Week 2 - On-line group work

Started the morning off well by completing the on-line task for the day and getting ready for my on-line tutorial. Last week I was told the sound issue was not due to my PC but the tutors and so I did not worry over the weekend. How wrong was I? My system does not work on sound or video software. I therefore sat through an entire on-line tutorial not knowing what was going on. As it was group work, we are expected to contribute. Being normally a good contributor and participator the experience was awful and I'm now sat in tears in the office. Ok, this may be an extreme reaction but for me on-line teaching was my way back to normality and now its just another obstacle to tackle with my voice. Even if I had had the right equipment an hours discussion on line would not be possible for me. Its just so hard to make people understand about the voice.
My thoughts on the tutorial:

1. If you don't have the equipment you cannot participate.
2. Disengagement
3. Isolation
4. Exacerbation at not being able to join in still through a medium I thought would enable me not disable me.
5. When an other member of the group reaches out to you as they know you have no idea what is going on - it is a life line :-)
6. When I was asked 'Clare do you have something to offer', and the conversation continued without allowing me to participate I felt anger and saddness. I did have something to offer but I just couldn't get it out there quick enough or in the right medium.
7. You do feel very lost when you cannot hear the discussion of the group.
8. Totally and utterly despondent - disengagement with the subject in its entirety.
9. When people did start to type material it was messy and illogical. I suggested structure but we moved off that very quickly. I cannot work without structure. I was even more amazed when our task is to produce an argument around the theme 'on-line learning should be compulsory' without the other side being discussed. As a lawyer I cannot fathom how or why this should be done. 
10. I have also wondered about not being disturbed during an on-line tutorial. In a classroom you are there and cannot be interrupted. At home I have many distraction, the phone, e-mail and the animals not to mention the post man!

All in all I can say that I am heading down to lunch despondent and disheartened.

Week 1 - day 10

Yesterday I had my on-line tutorial and it was very instructive in the use of Wimba and I am going to try and sort something out for my students so they can use it next week. I have a few comments regarding one to one tutorials on-line:

 My helpers in the office: Horace checking the printer and pretending not to be interested.

 Mae as a puppy and her helpful suggestions to the book.

 Enzo demanding cuddles at the most inappropriate times.

The other work we do

1. They are lengthy - use interact via text and if you are not at the same speed of typing/thinking then it does make it rather slow
2. You do lose some of that personal contact, it does help if you can see that person. I am going out and investing in a web cam this weekend. This may bring with it many pitfalls but I tihnk the benefits outweigh them.
3. It is actually tiring sitting through a tutorial on-line. Now I am still recovering from surgery so I am more tired than most but at the end I was exhausted and useless for the rest of the day.
4. The meaning of explanation sometimes gets lost in text and you do have to watch your phrasing at all time. It is sill things like if you have just been told something and you understand it, in person you would smile, nod etc... in text there are only so many forms of right, ok, cool. And then you think cool, really I am meant to be a professional and I put cool. I am not one for being quiet and you really do have to sit and listen  on this one.
5. The technology is still rather slow and clunky. We were meant to have sound connections but this did not work and the application sharing was rather slow as well.
6. You do need some understanding of how a computer works to be able to do undertake a tutorial
7. You really need peace and quiet when studying, when you are at home things, happen, the door bell rings, the cats want cuddles and the dog may need to pop out for a comfort break! You can't really stop and say hang on there...

Overall I found the experience worth while and enjoyable but there are many pitfalls and issues you as a tutor have to think about before you set up a tutorial. f2f teaching (check me out with the lingo) may be easier and quicker as you are there and bam you do the teaching but with on-line you have to be much more composed and logical. I think therefore you and the student get better quality discussion from it.

Today I am going to be working on the tasks for next week. I am not meant to but I had a quick look at them and I want to do the reading .... I hate being behind so here it goes...

The best till last: Keats demanding that work shall not be attempted :-) Who could resisit

Week 1 day 8

One minute to 12 and I am only just getting things in order. I have IT issues and it has made me really consider some major implications of working on-line. The internet went down in Hereford today and I had no access at all. I have just had to sit and wait for it to come back and I have a tutorial on my course on-line later today. I had no way of letting my tutor know about the access issues. This made me really worry about missing things that were happening on-line through course discussion etc... and what impressions it was making of me missing out and not being a slave to being on-line. How would a student feel if this were to happen? How could they contact me? And how could they capture the lost time they were not on-line. All interesting aspects of the transition to on-line learning.
Yesterday was fantastic I was in work and although I love working on-line nothing replaces that human interaction where fresh ideas can be bounced around. What I need to do is to replicate that in the written form.
I suppose that brings us back to the question posed yesterday to which I still have no answer for. I shall ponder this afternoon some more.
I am eager though to start building my new course so that I can have it up and running asap. Very exciting times.
I shall let you know how I get on after my first on-line tutorial this afternoon.

Week 1 - day 8

Morning everyone, I am in work today which is very unusal as I normally work from home. I have just logged on and read all the posts from the previous evening. I have to think about one task today what advantages are there of working and interacting in text other than time and continuum?
Interesting topic... any suggestion?

week 1- day 7 later in the afternoon

Whilst grappling with my book chapter on game theory and economic crime and trying to find an appropriate epistemology I took time out to visit my VLE. The tutor through posts of where we as e tutors add value posted this:

I am trying to figure out now where I fit into this as an e tutor and how to manage my input into the sessions without a) assuming my students know when I want them to know and b) not taking over.

My propensity for verbosity is not a good things, keep it short and to the point..... ummm work in progress.

week 1 - day 7- afternoon

Wow I am really getting addicted to this on-line learning. I have spent the morning replying and responding to the discussion boards on the benefits of e-learning and the ice breaker activities of yesterday. Some points to note and which I must do:

1. work out a way to record the thoughts from the others in the discussion board - can I print them out?
2. think about the response of promptness from one of the others on the course. is it good to always respond immediately or is time to reflect better. Am I slave to trying to respond immediate so that I am not thought of as slacking?
3. Allowing others to do the talking and discussions. I am very verbose and I don't want to appear pushy but on the other hand I am getting a lot of of the discussion so why shouldn't I be contributing as much as I want to. I think I just need to be aware that others do not work at the same pace as me.
4.  it is occurring to me that for me to teach affectively on-line, I do need a bespoke site this the one I am using now so that the students get the most out of it. I therefore need to talk to the IT guys sooner rather than later.
5. I need to find a way to disseminate my ideas to my colleagues so we can all get on board.

Mae and I were brainstorming the above thoughts together, she is a very clever spaniel.

Week 1 - day 7

Spending the day thinking about the other course tutees posts on what are the benefits of e-learning and also thinking about how to adopt e-learning into the commercial law course. A useful suggestion I had last night from a friend who did not want to make a post here was to connect the updates that I put on twitter and on the discussion site to an RSS feed. So today I need to figure that out. Going to get stuck into the course materials book as well today and juggle writing a chapter for my own book as well.
Happy reading :-) and please do make suggestions/ comments when you are reading.