PLE relevent in modern organisations?
I think what we are starting to see emerging is the sheer practicality of the PLE as both an individual and organisational response to the challenges and opportunities of networked learning. While some concentrate on the key empowering aspects and learner perspective, there is also a complementary organisational perspective, which sees the PLE as a key opportunity to gain the benefits of e-learning in the organisation without the substantial capital cost and management overhead of centralised learning provision.
E-learning in modern organisations:
I was curious as to how E-learning has been implemented in modern organisation and was surprised by the outstanding response. Below are just a few examples of successful organisations:
A report on e-learning and best practices
Produced by APEC - Asia-Pacific E-Learning Alliance, January 2002. The alliance promotes online learning among members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, APEC. Alliance members include AOL Time Warner, Cisco Systems Fujitsu, Sun Microsystems, Daesung Group and Saba.
Delivering the goods
Can a learning management system help a company better serve its customers? Rockwell Automation found theirs could do that and more." Rebecca Ganzel and Kim Kiser
New Three in One
"When Unilever finessed a trio of corporate cultures into one, e-learning helped the blended sales staff produce more than $20 million in additional sales."
An offer they can't refuse
"When talented employees start to leave en masse, e-learning may help convince them to stay. David Raths, Online Learning Magazine, October 2001
Action learning meets e-learning: a European case study
"How do you take a multi-cultural organisation of highly professional people in a fast-moving drinks business and create a culture of agile project working and leadership? This was the challenge faced by the GuinnessUDV European Shared Service Centre, a Diageo company." Dr Richard Hale, Dr Charles Margerison and Alison Whitley, Training Journal, July 2001
E-learning evangelism
"Practicing what you preach can be good for you. Just ask Chris Pirie, who led the movement from classroom training to e-learning at Oracle Corp." Kim Kiser, Online Learning Magazine, January 2001
E-learning branches out
"E-learning systems may not be easy to implement, but many companies see the potential for a broad business impact." Sandra Swanson, Information Week, February 2001
E-learning success stories
"DigitalThink e-learning solutions are at work in boosting employee efficiency, fostering customer loyalty and improving sales channel performance at Fortune 1000 companies everywhere."
Learning at MetLife goes virtual
"For MLFS, delivering training to a dispersed workforce forced us to investigate distance learning as a delivery option. Another reason to develop distance learning was the need for MLFS sales representatives to prepare for mandated examinations and learn new product information and procedural changes quickly." Norma Rossi, Learning Circuits, May 2001
Kodak wants out of the classroom
"Eastman Kodak Co. hopes that shifting its business focus to digital imaging products and services will give it a competitive edge in the photographic products industry. By moving much of its global business training online, Kodak will try to make that a reality by boosting employees' technology savvy". Information Week.com, 2 April 2001.
A report on e-learning and best practices
Produced by APEC - Asia-Pacific E-Learning Alliance, January 2002. The alliance promotes online learning among members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, APEC. Alliance members include AOL Time Warner, Cisco Systems Fujitsu, Sun Microsystems, Daesung Group and Saba.
Delivering the goods
Can a learning management system help a company better serve its customers? Rockwell Automation found theirs could do that and more." Rebecca Ganzel and Kim Kiser
New Three in One
"When Unilever finessed a trio of corporate cultures into one, e-learning helped the blended sales staff produce more than $20 million in additional sales."
An offer they can't refuse
"When talented employees start to leave en masse, e-learning may help convince them to stay. David Raths, Online Learning Magazine, October 2001
Action learning meets e-learning: a European case study
"How do you take a multi-cultural organisation of highly professional people in a fast-moving drinks business and create a culture of agile project working and leadership? This was the challenge faced by the GuinnessUDV European Shared Service Centre, a Diageo company." Dr Richard Hale, Dr Charles Margerison and Alison Whitley, Training Journal, July 2001
E-learning evangelism
"Practicing what you preach can be good for you. Just ask Chris Pirie, who led the movement from classroom training to e-learning at Oracle Corp." Kim Kiser, Online Learning Magazine, January 2001
E-learning branches out
"E-learning systems may not be easy to implement, but many companies see the potential for a broad business impact." Sandra Swanson, Information Week, February 2001
E-learning success stories
"DigitalThink e-learning solutions are at work in boosting employee efficiency, fostering customer loyalty and improving sales channel performance at Fortune 1000 companies everywhere."
Learning at MetLife goes virtual
"For MLFS, delivering training to a dispersed workforce forced us to investigate distance learning as a delivery option. Another reason to develop distance learning was the need for MLFS sales representatives to prepare for mandated examinations and learn new product information and procedural changes quickly." Norma Rossi, Learning Circuits, May 2001
Kodak wants out of the classroom
"Eastman Kodak Co. hopes that shifting its business focus to digital imaging products and services will give it a competitive edge in the photographic products industry. By moving much of its global business training online, Kodak will try to make that a reality by boosting employees' technology savvy". Information Week.com, 2 April 2001.
