NomadWarMachine

Appreciative students

Posted on 15th February 2016 by NomadWarMachine

I had a lovely chat with some of my students last week. It was a usual level 1 philosophy seminar and I’d put them into groups of 2-3 to go through some Rousseau quotes together and decide what to make of them. After about 25 minutes I said they could have a couple of minutes to wrap up and then we’d reconvene as a class.

One of them asked me about my PhD, and when I said it was on the importance of peer interaction to learning she told me that she thought it was a really interesting subject, and that she was realising that she learnt a lot more from her peers than from just reading or listening to a lecture. I agreed, and said that was why I’d got them working together.

She nodded and said she knew – and she appreciated it. It’s nice when a student appreciates you. 🙂

Flickr photo by me shared under a CC-BY-SA-NC

Posted in Learning, Philosophy, Teaching, University | Tagged jigsaw learning, peer interaction, peer learning | 4 Comments

Feb 14th Rhizopoem

Posted on 14th February 2016 by NomadWarMachine

Ginger’s a rhizome

An iris is too

Some irises are pink

But this one is blue

flickr photo by tanakawho shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license

Posted in Poetry, Rhizomes | Tagged #rhizo16, ginger, iris, poetry, Rhizome, rhizopoetry | 4 Comments

When the student is ready …

Posted on 12th February 2016 by NomadWarMachine

There’s a saying that is (apparently) falsely attributed to Buddha, which says that:

teacher appears flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

I was reminded of that during the latest #MoocMooc chat when Mark said that:

@Jessifer @jasoncummings1 @NomadWarMachine @yishaym @slamteacher Much f2f is about control / design online to lose control #moocmooc

— Mark Johnstone (@mcjsa) February 11, 2016

And Yishay replied to my tweet asking for clarification by saying that:

@NomadWarMachine @mcjsa @Jessifer @jasoncummings1 @slamteacher I think he means you so should design yourself out of control. #moocmooc

— Yishay Mor (@yishaym) February 11, 2016

Quick as a flash, I replied with my version of this saying:

@yishaym @mcjsa @Jessifer @jasoncummings1 @slamteacher Like a Cheshire cat? #MoocMooc pic.twitter.com/Fbk1mWC8Xw

— Sarah Honeychurch (@NomadWarMachine) February 11, 2016

So what’s better? A teacher who waits in the wings till students need them, or one who “softly and silently vanishes away” when they are no longer needed? Or, rather, which is better when?

Flickr images by me under a CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0

Posted in #MoocMooc, Learning, Online learning, Teaching | Tagged Buddha, learning, scaffolding, Vygotsky | 9 Comments

In defence of the VLE

Posted on 8th February 2016 by NomadWarMachine

It’s easy to bash the VLE (Virtual Learning Environment). I’m not going to pretend that it is a universal panacea for online or blended learning, but it is not as bad as some folk make out. I think it’s easy to forget just how difficult it can be to start out putting together online materials, and to keep up with this when it is only a small part of one’s workload (and when senior staff are oblivious to the time needed to produce good elearning materials, or to make realistic estimates of what percentage of one’s workload model it should be). So here’s a few points in defence of the VLE:

It’s all in one place. Students do not have to remember multiple passwords or urls. Typically they just log in with the same username and password as they use for their uni email etc.. Staff do not need to learn how to use multiple bits of software, they only need to master the basics of one.
It’s safe. Because it’s typically only open to authenticated users (i.e. staff/students in a course) there’s a low risk of trolls or vandals. This is important when trying to get students to engage in forums, for example. It’s also important that staff feel free to experiment without worrying asbout ridicule.
It’s familiar. Students (tell us in surveys that they) appreciate the fact that course materials are located where they can easily find them. Staff can upload materials (relatively) quickly and easily.
It’s owned by the University. Unlike third party apps, the data therefore belongs to the Uni – an important consideration when thinking about assessment. In-house ownership also means that changes to the interface need not come as a surprise (unlike Facebook, for example).
It’s scaleable. For those of us who have to support large classes, this is important. Forums can be more manageable than individual emails; online submissions are more easily managed than paper ones.

