When is an ism useful?

Posted on 17th February 2016 by NomadWarMachine

I responded to a tweet by Simon yesterday like this:

I did this basically to challenge the thought that subjectivity is the opposite of objectivism. Actually, with more space, I’d suggest that these things are all contrary points of view, and binary polarities is maybe not the way to go, but 140 characters and all that.

Anyway, Maha objected to there being a name for this:

Then Simon said:

And Maha replied:

So – no you don’t. And, as Maha said later, she was making fun. But sometimes it is useful to give something a name.

For example – I think that a lot of meaningful learning occurs by students putting things together for themselves, and not by learning by rote. I could call that “the theory that learning occurs by students putting things together for themselves, and not by learning by rote”, or “put-things-together-ism” but that’s kind of longwinded (and in the case of the former, not tweetable), or we could agree to call it constructivism. Well, actually we have agreed to call something like this constructivism already. I think it’s obvious that folk learn like this, but that doesn’t mean that giving it a label is wrong, or bad, or odd. In fact, it is helpful to have some shorthand to use – as long as you also remember to unpack it for those who do not come from a shared understanding. And likewise for social constructivism, or connectivism – they are words for things that I think are obvious – but that does not stop us wanting to name them.

I don’t see why perspectivism is any different from any of this.

Posted in Learning, Online learning, Philosophy, Teaching, Uncategorised | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Where’s the pedagogy?

Posted on 16th February 2016 by NomadWarMachine

I love decorating my Christmas tree. Every year I buy more sparkly, shiny things and manage to cram them all onto my fairly small tree – much to N’s amazement and the cats’ delight. Some of the decorations are beautiful, like the bauble from Charlene:

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

Some are not even ornaments, like my Dalek Mr Potato Head:

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

There’s no attempt to co-ordinate or be tasteful, there’s no need to limit myself to what is appropriate – as long as it’s shiny, a frog or a Doctor Who item it’s allowed. And that’s fine in my book – Christmas trees should be tacky and over the top. I appreciate some folk can make theirs look beautiful and themed, but that’s not for me.

Confused
Confused flickr photo by Guudmorning! shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license

But when it comes to online course design it’s a different story. There, although the temptation is still to cram all of the shiny, exiting things into one place, it’s important to take a step back and ask what you are trying to achieve. Sure, it might seem innovative to ask your learners to use Snapchat, or Tumblr, or whatever the cool kidz are using this week – but before you do, you have to ask yourself what benefit will this be to your learners. Or, to put it more formally – what is the pedagogical justification for using X in your learning design? If you don’t ask this, you risk confusing your learners, or having them drop out altogether.

As educators we have a responsibility towards our learners*, and means that we need to take the time to think through our course design and ensure that activities align well with whichever pedagogy underpins our teaching practice. So while it might seem cutting edge to design a virtual lecture theatre in Minecraft** and have all learners to attend virtual lectures, if one has a constructivist or connectivist model, then once you think about it, you might realise that there are better, less exciting, ways of delivering meaningful learning.

* I’m not talking here about cMOOCy things like rhizos and the like, but of formal, paid-for courses.

** Idk if this can be done, mind you!

Posted in Online learning, Teaching, Technology | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Appreciative students

Posted on 15th February 2016 by NomadWarMachine

White geranium 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 , , | 4 Comments

Feb 14th Rhizopoem

Posted on 14th February 2016 by NomadWarMachine

Blue and yellow irisGinger’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 , , , , , | 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
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:

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

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

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 , , , | 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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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).
  5. 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 , , , | 3 Comments

Six word manifesto for learning

Posted on 7th February 2016 by NomadWarMachine

Iris with the words: rhizomatically remixing: collecting, connecting, creating, collaborating

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 , , , , , | 3 Comments

Collaborative annotating

Posted on 7th February 2016 by NomadWarMachine

Heart doodleI’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 , , | 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
Card and protractor flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

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

Next to remember to post them!

Posted in #CLMOOC | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The blind leading the blind

Posted on 26th January 2016 by NomadWarMachine

Pieter Brueghel the Elder - The Blind Leading the Blind
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 , , , , | 2 Comments