Text and speech

First notes- interviews with graduates from a fully online work-focused BA

Personalisation - All modules are designed to enable students in a wide range of employment contexts to personalise their study focus in order to identify and achieve professional development targets and demonstrate progression of academic skills.

Research - each module involves the application of research strategies in small scale projects to enhance individual professional practice and contribute to organisational learning.

Digital competence - students explore communications technologies and the effective use of technologies relevant to their current work role and to their career aspirations.

Interviews were conducted using Schutze's narrative interview method. Audio recordings were listened to then transcribed by reducing the speed by 30% to match my typing speed. Audio recordings of Skype or Phone interviews were captured using Audacity, these were saved using a participant code; P1, P2, etc. Each was listened to at normal speed then transcribed by slowing the playback to match my typing speed. Immersion in data has proved valuable in my past research, at this point I had immersed myself in the interview three times. The transcript was typed on a plain text page, in order to analyse it i reduced it to smaller chunks and pasted each into subsequent cells in the first column of a spreadsheet. This was the first stage deconstruction, the breaking down of the narrative into meaningful discrete units in oder to manage the analysis.

The next step on my spreadsheet was to add emphasis markers. Additions such as [conviction], [questioning self] or [tentative] indicate the nature of the words as indicated by tone of voice. Adding this layer involved a detailed listen to the recording, this time with lots of pausing and rewinding to check emphasis or meaning. My perception of each narrative became increasingly detailed as it was broken down into to little chunks of a few sentences.

Using a spreadsheet is a logical way of dealing with a complex narrative. Having examined the transcripts in this way I felt I had become over occupied with detail and needed to view the data in a different way.  I now wanted to be a removed and immersed listener to the whole story of the narrative. To listen to it in the same way I would a radio play. Sea kayaking from point to point on open sea can involve hours of rhythmic repetitive movement with very little distraction, in gentle sea conditions it is immensely calming and meditative and promotes a great state of mind for reflection. I transferred two interview recordings to my phone, put it in a waterproof phone case put my headphones on and set off for a gentle sea kayak trip with a GoPro mounted on deck so I could shout out any notes I wanted to make. 

Listening to students talking in this way did help me at least feel like I was more able to mentally step inside their skin and walk around in their existence as promoted by Harper Lee via Atticus. P4 opens by discussing why she chose the course, it is immediately apparent that the phrase: 'family comes first' was a high level governing factor and that when this participant was looking for a course she was looking for a 'manageable course’ in order to achieve hear family first ideal. Analysis of the whole transcript via spreadsheet shows that for this participant the underlying affective driver remained 'family first'. Listening to the whole of the narrative while kayaking it clear that in every instance P4 considers the manageability of the experience. Literature based research and use of technologies is not perceived as relavant to career needs so there was no attempt to excel in these areas but there was care to ensure an adequate pass. The participant had set clear parameters in order to fit study to life without significantly compromising the life experience for those around her. Her strategy for achieving this was to create a detailed individual learning plan and to modify it regularly to track progression. The more detail she put into the ILP the more useful it became and the more confident she felt in respect of her ability to be flexible. 

Social media and CPD

I was invited to spend a few months working on the #LTHEchat organising team early in Spring this year, if you have not yet joined one of the Wednesday evening chats you might find this information about the project useful.

Once fairly sceptical about the value of Twitter chats the experience has had an increasing impact on me during and beyond my time on the organising team. I don't really feel like I left I still feel part of the project team and I think that is partly due to the open and warm attitude of Sue and Chrissi who have been making this happen but do not take ownership in the traditional way - it is a thing that runs and runs with a different organising team every few months with minimal management by Sue and Chrissi who are keen to see it sustain but also keen to let others evolve it during their time at the helm - a great example of distributing and sharing ownership.

Some of the organising team, past and present, have been working on a short paper for the #SocMedHE16 The Empowered Learner? Conference on16th December 2016. We are due to have a Skype meeting this afternoon to discuss the peer review revisions and make some progress on revising the paper by collaborative writing in Google docs hence I woke in reflective mode this morning and need to put my thoughts down on e-paper to bring some coherence to them.

#LTHEchat has undeniably extended my professional network, one example of that is new contact between myself and Martina we were both in the 08 June LTHE chat which was on open CPD  The Storify of that chat can be found here. Martina read my latest ramblings on my blog and suggested we meet to discuss our research ideas. I had read Martina's profile and was contemplating making contact when she suggested this - we planned to meet in Skype and had a fascinating discussion about approaches to learning, in particular Deleuze and rhizomatic learning. Our  meeting prompted me to rethink about the nature of CPD - a question that is at the heart of the paper we are working on.

