Author Archives: Syndicated User

My Collaborative WordPress Experiences

Co-Creator

My Collaborative WordPress Experiences

I have not yet used WordPress as my own learning management system for my English courses, but I have been involved for the past 3 years in some collaborative projects on WordPress.

In 2013-2014, I collaborated with many others in the creation of an open and online technology integration PD experience which we called Open Online Experience 2013 #OOE13. We patterned the course topics and organization after the Education and Technology Mooc #etmooc – wanting to continue the #etmooc experience together and offering it over a longer time frame.

We had been introduced to many new ideas related to creating the web in #etmooc in 2012:  connectivist theories as they relate to open pedagogy, digital citizenship, Mozilla’s web literacies, DS106 digital storytelling,  Mozilla’s open badging system, using social media platforms like G+ and Twitter, professionally. Even the idea of blogging professionally was new to me.

These ideas and practices have spread widely and many original etmoocers continue periodic Twitter chats, Google hangouts and stay connected with each other through participation in various projects, undertakings, research on the web, and use the personal learning networks established 3 years ago.

I learned technical skills through collaboration on the web using multiple platforms. I worked through WordPress content and organization issues, acted as writer and writing editor, logo, image and badge generator. My technical skills advanced as I observed others work through the WordPress technicalities such as plug-ins and feeds needed to run the connectivist Mooc.

bunuelgif3

I am continuing the technical learning with my Digital Storytelling 106 experiences run on WordPress. Working through technical solutions can be very frustrating for me, so I find it very helpful to have the online support group members who can answer my questions, and sometimes I can assist with technical issues. I have certainly been able to take the lead in my own university department with teaching / learning online solutions based on my experiences with the connectivist and other Moocs I have taken in the past years.

Last summer, I participated in a digital storytelling project with DS 106 on WordPress; a loosely based Burgeron family reunion storyline set the background for digital arts creation and writing. As a group , we tried to create a framework for the story initially, but once each character was established, the story seemed to take on a life of its own and the connectivist magic- or to use Dave Cormier’s term-the rhizomatic magic-happened! The group relied on the technical expertise of DS106 leaders behind the scenes, and in a spirit of fun and creation, we gained technical expertise using WordPress. Again, working through content and organization issues (pages, categories, tags, media uploads) enhanced our knowledge of using WordPress as a teaching / learning platform.

We continue with the family reunion this summer on our WordPress site, spinning imaginative fairy tales and honing our technical skills. Here is a trailer for the summer festival which I made on IMovie.

I plan to begin a content only WordPress site for my English courses this fall, relying on my university Moodle LMS for student assignment submissions due mostly to the restrictions of British Columbia’s Freedom of Information and Privacy Act.

The pic-a-mix of open education

Fabio Alessandro Locati

“Fale – Barcellona – 194” by Fabio Alessandro Locati CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fale_-_Barcellona_-_194.jpg

 

Week 1 thoughts:
An awesome and informative week learning about open pedagogy with details of the course right here:
http://blogs.ubc.ca/teachwordpress/week-1-discussion/

The webinar by Amanda Coolidge and Tracy Kelly was super and made me think about open pedagogy really for the first time really. I’ve been working on open educational resource (OER) projects for around ten years with rather a ‘bull in a china shop’ approach, and this week is really making me think through more of a structure that would be useful.

How do we define open?

The webinar started off assisting us in thinking about defining open pedagogy. I really have struggled recently with how on earth the open movement can move forward unless we start defining the ethical boundaries in which we operate? Open ultimately is a free-for-all on the web and we are all familiar with the more negative aspects of this. We need ethical common ground for sure. Hopefully his community will help define it. (Here is a pitch for funding that was unsuccessful but shares my thoughts…).

David Wiley’s definition of ‘open’ and the 5 Rs of openness

The 5 Rs of openness provide a useful framework for us to think of in terms of sharing learning materials openly – reuse, revise, remix, redistribute and retain (the control of the content produced). I would add a 6 category of course – to participate in the spirit of openness in an ethically appropriate manner.

(Just thinking the 6th R might be – responsibly or responsibility).

Back to the show – many of the definitions of open do focus on resources and as the webinar presenters highlighted there is a whole field of open practice, behaviour and activity that also apply. I know in my own institutions there are discussions about open data, open science and open research. We all increasingly operate a ‘pick-a-mix’ approach to education, dipping in and out of being open, although many learners and teachers find it more easy to just adopt a philosophical stance toward openly working, and apply it to all they do.

So how do I define open pedagogy?

