LAST WEEK

Reading and reflection:
1. Students reflect on their final learning experiences in personal learning contracts: How well could I fulfill my goals?
In terms of my objectives I could say that this was indeed an innovative pedagogical context in many ways for me. I have never worked with so many platforms at the same time. But, though it was not very comfortable at the beginning and it took some time for me to “get into it”, I could say that I felt more and more part of the learning community and I was satisfied that I could contribute with my part to the whole process. I could learn from my coordinator, from my colleagues and got more tools in finding more materials myself. Working in the team, especially for the last project helped me to understand more the value of the resources, ideas and potential we have together. It also required flexibility and commitment.
I tried as much as possible to keep the deadlines, to read the materials and to engage in discussions. I took into consideration the feed-back I received.
In terms of the personal evaluation, I try to do that based on the confidence I gained in terms of using new learning paradigms and the personal development in terms of skills and sharing. I would say B would be the grade for the self-evaluation.

2. What was the most important thing you learned this week? What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week’s activities raised for you? How is it related with the self-development plan in your personal learning contract?
I guess I appreciated very much the fact that we had the chance to apply what we have learned, though it is not always easy to step from theory to practice. The most valuable think for me was to “translate” materials and ideas into an “on-line course structure”. That exercise of thinking in terms e-learning environment and structure was very useful. Also, I appreciated a lot the discussions with my colleagues. They were very encouraging. I worked very well with Daria as well and I was positively surprised that she is also interested in urban art. I am doing a research right now about street art and it was good for me that we chose topic for our course in the end, but also to find people with similar interests.
3. Was there something you didn’t quite understand and want to know more about it?

4. What is your evaluation of this week’s group work? (What went well and what did not? How did group work influence fulfilling your personal learning contract?)
I felt sorry that not all 10 participants of the course were active. I am curious how the dynamic of the group and team work would have been if they were present. But, for the ones that were present, I believe we worked well together. As I said above, the discussions were very important for me. Many of the things became clear or clearer in our conversations, we were able to know each other better, find out more about our preoccupations and skills and put all those together for a common purpose. I wish we started this earlier. But, it was our fault that we began a bit late to organize the course. Still, with the given time and resources, I believe I am very satisfied with what we did.
5. Describe what has changed in your personal learning environment and in group environment?
Talking more to my colleagues, I learned to appreciate each one for their contribution. Also, something personal that I learnt is that we do not need to have a final decision all the time made by somebody. Sometimes, we can build and shape the project as we are working on it. Of course, some guidelines and goals we need to have very clear in our minds, but, it is not a disaster if we re-evaluate some of the things on the way. So, I guess, in other words, I became a bit more flexible and relaxed. This is also a sign that I trusted the others and that we were all responsible and worked towards our common goal.

Review – Learning Contract

Learning Contract – Review

My objectives:

In this innovative pedagogical context I would like to acquire more information about different platforms and new learning paradigms while getting more comfortable with the technology involved and the learning community that I am part of.

The goal is to be able (at a certain level) to implement what I am learning during this course in the sense of becoming a e-learner, comfortable with reciprocal teaching and able to find my way in open environments. I am looking forward to learn the balance between interdependence and self-reliance.

I also aim to learn more about working in a team in order to create e-Learning courses together.

What resources I will need:

The knowledge that resides in our group, the shared documents as well as my personal action research will be needed to accomplish the objectives as I see them now.

Also, I would need flexibility, commitment and a participatory approach in order to fulfill the tasks, as well as skills for working in a team.

How will I do it:

I plan to be active as much as possible, read the materials, engage in the discussions groups, forums, respect the deadlines, learn from the others and from my coordinator, take into consideration their feed-back and auto-evaluate myself as well. I will try to discipline myself in order to accomplish as much as possible from all these and learn to adapt to the team work.

Evaluation:

I will value the feedback received from my coordinator, as well as the reactions of my team members. I try to also have auto-evaluation moments based on the progress I make in terms of confidence with the new learning paradigms, the capacity of using the resources and finding new ones, as well as development in terms of skills and sharing.

Examples of good courses

I enjoyed example no 6 – the course on Photography.

I think it is well organized, friendly interface, easy to follow and I believe the materials are well chosen (as well as the pictures).

The objectives are clearly stated and it helps the students to see what they can expect from it.

The 4th Week Reflection

Reading and reflection
1. Reflect and summarize on course readings in your personal Weblog: Explain, what are the components of course design!
A course design is science and art. It takes the ability to organize the course in such a way that it will use the experience of the students, challenge them to develop their skills, apply them and demonstrate them in the real life situations. It is problem-based and it is efficient if the problems are real. Examples are better than generalities and the instructor should guide and facilitate learning.
The students need to learn from their mistakes, refine their work and constantly have feed-back and integrate the knowledge into everyday life.
Learning experiences generate also the transfer of training. The structure, the content, the interaction and the involvement are good indicators for a successful design.
The models can be classroom oriented, product oriented or systems oriented.
Most of the elements used in e-learning are not different from the ones used in the traditional learning: analyses, objectives setting, media selection, instructional strategy setting, project management.

