Above: Sunset in the desert, Dubai 2015
At the start (June 2012)
I met Elna Van Niekerk at a UNISA workshop and for the past few years we tend to meet at workshops as she works on the Florida campus and my office is on the main campus. At the opening ceremony of the university, earlier this year, Elna was one of seven staff members who were congratulated on completing an online course and when the dean said that another course will be offered this year, I kept my eyes open. Due to the feedback I got from Elna, I decided that this is the way I want to enhance my learning and teaching skills.
But, when the call came and all the forms and certificates had to be copied and signed and submitted, I was attending a conference in Stellenbosch and Willem, my awesome husband, had to take care of it all.
Getting started was a challenge but I liked the setup. However, very early in the course, I had to leave my pc (and the courses) to present a paper at a conference in Europe.
When we came back, I had to work very hard to catch up. Within a few weeks, my view of distance education changed drastically. I always thought that Distance education equals the formula: facilitator + media (text, audio/video, electronic) + learners (see artifact page). However, things are never as simple as they seem. Working with this perception still in my mind, I struggled to make sense of the prescribed works. But then came the AHA! moment when I came across an article published in 2007 in Distance et saviors.(see Links page). For the first time I think I could gasp what these scholars are trying to communicate.
Halfway through (July 2012)
This course helped me to stop and think about things that never crossed my mind before. I did not think about the unique characteristics of distance education – to me it was enough to know that we do not have to spend time lecturing face-to-face to students (which suites me well because of my anti-social personality). But actually, distance education is quite unique (1)[1]. It is enriching to read the works of key authors and theorists and it is extremely challenging to attempt to analyse their contributions to the field (3).
Through the years, the roles of both facilitators and learners changed and developed (4) and are currently evolving extensively due to the impact of technological advances (6) of which we need to incorporate in our teaching and learning.
Different distance education institutions use different approaches (5) and it is important to keep in mind that these institutions are largely influenced by the social, political and economical situations in the country (2). UNISA started as a ‘correspondence’ university and although the university is trying to move forward, it should always keep in mind that we are ‘The African University in service of humanity’. The people of Africa are not the same as those in the United States or China, and we should always keep their needs in higher education in mind when looking at development and advancement.
The course is not only about gaining knowledge; it is also about developing skills. I know that I am not a social person, and one of the few who still do not have a Facebook page. I do not use Mixit or Twitter or any other social network. I only use my cell phone to contact my husband, mom and dad and my children. And if it rings and I do not know the number, I often do not answer – really. But through this course, I had to navigate and use social media and I finally realized that this is an important way to stay in contact with students (9).
Although I am used to do research, critical thinking, and creating content, I had to navigate and use online options to do this, which was a different and new experience to me (7,8).
And finally, when it comes to reflection, I am used to reflect on the course material and the responses of students, but it is a new and nice experience to be ‘forced’ to reflect (10) on the rollercoaster ride of learning that I was exposed to in the last few weeks. It is wonderful to be able to learn completely new things. The experience of panic in academic life was also new to me. I am not used to feelings of not being in control, or not coping. These emotions brought me (the anti social person) into contact with wonderful colleagues who I never knew before.
At this moment, I have to admit that this course helped me to make wonderful new friends. It also helped me to think differently and changed my approach to distance education. I have plans and visions to radically change the way I am teaching and the things I want to learn in the years to come.
End July 2012
Nine weeks into the course and we have covered the 3rd wave of distance education. We learned and reflected on the cognitive-behaviourist model of the first wave which relied on mass production of printed materials. The social constructivist model of the second wave was defined by the mass media such as audio and video. The connectivist pedagogical model of the 3rd wave built on interactive technologies. As Anderson and Dron say (2011:81 – see links page), none of these models has been eliminated and the availability of technologies has a huge influence on the choice of models used. The varied needs and circumstances of the 21st century learners - 1st world to 3rd world - determine that all three models be used.
The main actors in the definition of distance education did not change (institution, facilitator and student). However, their roles and the relationships between them are constantly changing. This is true when the three models are compared with each other. But there are also movements within each of these models, mostly due to the availability and development of technology that aide and simplify certain aspects of these models.
