Tag Archive | dissertation

Constantly Reflecting …..

Module 1 of my Charter teacher course (way back 5 yrs ago!!) with UOP stated that we should:

Through reflection, analyse and evaluate professional values, personal commitment and personal development”.

ctpic.jpg

Pollard (2003) suggests that critical reflection and systematic investigation of our own practice should become an integral part of our daily classroom lives and reminds us that this was also the central idea of the educationalist, Lawrence Stenhouse (1975)

Jean McNiff  states that Action Research involves teachers thinking about and reflecting on their work and can also be called a form of self-reflective practice.

She also states that the idea of self-reflection is central and that it is an enquiry conducted by the self into the self, and discusses how to modify practice in the light of the evaluation of a piece of research……..

Perhaps in addressing one issue, you have unearthed other issues that you had not expected. There is no end, and that is the nature of developmental practices, and part of the joy of doing action research.’

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/KmEbjzqiBB0" width="340" height="280" wmode="transparent" /]

This statement describes exactly the cycle that I feel I have now been drawn into as a direct result of taking part in the Chartered Program.

During this ‘Dissertation’ section of the Chartered Teacher journey, reviewing the literature has allowed me to access relevant materials. Because of the ‘new’ nature of the topic under review, I am aware that there are going to be brand new useful references becoming available throughout the course of this study.

One of the recent Economist.com Debates is a prime example of this. The third debate in the series started on January 15th 2008:

“Social Networking: does it bring positive change to education?”

The results are now ‘live’ (27/01/2008), and have already stirred up a new wave of debates.

Ewan McIntosh from Learning and Teaching Scotland was the speaker for the motion, and Michael Bugeja, Director of Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University, spoke against.

During the time of the debate, Ewan McIntosh posted on his Blog  that:

“………Another of the main points of argument has been in the very definition of what social networking is, with three of those who I respect for their expertise in this domain being largely contradicted by what the vast majority of teacher professionals believe. Far from being the simplistic friends list social networks of Facebook that spring to mind, these educators see their own blog, Twitter accounts or even Flickr pages as the basis of their social networking. Furthermore, I’m not convinced we can simply write this off as the dumbness of crowds, given that nearly all those doing the contradicting are professionals who work with this stuff day in day out, many with their own students.”

He also wrote that social networks will change educational methods for the better.

The Future of ICT and Learning in the Knowledge Society http://ftp.jrc.es/eur22218en.pdf states that:

…….These fundamental issues are related to the possible political, emancipatory and empowerment objectives of ICT-enabled learning, and also to the risk that innovative learning via ICT will only be beneficial for the already privileged. This report, however, has also pointed to the inclusive potential of ICT-enabled learning to provide learning opportunities to more people, especially disadvantaged people, families and groups. As repeatedly argued, this will not happen automatically. People will only be motivated to return to learning if it is relevant to their daily lives, their social context and social networks.

Future research could contribute by investigating how such initiatives could be undertaken. Understanding the potential of ICTs for learning requires that we also understand better how to merge pedagogy and technology. This could be done, for instance, by looking at how the younger generation makes use of ICTs. This is the generation that already behaves and thinks digital. Learning from the digital generation should enable us to understand better what lifelong learning (which also involves older people) in the future knowledge-based society will mean. This report has just provided a first glimpse. There is still a lot to learn………..

[slideshare id=248696&doc=research-1201807856814071-4&w=425]

Literature Review … Final Piece of the Puzzle!

 Previous post recap ………..

“The report goes on to say that it’s not about trying to formalise the informal; rather it is about using this newly emerging third space in ways that stimulate students and enable them to transfer their skills.”

8447942_772727171.jpg

Wikepidia states that :

…………….”The Third Place” is a term used in the concept of community building to refer to social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home and the workplace.  In his influential book The Great, Good Place, Ray Oldenburg argues that third places are important for civil society, democracy, civic engagement, and establishing feelings of a sense of place.

Oldenburg coins “first” place as our home and those we live with. Our second place is the workplace — where we may actually spend most of our time. Third places, then are “anchors” of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction. All societies already have informal meeting places; what is new in our day is the intentionality of seeking them out as vital to our current societal needs……..

Konrad Glogowski  

……. has noticed that the online community he has built with his students every year often resembles a “Third Place”. He decided to investigate what contributes to this development. He discovered that ensuring that certain features and freedoms are in place before learning begins can have a strong impact on the development of a classroom community.

