I’m currently at the Learning Technologies 2008 conference being hosted by the Sunshine Coast TAFE in Mooloolaba and having a good time (it may be wet, but my enthusiasm won’t be dampened). The main conference presentations begin today, but I attended a couple of workshops yesterday afternoon – Web 2.0 Re-designing the learning landscape, and Connecting in Second Life. A couple of good sessions that helped me think a little more about why we would want to use Web2.0 tools or venture into virtual worlds. Anne and Jo both talked about the necessity of asking questions before choosing the technology/tool for your teaching/learning. A useful framework to use is one that helps clarify; the content, the teaching mode, and the learner so that an appropriate tool can be chosen to support what you want to do.
But I do wonder if sometimes we need to say: “2, 4, 6, 8, blog in, don’t wait”? I don’t think I mind that approach. Why? Because at least people who jump in at the deep end, usually learn to swim. I acknowledge that this might not be the most appropriate approach for everyone, but it is a good way to learn, not just about how blogs work, but also helps one to think about how blogs might be useful as a learning activity/experience etc. The caveat for this would be that it may be useful to do a trial or test the waters with students first, rather than try to bring a whole class along with while you’re trying to learn to swim. Otherwise you may get distracted by the struggle to keep afloat and lose sight of and /attention for the students.
Another thing that I’ve been reminded of, is that education is dealing with the same/similar issues at all levels, be they at Primary or Secondary school, University, Adult Education, Professional Development/Training, or TAFE. The principles are the same – simplistically put: what is the content, how will it be learnt, how will I know it has been learnt. So, to be at a conference where everyone hopes to learn and share, I ‘m encouraged to notice that we’re all in the same book, maybe not in the same chapter, or on the same page, but at least the story/narrative is familiar and in the same genre.
I’ve also been fortunate to bump into a few members of my PLN and it’s been fun to meet people face to face. Twitter usernames and avatars don’t always mean that you will be able to recognise someone in a crowd, so there was a bit of peeking at name tags to make a positive ID. Anyway, good to catch up with @AnneBB, @howard61 and @borborigmus at the welcome reception last night at the Mooloolaba Surf Club. So now it’s Thursday and I’m looking forward to gaining some more insights from the presentations today. The sun was up early (just after 5 am – don’t ask how I know) and the weather has cleared so it will be a little warmer today.
Tags: community
Col, I’m following you and others at the conference via your tweets, but I wanted to see how you would reflect on the days’ happenings in a reflective post, so I’ve jumped in here to take a look … I knew you would!
Totally agree about blog-in and don’t wait. I’m all for the deep-end approach using blogging; it’s such a coherent, understandable use of onlline, learning technology and a ‘stable’ environment. Teacher and student all in together sharing a blog also reinforces the social nature of learning as well as the mechanics … tagging, linking, friending and so on … using these technologies.
Of course, the learner-teacher or is that teacher-learner needs decide what IT is needed and the right tool for the job before starting, but I find that unless s/he jumps in and learns on the go, the likelihood of any start is diminished … resistance is the enemy to creativity after all!
And who would have thought a year ago that Twitter would have been taken up and used the way you’re all doing it right now. The landscape’s moving …
… and you’re in Mooloolaba. sigh!