World Wide Wiser

CCK09 not in the group, for sure in the network; week 3

siavogel — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:33:45 +0000

This week was all about groups and networks. Looking at the readings and other resources, much came back from last year, cck08. I read all the discussions in Moodle, there were many tweets in Twitter, I read a bunch of blogs, but did not participate in discussions. Yesterday-morning at 9 I was waiting for the Elluminate-session of this week. It was a bit dumb because this was in the middle of the night for George and Stephen, and indeed, it was wrong. Nice was to have a little chat in the Elluminate-room with 2 other Dutch-speaking participants (had read my tweet ), Joost Robben and Dieter Blancquaert. In the evening, 21 h our time, I was in a restaurant having a nice dinner. This evening Martin Aasbrenn Bohr @maasbreng on Twitter, started some tweets about the session of last night. He brought me to listen to the session and discus some of what has happened and was said during the session. I had read his weblog. His question was mainly if recording this kind of discussions will make that people stay silent, afraid to make a failure. The language-problem can play a role in this. Last year I once was in a session and felt quit lonely, wrote a post about that feeling, so I can see his point. This year I have not participated very active, but I feel much more comfortably I think because of knowing how this kind of learning works. I smile and enjoy and let go and learn. There is nothing to be ashamed of. I can not tell to any other what Connectivism is, but I have a good image of how I see networked learning, how I can discus groups and networks with my “students” being my colleagues and Master-students. I love it to be learning so much from so many different people. Without cck08 this was never the case I think, so I will encourage everyone to take part in this kind of courses even if it is to difficult to really understand everything said en written. I like the Daily very much, this year again. I should miss it a lot if it was not there every day. And it is a pleasure to read the mails in my iPhone on any time a day when I have some time from-out the Moodle forums. So, it was a good cck09 week for me. I am glad Martin brought me to listen to the session, because that gave me also the courage to write this blog. My Dutch one has to wait till tomorrow. It is 0.30 now and I have to rest a while.

Second week of CCK09

siavogel — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:51:58 +0000

The second week of the course CCK09 is nearly done. I followed all the discussions in Moodle via mail and Twitter. I did not read much. I did not discus anything myself. Still I was enjoying being a participant very much. I miss the Daily, but the other ways to be connected are OK for me this year. It is much easier to see what is happening then last year in CCK08. Discussing what Connectivism is, is not where I am able to. I don’t know enough to do so. For me it is of very great importance to live connected and to learn from so many sources via the Internet. I made an account in the course of Alec Couros. I listened to the Elluminate Sessions of CCK09 and that course. The last ones not life. I was happy to finally has discovered how to understand a PLE. Eduardo Peirano was of great help in that question. Of course there were others with PLE’s, but I can’t work with too much information, so I worked with his example. I am not ready yet, but I think my Google Profile is a sort of Personal Learning Environment also and I will be working on a better and more helpful PLE next week I hope.

This week I was finally back at work for a few hours after almost 3 month of holiday, hospital, rehabilitation. That feels very good. Working-spirit will be strengthened by working in my case. I have to write a program for my part in the Master Learning and Innovating about connected learning, using web 2.0 tools, why, when, which. The students are working in different kinds of education-institutes from school for little children (is that K12?) till Higher Education. Choosing why you should use the tools of this time is thus very various and also is choosing which tools are useful. I loved the video record in learn 4 life about using iPods with children, http://www.l4l.co.uk/?p=835 I saw many other very interesting sites, ideas, and so on coming by and collected them all in a map master-material. Enough to discuss and train to use many many hours! So, I am a happy person, I am going to the good side with my physical condition, will never be all healthy, but can very good live with that for almost 35 years now, thus no problem.

CCK09, I love it to be a participant, but I shall not ever be wise enough to say, that is Connectivism. Still going strong and enjoying learning so much every day.

