home
intro
feeling the walls
non-participation
blogging & lurking
learning styles
summary :
| blogs vs wikis: | The assignment provided me with a fascinating insight into how online interactions can fail in a learning context. I suppose it also highlighted the limitations of a few learning technologies namely blogs, wikis and discussion boards. These insights arose as a direct result of my own experience of A-M's inability to contribute to the group component of the project: the posts to the wiki. I was delighted however that my own progress was not hampered as I blogged away to my heart's content, and generated loads of stuff that I could reflect on later. I enjoyed this very much. |
| private vs public: | As much as I have grown to love blogs I recognise that they are not without problems. The main one is the conflict which arises within a learning community as a result of individuals (potentially large numbers of them if the data on non-participation is credible) happily doing their course reflection and consolidation (i.e. learning) away from the group. Their own learning needs may be being met by vicarious participation in the discussion boards, but unless they post their blogged insights back to the community then knowledge traffic is uni-directional… towards the blogger. The community does not benefit from the blogger's learning. I acknowledge that I am lumping bloggers and online silence and lurking into the same pot, and I guess in the absence of evidence (I didn't research this) it seems to fit quite snugly. |
| written vs spoken: | There is another side to the coin. And this is the one which suggests that the quality of online interactions is higher than that of the face-to-face equivalent. Posts made to online tutorials indicate that students have thought more about the issue and responded accordingly. The corollary of this is that the reflection conducted within a blog might also be of a higher calibre than the spoken equivalent. Hence a place for students to think and learn in private may benefit learners and learning. |
| individual vs community: | I touched on learning styles and commented that blogs appear to suit certain types of learners. Certain learners in thrive in the privacy of the blog. Hence another conflict arises: the needs of the online community vs the learning needs of the student. An online learning community requires public interaction to increase its knowledge capital, whereas a blogger (or lurker) prefers to learn in private. The community pulls in one direction and the private learner in another. Can this be resolved!! |
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