The first week (aka Week 0) of the #ocTEL 2014 course closed yesterday. I’m using this post to recap and collect notes from the week.
Activity 0.1 asked us to consider the big and little questions that brought each of us to this course: What is the most important question about technology enhanced learning that matters to us? That might also look like a group of many interrelated ideas.
The big question that prompted me to participate in this course is the same one that I brought to my M.Ed. program: What does high-quality online learning look like, and how can I do it? I wanted to see how this course was structured, who participated, and what kinds of conversations took place. I also wanted to hear stories of educators and fellow technologists about how online learning looks from their perspective. How does the pedagogical approach for medicine differ from biology, for example? From rhetoric?
During the Learning the Ropes webinar, the course tutors/organizers offered their perspectives for navigating, connecting, and charting a learning pathway:
- amount of information can be overwhelming
- no right or wrong way to approach the course
- What will your level of involvement and learning pathway look like?
- beware of distractions
- develop a support network – reach out and respond to tweets, blog posts, and/or discussion forums (Sue Folley has already modeled this)
- make use of Week 0 by reading through the participant handbook, introductions, set up a Twitter account or blog
- start out small
- being a lurker is ok! It can take some time to find your voice.
- visit the course when it’s comfortable for you
- allow time to read, reflect, and think
- how to save resources? Do you want a separate space (ie., use existing social bookmarking site) or a new one? Elizabeth Charles described her use of Storify, which I am looking forward to trying out
- read and digest information offline, then pop back into the course to contribute
On to Week 1!