Week 2 - Learning Log

It is Sunday 28^th June  and I have just posted my thoughts regarding the week 2 ‘Am I wearing any clothes’ reading section.

The instruction regarding this task was ‘offer your suggestions to the discussion topic..’. It didn’t give an idea of how many thoughts and suggestions should be offered so I decide to write more on my blog so that interested students can read more. I have personally found that when fellow students post long and wordy messages I start to skim read and perhaps I don’t the take away the key messages.

I believe it will be important for the tutors to make their presence known within the small group discussions once we start the collaborative work next week. I think this is important because for me (I believe most students would feel this of their tutors) they are the authoritative figures and should act as chairs to these discussions. An interesting thought that Mary and Jim have my trust within the first week of the course, rather than any of the students merely because they are the course tutors, authority gains trust it seems. 

I am sure that we will quickly fall into our working roles within the groups and start performing as a cohesive unit but there may be times when a impasse is reached and the group requires some order (and perhaps a push!) and if the group leader fails to do this rather than letting the whole group suffer I would expect that the tutor will step in.

I have found that in F2F situations if someone I am working with explains something in a way I do not understand then I would feel uncomfortable just to nod and turn away, I would out of politeness if nothing else question them and ask for another explanation. I have found that some writing styles of my fellow students are quite difficult for me to understand. I do not mean this as a criticism of their style, individuals have different ways of writing and explaining things just as they do in speech. 

However, as mentioned I would question someone who as spoken to me if I did not understand, online I have found that I have just moved onto the next message. This seems a shame because I am sure I have missed out on something but it is a behaviour of students I will bear in mind when working as a tutor. I will also try to correct this in myself as a student and question more, especially when working collaboratively. 

Week 2 - Work Schedule

I feel pleased that I read around all of week 2 activities ahead of them being because now I feel prepared for them. I felt rushed and unprepared last week, I feel I should have started the tasks early in the week as suggested, by working through them from Wednesday I felt time was running out. 

I am finding I am spending more than 6 hours per week on this course (rather 8 hours) which I am finding difficult to fit in with my other tasks. I am especially pleased however, that I am prepared for next week as this is when the collaborative work begins. I have a strong sense of team responsibility and I would not like to let my team mates down by being unprepared.  

Learning Log

It’s Thursday 25th June 2009 and I am reflecting on the weeks 0 and 1 learning activities and my general thought of the course so far.

I was relieved when I first logged on to the VLE to find that the format of the course was very similar to what I had experienced during my short course on WebCT. I tried to imagine what it would be like for a student who was not familiar with the format. I think an unfamiliar student may well spend time looking around the vistas then log out before completing any of the tasks, during the first session.

I know that each time I have logged on (even though I recognise the format) I have accessed the information around the tasks (printed the information) then logged off, with the intention to read what the task requires before logging back in to tackle the task. It’s interesting that I find it easier to interpret the information by reading the hardcopy rather than the text on screen.

Posting a message at the arrival lounge felt like a great achievement, not because of the complexity of the task rather it signified that I had started, my first thoughts had been typed and now I was on my way on the learning curve.

The assessment test was the one task were I didn’t follow my normal routine of reading round the subject first, and significantly it is the task which caused me the most anxiety. I wasn’t at all sure what the purpose of the assessment was, I was unclear why is was being timed and although I answered the questions truthfully I wasn’t sure if it was the honest answer being asked for or whether it was the correct answer in line with what I’d read in previous information about the course. I wondered why I hadn’t read the instructions before I had begun the assessment and I found that I had felt rushed. I had tried to use a quick 10 minutes or so in between other tasks at work (my day time job!) and wasn’t totally focused on what I was doing.

This highlights another important lesson learnt in that set time and routine is very important in the way I learn. I have put 1 hour aside each morning to work on this course and during the times I have kept to the routine I have felt on top of things but on a few occasions I have missed the scheduled study time with the intention of catching up later in the day and have always felt on the back foot, playing catch, up as a consequence (now I am writing this blog at 10 pm when I am tired and find that this task is competing with home-life tasks and pleasures!).

I had made a decision that I would create my learning log on Word and keep it on my desk top (I would have preferred to write it in my note book but was advised against this my the course tutor). I have now changed my mind as I had to create a blog as one of the learning activities so have rolled both tasks into one as a way of saving time. I am finding time a real issue with this course as mentioned above. I imagine that students will too as they will have lots of other learning activities to pursue, just as I have my work. Organisation is key I believe!

The security around the blogs concerns me and I have queried this with Jim/Mary. I have personally shied away from Face book and similar sites because I haven’t understood exactly how the security is managed but maybe as I continue with this course I will understand that better.

I have found reading other learners thoughts really interesting and I have learnt such a lot from them. It is clear that many of the students I am working with here have a great experience of e technology and I feel I will benefit greatly from working along side them. However, I am finding that it is taking a long time to read the messages and think about them. I must admit that although I appreciate those which have suggested further reading, I haven’t had the time to go further with that but that’s the beauty of e learning those references are there now for me to look up at a later date.

The number of messages which were flying in made me curious to ask how many students I am working with, I was surprised to be told only 20, it felt like a lot more. Of course by studying the names attached to the messages I could have worked this out myself. I am just describing the impressions one gets as an e learning student rather the cold hard facts. If I was a student in a classroom I could assess quite quickly that there were 19 others in the room, it was harder for me to do this assessment on line.

My favourite part of the course so far has been reading the text book I was sent. I think it’s fantastic, very clear and concise. I find it much more pleasurable to read this book than the online information attached to the course and not because the online information is lacking in clarity, it’s just not AS pleasurable for me!

Hello!