What IS E-learning?
There may be other definitions, but I define e-learning (also called elearning or eLearning) as:
The delivery of a learning, training or education program by electronic means.
E-learning involves the use of a computer or electronic device (e.g. a mobile phone) in some way to provide training, educational or learning material. (Derek Stockley 2003)
E-learning can involve a greater variety of equipment than online training or education, for as the name implies, "online" involves using the Internet or an Intranet. CD-ROM and DVD can be used to provide learning materials.
Distance education provided the base for e-learning's development. E-learning can be "on demand". It overcomes timing, attendance and travel difficulties.
An e-journey is one type of e-learning or online training. Blended learning is e-learning combined with other training methods.
The delivery of a learning, training or education program by electronic means.
E-learning involves the use of a computer or electronic device (e.g. a mobile phone) in some way to provide training, educational or learning material. (Derek Stockley 2003)
E-learning can involve a greater variety of equipment than online training or education, for as the name implies, "online" involves using the Internet or an Intranet. CD-ROM and DVD can be used to provide learning materials.
Distance education provided the base for e-learning's development. E-learning can be "on demand". It overcomes timing, attendance and travel difficulties.
An e-journey is one type of e-learning or online training. Blended learning is e-learning combined with other training methods.
Julie and Julia
After going to the movies and seeing 'Julie and Julia', I felt inspired to write about it.
The movie is a real story of a girl 'Julia', Too old for theatre, too young for children, and too bitter for anything else, Julie Powell was looking for a challenge. And in the Julie/Julia project she found it. Risking her marriage, her job, and her cats’ well-being, she has signed on for a deranged assignment.
365 days. 536 recipes. One girl and a crappy outer borough kitchen.
Along the way, Julia documents her finding and journey through her blog space and the amount of feedback she recieves was overwhelming.
Example of blog:
http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/
Case Study: SL
Case Study: Second Life Addiction.
Saurin - I am an SL recovering addict. I have an addictive personality - recovered from alcoholism 15 years ago but always played internet games. This one took me into realms of fantasy I never imagined were possible, or interesting to me - a black lesbian dominatrix with sex slaves (I am a middle aged man). I have spent the best part of a year 4-5 hours per day online. Lost my job, kept my wife and family - barely. I do not critisize the medium - really it is my own predisposition (addiction) which led me there. I only wish to point out the dangers there are for people like me and also the apparent lack of support groups. Alcoholics Anonymous is not too hard to find if you have a drinking problem. There are few such resources available for those with online gaming addictions.
Sheridan: Yes, it’s true, it took over my life. SECOND LIFE was basically my first life. I basically couldn’t turn the game off. Virtual shopping seemed to curb my taste for my real life shopping addiction. If you don’t play many games, none of this will make sense to you. But, I am sure some of you are sitting there nodding your head! I stopped answering my phone, which, it doesn’t ring anymore. I rarely answered my text messages. I have friends ive not seen in I don’t know how long. My best friend would complain to me non stop about me living in my virtual world and I thought she didn’t know what she was talking about. She barely speaks to me now. I had landed myself in trouble in my real life and it was a nice escape into a world where no one knew my real life issues. I threw myself into the game... obsessed with making lindens, having a sexy avatar, dating the sexiest male avatar, which turned out was a girl! I have beautiful homes in my inventory, I have animals in my inventory, you name it, Second life has it. Yes, Even SEX. But we won’t go into that. As it’s only a small part. I spent many many hours in the game... I didn’t want to leave my house. Second life, became my FIRST life. People log in and get virtual jobs, and virtual lives, and I am sure I am not the only one who let their first life slide. SO! DONT get so wrapped up in the game.... It has been 3 days since I have logged in, my friends in the game are texting me to make sure I am ok. Perhaps later I will log in for an hour or so.... perhaps not.... don’t let this happen to you..... Take it from an addict.... it can control and ruin your real life.....
Chady: I got addicted big time on Second Life, I used to play 12 hours stretch every day and up to 18 hours in weekend. Results? I lost control over myself at home and at work. When my wife was about to leave the house and things went on rage not to mention my performance at work... I had to wake up. One day, 3 months ago, I swore not to start second life during the week days at all and to play only 48 hours total in the weekend. I never broker that since then. My wife is happy, I am healthier, and I am back to good productive level at work.
