Five course teachers chatting in a Google Hangout, hundreds of learners watching it online. Dozens of them commenting on the Hangout page, in G+, in Twitter.
An hour of studying like this is an intensive experience. One listens to rapid discussion in a language not one's native, scans #edcmooc tagged tweets and their variety of subtopics, plus the comment flow on the hangout video page.
It required a lot of concentration to maintain focus and to be aware of what's going on around. It was actually a fascinating quest, and a very interesting experience.
One gets busy by scattering attention like this. I bet that many chose to focus solely on the hangout discussion, but there were a lot of us who addressed questions to the teachers and discussed with each other along the hangout.
Can we say anything about the quality of learning of the learners who chose this latter tactics?
The topic of the hangout was derived from the theme of the first study week: deterministic (utopian/dystopian) views on technology, and how the theme was addressed in the week 1 materials.
Jen Ross, the chair of the hangout, lead the panelists along a line of thought, which got some curve balls from the audience. Every once in a while some Twitter comment was picked up and addressed briefly.
The technical side of the situation had to be brought in the discussion only twice: in the beginning to know if all's ok, and towards the end when some of the audience lost the video connection.
The learning environment and its informational organization play a major role in how a learner will stay focused. There is a vast body of research how the distractions hinder learning in the classroom (see eg. this literature review) and some on e-learning (mostly juxtaposing curricular and extra-curricular activities at the computer, eg. here) .
Even though external distractions (physical surroundings, extra-curricular online activity) were in my case absent, there were too many channels and simultaneous discussions going on to give myself time to structure, to scrutinize and to invent new knowledge in that situation.
In other words, being so busy kept me using the lower order thinking skills, as those categories of the cognitive domain are named in the Bloom's (revised) taxonomy.
Also in the affective domain I see my reactions during the hangout been mostly lower order: receiving and responding.
Even though I didn't make it to higher order processes, I don't regard the hangout as unsuccessful.
Now it's my task to continue the process. I'll listen to the discussion again, analyzing and evaluating, organizing and characterizing. I'll also externalize my thoughts and feelings by writing and discussing about it… oh, well, this self-steered student is apparently on the right path.
The point is, this seems to work if the learners are motivated, responsible and have a good command of their meta-learning skills. I have my doubts about how this works in a situation when the student lacks some of these qualities.
DID YOU participate the Hangout? What was your tactics, and what are your thoughts about the session?
Hi,
VastaaPoistaI would suggest you use a twitter client to keep track of the hashtag tweets. Tweetdeck is a good app.
Cheers,
Maddie
Oh, Tweetdeck's up again? It (my Mac app) stopped working a year ago or so. Now I read the Twitter killed the app but has a browser-based version. Must give it a try. Can't recall why I didn't like HootSuite.
VastaaPoistaThanks, Maddie - Tweetdeck seems to be up and running, and works as the old yellow version. You made my day :)
VastaaPoistaEsko
Is it too challenging to participate both in following Hangout and discussing with co-learners? u asked in ur heading. I consider many-channel participation as a complex skill which is possible to learn (on opittavissa) but it takes time. It is a process and depends on many factors, some of them we know : in Finnish I could participate better and quicker than in English. If the subject is well known, you can assess quickly and contribute. And the process nature means that first you cannot, then you can do partly and every time better and better.
VastaaPoistaI have seen many skillful learners in online sessions and it proves that this new skill is possible to acquire.
But in every case you have to/can decide what to do: only listen and think in your brain or listen + write and follow discussions too. Know thouself vai miten se sanotaankaan? :)
Hi, I was thinking about the same issue towards the end of the Hangout. "In this course format stuff gets scattered all around. This audience is selected and can cope with this, but in average perhaps not? #edcmooc". But also teachers seem to strugle in moderating a session like this. Actually even to moderata an Adobe session seems to be challenging for teachers when they should: watch and reacr to Chat posts, conduct the lesson, throw in some interaction, share a video, jump to a webpage and read, write and talk all at the same time. OK- share the session with a moderator, plan well in advance and set the activites ready in layouts etc. but still. Some like it and they probably would like to host a talk show and others hate it - and shut off some chanels. Which chanels in one session are meaningful and worth keeping open ?
VastaaPoistaHeli and Susanna, great to have your input. A hassle that's called MOOC is a double-sided sword. On the one hand, there should be a situation that scaffolds best the learner in the learning situation; on the other, all the society and particularly the digital culture has changed drastically, and in a situation like this we learn not only the subject matter, but to act and react in a new, challenging world.
VastaaPoistaLet's keep on experimenting, participating - and analyzing. I expect us having more understanding to make judgements in a few weeks.