As teachers we should all realise that Learning cannot be tracked on a straight line , continually rising, and going forward. Would be nice.. but in reality can’t happen.
Learning is usually done in leaps and bounds, with moments of plateauing along the way. Beginning to Learn online is the same.
It’s full of moments of pure enthusiasm, where you get stuck in and power forward. And then there are moments where you are overwhelmed and practically frozen in your self doubt! Not a comfortable place to be !!
One of the biggest challenges I feel comes about when you are still thinking of yourself as part of a ‘Competitive’ learning group, rather than a ‘Cooperative one’.
Learning Online is all about becoming part of a Community of Practice that supports and encourages you . To get the most out of it, you need to become a part of it, contributing when you can. Not everyone of us is an expert on every thing! Even our Lecturer is learning as we go along. Our goal should be for everyone to emerge at the end of the course having helped others to learn, as well as learning themselves.
A well structured unit , (created and monitored by the lecturer/e-moderator)) , enables this to happen.. The encouragement of participation by all…leads to Learning by all..
This transformation of our thoughts from ‘Competitiveness’ to ‘Cooperativeness’, is a challenge …but if you can switch your thinking..it’ll make a world of difference to how you approach your learning journey.
An ‘Aha moment’ is all about when suddenly something becomes clear to you.. and this can allow you to take that leap forward to another level of understanding.
Some of my personal ‘Aha” moments during my Online learning have been..
- this is not a journey taken alone.
- I am capable of using technology in a way I never thought possible.
Both of these realisations I can now transfer to the students in a classroom in the following ways.
- a students learning journey shouldn’t be seen as a solo one.
- using new technologies allows students to connect and learn in amazing ways.
Thank you to our lecturer, e-moderator Adam Staples for the way he has drawn us all together as part of this unit, and made it more than just completing the course and getting a grade. Creating a Community is pretty amazing!!
Image taken from:
A Shared Learning Space 
My biggest aha moment was realising I was sitting in the liminal space way too long and needed to get a wriggle on.
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