we are on our way ;o)

together

We completed our first week of MoRe or audio reflections and I have to say that I am impressed by the commitment of participating students. It is a very small group, actually 2 but I think this makes it all more manageable to explore and investigate and support the development of reflective practice. The Programme Leader of a local university has decided to introduce this approach within his Secondary Georgraphy Education Programmes and we are currently implementing it. Really good news!

I was thinking about how I could track and analyse phlog contributions beyond the little tracking booklets that participants (hopefully) complete after each phlog (do you?). Analysing contributions when they are fresh and are coming in, is much better, than waiting to collect them all and then start putting the puzzle pieces together. Also, I feel, if it happens at the end, we might have lost the opportunity for interventions to enhance reflective skills during the project.

So, how am I going to track what is said by participating students? Well, I decided to use the monthly calendar in Outlook. I have printed 2 monthly copies, 1 for each student and have started recording quantitative and some very basic qualitative data which will enable me to see the bigger picture and contract and compare. Also, I have created phlog sheets on which I record characteristics of each phlog entry, which I then will use to provide feedback to both students.

So far I decided to record frequency, length and content. Regarding content I look at what is been said, what are the main characteristics of the content? Are there any emotions? Evidence of reflection in any shape or form? Changes happening in reflections recorded throughout the pilot.

All very paper-based at the moment. But I need to collect the raw data in some way and then make sense of it all and share the findings with participating students and record them in writing in my report.

While I was reading the last phlogs published yesterday morning, I was really happily surprised by the invitation made to me to provide audio feedback on published phlogs within the MoRe space. I was already adding some very basic and general written comments, I have to admit, but am very happy to add audio comments as suggested.

I wasn’t sure if that would be good or not and the main reason why I didn’t think that it would be good, was that I didn’t want to ‘overpower’ the MoRe space and let participating students and their contributions be the focus.

Within this pilot I wanted to explore the peer support model more than a teacher-centred approach and I am going to remind students to listen and comment on each others contributions so that it is not just me providing feedback. Doe this make sense?

That a student asked me to be there on the MoRe space confirms how important it is to create an open dialogue during the learning process to acknowledge progress, achievement, make interventions and assist students in their learning and be supportive throughout. Learning is, or should be, a two-way process after all!!!

The official starting date of the MoRe project is the 1st of February 2010 and we will be together until the 31st of March.

moving

the journey begins

We have made good progress with setting up accounts and are now almost ready to start our MoRe project. It is all very exciting and I am really happy that I found students who are interested and keen to trial this approach. We will all learn from it. Great!

I have to say that the process of setting it all up took much longer than expected, but then again, I was probably too optimistic. However, I am lucky that the project is carried out in a micro-scale and enabled supporting individual participants effectively and smoothly.

The face-to-face workshop didn’t resolve all the issues and it was actually afterwards when the real issues were identified. The whole setting-up process might have seen easy for me, because I had done it before, but it was certainly more complicated for participating students who didn’t use these tools before. I have to admit at some point, I thought, I have overcomplicated it all and that it won’t work. But we are almost there now and ready to roll. We will have the first reflective mp3s next week, which is SUPER!!!

For larger scale projects, I would suggest that additional detailed self-study guides should be made available in printed and electronic version and include animated screen captures as well. I think I made it too hard for everybody. But we are all learning from it. Also, I would, in the future if I would start a similar project, try and use at least an online tool they are already familiar with. I could have introduced for example www.wordpress.com for recording the written reflections at the beginning of their studies. Then everybody would have an account already and would be a bit more familiar with blogging. Never mind! Live and learn.

It was though, or is good, I think, anyway, that everybody is using their own phones. It will be very interesting to discover which phones are used more, mobiles or landline… and why.

One more little detail to sort out with one of the pilots and we can press ‘go’.

string of thoughts…

… presented with www.prezi.com. Click here to access. Feedback would be very welcome. Thank you ;o)

note: embedding the presentation here didn’t work, unfortunately…

workshop No 1 done

It went well, despite the fact that there was confusing about the venue. Sorry about that. But we did it and I am really happy that the pilots are keen and want to get involved. Smaller group than expected, but I know that there are at least 3 more people who have expressed interest. We started late… but we made it.