 I put this question to Martina in Skype this morning - 'Are we doing networking, are we doing autonomous CPD, are we disseminating and evaluating our research ideas - are we doing all three?'.

In my opinion CPD does not need to be a formal 'training', 'conference' or 'seminar' type event, it can be any opportunity to learn new information or to gain insights into others ideas that are of value to my professional practice and research activity. Twitter is currently my most important portal to CPD opportunities.

There is plenty of evidence that participants value the LTHE chat but in Twitter the limited characters are also a limit on how much info people feedback.

 Unless you use Twitter a lot the tiny micro snippets of participation can seem a bit limiting but that can also be stimulating too - gathering feedback via questionnaires is notorious for low returns, the task can be onerous whereas a quick tweet takes only moments to do.

When I first started using Twitter I was not impressed, aware of the need to immerse in, and play with, new things before value becomes clear I persevered but it was not until I had sent around 700 tweets / retweets that it really started to feel like a homey and valuable experience. Tweets do limit what can be said, OK you can link a series of Tweets to build a paragraph of contribution but it is still a set of bytes of info. The micro nature of contributions are also empowering as they force succinct and concise conversations, I now find that most times I rattle off a Tweet I am within a few characters of the limit by the time I have said what I want to say. I am looking forward to the day when Twitter start excluding links and images from the character count though as that does currently reduce some tweets to just a few words.

I had participated in a few chats, such as the #Edenchat prior to joining the LTHE organising team  but mostly as what Wenger called a 'lurker' or legitimate peripheral participant'. The micro contributions tend to prompt a rapid fire discussion, can be hard to keep up with and often require an intuitive interpretation of input in a way that sometimes feels not unlike when I was learning Spanish and to gain the fuller meaning had to fill in beyond the few words of each sentence that I could decode in a f2f conversation. If I pause to think about and write a contribution 30 or more posts can be added by time my two-penneth makes it to the chat but the Storify is always available afterwards so I can catch up later.

 I can see how it could be difficult convincing a peer reviewer who is not a Tweeter that such comments as the one from David above are sufficient endorsement of the value of what we do but to a Twitter user that kind of post is a strong endorsement.

This post has focused mostly on Twitter but my reason for writing it was also to help me understand why I blog - who am I writing for? My first attempt at blogging was way back when WordPress was first released when Stephen Powell and Pete Bradshaw and I had a little play with the new thing that was interesting but did not go far. My second and third blogs were about my transition to living in Galicia and that made more sense to me - it was a record of a period in my family's history.

This blog was started as a reflective research journal, I had attempted to create an offline private to me research journal long ago but never managed to sustain it. Myself as audience did not seem of much value, after all research has little value unless shared. Some of my posts have been directly addressed to my students so its purpose evolved but they were still also me articulating things I had found out through inquiry based practice. I have not looked too far into my audience but do notice spikes where usually around 60-120 hits across America or Europe or the far East happen in maybe 30 minutes which suggests people somewhere are pointing students at it. That initially tempted me to develop it for an audience but I decided to keep it as a research journal so I would not lose sight of my aims. As such I feel free to ramble my thoughts as I am doing in this post, that helps me consolidate them without feeling I need to formalise structure as for a journal article.

The first online community I belonged to was the OU PGCE course back in 1996 which was a closed community, then I joined Leonie Ramondt's 'Online Learning Network' community which was her MPhil research focus. That led to an invite to join the Ultralab where most of my first forays into designing and facilitating online community work was in closed communities. The diagram below is from a recent presentation about the Talking Heads / NPQH project run by The Ultralab for the National College of School Leadership. A double click on the next two images should open them in original and sharp size.

CPD for existing and new headteachers was at the heart of that project which was way back 2001/2 when open social media was not a big thing. The importance of knowing the audience was felt to be high at that time partly to give users confidence to contribute and also as protection when potentially sensitive info might be discussed. The CPD communities were carefully structured and facilitated.

That was so different to the open CPD that social media provides via blogs, Tweets, video talks, live streams etc. One of the threads in the LTHEchat on open CPD shows the value of closed is still appreciated. A few posts are shown below the whole can be seen in the Storify linked earlier on this page. There were more than a few posts about the positive aspects of open although only one is shown here.

The last one by Martina is exactly what we found in the Talking heads project and in several other Ultralab projects such as the British Thoracic society SpRIte project, the notschool project and the Ultraversity project although the latter does draw on both closed and open communities of practice. 