So I’m not saying that this represents the best that teaching and learning can be, but I do think that we need to be realistic. By all means go beyond the VLE in your own teaching and learning, but don’t belittle those who are not as able or as confident as we are out in the wilds of the internet.

flickr photo by ShawnKimball shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Posted in #MoocMooc, Learning, Online learning, Teaching, Technology | Tagged #moocmooc, Moodle, online learning, VLE | 3 Comments

Six word manifesto for learning

Posted on 7th February 2016 by NomadWarMachine

Today Sean asked us to:

Write a six word manifesto about learning, about your learning, about learning management, about building environments for learning. See here

Here’s mine (above). More mantra than manifesto, this is what I have become thanks to rhizo-cl-digiwrimo-moocmooc folk.

Posted in #CLMOOC, #MoocMooc, Learning, Online learning, Peer interaction, Rhizomes | Tagged #moocmooc, #rhizo15, #rhizo16, collaborating, learning, rhizomatic learning | 3 Comments

Collaborative annotating

Posted on 7th February 2016 by NomadWarMachine

I’m in love with Hypothes.is, a free online annotation tool which allows you to easily highlight bits of text and comment on them, and then to share those comments publicly if you wish so that others can see them and join in the conversation. To use it, either drop a link to a web page into their web page or download the Chrome extension (I prefer this). Yesterday I annotated one of Terry’s blog posts and tweeted for others to join in, and at the moment we’re also annotating some of Simon’s including this.

It’s fun to do this, and to have an asynchronous conversation with friends, and it’s a lot more intimate than leaving a comment at the bottom of a blog post (and sometimes that is not even possible, as some folk turn the comments off). Come and join in, if you like, or tweet me a link to something you’d like to annotate. 🙂

flickr photo by findingthenow shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Posted in #CLMOOC, Editing, Online learning, Peer interaction, Reading, Social Media, Technology | Tagged annotating, collaborative writing, Hypothes.is | 6 Comments

String pictures

Posted on 3rd February 2016 by NomadWarMachine

I don’t draw – I can doodle, but it’s nothing special. So Karen’s postcard writing challenge was – well – a challenge for me. I bought some coloured card and dithered for ages about what to do: potato prints? collage? photos? Nothing seemed right. Then I remembered an article I’d seen before Christmas and I knew I’d found what I wanted to make. I had a lot of embroidery thread in my sewing table, so I tipped it all out and set to work.

Card and protractor flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Cards and thread flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

I began with a triangular design, got bored after 8 of those and tried some star-like shapes. Finally I tried a six pointed design, which I was really pleased with – but I had enough to send now, so packed up my tools and glued them down.

Parabola cards flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Finally I opened the Google Sheet and addressed all of the envelopes, wrote messages and sealed them up.

Envelopes flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Next to remember to post them!

Posted in #CLMOOC | Tagged #clmooc, gifting, maths, parabola, penpals, postcards, string pictures | 4 Comments

The blind leading the blind

Posted on 26th January 2016 by NomadWarMachine

Pieter Brueghel the Elder – The Blind Leading the Blind flickr photo by Gandalf’s Gallery shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Thoughts without intuitions are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind. Immanuel Kant: Critique of Pure Reason, B 75

Kant wrote the above in order to call for a metaphysics that is both synthetic and a priori – i.e. a metaphysics that uses both reason and experience – i.e. a metaphysics that uses intuitive concepts. It’s not important here exactly what that means, I use this to illustrate the futility and wrong-headedness of those who argue for practice without theory, or theory without practice – because

Theory without practice is empty, practice without theory is blind.

I’ve been reading a paper by D.C. Phillips today entitled The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Many Faces of Constructivism and I realise that this is actually a moral point. Phillips uses the example of Ernst von Glasersfeld, who (he says) uses a weak epistemological theory in order to argue for his particular pedagogical theory (or, quite possibly, chooses the epistemology as it allows him to articulate his beliefs about pedagogy). That seems to be doing an injustice to his students – doesn’t it?

So what if you are the sort of person who does not think that theory is important – how are you going to ensure that you don’t hurt your learners with your unreflective practice? I just don’t see how anyone can really believe that, at some level, theory is not important.

In the words of the immortal Sinatra, you can’t have one without the other.

Posted in Learning, Online learning, Philosophy, Rhizomes | Tagged D. C. Phillips, Kant, practice, rhizomatic learning, theory | 2 Comments

Kangaroo

Posted on 25th January 2016 by NomadWarMachine

Last week as I walked past our university library I spotted a kangaroo lurking. This week I remembered to snap a pic. Unfortunately there has been a lot of rain and it has a big puddle of water around it. Poor roo looks as if they have been caught short 😉

kangaroo flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license