Start again; cck09

siavogel — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:14:48 +0000

After wintertime I did not use this weblog anymore. After hesitating a while I decided to take the course cck09 and now I am here again. I have very good memories on cck08, but also I have feelings I did not enough with all I learned, namely theoretical. In my work I do very much with all the ideas relating to being connect world wide, but I still find it difficult to explain the theory Connectivism. This time I am more prepared to this phenomenon and I only will enjoy what is coming and not make it to a problem. Listening to the first 2 Elluminate Sessions and reading many of the Introductions let me know that I am not alone in being more practical than theoretic. It’s alright. All philosophers George and Stephen and others are talking about, I am familiar with their names and sometimes a bit with their ideas but not enough to make necessary consumptions about links between them and learning theories. To say what I have learned, like we often asks our students, is always difficult for me and yet I learned very much. I feel good having so many contacts all around the world, I like it very much I learned to work with RSS and I am on Twitter almost every day to share something interesting I read. My colleagues, whom are mainly my students, tell me they learn a lot from me because I give them interesting readings, theoretical ideas, I share all I think all that can be of any value for them. OK, I am not a person developing own theories, but I am 60 now and it is time to accept what I can do and what not. Next week a new Master program, Learning & Innovating, will start at my institute and one asks me to do a program there about using the web and new tools in education. I was very glad with that offer and accept it because I think I have a lot to offer to the students, all grownups working in the field of education. I will start with tell them my place in the world of learning theories and my ideas about being connect and of course I will let them see how enriching it can be to be connected.

Slowly I am coming back in the work-sphere. I received a (second) new hip 5 weeks ago and was busy to rehabilitate this weeks. Had to courage myself to pick up normal life. Starting with cck09 was heavy but a very happy start! And I am glad today was the day I started again with this English blog, the language still difficult however less then last year .

You can find all my web-places here: http://www.google.com/profiles/vogelsia

I enjoy very much my participating in the Flickr-group 365 photos 2009. It makes me look at the world in an other way because every day I have to make a picture and I have to think about what it will be. And being at home several weeks made it necessary to make pictures of small things in house and garden. I can think of using this tool, not every day for a whole year perhaps, in education-situations were students have to discover what is most important in their coming profession or with children to learn to look in an other way to their surroundings.

Well, my first blog in cck09 is a fact!

Christmas Holiday

siavogel — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:37:20 +0000

This was my 33th Christmas holiday while being an educator. The first 20 years I worked 50 a 60 hours per week (with great pleasure!), then gradually reduced to 45, so you don’t have to work in holidays (:-)). Meanwhile, to stand and to carry bags was almost impossible, so I did go on with a special chair to sit – stand in the classroom and to give colleges and a rollator (a walker?) to sit on doing little conversations in the hallway and for wearing my bag. About 5 years I so continued. Although all I was doing was working. No more energy for socializing, entertainment, cooking and so on. Already a number of years, after a gradual reduction, I now work only 12 hours per week. And in all those years, I’ve always worked in holiday periods. I never made a hard difference between work and further daily life and did not mind that the work activities did not stop when the holiday began.

But even all those years my plans for the Christmas holidays to do tasks that are really needed, were not released. This year I again was able to NOT do the work I had planned. But now, since I just work a few hours a week, I have a good social life. I cook (good and with pleasure), I do wine as a hobby, I see what the children do in theater and on TV, and since April 2008 I added a new dimension to my life starting in the project Homo Zappiens. And with doing the course CCK08 I discovered blogging, Twitter, Jaiku, etc. etc. This holiday I was really very busy with work-related things like the Internet, Web 2.0, social media, e-learning and so on. I have, really!, kept my many feeds, I think I have almost daily said something on Twitter, I read documents recommended by others, but I have NOT written the parts I had to, and now still has to, for my work. That ’s not a great problem, because that is of course possible next week too. And work under pressure, I luckely still can. And if your week-task is so little like mine is now, the amount of work is also not very much. From tomorrow it again is business as usual. Holiday over. Going to work with pleasure and do what is expected of me.

Oh yes, where I have used this holiday for: trying out what the iPhone can do, added apps, some useful, some purely for fun as iLava, iSteam, the Wine Guide, Wine & Dine, Free Drinks, BigOven. So work and daily life come together. Without Homo Zappiens and CCK08 I was not started with something like an iPhone! And for the first time in my life I started shooting photo’s and it seems I do well. And now I participate in 365photos, make every day 1 photo and save it in the Flickr Group 365photos http://www.flickr.com/groups/366photos/ .

Life is (despite all the misery in the world and sad things in my own small live) fun. I hope in this year again to enjoy what comes on my path.

Happy Christmas and a very good 2009

siavogel — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:35:58 +0000

My house smells good, I am baking a cake for after dinner tomorrow when the Christmas Eve dinner with the children is nearly done. I have to go shopping for a few things I need. I am working at a school, so the holidays has began yesterday.

On this moment I don’t have enough courage to write about all things I learned this year, especially all things about Connectivism. I need time to recover from hardworking. But I know, there will be a day I can give more insight in what it has done to and with me to be a participant in this great online happening.