One online activity that can lead to Problematic Internet Use (PIU) is participating in the online phenomena known as Second Life. Second Life, created by a small boutique company in San Francisco has elements that can make it an addictive online space that can be problematic for many people. It is basically an online world where people can create avatars of themselves and hold a “second” life online. According to an internet blog about Second Life addiction, “you simply roam around, chat with people, play games, buy land, build homes, create objects you may want to sell for the local currency (Linden Dollars) and so on.” Caplan (2003) describes problematic internet use as being excessive, where people exceed their planned amount of time online, and compulsive, where people cannot control their online activity and have guilt about their lack of control. Therefore, certain people display both of these factors when they are on Second Life, qualifying it to be a problematic use of Internet.
A few aspects that make Second Life problematic are explained by Davis et. al. (2002)’s individual factors such as social comfort and diminished impulse control. Social comfort is when one uses Internet as a tool to increase one’s social network. One of the features on Second Life that exhibits this is how you can have people over and play games with them. Furthermore, diminished impulse control can be seen when some people blow off their children and jobs to spend more time on this “fantasy life”.
One of the factors that make Second Life to be addictive is that a user has to be online at all times to play the game and interact with others. Wallace explains this property of the internet as being maintenance of virtual presence, where one has to be in the virtual space to control characters or support other team members. I saw an example of this being problematic when one of my friend explained to me how his neighbor would not take care of her kids because and ignored her kid various times just to play this game. Also, I found another example of this on a Second Life blog which stated, “My wife has been staying up all night on SL. Worse, she has started lying about it…Recently she missed work to sleep all day because she was on SL all night.”
Caplan (2003)’s model, “suggests that lonely and depressed individuals may develop a preference for online social interaction, which, in turn, leads to negative outcomes associated with their Internet use.” (pg 625) This does hold true for Second Life as it gives individuals chance to create their own characters, displaying greater control over self presentation, and through CMC chat they can have more anonymity. If one is depressed and lonely they will hold negative perception about their social competence and Second Life gives them a chance to present themselves in an anonymous way.
Moreover, this interaction can lead to a viscous cycle and present a problematic internet usage which will affect their school, life and work environment. And by reading the blog examples given above we do know that interactions on Second Life do affect real life for some people.
All in all, Second Life is a very fun but addictive tool where one can get absorbed and forget their real life. A unique property of this space is how closely it resembles real life, since people can have jobs, houses and even friends on this space. As one blogger puts it, “In the past few days, my character has bought land, designed and built a home, had guests over, gone to a strip club, gone to a dance club, bid for new land in an auction, participated in movie trivia games for Linden Dollars, and much more.”
What a life!
Reference:
Caplan. S, 2003, Problematic Internet use and psychosocial well-being among MMO players, University of Delware, USA.
Davis et al., 2002, ‘Validation of a new scale for measuring problematic internet use: implications for pre-employment screening’, Cyberpsychology Behavior, vol 5, no 4, pp.331-345
Saurin - I am an SL recovering addict. I have an addictive personality - recovered from alcoholism 15 years ago but always played internet games. This one took me into realms of fantasy I never imagined were possible, or interesting to me - a black lesbian dominatrix with sex slaves (I am a middle aged man). I have spent the best part of a year 4-5 hours per day online. Lost my job, kept my wife and family - barely. I do not critisize the medium - really it is my own predisposition (addiction) which led me there. I only wish to point out the dangers there are for people like me and also the apparent lack of support groups. Alcoholics Anonymous is not too hard to find if you have a drinking problem. There are few such resources available for those with online gaming addictions.
Sheridan: Yes, it’s true, it took over my life. SECOND LIFE was basically my first life. I basically couldn’t turn the game off. Virtual shopping seemed to curb my taste for my real life shopping addiction. If you don’t play many games, none of this will make sense to you. But, I am sure some of you are sitting there nodding your head! I stopped answering my phone, which, it doesn’t ring anymore. I rarely answered my text messages. I have friends ive not seen in I don’t know how long. My best friend would complain to me non stop about me living in my virtual world and I thought she didn’t know what she was talking about. She barely speaks to me now. I had landed myself in trouble in my real life and it was a nice escape into a world where no one knew my real life issues. I threw myself into the game... obsessed with making lindens, having a sexy avatar, dating the sexiest male avatar, which turned out was a girl! I have beautiful homes in my inventory, I have animals in my inventory, you name it, Second life has it. Yes, Even SEX. But we won’t go into that. As it’s only a small part. I spent many many hours in the game... I didn’t want to leave my house. Second life, became my FIRST life. People log in and get virtual jobs, and virtual lives, and I am sure I am not the only one who let their first life slide. SO! DONT get so wrapped up in the game.... It has been 3 days since I have logged in, my friends in the game are texting me to make sure I am ok. Perhaps later I will log in for an hour or so.... perhaps not.... don’t let this happen to you..... Take it from an addict.... it can control and ruin your real life.....
