Learning, Teaching and ICT

I contacted someone via email recently to ask for advice about my research. The response is very much valued  – I don’t yet have permission yet to quote the ‘mentor’s’ (?) advice, so I hope that it’s ok to do this anonymously.

My research Question:

Can Weblogs and Wikis and other associated emerging social software tools be used to create an effective on-line learning community? 

Some points to consider here:

•  ’effective’ is quite a problematic term – do we mean effective within the current standards driven climate or is ‘effective’ relating to a different way of working/ learning? 
•  ’learning community’ is defined and understood in different ways, too, so it would be necessary to explore this – perhaps looking to see what kind of community develops rather than trying to mould it to become something specific?

My research Aims:

Aims 1 and 2:

•         To investigate the useful features, and barriers, when using blogs and wikis in a supportive on-line environment
•       To set appropriate tasks and to guide and monitor progress

The advice here is:

• this may be a point of contention – if you are setting tasks to guide progress that could be in contradiction of the underpinning nature of web 2.0 and approaching the project with a viewpoint of learning and teaching. 
•  it is really important to be clear about your own underpinning understandings and assumptions about the nature and purpose of learning and teaching and what the underpinning principles etc are.  
• What is your theoretical framework for the project?

Aim 3

• To evaluate motivation, as well as formal and informal learning

 Advice is:

• How do you propose to go about collecting/ creating data for this project?
• what will you be looking for and analysing in your data?
• Will you be analysing the blog contributions made by the pupils?
• if so what will you look for?  

Lots of thinking taking place …. and some more posts pending  – one step at a time

 By ‘our community’, I mean our online community …. quite separate from our classroom community (discussed HERE).

The following quotes are from wikipedia

Quote 1

An online learning community is a common place on the Internet that addresses the learning needs of its members through proactive and collaborative partnerships. Through social networking and computer-mediated communication, people work as a community to achieve a shared learning objective. Learning objectives may be proposed by an instructor or may arise out of discussions between participants that reflect personal interests. In an online community, people communicate via textual discussion (synchronous or asynchronous), audio, video, or other Internet-supported devices. Blogs blend personal journaling with social networking to create environoments rich with opportunities for reflection.

Much literature promote online learning communities as environments conducive to communities of practice as described by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger.

Quote 2

A primary focus of Wenger’s work is on learning as social participation – the individual as an active participant in the practices of social communities, and in the construction of his/her identity through these communities. From this understanding develops the concept of the community of practice: a group of individuals participating in communal activity, and experiencing/continuously creating their shared identity through engaging in and contributing to the practices of their communities.

I’ve tried to involve the wider community.

For example …..

•  Our parent evenings.

Thank you to all the mums and dads …..     (and grans and grandads, and brothers and sisters, and aunties and uncles!!!) for coming to our ‘Blogging Evening’!

…. But most of all THANK YOU to Primary 7 …. You were all ‘mega stars’ and you made the whole event great – I was so proud of everyone of you!

• Visits to the local community

Every year at this time, the primary 7 pupils deliver groceries to the elderly people in our community. Today the weather was not good, but there was a smile on everyone’s face …. the givers and the receivers!

• Our World of work series

Yesterday, John told us about a photograph he was glad to have taken. He explained how he happened to be in a position to be able to capture the moment.

Isn’t it great!!!!

copyright of JSP-photography & John Summers.

……… My hope is that (eventually) other members of our wider community will contribute

I’ve been following some recent posts about how to manage class blogs. The Connected Live blog mentions how John Connell points to a post entitled Class blogs – management, moderation and protection by Al Upton.

This blog mentions the ‘G-mail +’ option.

It’s very important to me that our community is a safe one. …  but I also want the children to have the freedom to have their own space and not feel that there’s a ‘Big Brother’ culture present.