So back to what to do to respond to the peer review on our paper proposal. IMO we need a more systematic approach such as an analysis with an a priori coding being applied to understand the chat process and what participants get out of it or we could use a process where chat organisers reflect on their own experiences and then we systematically analyse those reflections. In both approaches the use of theoretical deduction to understand empirical data and derive some themes that could be illustrated by tweet chat extracts in the paper would add rigour to out proposal. I also suggest an extract of a video screen capture of a live chat as a means of conveying the experience to the conference audience.

Time to stop rambling, I have to get on with teaching. Even though there is no conclusion to pull this together yet I feel I am more prepared for inputting ideas into the paper proposal.

Comments from BA LTR students on the impact of the course

Below are a selection of comments about the impact of their study provided by students during the BA LTR course and after graduation. References to 'Ultraversity' derive from the course having been part of the Ultralab based 'Ultraversity research project' when it was first launched. Many students referred to the course as Ultraversity rather than by its title. 

References to 'dissemination' and 'exhibition' relate to our final year where rather than a student's dissertation being marked and forgotten we ask students to disseminate the findings of their major project research to a workplace based audience and gather critical feedback to construct an impact study. This aspect was in part what prompted the course to be described as a PhD for undergraduates it is also an element that makes the workplace sit up and take notice of the student and has lead to internal promotion for many students.

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BA LTR is an excellent course.  Ian always makes time when needed. Understands issues faced. Knows the topics inside out. Encourages and inspires: nothing is impossible. He has encouraged and supported me to become an independent learner. This has developed life long skills that will benefit me in all areas of my life. I am very grateful that he believed in me as a person and as a student pushing me to achieve beyond what I believed I could do. 

Sue

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Hi Ian,

I’m sorry that you were unable to make it to the graduation, hope you’re ok. I was really looking forward to meeting you and wanted to thank you in person for the great support that you gave me over the past few years. I learned so much from you and will always be grateful for your help advice and advice.

It was great day, really enjoyed it and felt very proud to have graduated. I’m the very first in my family to achieved a degree; I’m one of seven kids and none of my siblings have been to university! But now one of my sisters has become inspired by my success and is starting an access course, I’m hoping others will follow suit, it really is never too late!

I’ve attached a couple photos, I see they’ve named a building after you J

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Julie Wren, Business Operations Team Leader in FHSCE achieved a first and says:
 “I loved this degree, after I took time out to have children I found that technology had dramatically improved and my skills needed updating. Although I attended many professional development courses, nothing improved my ability and mettle more than the BALTR degree. This degree enabled me to critically evaluate my role and practices in the workplace and gave me the confidence and skills to apply for and be successful in my current managerial role. I couldn’t have done that without being inspired by the degree course team and my fellow undergraduate researchers, many of whom are now firm friends for life.”

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"It was a long-term aim of mine to achieve a degree but there was no way I could afford to give up my job and go and study for 3 years full time. So when the flyer fell on the staff-room table, it was really you know the answer for me. It was the right route."

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"I was promoted to deputy manager - because of the knowledge gained from the course I am now managing the schools professional development system and the strategic response to Ofsted."

Sarah (Teaching assistant, promoted in year 2 of study).

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"I felt that the Ultraversity programme was ideally suited to me because I run my own business and therefore I was able to tailor the work to not only benefit myself but also to target specific areas of my organisation. The combination of having key submission dates for modules together with setting my own intermediate milestones worked well since I was able to flex my research around my work and family commitments whilst still ensuring that I achieved the module deadlines. The need to look closely at my strengths and weaknesses helped determine my learning requirements"

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"Improvements to working practice as a direct result of Action Inquiries undertaken throughout the three years of study continue to benefit my reputation as a innovative and creative practitioner. Adoption of episodic lesson planning that allows for the non-linear progression of SEN Students is one example of the application of Action Research to improve practice.”

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“ My efforts so far have changed procedures, developed communication, raised morale and formed a cohesive group which offers support to each other. My research area has developed my school role beyond what was first perceived as my role as school administrator. The research activity has also resulted in new responsibilities being offered and professional recognition by the workplace."

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"As a consequence of my research the headteacher has asked me to look into co-ordinating the Investors in People project for our school this year. He has seen the value of my research and how successfully and professionally I have approached it and I think that this has had an impact on him in that he feels I will be able to successfully steer the school through the Investors in People programme.

I honestly do contribute this success down to what I learnt during my degree programme. I led some whole school action research on the implementation of the VLE and recently on a programme called PASS which evaluates pupils attitudes towards themselves and school.... Our authority really bought into the SIG school improvement Model, which is effectively Action Research based, and what I learnt from this degree really put me at the front in my school for leading whole school change..."

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"Disseminating the exhibition to an audience of teachers and Governors has opened up the possibility of developing AR for staff development and made other people in the school community more aware of the potential of the VLE. As the VLE coordinator I can now speak from first hand knowledge about study via a VLE.”