Chady: I got addicted big time on Second Life, I used to play 12 hours stretch every day and up to 18 hours in weekend. Results? I lost control over myself at home and at work. When my wife was about to leave the house and things went on rage not to mention my performance at work... I had to wake up. One day, 3 months ago, I swore not to start second life during the week days at all and to play only 48 hours total in the weekend. I never broker that since then. My wife is happy, I am healthier, and I am back to good productive level at work.
One online activity that can lead to Problematic Internet Use (PIU) is participating in the online phenomena known as Second Life. Second Life, created by a small boutique company in San Francisco has elements that can make it an addictive online space that can be problematic for many people. It is basically an online world where people can create avatars of themselves and hold a “second” life online. According to an internet blog about Second Life addiction, “you simply roam around, chat with people, play games, buy land, build homes, create objects you may want to sell for the local currency (Linden Dollars) and so on.” Caplan (2003) describes problematic internet use as being excessive, where people exceed their planned amount of time online, and compulsive, where people cannot control their online activity and have guilt about their lack of control. Therefore, certain people display both of these factors when they are on Second Life, qualifying it to be a problematic use of Internet.
A few aspects that make Second Life problematic are explained by Davis et. al. (2002)’s individual factors such as social comfort and diminished impulse control. Social comfort is when one uses Internet as a tool to increase one’s social network. One of the features on Second Life that exhibits this is how you can have people over and play games with them. Furthermore, diminished impulse control can be seen when some people blow off their children and jobs to spend more time on this “fantasy life”.
One of the factors that make Second Life to be addictive is that a user has to be online at all times to play the game and interact with others. Wallace explains this property of the internet as being maintenance of virtual presence, where one has to be in the virtual space to control characters or support other team members. I saw an example of this being problematic when one of my friend explained to me how his neighbor would not take care of her kids because and ignored her kid various times just to play this game. Also, I found another example of this on a Second Life blog which stated, “My wife has been staying up all night on SL. Worse, she has started lying about it…Recently she missed work to sleep all day because she was on SL all night.”
Caplan (2003)’s model, “suggests that lonely and depressed individuals may develop a preference for online social interaction, which, in turn, leads to negative outcomes associated with their Internet use.” (pg 625) This does hold true for Second Life as it gives individuals chance to create their own characters, displaying greater control over self presentation, and through CMC chat they can have more anonymity. If one is depressed and lonely they will hold negative perception about their social competence and Second Life gives them a chance to present themselves in an anonymous way.
Moreover, this interaction can lead to a viscous cycle and present a problematic internet usage which will affect their school, life and work environment. And by reading the blog examples given above we do know that interactions on Second Life do affect real life for some people.
All in all, Second Life is a very fun but addictive tool where one can get absorbed and forget their real life. A unique property of this space is how closely it resembles real life, since people can have jobs, houses and even friends on this space. As one blogger puts it, “In the past few days, my character has bought land, designed and built a home, had guests over, gone to a strip club, gone to a dance club, bid for new land in an auction, participated in movie trivia games for Linden Dollars, and much more.”
What a life!
Reference:
Caplan. S, 2003, Problematic Internet use and psychosocial well-being among MMO players, University of Delware, USA.
Davis et al., 2002, ‘Validation of a new scale for measuring problematic internet use: implications for pre-employment screening’, Cyberpsychology Behavior, vol 5, no 4, pp.331-345
SL experimentation:
So, for experimental fun I have created 2 Avatars.1. Depicting my real life self: short brown hair, boots, black mini dress.. I am trying to capture my "newtown" look.2. I have chosen to go the complete opposite: male, tall, large.I have done this to see what it would be like to be treated as my second avatar compared to my own and it has definatly been interesting.. I have found myself taking on the role of a male in a virtual society with no rules or restrictions and I am not going to lie: I'm having a great time!Second Life has really opened my eyes to the brilliance of modern technology.Now, excuse me while I try to tune a "girl" from america and ask her for a dance.
Case Study: SECOND LIFE!
What is Second Life?
Launched in 2003 by Linden Lab, Second Life is the largest virtual world with 10's of thousands of million square meters of virtual land. We make personal Avatars which spend time in the vast amount of locations that have been created for the purpose of education, socializing, entertainment and commerce.
Why is Second Life significant?
The attraction for many academics and researches is the extent to which the environment serves as a legitamate surrogate for the real world. This allows users to inhabit persona's and situations which are unavailable to them. For example, a middle aged man can become a young hip woman for the day at which they can be exposed to attitudes and behaviours that a person of that gender might experience in the real world.
How does it Work?
