Have you tried Blogging yet ?

Well the start of a new academic term for us all and time once again to challenge myself to keep this Blog up to date and dynamic with all things e-Learning of use to the learning community in the West of Scotland.

An interesting video on YouTube I was recently alerted to with  Seth Godin and Tom Peters, discussing the value of blogging. They are both enthusiastic advocates of the benefits of Blogging in terms of personal, intellectual and emotional outlook and I broadly agree about the personal benefits of summarising a topic and writing down your own thoughts on it - It's described as meta-cognition.

So if you haven't tried it yet maybe now's the time to try.

To Blog ....... or not to Blog

You'd think having had a comment on my last posting in early March (thanks Joe), the third one ever, I should have approached my Blog with renewed enthusiasm. Someone out there is reading it! Yes you'd think so - however I seemed to have run out of steam there for a little while. I have, to be fair, been really busy particularly with the Collaborative Course Design Pilot we are running from the RSC right now and also working with colleagues designing another pilot project aimed at progressing the use of e-Assessment. But having said that I have allowed my Blog to slip down my list of priorities and I need to get back on track with it.

So I've coined a new phrase - Blog Fatigue! - well I thought I had however on closer inspection I discover that there is much written about this new phenomenon - so there you are Mrs Smug!

“Blog fatigue” is a common subject - and it's said that pretty much everyone comes down with it at one point or another. (see Jason Kaneshiro's blog about it). He suggests that it's routine that leads to it, something I was actually determined to keep to - hence the Friday Blog. No, no, no ..... he says "mix it up" to avoid BB (Blog Burnout.)

Another strategy suggested is to craft 52 one for each week and post date their publication - a bit too mercenary for me. I rather like to think that I provide an informative, responsive and up to date service - hmmmm.

I prefer Jason's solution so beware! I'm going to Blog as the inspiration takes me and it could be on any day of the week! In fact it's Wednesday today if I'm not mistaken.

Blog Fatigue: Is it fatal to your Blog ?

Suzanne senses Blog Fatigue - do you ?

Using Blogs for e-Assessment

As with many Web2.0 tools the emphasis on communication and collaboration means that many types of social software are becoming recognised as valuable learning tools that can be particularly useful to assess contributions of individual learners to group outcomes. Blogs can be used in this manner and have the potential to become powerful tools to provide evidence of deep learning and reflection.

Community blogs can be used to document progress towards the completion of a group task and the chronological aspects of the software are helpful in monitoring progress, achievement and contributions. Consideration of the extent to which authentication is required and indeed how it's managed will determine how this type of software is deployed within an institution.

Blogs provide an  ideal solution when the documentation of learning processes is needed, often a challenge for institutions and potentially quite "high risk" in terms of moderation and verification.  As with other social software the "signing in" requirements mean that activities are well documented and can be monitored relatively easily. Comment facilities provide a mechanism for peer assessment - provided good guidelines and support for the whole process is in place.

Blogs can be used as a journal and to assist personal development planning, documenting progress towards the achievement of goals. Staff at Dumfries and Galloway College are using Blogging software in quite a structured way very effectively with learners to encourage reflection and document progress. The ability to easily upload multimedia to web-based applications is of great value in many areas of the curriculum e.g. hairdressing students can take images of both the end result and also the processes that were involved. This could be applied in the same way in food production or the construction trades.

Balancing the need for structure (to ensure performance criteria is met) and learner autonomy is a challenge for institutions. It is argued greater structure undermines the authenticity of postings and can compromise the opportunities for deep learning that Blogs can offer. It can't be denied though that using technology seems to be more attractive to learners than putting pen to paper. Perhaps in the Further Education sector providing structure is an essential ingredient if the attractions of web 2.0 technologies are to be exploited and potential benefits are to be maximised.

CPD, PDP & ePortfolios

I've said before that I'm surprised about the impact doing this Blog each week has had on my capacity to reflect (see posting on 4th of April) and I do feel I really benefit from it. It provides an opportunity to have another think about my activities each week, firms up my ideas and files them in amongst the rest of the nuggets of knowledge that are in my head - (bet you're glad I shared that thought with you!)