I wish all readers all the best for the coming year. I hope it will be possible to stay cyberspace friends with all of you!

Greetings,

Sia

Human Rights

siavogel — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 07:47:47 +0000

No time for writing a blogpost but time for this!!

“Today is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ 60th anniversary.
I believe that Every Human Has Rights! www.everyhumanhasrights.org”.

Maybe there will ever be a time earth is a good place for every citizen. I hope so!!

#cck08 My Final Project, a paper.

siavogel — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 15:28:33 +0000

In this paper I will answer a few questions as they are asked in the wiki cck08 for the final project.

What is the quality of my learning network? Diversity, depth, how connected am I?

I think that I have given a part of an answer in earlier blog posts. I am a member of a learning community Homo Zappiens and this is a group, a place, to learn mainly about how to give an educational answer to the challenges of this time, the internet and all the possibilities for learning it provides. Trough the time I am working and learning in this group, I have chosen to make accounts on many social sites. Some of them I don’t visit often, others more and more since I made connection with participants on the course cck08. Twitter and Facebook are the most used on this moment I think. On Flickr I am a beginner. I never took photo’s till I bought my iPhone about 6 weeks ago. And till now I never made a video or film, so I did not try sites like Seesmic and You tube. My partner bought a camera with witch one filming is possible, so I will try in the coming time.

In the last half year I started two weblogs, one in Dutch and one in English. The English one was especially for cck08, but other people, colleagues, has commented sometimes also. In the course it showed up to be a good place to be “seen” or “heard”. Several other participants read my blog and gave a comment that I liked very much. The Dutch blog is now seen by some my following Twitterers and of course by a few colleagues, though I think too few to be good.

Throughout the course I find many very interesting sites. On this moment my Google Reader is filled every day with more than 200 feeds. Most of them about e-learning, e- technique, education, didactics, pedagogies, media, general science, life hacking, delicious and iPhone J. Weblogs from interesting writers and educators are among them, a lot par the course! I have learned to manage so many feeds in a for me good working way. When not possible to read them all, no time or holidays or so, I just click on Mark all as read and no problem at all. Someone told me that every interesting paper will come again one time and yes, that works!

I am satisfied with how I am connected to networks, people, learning possibilities. It costs a lot of time to hold contact and I don’t know if I can do so intense in the future now the course has stopped. I am not very healthy and the last 12 weeks has cost me a lot of pain and fatigue. No problem I wanted it dearly. But…..

How has this course influence my view of the process of learning?

Years ago, when I was an adult and teacher a long time, I studied Nursing science. It was not possible to end the study because of my condition, but I was nearly at the end, did not make a dissertation. I learned much about studying theories, but during this course I discovered that not being trained as a scientist is not easy to do a course like this. Nevertheless I had a lot of experience as a teacher and innovator, so I knew a lot about learning theories, pedagogic and didactics. Before starting this course I never had read or heard about Connectivism. I had not thought a lot about all consequences of a new way of learning though I had made a very flexible and measured e-learning course before (see other blog post) . So on this moment I think I am more conscious about the way education shall and have to change. I also think it will take a lot of time to do so. But changes are already happening here in The Netherlands. Not enough, not on a large scale, not fast enough perhaps, but coming.

What types of questions are still outstanding?

No real answer on this question. There are always many questions about learning and teaching. The most important quality of a teacher is to inspire and motivate the learner what, how- and wherever he or she is learning. Not the circumstances in itself are making that to learn gives a good feeling. However, new times need new methods, and they will rice new problems and new questions.

How can I incorporate connectivist principles in my design and delivery of learning?

It’s funny, though I have learned very much throughout this course, I think I was a connectivist all the time J. My way of living and my way of teaching has always been based on connections and to be connected to others. New is the full blown connection par the internet now. My work is to teach the teachers working in my institute Hogeschool Rotterdam. During my last years of professional teaching, I am 59 now, I surely I will use my knowledge of connectivism in every contact there is. I do so already and it will go on. I cannot change my whole institute but I can inspire the few people I see to discover what is going on in teachers-land and make translations for their curriculums and their students. In January 2009 there will be a decision to start a new Learning Community for learning to design new courses using the possibilities of the internet and the world wide web, a community like Homo Zappiens is now. I will be involved in that decision and the program. That is a great moment to incorporate my new knowledge about connectivism!

At last.

