Well the result was way more than I expected! All that moaning and whining I did and I came away with a very respectable mark indeed. I did actually state in Part A that I had struggled to get past the academic language in Thorpes paper in order to fully appreciate what it was about!So now its the ECA and the final part I need to do to complete the MAODE. I'm going to look at blogs and elluminate....context will be my own learners. I had thought of elluminate for the design part but blogs would fit in better with my learners, more realistic for them. I found a really nice blog on baby care http://www.ababycare.com/ and I'm looking at how I could incorporate course material into a blog. But I haven't fully read whats required for the design part of the ECA so may need to adapt this....not like I haven't had to do that before in an ECA lol!!Forgot there's a Bank Holiday this Monday so feel I've lost a day already and littlest one isn't back to school for another week so not chance of getting much done...sigh!
Last week was a really bad week. TMA 04 was due in yesterday and its not like I've never done a TMA before but I really struggled with this one. I think I was a bit loath to start it as this is my last ever TMA...just an ECA to do and I've finished my MAODE!! So I think I was feeling a bit sad it was nearing the end. I've loved doing this Masters and have worked with some great people. Also I don't think joining Twitter helped me. I seemed to spend more time on there checking on how others were doing than I did on writing the damn TMA...its become an addiction! I struggled big time reading Mary Thorpes research paper.....I just couldn't make sense of the academic language no matter how many times I read it and when I was asked to sum up the intro as a requirement of the TMA I could have cried...hand on heart I'm still not 100% sure what the hell the paper was about! For me, as with the other TMA's in H800, there were just too many components. The TMA seemed to jump from one thing to another so just as I settled into writing Part A I had to jump to Part B and start all over again. I haven't experienced this in any of the other courses. In H808 there was a research piece and a reflective piece which enhanced each other so they worked well. So my last TMA has been the worst and not how I expected to round off MAODE. Just have to hope that the ECA is a better experience.
My focus this week has been less on course work and more on TMA 04. This was helped greatly by an elluminate session at the beginning of the week which consisted of just a few of us students. It worked really well, very relaxed and thoughts and ideas easily explored. It's nice to hear that others are thinking along the same lines or can clarify areas that are sometimes grey. I've decided that this will be the focus of my ECA.....l had already considered that for my students elluminate could provide them with a better, synchronised forum in which to support each other...almost like a chat room facility. I feel my students would use this and benefit greatly from it. I'd still consider its for tutorials especially for my students who are based in Europe and cannot attend f2f.So I'm now looking at Kennedy (formal/ informal learning) and Thorpe (not just the tool that needs to be taken into account when researching.....need to account for environment, type of course etc)....well I think that's what they're about!! Then its on to ownership of learning....is there really such a thing....I'm not convinced. We discussed this in the elluminate session and agreed that we were all dubious at this point in time as to whether students could actually gain ownership of their learning. But now I'm rambling......
Activity 7
Well this week didn't fair much better. Very slow start so decided to jump in and attend the Tuesday night Elluminate.....well I didn't really have much choice as I wasn't available for this mornings! We discussed Thorpe (2009) ‘It is through practices with technology, rather than the direct effect of the tools themselves, that we create learning contexts.’ exploring what it means and the implications for practitioners. There were only 3 students and the tutor but the session seemed to go pretty well though sometimes I'm not sure what the objective of the session is or what outcome if any has been achieved by the end of it.
So after bouncing to activity 7 I'm now having to work through the rest of week 24. It all seems rushed at the moment because TMA04 and the ECA are looming and I can't seem to grasp the point of the last couple of weeks in relation to the two assessments...fells like I'm meant to be swimming Olympic style but all I can muster is the doggy paddle:( Think I'm lacking the adrenaline buzz..too lethargic!!