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"An action inquiry into personal safety in the workplace made people more aware of the dangers of lone working. I am now regularly consulted and also remind people of issues surrounding this. I am still issuing personal alarms to members of staff in my department and have been called on outside of my department to issue alarms and demonstrate their use.”

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"To top it all off, I was on secondment to my HR department as staffside lead for the KSF, following major changes in the Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland. , I under went a 40 minute interview and was given a HR post in Learning and Development with responsibility for widening participation across the whole of the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust covering over 10,000 staff; working with local further education providers with the result that I have doubled my pay from what I had earned as a nursing auxiliary."

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"The first thing that comes to mind is the patch I did in my first year of study. It was titled "The Purpose of Reflective Practice" and it was one of the first assignments I did in the 'alternative media' mind-set. I produced the documents as a video and uploaded it as a video on YouTube to share with the community for peer feedback. Unknowingly at the time, it has now gone on to have over 32,000 views and has also been picked up by a University in New Zealand and the video makes part of a course at UCOL School of Nursing in Palmerston North.

The video still receives regular attention at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AfHPV-YBdI but is easily found as the first result when typing 'reflective practice' into YouTube and is the 5th result of 4,380,000 when typing the same phrase into Google!"

Toby Adams BA LTR Graduate

Toby Adams ‏@tobyadams  1m

@iantindal @BA_LTR Thanks! I got so much from those three years. Value, outcomes and enjoyment were certainly key words for my experience.

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Impact - during the course the impact of what I was doing hit me gradually. Throughout I was determined to prove that I could earn a degree and I was not going to be happy unless it was a good result so I worked extremely hard to achieve that.
The impact since has meant, of course, that I have been able to achieve QTS by the GTP route and I would recommend this to anyone as the best way.
The sense of achievement on a personal level cannot be taken away. I am very proud of my degree and even if I had not gone on to do anything else I would still feel very proud.

Tina

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"BA LTR has opened up a spirit of inquiry within the cohort and made individuals challenge their use of technology.

It is curiosity and a willingness to experiment that will lead to change. If teachers do not experiment with, or try and work with, technology then they will never ever get close to being in a position to grasp its fitness for purpose and therefore the potential to add value to learning using technology in and outside the classroom.”

"I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey that I have been on and I feel that a lot of that stemmed from the energy and enthusiasm that was injected by the course tutors,facilitators and administrators. Overall I feel as if I have been a part of something exciting and dynamic and hope that you continue to offer this degree to others who are unable to physically attend University due to work or other commitments as it is a truly rewarding experience thanks to an excellent team of professionals.

Please feel free to pass on my comments to whoever may be interested and do make use of any useful content for any recruitment purposes.”


Kind regards

.
Julian Keith


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"The course involved lots of hard work but it was brilliant. On day 1. I felt a little worried about technology, I knew how to play games on a computer, use a Word document and little bits and bobs but I had never set up a web page or blog. I found the course quite seamless and interesting. The more you use technology and the more you talk to other people with expertise (in the online community) such as making PowerPoint really work, you realise it’s a less pressured way of learning. By the time I was finishing the degree I was really being a bit silly with technology trying to work out different ways of doing all sorts of things. I became confident in knowing what I wanted to use and that I would be able to work out how to do it with out worrying that I would embarrass myself.  I found doing a PGCE so easy afterwards, I had done the Reflective Practice and Action Research in BA LTR so the PGCE was really only learning about educational theory. I graduated in 2008 and am still using what I learned on the course every day."

Phil Williams 

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 “My Deputy Head delivers several training courses at a School training centre. Following my dissemination event she asked me to look at her presentation on ‘Visual Supports.’ She stated that my PowerPoint had made a powerful impact and that the images were strong. I worked with my Deputy Head showing her how to adapt slides according to the theory I had learned and applied to my presentation. She then finished the presentation and forwarded to me for my thoughts.” … The feedback [on my research] indicates that the respondents would like the whole school to have the opportunity to share the disseminated knowledge. Importantly 3 of the respondents are the head teacher, the deputy head and the assistant head, those with authority to arrange for this knowledge to be shared. There is a suggestion that the research, if implemented, would offer the school a common tool. The leadership team has included a CPD session included into the school inset day for the dissemination to be shared with the whole school in the summer term.”

Emma 

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I tend to study 6-7 am before I go to work and again after the children have gone to bed. I was at first unsure whether an online course would suit me but my tutor also seems to be an early bird and night owl and often responds to my community messages within minutes of me posting them. We have had some wonderful early morning / late evening chats in the tutorial chat room. 
Agnes

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“I just wanted to say a big thank you for all your advice and thoughts regarding my dissertation.

