Ruth+and+Barbara+-+Share+your+M4T-A3+Learning+Experiences+for+the+last+week+of+the+Workshop

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 * This is Ian's patch **
 * What I have been learning over the 4 weeks **
 * We learn as teams even more so than as individuals
 * Working with Tom was great, I learned in his sandbox. I have started learning about Moodle development
 * I leaned that every Moodle site is a building site. The teachers in the Moodle are constantly monitoring activity and are ready to post new material or update the existing material. This is seen as they REVEAL the new weeks content at the end of each week. I decided to show off the SCAFFOLDING of my Moodle in a separate Module at the end. This is for people to comment on the building work that is in progress. I will also put experimental features in the scaffolding.
 * As with normal verbal communication and with powerpoint it is essential to REVEAL your material in stages. Learners can easily go into cognitive overload. SL has the answer for this:you can set up a learning environment quickly if you have the item in Your Inventory.
 * Second Life could be a place to facilitate a rich learning environment
 * Moodle is more of a framework for allowing learners to reach out to other Web 2.0 resources
 * As teams we learn in a constructivist manner. We build objects called learning artifacts. We do this once we are in a team that has been well selected and had members with contrasting as well as common attributes. Creating the shared learning artifacts leads to increased learning when these learning artifacts are jointly inspected and reflected upon. We bridge from our existing knowledge base ( Powerpoint was my main bridgepoint, as well as my school teaching experience)
 * Like in the first world, we depend on trust relationships to build teams who can work, learn, share, reflect and grow together.
 * Having a well developed web persona is key, especially if you are one of many John Does in cyberspace. See LinkedIn.
 * We can develop activities outside of Moodle such as wikis and webquests. These can be used creatively and imaginatively.
 * As baby boomers we received a "classical" education and have had jobs as a result of being educated in this essentialy 19th system (see Sir Kens video). Will the new Digital Native generation who has not had this education or does not have the same expectation of a job after university or school thrive in this Web 2.0 world? We had the benefit of learning effective "first life" learnng strategies which we can recycle in the new Web 2.0 world. We also learned to write with pen and paper. This has helped me become a fluent prose writer and blogger, I am convinced of this. I am actually the generation which grew up with the TV as the key influencing technology. For my parents it was the motor car. For my children it is the internet. I also read books as a child, and newspapers as an adult. This influences my learning and knowledge acquisition styles. What are my key life time formative learning experiences?
 * I could have learned so much from others Sand Boxes.....................................
 * New tools: Jing, Googledocs (simultaneous editing), webquest (not mastered, need to administer one first), SL, wikispaces, Moodle (Glossary,Forum), join-me, wiziq, Skype(very good), Skype chat, blog (very useful, I did two of these), video using Imovie, screenshots using CMD,SHIFT 3 on the Mac (better that Windows Printscreen)
 * Assessment: ideas: a table rating you ability using the above tools. I wanted to read this topic during the month but the book was unavailable.
 * Need to know more about Grades, Reports, Assignments
 * I learn most when all or many of my intelligences are engaged. Emotional especially.
 * I am a learner. A good one. I need to keep learning to survive.
 * I don't get on very well reading and studying from Kindle books and long PDFs. I need th epaper version. PDFs are good for skimming, searching, copying and pasting, not for thoroughly absorbing information.
 * I learned when to take a calculated risk with a new technology. Skype proved to be great for a team learning session, though desktop sharing failed. Join-me would probably have fixed this. A talking head on the screen is probably not a great facilitating feature. A moving pen is probably better. Need a separate video camera and tripod to achieve this. Or a special pen. See below, cursive writing project.

Wanted more time in the sandbox More time to learn from each others Moodle skills
 * Regrets, I had a few and then again a few to mention.............. **

**Revised goals and plan: SMART**

I am a learner. To teach is to learn twice, so I aim to learn by teaching and facilitating learning for others. This will be my dream job. I chatted for a long time with my old friend Seamus yesterday. I am hatching a plan to go big in SL. I want to get people to practice their cursive handwriting skills in SL. It would be done by getting people to buy a tablet for drwing and handwriting. They would write into scriblink and the scriblinks could be shared within SL. This would bring together first life skills in Second Life.