Firstly, one must install the Second Life application. Then one must create a personal avatar and name. These avatars are able to be changed at any time and creating new options are available as well as buying new props such as a guitar. One can buy linden money (virtual money) where an avatar can buy land, go shopping and spend money. Avatars are able to chat, teleport, walk, fly, use gestures such as wave, dance and sit. Avatars can do all that we can and more...
Peace out. Alex.
Launched in 2003 by Linden Lab, Second Life is the largest virtual world with 10's of thousands of million square meters of virtual land. We make personal Avatars which spend time in the vast amount of locations that have been created for the purpose of education, socializing, entertainment and commerce.
Why is Second Life significant?
The attraction for many academics and researches is the extent to which the environment serves as a legitamate surrogate for the real world. This allows users to inhabit persona's and situations which are unavailable to them. For example, a middle aged man can become a young hip woman for the day at which they can be exposed to attitudes and behaviours that a person of that gender might experience in the real world.
How does it Work?
Firstly, one must install the Second Life application. Then one must create a personal avatar and name. These avatars are able to be changed at any time and creating new options are available as well as buying new props such as a guitar. One can buy linden money (virtual money) where an avatar can buy land, go shopping and spend money. Avatars are able to chat, teleport, walk, fly, use gestures such as wave, dance and sit. Avatars can do all that we can and more...
Peace out. Alex.
Baking Outcome: SUCCESS!
Overall, my baking course was simply divine.
Not only did it succeed my expectations as the course was surprisingly interactive and got my whole family involved in the baking partaking BUT our house has never smelt so good!What I managed to bake (yes, I am also surprised by my ability..)
1. Triple layer chocolate cake with Rick Chocolate Frosting.
2. Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
3. Bittersweet chocolate tart with chocolate crust.
Ps. My apologies to my e-learning class for not bringing in any of my accomplishments but you can thank my brother dearest.
Not only did it succeed my expectations as the course was surprisingly interactive and got my whole family involved in the baking partaking BUT our house has never smelt so good!What I managed to bake (yes, I am also surprised by my ability..)
1. Triple layer chocolate cake with Rick Chocolate Frosting.
2. Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
3. Bittersweet chocolate tart with chocolate crust.
Ps. My apologies to my e-learning class for not bringing in any of my accomplishments but you can thank my brother dearest.
E-learning: Pedagogical Perspective.
Course:
Chef2Chef Culinary Practical Guide to Practically Everything.
The course that I chose was that of a baking course. I entered this course with little expectations as I doubted my ability although I was surprised by the amount of material, technology, interactivity and feedback available. Through further investigation into the baking course I was thrilled to discover the sources that where available as well as critique and reflect on the effectiveness of the course through its learning style aspects through aural, visual and write/read. And this further allowed me to explore and discover more effective ways in the delivery of the course through its learning styles so that learners of all different learning styles where able to fully thrive in their learning experience.
This baking course was very efficient in its supplied area of support through material as it allowed a large range of interactivity through blogs and forums available which allowed a great opportunity to gain feedback. According to Professor Stephen Heppell (2009) “we are living in a world now where people swap their learning and technology allows us to swap our learning around the world”. This is evident through the blogs and forums that are a vital contribution in the effectiveness of the course as it allows individuals to enter regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events and outcomes while allowing opportunities of combining text with images and videos. This baking course provides a wonderful opportunity for learners to blog their success and failure stories, provide tips, descriptions and advice to those who are struggling through the means of feedback. The blogs are also categorized for individual learners depending on their interests, hobbies and identity. For example, Chef2Chef offers blogs for ‘Communities’ so the learner can gain valuable advice from tips as to where to eat to tips and advice on a successful upside down pineapple cake. There is also a student blog where students are able to post their experiences and offer advice for beautiful budget meals for the average poor university student.
Forums are also available for further knowledge and interactivity within learners. Cooking Forums include:
· Ask a baker: this allows learners to ask baking questions through the forum and a professional chef will respond on the wall post so others are able to gain access into the information. For curiosity sake and to evaluate the effectiveness of this forum I posted a question on the difference between using plain flour and self raising flour while baking my sponge cake and was delightfully surprised by the amount of feedback I received. Not only did I receive a well-thought out reply by the professional volunteer baker but I also received comments by other course users and learners.
· Recipe Swaps: allows learners to swap their favorite, simple and successful recipes.
· Serious Cooks: allows learners to meet up with other serious home cooks to talk about other non- pro issues.
· Healthy Cooking: allows learners to ask questions and share tips on healthy recipes.