Again I will thank George Siemens and Stephen Downes very much for this opportunity to study in such a fascinating and inspiring way with so many people from all over the world. Also thanks to all participants from whom I learned so much. I am glad it is done (because of my condition, I need more rest J), but I also will miss it very much!

IT WAS GREAT.

#cck08 Opportunities and resistance Paper 3.

siavogel — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:39:09 +0000

In The Netherlands, a small country, happens quiet a lot about e-learning I think. There are special organizations like SURF, see my last post, and Kennisbank http://www.hbo-kennisbank.nl/nl/page/page.view/hbo_about.page (Knowledge-bank), there are many edubloggers. On the other hand there are very much lecturers, teachers, educators who have never heart of the concept Web 2.0 or never thought about using the Internet as a source for learning. On a small scale there are experiments, curricula on measure, flexible and distance oriented curricula. From April 2008 till April 2009 I am in a Project, Learning community, Homo Zappiens ( http://www.innovatiefonderwijs.net/ ) with 12 other teachers to develop education, each for their own group of students, larger or smaller, using at least one tool of the new possibilities of the Internet. One colleague has asked students to write e new book for the course he gives because there was not a very good book in Dutch to use. All students, 70, have written a part on a Wiki and at the end of the course there is a begin of a book what can be used and made better by next student-groups next year. Another colleague has made a NING-site to work with students on a program The Digital Quarter, a minor for students in the last year of the study. A colleague, teacher of student-teachers of mathematics, has done two pilots using NING en Wiki. My own work is to make courses for teachers about the new possibilities and about new concepts, ideas, about learning and didactics. A small workshop only to tell about what Web 2.0 means and what is to use there, a more substantial part of the course Basis Didactics. Workshops and courses on demand. All in my own language of course. But all this is for this moment just happening with a small group of teachers who are very interested in the Internet. A huge problem is that the people of the technical service are afraid for the use of all sorts of open source tools because of contamination with viruses and other problems in the school-system. There is a LMS with a reasonable amount of possibilities, so please use our LMS. But, happily there are teachers who still try other ways. Looking at a greater scale, I was involved earlier by making a curriculum for teachers in nursing which was complete made in the way George Siemens has described in this presentation http://elearnspace.org/Articles/systemic_impact.htm on page10, a model in which the grown-up students could choice how much guidance they wanted to reach the competences of the teacher in nursing. It was great to see the differences between these students and how some struggled with to be self responsible for their own learning. This was a program for up to three years and there were not much students at the same time. They could come to school if they had to talk with each-other or with a teacher and they learnt their profession by doing it in the real situation and seeking theory when necessary. This was about five years ago. Nowadays it is a bit less free and there are no other courses made in this way. It is to difficult for the school-system to support this kind of organise a course. And that is to bad. I have seen that most of this students were very happy with this system after a shorter or longer time and they really learned what they needed just in time. So I think it will come, but it will take a long time before school-systems are able to accept as we did then. It is good to listen to the technicals because I don’t believe in development with only struggling and arguing with each-other. I hope it will be possible to use more and more new tools within the system and after that it will be possible to made more education personal for each student. I am involved in thinking about learning since I was 26 and now I am 59. A lot has happened in all these years. I am sure that this will go on and after I am gone education will be very different from what I see now. Changes do come slowly, but they always come! Courses like Connectivism and Connective Knowledge will be helpful.

#CCK08 Changing roles of educators, my second paper?

siavogel — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:39:10 +0000

Two weeks ago I wrote my last post on this weblog. In the meantime I did not do very much work for cck08. I read the posts in Moodle in my mailbox, I did some posting in Facebook and on Twitter, but I lost my being connected a bit. Last Friday I was in the Ustreamsession and that was good. Now I will try to write a piece about the changing role of educators, a second paper?

This week I was on a congress in The Netherlands about e-learning, http://owd2008.surf.nl/owd2008/. A lot of the presentations are on Slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/owd2008, but most of them are in Dutch. Still I want to share my experiences with readers of this blog. An impressing presentation was this one by Elenna Dugundji http://mediasite.uva.nl/mediasite/Viewer/Viewers/Viewer320TL.aspx?mode=Default&peid=6618b7b1-3b51-4c57-807b-90fcbf54b859&playerType=WM7&mode=Default&shouldResize=true&pid=60d0900e-b61e-495d-8e40-63c849b6e32f&playerType=WM7# . This was at an other place, but it was the same presentation. For me it was very nice to see how in Holland they also are working on international online education, however it was totally different from the course Connectivism. There was a question about why should you do all the efforts and the answer of Elenna was: because it is important to share as much as you can with as many people as possible. I liked that very much. I think it says something about the new, the changing role, of educators.

