Well I am all set for E856

Unable to make the first online tutorial but thanks to another a recorded elluminate session I was able to get the general idea of the course. One week into the course and as usual the national forum has already become to busy with far too many postings. It tends to set the fear of panic as some students seem way ahead already, I can't believe they are reading all this or they must have far too much time on their hands.

E856 Journal Of Learning Many of the links referred to below are restricted for my own use but nevertheless this should give an idea of how I am organised and setup for online study.

I am finally all organised and have read session 1 and given some thought to my Journal my Symbaloo page is set up I have decided to use an Online Google Document as my Journal to store key points from learning which combined with my Diigo references and blog Postings should form my journal of learning . The forum message feeds have been added to my Google Reader feed and this will make searching and staying informed a lot easier without having to find my way through all the forum messages. Piecing all this together is my MAODE ePortfolio which has grown to be invaluable over the past few years.

I have also added a few additional Google Docs to be used in preparation for the TMAs

TMA01,

TMA02
TMA03

And the Project notes
Guidance Sheet
Project Ideas

Well that's me organised, what ever you are studying this year, Good Luck.

Societal Culture

Activity 2.4

Think of one aspect of your national societal culture and one aspect of your local or community culture. Make notes on the values, rituals, artefacts and symbols that sustain each of them. What behaviours do they appear to support?
My first thoughts on this, it made more sense to splash my ideas on a diagram rather than try and write too much on this. The interesting thing here is I have gone off at a tangent. I may have to revisit this once the activity kicks off, forgive the pun.

Exploring Societal Culture

Onwards and upwards.

H800 draws to a close EMA has been submitted and its time to reflect on what has been a fast and furious course. There was an awful lot of reading and trying to fit it all into a busy life / work schedule has been difficult. I am note sure how well I have managed to cover all the detail in the EMA and part 4 for me became a hard slog but its done and should meet the minimum requirements.

There was certainly a lot of evidence I could use for the  Part A thanks to the superb collaboration within the conference this year. It has been fun sharing ideas with a group of students that have been prepared to share ideas and experiences so freely so a big thanks here. We wrap up with a pyjama party on Google + tuesday night (hopefully I can make this).

I now have a new friend, a reader that has just arrived through the post for my next course. E856 Educational Leadership, this looks a dry course compared to H800 and some of my previous courses but I am looking forward to the course. Interesting how the TMAs all involve group activity in the conference which is one difficulty some of my students have on T215 it certainly might help me get a student perspective. I think I deserve a rest couple of days off before I start getting stuck into the material. But being a technology savvy learner I have just converted the reader and the course material into 'Mobibook' so I can read it on my Blackberry, not as good as an IPad I know. One problem I have had with H800 is getting through the reading and I think having the material on my phone will give me a chance to study in the small gaps during the day. Whereas some of my colleagues choose to have a smoke break or even a game of cards I should be able to top up my reading.

H800 Conference Activity

A busy year on H800 is coming to an end as we all sit typing up our End of Module Assessments (EMA) I thought I would take some data posted by  fellow student, Shaw (2011) and represent it graphically. It becomes clear to see how well this tutor group has engaged. Although as pointed out in the conference from week 12 onward personal blogs were also used it does give a good representation of the activity.

Thanks to all this activity there is plenty of evidence to call on for our justifications and arguments, so a big thankyou from me goes out to the rest of the group, all the best for your EMA.

Shaw,P. (2011) H800 Tutor Group Forum, EMA Tutor Group Forum, Just sharing something, 13 September 2011, 17:43.

Why 'Jing' is so useful?

Here I am fighting my way through an EMA and up pops an email, one of my students is struggling to compress his report to the size required by the OU eTMA system. I know the problem he needs to compress his pictures. But I am working on my assignment and want to get on with it.

• Do I ring him and try to explain over the phone?
• Do I try and pop it in an email?
• No I am going to 'Jing' him. (Stop laughing)

What surely if time is tight I hear you say, its going to take longer to create a video to explain how to do it. Well this is where you are wrong, within 5 minutes the email returned contains a link to the following online video, which quickly explains how to overcome his problem.
Whats more this may help me on my assignment so time well spent I think.