Monday, August 30, 2010

Behind the 8 ball


Not being a "natural" blogger I am way behind with keeping this up to date. Sometime ago we were asked which two ELGs suited our context. The two most relevant for me right now as I start to plan my Needs Assessment project are
SO 8 Do students get guidance on study skills for the e-learning environment?
TD 10 Is good e-learning practice available to staff in a way they can adopt and adapt their own work?
Milne,J., & Dimock ,e. (2006). eLearning Guidelines. Guidelines for the support of e-learning in New Zealand Retrieved 1 August, 2010, from http://elg.massey.ac.nz/Guidelines
We are in the learning design phase of our re-development of the L4 Certificate in Social Services and it is clear that we are responding to a mandate handed on to us to ensure that there is 20% elearning in our courses. It feels a bit like "cart before the horse" as we are up against a time pressure to get the blended courses written in readiness for delivery in Semester 1 2011.
I think it is imperative to do a Needs analysis around the digital literacy levels of our students and more particularly our staff. There is a sense of crash course learning for our staff with little time being made available for the necessary PD. The willingness is there but the usual time constraints are upon us as we juggle aleady full teaching loads with course development.
There has been discussion in the blogs and discussion emails around this time pressure. There is the mandate to update our digital literacy skills, the willingness to comply but very little understanding of whatis really required in terms of time. And I feel a certain pressure to come up with the goods and guide the others as I am up to my 3rd paper in this Grad Cert. I am only the edge of a fingernail ahead of the others but I do have enthusiasm and willingness to learn.
I read a paper about learning in the 21st Century and the thing that stuck in my mind is that students still need to know the 3 Rs but they need to know the 3 Fs of learning moreso than ever now that we have moved away from the "sage on the stage" concept. The 3 Fs regarding information are Find, Filter and Focus. Critical skills for all of our students if they are to safely drive on the information highway.
So all of this is a preamble to me saying that I can see a need to sort out what range of digital literacy is required for our students and our staff and how can we ensure that we are providing them with the relevant tools to succesfully achieve on our CSS.

5 comments:

  1. '3 Fs regarding information are Find, Filter and Focus.'
    I like this Misha. I have avoided this year doing Internet research with the classes I work with because they can't do the 3Fs maybe I should do it for the last term.
    Back to your situation how easy is it to do 20%? I always find when given a figure mandate it affects the drive of the staff. Keeping playing 8 ball.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Misha you might feel behind the 8 ball, but your post makes it seem like you have been doing this blogging lark for a while. The guidelines you have chosen are very appropriate for the situation you describe. Being a "fingernail ahead" must be excruciating - hanging off the cliff alone and wondering if anyone is going to come and save you.

    Ah the old adage "time" - there is never enough and staff are always concerned with what is priority - generally their up-skilling gets left til last. Whys is course development always seen as "the thing you do" on top of everything else - then the word quality gets rolled out as an after thought. Haarumph! It makes me grumpy too!

    You plan to do "a Needs analysis around the digital literacy levels of our students and more particularly our staff" is an excellent choice. I like the 3 Fs! You may be interested in some research I have recently completed with Oriel and others on Digital Information Literacy capability- staff and students. See: Digital Information Literacy: Supported Development of Capability in Tertiary Environments.

    We showed that time to play was essential for supporting people to develop confidence in using a range of digital technologies in our information rich world.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Misha

    Blogging should be about you and what works for you! It's not how often or how much it's what you get out of it that's of most value.

    You discuss and interesting scenario in your post that you are 'responding to a mandate handed on to us to ensure that there is 20% elearning in our courses'. Those sorts of mandates by 'the powers that be' really scare me. I feel it shows a lack of understanding about what works for learners.

    I have faced a similar mandate where eLearning was deemed tobe the most appropriae way to reach learners all the time. This decision was made with absolutely no consultation with learning professionals and based on time saving and money saving also.

    I find it increasingly difficult to help people understand learning when they are focused on profit and operational excellence. These two things don't allow a lot of room for the individuality that we all know is central to learning.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Likewise Alex our organisation mandates for flexible learning and Learner-centred approaches, but in reality the "blended" model offers what the organisation sees is cost-effective,that is less face-to-face and more online self-directed learning, not what necessarily suits the learners.

    With the changes to the tertiary funding model, the learners will have even less influence on how they learn because competition to get a place will over-rule the student voice.

    How do both of you see evaluation playing a part in this scenario?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I fear a return to the old student/acadmic elitest days when I was trying to pick a career. I really wanted to be a teacher but the "you are so lucky to get accepted into uni" was the norm and my grades were never good enough. I really like the adaptable nature our tertiary institutions have adopted in recent years - I am not sure if I could have coped with the ye olde faculty "we are hear to teach you so you had better listen or else we will give your spot to someone else"!

    ReplyDelete