I think it is fantastic that you use voice recordings as well as written feedback, it really enabled me to understand the context in which you were giving the information. It also gave me the ability to 'sense' whether I was on the right track or not.

Once again thank you for your help”

Julian

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Hi Ian,

Just thought I'd drop you a post to say my Speech and language masters interview went really well on the 1st. We had a short written piece, role play, critical reflection on a video clip and individual interviews.I got so carried away talking about theory Dr. Wilson (lecturer) lent me a book which he thought I'd enjoy! I just hope they didn't have a headache post interview.The knowledge and understanding I'd acquired through my degree was so relevant that I was "singing" all the way through. It didn't feel like an interview at all! I didn't want to leave!


In the second year there is a research project to be undertaken and action research is an option. I nearly fell off my chair with happiness: )I was so better prepared than some of the other applicants and I needed to be as there were nearly 400 applicants, 100 got interviews and only 22 places. So I've done pretty well already.Keeping everything crossed now, should find out my fate in a couple of weeks.I think the reality of what I can achieve is really kicking in now, especially the habit of picking apart every experience I encounter. I never fully realised how infinitely relevant these modules were. I now realise why our facilitators made us work for the answers.

Wishing you and your family well.

Love Kate x

"It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not".


PS. My last thought on leaving the Uni. was "I wish my Clanger mates ( Kate's learning set ) were with me now...they would love this". 

A week later...

They have offered me a place so I'm well and truly "in". One of the lecturers made the journey into my school and told me I was "top of the pile" and I gave her a big hug and promptly burst into tears.


I am so pleased and relieved I can't tell you. I owe you guys so much.


My dear headmaster said that when I finish in 2011 the first thing I must do is pick up the phone as he wants me back. We shook on it and it is the first thing I shall do.

Kate Wright

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“On the strength of my success as a Family Liaison Officer, I have been asked by the LEA to pilot the first Parent Champion post in the county and to write a new job description for possible future Parent Champions.

 I have become much more knowledgeable about barriers for parents as learners and participants in their children's schooling and, as a result, have been able to develop useable and meaningful strategies for improving these areas of concern for parents.

 If I had not targeted my own learning throughout my degree on this particular area, I don't think I would have developed such a specialism, with the result that the County would not necessarily have selected me as the first Parent Champion.”

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“The impact of my Action Enquiry research, especially in this final year, has not only had the impact of the children reading more than previously, but also has helped my school in our very recent  OFSTED; the work that I carried out was recognised by the Inspector who made this comment within the 'Quality of provision' section of his report with regard to the 'Teaching and Learning' section.”

            'One teaching assistant has devised a very effective system of rewards that is inspiring pupils to become very enthusiastic readers.'

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"I've loved the idea of being a new and ground-breaking student 'researcher'. I haven't needed a traditional university life to back up my studies - I would never have had the time to fit it in. I have made friends through learning groups but while we've swapped photos of each other, we have never met so the graduation day is going to be a real eye-opener. We'll be meeting our fellow students, literally, for the first time."
Sharon S

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“Promotion to Head of PSHE in January, responsible for writing schemes of work, measuring outcomes, etc. across whole school (first admin person to hold an academic post in the school). Also leading Healthy Schools Status audit, liaising with county Health Team - audit taking place in January."

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“I have just been asked by my Head to work for one day a week from September in our 'partnership' school and I have agreed.  There is simply no way I would have accepted this challenge until this year, to be fair, probably only recently and it is all down to having greater confidence and faith in myself.  I will be teaching, through PPA time, a mixed age class of children in years 3 and 4.   I am sure that finally giving the presentations of my Action Enquiry project at school was a major step forward for me and has also probably changed the perceptions of others with regard to my abilities.

In September I will begin a SCITT(school centred initial teacher training) course, which will give me a PGCE certificate at the end of it.  Since teaching was the reason why I began this degree I am very pleased to have got a place on a course this year and look forward to being fully qualified in just over a years time.”

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“In September I'll be taking up a place at the University of East Anglia for a years Post Graduate Teaching Certificate course.  After that I hope to find a position teaching Primary children.  This was the whole point of me doing this degree and I'm delighted that I'm going to achieve it."

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To follow on from my degree study I chose a training programme based on location and entry requirements:  Primary School Direct Training Programme 2014-2015.

After my initial application was accepted, I was invited to attend an informal interview evening for which I was required to prepare a short presentation about myself and present this to the interview panel along with 15 other candidates. Coincidently and thankfully, the BA LTR module I was completing at the time was ‘Technology for Dissemination’. In it, I investigated various presentation techniques and technologies. This became invaluable for preparing me for my presentation to the interview panel.

