It felt good to get the class size back down to something nearing manageable. I had half the cohort in two repeated sessions. This class was designed to introduce Mahara to the year group and to set a small assignment for next week, which would start the reflective ball rolling. First of all came the task of familiarising the learners with the relevant tools. The TPA lecturing team had met earlier that morning and I proposed that we use Mahara as the exclusive tool for evidence gathering and reflection with this new cohort of first years. We didn’t want to make it completely compulsory as that could disadvantage some students, I knew there was at least one who was inexperienced (and hence uncomfortable) with the concept of using digital tools. We opted to ’strongly encourage’ the cohort to adopt Mahara for the duration of their 1st Year. After which, they could either continue or opt for a different set of tools e.g. another ePortfolio or paper based solution. We had all been encouraging the students to gather digital evidence since the module began and today was a chance to consolidate these artefacts and offer a place to store, reflect and present them.
I must take a moment to thank my colleagues for openly collaborating with me on this project, without their continual encouragement through reminding the students to collect these artefacts, I wouldn’t have been able to progress as far as I have done so far. We have now purchased a further 2 flip camera’s (4 in total) to assist the students in this process, but most have used their own mobile phones and recording devices.Furthermore, they have done so with enthusiasm. As one of them stated to me today, “It’s much better than doing an essay!” as he slunk off, video camera in hand. It occurred to me at that moment, how these tools could be motivational in nature. I felt we had, at last, found the tools which were exactly right for the generation.
The class itself was short, but I made another modest discovery; as there weren’t enough Mac’s for everyone and some had to share, I was reminded of a theory that I had heard at the Handheld Learning conference earlier this month. It stated that you should never supply a pupil with a computer each, instead one between two was a much better solution. The students collaborated much better in this way, working out problems together by sharing knowledge. Though the original quote referred to primary school children, it would seem that the same was true of young adults. The result was that there were much less questions asked of me and the session merged into an exploratory workshop, which suited the purposes of learning much better.
I had converted a series of short video clips, taken by the students during an earlier introduction to Stage Management session in preparation for this session. These were taken on the flip camera’s and uploaded into a files repository on Moodle for the specific purpose of providing artefacts for the students to use.
Once the main features of Mahara had been explored, each student set up a view entitled “Introduction to TPA” (the current module) and they then started to befriend each other on Mahara in much the same way you would do on Facebook or Bebo. Invites were sent out to each other and the lecturing staff, allowing everyone access to see their first views. I then set them a small assignment for the following week, which was:
Introduction to ePortfolios
For Wednesday 28th October please upload any relevant media that you have gathered into your Introduction to TPA view. Choose an aspect of the module so far that you wish to reflect on and write a short blog, considering the following:
- What you did well?
- What you didn’t do well?
- What you will do next?
Please make sure that you have invited the following to see your view:
- All TPA 1 Students
- All TPA Lecturers
Your reflections should be supported by the media that you have uploaded.
Use this guide to remind you how to set up a view.
This assignment was designed to set up next weeks session which is based around reflection. To get them started with the process I uploaded and asked them to read a short 3 page paper by the HEA. It was written in a non-academic tone and summed up the process of reflective practice both simply and coherently, ideal for new adopters of this learning process.
What did I do well?
I felt that the session took on a life an purpose of it’s own. The students took control of their own learning and drove the pedagogy forward themselves. They were enthusiastic and determined, finding value in what they were learning. I wanted the session to be light and uncomplicated, with the minimum amount of input from myself. This approach seemed to work and with few exceptions the session had a flow and real purpose. I didn’t rely on fancy graphical slides as a backdrop to my delivery, instead (and probably for the first time) I relaxed and allowed the students to learn in their own time.
What didn’t I do well?
I got a few basics wrong during this session. Firstly, I didn’t achieve all that I wanted to, I felt that the time I had was too short to effectively embed the principles of ePortfolio’s effectively. The lack of computer’s, though it turned out to be advantageous in one respect was detrimental in an other. The students who couldn’t log into their profiles and were simply commenting on their partners efforts, where unable to familiarise themselves as effectively as those actually ‘doing it’. In this respect I left a number of important e-Portfolio functions to the students to work out for themselves. Perhaps this isn’t such a bad thing on reflection, at the time I wondered if this was going to be detrimental to some of them.
What will I do next?
I have already offered two students extra tutorial time as they were struggling to grasp the software and the principals behind e-Portfolio’s. Though they appeared keen to learn I felt that it was only fair to offer an extra session and perhaps scaffold them at their pace. I am also looking into getting access to more computer’s, perhaps in the Student IT suite instead, in order for each student to participate more fully. I don’t want to loose the collaboratory nature of the session, so perhaps I could find a solution that does both?
Martin Aitken said,
October 22, 2009 at 7:56 am
In reference to your comment in your last post about encouraging 1st years to reflect, I hope you don’t mind if I leave some feedback from my 1st year.
I feel I have always been reflective, but often did it in my head. I have found that documenting my reflections and sharing them with others encourages me to be more thorough and consider my points more carefully. I have noticed a few areas which may have encouraged me more and made it easier for me to reflect.
1. A wider network of bloggers would help. I think it is important to see that 2nd and 3rd years and staff all reflect too, and see or hear how it has helped them. I like how you finished this blog since I think it’s important that, if 1st years are asked to reflect on their day-by-day life, they can see other staff and students who do this too. You are never too old to learn something new every day!
2. Something I have given up on. I think it must be clear whether blogging and/or reflecting is compulsary or “suggested” and this should be consistant between departments. If it is compulsary, then it should be in a module brief and have clear guidelines. Compulsary suggests you will fail if you don’t do it and therefore suggests your daily reflection will be assessed. I understand we have reflective statements at the end of a module, but keeping a journal is only one of the ways to prepare for this.
3. Reflecting should be for the person, not for the Academy. This is why I continued to blog over the summer since I continued to learn over the holiday and I saw no reason why I should stop reflecting on it.
I welcome any thoughts you have in response.
johnwilkie said,
October 22, 2009 at 11:18 am
Thanks for the comment Martin. Some great points here. I also wish that more students had continued to blog (they may have done if it were assessed!). The main problem we have is, as always, time. When in your busy schedules do you attend to your learning? I have found that reflection is only effective if time is given to it and it is for this reason that it becomes a secondary method of learning with production pressures being the first. some learners prefer to learn in this way but I would argue that this is a surface type of learning i.e. they know how, but not why.
With all of this in mind you have to remember that your year was the first year in which we introduced a true reflective process. This years first years are being introduced to reflection, ePortfolios and gathering evidence of their learning at a much earlier point (i.e. now). It is hoped that embedding these processes now will a. increase the network of reflective practioners, increse the quality of reflection and allow new learners to take control of thier learning and become indepentant in this light.
PAT to PDP (the missing link) « Learning & Teaching said,
October 30, 2009 at 1:36 pm
[...] decided to trial this method using a current assignment that I have set the first year cohort (see An Introduction to ePortfolio post). I have assigned a lecturer to a group of 5 or 6 individuals and have asked them to make [...]