These forums are effective in allowing interactivity between learners so they are able to discuss, compare and evaluate their cooking outcomes as well as gain valuable feedback through sharing their information. Alan R. Roper (2007) outlines the importance of online discussion as a significant shift for students accustomed to in-class discussion “as it provides opportunities for richer discourse through written discussion that allows students to spend time crafting their responses”. Therefore gaining a broader cooking knowledge while allowing learners to meet new individuals who hold similar passions and interests.
The Chef2Chef baking course was successful in catering for different learning styles although it obviously suited some learning styles more then others. If the learner’s personal learning style is that of Writing/Reading then this course is most effective.
This is most obviously evident through its use of headings and listing (source 1):
Cake:
3 oz good quality unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1/2 cup water
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups sifted cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
As well as its use of definitions (source 2): Sponge Cake Definition: A light porous cake made with eggs and flour and sugar without shortening.
As well as its use of notes (source 3):
Notes: Cakes
Baking cakes is not as daunting as many people believe, but to be successful at it you need to have patience and a basic understanding of the ingredients you are using. It is imperative that you follow recipes exactly because how the ingredients are handled and how they are combined will affect the quality and final outcome of your cake. The basic ingredients for most cakes are flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and often some type of chemical leavening such as baking powder or baking soda. From there, other ingredients and flavourings are added and all of these are factors that determine what type of cake you create. Cakes can be divided into two general categories--foam cakes and shortened or butter cakes.
From this the learner is able to re-write principles and ideas into their own words and therefore this course is a perfect experience for those learners who strive in the read/write category as the course is set out for the learner as the webpage has an emphasis on words and lists and the meaning lies within the words.
Although for a Read/Write learner this course is of much value, the Chef2Chef baking course did not incorporate a very effective learning experience to those learners who are able to learn more effectively through aural study strategies and this includes me as an aural learner. While doing this course I was interested in its lack of aural communication as there were no opportunities to openly discuss my baking process. For a more effective aural movement the course could provide:
An aural demonstration of the recipe where one could listen as someone reads out the recipe for you.
An aural description of the visuals for the learner.
Perhaps offer a hotline where one could call the course manufacturers and other learners where one could discuss topics, gain feedback and explain new ideas that could contribute to the course.
Through allowing this the learner could expand their notes and knowledge by actively talking and engaging with others and sharing baking experiences and feedback to make it a more interactive learning experience. Through listening to the recipes and advice being read aloud the learner is able to listen to the instructions and write down notes and ideas as well as allow knowledge to sink in through speaking the process aloud and discussing.
The visual learner will also not benefit as much as the course is not very visually stimulating. What the Chef2Chef baking course did offer in the visual sense is a photo of the end product of each of the recipes as to allow guidance for the learner. As well as a link called ‘Eye Candy: Food photos’ where learners are able to search through the photos of recipes and gain inspiration. Other visually inspired methods that could have been incorporated are:
Perhaps allowing a step by step photo log of each ingredient being incorporated so that the learner is able to visually watch the teaching process and hence gain a greater visually enhanced perception.
Incorporate links that allow video footage of the baker baking the cake.
Allowing the webpage to be set out in slides so the visual learner can reconstruct the images in different and more effective ways.
Incorporating flow charts instead of having the recipe in the traditional logically sequenced manner.
Using symbols, initial, jargon, underlining, highlighting, bolding and using different colors.
Using all of these methods above would allow a greater opportunity for those visual learners as it would help reconstruct the images in different ways and allow the learner to redraw the text from memory.
In reflection, the course was extremely interactive, suiting a range of different learning styles and gave the learner plenty of opportunities to broaden their knowledge in the baking field.
Reference:
Alan R. Roper (2007), ‘How students develop online learning skills’, http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/HowStudentsDevelopOnlineLearni/157435
Chef2Chef Culinary Portal, http://www.chef2chef.net/learn-to-cook/
Source 1: http://www.chef2chef.net/featured_recipes/chocolate-cake-frosting.php
Source 2: http://www.chef2chef.net/featured_recipes/chocolate-cake-frosting.php
Source 3: http://www.chef2chef.net/learn-to-cook/cooking-class-desserts.php
Neil Flemming, (2001-2009), ‘VARK: A guide to learning styles’, http://www.vark-learn.com/english/index.asp
Professor Stephen Heppell, 2009, ‘The Future of Learning’ http://www.heppell.net, United Kingdom
Chef2Chef Culinary Practical Guide to Practically Everything.
The course that I chose was that of a baking course. I entered this course with little expectations as I doubted my ability although I was surprised by the amount of material, technology, interactivity and feedback available. Through further investigation into the baking course I was thrilled to discover the sources that where available as well as critique and reflect on the effectiveness of the course through its learning style aspects through aural, visual and write/read. And this further allowed me to explore and discover more effective ways in the delivery of the course through its learning styles so that learners of all different learning styles where able to fully thrive in their learning experience.
