Jan 09 2010
Flight Path
As I begin what may be one of the most important journeys I have taken there are a few personal adjustments I must make. First of all you may have noticed my dyslexia, it gets worse when I am under pressure so I have to discipline myself to work to do a spell check, write in Word and cut and paste my work whenever possible. I believe this is important because if I want to produce online materials then I have to learn to proof read before I publish my work.
Next I have to take into account that I have very little spatial ability. According to Hartman and Bertoline “Researchers indicate that without spatial ability, success within specific knowledge domains is limited.”(2005, p. 2), which is a little daunting, but they don’t say it is impossible. This means that as I find it hard to follow written instructions (I liked the visual clues for setting up this weblog) I must allow enough time in each activity for a trial and error period. However, I think the desire to succeed combined with my innate persistence and a willingness to ask for help when all else fails will see me through this course. I want to create online materials using sites such as Photopeach and Prezi as I think that the way in which information is presented is vital.
My university has a Moodle platform and I want to use it to put some of my courses online. I have two reasons for this. One of my courses is a Legal English course for graduate students who find it hard to physically be present and who all have very different levels of English. There are also many conflicts between students who dislike feeling subordinate to a teacher or trying out new knowledge in front of their colleagues. For this reason I see online learning as promoting what Atherton demonstrates as a change of “dominance”. (2009).
Atherton 2009
The other reason is that I have a self learning class and I believe I could help my students to become more autonomous learners if I were able to change my role from teacher to facilitator. Most of my students have good social networking skills and I want to make use of these skills to interest then in independent online learning, which is why I place such an emphasis on the look of my materials.My undergraduate students are accustomed to video games with immediate feedback. I know it won’t be easy to create an online course and that is why I want to know how to make well constructed, visually attractive, learning objects, which may take time to construct, but which will capture their attention and interest them in taking part in a new learning situation.
Bibliography
Atherton, J (2009) Learning and Teaching; Authority and learning [On-line] UK: Available: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/authority.htm Accessed: 12 January 2010 at:
Hartman N. and Bertoline, G. (2005). Spatial Abilities and Virtual Technologies: Examining the Computer Graphics Learning Environment. Department of Computer Graphics Technology, The Envision Center for Data Perceptualization. Purdue University West Lafayette, IN USA. Retrieved the 1th of January 2010 from:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=01509193
Clare Roche