Weeks 21/22/23

I take one week off from study in the last 2 years and its a disaster!! Took me ages to get back into the swing of studying again, not helped by having the kids at home all day. Weeks 21 and 22 were combined over a 2 week period but that was no help to me. So after reading and looking at all 3 weeks I don't feel very far forward.
Weller and Sclater don't seem to see eye to eye...its as if Weller is the son that wants all the new top of the range toys to play with and Sclater is his dad who reckons they're far to expensive and by the time Weller gets round to playing with them a whole batch of new ones will be in the shops. Also Sclater feels that some of the toys Weller wants will alienate his friends as they won't know how to play with them as they're too advanced. I agree with Sclater...not because I'm a mum but because I can see that if a Uni implements lots of new technologies then apart from the expense there is the likelihood of alienating some learners and tutors due to their lack of confidence in technologies.
Activity 1 in Week 23 required collaboration in the wiki. Problem was when I work within a wiki I need a purpose...I couldn't fathom out what we were trying to achieve. There was no chair person, no time limit, no stated outcome.
The rest of week 23 looked at metaphors......research papers discussed birdwatching and fungus what??? Still have no idea what it was all about. Tried posting to the forum but there's no one about not even the tutor.....perhaps they're all on holiday?! I know from Twitter that many couldn't fathom out Week 23 and so moved on to start on TMA 04. My concern is if they are all using preferred technologies such as Twitter or blogs to communicate by how will I find the time to track them all down and if I can't then the tutor probably can't either. Whilst ownership of learning is a great thing surely there also needs to be some facilitating of that learning? For me personally I need peers and a tutor to succeed.

Catch up time!!!!

Have just got back from a fantastic week in Spain where I will admit to doing no study at all!!! First time since September 2007. In fact I wrote a TMA on the last family holiday so I reckoned I deserved the break!

So I'm now home and there is no pool, no stunning view, no 30+C heat :-(

Instead there is Week 21/ 22 to catch up on and everyone will now have started Week 23...aaargh!! Doesn't help that the house is full of kids with no school or college to go to. However this happened last year and I coped!!

Got TMA03 back which was fine...now know where I need to focus so not too bad.

New contract

Travelled through horrendous rain to get to Gateshead and OU in the North this afternoon. Had an interview for a new course which is E100 in Early Years. My previous two courses have reached the end of the line (ah bless!) and my contract has now ceased. Lucky for me it looks like I'm getting a new contract this October for a large group or two....yeah me!!!!!!! The new course is now 4 eTMA's and an ECA with all new updated course material...very exciting!
Lesley at OU is going to send an email out to the AL's in the north to see who would be interested in some Elluminate practice sessions with me. Looking to start end of July when I get back from a much needed week long break in Spain....villa, pool, bottle of cava with a straw in it!!!!!

TMA 03

Finally decided on use of Blogs and Elluminate for the ECA. The design will be looking at how Elluminate could be used as a substitution for f2f tutorials for my European students.
Going to have to get a wriggle on with the next week of course work as I'm off to Spain for a week and want to have some quality time with the family....so no study allowed!!!!! I haven't taken a break since starting on H808 in September 2007!!
I'm enjoying twitter just for the info updates and the sites they've suggested for blogs and elluminate. Not sure I'll continue with it was I've completed the MAODE though.
Beginning to dread the end of September and ECA submission day....not because I'm unduly worried about the ECA (which of course I am!!) but because the studying will stop and then what the heck do I do with my time?!!

Twitter

Oh blimey...yet another technology to take up my time!!! Well I've tried to avoid it but as part of H800 I have to get myself an account which I have dutifully done. I've decided not to use my phone but just stick to using it on the web.
I was surprised that there were people I could follow who were linked to Elluminate, blogs, elearning etc and that some of them decided to follow me. I'm being quite picky about who I allow to follow me...had to block a couple of very dubious people already!!!! Not sure what, if any, value I'm going to get from this in the long run but for the moment its given me a couple of links to some helpful websites.
With regard TMA03/ECA I seem to have fathomed something out thanks to my tutor...designing an intro to Elluminate for European students...well something along those lines!!

TMA 03 (ECA proposal)

TMA 03 is due in next week and I need to decide on the 2 technologies to discuss. At the moment it looks like I 'll focus on Blogs and Elluminate but that could well change. I also have to come up with a designing a learning activity, or creating a specification for a course or training package, that uses this technology!!! Going to go back over E123/4 course material and see if there is a way of designing an activity that could be used in Elluminate/Blog.........

Week 19

Activity 5 cont

In reading the chapter in Activity 4, and doing the searching in Activity 5,

• what evidence have you found that mobile practices are blurring the distinction between formal and informal learning? I think the previous post demonstrates this in a small way but I think it will depend on how reliant the courses are on the mobile technology (ies) to support the learning. I'll wait until the Elluminate tutorial tomorrow and see what others in the group post about it.
• Is the ‘ownership’ of learning changing? Yes, students can access information anytime, anyplace, anywhere through mobile technologies.