What a distance travelled: reminiscing about H800

Hi everyone

If you are reading this, you may have found it as a prospective or existing student of H800. It feels emotional reflecting on our distance travelled as a family since I completed this course. We have been back home in England for 5 years now. Our lovely determined son has just sat his GCSE exams (16+ exams in the UK), and I have finally embarked on my Masters in Research Skills and PhD, in the Institute of Educational Technology at the OU.

I was thinking back to my H800 learner experience in 2009.  Of course some of the technology has changed now. Elluminate video-conferencing has been replaced by OU Live, and the discussion forums used to run in something called 'First Class'. But here is the mind map of my learning experience that I did at the time; I think it pretty much sums it up. Hard work; wondering sometimes how I would ever keep up and fit it in with the rest of life; having a few 'critical moments' and eventually prevailing and reaching the final goal posts. Seven years later, I look back and see what a turning point it was.

Bit more on consolidation and review

Just a little more on why I find consolidating and reviewing so satisfying. It's because it's a higher order thinking skill. I like this representation of Bloom's taxonomy from teachj.wordpress.com/. It relates to my earlier post on ownership and learning and teaching approach, where I included two graphs from the infoDev website, also depicting the taxonomy. When we are reading papers, we are at the first level of being presented with information. We then have to understand it and apply it, which we do individually and in the forums. Reading is (for me) a passive activity, and it is only when we get to the higher levels that I am able to move beyond the 'control' of the course and inhabit my own space as it were. Higher order thinking skills represent a deeper approach and a greater sense of ownership in my work. My blog is a great tool for assisting me with this more creative, more free, activity.

Consolidation and dung beetles

Photo: The rare flightless Dung beetle rolling away its ball of dung - Photograph by Mike Gerhard
http://www.south-africa-tours-and-travel.com/addo-elephant-park-accommodation.html

I've spent most of my time this week consolidating and reviewing. There's been such a pressure of not having enough time to do that, and arrange things in my head into some kind of satisfying mental map. I am reminded of a dung beetle just like this one that we saw crossing the road in the Kruger Park one day - I wanted to get my ball just like his but H800 kept shovelling more you-know-what for me to roll up!! My ball was getting too big to control - hence my "no more!" moment. Now it feels better as I've spent the last several days going through files, identifying quotes, making mind maps and at the end feeling a much better sense of ownership and pride in what I have done, and we have done together. Just got to finish getting it all on paper now for the final TMA....

Keeping up in H800

I mentioned in my 'Visual representations' post that I am a visual learner and often think in diagrams. We have just read a paper at the end of Week 24 that mentions the 'collaboration, creativity and enjoyment' involved in online learning. Here's a diagram I made just to relax and get creative, about the time pressure issues I felt last week, and that I believe we have all been feeling to some extent. It's about keeping up as the H800 train rumbles on.

Each week we have to read, watch, or listen to materials or carry out other activity instructions. The prescribed time for the activities is 16-20 hours per week. Many of us find it difficult to keep pace with the activities, let alone share with the rest of the group, consolidate and apply to our own individual contexts. Every so often there is a double week, with two weeks of activities packaged together, and that can afford us some more spacious working and reflection time, as the diagram illustrates.

I particularly have been finding insufficient time to pause, review and consolidate, as I have commented here before. My earlier attempts at summaries were very rewarding and I would like to be able to complete those. The weekly cycle depicted here is how I organise my learning, but it is being compromised by what is, in my view, too many activities, especially at the end of the course when most people need a breather before ploughing into the final TMA. The learner's affective (emotional) response is another important aspect of learning ownership that we have been discussing, and I am sifting out the various dimensions of ownership here in my blog, before writing about it for the TMA.

More on ownership & learning and teaching approach

I found food for thought in a further two slides in the infoDev ICT in Education presentation that I referred to in the post above. As I continue to reflect on issues of ownership of learning for TMA04, it struck me that another facet of ownership is to what extent the learner's role is passive or active, and the teacher's role provider or facilitator. Almost at the end of the course, I am 'analysing, evaluating and constructing' as we move towards TMA04 and the ECA project. I'm not too interested in passively reading any more papers; the reflection and construction I'm doing here in my blog seems to be far more satisfying.