This baking course was very efficient in its supplied area of support through material as it allowed a large range of interactivity through blogs and forums available which allowed a great opportunity to gain feedback. According to Professor Stephen Heppell (2009) “we are living in a world now where people swap their learning and technology allows us to swap our learning around the world”. This is evident through the blogs and forums that are a vital contribution in the effectiveness of the course as it allows individuals to enter regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events and outcomes while allowing opportunities of combining text with images and videos. This baking course provides a wonderful opportunity for learners to blog their success and failure stories, provide tips, descriptions and advice to those who are struggling through the means of feedback. The blogs are also categorized for individual learners depending on their interests, hobbies and identity. For example, Chef2Chef offers blogs for ‘Communities’ so the learner can gain valuable advice from tips as to where to eat to tips and advice on a successful upside down pineapple cake. There is also a student blog where students are able to post their experiences and offer advice for beautiful budget meals for the average poor university student.
Forums are also available for further knowledge and interactivity within learners. Cooking Forums include:
· Ask a baker: this allows learners to ask baking questions through the forum and a professional chef will respond on the wall post so others are able to gain access into the information. For curiosity sake and to evaluate the effectiveness of this forum I posted a question on the difference between using plain flour and self raising flour while baking my sponge cake and was delightfully surprised by the amount of feedback I received. Not only did I receive a well-thought out reply by the professional volunteer baker but I also received comments by other course users and learners.
· Recipe Swaps: allows learners to swap their favorite, simple and successful recipes.
· Serious Cooks: allows learners to meet up with other serious home cooks to talk about other non- pro issues.
· Healthy Cooking: allows learners to ask questions and share tips on healthy recipes.
These forums are effective in allowing interactivity between learners so they are able to discuss, compare and evaluate their cooking outcomes as well as gain valuable feedback through sharing their information. Alan R. Roper (2007) outlines the importance of online discussion as a significant shift for students accustomed to in-class discussion “as it provides opportunities for richer discourse through written discussion that allows students to spend time crafting their responses”. Therefore gaining a broader cooking knowledge while allowing learners to meet new individuals who hold similar passions and interests.
The Chef2Chef baking course was successful in catering for different learning styles although it obviously suited some learning styles more then others. If the learner’s personal learning style is that of Writing/Reading then this course is most effective.
This is most obviously evident through its use of headings and listing (source 1):
Cake:
3 oz good quality unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1/2 cup water
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups sifted cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
As well as its use of definitions (source 2): Sponge Cake Definition: A light porous cake made with eggs and flour and sugar without shortening.
As well as its use of notes (source 3):
Notes: Cakes
Baking cakes is not as daunting as many people believe, but to be successful at it you need to have patience and a basic understanding of the ingredients you are using. It is imperative that you follow recipes exactly because how the ingredients are handled and how they are combined will affect the quality and final outcome of your cake. The basic ingredients for most cakes are flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and often some type of chemical leavening such as baking powder or baking soda. From there, other ingredients and flavourings are added and all of these are factors that determine what type of cake you create. Cakes can be divided into two general categories--foam cakes and shortened or butter cakes.
From this the learner is able to re-write principles and ideas into their own words and therefore this course is a perfect experience for those learners who strive in the read/write category as the course is set out for the learner as the webpage has an emphasis on words and lists and the meaning lies within the words.
Although for a Read/Write learner this course is of much value, the Chef2Chef baking course did not incorporate a very effective learning experience to those learners who are able to learn more effectively through aural study strategies and this includes me as an aural learner. While doing this course I was interested in its lack of aural communication as there were no opportunities to openly discuss my baking process. For a more effective aural movement the course could provide:
An aural demonstration of the recipe where one could listen as someone reads out the recipe for you.
An aural description of the visuals for the learner.
Perhaps offer a hotline where one could call the course manufacturers and other learners where one could discuss topics, gain feedback and explain new ideas that could contribute to the course.
Through allowing this the learner could expand their notes and knowledge by actively talking and engaging with others and sharing baking experiences and feedback to make it a more interactive learning experience. Through listening to the recipes and advice being read aloud the learner is able to listen to the instructions and write down notes and ideas as well as allow knowledge to sink in through speaking the process aloud and discussing.
The visual learner will also not benefit as much as the course is not very visually stimulating. What the Chef2Chef baking course did offer in the visual sense is a photo of the end product of each of the recipes as to allow guidance for the learner. As well as a link called ‘Eye Candy: Food photos’ where learners are able to search through the photos of recipes and gain inspiration. Other visually inspired methods that could have been incorporated are:
Perhaps allowing a step by step photo log of each ingredient being incorporated so that the learner is able to visually watch the teaching process and hence gain a greater visually enhanced perception.
