A strange couple of weeks…

It is a strange thing, this blogging business. Some people seem to really enjoy it and totally embrace its value both educationally and personally. They have a lengthy blog roll (something incidentally that I never even knew existed prior to this course) and follow their favourites almost religiously.

They regularly post, witty and inspiring pieces that are both well written and interesting. And, quite honestly it is all a complete mystery to me. Like chess.

I have read around the subject (to some extent) and I understand the principles behind blogging, but I just don’t seem to be able to get on board. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say, rather that I don’t have anything to add. I suppose the question though is, would it be of value to my learners? The answer eludes me as yet. Possibly, but I would be struggling to sell it. I think it takes a certain amount of focus to blog, and the majority of my students are more Snap chat than Word press. Having said that I’m sure that if they were to read other people’s then they would almost certainly gain some value from it, but would it be more than they could gain in other formats? I’m still unsure but hopefully by the end of this module I will have made up my mind!

2 Down…

Well day school number two is done and I now have another three weeks of free range chaos. Although it has to be said that I do feel a little smug now that I know some people haven’t done as many mini projects as me. It’s not that I want people to struggle or be behind, it just makes me feel better to know where I am in the rankings. Mind you, it could be argued that there’s no point having done all six if they are utter tosh. I’m sure they’re not…maybe…

My next step is the final mini project and then acting on the feedback I’ve received for them. That in itself is going to probably be more of an undertaking than expected, but in a glass half full approach I shall try to use the experience to the benefit of my students when they are going through the same process. Oh, who am I kidding? I’ll sulk, and pout and complain that I have no idea what a topic sentence is and then finally get on with it.

After that I need to crack on with the design project. I have some ideas but my main concern is that my ambitions may far outweigh my abilities. If it comes off as I plan I think it will work quite nicely and will actually be something that I will employ in my practice. I was very keen for that to be the case from the start. If I was going to do this module I really wanted to have something tangible at the end of it, and this design project could fit the bill, hopefully.

I found this interesting article when I was doing one of the mini projects and then yesterday at uni we were discussing the use of the term “digital natives” so I thought I’d share it here;

Jones_and_Shao-Final

Finding My Feet

I am now just over a week in, although it seems like longer, and I am proud to say that I have just emailed my second mini project. I’m not proud to say that I have found it harder than I thought I would.

On the plus side I am surprisingly interested in this module, certainly much more than I ever imagined. Don’t get me wrong I like my lap top and smart phone as much as the next man, but when it comes to using them as tools for teaching I usually end up having frustrated conversations with our IT help desk. Which incidentally, usually result in the advice to turn it off and then on again.

So far I have completed the mini project on gamification. This was really interesting, particularly as I never realised how much of this format I use in my delivery, but also because it made me actually look into alternatives and the theories behind them. It also resulted in a nice afternoon playing with augmented reality, which if I’m completely honest smacks of witchcraft.

For my second project I have been looking at the future of VLEs. Again an interesting topic and I have tried to act upon the feedback that I received from the first. Hopefully I have managed to make some improvements. Interestingly, it was the style of my writing rather than the content that let me down, so that is definitely an area that I need to work on. I was pleased to find the “training package on academic writing” on unilearn’s homepage. A really useful resource, and one I’m sure that I will keep coming back too.

Who doesn’t like a dancing penguin?

Day 1 – Task 1

Well I can honestly say that I never thought I would be here. Not only am I embarking on a masters course but the first module I have selected is computer related. I’m fairly sure that there is a name for that sort of out of character behaviour, but I can’t think of it at this moment.

I suppose I should start with a little about myself. I am a registered Veterinary nurse who now teaches up to HND level at an FE college in Sheffield. I consider myself to be very lucky to have two careers that I absolutely love.

I have chosen to do the masters course in education because I think that if I am going to be responsible for teaching students then I should be the best I can be. The veterinary side of that is covered (if I do say so myself), so the next step is the education side. That belief is what has led me to choose this e-learning module. My technical skills are fairly limited, being as I am of the generation that was just slightly too early for it to be mainstream in schools. The steps that are being taken in the veterinary teaching sector to embed technology into student learning through 3D and virtual anatomy models and the like is very exciting, even for a technophobe like me.

RVC breaking new teaching ground