Weeks starting 1 & 8 October 2018

Topic 1 was “released” on 1 October and I now realised that ONL181 is getting real:)

I must admit that I did not expect the topics for this course to be scenarios. I read the scenario for Topic 1 and I thought “How does this scenario have anything to do with an online course, where I expected to become more digitally literate?”. Well, I was pleasantly surprised as we went through the two weeks investigating and discussing topic 1.

At the same time, the scenario in topic 1 comforted me – it was as though someone had written exactly what I was thinking and feeling as I was embarking on this ONL181 journey. I was excited and eager to learn, meet and work with people from all over the world but I was also anxious about what exactly I was required to do – and whether I would be able to manage it. I am not very digitally literate and it is not something that I work with often – professionally or personally, so I am not very comfortable nor familiar with it. However, I am extremely keen to learn new things (I am a bit of a nerd:)) and I am also not intimidated to ask if I don’t know something.

The first few calls/meetings with our PBL group were a bit strained. We were unfamiliar with each other and also, we were not sure what we should be discussing/focusing on, etc. This has definitely changed as time progressed as we are getting to know each other and the content. I’m definitely looking forward to engaging more with my group as the weeks progress – everyone is very knowledgeable and nice:).

I have learnt so much already in the past two weeks. I have identified that I am a digital visitor but I am hoping to become a digital resident (only selectively) by the end of the ONL181 journey. I had not even know that these concepts existed. It was interesting discussing why people choose to have separate digital identities for their personal and professional lives. I think that for most of us that teach, we want to have some boundaries with our students. Some people see their work colleagues as just that while other colleagues becomes friends – hence the desire for separate professional and personal digital identities in some cases.

I have learnt about two new tools – Padlet and Webjets, which have been discussed and used by our PBL group. I can already see myself using Padlet as a tool in my teaching which I will implement in the new teaching year. I really look forward to learning about a few more tools that I could use.

Here’s to topic 2…

T