Hello everyone,

I still find it quite difficult to manage all the different platforms and I think it is too much work effort going into just figuring out exactly what to do or what it expected from us. Last week was quite nice though where we got to get to know our team members in group 6. It also felt good that we had two co-facilitators and they were both very friendly and helpful.

 

This week (yesterday) we were supposed to have a group meeting over Zoom, which I missed unfortunately. Thankfully, one of the team members took notes from the meeting and the meeting was also recorded so that I could take part in what is going on. That is of course not as good as participating live during the conversation but given the circumstances I was still very pleasant that we have this possibility.

 

During this week have we discussed and read more about problem-based learning. I especially found Savin-Baden’s article quite instructive. I also think that problem-based learning is a better way for deep-learning than just forcing some course content upon oneself by studying a book or articles very hard. However, there is always a need for a balance between problem oriented learning and pure knowledge or information intake. It is very difficult to have a problem oriented approach without having the basic facts set out from the beginning. I take this to mean that they are complementary to each other.

 

Furthermore, it is not only a learning aspect attached to it. It is also a question of pedagogy and development of other skills than just learning new stuff. What I mean by this is that solving problems are often (even though not always) better done in group than alone. This will provide for more social skills and learning to work as a group towards a specific goal. It could also become a platform for helping each other learning to see a specific problem from a new angle or a new perspective, i.e. in a sort of a brainstorming seminar.

 

Huijser et al. article was also quite instructive and how they formed or adapted the PBL’s to better fit a technological demands and developments. I also think that one huge challenge in the online platform is that it opens up for a more global perspective compared to a local level. With this I mean that on a local level, students are pretty much on the same level (given factors such as age, previous studies at university level and so on). In an online perspective, students can come from all-around the globe with totally different set-ups of experience and cultural understanding of things, perhaps especially so on how to confront or tackle a problem. I believe that this is something to consider when using a problem-based learning set-up.

 

All the best,

 

Anders