Continuing with connectivism course

I keep on finding snippets every time I dip into the various course sites for the connectivism course & am building up a good resource on knowledge & learning for future use in my adult learning courses .

Here is a slide show on the course itself, presented at the NZ efest2008 last week. Of interest is the complete (almost) overview of what bits make up the course & the inner workings of how to keep track of the 1900 or so participants. It provided me with a reference point as to where things were and the area I could still check out.

In the long run, I (& probably the majority of the other participants) will settle into the sites / tools we find provide the easiest way to access the course material and to network with others on the course.

The above is also coming through with my mlearning research. Students do not like having to put time into learning how to use a new mobile phone, especially if the operating system is different from their current phone. They also prefer to keep their existing social networking sites and resists our efforts to introduce them to sites that are perhaps more suited to building a portfolio. The effort put into relearning a new social networking platform and perhaps transferring material across into the new site needs to be motivated by more than the need to meet course assessment outcomes. How can we provide this? One way is to perhaps encourage the networking between peers so that everyone is able to look at other portfolios. This encourages a sense of competition & works well with young men. The other is to provide a ‘one stop shop’ concept so that the site is also a personal portal that links to course material, RSS feeds from subject content sites / experts that provide learning opportunities and institutional support systems (library, study skills, student union etc.) So far, all the Web 2.0 sites that we have trialled will do some but not all of the above. We could set up a prototype on Moodle but the assess to Moodle is comparatively clunky & the students will likely loose the site once they leave the institution. So lots to mull through & to work on.

Continuing learning on e & mlearning

I have started a blog to record my learning from the connectivism course set up by George Siemens & Stephen Downs. This is so that this blog does not become clogged up with my various reflections as I wrestle my way through all the material presented & work out some coherent application for my new learning. I make it a point to complete as least one course of learning a year as a student. So this year, the online connectivism course will be a way for me to learn about learning from the student’s point of view.

It will also be a good test of flexible learning delivery structures as the connectivism course runs from now until November. In October, I will be away from work, travelling to the UK for the mlearn2008 & handheld 2008 conferences. Then doing a tiki tour of Europe and ending up in Rome. So it will be a good trial of how I can keep up with the course with all the other new activities going around plus how I will access the course as I travel around in unfamiliar cities.

The rest of this month, I will be doing some intensive self study to update myself on mLearning as I will be presenting on this topic at several other forums. Firstly, at the annual CPIT research forum – Output 2008 - where I will do a dry run of my mlearn2008 paper. Then to CPIT management on the Ed. strategy team and two conferences at the end of September in Wellington. Firstly to the NZCETA (NZ Commerce & Economics Teachers Association) and then a keynote to the MITO (Motor Industry Training Organisation) professional development / training providers conference. All of the three concentrate on what is mLearning, the concepts of ‘everyware’, cloud computing, Web 2.0 / Web 3.0 and options for mlearning delivery in the various contexts that the participants teach in.