1. __//By 15th Jan 2011://__ Write a small project plan for my Moodle learning, reading WCIYP and another book, the completion of my sandbox, recruit co-workers, marketing of sandbox, enrolment and running of a course. Target date to run the Course May 2011

2. //__By 22nd Dec 2010:__// Use Web 2.0 tools to write a special jing. Photocopy a graphic, Hand writing on sheet, scan it in, jing me reading it.

3. //__By 20th Jan 2011:__// Write a small learning project plan for SL Cursive Handwriting Project. Includes use of Jing. How to write a thank you letter. How to Mind Map on Paper.

4. Ongoing:Develop my Web Persona []

Toms patch
2. I'm still not sure if I finished week 2 work or not. The crunch on time and the desire to become more "advanced" in Moodle make me a bit reluctant to enter SL. So far, Medha reported some frustration, but Barbara (and Ruth) reported success with SL. I know Ian announced taking the plunge but don't know what the upshot was. There's the question hanging out there now if Moodle is just more of the same institutional approach to education -- it's a question I welcome pondering, I hope I'll come out on Moodle's side (not institutional ed), and I see that SL is a way to develop perspective (give me a month or three to even begin developing perspective...). So I'll find time before the Saturday group session, hoping for but not expecting SL success. Glen recently wrote in our Skype chat:

"... the essential mindset for this business, tinkering, patching together, working around, thinking on your feet, creative problem solving, 11/26/2010 4:48:15 PM[|?] Glen Gatin: fearlessness patience and persistence  11/26/2010 4:48:28 PM[|?] Glen Gatin: (headbang)..."

I need to pick and choose my battles...onward to SL!! (wishing I was [|RoadRunner] but feeling like Coyote). Tom (his color is blue

Wednesday night - A lot of thoughts about what I'm learning/have learned are swirling around, a bit inarticulately, unfortunately, but here goes... When I contacted one of my mates from the M4T-I (August) course to tell her I was about to begin M4T-A, her advice was to keep a focus on my goals. My in-my-face goal has been to get some perspective on developing a Moodle course for beginners -- the teachers where I work. That's still what I'm working on in my sandbox. The past 3+ weeks, though, have pretty much blown the socks off of my perspective on Moodle. The image for Moodle as the train station still sort of works for me, but the Web 2.0 supersonic trains (Skype, SL, join.me, wikispaces...) that pull in and out of the station overshadow the station itself and its seemingly humble choo choos like Forum, Wiki....(I ask myself why I'm writing here in Wikispaces rather than in the Moodle wiki or Forum areas...)

And its not just my socks, it's my mind that's a bit blown, too - while in Second Life, and unable to speak or hear during last Saturday's session, I visited the Chilbo Reading Room across from Conviviality Corners. I was able to find a recorded intro to some sessions (PLENK?) facilitated by George Siemens, Stephen Downes, and a third person whose name I didn't recognize -- the facilitators were saying they didn't know what the session participants were going to learn. I think I get the idea of being responsible for my own learning but, clicking on the books in this virtual Reading Room and listening to the voices of some deep thinkers, I thought: well wait a minute, maybe I don't get the idea, or maybe its way BIGGER than I understood. So I'm feeling like there's this possibility to fly (as SL has shown me), that there's this vast terrain for learning (currently indistinct but inviting) and to connect with other learners... and meanwhile my goal is to give an intro to Moodle to a few teachers - teach them a bit about learning online while learning to create (and effectively use!) a Forum, to upload Files, to create Weblinks, Labels, etc.

I often return to Barbara's blog thoughts about the joy of inquiry (paraphrase), and I think it's fair to say that a less in-my-face goal of mine in taking these courses has been to pursue my curiosity about Moodle and about online learning, and another goal to connect with others along the paths of online inquiry. On a good day, I tell myself that these paths are wonderful and rewarding in their meanderings and that the destination is not nearly so compelling as the journey (that is, relax and enjoy where I'm getting to, give myself the time to explore, to enjoy the people I meet along the way); on a bad day, I tell myself I'm wandering too far afield, I'm feeling a bit too swamped to think clearly (much less learn) and I better stick to simple things...

