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Topic 2

The topic 2 is about open education resources (OER) and how to provide an equal learning environment to everybody. Among the participants the working premises differ but we have had fruitful discussions! And this is the best part of PBL work: I am learning!:)

In 2012, David Wiley wrote an enlightening article about OER, its possibilities and obstacles, and reflected upon what it is going to be like in the future. He concluded that only time can tell. In my opinion, that future is already present and just like online teaching and learning, the OER have come to stay and is developing very fast (fascinating to read in a Swedish newspaper today that similar processes are seen in the media environment where journalists find themselves “threatened” by other communicating instances – and it is not only an issue of information and desinformation). Probably the universities have to “join the race” of OER instead of resisting it. And I think the content of our courses is no secret, so I don’t have any problems with sharing it in an open environment. But I do hope – like we also said in the group – that the university as a governmental institution will provide support. If not, a lot of teachers will end up in the same situation as when online education started: teaching had to be done but the technical and economical support was almost non-existent.

Furthermore, the teachers who share need to be aware of some aspects like sharing the content of a subject without being manipulated to discuss issues with those who read our material and without using the environment as a political platform, for instance.

As a conclusion, whether OER will develop or will be substituted by something else, education is being created and recreated continuously. The interesting article by David Wiley (see below) was shared in the PBL group and indeed it is worth reading. Thank you!

https://library.educause.edu/resources/2012/5/chapter-6-why-openness-in-education

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Topic 1

During our discussions on topic1 in group 6 we presented our reflections and results in Miro, a collaborative tool which Stephanie introduced to us. This tool is like a digital board, easy and nice to work with (participation is allowed 1 month free of charge). On the Miro board we worked according to the fish metaphor, that is, by drawing a fish and putting our ideas, comments and conclusions following the fish image of the course.

In the front part of the fish we put the starting points of the problem: 1) process, 2) culture, 3) tools and 4) roles. For each one of these starting points we discussed several questions and, reflecting on the lecture by David White and the concept digital literacy, we suggested that if some students are digital literates and the teacher is not, but still the expert on the topic/subject itself, there may be a problem by teaching and learning. And the question was, how do we deal with this.

We also discussed how to encourage students to perform outside their comfort zone and found that teachers need other engagement skills as compared to offline teaching. A lot of aspects have to be considered like how to combat loneliness, how do students and teachers think about online teaching and learning, how do we provide adequate digital tools and what do the roles look like in an online environment. Here we underscored that it is important to enhance group activities appointing some students as facilitators and make clear that the teacher is supposed to be the expert on the topic but not in everything that has to do with online teaching.

The discussions on the topics process, culture, tools and roles concluded that teachers’ success in these aspects depends on engagement, both by students and teachers. This engagement leads to a sort of “shift” of perspective: compared to offline the students and teachers get different roles in an online situation.

Finally we presented four conclusions that are useful for the learning and teaching process:

  1. Optimize engagement through clear instructions and small group activities.
  2. Use inclusive methods for different learning styles and encourage group work.
  3. Discuss with colleagues and ask IT/pedagogue department which good tools exist in order to provide orientation for the students.
  4. Agree on roles and responsibility, keep in mind that the students are resources accepting and using their knowledge of digital tools.

I also have some reflections connected to the interesting lecture by David White and the following PBL discussions.

Concerning White’s lecture it was fascinating to see what ideas some of his young students had about the Internet, illustrations of how they perceive the structure and vast flow of information. Moreover, it was of great value to reflect upon my own online activities, to what extent they are related to professional and private life. I realized that most activities are related to professional life. On the other hand, this means a lot of time because I work more or less 12 hours a day.

When the PBL group6 sessions started, my attitude to online teaching was different from now. I saw it as an abstract environment, hard to adapt to and difficult to handle and develop. But now, after the discussions in the PBL group on topic 1, I see a lot of advantages in online teaching, I feel more comfortable and realize how difficult it is for the students to follow the sessions, especially if the subject is explained in a fast manner. Moreover, to some extent I agree with the informants from the studies by P. Redmond (2011) and Rijst, Baggen & Sjoer (2019). The first one follows two teachers in their “journey” from face-to-face teaching to blended teaching and online teaching. Redmond concludes that the infusion of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) offers opportunities and challenges. The teachers’ different levels of pedagogical and technological knowledge creates a gap which has a severe impact on instructor identity and effectiveness of the teaching. The study also concludes that, according to the teachers, the technical support was important (Redmond 2011). In my case, the learning path has been the same as the informants have followed, but there was not much support when I started the mix of simultaneous face-to-face and online 2010 – 2011. As I remember it, very tense and nervous the first semester.

The other article, by Rijst, Baggen & Sjoer studied several pedagogues in their learning path. These informants pointed out that motivation was the crucial starting point to reach knowledge (2019). I do agree and this was a conclusion in the PBL group as well. The conclusion in the study was that the informants preferred to learn by experimenting and reflecting, not through workshops and practical guides (Rijst, Baggen & Sjoer 2019). In my case, the initial changes from face-to-face to online teaching in 2011 implied a kind of pedagogical loss – but since the complete online teaching is a fact (due to the pandemic restrictions) my motivation has increased a lot and I would like to learn more about online teaching. Furthermore, since this ONL202 course is a mix of experimenting, reflecting, workshops and practical guides I am convinced that it will be useful to all participants.