You may (or may not) have noticed that I am no longer chief blogger for Synergy Learning. That title has been handed to Amy our resident marketing expert, health enthusiast and all-round lover of crunchy vegetables.

She’s much more organised than I am and has put together a schedule for guest posts from team members. This week it’s my turn.

Since hanging up my blogging hat, I’ve embarked upon an Open University course. Some of you may be familiar with it – Technology Enhanced Learning: Practises and Debates (H800). I can recommend it.  As I don’t have any teaching experience it has given me a useful insight into practical problems faced on a day to day basis, educational theory, pedagogical practises, the role online learning plays in all that and a lot more to boot.

This is a dual purpose blog post as one of this week’s H800 activities is to give blogging a go. Now I’ve been blogging on and off for quite a few years.  The purpose of the H800 activity is to consider how useful blogging is as a learning tool.

The activity is based around a paper written by Kerawalla et al, “Characterising the different blogging behaviours of students on an online distance learning course”. They concentrated on a group of e-learners who were encouraged to blog as part of their course with no expectations given or prerequisites set for what it should achieve.

Five different groups emerged and were judged on four criteria Audience, Community, Comments and Presentation. The groups break down as follows:

1. Blogging avoidance: People who tried once but weren’t convinced of it’s use and preferred traditional methods
2. Resource network building: Conscious of their audience, welcomed comments, rigorous proof-readers
3. Support network building: Sociable community builders, not afraid to air their concerns, not too bothered by spelling and grammar
4. Self-sufficient blogging: Blog for reflective learning, don’t care for comments although they were conscious of their presentation and checked other blogs for reference.
5. Anxious, self-conscious blogging just to complete the suggested course activities: I think that one’s pretty self explanatory!

I would say I naturally fall into the ‘resource network building’ category. It seems to me that we try to hard to build useful blogs that engage users and invite feedback but because we are so conscientious in trying to achieve this the blog isn’t as successful as it could be. The ‘support network building’ group appear to be the best in achieving what a blog should. By their honest, open and seemingly slap dash approach to blogging they present a more human front and by default convey warmth, invite comments and build communities without having to try.

Kerawalla and her friends carried out this investigation to better understand the challenges students face when presented with blogging as learning support. The conclusion is that each student will evolve their own use for the tool and as a result a range of behaviours and patterns will evolve. This makes it difficult for education theorists and researchers to design courses in such a way that blogging as an activity can be replicated. As Kerawalla puts it:

Our findings suggest that, in many circumstances, it may be appropriate to make blogging activities flexible, voluntary or loosely prescribed, so as to give students the opportunity to adapt blogging to meet their own needs, whilst still completing the required activities. (page 32)

From my own point of view I find blogging very useful for articulating your thoughts to an unknown audience as you don’t know who will be critiquing it, giving you the motivation to make it the very best representation of your ideas.

Maybe that’s why I’m not so good at attracting comments!

Today’s quickfire round is focusing on some phrases you may come across when researching elearning solutions for your organisation.  So what do the following terms actually mean?

Rapid e-learning

This is when you are short of the time needed to build your e-learning module from scratch and the course is required asap. There are a number of tools and software packages available that help you compile your content and assessments together to quickly build an e-learning module.

Rapid learning is the e-learning world’s “off the shelf” solution, if you like.  

Games-based learning

This is when learning takes the form of a educational game play, for example, making it interactive and fun with defined learning outcomes that learners retain and apply in the “real world”.

There are a load of games that can be created to help kids with their core subjects, like Maths, Science and English, However games can also be created for corporate users, for example, Deloitte has seen use of its Deloitte Leadership Academy training program increase through the use of games-based learning.

Blended learning

This is bringing, sorry blending, on and offline educational techniques together.  For example, the main course could be taught in a face-to-face classroom environment, with elements of it to be completed online where the learner controls and is responsible for the place, path and pace of their learning.

Multi-device learning

Simply using a range of different devices for learning, including; desktop, mobile and tablet.  The e-learning platforms that we produce can be adapted to respond and display appropriately on any one or all of these devices.

Learners can take advantage of accessing and engaging with their online resources and activities anywhere, anytime on any device.

Social Learning

This is using social media and networks to create and share within an online learning community, small/large groups and even between individuals. It assists in collaboration, sharing ideas and learning from one another. 

Social Learning is one of the various learning approaches encouraged when successfully deploying a 70:20:10 learning model.

If you want anymore information on the different types of learning or are considering a move to online learning for your school or company, call or email us and we’d be happy to discuss your requirements and talk through your options.

With tuition fees at an all time high in the UK, many high school students are wondering what their future holds.  Could MOOC’s be the answer?

They have been in America.  MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Course and have been the answer to an education for those who just can’t afford a higher education.  These are conducted online by well known professors and free to anyone who signs up.

This video explains a lot about MOOC’s including;

• What are MOOC’s and how are they used in today’s education?
• How do MOOC providers earn money if the courses are free?
• If MOOC’s are online, how do students interact with each other or are you on your own?
• How are students awarded once they complete a MOOC?

Watch How Free Online Courses Are Changing Traditional Education on PBS.

There have been talks about whether MOOC’s are the future of learning, an add on to the e-learning world or simply a fad that is likely to fade away.  As with everything, only time will tell.

I just came across this video on Youtube about mobile learning and felt I had to share.  It is a great example of how technology, along with the right content can open up a world of possibilities and learning to those with learning difficulties.

Explore mobile learning for your institution