I've previously advocated the use of Blogs with learners as a tool for reflection. Many eportfolio systems include them along with templates that encourage Personal Development Planning (PDP) which is often an element in guidance programs, but a paper I was reading this week as part of some personal study that I'm undertaking, got me thinking a bit more about the idea. The paper was written by Lorraine Stefani the Director of the Centre for Professional Development at the University of Auckland. It essentially explores the link between PDP, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and the use of ePortfolios. She makes the point that there is a very low uptake by education professionals of formally recording the CPD that is an implicit part of their work (by virtue of their professional status). Stefani suggests a link between the attitude of staff to recording CPD (i.e.the resistance to it) and how it mitigates against the successful implementation of PDP with learners and the embedding of eportfolios into the curriculum. In other words if teachers have difficulty formally reflecting on their own development and documenting it, how can they really expect learners to be able to effectively reflect on theirs.

At the University of Auckland they  implemented an initiative where staff were encouraged to develop a Teaching ePortfolio and there was the possibility that it would become mandatory for new staff to have one. Some staff development input was necessary and Stefani posed some interesting questions that would need to be resolved before a significant cultural shift might be seen:

Do line managers understand and value the concept of reflection on teaching and learning ?
Do line managers recognise the importance of teaching staff modelling the use of technology ?

They are not easy questions to answer. The initiative was introduced initially as a pilot with staff members, as part of an assessment strategy and staff who were facilitating and mentoring were also expected to maintain their own Teaching ePortfolio. It will be interesting to revisit this and have a look at the outcomes of the pilot and I'll update the blog once I find out more.

The idea of staff modelling the use of technology is something that the team here have always agreed with and is one of the reasons that I began to write this blog last year. If institutions embrace new technologies for their own business processes, robust systems would develop and wouldn't it make perfect sense for teaching staff using new learning technologies for their own CPD.

The team here at the RSC endeavour to use the technologies that we advocate whenever possible and I do feel that it provides us with a real insight into the issues that will crop up for the people that we support in the post 16 education sector. It's really invaluable and I'd certainly recommend that learning by doing yourself will help to you to introduce ICT into the curriculum more effectively.

Joan

Stefani, L. (2003) ‘PDP/CPD and e-portfolios: rising to the challenge of modelling good practice’ [online], Association for Learning Technology. Available from: http://www.alt.ac.uk/docs/lorraine_stefani_paper.doc

Look Mum - I'm Blogging

Having had little experience of creative writing and having never kept a written journal in my life, I’ll admit to being a bit sceptical about this blogging malarkey. Indeed when I decided to produce a weekly Blog I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to meet the deadlines albeit they are self imposed. I have never regarded myself as being a particularly reflective person. I have a poor memory and often just barge on ahead without thinking things through properly and luckily my instincts often serve me well.

Having said that, I must admit now that I’m doing better than I expected and the requirement to think about next week’s “episode” seems to be improving my ability to reflect on my activities in general. I wonder if encouraging this type of activity would work with young learners moving into post 16 education. While I acknowledge that there are many mature learners both in HE and FE, statistics published last month from the SFC suggest that around 70% of learners in Scotland’s universities and colleges are aged between 16 and 20 and might be considered as so called “digital natives”.

It strikes me that introducing Blogs as an integral part of some courses would be a very appropriate method of encouraging young people to be confident individuals, responsible citizens, effective contributors and successful learners, the four capacities of the Curriculum for Excellence, an initiative underway in schools in Scotland now being introduced into FE colleges. Blogging and also other learning technologies such as ePortfolios, are aimed at enabling reflection, self assessment, peer assessment and use systems that can provide great functionality, accommodate a wide range of digital media, are user friendly and evidently a more attractive medium that pen and paper.

Our young people or digital natives might be very IT savvy but I’m not convinced that, in the main, they are particularly reflective or able to take responsibility for their own learning effectively. Perhaps incorporating Web2.0 / web publishing tools as legitimate learning technologies and even formalising their use within the curriculum, say within the core skills, might provide opportunities to improve information skills, digital literacy and motivate learners.

About this Blog

Well this is the first posting of my new weekly Friday Blog and I hope that eCurriculum forum members in particular will find the Blog useful to keep up to speed with learning technologies, the implications for learning & teaching, the management of the curriculum and the support staff at the RSC can offer. For the first month or so I will email a link to the Blog to each member of the eCurriculum forum with instructions on how to subscribe or “opt in” to receive my weekly bulletins automatically. Members can comment on the postings, ask questions, offer advice, and describe solutions they may have implemented to support other members. Just click on the "comments" link below each posting to add a comment and read what others have to say.

In the Blog I’ll try to summarise relevant items that I’ve come across during the week e.g. interesting discussion threads from various mailing lists I’m on, events I’ve attended or reports that I may have been reading. I hope the Blog will prove a useful addition to the existing Forum elements (RSC website, Newsfeed and our virtual forum area ) and welcome your feedback - Joan