linarmstrong’s posterous

i have a new supervisor ,I have a massive literature review, I have created the design and carried out the research-so now just write!
Amazing! Any time with any one I can talk ,get excited and fully defend my thesis yet it will not write its self.
 
I have turned to the blog as an emotional support because it does not demand academic language just reflections.
I an so interested in how teaching and learning is constructed between a new returning to education woman and a tutor. The idea that education was such a bad experience the first time around and now the woman with family or work commitments is trying to gain a degree level qualification.
 
 I am interested in their life journey and educational journey so have collected stories and experiences. For those with dyslexia and those who suffered racial prejudice bullying and sheer trauma from their peers the idea of starting again must have extra significance. The affective domain Bloom wrote about that could stop any foray into the world of degrees .
 
The adult life also contains divorce,domestic violence,poverty,childcare and elderly care.The additional barrier seems to be the use of IT on courses. Adult returning women seem to complain it's like getting a new course on top of their degree and struggle to get computer literate ,using family members in the absence of time to learn at college on top of their degree. Why do women challenge themselves through education would be one story worth writing but the stance I want to take this time is can the situation be helped through networked learning? Can connectivity lift barriers when the adult returners are reconstructing their identity as a learner? can a blog do a lot more than a moodle site to help the individual to achieve or does traditional teaching ,transmitting knowledge a ta set pace in a set classroom space really give these second chancers a real education?
 
I know I am a late starter to using computers and only begun blogging this year.I have got connected after doing the massive on line course for emerging technologies CCK08. (Before then I could ust about open my mail)
 
I know how I feel about being a mature learner with connections and I want to test out the unusual stance of connectivity at college on the courses I teach. I know already the results are absolutely amazing resulting in individuals creating their own site,webs ,nodes and connecting in their own way.
the write up needs to say this was not action research but has some similarities to it as it was an exploration with learners that resulted i cycles of review ,reflection and feedback.
 
The first year was one following traditional lines in that all the materials were on the site before I even met the learners. the assignments ,videos and handouts were all made. The second year (after I did my own connectivity spurt) I had an empty moodle site that the learners constructed with me. They made video and posted it to u tube! wow! They had slideshows with their own relatives talking about education and co-staring with digital media of the olden times. wow!
 
They actually blogged and found excellent lines of research to share with their course and other courses. They sent papers around the e mail system and commented and foraged until the rich environment served all tutors and learners alike. First years linked with second years on facebook and gave each other emotional support for modules. They commented on tutors performance and materials and improve the emotional content between the learner and tutor as real people with emotional lives. they even found writings blogs from around the world to report on other countries education system.
 
The content on the course blew me away. The support for each other has developed into a real network for the women to take through life.
 
Now I just have to nail down what digital literacies were grown,how good or confusing it was for the individuals involved and the impact on traditional literacies and write the implementation of classroom A and classroom B .
 
Got plenty to discuss-just need to write it!

#  http://www.mindmeister.com/12213323

This is the comment I wished to use to reply to   a really interesting post.   Learning about eLearning - EME 6414 week 2 

I agree but use lots of different learning styles to unpack the course and contextualise it. I  would use behaviourism more for exams and connectivism more for the first weeks of getting networked...

Then came the anti-spam word and figures ,submit and this message "Error: Please enter the correct anti-spam word. Press the back button and try again. no less than 10 times."over and over even when the word was correct.

This week in the college we wanted to connect the Hospital Play specialists up because their course attracts people from all over England  . The creation of the blog on  live journal was so frustrating because the anti-span would not accept correct entries ..So frustrating and I really have not got time to resubmit over and over what is clearly seen and i feel the learners could not see the beauty of the tool since it took so long to get on!  the idea seems to prove we are human -got to be a very frustrated human.

I like the idea of using lots of theorists to explain what is happening to the teaching and learning! one of my learners,jen Snape, made this from a lecture. Very useful!

Dyslexia Awareness in a College of Further Education 

Before the course about connectivity and connective knowledge I had not thought about the idea all knowledge should be put out there for every one to contest or agree with.

 I am so grateful to George Siemens and Stephen Downes for their generosity in  sharing their knowledge .

And to Ihar ivannou for checking every dot  and comma is in the correct academic place in my book !

My book  took a case study college and a few schools and asked what is the current knowledge of dyslexia (in England) in educational establishments. 

Its a study about dyslexia and some will find it true of their college others may find it hard to believe  but either way it is a very valid study and can be downloaded free on lulul.   http://www.lulu.com/content/5598244  

I just wanted to share the sentiment behind a message from my friend;

In the name of Guru Nanak and the timeless consciousness Satnam, may 2009 be a 

year graced with awakening, inner contentment,compassion and kindness

May your divine light ever shine with increasing brightness and shower all you

 know with your loving kindness  and healing. 

May every one be blessed with a friend like you.

