Open Networked Learning - Sara Ihlman

1. I feel like a digital resident, and I think of the online sphere as a world in it's own, in which I live as much as the real world. I think of social media for example as communities in a very tangible way, like places I visit. 2. Creating a sense of community is harder than it seems. For me personally, I initially felt intimidated in the zoom room and preferred not to speak as much. I think it might have been because I missed the first week, and hence probably missed parts of the "getting to know each other"-activities. Some people in the group were more comfortable with taking their space, which meant they also used that space and spoke more than others. I also believe Garrisons words are relevant:  "A face to face environment can have a dampening effect on critical discourse and create an environment of "pathological politeness".  3. When planning courses it's important to sift through the intended activities and choose only the most importa...

In my line of work, as an e-learning designer in the corporate world, I seldom get the opportunity to teach in the more traditional context. What I do is mostly creating a product for people to learn from on their own, without the help of a teacher. I do however have an agreement for cooperation with a company which wants me to produce a blended learning course in the next few months, and chances are I will also be facilitating the online meetings for them and possibly teach some during the IRL sessions. Topic 4 gave me inspiration and highlighted a few things that I will make sure to incorporate in my course. One of the ideas behind the course that the company wants me to make a blended learning version of, is to create a community. When the participants have passed the examination and gets their certificate, they also get access to this community. This means that a learning network is already in place once they are ready - but I as a course producer and facilitator also have to est...

In Creating Effective Collaborative Learning Groups in an Online Environment the authors mention the theory of connectivism proposed by Siemens in 2005. This perspective describes my own learning experience for the last ten years perfectly. Let me explain why: As mentioned in my previous posts, I’ve been a teacher for 17 years and during that time I’ve spent a lot of time online. In the beginning it was mostly about making my work available for students and their parents, but as social media platforms like Facebook gained in popularity I began using them to find other teachers that I could learn from. Some of them were not even aware that they were part of my personal learning environment, and some of them I’ve even met in person. The thing that has been most fruitful in terms of personal learning network for me has been facebook groups. I join groups that are focusing on the topics I want to learn more about or discuss, and in there I can share my thoughts and ideas and get inspire...

In my practice as a teacher I wanted to have as much of my material in open spaces as possible. That was party because I wanted my students and their parents to be able to take part of it anytime and anywhere, but also because I wanted other teachers to be able to use my material if they wanted. As teachers we tend to invent the wheel over and over again, and I know first-hand how much easier your job gets when you can get inspired by how others have done, or just plain use someone else’s material. By sharing my work it became part of other teachers’ personal learning environment and I became part of their personal learning network, as Kay Oddone puts it in her blog post about PNE PLN, LMS and ONL. Funnily enough, this has led to my children sometimes hearing my voice on their iPad when doing homework by watching a video their teachers assigned. Universities are opening up course after course, and people are taking them! As Martin Weller states in chapter 1 in The Battle for Open...