Incorporate links that allow video footage of the baker baking the cake.
Allowing the webpage to be set out in slides so the visual learner can reconstruct the images in different and more effective ways.
Incorporating flow charts instead of having the recipe in the traditional logically sequenced manner.
Using symbols, initial, jargon, underlining, highlighting, bolding and using different colors.
Using all of these methods above would allow a greater opportunity for those visual learners as it would help reconstruct the images in different ways and allow the learner to redraw the text from memory.
In reflection, the course was extremely interactive, suiting a range of different learning styles and gave the learner plenty of opportunities to broaden their knowledge in the baking field.
Reference:
Alan R. Roper (2007), ‘How students develop online learning skills’, http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/HowStudentsDevelopOnlineLearni/157435
Chef2Chef Culinary Portal, http://www.chef2chef.net/learn-to-cook/
Source 1: http://www.chef2chef.net/featured_recipes/chocolate-cake-frosting.php
Source 2: http://www.chef2chef.net/featured_recipes/chocolate-cake-frosting.php
Source 3: http://www.chef2chef.net/learn-to-cook/cooking-class-desserts.php
Neil Flemming, (2001-2009), ‘VARK: A guide to learning styles’, http://www.vark-learn.com/english/index.asp
Professor Stephen Heppell, 2009, ‘The Future of Learning’ http://www.heppell.net, United Kingdom
Discovering the wonders of online learning courses:
So - I just discovered that my baking course has many options for blogs and forums.Amazing?Amazing.Some of them consist of:Community Blogs,Student BlogsInteractive blogs and chats such as 'Ask a Chef'and many many more...
Assignment One: What to do, what to do...
So - For my e-learning course I have decided to further my skills in the art of baking!Expectations: Well, as I am a terrible chef (just ask my brother..) I have decided I am going to take up the challenging task of learning how to bake. I feel that learning how to bake via internet will be most rewarding as firstly, the recipes will be there for me and secondly, I wont have anyone to tell me how ridiculously shocking I am when the cake suddenly explodes in the oven..I'll keep you updated on the disasters and hey, if you're "lucky" I'll bring some of my experiments into class for you all.
Things one must consider during ones E-learning journey...
How I am going in the course as a whole.
Subject outline.
Assignment 1 and 2
PLE
Do another PLE after knowing
Main: resources to digital portfolios.
Add blogsORUTS online - modify content, top right, my e-portfolio site, submit.
View, create e-portfolio
.Look up case studies for e-learningEmail Karen and ask if she has any projects.
Ning - for better or for worse? did it work?
Julie and Julia. Blogs.
Subject outline.
Assignment 1 and 2
PLE
Do another PLE after knowing
Main: resources to digital portfolios.
Add blogsORUTS online - modify content, top right, my e-portfolio site, submit.
View, create e-portfolio
.Look up case studies for e-learningEmail Karen and ask if she has any projects.
Ning - for better or for worse? did it work?
Julie and Julia. Blogs.
My PLE
I find that I am able to learn and study far better when I am outdoors. There is something about being out in the sun and listening to music that really gets me in my studying zen.In this photo, you can see my 'study essentials':
1. my laptop - usually opened to microsoft, google scholar and uts online
2. generally a lot of books splattered everywhere
3. a dictionary
4. my phone
5. my ipod - which is a must as music is vital as background noise and I find that I listen to a lot of 60's music whilst studying such as 'The Kinks', 'The Turtles' or 'The Beatles'.
6. pillows - so I can relax and read
7. nuts - as a healthy and stimulating snack
8. coffee - lots of it!!!
9. my cat - he (gaston) tends to follow me everywhere and has become a wonderful studying partner.
In reflection: As studying is a boring task it has become obvious to me that I am trying to manipulate the situation by combining a tedious experience with things that I do enjoy - such as nuts, the sun and music. This combination has enabled me to study efficiently while enjoying myself at the same time.
1. my laptop - usually opened to microsoft, google scholar and uts online
2. generally a lot of books splattered everywhere
3. a dictionary
4. my phone
5. my ipod - which is a must as music is vital as background noise and I find that I listen to a lot of 60's music whilst studying such as 'The Kinks', 'The Turtles' or 'The Beatles'.
6. pillows - so I can relax and read
7. nuts - as a healthy and stimulating snack
8. coffee - lots of it!!!
9. my cat - he (gaston) tends to follow me everywhere and has become a wonderful studying partner.
In reflection: As studying is a boring task it has become obvious to me that I am trying to manipulate the situation by combining a tedious experience with things that I do enjoy - such as nuts, the sun and music. This combination has enabled me to study efficiently while enjoying myself at the same time.
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