Entering the Great Unknown...

When designing for online and blended learning, it's very important to consider WHO you are designing for and what their MOTIVATION for learning is. The CoI model is a very useful tool for understanding the learner.  Once you can fully grasp the social and cognitive presence, the teaching  - and therefore the designing - becomes easier.  It will be vital when designing content and encouraging discourse. The Teaching Experience is not just one-dimensional.  Therefore, your design should take into account various ways of imparting the knowledge.  You should not assume that all students are the same and that they understand concepts in the same way.  You must consider their different contexts and design your content based on how best they will LEARN. Thought should also be given to the access they have to the various online tools you are going to use and their ability to use these tools. When using a blended approach, it could also be a good idea to incorporate online training on the

Based on my experience in the classroom as a lecturer, I've seen how group work can either yield brilliant results or fail dismally.   What makes the difference in these groups? What is the success or failure based on?  We can site all the varying theories or discuss the different points of view on this topic.  What is comes down to in the end is to what degree (extent) the members in the group agree to WANT to work together. When each member is given a task, then the separate tasks put together to produce the final product, that is group work. But if the group members make the conscious decision to collaborate; to build on each others' ideas and not need the recognition for individual contribution - then it becomes teamwork. Collaboration requires commitment - of resources, time, to the rest of the team and to the process. Collaboration is a process, it requires the member to be OK with not being OK.  They need to be accepting of each others' and their own limitations and

How do you encourage online participation and develop digital literacy when your students do not have access to a computer, no data and cannot understand basic concepts in English (our language of tuition)? In a South African context - specifically the students I have worked with -  this is a very real situation. Paradoxically, however, most have smart phones, social media accounts and post endless selfies. The challenge is how to transfer their digital literacy into the learning platforms.  Ask them to view a music video on YouTube and they're watching within seconds.  But ask them to find videos about a topic covered in the syllabus and suddenly they seem to have forgotten how to use the search function. We assume that our students are automatically digitally literate simply because they are young.  Afterall, these kids were raised with cellphones and the internet. The reality is that we need to still teach our students how to  learn in the digital environment.  They are trained(

Unsure. Insecure. Confused. Even a bit afraid. This is how it feels when starting anything new. Now add technology into the mix and having to share ideas with highly educated individuals and I'm ready to run for the hills. That's how I felt when I started my ONL journey.   It's easier knowing that my feelings were shared by the group. We're just a group of people trying to figure out how to figure it out.  Mixing our ideas and intertwining our thoughts to create something that is bigger than any one of us.  A Strange Crochet, indeed! What I've learnt so far is that it's ok to not have all the answers.  That you learn so much more when you open yourself up to new possibilities...