From devoted through sceptic to - ?
The grumpy old man’s position! When I meta-think of my learning I see that my position has changed over the last 6 weeks of study. I am learning.
I use to be the devoted user of new technologies in teaching. In my former job as a teacher I tried to convince my colleagues about the exiting possibilities in new technologies in edu. When discussing these topics with sceptic friends and co-workers I have been the defender of new prosperous paths to follow. Arguing against their rather obsolete thinking. I see options in stead of limitations.
In recent weeks my thinking has been turned around. My participation on the cck08 is very interesting, I read interesting papers, blogs, elluminate-sessions and more, most of them matching my opinions and convictions, and enhancing my argumentation.
But I fail in the core element of connectivism: creating connections and turning them into valuable relations. I think that’s why my focus changes to the pessimistic and negative. Now I spot instances of fluffing and less successful stories. I joined the forcreditgroups synchronous meeting,- 1 connection and a nice chat, later no activity and , following people from cck08 on twitter, little content, had few reactions on blogposts, but very ‘friendly’, started ning.group for students on ITU, no reaction, declining activity-curve on moodle, Is the concept of any good at all? Yes! Of course it’s my problem to overcome the difficulties. Stop whining!
But when a shift in my focus can change promising cases into ‘hot air’, is it then the case of ” The emperor’s new clothes”? We do a lot of ‘weaving’ and wishful thinking. Are we a self-sufficient, besserwisser ‘group’ externalised from reality? Is it just a question of patience, and to be persistant?
My activity on the cck08course has gone down a bit, that is, my readings and my lurking are minor compared to the first weeks. But I do a lot of thinking. The difficult part is externalising my thoughts. And that is an explanation to lacking connections, of course. I know. So?
How is the general level of activities on cck08! Is there some fatigue in the network? Where is the activity of the 2000 students? Distributed! Moodle? Blogs? NingGroups? Twitter?
How is your role as a teacher in cases of despondency spreading? Can the network manage it? Which implications does it have on the ‘design’ of courses? Can you design courses to minimise dropout? Facilitator roles, feedback, mixing online-offline activity?
I’m searching a new role. From devoted to sceptic to … ‘realistic dreamer’? dreaming realist?..?
Take a walk in the woods.
/Jorgen C
October 24th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Dear Dreaming Realist (I feel like I’m writing an advice to the lovelorn column).
It sounds as if you are just facing the same frustration we all face with reaching the critical mass point. You heard it in Grainne Conole’s presentation on Cloudworks. They had to “seed the clouds” (I’m surprised they didn’t use that bad pun since they used “storm clouds” and other cutesy phrases). And it’s the same frustration (as I’ve posted in my blog) that those of us who run intRAnets face. Getting folks to come back.
Now, back to my advice to the lovelorn idea, it may feel a little like rejection when your posts are ignored. I find myself looking for mention of my posts in the Daily every day (not in the “contributions” section but in the “Highlights” section). Part of it as I hope to mention next week in the Power discussions is that even though Stephen especially denies it, as authority figures in the topic of Connectivism, Stephen and George hold power (grading power at least) over some of us. We seek (unconsciously perhaps) to please them. And you may feel that type of rejection that your posts aren’t seen as significant enough to respond to.
Keep posting anyway. Keep blogging (so you’ll feel less self-conscious about “talking to yourself”).
But don’t post or blog for their own sake. Really engage the material. Toss out the gauntlet. Express yourself. Learn the new technology for what it can do for you and enjoy it.
And, as with advice to the lovelorn, when you’re enjoying your (digital?) life you will become an attractive connection to someone else. Hey, Stephen “Highlighted” your entry in the Daily. That’s how I found it. So it works.
October 24th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Hi Jorgen,
I know where you are coming from. i can see your point. to benefit from connectivism it does help to also have a core group that are going through a shared experience.
I do believe active synchronous sessions can help with this and i’ll invite you to some sessions probably when this course finishes, but hoefully maybe still get a synchronus chat or two in by the end of this course.
we seemed to get abruptly cut off on our last chat
all the best
Steve
October 24th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Hi Jorgen,
I love your writing. I have been asking same guestions myself.
Perhaps we are a little tired in the middle of the course, motivation is going down slowly … what is lacking? How could I build up human relationships? Should I have something CONCRETE to proceed or…what is the problem?
Time will tell…
October 24th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Hi Jorgen - I can relate to your post, particularly your comment
But I fail in the core element of connectivism: creating connections and turning them into valuable relations.
