Week 8: Denis

Thanks to Denis for his impressive presentation on gardening. Denis gave a really professional presentation and was noticeably comfortable in the room. His strategies for engagement, voice, text and whiteboard all worked really well and the slides were effective as well. Denis had obviously given a lot of thought to his presentation and structured it well beginning with an ice breaker, making good use of his slides as visual aids and regularly asking for feedback or creating little activities to engage the group. Denis was explaining about how the conditions in the garden change depending on the time of year. To demonstrate his point he had some images of the same house and garden at differnt times of year. During his explanation he asked two of us to keep on a particular part of the images so that we could identify what changes were occurring. This was a really fantastic way to engage participants as we sat up and concentrated awaiting the questions which were to come. he also re-capped regularly to check for understanding.

Also, thanks to Joanna for facilitating our forum this week. Joanna asked some great questions and introduced us to TED as well as linking us into yet another great podcast.

This week I have been busy analysing the program as part of my studies and am writing my end of semester essay and the image at the top of this post shows us what we have learned and how we might be better supported in our learning. I was assisted by comments from Helen and Ken on last weeks blog post where I expressed my concerns about the level of forum activity and about the possibility of developing some skills training. This is an excerpt from my essay about those topics.

"One of the learning objectives was to “use a discussion forum as a collaborative learning tool” and it is not clear whether or not this objective was met. It was pointed out to me that lurking in a forum is a legitimate activity which may lead to learning. Lave and Wenger (1991) agree and state that “Legitimate peripheral participation refers to how newcomers become integrated into a community of practice [and] think of it as learners "learning in a situation". (In Fincher, 2003). Feedback from lurkers has suggested that they saw no purpose to this engagement – it would be just for the sake of participating. This statement really struck a chord with me and I realised that perhaps my expectation of intrinsic motivation, at least in relation to the learning objective described above, was unrealistic. Although the Moodle reports indicate that participants visit the forums on a regular basis they cannot tell me whether people are learning. This is one reason I would like to improve forum participation. Another is simply to expose the group to the possibilities of collaborative learning in this way. Interestingly, when each participant took a turn at facilitating the forum, a strong leadership role was adopted in every case which seems to indicate that there is understanding within the group of how a forum might work in their context.

Another barrier to participation may be the small size of the group and the appearance of a small but knowledgeable sub-group which prevents contributions from the less experienced. It may be that having the choice of waiting for our weekly meetings to ask questions is limiting participation in the forums. So perhaps fewer, or even no virtual conference sessions are the answer. It may then, be worth providing two programs: an asynchronous program which takes an exploratory approach and a synchronous virtual conference facilitation program. As yet the best approach is unknown and will be something I discuss with participants in the final face to face meeting."

"Basic skills’ training has been identified as lacking in this program. Therefore it may be prudent to offer scaffolding in the form of monthly skills-based sessions conducted either in the virtual conference room or in an asynchronous format such as a forum or a wiki. This strategy will provide participants with opportunities to experience both synchronous and asynchronous e-learning. These sessions will stand alone so that participants can elect to attend sessions in areas of personal interest. It is not my intention to make skills training a pre-requisite for participation in future programs but individual consultation with potential participants prior to enrolment is likely to result in a less bewildering and more positive experience for everyone.

Seagrave Holt and Farmer (2005) describe the use of “exemplars through storytelling of cases of innovative online teaching practices”. Including relevant exemplars is likely to enhance the skills training program so that the practical How to… techniques can be positioned within a recognisable context."

Ken's suggestion to include a session on "What to write" is also a great idea which could be embedded within one of the skills workshops.

Thanks guys!
Ann

Fincher, D. (2003). Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, A Review. http://derrel.net/readings/SituatedLearning.htm [accessed 14 Nov 2008]
Lave, J. and E. Wenger, 1991 Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. New York: Cambridge University Press