…………….. he says that he tries to ensure that the online environment he prepares can grow into a vibrant and engaging community. His idea is to ensure that the students see the online environment as their own – not merely an extension of the classroom, but a place where they feel free to interact and write as individuals.

 Stephen Heppell 

………….. spoke to Learning and Teaching Scotland about online learning communities, and stated that technology has given us a much flatter playing field. He suggests that young children online can have the freedom to whoever they want to be – and that means that they can take part in really engaging debates.

He is of the opinion that it’s always fascinating to see what happens when children learn together and has witnessed quite remarkable progress. For example, he recalls a primary school child who was leading an online debate about badgers – everybody else in the debate had a PhD and was average age 28. It wasn’t possible to tell she was a primary school child – she was out researching like mad to make sure she stayed ahead of the people and that she knew what she needed to know!

Jackie Marsh  

……………. writes that, because of the range of learning opportunities presented by digital technologies, new pedagogical approaches are needed in schools if the curriculum is to be sufficiently engaging and appropriate for children and young people. She believes that it’s essential that schools offer opportunities for all children to become competent and effective analysers and producers of a range of multimodal texts and artefacts. 

Jackie worked with Peter Winter on a project where the pupils blogged about Dinosaurs. As the topic was negotiated by Peter and a teacher in the USA, Jackie writes that ownership of the project was somewhat limited ……… but that the children were free to use the blog to engage in the topic in whichever way they wished to, which led to a range of creative and imaginative work. She goes on to say that:

” …….enabling children to create blogs based on their own interests and experiences, rather than linked to a classroom-based topic, might offer opportunities for children to create networks of peers interested in similar topics, thus offering valuable learning opportunities with regard to social networking software (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006).”

Jackie is of the opinion that the affordances of blogs mean that they are ideal formats for displaying aspects of one’s identity, and quotes Victoria Carrington:

“……….these texts are signposts of the kinds of practices with technology and text that may be socially useful in developing and displaying self-narratives — layered, networked texts, multimodality, the continuous and conscious slide between online and offline. (Carrington, 2006, p. 11)” 

The idea of ‘online and offline’ co-existing communities is something that Victoria  suggested I look at in my own Case Study:

  • whether the use of co-existing online communities enhances and/or changes the offline context of my classroom;
  •  whether it shifts the ways in which both myself and the children in the class conceptualize and operationalize curriculum;
  • whether I find myself changing the ways in which I teach and deliver curriculum;
  • whether a school-sourced online community will have the same features and adoption as one created by the children outside school.

 

 

OK …. that’s the Literature Review bit (and blogging it as I went along has definately helped!).

Now moving swiftly on to the ‘Implementation’ of the Plan………….

Literature Review No.3 …….

In my last post, I quoted George Siemens as saying:

     “The starting point of connectivism is the individual.”

816491_954602041.jpg

This paper – developed by the LTS Future Learning and Teaching (FLaT) Reference Group  discusses how Personalisation has emerged as a way of making the curriculum more personal-centred and humane but adds that this entails responsibilities as well as rights. The individual learner has a claim on the time and the assistance of both teacher and peers but has an obligation to make a positive contribution in return. Personalised learning is, therefore, part of the process of establishing the school as a mutually-supportive community of learners. 

The authors remind us that learning is an intrinsically social process and that for most people, most of the time, developing understanding requires interaction with others.

This report states that we we are increasingly witnessing a change in the view
of what education is for, with a growing emphasis on the need to support young people not only to acquire knowledge and information, but to develop the resources and skills necessary to engage with social and technical change, and to continue learning throughout the rest of their lives. The authors go on to say that t
here are also changes in our understanding of practices of creativity and innovation – from the idea of the isolated individual ‘genius’ to the concept of ‘communities of practice’, where reflection and feedback are important collaborative processes.

They wanted to find out if it’s possible to draw on the activities emerging through social software to create learning communities which offer young people personalised, collaborative learning experiences such as those that are already emerging in the world outside the school gates. They state that children and young people are increasingly becoming authors of blogs, and that research is only now beginning to catch up with these activities. The authors state that there are growing concerns about the safety and privacy of young people. Adults worry that by displaying personal information, young people are putting themselves at risk from predators who may take advantage of the anonymity and unbounded nature of the internet to make contact with young people.

