Re’Connect’ing and Learning

It’s been a year (since Jan 14, 2015) since I defended my EdD dissertation (online via Adobe Connect). Since then, I’ve co-led a MOOC, and participated in some webinar and conference presentations. But this week marked the first time in over a year that I stepped back into an Adobe Connect classroom. I lead my first three-hour synchronous sessions for two MEd courses that I’m teaching at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Amazingly, there were no major technical glitches across six hours of live interaction. My experiences this week were exhilarating – not just from the standpoint that I’ve embarked on a new journey in my professional career, but also because they reminded me that I, too, am along for the ride as a lifelong learner.

I prepared for my first week of #EDUC5101G and #EDUC5103G by creating a pair of course websites using free online tools outside of UOIT’s LMS. And I made a point of explaining to course participants just why I did that. I’ve had a lot of experience building courses in different LMS platforms, so I know their strengths and limitations. My choice of Weebly to build my course sites was prompted by:

• A desire to demonstrate the power of concentrating on instructional design instead of fretting over the mechanics of an unfamiliar platform. 
• (Blackboard is one LMS that I have not personally used. And one of the main points of my dissertation was that cognitive overload associated with learning new tech contributes to teacher’s perceptions of low self-efficacy. Conversely, focusing on learning outcomes and instructional design elements helps increase self-efficacy when working with educational technology – and specific tools are secondary to instructional design (and come and go.)
• A desire to demonstrate the power of what can be done using free online tools, which every teacher can access. 
• (After all, not all of my course participants will have the same (if any) LMS at their disposal at their institutions.)
• A desire to capitalize on the interactivities enabled by BootstrapUI, which is foundational to the Weebly platform 
• (but difficult to integrate into LMS content pages without extensive coding experience and, in most cases, administrative rights on the platform).
• The fact that Weebly-hosted sites are mobile-responsive
• (meaning that accessibility is increased for course participants, and I did not need to draw upon my coding skills to ensure device interoperability).

I also prepared for my UOIT courses by building in a mix of synchronous and asynchronous, as well as individual and group learning activities. When it came to the logistics of the group activities, I tried to be both pragmatic and equitable. And I learned that it can be difficult to get that balance just right. On the pragmatic side, I needed to get things rolling pretty quickly with the formation of teams and the selection of group assignment topics. This can be a challenge when you are not meeting with your students face to face every other day, so I embedded a free online tool into the course websites to show participants ways of randomly assigning people to teams during a synchronous online class. During my first Adobe Connect session, I polled the participants to get a feel for whether or not they’d be ok with random group assignment (and it turned out that they were overwhelmingly in favor of that approach). Perhaps a simple oversight – but I skipped that step during my second Adobe Connect class. I know that adult learners need to feel in control of their learning experiences, and that random assignment to a team for a learning activity can take away some of that sense of control. It appears that most participants are happy with their teams and with being randomly assigned. But, I’ve learned that the simple step of asking their preference in advance can go a long way to mitigating adult learners’ anxieties associated with lack of control or choice. So, I’ll make every not to skip that step next time around!

That said, on the equity side of things, I did take steps allow teams to choose their topics and presentation dates. This was a particular challenge in my second class, where each presents only once during the term (they’ll actually be leading a one-hour Adobe Connect learning activity, in addition to building associated online resources). So, if each group presents only once, how do you show equity in choosing the topics and dates? I took a two-step process. First, after forming the teams and assigning each team a number, I used another free online resource to “cast lots,” and generate a random order in which the teams would get to make their selection. Then I directed each team to a Doodle poll. To add an extra measure of fairness, I did allow for up to two teams to choose the same date and general topic. It’ll be interesting to see if any of the course participants posts their thoughts on how that part of the process went (or includes their thoughts in their learning reflection assignments).

Overall, here are my takeaways from my first week teaching online with UOIT:

• Integrate as many communications channels as possible, even when using an external resource to build your course site, BUT
• Limit the channels that are considered ‘official,’ and that will be analyzed when assessing student participation.
• Don’t forget to turn on your webcam for a few minutes at the start of the synchronous class. It helps to establish teacher presence, and to humanize the online learning experience. BUT
• Don’t keep your webcam on for too long. It becomes distracting. And it eats up participants’ bandwidth.
• Be as equitable as possible. Offer choice when possible. BUT
• Be pragmatic. Realize the limitations of time and interaction in a synchronous online event, and be prepared with tools to accommodate for those limitations.
• AND – always remember that technology-based tools could freeze up or fail during a live session. Don’t let that phase you. Roll with it. Learn from it. And move along with another approach!

All the best,
Rob

Dear Blog, it's been a while...

Looking at the date of my last post, it’s obvious that it has been a while since I last ‘blogged’ (at least, long form!). It’s not that I don’t see the value of blogging for an educator. I do. I believe that it is a great tool for both personal reflection, and sharing. My last blog post was in November 2014, when I was in Istanbul, Turkey, for mLearn 2014. Anyone who knows me is well aware of the challenges that befell my family shortly after returning from that conference. Long story short – since then my family has travelled over 20-thousand km from Doha, Qatar (where I was working as an Instructional Developer with the Advanced Learning Technologies Centre at College of the North Atlantic-Qatar).

The Corniche (waterfront) in Doha, Qatar

We journeyed first St. John’s, Newfoundland, and then, finally, to Surrey, BC. Professionally speaking, I’ve been blessed. I’m now working as the Leader, Online Learning, with the Fraser Health Authority. And, I’ve accepted a teaching appointment as an Adjunct Professor of Educational Technology with the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT). It’s the latter that has prompted me to ‘hit the keyboard’ with this blog once again.

