Hello Rory and Clara
Welcome to my weblog!
As you know, this will be a place for us to share our thoughts on the "An Introduction to Digital Environments for Learning" course. Beyond the scope of this course and as it represents the foundation for the MSc, this blog will become my diary for general e-learning purposes, as well as a place for exchanging ideas with you in the first place and with other students who will, hopefully, take over comes the start of the second semester.
Personal expectations
As a multi-disciplinary course, I expect it to give me an overview of e-learning in general: the technology we'll be looking at will only be there as responses to specific learning situations and issues. I particularly see the block B as "a tour" of teaching approches and the environments that can support them. By the end of it, we should be able to understand the strenghts and weaknesses of the various existing "families" of tools in relation to specific learning situations. Ultimately, we should be able to pick the tool(s) that could effectively fulfill specific learning needs and, when this is not sufficient, try to figure out how to mix the use of technology with more traditional teaching methods.
First impressions
looking at the course content, I don't really have any specific concerns: my first impressions are that we'll have the opportunity to personally test many common tools, which is essential.
I tend to realise more and more that the fact that we are distance learning students ourselves is a huge benefit for this course: we will have the viewpoints of both the learner and the teacher and I am convinced that this will greatly enrich our learning experience and knowledge of the possible blockages to (e-)learning and their corresponding solutions. Provided that we put the right amount of effort to get involved in the course, it should be successful. And as far as I'm concerned (the postings of my fellow students strenghten this belief), I will see it as a joy rather than an effort. Learning by playing... A huge area to explore play with...
Another positive is that I have already had the chance to get to know two new tools (partly thanks to some other students) last week, that is, before the official start of the course! As a consequence, I'm absolutely convinced that the upcoming posts about Google Calendar and Diigo will only be glimpses of our discoveries during this semester...
onelfvemsmeno on Friday, 20 November 2009, 04:33 GMT |
): 
), I have realised that listening to other people's advice can be very useful, especially when working/evolving in a similar field, where our everyday needs and concerns are likely to be very similar.
...
).
) after graduating from a French university that had chosen to adopt the anglo-saxon tradition.
3 Comments (+/-)
One small point - Clara and I have divided up the class list between us so that we don't both have to look over 30+ blogs all the time, so it'll just be me reading yours, mainly (although if there's anything you'd particularly like her to see, I'm sure she'd be happy to pop by). Usually I tend to cycle through my batch of blogs and comment on each in turn, sometimes over a few days, with the aim being to make sure my desk is clear by the end of the week; some weeks I get the chance to visit the same blogs two or three times, but some weeks other things get in the way. If you ever feel you haven't heard from me within a reasonable number of days, give me a poke via WebCT mail or regular email.
This post outlines your expectations well - I hope we can meet them! - and I'm glad your first impressions have been positive. You're absolutely right that having the viewpoints of both learner and teacher is a great benefit to studying this subject in this way.
Hi Rory,
Don't worry for any delay: I actually find that you've replied pretty quickly
And thank you for the encouraging feedback!
In the light of my so far small experience of studying on this master, I would like to update my general concerns:
The past few days have had me fully realise the challenge of working by distance learning, mainly in terms of organisation/tasks scheduling. This issue is even more relevant considering my full time student status: unlike in tradionnal face-to-face teaching where lectures and tutorials are mainly scheduled by the academic staffs and constrained by room availability, the freedom of this Masters has made me run into the problem of time productivity.
We well soon look at ways of solving this problem...