The authors go on to say that, while there may be some basis for these concerns, a rapid survey of blogs on Live Journal or MySpace suggest that most of the communication between bloggers appears to be between people who already know each other in the offline world.

Two researchers from Demos are of the opinion that young people are spending their time in a space which adults find difficult to supervise or understand and that there are some powerful myths that inform the way people think about youth culture. Their report sets out to challenge some of those myths in order to explore the real value behind the digital interactions that are part of everyday life. Over a six months period they undertook interviews, group discussions and informal conversations with children and young people around the UK. They asked interviewees to fill in diaries tracking their media consumption – what they used, what they used it for and how often they used it. These diaries were a starting point for a series of focus groups. 

They spent time in primary and secondary schools and youth groups with over 60 children and young people aged between seven and 18, speaking to them about how new technologies fitted into their lives. They also polled 600 parents of children aged four to 16 across England to find out their views on learning and the role of digital technologies in their children’s lives.

The finding from their research was that the use of digital technology has been completely normalised by this generation, and it is now fully integrated into the daily lives of young people. The majority of them simply use new media as tools to make their lives easier, strengthening their existing friendship networks rather than widening them. Almost all are now also involved in creative production, from uploading and editing photos to building and maintaining websites.

In their Executive summary, the authors state that the current generation of decision-makers – from politicians to teachers – see the world from a very different perspective to the generation of young people who do not remember life without the instant answers of the internet or the immediate communication of mobile phones.

The researchers found that most schools block MySpace, YouTube and that Bebo. Mobiles, iPods and other pieces of equipment are similarly unwelcome in the classroom. They also found that teachers often do not feel confident using hardware or software – many know less than their students.    

 Their research suggests that the blanket approach of banning and filtering may not be the most effective safeguard. Not only was it vulnerable to advances in technology and digitally savvy children, but the children they interviewed were on the whole aware of potential dangers and adept at self-regulating. 

 The authors go on to say that, the more children are encouraged to expand their digital repertoire, the more adept they will become at using different tools for different purposes in their everyday lives.  This type of learning – anything which is loosely organised and happens outside the confines of the school gates – is usually defined as informal learning, and that it is this type of learning which often provides children with the confidence to succeed in formal contexts.  

The report goes on to say that it’s not about trying to formalise the informal; rather it is about using this newly emerging third space in ways that stimulate students and enable them to transfer their skills. 

4th (and final ……………… maybe?) literature review post coming soon 🙂

Draft Literature Review ……. 2

 Here’s a summary of my proposed first wee bit of my literacy review ……….. it didn’t help stumbling across the recent new debates taking place online this weekend. It’s too late to change track or make any changes now – but this is only a first draft so I’ll keep an eye on what’s happening 🙂

426527_959119841.jpg

Can Weblogs and Wikis and other associated emerging social software tools be used to create an effective on-line learning community?

 The Futurelab website report on Social Software states that the term social software came into use in 2002 and is generally attributed to Clay Shirky. Shirky, a writer and teacher on the social implications of internet technology, defines social software simply as “software that supports group interaction” (Shirky 2003). The report describes Weblogs as easily updatable personal websites, often used as personal journals. The social aspect of weblogs, it says, can be seen in the ability for readers to comment on postings, to post links to other blogs and, through using pingback or trackback functions, to keep track of other blogs referencing their posts. This enables bloggers to know who is referring to and building on what they say in their blogs.

 This research looked at specific issues surrounding the development of online identities

‘. …. the perception of an actual or imagined audience prompts us to think about what we wish to show’

‘. ………writing online provides us with the opportunity to “author the self ” (Holland et al. 1998), to sustain a narrative of identity (Giddens 1991), and even to explore a number of different stories of the self, but these identities always are forged through our connection with others.’

 They explored the concepts of “affinity spaces” (Gee 2004) and “communities of practice” (Lave and Wenger 1991) in order to try to describe their relationship with others who blog and who seem to operate within a similar “constellation of sites.”

Wenger explains that new technologies such as the Internet have extended the reach of our interactions beyond the geographical limitations of traditional communities, but the increase in flow of information does not obviate the need for community. In fact, it expands the possibilities for community and calls for new kinds of communities based on shared practice.