 Waheguru Satnam

I was just reading another educators blog Lani in the united States , http://possibilitiesabound.blogspot.com/2008/12/beneath-surface.html        and it reminded me of the joy of teaching and learning with students that create a challenge. 

we all feel over whelmed at times by the study we are involved in but some have to cope constantly with the fear they are on the wrong track.

 I loved the Connectivism course CCK08    but it is    still challenging me to think ,read and write and there is enough material there to last for years! Imagine if every week felt like that much work and organizational battle.

The learners with dyslexia are usually hard to identify at first but I have learnt so much from so many of them that I feel confident in supporting and rephrasing their definition of them selves. 

As learners they have survived an education system that at best ignored them as if invisible and at worst failed to use their gifts and tallents and measured stuff they could not succed at without tremendous effort.

The tutors that hate working with dyslexia are missing a treat. I love the creativity and networked stance of the learner with dyslexia. They have had to get good at getting around liniar/ one way teaching and had to find strategies for all the challenges that reading ,writing,organizing bring.

The well set up course gives the impression this is the way to gain your knowledge and the power to change anything lies only with the tutor  who knows best.

 i enjoy helping learners to challenge the power paradigm. Surely good teaching is listening to fears, hopes ,expectations and re-designing the curriculum with people for people-in short connectivism but not alone with connectivism and behaviorism and any other methods that give humankind choices in their knowledge collections. and actually suceeding to finish school. There is a good discussion on power..and lots of other issues that i revisited to day o http://www.archive.org/details/Cck08UstreamSessionChatOctober172008

feed://podcasts.odiogo.com/linarmstrongs-posterous/podcasts-xml.php

 

What is the quality of my networks ?      

Before I joined the connectivism and connectives on line course from the University of Manitoba I used Google scholar, Lycos , Athens , Blackwell synergy ,Moodleäand open learn materials to transmit to learners in a well crafted series of lectures that contained learning styles a plenty.

 I learnt MSN, Face book , made my own web page http://www.linarmstrong.co.uk   using front page and videos. I had a dabble with applications such as audacity and photoshop and can use basic functions on my mobile and “Tom Tom” navigation system .

I now know a lot of these were actually transmitting and simple messaging tools. They developed according to need. According to Rhizomic educators  I could be said to have grown a fungi that helped me to connect to my friends and paste fluna and fauna to rocks so learners and lurkers could gain from my finds .

My MoodleäUse was to paste useful resources and the learners’ own power points to the VLE. This  method was good to keep notes for those of us who like to see the lesson again but research showed the learners never used it for long –just enough to answer their assignment question .

 This innovative use of IT earned me and what ever cohort I was observed with, an outstanding grade 1 from ofsted and internal assessors .So as long as information is strung together and connected well enough to make an active classroom experience and  using  what is said to be the learners’ learning style in it  I am considered a good tutor.

After joining CCK08 I now know why the use of networks not groups is an equality of learning and teaching issue . I have created my own first blog http://linarmstrong.posterous.com/ and all the students on the degree course first and second year are connected not just to each other but to year 3 of their course and the web sites of various universities. They can filter information from far and wide across the world using links to educator’s blogs that we found and attached to Moodleä.I see  digital literacy as a right ( )  http://fraser.typepad.com/socialtech/2008/10/notes-towards-d.html

 The learners have now over  taken my power point offering by making their own you tube http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0irRbRfUw5M and posting photos and videos to the web sites. This is evidence of deep learning that will affect their memory and recall and provide a secure peg to hang future information on. They tag and aggregate their own sites and I can see the results from the classroom lesson blossoming and twining with their own searches.  The individualization means they can scratch their own itch! (3) The openness of the network can only come from asking the learners to use tools. The tutor must be networked and using tools to do this.

I am now a member of so many newsletters and others blogs like Bradley Shoebottom/ Tom Whyte/  Keith lyons and this has added greatly to my thoughts about IT and dyslexia. My study has grown effortlessly and suddenly I am competent , independent learner.

My voice often resonates with others blogs or adds a bloom or two to create a picture of knowledge. People around the world in educational situations are tackling the same issues as I am and the feeling of being grounded and connected to professional communities makes the terrain safer. Many guides help to navigate my way.

 So in meetings and discussions I am confident to offer opinions backed by professional communities and arguments forwarded by people who have studied and reflected a whole lot longer than I have and can offer a well thought out proposition to tackle problems and challenges that worry college leaders such as openness and licenses.(4 ) http://www.downes.ca/post/33401

Innovations seem possible in a world where we tutors  try to  fit in such a lot :write publish, teach, mark papers and get some family time in.

My new found “Slide Share” and “Blink T.V”  resources have enlightened our learners and I have passed them onto other tutors. I observe and help tutors who struggle to mix their classroom offer from the basic fruit of power point and the bitter plant of Moodleä. I see through research that Moodleäat college is used only by tutors and often as a transmitter -notes for learners  to copy or cut and paste to assignments. I am teaching a learning theory of connectivism whenever I feedback from the observation as it covers differentiation much better and learner’s voice and other buzz words such as lifelong learning.