On timing and skimming

Image: www.trcc.commnet.edu

It's official. I'm developing the art of skimming. As a new OU student and returning to formal studies after last graduating with my Masters in 1993, I have often wondered during H800 whether I would acquire this ability. In Week 12, we considered a paper by Richardson (2005) which observed that we can bring about desirable approaches to studying by appropriate course design, teaching methods and forms of assessment. Richardson also found that there is an intimate relationship between students' perceptions of quality, and the approaches to studying that they adopt. Perceptions of quality and learner experience are multi-faceted; important aspects including the course design and structure, mapping against learning outcomes, appropriate workload and assessment tasks. So drawing these threads together, I would say that although the course design and quality of materials is generally excellent, I am at a 'tipping point' where the course workload is affecting my perception of quality (and ownership) and is bringing about a more shallow or superficial approach. Either that, or I am internalising and consolidating the course material to such an extent that I can now adopt more efficient study methods!! In the next few weeks I have no option but to fit the course around ROL (rest of life) rather than fit ROL around the course, which I did seem to be doing in the beginning. TMA04 has to be finished early by at least a week so I'm going to be multi-programming between that and trying to achieve what I can from the remaining weeks of course material.

TMA02 Reflections

It's the week after I completed TMA02, the second assignment. This one carries twice the weighting of the previous one, ie 40% of the continuous assessment mark. I found it challenging, creative and tough all at the same time. I love being creative and put in three diagrams. I love illustrating my work and now hope that it's recognised as adding to my textual explanations - after all a picture speaks a thousand words and we are meant to be multi-media, are we not. Even thought about making a video to describe what I understand by learning experience, but that will have to come in the goodness of time!

After we have done the TMA, we are supposed to have an Elluminate session to discuss what we would change about it and what ideas we have about being assessed. Personally, after getting to the end of the Everest challenge I would rather not ponder about different ways I could have made it to the summit - this way was just fine thank you! All my chosen activities allowed me to investigate / express my understanding of a particular aspect of technology enhanced learning and its application to my specific context. I also brought in lots of connections to quality management which is my professional area.

I did write about blogging, about being inspired by fellow tutor group members John and Tracey, and about how rewarding I am finding this blogging thing. I regard it as a fun 'scrapbooking space' within which to privately reflect and share with others if they are interested. I am am also inspired by Martin Weller's blog (http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk) where he explains that that blogging provides an alternative forum for academic discourse – liberating academics from the need to write journal or conference papers if they wish to put forward an argument or discuss a point of view. By being able to self-publish in a blog, it is possible to establish an online academic identity. Much food for thought....

Too much of a good thing?

I realise with some sense of responsibility that if one does a google search on 'OU H800' then all our reflective blogs are listed, for the world to read about our experiences on this first iteration of the course. Plus someone might pop in and point out that with my Road to Hell lyrics, I just used a pic of the A34. Wasn't that supposed to be the M25? Well the pic communicated my feelings about bandwidth problems, and yes the A34 does happen to be pretty high up on my list of roads to hell.

We have been discussing in our forums the Michael Wesch video 'A Vision of Students Today' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

Students spending hours and hours online each day? Dis-engaged, facebooking through most of their classes, bringing their laptops but not working on class stuff? Isn't that because they have abundant, cheap bandwidth available? Perhaps too much of a good thing. Maybe being on the wrong side of a bandwidth issue does have some merits for our kids .....

Technological breakdown

This ain't no technological breakdown

Oh no, this is the road to hell....

You may have spotted I haven't been very reflective lately. When one does a completely online course, one has to rely on one's technology. It's critical to the course. If it doesn't want to play, then it truly is the road to hell. My poor PC has been going slower and slower and s-l-o-w-e-r and s--l--o--w--e----------r. On top of that, the international bandwidth from SA is really not what it should be. We have started doing speed tests and generally get a fraction of what we pay for. When it takes 40 minutes to load a 5 minute video you feel like you are in a monstrous traffic jam. And we have the highest bandwidth available in SA. I don't regret the experience though. It just brings into such sharp relief the bandwidth problems faced by most of Africa - not enough and too expensive.

