Feeling over the moon today after a session with some of my final year students where they presented group research projects (authored on wikis) to one another via a web-conference. Although I’ve taught various tech/multimedia modules for some years now, I changed my approach with this one and rather than focus on specific tools (software such as Dreamweaver/Flash/VB.Net, which we’ve covered in earlier modules), decided to focus on the general principles of the web and social software, and how they impact on professionals in the broadcast industries.
In the very first session, I asked them to fill in questionnaires to find out what they were interested in, what they wanted to do professionally, and their experiences and uses of different technologies (inc. online). Although I had developed the framework, I wanted to try to fill it with relevant (to them) and professionally useful information, so this was a great help in deciding which areas to focus on (audio and video being extremely broad in scope!)
The session themselves were pretty fast-paced, using various media and mixing talking, demonstrations, YouTube videos, group discussions and class exercises (e.g. ‘in 20 minutes find 3 blogs that you would subscribe to – doesn’t matter what it is as long as it’s something that really interests you’ then using NetSupport to let students sit at their PCs and talk the rest of the class through the blogs, considering design, functionality, content, audience, style etc. – in a sense they gave the class themselves, to one another…).
The first half of the module was largely blog-based, and the students developed online CVs and work showcase sites, complete with matching business cards, and through the hands-on elements they explored issues of digital identity and the presentation of the self online, mashups, copyright and licensing – with a big push towards Creative Commons (naturally!)
In the second half of the module we moved over to wiki-based research projects, which the students presented to one another today from different labs, using radio mics to take questions etc… it was great! My colleague Cristina Costa helped out with the web conferencing, we took photos and the students really got into the spirit of things – wonderful atmosphere… open, supportive to one another, engaging and FUN! (Also thanks to Stephen Downes, whose ‘How to Create an RSS Feed With Notepad,a Web Server, and a Beer' article made an appearance or two and was very much appreciated by the students).
Many of the students have their own studios and already do a lot of production work, but I was really impressed by their dedication and intentions to carry on developing their sites as part of their business/future careers. They are fantastic bunch, the sessions have been so enjoyable and one of the most rewarding aspects (for me) has been learning about what they do outside of university… all the ‘informal learning’ which is massively influential in terms of who they actually are. To be able to see them demonstrate everything that they do through developing the ‘digital self’; to demonstrate their understanding of issues explored in class through blog-based critical reflection; and finally to see them really enjoying and engaging in the web conference (despite some initial scepticism) where they were questioning one another about their research wikis and learning from each other – this has been the most satisfying module to develop/deliver…. And I’ve got loads of new ideas for next year’s cohort – yay!!!
Keywords: audio, blogs, creative commons, Cristina Costa, digital identity, learning, multimedia, RSS, social software, Stephen Downes, teaching, video, web 2.0, webconference, wikis
Comments
It is with a smile that I write this comment. Well done!
Actually nothing else was expected from such a carefully planned strategy and enthusiastic approach adopted by you from the beginning.
The truth is that students do like to see their lecturers showing their human side and realize that you care to know about how and what they are doing in and outside the University. They also appreciate a good challenge, because that is what life is all about: taking up challenges and convert them into victories and successes. And with your help they did that.
The fact that you cared to get this group on board with a meaningful approach and connect it with what they are already doing only made sense to them, even though they might have found it quite odd at the beginning, simply because they were not that used to be addressed this way ...To put the kids on the spot…are you MAD??! – that is for real life scenarios! We don’t do that in school!
To create their own content and expose it to others? JESUS! What were you thinking?! – that is still not a common practice at the University. You see, students might prefer to send it only to his/her tutor! They might not like it…Big Trouble!
WHAT???????????????? I have heard these lines so many times – maybe too many times - and I wonder: when these young men and women get a job, will they tell their bosses they are only sending their reports to the boss and not to the entire team because they feel uncomfortable doing that?! I DON’T think so….
Also, I don’t think most students are that picky. Teachers are the ones that get in the way with the most absurd scenarios that only they – and they only! - can come up with.
And that gives me an idea for a question to be asked at the Utrecht Conference: We have been talking about changing the way students learn, providing them with new techniques and strategies to organize their learning, so that they become more open and up-to-dated to face the challenges of the emergent digital society. True. Let’s do it!
But what about (some) educators’ old-fashion approaches and the unrealistic educational system that overshadows and even prevents the change from happening? What does it take to make educators and educational Ministries, Heads of schools and Universities, etc BELIEVE learners perform better when put in real scenarios and addressed as “future working individuals”. Let’s treat the kids as real persons… It only takes EVERYONE to have an open mind and learn with the good examples. Most people are so focused on someone else’s learning that they forget they too need to learn in order to do better and adjust to the demands, which actually aren’t new, but only recently are being considered in the open.
The change has to happen at all levels to be a successful one. Otherwise we are doomed to live with only sporadic outstanding examples like yours, which is better than nothing. At a large-scale scale we still have a lot to improve. IT takes the system to be flexible and educators to dare to innovate. If we get a inflexible system and innovative educators it won’t work that well; if we get a flexible system and conservative educators it will work even worse.
And that is why they enjoy it so much. They were placed in more realistic learning and working situations. And they grew enthusiastic, because you showed enthusiasm and the flexibility to let them learn their way!
You are a STAR!
Awww cheers Cris - right back at ya!! You're absolutely right - it's the
organisational/cultural change that's the hard part - but i do think it's
micro-level practice that can inform the macro, i.e. inform top-down
decisions by bottom-up approaches. The more that we can demonstrate new
approaches and their worth on a practice level, the more evidence we build
up with which to influence everyday practice in T+L... i'm already being
asked about the approach taken and how it could be applied to other
modules, so it's really exciting! One of the things we both love about what
we do is that we constantly learn from other practitioners who we largely
communicate with online; for instance, now it feels as normal to attend
conferences and meetings with other educators in Second Life as it does to
read/write blogs and communicate socially (learning informally) online with
other practitioners. We are lucky in that what we do enables us to 'put
ourselves in the shoes' of the 'connected' student, where boundaries
between online/offline are increasingly blurred and multiple mediums are
used simultaneously...
Totally agree with you. It takes a minority to start a (r)evolution; a majority to take it onboard and transform it into something that ends up being “commonplace”.
Great Job! It is great to know that there are already more people interested in your great practice. You have all my support and really hope we are able to collaborate more often in the future. I just loved the experience. Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Indeed! Attending events in SL is becoming a routine. I kinda of enjoy it. It is just one more way of communicating!
I am looking forward to new experiences in SL. I want to try to create stuff in there but need guidance.