Going back to some of the clearest thinking about education and what it is, Richard Peters’ describes the ‘matter’ and ‘manner’ of education, and discussions about open pedagogy for me cannot isolate the content from the learner-teacher relationship, and the manner in which we all engage on the web. His book “Ethics and Education” is a must-read. (R. S. Peters: Ethics and education. 5th edn, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London 1968).

Also, going back to the definitions of pedagogy (and andragogy) that are the science and practice of teaching, we absolutely do not want to lose sight of the need to evaluate what we do either to produce well informed approaches. I personally think we have all become a little lousy at that.

How can we reflect on our approaches now?

I really liked this next bit of the webinar. Amanda and Tracy have constructed a matrix to help us position our practice. I might challenge and say there could be a new row on co-creation. The matrix I think identifies a learning journey that we must encourage students along. Obviously, students new to university or anyone making the transition back to education are vulnerable and need support, so may start off in box 4. As they become accustomed to open licensing, use of technology, working openly on the web – as they may not have ever done before – we can gently nurture them toward box 1. It would be good if the journey to 2 and 1 were a quick one as we don’t want to dwell to long on dinosaur methods of education.

Open Pedagogy Matrix

Amanda Coolridge and Tracy Kelly. Open Pedagogy Matrix. CC BY. (BCU week 1 webinar screen grab).

Unfortunately we may be based in institutions that are non-open, and have no policy or inclination to work openly. We may therefore be firmly rooted in 4 and 3, using dinosaur methods, locking learning behind VLEs, and assessing student knowledge regurgitation in examinations, obsessing with providing them feedback, all of which does nothing to develop individuals.

Summary of week 1

  • So I have formed a definition of open pedagogy in my mind, embracing the pic-a-mix of open practices and approaches we all use these days.
  • I have reflected on my own practice and that we need to encourage students (and staff) through the matrix up to box 1 and perhaps beyond as co-producers.
  • I believe in the 5Rs of open plus a 6th category of embracing the spirit of openness in an ethical manner.
  • My question that I hope to explore through this course is – how can I work openly as an educator on the web – because I chose to do so outside of work hours – but operate ethically in terms of copyright (OK, using what is mine), in terms of privacy (OK, using the privacy terms that come with WP blogging) but also ethically in terms of the manner in which we conduct ourselves?

 

 

 

Open course design challenges (#TWP15)

  One of the questions for the weekly discussion for week 1 of Teaching with WordPress is: “What’s your biggest challenge in designing for open?” I have several course websites on WordPress, and one of the challenges I’ve faced in designing each of them is determining just where to put things and how to hierarchize […]

Open course design challenges (#TWP15)

  One of the questions for the weekly discussion for week 1 of Teaching with WordPress is: “What’s your biggest challenge in designing for open?” I have several course websites on WordPress, and one of the challenges I’ve faced in designing each of them is determining just where to put things and how to hierarchize […]

Blogging Bootcamp Video Review

I’ve had a half finished draft post about Blogging Bootcamp in the works since the bootcamp finished. I still hope to finish it but thought I used the excuse of the Teaching with WordPress course to post this shortish screencast.
I’ve also got a huge post about the 5Rs presentation I bungled at teachmeetGLA this week which will fit in nicely with #TWP15 too. Perhaps I’ll chop that up and post wee bit as it is getting out of control.

Rampages Growth Plotted

As part of the gen ed seminar I pulled the rampages.us user signup data for Kristina Anthony. It was just a straight export from the wp_users table and stripped of everything but the date. She pulled it into Excel and used a pivot table to make it manageable. Which is awesome. So I pulled it down and pushed it back up into Google Docs so that I could embed the chart in this post.

It makes me feel better to look at the growth over what amounts to around a year of actual use. I tend to focus on places for improvement (and there are many) but it’s worth looking at what ALT Lab has managed to achieve in a fairly short period of time.1 The July to February jump of about 6000 users is pretty insane. I have every expectation that we’ll add another 6000 or so users next year. Things will certainly only get more interesting.

This has been done without huge student training initiatives. For the most part faculty members are able to support their own students. We have some of that filter up and we deal with some troubleshooting online but there’s no dedicated person(s) to support WordPress issues or train students. That’s a testament to WordPress.

1 In the higher ed dimension a year is equivalent to 6 mins in other dimensions. So this was really, really fast.

Teaching with WordPress via Curated Readings on Open Learning

While I have not finished processing my experiences with #rhizo15, I seem to have fallen into the clutches of another fascinating, open course, Teaching with WordPress. For those who may be interested in checking it out, the Twitter tag and conversations occur here #TWP15. Now, I have been using WordPress for years for my blog, … Continue reading "Teaching with WordPress via Curated Readings on Open Learning"