The biggest issue I can see at the moment is the technology to create the accounts and link us all together. The group blog within wordpress was easy and I was able to connect accounts almost instantly. The challenge was and still is www.ipadio.com. Well, I had done mine but it is more challenging explaining it to others and then there are all the passwords and usernames etc. and people do get confused… I do! I hope I didn’t confuse anybody.

In the end we all managed to set up the www.ipadio.com accounts and only had time to test it using my own ipadio account. It was strange to talk to a phone and then listen to our voices online. But we will get used to it.

During the session I felt that it was important to emphasise on the focus of the project and not the tools. The tools are there to enable what we want to do. However, sometimes it just feels to complicated. I hope we will get over these hurtles together and be able to start.

After the workshop, we will probably have one week of testing and connecting until we all get started. There might be 3 more people joining and I am not sure if there will be time for face-to-face training, which is an issue but I am more than happy to arrange an online elluminate session or communicate with the pilots in any way they are comfortable.

After all testing is completed, the pilots have to post their first mp3 which will contain information about themselves and their relationship with reflection and the reflective journal they have been asked to keep.

definitely freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezing cold

I think my dad was right after all… we are living perhaps toooooooooo close to the North Pole. The whole of the UK is dressed in white. Click here for a stunning picture from space and a few earthy ones around the UK dressed in white.

As cold as the South Pole? … the papers are saying. You know what my mum said, when I told her this evening (she is in sunny Athens)? It is summer at the South Pole now…

… the boys love the snow, you can tell.

15th of January, we have a date!

We are organised and it feels great. The pilots have responded and we are going to meet and discuss details of the project and get started. Super!

The group is growing. So there is definitely interest there to get started. I hope that the pilots will enaged and find the project useful.

MoRe home(s)

MoRe Logo

I changed my mind – typical woman!!!- and have now created a new space for the project. We have a proper name (a logo!!!) and a home now which is available at http://morepilot.wordpress.com

Happy New Year to everybody ;o)

Chrissi

planning face-to-face meeting No. 1

owls

I have started putting the first face-to-face meeting together. This will happen in January 10. Hopefully, I will have the ok from my mpilots soon so that we can get started.

Putting the workshop together was quite challenging, since I discovered that there are loads of things that need to be covered. Is it too much? I think it is manageable but we will need around 3 hours. So, it should be light, fun and hands-on and effective.

I decided to use a powerpoint but spiced up with images and colours. Additional aids and resources will be used as well. I don’t like flat classrooms where learning is offered passively and in which you can’t really measue if learning is happening and to what extend. Learning should be exciting, engaging and fun too. It should increase motivation and the appetite for more learning. This is my goal. If I get the pilots on board of this plane then we will fly together.

So, what I have planned so far for the first workshop.

I fell that I have to introduce the project, the research questions and what my expectations are. Sharing these will help to identify and record expectations by participating students. Then find a match. What will happen and when, how we are going to work, what we have to do, for how long and how we are going to evaluate the pilot. Yes, I am using ‘we’ because I feel that this is a collaborative project and I really would like the pilots to have a voice and participate actively throughout.

We need to explore the tools we are going to use and actually trial them. This will be very important. I would like everybody going away from this meeting and feeling comfortable and confident in using them. No, we are not going to buy new tools, we are going to use tools we already have and tools that are freely available. Yes, this is a non-funded pilot. Actually, I think the fact that it is not funded will hopefully increase sustainability. But we will find out!

The focus of this pilot, which is recording audio reflections on teaching practice, has to be analysed. We ask our students to be reflective and many times we don’t actually explain what reflection is, what it involves and how to do it. We assume they know or will find out. Even if they don’t know, will they learn from their mistakes? Yes, we all learn a lot from our mistakes and these made by others but if I persue this string of thought any further at this moment in time, I feel that we should actually let our students discover for themselves what reflection really can be. Back though to my initial thought. If we don’t give them some hints, the basic characteristics of reflection, how can our students get better at it? How will they know if they are on the right track? Yes, of course, there is formative feedback during the process and this will also be happening throughout the pilot but it will be more in the shape of peer feedback. So, I am going to introduce participating students to reflection during that meeting in a very practical way, in a way it will hopefully make sense to them.