2. What was the most important thing you learned this week? What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week’s activities raised for you? How is it related with the self-development plan in your personal learning contract?
I loved the quotation from Gardner’s 1999 regarding the “performance approach to understanding” – “important questions are topics of the world”. I believe that questions are more important than the answers. Once you have your questions it is easier to deal with answers.
I appreciated the glossary of terms from “The Use of Traditional Instructional Systems Design Models for e-Learning”.
Also, I found useful the definition of instructional design – “the process that keeps the focus on the learning rather than technology”. (“The Use of Traditional Instructional Systems Design Models for e-Learning”). Though one of my goals from the learning contract is to become more familiar with the technology I use in this new context, I should not loose sight of the content and the learning process.
3. Was there something you didn’t quite understand and want to know more about it?

4. What is your evaluation of this week’s group work? (What went well and what did not? How did group work influence fulfilling your personal learning contract?)
I think we are moving slowly in a good direction. Maybe, once we have something to work on together in teams will be even better.
5. Describe what has changed in your personal learning environment and in group environment?
As I said, I try to concentrate more on the learning process besides the environment and the technology. Or even more to see them combined and blending in rather then separate. In our group I believe things are similar a little bit. Each of us is busy with his/her own bit but we need to see the whole. Together.

The 3rd Week Reflection

Reading and reflection:

1. Reflect and summarize on course readings in your personal Weblog: Which principles of groupwork, communities of practice and collaborative learning should a distributed group consider, when planning the design of an e-learning course?’

The principles I found important in planning the design of an e-learning course have to do with both project management and team development. In order for the team members to work well together, they need to feel comfortable with the technology and with one another.

Trust is key for the development of the team and it is not that easy to build it. Usually it takes a period of time for the people who are members in the team to get to know each other and to plan how they will work together. In terms of project management planning is very important, as well as assigning roles and responsibilities and monitoring the progress. The roles can change in the process according to people’s experience and abilities. These shifts can occur naturally.

There are different ways of monitoring progress, but it should be a safe environment for both the extroverts and the introverts. Interaction is a good tool and it should be promoted in as many forms as possible. The social interaction is also essential. Celebrating success, speaking about other issues than the project itself, meeting with the persons from the same location contribute to create a good and trusting environment.

2. What was the most important thing you learned this week? What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week’s activities raised for you? How is it related with the self-development plan in your personal learning contract?

I found it interesting to read about the “teaching moment” as something we need to be attentive at, recognize it and take advantage of it.

I am more determined to communicate with the other members and take more initiative.

The materials I read gave me more perspective regarding the social interaction and the possibility of creating a network of trust in order to work better together. Also, having a common goal helps coordinating our resources towards it.

3. Was there something you didn’t quite understand and want to know more about it?

4. What is your evaluation of this week’s groupwork? (What went well and what did not? How did groupwork influence fulfilling your personal learning contract?)

I am glad we have a common platform for communication now. I think the process of finding it went well. I still find it a bit difficult to engage, but I guess it will come. Also, I received feed-back from the coordinator of the group and that was important for me to understand more what is expected from me and how to improve my learning.

5. Describe what has changed in your personal learning environment and in group environment?

Well, we were in agreement regarding what platform we will use and that helps in developing the trust and cohesion between us, we tried to assign some roles in our team, were flexible in terms of our previous experience and possibilities of using platforms and we became more active in our social interaction. I feel more part of the group and I hope it will show. I was a bit behind due to some traveling, but I hope I will respect more the weekly deadlines from now on.

Learning Contract

Learning Contract

My objectives:

In this innovative pedagogical context I would like to acquire more information about different platforms and new learning paradigms while getting more comfortable with the technology involved and the learning community that I am part of.

The goal is to be able (at a certain level) to implement what I am learning during this course in the sense of becoming a e-learner, comfortable with reciprocal teaching and able to find my way in open environments. I am looking forward to learn the balance between interdependence and self-reliance.

What resources I will need:

The knowledge that resides in our group, the shared documents as well as my personal action research will be needed to accomplish the objectives as I see them now.

Also, I would need flexibility, commitment and a participatory approach in order to fulfill the tasks.

How will I do it:

I plan to be active as much as possible, read the materials, engage in the discussions groups, forums, respect the deadlines, learn from the others and from my coordinator, take into consideration their feed-back and auto-evaluate myself as well. I will try to discipline myself in order to accomplish as much as possible from all these.

Evaluation:

I will value the feedback received from my coordinator, as well as the reactions of my team members. I try to also have auto-evaluation moments based on the progress I make in terms of confidence with the new learning paradigms, the capacity of using the resources and finding new ones, as well as development in terms of skills and sharing.

The 2nd week – reflection

1. Reflect and summarize on course readings in your personal Weblog: How can a conversational personal contract improve self-directed learning?’

2. What was the most important thing you learned this week? What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week’s activities raised for you? How is it related with the self-development plan in your personal learning contract?

3. Was there something you didn’t quite understand and want to know more about it?

1. According to Snyder there can be predicted five fundamental transformations: the globalization of the economy; the management of work; the desegregation of organizations; the maturation of the workforce; and the reconfiguration of employment (Snyder, 2006).

