This week we started discussing design for online and blended learning in our ONL course. This will be interesting! In the book Teaching as a Design Science (Laurillard, 2012), the author talks about teaching and learning, and she raises a number of interesting questions on what it takes to teach and what it basically takes to learn. One of the aspects Laurillard (2012) highlights as an important aspect of learning in her literature is learning through collaboration. When writing about group work and collaboration she writes:
“The group is valuable to each of its members because it makes demands on
them to produce a contribution to the group goal. In the process of doing so
the learner has to construct an idea, explanation, or description. This idea is
then available to the others to challenge or modify, and for the originator to
defend or redevelop. Each member of the group reciprocates the demands and
contributions of the others.” (Laurillard, 2012, p. 189)
Laurillard’s statement rings true for our PBL group in the course. We continuously ask each other to contribute to the group’s common goal, and in that process we all have to add ideas and thoughts on the week’s topic. We then build on from that, and weave a pattern that often results in something very creative. We’re not called Strange Crochet for nothing! 🙂
I am excited about the current topic and look forward to learning from my team members and hopefully adding something in the process. I was lucky to have distance based student groups before the pandemic started, so I had some good examples to build one once all my student groups moved to distance studies. I think I am fairly unafraid of new technological tools, and I am open to suggestions. My biggest concern has been what digital tools I am actually allowed to use at my university, due to GDPR restrictions.
This week I am looking forward to discussing designs for learning, and ideas for online teaching! It will also be interesting to see what other PBL groups come up with in the process.