UNISA was founded on the cognitive-behaviourist model. The mass-media option were never really widely used at UNISA, but the development of electronic technology help to move the university into applying aan effective blended-learning and teaching model. Focusing on the main stakeholder; the UNISA students who are located all over the African continent (UNISA is the African University in service of humanity), the constant lack of connectivity and the high costs involved with internet connectivity in mind, the blended approach is currently serving as the best option.
Early August 2012
I am an individualist. I like to do things on my own and study (in the past) meant working alone. Group work normally frustrates me: Not everyone is pulling their weight. Some do not respond to tasks within the given time frames and some members do not deliver the standard of work which is required. But, sometimes you do not have a choice – like in this course. We were assigned to groups and given a project to complete. Luckily some of my team members are awesome people with great DE skills and experience, therefore it was an uplifting experience and I learned a lot from them. I am considering to incorporate a small group task for my post graduate students into their course material (a small group; they can all work together and the ‘weaker’ students will benefit much from the ‘stronger’ students who will also be able to transfer their skills to others – which is one of the critical outcomes of their course). This is a way of creating 'collaborative reflection space' (Canning & Callan 2010:74 - see resources page) for the students.
One of our assignments was the creation of a grid containing keywords under specific time-related headings (see my own incomplete grid on the artifacts page – I hope to complete it when completing the course). The fact that the basic headings were provided helped a lot since the content was totally new to me and I would have been lost if I had to create it without help and guidance.Personally I like working with a grid or mind map or keywords – this is the way I learned and remember things since primary school. It put the content that I need to learn into linkable units. But I also know that this is not working for everyone. My children often say that they cannot learn using this method. I think it is a matter of personal choice.
And lastly, I do think that my initial definition of DE is still applicable. I learned a lot about things that I, up to now, took for granted. And other things I ‘knew’ but I were not able to support my views. Now I know why I have chosen the specific content and also why it was necessary to expand and adjust some of my views.
Middle August 2012
For our final assignment in this course, we had to explain a theory and its application in Distance Education. After reading through the options, I decided to choose one of the options I know nothing about as this will stimulate my investigation and I will have the opportunity to direct my learning into a new field. I did not even know, up to that moment, that there is a word in the English language like ‘heutagogy’ and therefore decided to investigate this theory.
At the moment I already know that the term was coined by Stewart Hase and Chris Kenyon from Australia and that they used the foundation (andragogy) of Knowles (1970).
‘Heutagogy takes account of intuition and concepts such as ‘double loop learning’ that are not linear and not necessarily planned. It may well be that a person does not identify a learning need at all but identifies the potential to learn from a novel experience as a matter of course and recognises that opportunity to reflect on what has happened and see how it challenges, disconfirms or supports existing values and assumptions. Heutagogy includes aspects of capability, action learning processes such as reflection, environmental scanning as understood in Systems Theory, and valuing experience and interaction with others. It goes beyond problem solving by enabling proactivity.’
http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/pr/Heutagogy.html (3 August 2012).
And I also know that I was guided to make the right choice as I am very interested in the ‘why’ and ‘what’ and ‘when’ students (all people – life-long learning) study certain things. I look at our two awesome sons (not dedicated formal students but constantly learning and exploring) and marvel at their ways of learning. Both of them have an extensive knowledge of the trade routes and European explorations during the 16th century (they hated history when they were at school) because they got interested in the subject when they started to play a pc game.
I really wish I had more time to investigate and explore the life-long learning choices of people…
End of course: week 12
This was the most hectic 12 weeks of my study career so far. Maybe because there was so much else going on in my life. At the beginning of the year, I did not know that I would do this course and there was not much time left in my schedule to do this. However, it was a wonderful experience and if I have the choice, I will definitely do it again. I learned a lot and will continue to learn in the next few weeks as I plan to review everything at my own pace again. Still overwhelmed by all the info and things I really need to know but still do not have a clue about.
Today (only days before this course will end) I attended a workshop by Dr Charles Juwah from Schotland. He does not talk about DE or E learning or mobile learning. He used the word FLEXIBLE and I decided to change my weebly's name to Erna's space on flexible education (not learning because education means much more than just learning).
[1] Numbers in brackets indicate the outcomes listed for the OMDE601 course.
The next two courses.
The second semester brought new challenges. I registered for two UMUC courses that would run from September to December. This is challenging regarding time management and some times I do not cope with what I have to do because life and family are also taking their share. We also attended the first UNISA international conference on ODL and learned a lot.