Working with Educational Tools

This is a bittersweet moment for me. I have finally reached the end of my journey and yet I am sad to leave you all. I would like to formally thank everyone for sharing their knowledge and for always being willing to listen and offer advice. I would especially like to thank Franc for being so understanding when I faced an unexpected family problem. The knowledge I have gained form this course will not be wasted as on Saturday I opened the online part of my blended learning course and in this way I am obliged to finish what I began in this class.
I wish all of you success and I hope we will meet again one day.
Clare

In my experience during this course I found it easier to relate to someone when I knew what they looked like. This may be because I am older than most of my colleagues and therefore have less experience of working in a faceless world. I came late to computers, even for my generation, as I hated giving up my pencil and paper. I have also noticed that the majority of my students these days seem to need some kind of audio-visual stimulus and that they feel lost without it. Most of them have their earphones around their neck just waiting to block out any quiet moments that occur during the day.
Jones et al (2005) warn us that “as with all technologies in their early days, there is a real need to distinguish the hype and rhetoric from the empirical evidence and reality of use.”(P.2) whereas, the research team at the Open University in England seem to believe that media and especially through the use of mobile technology is how education will be taught in the future.
References
Jones, A. Kukulska-Hulme, A. and Mwanza, D. (2005). Portable Learning – Experiences with Mobile Devices. Journal of Interactive Media in Education Special Issue, eds. Ann Jones, Agnes Kukulska-Hulme and Daisy Mwanza), 2005/21. ISSN:1365-893X. Accessed the 13th April, 2010 at:

http://jime.open.ac.uk/2005/21/jones-2005-21.pdf

Knowledge Media Institute.(2010) Open University U.K. Accessed the 13th April, 2010 at: http://kmi.open.ac.uk/index.php?theme=new-media-systems

I have agonised over this question and I almost left the instructions and feedback in English, but I believe that it is important to evaluate my students’ learning and if they cannot read the instructions or their feedback then some of them may give up. In the classroom I always explain the instructions and translate if it is necessary, but online the only help available is the feedback and I have tried to make it as user friendly as possible.

I woke up this morning writing this piece in my head. It is something I feel strongly about. In the past I have given exams in groups and pairs to reduce the levels of stress that some students suffer. I prefer formative assessments,but I am aware that for a small number of students that the stress of an exam can  give them the impetus to go beyond their normal efforts. Although, in some cases more mature students prefer to work alone.

If it is really difficult for Boris to find an extra hour then as Gibbs and Simpson (2005) mention “The trick when designing assessment regimes is to generate engagement with learning tasks without generating piles of marking.”(P.8) I was struck by the phrase and it occurred to me that one way to overcome the problem of learning the Periodic Table would be by asking the students to create short online quizzes, with immediate feedback, for each other. The students could begin by dividing up the Periodic Table and working on a short quiz which the other groups have to take. If they were young students I would offer some small incentives for the best quiz and the people who could pass all of the quizzes.

Another option would be to create a quiz and the students must take it in teams. Peer pressure is an effective goad to memorization. Gibbs and Simpson (2005) also state that “The quality of the group product (such as a report) that is marked may be less important than the qualities of the learning process that created it.”(P.16) in this case I think that by creating short quizzes the students will discover that without meaning to they have become familiar with all the elements of the Periodic Table and it may well be that they will never forget it. They will also have learned to work together and that breaking difficult tasks into smaller tasks is sometimes more productive than tackling a whole complicated task in one go.

References

      Gibbs, G. and Simpson, C. (2005).  “Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning.” Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Accessed online 7th March 2010 at:

             http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf

My first idea had been to set up a Chat activity, but then I started reflecting on my experience with chat activities in Spanish. I remembered the stress I felt and how difficult it was to find the words to express my ideas and doubts.

I then remembered how I had come to know several colleagues through the Forum activities and so I thought about an introductions page. However, afterwards I remembered how often I wondered what my colleagues looked like and that somehow seeing a face or hearing a voice makes me feel closer to them. This was the reason I chose to give the video or podcast option and also because some of my younger students will I think enjoy the challenge.

I like that I can decide how much time to give my students and in the welcome activity and I left it open (no time limit) because I remember that some students had problems at the beginning of the course or signed up late.

I considered making a Wikki, but I plan to use one later on to construct a page with tips for foreigners.

I am still trying to figure out how to take more advantage of the scorm option, but I hope to make more use of it soon.

I could have waited, but when no one answered me after a few days I decided to keep on looking for a solution. I finally discovered that if I took the spaces out of the name of my file that I could save it as a Scorm package and then upload it.

It may not sound like much, but it was a breakthrough for me.

Now I would like to discover how people make interesting and colourful entries on Moodle.

Have a good week everyone,

Clare

I was so proud that I had succeeded in downloading Hot Potatoes and figuring out how to do a matching and a reading comprehension. I should, of course, have remembered that “pride comes before a fall” and when I opened up my course on Moodle I couldn’t find the option to add a Hot Potatoes activity.

I searched everywhere, but I couldn’t find anything that looked even remotely like an option. I have posted a request for help on our forum, but if anyone is out there reading this I will humbly beg of you to help me find a solution.

My plan is to wait. I am coming to realise that persistence is a good quality, but that in the realm of technology it is not enough.

I have enjoyed the challenge so far. I sometimes wish I didn’t have to work as I would love to spend more time investigating and trying out the ideas I have, but it is not to be, unfortunately, we don’t even have a break until our week off at Easter.

I like reading the advice from my colleagues and I am humbled at times by the technical knowledge of some of my classmates. I am also motivated to try and produce a learning space which is academically and technically sound.

Have a nice break,

Clare

Although I have come to enjoy working online there are moments when I miss meeting my colleagues face to face.  I am posting a photo of me with my granddaughter as I have found that I like to know what the person I am talking to looks like. I think this course is going to be very challenging for me. I had problems setting up this blog; it took me almost two hours to discover the problem was Mozilla Firefox which I have been using as Wimba won’t open in any other engine. I am proud that I discovered the problem, but a little worried too, as I figure this is one of the easy tools.