I’m teaching two courses with UOIT this term: EDUC 5101 G(Digital Tools for Knowledge Construction) and EDUC 5103 G (Online Technologyin Education). Particularly in EDUC 5101 G, I’m promoting the use of blogging for reflective practice (as a form of knowledge construction). I’ve asked course participants to post at least one original blog post per week, and to respond to at least two other classmates’ posts. I figure that I had better lead by example! My hope is to post at least once a week this term. And my objectives are threefold. First, I want to lead by example, and demonstrate the use of blogging for personal reflection (I’ll be reflecting on what I’m learning as an educator during my first official term with UOIT). Second, I want to demonstrate the use of blogging for sharing – sharing personal goals, problems, solutions, and expertise (something which I would like course participants to start doing, if they don’t already, as emerging leaders in the field of educational technology). And, third, I want to continue to build my PLN.

What is a PLN?

A PLN is a Personal Learning Network. It’s the combination of formal and informal professional communities of practice that I’ve built, and maintain, through digital technologies. I’ve made a lot of great connections through my online presences, which would have otherwise been impossible. And I’ve learned a lot (and shared a lot) through those communities. My PLN has also been instrumental in my career progression. As an online learner (and educator), one of the first places to start with building (or expanding) a PLN is my online class roster. I hope to use blogging, as well as Twitter and other channels, to forge mutual collaborative learning relationships that extend beyond the 12 weeks of this term. This is the reason why I’ve asked my course participants to share links to their public blogs, and why I’ve posted the course websites outside of the locked-down LMS. I want my courses this term to be starting points (home bases, if you will) that we can return to whenever we need… not fixed duration experiences.

Classes for EDUC 5101 G and EDUC 5103 G officially start this week. With that in mind, here are just a few resources that I’ve found that might be useful to participants who are just starting in the blogosphere:

• Step 1: What is a PLN?
• Why Teachers and Students Should Blog
• 3 Rules of Academic Blogging
• The Power of 140 Characters
• Using Twitter in the Classroom: From thePerspective of Students

And, remember, blogging doesn’t need to be exclusively long-form. I’m a huge fan of micro-blogging. I do that through my Twitter feed @xPat_Letters. And you can follow our course conversations on Twitter using the hashtags #EDUC5101G and #EDUC5103G.

Until next post…
Rob

mLearning and the Mona Lisa

Leave it to John Traxler to get me thinking! In his keynote address at mLearn 2014, Traxler used the Mona Lisa as an analogy for the disconnect between mLearning research and practice, and policy makers' expectations. He described policy makers' expectations as getting the full, big picture. A completed Mona Lisa. In contrast, researchers and practitioners are busy working on small clusters of a pixelated version of the famous masterpiece. What I think Traxler meant was that researchers and practitioners are still trying to figure out all of those little pieces, and how they need to fit together. But I think that this Mona Lisa analogy can be taken much deeper.First, we can comment on size. Literally and figuratively. Many people have the misconception that the Mona Lisa is a physically large painting. In reality, it is actually rather small. It is small, but it is flawless and beautiful, and it has had a huge cultural impact. Just like mobile devices, and mLearning apps and applications.

We can also talk about the details. The Mona Lisa is a masterpiece of painting skill. It was created using countless paint strokes that were brought together to create a whole picture. And DaVinci may have made, and corrected mistakes along the way. It is believed that there are details in the background of that painting that were changed, or painted over, to remove from the final product. That really does reflect the process of bringing all of the little technical, instructional design, and content pieces together to create even a single example of an mLearning application. What's more, there is no formula for getting a perfect mLearning big picture every time. The Mona Lisa is a work of art. Yes, there is science behind painting portraites. There is science behind mixing colorful and durable paints, behind creating (and preserving) canvases, behind picking a suitable topic and model, and behind the brushstrokes themselves. But there is a difference between mastering the specific techniques, and having the vision and talent to produce a masterpiece. Not every painter can do it. And even those who can don't produce a masterpiece every time. It takes as much art as it does science. And art involves experimentation and risk.

Art is also a cultural phenomenon, and a matter of personal taste. Yes, the Mona Lisa, with all of its minute details and techniques, is easily recognizable as a portraite of a woman. If you can see. What about individuals with vision impairment? While the Mona Lisa is globally appreciated as a masterpiece, there are some people who will never be able to enjoy it. And there are some people who just don't like looking at portraits. Not to mention, some cultures where the production of portraits on canvas is not a common practice... or even a desirable one. So when policy makers expect a complete, big mLearning picture to be delivered and deployed, they're missing some key points that the Mona Lisa reveals to us:

1. It takes a lot of little elements to create a while picture, and those little elements are difficult to master.

2. There is no formula for putting all of those little pieces together. It's as much art as it is science.

3. It's even more difficult to produce a masterpiece. And even if you can, it still won't suit every possible audience.

4. The tecniques used to create a masterpiece like the Mona Lisa were developed over millenia... and just because they came together perfectly once, doesn't mean that we're now universally able to reproduce the phenomena.

What does this analogy mean for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers? Don't expect perfection. Don't demand it. It's not possible to predict. But, just like paintings, it is worth experimenting with the little pieces of both the science and the art. Let the researchers and practitioners have the room to create firm, function, beauty, and cultural and contextual relevance.

These are just some thoughts after attending John Traxler's keynote presentation at mLearn 2014.