First day -Marks a new start, new challenge
Today marks an important milestone as it signals the start of a new venture - M Sc in Applied eLearning.
As with any new challenge or venture you approach it with a certain amount of apprehension but you also a certain level of excitement. I am looking forward to getting started and I'm eager to find out what exactly the course entails and keen to get a sense of what the course has to offer.
With this in mind Muireann advised as to capture our hope, fears and expectations for the duration for the course over the next few years. A useful and worthwhile exercise as it will be very interesting to look back two years from now to see how my knowledge, experience, skill set has evolved and if indeed these initial expectations will be meet.
These video are available on the main Professional Development homepage.
 | Introduction to reflections From the very outset of the course we were encouraged to reflect on our work at all times.This reflective process can be summarised by Gibb’s reflective cycle which is given below |
Our collaborative blog for I.D Project
The Instructional Design Project marked my first real experience of blogging.
The collaborative blog was created to serve as our main form of communications and proved to be a resounding success and was one of the main success stories of the project
We would have struggled to have been as productive without this resource.
It was our "goto" area for any queries, concerns , discussions, debates and feedback relating to the project.
All aspects of the instructional design project from initial brainstorming right through to successful project completion are discussed on our blog.
Link to our collaborative blog can be found here ->
http://instructionaldesigndit.wordpress.com/
With the Learning Theories, Instructional Design and Creativity and Critical Thinking modules now completed I thought I would take this opportunity to reflect on the course to date.
It has been an enjoyable and rewarding experience to date. One of the pleasing aspects of the course is the sense of an “open forum “and “community” in which the class operates. Feedback, discussion, debate and exchange of ideas are constantly encouraged and one can’t help but feel involved.
Prior to the learning theories module , I had briefly came across terms such as behaviourism and social constructivism but in these three modules , I have undoubtedly developed a greater appreciation of these teaching philosophies and how they align to educational /instructional practice. I was educated in the traditional didactic model, instruction and communication was one way from lecturer to student. My primary, secondary and a large part of my third level education was rooted in behaviourist principles. The focus was very much on content delivery, repetition and practice. Teachers, not students were the focal point of the classroom. Looking back, with the exception of maybe one or two occasions, I can’t recall too many examples were creativity was encouraged.
The one occasion that does comes to mind in an English class in secondary level where we were asked to use our imaginations to interpret an image from a text book. I distinctly remember we were presented with this black and white picture, possible taken around 20-30 years ago. There were a number of people in a dim lit room, some standing up, some sitting down, some looking suspicions and others appearing to be writing or sketching out something on a paper. We were tasked with an overnight assignment to use our imaginations and return the next day with our own creative interpretation of the image. The majority of us returned the next day claiming that the picture was taken inside a polling station, thus explained the unsociable demeanour of these individuals in the picture. There was one student however who stood out from the rest, he created a wonderful, ingenious and elaborate story involving espionage and undercover intelligence agents plotting to over throw the local government and seize control of the local town. The purpose of recalling this story is to demonstrate (a) the lack of creativity encouraged in my own educational experience and possible education experiences of years gone by and (b) contrast this experience with the M Sc. In the course to date and certainly in the most recent module creativity, classroom engagement and critical thinking skills are very much encouraged this makes for a stimulating and enjoyable shared learning experience.
Whilst this reflection may appear opposed to behaviourist methodology, this is not my intention. This approach has its benefits in assessing what one has learned or their skill-set- have they achieved the learning objectives?
Working in I.T means I don’t lecture students but often times I do train staff on I.T related applications. The main issue I have discovered from my own personal experience with training staff on software programs is that without repetition and practice the learners forget the content taught to them. I have often applied what Conner refers to as the “drill and practice” approach (2012, p. 4). My experiences in the Learning Theories modules and particular the reflective aspect of writing the final paper has led me to explore new ways of carrying out my support role. The challenge for me is to find a blend of these methodologies which will serve as the best fit in my support role as a Technical Officer. What exactly these methodologies re remain to be seen, but over the course of this M Sc I’m sure I’ll be able to share some experiences.
Areas to Improve?
The modules to date have highlighted areas which I feel I need to improve, such as my presentation skills.
My background is in I.T. rather than academia, therefore my presenting experience is limited. There will be numerous opportunities to address this during the course of the M Sc when I will, with experience in this area as opportunities arise, overcome my concerns.
I need also to address the affordability of more time towards defining the initial scope of future projects. I am referring here to the SkyDrive modules. If I were to recreate these modules I would reduce the amount of modules within SkyDrive. The existing modules need some fine tuning. If I were not constrained by project timescales I would like to have concentrated more effort on improving the video and audio of the presentations but that said I am pleased with the overall outcome. Trailing and exploring software applications and their functionality is very time consuming. As already stated if I were afforded more time on this project I would have been interested in exploring alternatives to articulate. I managed to discover workarounds for some of the issues with Articulate and have posted these to my reflection entitled “articulate and elearning heroes”
Final Note…..
Overall I genuinely feel that the M Sc has been a steep learning curve but ultimately it has been a rewarding experience. I’ve learnt a huge amount from working with my other colleagues in the class. In addition I I have learned and gained valuable experience from working in group assignments that will serve me well in future projects.The workload was been immense at times but no less than what is expected of an MSc.
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