So here’s what I’ve done to try to create that balance:

• First I created a Class Blog so that I could give the pupils an audience for their work
• Very soon after creating the class blog, I realised that it was important to allow access to the children’s own work so I created a wikispace for the class to post their writing
• This didn’t work well, because if we all logged on and edited the space at the same time, problems occured (a ’someone else is editing this space’ message)
• I wanted the children to have their own blogs, but still have control over how they were used. I discovered that East Lothian could help me set up individual blogs . These children have now moved on to High School.
• I’ve now managed to set up our own individual blogs without the help of East Lothian. ……  I discovered the ‘Gmail+’ trick. For example, If you have a ‘yourname@Gmail’ account, it’s possible to create lots of new blogs using that same e-mail address. You can do this by creating new blogs with a ‘yourname+student1@gmail’ , ‘yourname+student2@gmail’ etc.
• One advantage is that, although the pupils have admin rights, the teacher can also login to the blogs at any time.
• Another advantage is that any comments appear in the teacher’s Gmail account – even although the children can moderate them, the teacher has a record of what has appeared
• It’s quite easy to keep track of what is being posted on the children’s blogs by using ‘google reader’, or something similar
• I’ve since discovered that Wikispaces will set up separate username and passwords for students if you email them the information required.

It all seems to be working well so far ……..

On the post before the last one I said that I would investigate:

Since beginning blogging with classes, I’ve always thought it strange that what happens ‘online’ is not (obviously) transferred to the ‘offline’ classroom context. For example, if I comment on a post, it’s (usually) never mentioned in the ‘offline’ classroom situation.

Miss Law , our B’Ed student, has also been leaving comments on the pupils’ individual blogs – and she agrees with me that there appears to be a divide between the ‘online’ and ‘offline’ communities.

She mentioned a comment left on one of her posts by a pupil. He showed another side to her when he complimented her teaching…………. this isn’t something that he would have done in the everyday classroom situation.

I think, however, that the lesson contents do change as a result of the online communications. Tomorrow, for example, we are holding our first ‘Book Appreciation Group’ meeting. This came about due to the number of pupils who posted about their love of reading on their individual blogs.

 The ‘World of Work’ posts are still appearing on the pupils’ individual blogs. The children’s posts now show evidence of building on the ideas expressed by their peers. They’re referring to each others’ blogs – some even adding links. I’m glad now that I made the decision to ‘take a step back’ and allow things to develop naturally.

A few children who don’t normally ‘blog’ from home are beginning to do so. For example, Russell  recently updated his blog so that he could join in the ‘conversation’:

“One of the hard things in life is choise some are easy like what should i wear and others are hard like what car to buy. BUT THE HARDEST ONE IS WHAT JOB TO HAVE BECAUSE THERE ARE LOADS. When i grow up i would either like to be a normal police officer which is like solving crimes and stuff. Or in the traffic police, which is like catching speeders and arriving at motorway accidents or illegal number plates. Or be in the armed responce unit which are the police with guns and go to accident which suspects are armed. ”  

Jaydean also wrote from home:

“Our class, P7V had a visitor, Miss Hart. Miss Hart is a journalist, she told us a lot about journalism its made me think. I love performing but journalism sounds quite fun. My passion is to perform as I love singing, dancing and acting but if anything goes wrong and Im not able to perform, I’ll consider being a journalist. Just as my friend nina said in one of her posts there are so many desisions!!!!”

Other children who don’t normally blog are choosing not to write about the ‘World of Work’ thread, but are posting new topic conversations.

For example, Kieran S recently posted:

“I am going on a trip to Ardeonaig. On the 9th to the 20th of may you get to go lots of places like up a mountain and go Canoing. You get to go on the high ropes there is a games hall to there is lots more stuff.I went last year to. With my friends Russell Adam and Stewart It was SO funny. but the bad thing is that you have to do the cleaning up after you has finish your dinner. It is still very good. one of the funny thing that happened was when Russell and Adam put Stewart’s pajamas in to the water and he had to take my one’s but it was not funny for me. I hope i have fun when i go.bye”

Courtney wrote:

“hi well i know that i haven’t been on but ive been bizzy well you know that i’m in da scouts so you might know that i do badges well i’ve been doin ma photogrephers badge and we’re doin five aside footi and goin up kanarde wood oh and a beaver trail. finaly were goin t a bothy but i dont know if i’m goin as it’s two hours in a bus and it is really snowy so it will b cold in da tent!!!!”