Enter Alan, my trusty tutor group member on Twitter, suggesting Google Chrome as a faster browser and helping me out with it. Wow, what a speed difference. Our speed tests tell us we are generally getting about 3 times faster access, which is an enormous help. Same videos loaded in 3 minutes - felt like someone had opened up a new highway lane just for us. Thanks, Alan !!!!

Meanwhile found third PC problem - with my LCD screen. Have abandoned the PC and gone onto the laptop, usually the family games machine.......now getting time to enjoy being creative again.......

Two Blogs for different purposes

I have decided to go ahead with both my blogs for the time being - and just to be awkward, to use the OU one (only visible to other OU users) for my answers to the activities, and this Blogger one (visible to the public) for exactly what I say in my title - a reflective diary of my learning experiences. Whether this proves to be a workable format, time will tell, but so far Blogger seems like 'fun', with the ability to put include photos etc, and the OU one more utilitarian and feeling like 'work'. I don't want to mess up my fun anything goes space with activity answers but I may change that in the future!!

A Huge Morale Boost

OK OK OK so I wasn't back 'next week' it kind of got swallowed up with school hols, two SA public holiday weekends and having an awful lot to post about on Week 11. How can they put quality stuff and the digital divide in one week? :-) I care about both of these so much so I have to put my bit in again, even though I was actually planning to do a bit more real life. I'm all forumed out and very glad there isn't much of that this week. Are forums a waste of time and unproductive - or does the time that you spend on them yield rich rewards? As I said in Elluminate tonght, I don't think they've designed in sufficient time for both forums and activities on the course. It certainly doesn't feel like it; and it's a significant part of my learner experience. Talking of which, what a wonderful fabbo morale booster to be talking on Elluminate in the when-everyone-has-nearly-gone post session discussion. Loved it. Just to be talking, sharing and empathising about how tough we are finding it - and to see that others have exactly the same problems as yourself is sooooo heartening.

No pics of crocs and hippos yet, I know I said I would. Blogging to me is fun and the activities and forums have to come first. I shelved the fun part last week. Back soon......

Hi all

Here comes my first blog entry (now in Blogger). Been meaning to try this for a while. I took the break week last week, exhaustion setting in, and am short of time this week, so jumping around activities and doing this now. Seems like a relaxing thing to do.

I think my blogs will initially be of the catharsis / personal journal type. Later it might be about sharing H800 ideas but why not do that in a forum or our Cafe? I've yet to experience the benefits of blogs beyond reading others' opinions, and am really interested to see what everyone else chooses to write about...

H800 break week?
Well as I said, I took it. My experience of H800 so far is exciting, exhilarating, providing loads of brain fodder which I can apply to my work, and a real big struggle to get the time to 'get the maximum' out. One of the questions posed in Week 10 is 'why pay a university for your learning' - well I have lots of views about that, and since I have paid myself and at an overseas rate - well I want to squeeze as much value out as I possibly can! However mutual opinion appears to agree that this course is really heavy on activities, and getting the most out means too many late nights and a big need to de-tox for a few days.

Virtual identities and the Wii
We have been doing lots of action research (literally speaking) in the week off. My son is going to be 10 on Thursday and we gave him his early birthday present of a Wii to play with in the holiday time. It was followed by a wide screen TV at the weekend and we are in a whole new world. Interesting about virtual identities (as per Bayne paper); it's fascinating how he is now able to be a champion boxer, boy can he beat the you know what out of some of his opponents, but wouldn't last 5 seconds in normal boxing ring, he's just too small !! He says thank goodness I can't feel it Mum! He loves the tennis and the bowling (but finds a normal 10 pin bowl rather heavy to get enough speed).

The Wii is amazingly social and great fun. At first we were sceptical but we've been bowled over (excuse pun).

What next this week?
So I have to try and fit in this whole week in 2-3 days. Tomorrow (Weds) is the general election in South Africa and a public holiday. Then there's a long weekend (Freedom Day) and we are travelling up to the Sabi River near the Kruger Park to go hippo watching. Will post some pics when we return. SA has lots of challenges as a place to live, but hippos are definitely on the plus side.

That's all for now. As I put in a quote in the cafe, it feels good to write and get it all out...