I've read that Forum is the heart of Moodle. I think it's because it's the place for collaboration and exchange, for learning from one another. I'd like to see teachers at my school use the Forum and the resources and activities of the Moodle environment to help students be more empowered about their learning. It's a train station that may open up some new routes for them...maybe it will even open up the possibility of flying. Do you graduate from train stations to airports.?..depends on how you like to travel, I guess.

So, in short, I've learned a lot about learning (well, I see there's a lot to learning, anyway...) these past weeks. I feel like I've gained some big picture Moodle skills, but I'm still a bit shaky with uses of the Glossary or how to create a Database. I'll figure these out, and I'll also figure out how to navigate SL, share desktops, blog, integrate Voicethread and Skype with Moodle -- it's all part of the (sometimes frustrating, sometimes exhilarating) learning experience.

Barbara's Patch
What will you continue to learn? from: Barbara and Ruth keep writing! We want to know!
 * We'd like very much to know what you feel is the most important learning that you have accomplished or begun during this course. Please be candid, as it will help everyone realize what others have been feeling and how they've tackled any issues. What has been your focus?**
 * What 's the most important thing that you will carry away with you?**

What have I learned. I don't know who said that "the more you learn, the more you see that you don't know!". This would be true for me. It has been so much fun these past few weeks. The message is loud and clear that collaboration is the future of learning. Things will be changing radically in some areas, and things will change very slowly in others. Some brave souls have to light the way. I can see now first hand how frustrating it can be to try to learn new technology....and when you get the moments where you can see the potential of the sharing and that technology is the only way to do this, it motivates me more... I've been so lucky to learn during the past month with bright learners from all over the world. Learning about the culture of others has been an interesting side benefit of the Moodle course. We have made friends with people who we will probably never meet in person, but who have become important in our lives. And we've also learned something very valuable, and that is that we do not have to start from scratch to create learning material. It is there, it is available, and sharing it feels great! That is why I am going to cut and paste this right into my blog. Barbara and Ruth. Thanks for this introductory message. This is Ian writing and purple is my colour. With a colour we know has made the contribution. Then you can choose a patch in the file area to make your main comments. And of course you can comment on others' messages just like I am doing now. Have fun! I hope you are not colour blind LOL

My Unfortunate “Aha!” Moment (4 weeks too late!) and the Importance of REALLY Reading the Syllabus
To better answer this question, I went back to the workshop syllabus to take a closer look. Low and behold right there in the first **Goals** section and then in the **Context** section, I discovered the reason why I have been struggling so much with this workshop (other than the same overwhelming feelings voiced by everyone else). I’ve been trying to design the **WRONG** course all along!

In my desire to create a course that I think middle and upper school teachers would benefit from, I put a lot of energy into the **wrong** course according to the objectives of this advanced workshop! Contrary to the objective of creating a **Moodle course on Moodle**, I have never intended to train these teachers on using Moodle (they are nowhere near ready for that), but only meant to use Moodle to introduce teachers to **Web 2.0** tools (outside of Moodle) that can be integrated into their lesson planning. Moodle was to only serve as the medium of instruction not the actual course topic.

I can’t tell you how upset this is making me, especially at the wasted time trying to make sense of assignments that were completely incongruous with my design objectives– a huge lesson learned: **Read the darn syllabus over and over until you get it and follow it closely to avoid a lot of aggravation!** You can design the course you **really want** after this is over.

Still, there were some experiences that were totally in synch with my personal objectives for my design, encompassing all the additional Web 2.0 tools that have been explored. For that I am very grateful. I now clearly see how blogs, Skype, WizIQ, Prezi, GoogleDocs, Jing, Camtasia, Second Life, etc. and yes, even Moodle, can be amazing tools for today’s teachers who are committed to creating a collaborative and constructivist learning environment. Most importantly, I have come away with an even deeper appreciation for collaborative learning that began during the beginner M4T-B course – something that I plan to continue promoting in the future.

Ramesh's patch
Thanks, Ian.,
 * Name || Organisation ||
 * John || WIPO ||