It was also during this module that I discovered PowToons, an alternative to PowerPoint. I was able to detract the focus of the presentation away from me for a while and focus everyone’s attention on the animated film playing behind me. As in previous modules I have used the genre of poem, I decided to used this to accompany the presentation. This proved to be extremely successful, as I was one of only six to be asked to return for a formal interview. 
T.

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Thanks so much for all your encouragement throughout my studies...I certainly couldn't have done it without you!  I loved the graduation ceremony, a fantastic way to celebrate our achievements.

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Very impressed with the module materials you have created, I feel very inspired for the new semester! 

BW

Helen

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I am still working on the CMaps, so I will send them all later no worries if you can't look through them before we chat , thank you so much for offering your help, as always you have saved the day. 

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Minecraft imagination and collaboration.

I have seen a few tweets about use of Minecraft in school some people seemed less that keen, here is why I would use it.

I had a lovely insight into collaboration via Minecraft not long ago there were four children in the house and not sure how many elsewhere connected online maybe 4-6 others. Aged 8-13 ish as far as I could tell. They were using desktops, tablets and a range of smaller smart devices. They were communicating via f2f, text chats and VOIP.  It was a Saturday and I was working but kept being drawn into their dialogue and being shown what was going on. They played for several hours journeying in and out of each other's worlds. 

To me it seemed like a great opportunity for them to show off / enthuse about / explain what they had made. It is important for self-esteem to display to others the things you are proud of creating. There is a lot of trust involved if you decide to unlock a world for collaboration as friends can then destroy anything you have made. To them that offer of trust was no big deal, it was just a thing they do. A great demonstration of friendship and trust with an undercurrent of adherence to moral values. All characteristics we want children to absorb via life in school.

I saw impressive self organisation of teamwork / use of informal democratic processes for deciding what to make, what to destroy, how to improve what exists, praise was offered where praise was due and there was occasionally a sort of humorous ragging along with helpful suggestions about things that were seen as less than good. Defences were mounted as to why those things were the way they were and the rationale was then understood and often agreed by peers or they joined in developing improvements. From my perspective it had all of the characteristics of an outstanding community of inquiry in action.

Amongst what I saw was a towering tree that appeared to be hundreds of meters high with a very imaginative and well kitted out multi-story treehouse. Peers were impressed, one went off to build one in his world, another suggested "What about we make a roller-coaster to get down from it?" A cantilevered extension was built, a roller-coaster with loops and twists was constructed, it became a sightseeing tour with a negotiated route that included several passes round a massive castle, a jungle treetop excursion and a 360 degree horizontal loop round a farm full or cubic animals. The castle was extended to include an arch over the roller-coaster track that turned into a tunnel. A sightseeing trip through the castle included what appeared to be hundreds of rooms, some full of treasures or massive feasting tables. Long dark steps led down to what I expected to be the dungeons but was a 'man den' that included a 'secret' cinema and gaming complex and an underground lake.

Most seemed to have built castles, forests, lakes, islands, farms, there were partially constructed places they would like in the real world - the inside and outside of "a brilliant school", a variation on our local park, ideal homes and great little villages, the detail and imaginative thinking was quite spectacular. Many had added logos such as giant Batman or Superman symbols, there were 3D constructions or bass reliefs of characters from shows like Sponge Bob, or their favourite superheroes/villains, giant King Kong like gateways and imaginative follies. There were several worlds with pyramids and one pretty good Sphinx. There were no cities, skyscrapers, motorways or other things that belong in the densely populated areas of our real world but then they live in a tiny rural village in Cornwall and Minecraft seems to have no limits on space so there was no need or interest in creating overcrowded places. I am sure city children could have fun imagining improvements to the environment they are used to inhabiting.

I could go on and on and on about what was there but hopefully that is enough of an idea. If I were still working in KS2 I would want a class world in which to let their imaginations run free, in which to develop sharing and caring and collaboration and all the other rich and positive characteristics that define a wonderful class team.  Lego is a wonderful tool but unless you have unlimited budget and space it has to be dismantled and put away. Minecraft offers the opportunity to create a long term world with huge dimensions, possible and impossible creations and deep engagement in independent or social construction. As yet there is no shoot em up element and that is a big plus as far as online gaming goes. 

Digital Lego may look a bit weird to an adult who has not lived in its world and it will not appeal to every child or teacher but that could be said of many other activities and resources used regularly in schools. 

Why wouldn't you?

