Access all areas

One question that was raised in Wednesday night’s discussion was the issue of access. For example, many schools have web 2.0 essentials blocked such as You Tube and thinking about letting students into virtual worlds such as Second Life seems like some sort of strange fantasy that might only occur in a virtual world. (Hmmm… that makes me think of an interesting social experiment whereby any ‘real world’ tools should be banned form SL… maybe i need to think more about this!) Anyway, the issue is ridiculous. I know, and even you who is reading this post know, that there are ways around it but as Dean Groom pointed out in that excellent post that I referred to before, there has to be a shift in the way we approach this. Web 2.0 is not ‘the other’ for or students. Whether or not you subscribe to the idea of digital immigrants or not, there is no doubt that students know of the perils and pitfalls of the web. Sure some don;t , but this wariness pervades their understandings of what it means to participate in an online environemnt. Maybe this is do to with their awareness of things such as cyber bullying or just as heinous cyberstalking or abuse, but they do have some awareness – some more than pthers – but it is there. One of our colleagues in VLE said her students know that online etiquette is on a par to everyday etiquette. I think we should give them more credit that they get … maybe even earn something. God forb

Video Conferencing

Last week’s tute revolved around looking at the various advantages and disadvantages of using video in online learning communities. After hanging around in Elluminate through Learning Times for a bit , we moved over to userplane to vid chat.

One of the key questions Ted asked us was what sort of added value did the video  provide to the online or virtual learning expereince. My first two cets revolved around the mere socialisation of the medium . to put face (and voice) to your colleagues. It made me think f a few years ago, around 2002 when I was doing an online course that was only text based. This was in the dark and heady days when people would post comments and be rebuked for using the wrong tone or where people would take ffence so easily because of something that basically boiled down to incorrect syntax or lack of punctuation. So, for me, video takes out the mystery of tone that is difficult to capture (notice the ever so subtle “I-am-so-earnest” tone in this post?). it is also humanising – watching the expressions and gestures that individuals use.

This last thought reminds me to make a comment on the potential dangers of using video. My work colleaues have told me that when i disagree with something or find an idea obnoxious or reprehensible that I have certain expressions or ‘tells’ that my ire is being raised. This is usually the knitting of my eyebrow, an adjustment of my seating position whereby I kneel on a chair ( maybe to raise myself to make a swift exit?) etc. And as we were talking the other night, i couldnt help but think, too late, I fear, that my face was contorting into outright expressions of “what the…?” whenpeople made certain comments. This is a disadvntage – that and apart form the fact that I might pick my nose or some other sort of social faux pas.

Also, the advantage was about seing people who are usually reticent. For example, it was great to see Tay – in class time he doesnt say much but you could tell he was listening intently and with interest. This is obviously a character trait of him because I think his thoughts that are expressed on his blog are really great – just that like a traditional classroom, he is a quieter student.

I think it raised some interesting questions and comments from all.

Lost Time

Dean Groom has made a vey interesting post over at his blog, to which  I have responded. Check it out – you know you want to!