This has concerned me throughout this course, which I think has been about making connections, but I’m not sure that the intention of the course was to turn them into valuable relations, unless it was to turn them into a valuable relation with the content.
I am frankly surprised, given we started off with 2200+ people on the course, that I have managed to make any connections at all, but I do feel that as I have gone through the course I have started to recognise people and am beginning to know a little more about them, not just as a node in a network, but as real people. But I think making these more valuable relations in this online network takes quite a bit of hard work, and I suspect that the people who are still going strong on the course are those who have been putting a lot of time into it.
In my experience of working on online courses, there is very often a lull at some stage. This is a long course and I expect that a lot of people simply need a break. But as you say, this does have design implications. I have never been been able to explain to myself or others why people seem to start off online courses at such a frantic pace. I can remember a headteacher that I worked for once taking me on one side and telling me that I would have to learn to pace myself - very good advice, but quite difficult to follow.
So I think you raise two really important points - getting the pace right as an individual and being able to forge relationships which help the learning process. Thanks!
Jenny
October 25th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Hai Jorgen. I mentioned this post of you in my reaction in Moodle on my own blog, Being there and suddenly lonely. I think the same feelings are playing a role in our stories like in the weblog from Heli. Let’s dream on and have nice walks in the woods.
October 25th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Hi Jorgen,
I confess, I am visiting because of Sia’s post on the Moodle - I am not good at keeping up with my RSS feeds!
I very briefly went through a phase of hoping to see a blog entry ‘highlighted’ on the Daily. Then I realised that actually, I don’t care that much - I write because it is useful to me, and hopefully others, and I don’t really feel the need for validation by Stephen. On the other hand, it is a warm feeling when I get a mention - I guess I take the pessimistic view and am thus occasionally pleasantly surprised.
The business of connections is an interesting one though. I feel we have a connection - it is just that we haven’t used it much yet. I am generally quite insular and leave connections dormant for long periods of time, tending to react to an active connection rather than be proactive in maintaining it/using it.
I think the two things go together - I suppose I can’t afford to care too much about connections if I don’t do anything to maintain them, and also not caring too much probably helps cause my lethargic approach to them. “I am a rock, I am an island, And a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries” (erm, Simon & Garfunkel, errr… I was never any good at names of songs, films, books, or their contents… or authors…)
October 28th, 2008 at 12:01 am
It’s astonishing to write a post in a ‘grumbling’ mood, publishing and thinking: “What was that about?” and then days later discover that others have parallel, synchronous experiences.
Is that ‘emerging’ knowledge?
I know, that the problem of feeling disconnected is part of process of growing out of the ‘group-think’ ties to be relying on your own thoughts and understanding.
@Jenny. I don’t mean valuable relations in the ‘relatives’ way, but connections you dare show your imperfections. It takes a lot of bandwidth, and in text based communications it takes time and many ‘postings’. Patience is the ’skill’. And focus on common content.
/Jorgen C
November 8th, 2008 at 4:20 am
Hi Jorgen!
It was very happy when I saw you in my blog, thanks for visiting. I guess the Yahoo credit group is dormant because we are all very busy, too many activities in a very short period of time as Lisa mentioned. I hope we will participate more there once the course is over, I usually send a lot of messages but I refrained myself there when I realized that if I did it I would contribute to the overload already heavy on it’s own.
I resonate with you and Jenny on: But I fail in the core element of connectivism: creating connections and turning them into valuable relations. I’m in a pickle there, my lack of academic online background fosters this, if according to the gurus the weak connections are the more valuable or the ones that bring diversity then: ??? If I strengthen my tie with you, will I lose diversity? I’m warm and caring by nature, god or bad, that’s the way I connect. I tend to strengthen my ties, will that bring negative outcomes? I’m lost here! I guess that diversity is already present, I would have never found you or your blog in the regular places I visit
I’ve found, within my limited experience, that if you allow at the beginning a bit of time to fool around, have fun and then tackle the main concepts you want to cover in your course the going gets easier. Another thing is that if you react when you see fatigue by inserting extra fun gatherings or send messages in a different format or allow to form groups to complete prior individual tasks your participants respond and move again.
Online and offline relationships demand time, we sometimes forget that about online connections. As it is so easy to see, talk, visit blog or site we kind of refuse to see that you have to spend time with those people. Maybe you sped more time to contact an offline friend because you have to add the transportation time. Synch events do bring people closer as Steve mentions. I hope he continues with the Webex meetings but as I have not gone back to Moodle or contacted him directly, I don’t know.
Am I making any sense? Probably not, I’m tired.
See you somewhere on the cyberspace.
Maru :X