Online Community

Wenger discussed the concept of Communities of Practice (COP), he acknowledges that the term represents behaviour that has been part of how humanity organises itself for a long time, the concept is not new but he does provide some very useful illustrations of how communities work and the contexts they work in. He also provides a concise and well articulated statement that summarises the concept well:

"Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. "
  Wenger (2006)

This short video provides an excellent example of how rhythm and movement bond an African group, it conveys a sense of community participation, shows the passion for what they do, how rhythm is integral to who they are, how interaction with rhythm fills their lives and that there are many skills to be learned and challenges to be overcome to achieve their shared passion.  



There are many other practices that this community share but the making of rhythm is the key element that fille their being, it is embedded deep in their culture, awareness of rhythm is evident in every footstep they take, in almost every move they make. 

The Ultraversity project considered Wenger's perceptions at the design stage and it became a core element of the learning design. The notion of 'Community of Inquiry' (COI) has similar concepts to COP and was also incorporated:

An educational community of inquiry is a group of individuals who collaboratively engage in purposeful critical discourse and reflection to construct personal meaning and confirm mutual understanding.
Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000)

The COI concept map provides an excellent insight into the potential structure of a COI.

In this model there are three core 'presences':

• Teaching presence is linked to design and facilitation of the community.
• Social presence; the ability of learners to project their personality into the community.
• Cognitive presence; the ability of members to construct meaning through communication.

The two concepts are combined in our approach and the aim of course tutors is to Facilitate the development of vibrant Communities of Practitioner Inquirers. The common passions of community members (students and staff) include:

• Improving personal practice in the workplace.
• Becoming adept at Professional Development Planning (PDP) and achieving PDP targets.
• Identifying problems, applying systematic processes to arrive at viable and effective solutions.
• Using technologies creatively to achieve high standards in communication of information to others.
• Becoming agents of change, inspiring others in the workplace to aspire to high standards of operation.
• Developing into critically reflective practitioners unafraid to challenge orthodoxy or authority.
• Aspiring to a brighter future.

The processes used to achieve these aims include, but are not limited to:

• Personalisation of learning - learners take a significant level of responsibility for designing their own interpretation of how they will meet learning outcomes.
• Negotiation of learning - Individual Learning Plans are reviewed by course facilitators and appropriate tasks are negotiated.
• Identifying gaps in knowledge and how these can be bridged or filled.
• Examine theory - apply theory to personal practice - re-examine theory in the light of experience. This can be summarised as; Reflection - Inquiry - Reflection.
• Carry out small-scale action based research projects in the workplace.
• Analysing the quality of experience of stakeholders impacted by the individual's actions.
• Sharing, caring and offering support through critical feedback in the spirit of friendship.

Making learning delightful is not always an easy task but it is one that is worth aspiring too. Designing tasks that are easy may lead to learners achieving, but there can be an empty or anticlimactic feeling as there was little sense of overcoming challenge, of personal development or of developing expertise. It is through overcoming challenge that we tend to feel higher levels of satisfaction or even elation. If a challenge is perceived as being 'beyond attainment' this can lead to despair or frustration. If the challenge is not beyond attainment it is important for tutors to identify the governing values that are holding a student back and offer the encouragement and support needed to alter perspectives and improve motivation. 

If a learning task is well designed it will inspire a learner to aspire to excellence, it will imbue the learner with a perception that there are achievable steps towards expertise and that the journey will be worthwhile. The concept of 'Optimal Learning' suggests that learners engaged in well designed tasks will become willingly immersed in the experience and feel a sense of 'flow'; a state in which it is often reported that time has no meaning. Studies carried out by Csikszentmihalyi into Optimal Learning found that:


"...the phenomenology of enjoyment 

has eight major components. When people reflect on how it feels 

when their experience is most positive, they mention at least one, 

and often all, of the following:

1. We confront tasks we have a chance of completing;
2. We must be able to concentrate on what we are doing;
3. The task has clear goals;
4. The task provides immediate feedback;
5. One acts with deep, but effortless involvement, that
removes from awareness the worries and frustrations
of everyday life;
6. One exercises a sense of control over their actions;
7. Concern for the self disappears, yet, paradoxically
the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow
experience is over; and
8. The sense of duration of time is altered.
The combination of all these elements causes a sense of deep
enjoyment that is so rewarding people feel that expending a great
deal of energy is worthwhile simply to be able to feel it."
Csikszentmihalyi (1990)

Below is an extract from a discussion post by a student who in 2005 had been lacking in confidence with her relationship with technology. It seems clear to me that, at the outset of the module she was doing, the challenge was evident, that tasks she was set were appropriate, motivating and perceived as achievable:

"Technology 
Let battle commence!
Although I am becoming less afraid, I still regard technology as a bit of a “Me vs. It” scenario. Battle plans are drawn up, in the shape of:

• What do I hope to achieve?
• Is it achievable?
•  Can I do it?