 …………. the concept of community of practice is influencing theory and practice in many domains and that, from humble beginnings in apprenticeship studies, the concept was grabbed by businesses interested in knowledge management and has progressively found its way into other sectors. It has now become the foundation of a perspective on knowing and learning that informs efforts to create learning systems in various sectors and at various levels of scale, from local communities, to single organizations, partnerships, cities, regions, and the entire world.

In this article Dr Gilly Salmon writes that working online is really a new environment for learning, not just a tool and explains that Professor Susan Greenfield, in her recent book Tomorrow’s People, shows us that the accessible and interactive dialogue younger people take for granted has great potential for learning and development, if we can tap into it. The availability of digital resources and the internet as a mediator invites all those seeking learning or understanding to work together in new ways. Online networking is equally as important where there is little consensus about key concepts or rapidly developing knowledge and practice – something that applies to so many professional fields in our time.

 ………… The online environment provides a medium for communication and also shapes it. Participants do not need permission to contribute and individuals can receive attention from those willing and able to offer it. Face-to-face identities become less important and the usual discriminators such as race, age and gender are less apparent.

Back to Futurelab

…….Communities of practice are groups of people who have specific reasons to have an affinity. It can be an informal network or forum where tips are exchanged and ideas generated (Stewart 1996). It can be a group of professionals, informally bound to one another through exposure to a common class of problems, common pursuit of solutions, and in doing that they become a source of a body of knowledge. Etienne Wenger (Wenger 2000) expands on learning as an inherently social activity. He notes that acquiring knowledge involves an interplay between socially defined knowledge and personal experience which is mediated by membership of a group. Any learning situation has to negotiate both an individual’s experience, and the knowledge that the individual either brings to, or takes from, the group. Hence there is a logical reason to engage in social software. A potential important factor in the use of social software for online communities of practice is the ability to cross boundaries. Learners might be able to join groups in which age, pre-existing knowledge, gender or location are no longer an apparent barrier. There is also no barrier to young learners establishing their own communities and networks.

 In The Paper, ‘A Digitally Driven Curriculum’ by Buckingham and McFarlane (2001) remind us that many of today’s children are in fact establishing their own communities and networks using sites such as ‘My Space’, ‘Beebo’, and MSN. He thinks that educators should monopolise on the online communication skills already being developed in the pupils’ lives outside of school. 

An article in the Guardian newspaper by Steve O’Hear (20/6/06),  explains that the “new” web is already having an impact in class, as teachers start exploring the potential of blogs, media-sharing services, and other social software, which, although not designed specifically for e-learning, can be used to empower students and create exciting new learning opportunities. These same tools allow teachers to share and discuss innovations more easily and, in turn, spread good practice.

A recent HMI Report on Improving Scottish Education includes a section on ‘ICT in Learning and Teaching’ (2007). In the introduction to that report, Graham Donaldson (HM Senior Chief Inspector of Education) states that :

Information and communications technology (ICT) has transformed the means by which we inform ourselves, remain up to date with world event and areas of personal interest, and further our learning. For many, books and journals are no longer the first or primary source of information or learning. We now regularly rely on images, video, animations and sound to acquire information and to learn. Increased and improved access to the internet has accelerated this phenomenon. We now acquire and access information in ways fundamentally different from the pre-ICT era. The findings outlined in this report confirm that Scotland is well placed to build on current strengths in order to realise the full potential of ICT to improve learning and achievement. The challenge is to make that happen. 

 I spoke to Mary Devine, our Curriculum Development Manager. I wanted to find out my own Authority’s view of using web 2 tools with pupils. Mary left me in no doubt that this is seen as the way forward to develop all sorts of areas of learning. At the moment there is no specific policy in place about the use of these new online tools. The main priority is to find ways of helping teachers to feel comfortable with the new technologies.

 I contacted Malcolm Wilson from our I.C.T. support team. The team are happy for teachers to set up class blogs as long as all safety rules are in place. The main recommendation, however, is to ‘go down the road’ of Think.com.  Think.com has been in place in the Authoity schools for 5 years.


 

This view is of the opinion that Educators are typically not neutral about blogging. There are fierce defenders and fierce critics. Each has an important voice. Will Richardson points out, “One of the reasons we fear these technologies is because we as teachers don’t yet understand them or use them. But the reality is that our students already do. It’s imperative that we be able to teach our kids how to use the tools effectively and appropriately because right now they have no models to follow.”

