Tag Archive | online spaces

Am I Going In The Right Direction?

Nov18

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 🙂     

Tutor Feedback!

Nov11

I’ve received feedback from my tutor and she’s given permission for it to be posted on this blog so I’ve included part of it here:

“……….My starting hypothesis would be that those who work in an online environment would be a self-selecting group of fairly self-sufficient individuals, in which case there might not be a lot of chatter in the system. There is, I think, some danger that the success of the environment is judged by the volume of chatter, which I think would be a mistake. There’s also a thing about work process, and the extent people want to share their deliberations. Not everyone is the same. In our group, there are people who email me directly; and there are others who prefer the Discussion Board. And these things will vary according to contingent factors. Work pressures will mean that some people will prioritise the Discussion Board over responding to individual emails; and others will do the opposite; and yet others will do one thing some of the time and the other at different times, in a rhythm that is difficult to predict. An online environment can’t be successful if it imposes a work pattern………. Anne”

In considering Anne’s response, I’ve tried to analyse the online environment created through the use of our class blog, individual blogs and wikispaces. I need to respond in ‘bite sized pieces’, though (because there’s a lot to digest!) so it may take a few posts to respond to all the points.

This post includes my first thoughts about just a bit of the feedback:

I agree totally with Anne’s interpretation of our adult use of the Blackboard learning environment for the Chartered Teacher course at University of Paisley. I’ve never felt comfortable using the Discussion Boards (even after 4 years of studying in that environment) but have always been an ‘enthusiastic lurker’!

 In the past, I’ve had to force myself to participate just to be seen to be a part of the community. I’m not sure why it’s always been a poblem for me …….. and why is that I’m perfectly comfortable posting to our class blog (surely posting to the WWW should be more scary than posting in a much more private Blackboard setting)?

Although I’m comfortable enough posting to the class blog, it has taken me a long time to feel even remotely comfortable with the idea of having my own personal blog. However, here I am – and it’s ‘my own space’ (and personalising the blog with my own Header seemed important).

I think that the notion of a ‘personal space’ is also very important to children. Last year our class won a local ICT competition. At the time, Ewan McIntosh   posted a response on his blog which included our ‘winning formula’ for providing a successful blogging platform for the pupils. He mentioned that the environment had to be:

  • “stable
  • easy to use
  • part of a community (the Falkirk school have created several individual pupil blogs which are all interconnected with each other, as well as connected with students and schools outside Scotland)
  • personalisable (this means really personalisable – the kids have control of every detail on the page to make their site feel like theirs, not some centralised silo-ed academic project).”

I think that I’ve continued to allow the children in this session’s class build their own personal space so that chatter, informal learning and formal learning can co-exist, and that I’ve resisted imposing a ‘work pattern’?

I think that Anna’s blog is a particularly good example of this?

A Critical Friend response would be just great at this point 🙂 ……… and a big THANK YOU to Kim for agreeing to being my online critical friend! I’d really appreciate any comments 🙂

Motivation to Blog

Oct30

In a previous post, I wondered if I’d already put the following in place:

‘create a learner centred environment where participants have the freedom to build and maintain their own on-line presence’

…. then I thought that maybe I should look at the ‘bigger picture’, so I devised a questionnaire for the children to find out more about their thoughts about ‘owning’ an individual blog.

The questionnaire was distributed on Friday. The responses were all anonymous … but I did ask that they put ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ at the top of the page. The reason for the anonymity was to try to ensure that the children felt free to be honest – I asked for the ‘boy/girl’ thing because I just had a ‘gut feeling’ that the girls would have a more positive reaction to the use of the blogs (mainly based on the fact that they have been overheard discussing them more?)

There were 12 questions, and now that I’ve had a chance to look at the results more closely, one or two (or 3 or 4?) things ‘jump out’ immediately.

  1. All pupils reprted that they had been quite excited/happy, or very excited/happy at the prospect of being given their own blog
  2. Most pupils reported that they had lost some interest in using their individual blogs since setting them up in September (jumping down one place .. e.g. ‘5’ went to ‘4’, ‘4’ went to ‘3’)
  3. There was no difference between the ‘boy/girl’ responses (even although I had anticipated this beforehand)
  4. 3 pupils had indicated that their enthusiasm towards using individual blogs had actually risen ……. the three pupils were boys (this was a surprise!)
  5. 2 pupils reported that their enthusiasm had dropped from ‘5’ to ‘1’ on the scale – one was a girl, one boy.
  6. Almost every pupil wrote about their frustration when trying to manage adding codes to their blogs

A lot to digest ……. next post coming up 🙂