideas from Mikko.

I suggest this would be the shared task for the week to end up with some clear outline and components: What is the course about? Where is the course held? Who is the target group?

Few general modules (weeks of the course)should be planned:

OBJECTIVE OF THE WEEK

ACTIVITIES

RESOURCES

EVALUATION CRITERIA

You do not need to prepare a large course, but rather a prototype how the course should look like in a certain new learning environment.

This week you should also think how you are going to divide work and activities when planning and preparing the course.

The main task individually is to start a PERSONAL LEARNING CONTRACT

You can keep it as blog postings in the beginning of the course plannig, in the middle and in the end.

See the reflection template elements:

• My objectives: Why i wish to learn/do something, what is meaningful for me/for my group as part of the assignment i am responsible of?
• What resources will i need: What software tools and resources i am going to use? Resources can be people, different artifacts, materials.
• How will i do it: What is my strategy to achieve my objectives? What is the order of my actions? How will i use different resources in my actions?
• Evaluation criteria: How do I know that i was successful? Develop measurable criteria to evaluate your activities in respect of your objectives.
• Self-reflection: Did i achieve my objectives? Use the criteria what you developed to assess how well did you work. Reflect, what worked and what did not?

This week, AFTER planning jointly how you aredoing the course design, you need to think what is YOUR part in groupwork. The personal contract reflects your par of work.

Reflection week 4

1. What was the most important thing you learned this week?

This week i learned that if students disappear, the only thing that works is not distant prompts by mail, but local people can help you out. We seem to be all needing some support, sympathy and understanding from real humans when we get stuck.

2. What was particularly interesting/boring in this week?

We had meeting with facilitators to share our experiences strategies and problems so far. That was very interesting and helpful to see and advance my own strategy with my group.

3. Was there something you didn’t quite understand and want to know more
about it?

Not really.

4. What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week’s activities raised for you?

main question is how to reach these group members who are not active. Local facilitators and local peer help was helpful to figure out why people are missing. I hope it helps them to come back and join the group.

5. Which tools did you use this week, explain what was the purpose of using these tools (eg. social talk, to regulate my team activities, to work on documents)?

email, blog, skype, modle

in skype we had some social talk with Damir

6. With whom did you communicate during this week, how many times, with which tools, and for what purposes?

With my students, with faciliators (igor, krassen, terje), and  some students from other groups in moodle