The Paper entitled ‘Emerging Technologies’ by Bob Godwin-Jones (2003), explains that blogs and wikis offer powerful opportunities for online collaboration for learners. He states that the encouragement of peer to peer networking and buddy learning is central to a Constructivist learning approach, and goes on to say that there has been an increasing interest in using blogs in education.

Steve Lee & Miles Berry think that many students find that their learning is most effective when they actively construct knowledge during group social interaction and collaboration. Characteristics of such approaches also include: an awareness of multiple
perspectives, provision of realistic contexts, a sense of ownership and voice,
learning as a social experience, an acknowledgement of multiple modes of
representation and a sense of self-awareness (metacognition, or learning about
learning). These approaches are variously called social constructivism, social
learning, collaborative learning or aggregated learning. The theories of social
constructivist
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_constructivism) epistemology and Vygotsky’s ‘zone of proximal development’
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Vygotsky) provide a rigorous underpinning for
such pedagogies. 

The Concept Classroom Website provides a series of online professional development workshops. In the Constructivism as a Paradigm for Teaching and Learning workshop, it describes that the Constructivist theory states that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. A Constructivist teacher encourages pupils to constantly assess how an activity is helping them gain understanding. They become “expert learners” and LEARN HOW TO LEARN. The constructivist classroom, it states, also relies heavily on collaboration.

The Constructivist approaches to learning have led to the development of the Cognitive Apprenticeship theory. Cognitive Apprentices allow the master (teacher) to model behaviours and then imitates them with the master coaching. (Wikipedia).

George Siemens writes that behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism are the three broad learning theories most often utilized in the creation of instructional environments. These theories, however, were developed in a time when learning was not impacted through technology.

The starting point of connectivism is the individual. Personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into organizations and institutions, which in turn feed back into the network, and then continue to provide learning to individual. This cycle of knowledge development (personal to network to organization) allows learners to remain current in their field through the connections they have formed.

Connectivism presents a model of learning that acknowledges the tectonic shifts in society where learning is no longer an internal, individualistic activity. How people work and function is altered when new tools are utilized. The field of education has been slow to recognize both the impact of new learning tools and the environmental changes in what it means to learn. Connectivism provides insight into learning skills and tasks needed for learners to flourish in a digital era.

Post 3 coming up soon 🙂

Literature Review No.1 …….

literature-review1.jpg

My ‘Review of the Literature’ bit of the Dissertation is due scarily soon! I’ve been saving links to my delicious account, and I’ve ‘copied and pasted’ relevant bits and pieces from various ones onto a wikispace ……… and from there on to a Word document where each ‘link’ has its own page (well, at least I’m familiar with the content now)! It’s surely just a simple matter of making a plan and placing each page into the correct section??

………….. The trouble is that I keep getting more and more ‘leads’ to new research and new articles. For example, when I first contacted Jackie Marsh, she very kindly sent me a copy of one of her publications. The quote below from her article has helped to allay any fears that I should be more prescriptive about the use of blogging with my own class. She wrote:

“More frequent opportunities for more open-ended explorations would be a useful addition to current pedagogical practices. Enabling children to create blogs based on their own interests and experiences, rather than linked to a classroom-based topic, might offer opportunities for children to create networks of peers interested in similar topics, thus offering valuable learning opportunities with regard to social networking software”

This idea was echoed in her email to me when she wrote:

“I like the way you are letting the children drive the use of the blogs, that is so important if they are going to be successful. An interesting area to explore would be gendered representations of identity, it strikes me just from the pictures the children
have used!”

There’s always the temptation to be seen to ‘lead’ the learning … but I’m glad now that I’ve resisted 🙂

As I read through Jackie’s paper, I noted that she’d worked with Victoria Carrington. I ‘googled’ Victoria and decided to send her an email. She’s kindly allowed me to share her advice here. She wrote:

“I read your entry about the kids in your class and their preference for bebo. This corresponds with feedback from slightly older kids in the UK and here in Australia (13 and 14 year olds). they say they use bebo because it does more interesting things than myspace, but also because they have more personal control. they’re very wary of handing over any control. the other thing that is striking is that most of the kids i’ve come across (i have a small set of early adolescents i watch here in australia and one of my doctoral students is watching another group in the UK) is that the bebo accounts are pretty much an extension and intensification of social contacts they have offline. the online-offline movement seems very fluid.

