The Digital One-Day Identity, literacy and community in (partially) synchronous distributed learning environments

Aim of the Digital One-Days 3 events of current interest as new form of CPD Online identity Digital literacy Communities (of practice) in HE (in the event, 2 have run) Cover the topics Exploring the potential of Synchronous Distributed Collaboration

Innovation and novelty Topics are challenging The environment is challenging There is an interaction between the environment and the topics

Questions Might identity, literacy and community be threshold concepts in educational development? Does the Trojan mouse effect persist in any new learning environment? Any novel medium with or through which learning, is done serves to foreground not the medium but the meaning of learning i,e, discussions about e-learning are really discussions about learning

Outline The environment The learning design The topics Evaluation Elluminate Brookes Blogs The learning design The topics Evaluation The questions

Elluminate New breed of collaboration tools allowing people to be simultaneously present in an desk-top computing environment based on a classroom metaphor 2-way voice & video communication Text chat Graphics A “White Board” on which “Slides” can be displayed Presenters Participants Icon-tools such as “hand-raising”, emoticons (smiley faces), polling

Uses Teaching events Meetings Distributed/distant co-presence at face-to- face events (conference streams) Benefits Reduced travel – time, cost and carbon saving (?) Recorded for replay Distributed groups

Disbenefits? Technical Cultural Expectation management The Internet is not like the movies: Lag Hardware/software compatibility Institutional firewalls Cultural Literacy: how to use the $%^&*! thing Community: Interruptability, participation, open plan spaces Identity: representation of the self Expectation management It is different from both face-to-face and “traditional” on- line discussion-based distributed elearning

Learning Design Website “home page” Email joining instructions and briefs Familiarisation sessions Simple activity flow Breaks and continuity

http://digident.brookesblogs.net/

Topics Identity Literacy Community Technical/political Ego Social Multi-literacies Skills and competence Community Image: www.momswhothink.com

Community and literacy have become “aerosol words” Constructed communities and constructed identities (where there is an intentional aspect) are problematic where authenticity is valued Literacy is a function of community and identity Digital one-days introduce genre questions which expose the inter-relatedness of these concepts With academic & digital literacy, communities of learning & practice, and online identity (Facebook etc), these concepts are exposed as foundational or threshold concepts for doing and being in higher education

Evaluation Some considered the online interface ‘much richer than face-to-face sessions’, found the different channels useful. ‘Interesting and productive environment’ effectively replicated a face to face workshop/seminar in terms of medium and activities. Useful learning medium once acclimatised Breakout groups worked well for engagement Interesting conceptual stuff from the panel discussion Excellent questions raised The moderators and the participants with different views of a very interesting topic, with moderation that made sure that all was somehow held together The experience of taking part in online learning in this format. The (useful) flow of presentation through to reflection and discussion

Challenges A participant who thought the familiarisation session went well referred to the session itself as ‘fraught with problems’. Participant who came late took the first 30 minutes to catch up, experienced technical difficulties particularly with sound at first and did not manage to get a webcam working at all. Communication a challenge in the medium. Sound problems Difficulty with giving attention to a presentation for full 20 minutes Bandwidth broke up audio in breakout groups Attending an online workshop from the work place different from attending a face to face events as the presence of the web, msn, email and telephone is distraction affecting concentration; needs discipline

Questions Might identity, literacy and community be threshold concepts in educational development? Does the Trojan mouse effect persist in any new learning environment? Any novel medium with or through which learning, is done serves to foreground not the medium but the meaning of learning i.e. discussions about e-learning are really discussions about learning

Thank you George Roberts, Rhona Sharpe, Patsy Clarke Josie Fraser, Helen Keegan, Helen Beetham, Richard Francis, Frances Bell