Posts This movie is my post to the Australian Library and Information Association’s Sydney blog for 17 June 2011.
I talk about what I think online learning would look like if the Spirit of Ranganathan waved his magic wand and made it work. I start with what I think we aim to do when we teach information professionals at university, and then look at what online learning could do to reach those goals. What would good online LIS education look like?
On my wishlist is:
- teachers using online video
- easy to use self-managed online content management systems for those who know how
- more remote involvement by people with international and professional expertise
- more self-marking exercises
- better peer-marking systems
- easier ways for students to share their discoveries with each other
- automatic assessment metrics (like Google analytics for course material usage).
I also wish for more opportunities for face to face contact among online students in ways that promote genuine social learning, rather than fake conversations for assessment purposes.
During the movie, I mention some specific resources.
- Chris Anderson talking about the revolution in communications brought on by video: http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_anderson_how_web_video_powers_global_innovation.html
- Kate Davis using WordPress in LIS education: http://virtuallyalibrarian.com/2011/06/09/the-social-classroom-presentation-on-teaching-in-social-media-spaces/
- Michael Stephens and Kenley Neufeld using WordPress in LIS education: http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2011/05/buddypress-libraries-and-higher-education-an-interview-with-kenley-neufeld-and-michael-
- Australian Teaching and Learning Council “Re-conceptualising and re-positioning Australian library and information science education for the twenty-first century” project site: http://www.liseducation.org.au/
I think you touched on all the key issues. I wanted to return to university as a mature age student and tossed up whether to do a course remotely or on campus. I decided on campus learning because the networking and face to face discussion is important to me. However, I had a minimum of 3 hours travel each day which is a big time impost when you are studying full-time and being a parent and doing casual work.
Generally I don’t like watching videos and watching tv can be like a chore for me. While watching your video I was gauging my response to it. I found your video engaging despite the fact that it was a talking head – there were no other images to engage our attention. So why did I enjoy watching your video? I think it was because you are talked like you were in a personal conversation with the viewer. This is quite a skill, perhaps a talent, which few people have. Is it a skill that can be learned? Are all people naturally good presenters in front of the camera? I think that it can be taught to some extent but without natural ability there is definitely a limit to what some people would be able to do.
Your point about introducing yourself as a person in an online teaching environment is a good one. It is important for your students to get to know you as a person. I would imagine that if this happens the students will become more engaged in their learning and their online contributions to discussion. Just as when you phone someone you need to start by introducing yourself, even if you are well known to the person who is answering the call, the educator and students need to introduce themselves properly online.
But I don’t think that video is necessarily the only good way of introducing personality online. It is also possible to do this via audio and writing. A blog can be an effective way of helping people online get to know you. Each person has a different preferred way of communicating and different abilities in different mediums. Ideally an educator should use all mediums so that students can experience learning in their preferred medium. However, a poor performance on video would be a real turn off to students. In this case it would be best for the educator not to do the video, or get someone else to do a video presentation, and concentrate on other forms of online delivery.
Regarding face to face get togethers: I am thinking of how far away online students might be from Perth. One way to handle this may be for the educator to visit regions where there are clusters of students, rather than asking students to travel to the educator. It is a tough issue because as soon as you introduce a requirement for face to face sessions the cost to students increases substantially. Skype is definitely an option but there is nothing like spending a substantial amount of time, both structured and unstructured, with people face to face.
Thankyou for this post.
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