Most of my own stuff in this area has been about out-of-school learning and use of text/literacy. i will be interested to hear how these things are translating into classroom practice – whether the use of co-existing online communities enhances and/or changes the offline context of your classroom; whether it shifts the ways in which you and your students conceptualize and operationalize curriculum; whether you find yourself changing the ways in which you teach and deliver curriculum; whether a school-sourced online community will have the same features and adoption as one created by the kids outside school. will be really interesting.”

All of this is going to be so helpful for my dissertation ‘write-up’. It’s great to get personal feedback. When I contacted Jackie and Victoria, I had no idea that they both had Blogs ….. and unfortunately, instead of getting on with my Literature Review write up, I’ve been reading them!

………… However, I did find a great link today on one of Jackie’s posts and I’ll definately be quoting from this research.

Ok ….. I’m off now to reduce my 17,874 word count to the 8000 limit for this section of the dissertation. I need that plan (and I need it quickly!)

Am I Going In The Right Direction?

Orienting Decisions

1.      Why do I want to research this particular area?

In order to answer this I will ‘re-visit’ my last UOP module and highlight some of the main findings that led to me want to do this research. I’ve already discussed this HERE

2. Who might want to use the research – is there an ‘audience’?

The first answer to this question has to be, ‘me’!

I recently wrote a blog post  about  Konrad Glogowski ‘s work. His thesis focussed on the use of blogging communities in education. His work was with pupils a little older than mine (I teach p7 – his pupils are 13 – 14). I’m looking forward to seeing if his ideas can work successfully in my own situation.

The findings will have a direct impact on how I use web 2 tools with future classes ….. and our school development plan for this session includes the setting up of blogs for all primary 7 and 6 stages.

Some teachers are keen to do this, others are sceptical (the Depute Head has agreed to be my ‘sceptical friend’!). I suspect that other educators who have set up individual blogs for their own pupils might be interested in the research results? I think that the pupils and their parents will also be interested?

3. Will Participants know how the research will be used and do they have the right to refuse to take part?

I have already discussed the research proposal informally with the pupils and at a recent Parent Evening it was mentioned casually (with no objections). I will contact all participants more formally very soon to give precise details of the research plan and ask for their permission to include them. They will have the opportunity to withdraw at any time.

4. How do I protect those who may be identifiable in the research?

The pupils have ‘blogging rules’ embedded in each of their individual blogs. I will refer to the pupils’ blogs throughout the research but this will be using the same rules as the pupils use (first names only, etc.)

5.  What time scale is involved?

Monday 12 November – Sunday 25 November:

Study the various methods available for data collection
Appreciate the difference between qualitative and quantitative data
Consider the different approaches required for qualitative and quantitative data
Decide on the best method/s of data collection for the project

Monday 26 November – Sunday 16 December 

Consider the different methods of data analysisDecide which methods of analysis will be most appropriate for the project
Investigate different methods for presentation of data
Consider how analysis of Findings leads to Conclusions and Implications
Finalise the design for the research plan

Monday 7 January – Sunday 27 January  
 Review of Literature. 

 Monday 28 January – Sunday 10 February     

Revise research plan
Revise literature review
Implement research plan                   

Monday 11 February – Sunday 24 February        

Implementation of research plan
Discussion of issues arising on ‘Blackboard’                  

Monday 25 February – Sunday 9 March 

Confirm with tutor that research plan is on timeImplementation of research plan
Discussion of issues arising on Blackboard
Decide on methods of presenting findings                                       

 Monday 10 March – Sunday 30 March

Implementation of research plan
Consider likely findings, conclusions and implications  

Monday 31 March – Sunday 20 April 
Prepare findings
Completion of research plan
Begin preparation of dissertation                                                       

 Monday 21 April – Sunday 18 May
Completion of Dissertation. 
Submit bound copy of dissertation to the University by Monday 19 May        

 

Yippee! …. except I have to actually do all the hard work in-between 🙂     

Question and Aims … so far :)

Question:

  • Can Weblogs and Wikis and other associated emerging social software tools be used to create an effective on-line learning community?