Tentatively I approach my enemy. Cautiously I set to work. With every step forward I take, there are now fewer I take back, although not yet my friend technology is becoming less frightening and more intriguing to me."

Having worked her way through a Reflective Practice module, in which she was required to use technology to generate creative approaches to sharing information, she emerged more confident and articulating a sense of achievement:


"Now here I stand in March 2006 on the summit of my own personal “Reflective Mountain” and look at me now!
My confidence has grown and I now have belief in my ability as both a teaching assistant and a student.
This lady who once stated “ I feel like I am climbing Mount Everest in flip-flops” (previous module) can now categorically state that the flip-flops are off and the hiking boots and backpack are on. 
As I complete the descent I know that this will not be the last time I climb this mountain. I will undoubtedly return many times, and each time the view will be different, no less challenging, but just as beautiful."


Vygotski's notion of the Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotski, 1978) is often discussed in relation to learning in schools, however; it can also be useful to consider in relation to adult learning. The approaches used in mentored learning and facilitated learning are examples of where the learner can be provided with scaffolding to help them bridge the gap between existing and new knowledge. A weakness with the theory, in my opinion, is the concept that there is an upper limit to what is ultimately achievable, this is a difficult limit to define. When Piaget's developmental stages are taken as absolute in defining what a child of a certain age might be able to achieve this can limit perceptions of what else might be achieved. Thankfully in more recent years these stages are less influential in teaching practice, although it seems to be a fundamental aspect of humans that they are very much capable of designing their own limiting perceptions of what they might, or might not, be capable of achieving. Raising awareness of limits students place on themselves can help them develop the perceptions and motivation to face challenges in a positive way. When reflecting on part of her message: 

• What do I hope to achieve?
• Is it achievable?
• Can I do it?

this student described how she had not quite had the confidence to say "I can do it" and that she felt that, in an academic world, she should not say 'I can' until she had evidence that she could. The message sits in the nexus between doubt and confidence and shows some understanding of the need to be credibile by constructing statements that are appropriately tentative.

The Ultraversity project developed an approach where students are provided with contextualised assessment criteria and where there is constructive alignment between these and negotiated learning tasks. Fundamental to the community learning process is collaborative learning. In our online communities this involves students supporting each other through constructive and critical discussions, offering existing knowledge to scaffold others, sharing and reflecting on personal experiences, discussing and debating ideas for the good of the whole community and highlighting where improvement to work in progress could be made and where better alignment between task and assessment criteria is needed. In line with the COP and COI concepts, course facilitators (tutors) share the same passions about learning and improvement aspirations as students, they are open about identifying and addressing their own strengths and weaknesses and about aspiring for excellence. They are part of the collaborative learning process, learning with and from students, facilitated learning places no value on the old style concept of teachers as gatekeepers of knowledge; the aim is to become catalysts of learning. Social interaction provides students with insight into who the person inside the teacher is and this in turn helps students project their own personality into the community.

The place of community for students was traditionally on campus - being on site they had the cues of physical spaces to reinforce this feeling of belonging to academia. For online students the learning places are sometimes referred to as being "virtual". I have always felt this to be a misnomer as the experience of belonging to and working in an online environment is very real, although the actual physical existence of the community spaces and interactions is via electron flow, much of which is hosted in machines that may be thousands of miles from the users, it is still a physical phenomenon that is as real as bricks and mortar. When I first started teaching online it was often done in closed communities made with bespoke or proprietary software as shown in this 2007 diagram:

There has been considerable evolution in the range of software used and in the scope of communities that students belong to since that diagram was constructed but it is clear that the role of 'in house purpose built' software was rapidly abandoned. This was a decision made in part due to cost of software development but also related to the rapid expansion of proprietary and open source provision that was becoming increasingly useable and reliable. In 2012 the core community activity is located in the closed University supplied VLE but students now supplement this with interactions in a wider range of open community places such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. The location and kinds of community interaction currently available to students will be covered in a future blog post.

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M., 1990. FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper and Row [Online] http://www.psy-flow.com/sites/psy-flow/files/docs/flow.pdf

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., and Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87-105. [Online] Accessed 13 08 2012 via: http://communitiesofinquiry.com

Piaget, J., 1977. Intellectual evolution from adolescence to adulthood (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1977)

Vygotsky, L. S., 1978. Mind in society: The development of higher psychological proceses. Chapter 6 Interaction between learning and development (79-91). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Wenger, E., McDermott, R. and Snyder, W., 2006. Cultivating communities of practice: a guide to managing knowledge. Harvard Business School Press, 2002. More information available online at http://www.ewenger.com/theory/