Bricolage

I have always believed that if you can’t handle a paper to do list and diary then the fanciest electronic organiser will not help you manage your time.

If you don’t understand basic maths then Excel won’t make you numerate.

If you are a boring public speaker, then you will be even more boring with PowerPoint.

On the other hand I also believe that all of those skills are trainable. In the process of learning to use the tool you may also pick up the fundamentals of the technology.

Because the good time manager can spend a lot less of that valuable time if they learn to use a good tool to manage appointments, deadlines and contacts. The great speaker, who is used to connecting with an audience, won’t abuse the slide-show technology to the detriment of the audience.

The mathemagician will make Excel models that dazzle one the tool is understood.

So how about e-learning. Does the technology make it easier to learn?

After a semester using e-learning technology to learn about e-learning my essential bias remains that if you can’t do it without computers, then computers won’t suddenly make it easier by themselves.

As a learning tool, though the learning has to take place on two fronts. First learn the technology, then learn the subject content. I found the technology we were given to work with very easy to use. we were asked to prepare a blog using Edublogs.org, asked to communicate through a social networking system - Ning.com and asked to prepare a wiki on wikispaces.com. The tools were new to all of the members of the learning team I joined, but we all had enough computer literacy to pick them up pretty quickly. Our comfort with the tools increased progressively, and this is evident when I scan the progressive contributions.

But learning to use 3 bits of software is not a masters level subject. It was the content, rather than the process that we were interested in. did using these tools teach us more about e-learning?

I would have to say a resounding yes. But it would not have happened if we didn’t have some basic study skills and high motivation.

An example of the course design was posting our assignments as blog posts. for the first time in many years of formal and informal study, it was the first time I was ever able to see exactly what my class mates were learning. not only did I know what they were reading - as might happen in a face to face class - I could also see what insights that they gained from it. The technology didn’t make it happen, it just made it possible.

So like the good speaker with PowerPoint where the audience’s experience is enhanced, or the good time manager with an electronic organiser, where contacts, appointments and tasks are brought together with a few keystrokes, the e-learning tools made the subject more beneficial for the students who did the work.

I suspect that many of us put a lot more effort into this subject than others we have done. I think the technology aided this for two reasons, interest and possibility. we were interested in the content, rather the process. The process just made it possible to satisfy our interests.

The person who made it possible was Anne Bartlett-Bragg, our lecturer from UTS. To her we owe a great debt, because she provided the tasks and the tools that helped us learn for ourselves. I’m suspect Anne is a great face to face lecturer. To reinforce my bias - she couldn’t have designed and facilitated the on-line course if she was not. But with the tools that she arranged for us to use our learning was exponentially greater. 

Thanks Anne. and a special thanks to my teammates, Prue, Heather, Mal, Nic, Debra and Michelle for taking advantage of the opportunity. I learned lots from you all.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 8th, 2008 at 9:25 pm and is filed under social learning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.