And realising that our PLEs are perhaps a bit more ‘beefed up’ because we’re learning technologists is also a really important point.

So how do we proceed? Do we assume that our tools are good enough for our students because they’ve served our purposes? Should we start by introducing our students to what we use and try to open up a dialogue that way? Or would that be side-stepping the institutions that pay our salaries? Maybe we’re supposed to just stick with what’s institutionally ‘approved’. And on that note, why aren’t more learning technologists on these ‘approval committees’?!

Katherine

My worry about this section of the course, which you touch upon, is that we mostly seem to have sophisticated PLE, given that we are learning technologists this is not surprising. I wonder if our students have the same rich heritage? It is as if they are invited to a buffet meal with a rich range of choices, but they have not yet seen the table and therefore do not know what there is to choose.

Wow, we’re thinking about very similar things. I have a Moodle platform all set up and invested quite a bit of time in learning the ropes, only to find that technology that students will be using on their own anyway is “sexier”. The dressed-down institutional packages do make sense if you are at a school, but I wonder whether the learners are going to really learn someplace they don’t feel is quite up to their “class” of communication tools. I was just watching a talk by Danah Boyd @ Political Democracy Forum and she was describing how social networking groups are socially stratified http://tinyurl.com/nrru95. So setting up a “drab” VLE is a little, perhaps, like having students wear uniforms. You know what I mean?

I’d like to know what kind of a course you’re taking at OU. I need to get some proper training and have been winging it, so I’m looking around what is available and good. Thanks for any info you could pass on!

Does your blog notify people who leave comments? I don’t see a button. Never mind, I’ll be back. :)

Quite enjoyed reading your post and the subsequent discussion it started between you and Les. Two ideas sparked in me from observing the discussion so far, so although they seem disjointed, I’ll include them both in this comment.

The first thing I wanted to address is the issue of monitoring capabilities of VLE activity. Although I’ve primarily played the role of a student in Moodle, I have quite a bit of experience using WebCT as a designer and administrator. From my experience, activity stats were mainly used to evaluate the perceived usefulness of course content and overall site designs (i.e. the more pages and resources were used, the more useful it was understood that students found them). This type of evaluation would then eventually lead to tweaks and updates for future deliveries. Most of the time, students didn’t know they were ‘being watched’. That was quite a sticky topic!

The second point that stuck out for me relates to something you wrote in your original entry:

“Let’s move away from FirstClass for a while and see how engaging discussions might evolve over Twitter and blogs. I may still be convinced … ;) By some braver souls than myself!”

How does bravery play a part in this type of engagement for you?

All the best,
Katherine

Thinking about power relations in education I wonder if the gift that technology will bring is a great rise in informal education (maybe at the expense of formal HE). It could be that universities are left with the training of researchers, so that the organisation can replicate itself, and custodians of gateways into the professions.

Thank you very much for your comment! :)

I’m working a lot with moodle here in Austria and I instantly recognised parts of it (ePortfolio, blog, personal profile) when I came across the OU’s VLE in my last course H808. I was wondering then why the OU makes such an effort to do so much programming in the background instead of using moodle more or less out of the box. We’re successfully running all of our 100% online teacher training seminars via moodle. I don’t know however if a whole semester of online activity would be too chaotic and confusing.

I don’t know much about the tracking activity of FC other than seeing a history of a single post but I know from experience that moodlle is a shining example for “Big Brother is watching you”. ;) You can see anything in moodle - every single click can be traced back; every single action is monitored. Of course you don’t know if a participant really read a document when it says “… viewed resource xx”, but then you also don’t know in FC.

I appreciated your thoughts on “censored” forums! :) This is exactly the feeling I have: “all the things the (silly) students would think without our guidance”. For me however it’s less that I trust students’ work if they really want to do it but more that I don’t trust many of my students that they would work at all in a place that can’t be monitored by me. You see, apart from running teacher training seminars, I’m working with schoolkids mainly. And my theory still is that in contrast to advanced university students and adults pursuing postgraduate studies, not all schoolkids (and lower level university students?) actually want to work. Many just want to get past an exam, a grade as cheaply as possible. That’s the main reason for eyeing decentralised learning in schools with suspicion. If I can’t monitor their work, I’m simply afraid there will be no work at all - and then I have failed acting responsibly as a teacher, who is - in lower levels - still up to an extent responsible for his students’ development.

Stephan :)

In term of design maybe we need to think whether we are fostering one or the other…or indeed both approaches.

Kompliment,
Daniel