learnE – My experiences in elearning

PDay – Presentation day for group uni work, Saturday 23 May 2009.

My last thought when going to sleep on Friday night was ‘god!  I have to get up so early for a Saturday!  That doesn’t seem fair and what about my sleep-in’.  Perhaps I shouldn’t have worried as I was pretty much awake most of the night in any case thinking about how our group presentation would go at Uni the next day and being somewhat nervous in its outcome.  

I joined a group of fellow students who were looking at the idea of using Twitter as a tool for creating a learning community for adult teachers and learners.  I was a little apprehensive in the beginning about joining this group mainly because of my total lack of knowledge of this microblogging tool.  However once involved, I found the challenges interesting to say the least.  Not only has it been a huge learning experience for me but also an opportunity to be involved in a completely different yet innovative approach to how a group can plan, co-ordinate and design an outcome and NOT meet face-2-face during the entire process.   

Part of the assessment for the group was to present our concept to the rest of the students enrolled in this subject.  I don’t think I was particularly nervous about the presenting side of things (I have been doing that sort of work all my working career and in front of small to large audience).  I think my major concern was that my contributions to the presentation would be effective and knowledgeable and that I would be able to also assist in the Q&A session that followed the presentation. 

I’m not sure what all the worrying was for!  Firstly, from the group’s perspective (and time will tell when the ‘fruits of the pudding’ are revealed in our grading) I think we were quite successful in our ‘portrayal’ and the idea was received particularly well by the others – and I say that with complete humility.  Secondly, I was very grateful for the recognition that the members of my group gave me in regard to my contribution towards the outcome but also the acknowledgement of my improved skills during the course of the work and how well I had adapted to applying and using this knowledge.   I was definitely a novice with the tool and believe I was extremely lucky to be in company of some very skilled people who appreciated that what I offered to the group was an opportunity to ‘case study’ the idea.

Aside from ‘our’ success, the day was full of other interesting experiences.  I was quite amazed at the range of ideas for designing a learning community that the groups presented.  One group is piloting the use of Web 2.0 technology (particularly Teen Second Life, blog, wiki and a ning to enhance education and learning to two schools (one rural and one considered disadvantaged); another group is looking at developing a learning community for those Baby Boomers who consider their skills limited or who are quite overwhelmed by the concept of Web 2.0 environments; a third group created a community for parents and teachers to learn simultaneously about the new national curriculum due to be implemented in 2011; and a group who are here, from Asian countries studying (namely Phillipines) formed a community to assist in learning experiences that they might use in their own countries upon return.

It opened my eyes to ideas of how the Web 2.0 environment can be utilised in learning environments.  I can honestly say that I found great benefit from such an experience.  The fact that the day was designed for assessment purposes does not necessarily bring images of ‘enjoyment’.  However to me, it certainly was, but most importantly, very enlightening and a valued way to learn.  I honestly can’t remember too many (if any) other such experiences where the focus was primarily on assessment yet the experiences so rewarding.

Filed under: EMT and tagged collaboration, communities, elearning, emt1, learning, web 2.0