While registering for #RSCON3 e-conference, I felt excited, nervous and curious, as it was my first online experience. Being a novice at many online applications and platforms, I had some reservations about my success at being able to access the sessions that I intended to attend. I would like to share my experience, thoughts and reflections before, during and after this conference.
When registering I found out that having a ‘Twitter’ account was a prerequisite. This knowledge threatened an underlying belief about the safety of my online identity. Up to then the only social media I had subscribed to was ‘Facebook,’ for the purposes of maintaining contact with selected friends and family. After overcoming my fear and creating a Twitter account, I found, to my pleasant surprise, that I had all this information relevant to many of my interests at my fingertips, much of it from very reliable and famous sources. I could see myself using Twitter regularly as a learning tool.
Using the application called ‘Elluminate Live’, I found myself in this virtual classroom, where I could see the names of the others attending and I could interact by using emoticons or using the chat box. Since I was very new to this software, I had to hastily familiarise myself with the different icons and their functions. For the first session I could save the chat conversation, due to help from the moderator. However I had difficulty in finding the sound, as the session was ended by the time I got to the sound. By the time I got to the second session, I felt more prepared and at ease, knowing how to enter the classroom, how to state my location and how to use the emoticons to interact with others during the session. This social aspect of the software was very helpful in my experience, as it helped me to see what others felt about things and I was able to get help from the moderator by using the chat conversation box. Anderson (2008), discusses the design and development of online teaching programmes, by reflecting on the model posited by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000), called ‘Community of Inquiry,’ especially the ‘social presence’ aspect of it. This model postulates that deep and meaningful learning occurs in an online learning programme, where three aspects, teaching, social and congnitive, are present. The social aspect incorporates the interactive nature of a programme, thus providing a supportive environment in which the students feel safe and comfortable to express their ideas in a collaborative context. In my experience, as soon as I entered the classroom, I was welcomed and directed by the moderator. I felt safe to ask questions, using the chat conversation box.
Even though my virtual experience did help me achieve the outcome of learning about how digital technology is being used in the classroom by other educators, I did miss the face to face (F2F) contact that has the potential for incidental learning, which is what happens at live conferences, during tea and lunch times. Sanders (2006), discusses potential impact of using digital technology in teaching, without critically assessing it’s worth and use. He discusses the value of the ‘serendipitous moments of learning’ that occur so often in F2F environment, the overheard remarks, discussions in the hallways, before–class updates, etc., that can be springboards to so much further learning. As well as being an avid user of digital technology during his teaching, in comparing the virtual and F2F classrooms, he finds the interactions during F2F sessions to be lengthier, more involved and generally more supportive than those mediated by use of technologies.
Therefore I do believe that as much as current digital technologies endeavour to be as socially interactive as possible, in order to maintain the gregarious nature of human communication, perhaps blending in F2F facilities, where possible, into our online programmes might help to facilitate deeper, more meaningful exploration of concepts.
Sanders, R. (2006). ‘The imponderable bloom’ – reconsidering the role of education in technology. Innovate Journal of Online Education. 2(6).
Anderson, T. (2008). (ed.) The Theory and Practice of Online Teaching. Teaching in an online context. p355.
http://www.google.co.za/search?q=elluminate+live&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
No comments:
Post a Comment