I also visited a presentation of Gill Ferrel of JISC http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/

http://www.slideshare.net/OWD2008/herding-cats-innovation-and-control-in-higher-education-gill-ferrell-presentation/ She is a very charming lady with a lot of humor. After a lot of graphs about learning-places and the influence on having respect to environment, she told about a system for scenario-planning because it is necessary to look to the future in an other way than we are used to till now. http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/tools/scenario-planning

http://humedia.ning.com/ This is a NING page at the School for Journalism in Utrecht. In Dutch, but it gives a sight on how Job Twisk is working on being an educator in a new way, because he thought the school was loosing students interest because of not reaching them in a way they liked and find recognisable.

The most pleasant and most interesting session was from Wilfred Rubens. He used several techniques to make contact with people outside the room. His conclusion is that education should be personalized and that ICT is necessary to do so. An totally other way of being an educator in the near future.

http://wilfredrubens.typepad.com/wilfred_rubens_weblog/2008/11/owd-2008-mijn-sessie.html

http://wilfredrubens.typepad.com/wilfred_rubens_weblog/2008/11/owd-2008-de-niet-bestaande-net-generatie-en-de-gevolgen-voor-onderwijs.html

A comment on this presentation says that this is a very old idea and that in his book-cabinet Carl Rogers still is an important person on the shelve! In Dutch on my bookshelf Leren in Vrijheid. “To learn in freedom” I think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student-centered_learning

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rogers

In my own work I have to make courses for the educators on using new web possibilities, web 2.0, the Internet as a friend instead as an enemy, how to use RSS, wiki, NING and so on. On the congress I used Twitter very much with the tag #owd2008. For me this was an experiment. I did use Twitter a bit before, but most of the time I felt a bit ridiculous doing so. And now it was suddenly a fine way to tell my colleagues what was happening. And I had contact with all the other Edubloggers and Twitterers also face-to-face while I did not know them before. That was a great experience. I felt belonging and therefor a very happy learner.

Being connected is I think very important for being able to learn. Feeling welcome and belonging are very helpful to be open to what others have to tell and what for you can be of great importance for live, work, happiness. I still don’t know if Connectivism is a theory, but for being an educator now a days it is very important to use all possibilities to be connected and using the Internet with all beautiful sites is for sure a way I want to continue.

If this is a real paper 2, no, I don’t think so. It is not very theoretical. But I am glad I made it and I am in the course again.

CCK08 My power used for not being there.

siavogel — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:36:49 +0000

There where a few reactions on my last blog-post. I liked that very much and it seems a sign that feeling a bit lonely was not only my problem. Because of the subject, loneliness at a life session, it seems a bit odd that I was not in the Elluminate Session on Wednesday and not in the Ustream Session on Friday this week. But really…, both happened only by to much other things to do. Wednesday my brother and sister in law asked me to have dinner with them in a Japanese restaurant and I said YES. And Friday an old friend was in my house visiting us and I had to cook and had really no time for the session. My not being there also had nothing to do with the mail, the moodle-message, from Stephen! I liked that very much and read all, I said ALL, the responses in my mailbox and often laughed in myself.

Just a few moments ago I listened and looked to the session of Friday. Namely in the chat-room was a discussion about people having left the course because of the message of Stephen. If so, I think they were not very attracted to this course before also. If they only left because of the Stephen-message this is something I cannot understand very well. But for me, no problem, do as you like, choice your own way.

I am still here! But I do have a problem. I want to write a proper second paper, but I think it will cost me a lot of time and I will find it very difficult. Of course I have my Personal Control. I can do it, I can not do it. I read almost every letter that was recommended by the course-organisers. I thought a lot about what my knowledge was and is now about learning-theories. But to write a good paper, not again one for a C- ( :-)), will not be easy. I still can not say in my own words in my second language what Connectivism is and means to me. Or, may be I could if I took a lot of time and energy to do so. Well, I am still here! I will read and listen further. I still do like it very much to be a participant in this course. I’m a happy student! And, who knows, I will try to give words to my learning in a second paper in the following week. The C- is not the real problem, that’s OK when I deserve it, but to do what is asked in the scheme, that’s the problem on this moment. Well, we’ll see.