I did the course to improve my teaching (it was under £300 to enrol) and did not expect too much to come out of it but the wealth of creative visual materials and  excellent academic papers to show me how to teach are so worth it.  I can make a whole nourishing environment with others that satisfies and serves the assessments and measurements of today. The new free journals and organisations I have joined feed great innovations and updates straight to my computer .Two very useful ones are Future lab and Brandon hall research which I will use to do a part of the child studies development day.

This course has influenced my own learning so much I feel sure connectivism works. I have passed it on to e learning directors , librarians, cohort leaders and Techies  at college as answers to finding the student voice (Huge government initiative) answers to cost effective networking with other colleges offering the same courses (a big business initiative)  and as an answer to working co-operatively with employers to supply skills for the future (Leitch report initiative).

 

The behaviour and control of huge numbers of disaffected youngsters now being forced to attend college also can be answered with a connectivism design.(A huge politicians dream in the present context)

The course has influenced me to put more emphasis onto students to get connected as seen in the video made in the classroom when we discussed racism.( to be linked to you tube as soon as I get the copy)

Connectivity will challenge the organisation to become fit for their employees equality forums by joining up female or gays or black workers and giving them their own spaces and connections with others in the same work.

I strive to use designs in my teaching that is all about equal access and power to learners and this way of looking at things really has moved this to another level.

I have started innovative collaborative projects such as a childstudies wiki

 http://childstudies-nwhc.wikispaces.com/Wiki+Help

And students blogs

http://noonooislearning.blogspot.com/        

http://hazelarmstrong.blogspot.com/2008/11/moral-development-kohlberg-1973.html#

http://claireparratts.blogspot.com/

http://www.crystal6323.blogspot.com/

http://kellyfenners.blogspot.com/

http://jensnapes.blogspot.com/

http://www.georginaglover.blogspot.com/

http://www.jamie-lee-2ndyear.blogspot.com/

and supported the library staff to bid to the innovation fund for Clickview .

Other tutors on the degree courses enjoy seeing the context of their students lives and college work-the students help each other to contextualise work requirements. Their comments and reflections blow me away. They write because it interests them not because I have set a paper that must be handed in. Not all learners are prolific writers some watch and read without anyone knowing until they comment in class. The lurkers  enjoy reading and bringing comments and personal support back to the classroom to create a caring ,learning community where personal thoughts get free when ever they are created not when the tutor points a finger and says “What do you think?”

Level 2 learners have ,according to my research 50% already authored on their own social sites. They make dance videos and photo collections and publish them to the web.In childstudies the skills to do this are used for example to do a short video of theorists that travelled through time to help learners in childstudies with their college work. The library you tube (uk.youtube.com/NWHClibrary ) and childstudies wiki carries this type of materials to help learners through networking which is much more dynamic than transmitting on one VLE.

Thanks to the course from Canada CCK08 I am now in a position to critically analyse the packaged on line courses that are offered to the college at great expense and talk about creative commons licence and other copyright laws.

The quality of my learning networks have exceeded my expectations .To consider the course a success I wanted to add to my Phd chapters but I have actually lived/experienced a whole evolution of my learning theory.

 I have been honoured to join in and see and hear brilliant media created by people who just want to share .This suits my philosophy there is no great glory in being the know all but there is a real satisfaction In teaching a learner  to fish and feeding him for life .

The course influenced the process of learning and teaching in my classrooms and the other day I said to another tutor the materials will belong to the learners even when I lock them out of the course Moodleä because a lot of resources are now created and shared by them on their own spaces. His eyebrows shot up because the letting go of the stuff we see as our qualified professional opinion could change a culture based on years of practice.

I know this culture should be challenged and changed because it suits the culture and context –or zone of proximinal development of the individual learner. We have digital learners and need a learning theory to go with it.

The lessons still to be researched and still outstanding for me are about getting the mix right for each level of learner. Tutors are scared of safety and censure everything so need help in building confidence to let go. The pilt on the child studies corridor has shown learners have not uploaded anything worrying but one renegade or disruptive  voices might pull the whole cohort off course due to unprofessional or immature needs for an uprising and tutors need to teach netiquette and handle their virtual space as well as they can if a problem does arise. We teach table manners by sitting with our children at the table so need tutors on the net to teach filtering and using information.

 The very fact the people who choose to write most can be represented by a power law means to me the web is not representative, not a democracy since some voices will be heard. Some could be subversive, unhelpful, bullying or just add to the confusion. The development of netiquette has plenty of opinions and tutors will just have to negotiate the right mix for each cohort of learners.

Connectivist principles greatly help my own personal development as a researcher and a learner and –my aim for this CCK08 course was that as a tutor, I  can really make a ittle step into technology. Make a difference in a world that insists on measuring my teaching and the learners progress In terms of exam progress. I think I’ve gained some learning for life!

Many thanks to all on the CCK08.