The children who do tend to post in their own time are becoming more adept at it.

For example, Anna wrote recently:

“ I’m gettting the hand of writing posts now! At first i was totally stuck but now i write about anything really. I like to comment on other peoples blogs to,especially people from the allstars and even our class write gr8 posts that you have to comment on. I reccomend Moni’s Blog, Because she has lots of posts about what we have been up to in p7v. I also like looking at Beki’s Blog because she has interesting posts like book reviews and stuff. Ninzy’s Blog. I like to look at other peoples to but i dont have time the now cause i’m going out with my little cuz. …To be continued “

 Maryam tends to write posts regularly. A recent post received a number of comments. One of them was from Nadine  from  Allstars.

Nadine commented:

‘Hi Maryam!!!
I am Nadine from The o8 Allstars!! I am from Australia and i am almost twelve years old.
You sound like a really nice person and i’d really like to be a friend!
Anyway, i am soooo into writing too! My whole class says i’m so good too.
I want to be a writer so badly!!
I might be a doctor too, but i hate having to inject needles and see blood! ‘

I’ll need to devote some time to investigating the impact of comments on postings

 The idea of ‘online and offline’ co-existing communities is something that Victoria suggested I look at in my Case Study: She suggests looking at:

I think that some of these issues can be addressed following some recent activities on the pupils’ blogs.

 Maryam posted this on her blog early in January:

I posted a comment that led me to thinking about introducing the children to different Learning Styles. The children were very keen to find their preferred style. The quiz they took can be found HERE. This led them to want to research what job they might be most suited to .. and they began to Blog about this.

I think  Ainsley  was the first to post.

“i just love reading books i dont know how i just love it. I love to write stories and read stories. when i am older i want to become a writer and write lots of things ( but i dont know yet what i am going to write hehe.I love scary books , sad books , adventure books and etc. I dont read the news paper because i find it boring and i just dont like to read it but every thing else is fun to read. maybe you should try to rite your own book and i will to. i will come back to you when i have wrote atleast 4 pages hehe”

Nina wrote a great post at home one evening. It was obvious that she had put a lot of thought into writing it, and when I noticed it on ‘google reader’ that evening, I decided that I would share it with the others the next day ………. it’s interesting that after the post had been shared, there was a spontaneous ’round of applause’ and when she got back home, she re-vamped her post by adding paragraphs and some more interesting words and phrases here and there (audience awareness?). I’ve included a bit here:

“Decisions.There is so much decisions in life there right infront of you,some are hard and some are easy(i tend to ask for advice on the hard)

Like one for example what should i have for breakfast?But the one thing that is the hardest i think is what your career should be.Well when we were young we all wanted to be heroes and heroines like firemen,Police,Vets,doctor,teachers,dancers and more.But when you get older you start to think more about this. I’m not old enough to get a job yet of course but it just makes me think.

I wanted to be a Ballet dancer when i was small but i don’t go to dancing because of my spine, therefore ballet is not a job option for me as things have changed.Well i think if i go to Uni or College i could become most of the things because i think i’m quite clever not at language though,i don’t like it.

Here are a few jobs i’d like to do and why.Well my first one is a Journalist i’d like to do this because i like to find out things and it would be interesting and i think i’m alright at writing.I’d like to get in touch with a newspaper and get better at my writing…….”

