I have been doing some research into the field of e-learning and how successful research finds it as a way of learning. Needless to say the information has been very interesting, and often leads me to think of my own experiences in this e-learning course. (more…)
“Learning is a matter of engagement: it depends on opportunities to contribute actively to the practices of communities that we value and that value us” (Wenger, 1999, p. 226).
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e-languages is an e-learning platform for ESL teachers. The platform brings teachers or classes from different countries together. They then create a project with one another. According to their website the platform: “Supports a wide range of project resources, movies, sound files, photos, galleries, web links, question polls, forums, documents, presentations and more – created or sourced by you and your students”. (more…)
Some of the frameworks in this chapter can also be useful in the 2nd part of Assignment 1 – when you analyse your community.
I think a lot of the theories on groups could apply. The social learning theory states that people learn from observing the behaviours of others. That fits in with the idea of ‘lurking’ on the net. Watching a forum to see how things are done there. What will be interesting though is to see if this theory can be applied to a community of professionals. By that I (more…)
As an ESL teacher studying e-learning I have, for some time now, been curious to know of how e-learning is being used in the classroom.
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The idea of group learning has, to me, always been a bad one. There are questions of equality within the group and also competition amongst the members. So I was surprised to hear in a lecture at university that there is evidence to suggest that people learn more in groups than alone. (more…)
I am writing this blog as an element of the e-learning course I am currently undertaking in my masters degree. Within this course we also have a Ning community. Recently on Ning a member commented on the issue of time and technology. There was a general consensus that when you start doing things online time just disappears.
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Mark Bernstein’s 10 Tips on Writing the Living Web provides advice for bloggers. He defines the living web is ‘the part of the webb that is always changing. His description of writing a good blog sounds quite challenging, luckily it is followed by 10 tips to help bloggers write and maintain successful blogs.
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In his article on How to Write a Better Weblog, Dennis Mahoney mentions that there are rules to blogging and that the first one is about the use of grammar. This is a direct contrast to Bernstein who suggests grammar is not important, mistakes are forgivable.
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In her article ‘Weblog Ethics’ Rebecca Blood looks at the idea of ethics in blogging. This article is both interesting and very helpful to the new blogger. She points out that the strength and the weakness of blogging is the lack of accountability. Bloggers are responsible to no one, unlike journalists who are paid and policed by their employers and advertisers.
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