Well my first module is over now and I handed the coursework in at the beginning of the month. So now I find myself with lots of free time on my hands. The last three months have been hectic, with the first module and work being mental at the moment. And tho it is even more hectic at work I am missing my studies. I am really looking forward to the next step now that I have caught the ’study’ bug. I find that I have continued with the reading dispite the fact that I don’t need to. I also missed writing my blog, which as you can see I have decided to continue to maintain.
So now I have a summer of free weekends and evenings spreading out ahead of me… perhaps I had better get some gardening done…! Roll on September!
Well my course is over now. I will hand in my web essay in the morning and that about wraps it up for my first module. So this is the opportunity to tie it all up and conclude what I have learned over the last 3 months.
Technology - I have been introduced to a number of new technologies in the last few months including WebCT, Labyrinth and a couple that I already knew about like wikis, hypertext and online gaming which had new implications for learning that I had not considered before. Throughout this course I have gained confidence in using these new technologies and also been able to critically view these technologies with their strengths and weakness and evaluate how useful I think they would be to an e-educator. I would not have felt qualified to do that previously. I feel now that I am armed with an understanding of lots of possible areas of development. I have learned new skills that I will be able to transfer over into my work life.
I have learned a lot about alternative learning styles and how they can all be amalgamated into a single blended learning approach.
This course has also made me realise that the future is a very exciting place. I work in IT so I generally keep up with the latest technologies (or I thought I did…). I also use the internet a lot but many of these changes have passed me by. Now I can see that there is even more on the horizon. The development of gaming to be used in training is one such move. I have already discussed some of the new technologies that allow facial expressions to be accurately portrayed in games making the experience more realistic. SL has frustrated us at times because it is slow and unrealistic but I think that this will be a major development in the future. As technology improves, so will the ‘look and feel’ of the virtual world. When this happens I think we will see an explosion in the use of this technology for business as well as for learning. I have been reading ‘Snow Crash’ by Neal Stephenson about the virtual world of Metaverse and there was a passage that I thought is a portend to where we want to be:
“they all came to the realisation that it … was Juanita’s faces. Just ask the business men in the Nipponese Quadrant. They came here to talk turkey with suits from around the world, and they consider it as good as face to face. They more or less ignored what was being said – a lot gets lost in translation, after all. They pay attention to the facial expressions and body language of the people they are talking to. And that’s how they know what’s going on inside a person’s head” ‘Snow Crash’ by Neal Stephenson (1993 pg 59).
This seems to me to be the major stumbling block to replacing face to face with e-learning for the inexperienced user. I have thoroughly enjoyed this course and can see how a full online provision can be made to work, but I am also very comfortable using technology. Less confident users will still provide f2f until we can provide a clear streamed personal approach to their learning. I think the virtual world as it can be in the future will give us that opportunity.
Where do I go from here? I recently had an interview for an internal post at my company for an on-line learning consultant. This is not a direction my company has previously taken but it would be a great opportunity for me to move my career in the direction I want it to take. So from here I want to move into an online role, and continue my studies. I am interested in the opportunities for online gaming, and I am also interested in the role of politics and culture in the design and implementation of e-learning and how it affects accessibility. These are two themes that I am interesting in pursuing further during the rest of my masters.
Well – that about sums it up. The course is over but I am going to continue using my weblog. I have learned an amazing amount this term and I look forward to the next one with eagerness and a conviction that this is where my future lies.