Aims:

  • To investigate the useful features, and barriers, when using blogs and wikis in a supportive on-line environment
  • To set appropriate tasks and to guide and monitor progress
  • To evaluate motivation, as well as formal and informal learning

Blog Changes

The survey results mentioned in the previous post prompted me to look for alternative blogging tools for those pupils whose frustration at not being able to master the codes for wordpress was affecting their motivation to blog. I used Blogger before migrating to edublogs (I still use it occasionally to experiment with posts for the class blog). In many ways, it’s much more user friendly and when I demonstrated this to the pupils, there were actual shouts of, ‘Hooray!’

Everyone now has a new ‘blogger blog’ and will have the choice of whether or not to stay with their learner blog or move everything over like Adam has begun to do. Adam is clearly delighted with his new ‘easier to use’ blog (and has admitted to being one of those who chose no.1 in the ‘blog popularity’ survey question).

I’ve also been reading how Conrad Glogowski, mentioned in a previous post, encourages his pupils to ‘grow a blog’. I really like this idea and have been wodering if I can adapt his worksheet to suit my own pupils’ needs.

Meanwhile, I need to come up with a more refined research question ….. and clearer aims. Lots of thinking to do!

Research Justification

I’ve been re-visiting an essay written for a recent charter teacher ‘E-Learning’ module (ouch .. it hurt bringing back the horrible memories of actually puting it all together!). Thinking from that module led me to want to research the area further, so I’ve picked out just a few of the points made during the essay:

  • A recent HMI Report on Improving Scottish Education includes a section on ‘ICT in Learning and Teaching’ (2007). In the introduction to that report, Graham Donaldson (HM Senior Chief Inspector of Education) states that :

Information and communications technology (ICT) has transformed the means by which we inform ourselves, remain up to date with world event and areas of personal interest, and further our learning. For many, books and journals are no longer the first or primary source of information or learning. We now regularly rely on images, video, animations and sound to acquire information and to learn. Increased and improved access to the internet has accelerated this phenomenon. We now acquire and access information in ways fundamentally different from the pre-ICT era. The findings outlined in this report confirm that Scotland is well placed to build on current strengths in order to realise the full potential of ICT to improve learning and achievement. The challenge is to make that happen.

Feedback from teachers shows that pupils are generally more eager to take part as they use ICT equipment to engage with learning.

  • In The Paper, ‘A Digitally Driven Curriculum’ by Buckingham and McFarlane (2001-sorry I can’t find a direct link to this!) remind that today’s children know much more than the majority of adults and that schools need to engage with, and build upon the new kinds of informal learning that are developing around these media.
  • Many pupils are using sites such as ‘My Space’, ‘Beebo’, and MSN. Maybe we need to monopolise on the online communication skills already being developed in the pupils’ lives outside of school.
  • Blogs and wikis are not unlike the social network tools already being used …. can they be adapted to incorporate e-learning to occur successfully? A community of learners?
  • Etienne Wenger who, along with Jean Lave, coined the term ‘Community of Practice’ . He believes that:

……..the school is not the privileged locus of learning. It is not a self-contained, closed world in which students acquire knowledge to be applied outside, but a part of a broader learning system. The class is not the primary learning event. It is life itself that is the main learning event.

  • Bob Godwin-Jones of Virginia Commonwealth University writes in ‘Emerging Technologies that blogs and wikis offer powerful opportunities for online collaboration for learners
  • Steve O’Hear wrote in The Guardian that:‘The web’s shift from a tool of reference to one of collaboration presents teachers with some rich opportunities for e-learning’

    He also writes that many believe that the web has entered a second phase where new services and software – collectively known as web 2.0 – are transforming the web from a predominantly “read only” medium to one where anyone can publish and share content and easily collaborate with others. He also explains that the “new” web is already having an impact in class, as teachers start exploring the potential of blogs, media-sharing services, and other social software, which, although not designed specifically for e-learning, can be used to empower students and create exciting new learning opportunities.

  • The next point is to do with motivation. The report by the Scottish Parliament Education Committee emphasises the need to introduce pupil centred learning and to cater for multiple learning styles. The new web 2 tools certainly cater for a variety of learning styles.

OK! I think it was worth the pain! Is that what I want to look at here … the ‘motivation’ factor? Maybe that’s the crucial thing – I need to try to make sure that they don’t lose interest because they see the use of blogs as less motivating than their own social on-line experiences.