Summary of Block 1

I've been wanting to do this for a while now. The feeling came after the end of Block 2, doing the TMA and just wanting to go back and review what we have done so far, to consolidate it in my head and enable me to feel that I have a instant-recall mental map of what we covered. I sometimes see comments in the general forums that the time pressure on the course is such that we don't often go back and review - and also that summarising and reviewing is a useful learning activity. Of course it is. So here goes for Block 1, my own take on what we did.

We started out in Week 1 with an introduction to some different learning technologies and a review of our own learning experiences. We were also starting the process of getting to know each other in the tutor group forums. We began to consider global technology developments and how the the different generations are relating to them - is there really a Google Generation?

Then in Week 2 we looked at different examples of technology enhanced learning from various countries, including a lovely interactive radio case study from South Africa, where I am based. There was an introduction to social views of learning and participation with John Seely Brown, who is one of the key authors for this course.

Week 3 continued with the theme - What it means to learn. We read about and discussed the foundational paper by Sfard on acquisition and participation metaphors, an introduction to activity theory, how people behave online, and vicarious learning - learning from the learning experiences of others.

Week 4 continued with the social dimensions of learning and two papers which form important pillars of the course - Brown et al. on the the situated nature of learning in its context, and Engestom's seminal paper on activity theory.

Then a bit of a change of direction in Week 5 to look at different forms of new media and how these relate to the acquisition and participation metaphors - do the new media suggest a new more social form of learning? We began to look at what Web 2.0 really is, and its implications for learning.

Week 6 was TMA01. It was highly reflective, asking us to explain how our chosen course activities helped us to understand aspects of our own or others' use of technology in learning, and to what extent we found the ideas of acquisition and participation useful. It was a big challenge to put together a piece of work like this after returning to formal study since last graduating 16 years ago, but I did enjoy it (in hindsight!!). I was thrilled with my mark for TMA01 and had managed to put together what the assignment was asking for, whilst relating it very much to my own professional interests.

Week 7 was a quiet week, we considered our experience so far in the course forums, and read about the whole idea of handling multiple perspectives, and promoting inclusive, collaborative discussion rather than competitive debate.

Recording this summary really gives me a good sense of what I have achieved and the distance travelled, both by myself and with my tutor group colleagues. It also helps prevent H800 indigestion!!