 Anna then wrote:

“Nina’s Post kind of got me thinking…There are a lot os Desicions in life.I guess we make never really think about it!Well when i’m older i really want to be something along the lines of a Journalist. (eg;Fashion magazine editor;Write:Journalist) That kinda stuff.One time i considered being a Police woman but then i though nahh…The uniformas are hideous!! No i’m joking really i think if i were a police Woman I might get hurt or something So basically this post is to say thanks to Nina For giving me a  bit of a boost and stuff like that haha xbye xxx”

Miss L is a final year Bed student in our class at the moment. She was keen to set up her own blog and added a post to join in with the ‘conversation’. A short extract is below:

“I thought I would write something about this as so many of you have. Although I have not fully entered the world of work officially I am nearly there! Fingers crossed anyway!Where to start? Well, when I was wee I always wanted to be a teacher. I used to make my little brother sit and listen to me when I pretended to teach him! I used to have to bribe him with sweets etc! However, when he got a bit older he did appreciate the help with his homework so I think we both benefitted from it!…………………..”

Bethany added this post just this weekend:

“I didn’t really know what to write a post on and everyone seems to be writing about what they want to be when they are older. It got me thinking of how many choices we actually make in life. I mean there is little ones like what will i eat for breakfast? or what will i wear tomorrow? There are also bigger choices like Will i buy the game i want that is £45? The choice that quite alot gets to me is what i want to play when i go to my friends houses. I can never seem to decide. I think a reason for that is that you are worried incase the persons house you are at does not want to play that thing and you are making it boring for them. Another choice that is hard for me is what i want to be when i am older? When i was smaller i used to want to be a ballerina or a nurse but now that has changed especially because i dont really like programs that they cut people open and things. I just personally could not do that and i cant understand how some people can do that! I also used to want to be either a vet or a teacher until i found out that being a vet can involve putting animals down.:( ! A teacher i am still considering with about a million other jobs. If you think about it there is so much out there so i will just have to go with the flow and see what life throws at me!”

Monica joined in only today:

“When i am older i would like to become a singer. I would go on the X factor. I have always been quite shy. So that would be a thing i would need to work on. I am not sure if i am a good singer or not lol. Its hard to say when your friends say you are good but then all the boys say you are rubbish. The only thing is i am not sure about going on the X factor is i might go on and make a fool of  my self if i cant sing lol. But i will give it a try in the future.

 Another job i would like to do is be a teacher. I would like to teach primary schools. Also i would need to be more confident to be able to speak in front of people. These are only two jobs i wouold like.

Bye x

Do you think i should go for the X Factor when i am older?”

So to return to Victoria’s email suggestions:

I have lots of thoughts on this and will devote a post to the topic  

Although these two issues need to be looked at very closely, it is a fact that the ‘Learning Style’ quiz idea came from reading a post on one of the children’s blogs. I’ve also arranged for an author and a journalist to visit the class because of the interest shown in these careers in the recent blog posts quoted above …………

….. and If anyone knows a famous X Factor star, I’m sure that Monica would be very happy if you could arrange a class visit

In her email to me, Jackie’s thoughts included:

•  the idea of exploring the area of gendered representations of identity

She was referring to the children’s use of ‘weemees‘ to represent themselves.

The children had great fun designing their characters. The girls (2nd row) all spent a lot of time getting their weemees to look like themselves …. eye colour, hair colour, face shapes, etc. The boys (top row) are less recognisable! They’ve designed characters to depict their interests. I know, for example, that the boy represented in the first picture is very interested in characters in computer games (this also shows in his imaginative writing tasks). The ‘guitar hero’ doesn’t really look like his creator, but I know that he does enjoy playing the guitar.

Jackie also highly rated:

• the importance of allowing the children to drive the use of the blogs

I’ve tried very hard this session to make sure that this is the case and have just carried out a quick review of what has happened over this last month.

I looked at gender and types of posts. Here’s my ’snapshot’ view of the situation in the month of January (2008!)  ……… learnerblogs was VERY slow tonight, so may have got fed up waiting for a few of the blogs to load

Girls …. 30 posts

Boys …. 24 posts

I broke down the post into types:

• basic pictures from web
• what’s happening in class / school
• playing with codes
• own thoughts

The ‘breakdown’ is as follows  – girls are blue, boys are red

Basic pics from web – 0                10

Class/School posts   – 12               10

Playing with Codes   -  3                 0

Own Thoughts          -  15               4

These numbers are just for January .. the bigger picture might be different