- diapason – by Wollschaf – Wikimedia
Some contents of this course keep resonating like a musical note in my skull, even after some time I’ve read about them.
With this acoustic analogy in mind, I’ll reflect on fragments taken from the “Daily”, from some readings and from other bloggers’ posts.
I felt encouraged by what Siemens wrote some Dailies ago:
In a networked model of learning, how does the learning actually occur? … it occurs as we struggle to make sense of our world. As we filter information. As we create content and engage with others. Traditionally, education has provided much of the filtering work for us through the bounded information structures provided by instructors/faculty. What happens when that is under our control too? (colours are mine)
Processes (like making sense, filtering, creating and engaging with others by reading/writing) require time and time management is one of the obstacles of adult “online” learning. (I started reading a handbook on time management and I’m still at page 25 because I haven’t learnt how to find time to finish it, yet! :-))
I’m aware that I need time to explore my learning processes and I’ve accepted the mini-frustrations of feeling a little behind with the assignments (no posts on week-3 topic!).
I read the post by Claire on dropping out and it led me to another reflection: the iceberg metaphor.
photo by ludovic hirlimann
I think that we (teachers) feel frustrated and on the verge of dropping out because we are focusing on the “top” of the iceberg: in traditional learning this means what we (or our students) “produce“.
In our course on connectivism a sense of discomfort assails us if we don’t write posts or comments or draw C- maps. But I felt relieved yesterday when I remembered an idea expressed by John Dewey: that of collateral learning, (a sort of hidden curriculum, what cannot be seen). with regard to the formation of enduring attitudes. We should focus more on the network of our relations and feel less worried by the “productivity” issue.
As Downes underlines:
…knowledge is distributed across networks (of people, increasingly aided by technology) and that learning is the act and process of forming and navigating networks.
This reconnects my thoughts with what Sinikka expressed (in her enviable English) about students’ productivity in online activities, when she tried to create a network for her intercultural projects. She was frustrated by the reactions of her students and I felt the same once when I used Moodle with a class.
I think we should consider the collateral learning of using socialnetworking tools at school, and after this course we will be aware of other aspects. So…let’s look under the surface!