Innovation is the driving force of the future and universities need to keep up with the changes, helping to bridge the needs of students with the needs and demands of the industrial environments.

Nordgren (2006) has listed important themes that must be solved in educational institutions in order to provide the future learning environment:

• Students owning their learning
• Standards and curricula that guide rather than dictate
• Constructivist teaching strategies that empower students
• Trust and adult supervision
• Democracy and empowerment

Creativity and responsibility for the learners are the main objectives for innovative enterprises.

2. The main changes at new Web 2.0 social spaces, compared with institutional learning management systems, are:

• Self-manageable tools;
• Learning at personal spaces;
• Continuous invasion to new spaces
• Distributing one’s personality between spaces;
• Community as an identity
• Publishing artifacts to define communities and ourselves

These challenges require self-direction and self-management as well as autonomy of one’s activities. Abilities and skills that are acquired in other contexts than the formal ones are valid resources and are recognized.

Self-directed learning activities take always place in a certain social context and cannot be separated from that social setting and other people (Brockett & Hiemstra 1991). There is no absolute freedom, but rather social spaces and communities one belongs to and to whom he is hold accountable in terms of his self-directed activities.

Knowles (1975) has introduced the model of activities that form a self-direction: diagnosing needs, formulating needs, identifying resources, choosing and implementing suitable strategies and evaluating outcomes. The learners are no longer dependent on the teacher, but they are rather independent individuals, creative and responsible in terms of their learning goals. They belong to different learning communities and are enabled to share new knowledge continuously.

Personal contracts are the new tools to help the students and the teacher define the learning process in terms of goals and expectations. These contracts are supposed to be evaluated by the teacher or other facilitators and should be updated according to the new developments. In this way, the responsibility belongs to the learner and helps him develop certain management skills as well as the awareness of the long term goal of his learning process. The learner is also analyzing himself, reflecting on his learning and reviewing and reconstructing his activities. The process is always spiraling.

A group contract is a collaborative effort of a community to build up set of indicators in order to monitor its learning.

The applicability of community-directed learning depends on how the other people, contributing to the individual knowledge-building would perceive why, what and how the individual is aiming to do and how they act and interpret the indicators.

3. I have browsed The Learning Contract Handbook and it was quite helpful. Still, I do not know exactly whether the requirements of my contract are to be set regarding this course or regarding the whole program. Therefore I did not proceed in writing them yet.

The 1st Week Reflection

What are your expectations with this course?
2. Reflect and summarize on course readings in your personal Weblog: What are the trends in e-learning and how do they influence online course design?
3. What was the most important thing that you learned this week? What kind of questions/ideas/experiences this week’s activities raised for you? How is it related with your expectations of the course?
4. Was there something you didn’t quite understand and want to know more about?
5. Describe the tools and resources of your personal learning environment. Were there problems in constructing a personal learning environment?

1. During this course I hope to learn more about e-Learning, to understand the implications of this new type of education and to acquire some of the skills needed for the emerging learning settings.

2. The paradigm shift in pedagogy and the use of technology requires a new approach to education as a life long learning process. Personalization and individuality are the challenges. The changes in instructional design are also a challenge.

3. New skills are important both for the students and the educators in these new learning settings: – ability of finding and selecting the appropriate learning tools. Some institutions are more open than others to adopt the new ways of teaching and learning. The benefits of the online learning are great if we consider that the limitation of time and space that are eluted. Learning is contextualized due to the needs of both the teacher and the learner. Interaction between the learners is a source of information transfer. There should be interaction between the learner and other learners, between the learner and the teacher, and between the learner and experts to collaborate, participate and share information and form social networks. Learners should be able to interact within their context, network between them and also, there is the expectation to be creative and to be able to apply the things learnt in real-life applications.

Learning in an online context is the “new science of learning,” Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (1999) provide evidence that effective learning environments are framed within the convergence of four overlapping lenses. They argue that effective learning is learner centered, knowledge centered, assessment centered, and community centered. During this course I would like to explore and analyze these attributes more.

4. I would like to know if there is an intermediate phase – a blending learning stage – that can help in the process of shifting from the paradigm of traditional education to the online one.

5. In my context – Babes-Bolyai University there are some signs of the new paradigm – the EMIM master program is an example. Still, in an academic system I find it difficult to operate radical changes. Usually universities are traditional institutions/systems and it might take a bit more time for this shift. Nevertheless, in terms of platforms and updated technology, the university is well equipped. And there are signs of awareness in terms of the importance of the new ways of learning. A learner-centered context is more and more desirable in our institution and there are many attempts to improve the education system according to that goal.

About

My name is Ileana and I am from Cluj-Napoca Romania. I am found of literature, movies and branding. It fascinates me the way words and images can come together to provide a new unit/entity/cluster of meaning. I love traveling and discovering new places. I graduated the Philology Faculty from Babes-Bolyai University and an interdisciplinary Master Degree Program at the same University: “The History of Images, the History of Ideas”

Hello world!

My first post should start with: Welcome!

I