Hejsan nätverk! The first topic of ONL 202 is now almost completed. This topic was focused on online participation and digital literacies. Our group, Group 13, has worked on a scenario about a teacher who is struggling to engage into digitalized participation in the context of an online course. The FISh (Focus – Investigate – Share) approach [1] has been employed for the analysis. Through online meetings, analysis tools and lots of brainstorming, the group was able to understand the challenges of digitalization in education.
This first topic has been a challenging but at the same time interesting activity, since, apart from the analysis itself, it required the establishment of communication channels and development of chemistry within the team. I believe it was successful!
While working on the topic, I’ve tried to put myself in the position of the confused teacher. At MDH, I work as Post-Doctoral Researcher, which also involves teaching. Sweden has anyway been up to date when it comes to online education, however, 2020 has been the year of transformation of many courses, from physical to digital. Although I am competent in terms of online participation and digital literacies in the work aspect, I’m realizing that I learn new things every day! Exciting! ONL is of course a major source of inspiration.
On the other hand, I’m someone who does not use social media in personal life, as I appreciate real contact and physical meetings. Equally, I enjoy teaching in the classroom and physically interacting with the learners. Hence, I still tend to be a bit skeptical about over-digitalizing education and personal life. Ι haven’t yet figured out what is best, but it is certainly a period of realization for all of us. And also an opportunity to discover the pros and cons of each side and perhaps, determine a better balance for the years to come.
[1] Beckingham, S. and Nerantzi, C., 2015. Scaling-up open CPD for teachers in higher education using a snowballing approach. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practices, 3(1), pp.109-121.
Stavros Vouros - ONL reflections 
You describe your journey as a group, digging into topic 1. It sounds like a good journey. You say you have established “chemistry”. What an interesting word to use in online learning; How did you as a group do that, what did individuals do, and what does this mean to you and to your learning do you think?
It is also inspiring to hear that you learn things every day. I’d really like to hear more about this: In what aspects? As a teacher? Becoming more resident in some respects? And if so, what aspects, and why?
You also say that you don’t use social media because you want to meet in person: Can’t you do both? And now with the corona-virus perhaps we cannot meet in person as much…? Are they really the opposite? Or are they intertwined? Or maybe intertwined for residents?… You say that you are skeptical about over-digitalization: In what aspects? What are the risks? You finish up with maybe the solution is a better balance.
-Thank you!
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Hej Lotta, your interesting remarks are more than appreciated 🙂 I can see some new space opening for lots of fruitful discussions! Thank you for checking my blog!
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We have a great group! Multitude of people brings a multitude of perspectives, but in addition to the content, the learning process itself teaches always something. This means the result is always something a bit different together than it could ever be alone.
The current situation is quite a test for the balance with digitalization, when so much is done remotely. It’s of course also a chance to learn, an opportunity to discover just like you say, so hopefully this time gives us something that is especially valuable and useful in the long run.
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Jukka, many thanks for taking the time to go through my post! Indeed, the situation today looks very much as a test and should be looked as an opportunity to come up with something better in the years to come!
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I agree with you that we developed social affiliation and collaborations in the group during our educational journey from topic 1 – 5, and we have learned many things about online education and learning during our journey.
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