After completing all the above, yes, the pilots will go away and actually complete a task in their own time which does involve using the tools explored during the workshop, on their own. The task is linked to the project and if there are any issues, support will be provided not just for completing this task but all the tasks during the project as well. I would like them to know that the support will be there when needed.

We now have a platform for the project at http://mpilots.wordpress.com – note: this is the old one, see later post for the new space.

What else? I have now come up with a proper name for the project (tried to use Blender to create a 3D logo but am having some difficulties at the moment… unfortunately) A bit too late for a prope name? MoRe as in Mobile Reflection. Sounds good, I like it anyway, it is memorable, and says exactly what it is on the tin. Lets hope that it will go well and we will all learn loads from it ;o)

questions

Yes, more questions, loads of questions, closed questions mainly at this stage, to identify where the starting point is, what tools the mpilots have and can use with confidence and how they feel about blogging in general.

Yes, I am putting a questionnaire together within www.surveymonkey.com (up to 10 questions are free and more would be just too long anyway).

I will have to identify what tools the mpilots have (access to a phone, landline and/or mobile, mp3 player or phone that plays mp3s)and what training is needed that will enable them to use www.wordpress.com and www.ipadio.com and the tools they have for the mobile learning project.

My questions so far

Do you have access to a landline? yes/no
Do you have access to a mobile phone? yes/no
Have you ever accessed a blog? yes/no
Have you ever had your own blog? yes/no
We are going to use www.wordpress.com and www.ipadio.com. Would you require training to use these tools? yes/no
Do you agree with making the content available, including your own contributions, to the public to encourage a wider discussion? yes/no
Can you download mp3 files from the web to a mobile phone or mp3 player? yes/no

What else? Well, I think I need an introduction about the project and some information about what the mpilots hope to get out of it. Yes, we should have project outcomes and shared goals but also personalised outcomes, and personalised goals! I hope the motivation will stay high and we will be able to measure progress, success and achievement at different stages of the pilot.

I am a bit concerned at this stage. One of the mpilots has, sort of, disappeared… and I am wondering if it is just because of festivities or something else. I am really keen to get started with this pilot in January and am currently exploring alternative pilots who would be interested…

The first surveymonkey questionaire is now ready and will be distributed as soon as the mpilots are ready ;o)

Excited!

spider web

While surfing the web (I don’t actually like that phrase) but I am using it, as you can see… I found www.ipadio.com. When you are Greek, like me, it is difficult to pronounce it properly. Padio looks to much like Radio in Greek, which means radio. So, I seem to call it iradio at the moment.

Anyway, while I was surfing in a more focused way… I was looking for an online service that I could use for the mobile learning pilot from January. I know I had mentioned www.gabcast.com before and this was the one I knew. But the problem with gabcast is that you have to purchase units in advance and this could be a problem since the pilot I am running with my pilots (I like to call them pilots!!!), will not be a funded one and I try to remove barriers and keep the cost to a minimum and enable easy participation. Do you know something else? You can actually call an ordinary landline (from a landline, if you wish) and reduce costs further if you have a specific call package such as with www.talktalk.net. Isn’t this great!!!
So, I was excited when I started reading about ipadio at http://www.cellphonesinlearning.com/

I had to try it and setting up and account was fast and painless. Even the first phlog worked without problem. Yes, the option is there to link the phlog to an ordinary blog. Exactly what I wanted. Super!!! Would you like to have a look how it looks like within ipadio? Here it comes. Just click here.

Now, my question is, can the embedded mp3 files be downloaded directly from the wordpress blog (that would be ideal!) or only through ipadio or iTunes? I hope that this is possible to download from wordpress directly or that this option becomes available very soon (before the start of the pilot maybe?) since it would make it supereasy. If the pilots phlog to the blog and then are able to download the mp3s from the same site and use on their phones or mp3 players so that they can listen to the recordings on the go. This definitely would be learning with and from each other on the go. Do I ask for too much?

Trying not to be overexcited… about the possibilities and I hope that the mpilots will feel at least as excited as I am at the moment ;o)