Topic: 5 Reflections of lessons learn't & Future Practice

Topic 5- Lessons learn't & Future Practice

It has definitely been a learning journey with some interesting "twists and turns".

The long and winding road of ONL 181

The topics that we participated in ONL181 as PBL3  were:

• digital literacies,

• openness and sharing,

•  networking, 

• collaboration, 

• course design 

As I reflect on this course and its topic, I began to visualize myself in the picture travelling on a long, winding road; not knowing what to expect at every turn. 

At the beginning of the course, I proceeded with caution as it was my first time engaging in an online course with people from around the world. This mean't that I had to become open-minded to embracing the blended learning concept of teaching and learning perspectives from other countries. I think that Topic 2: Openness and sharing,  prompted me to share and interact with my group members more than usual. The webinars were really useful as well and I was amazed at how much more there was to learn out there in the digital world. 

I think that networking whether it be on social media or ONL 181, exposes an individual to other individual's views and expertise in certain areas of online learning. Our facilitators Alastair and Janus always guided and gave us valuable insight on our discussions and presentations. It is great to connect with people from other countries using Skype or zoom meetings and opens up another form of online communication and interaction about the different topics. 

I especially enjoyed the Topic 3: Collaboration which has been a teaching and learning strategy that would like to explore further in my lectures with students. I think that it is more than just interacting in a group but coming together as a team and sharing information with the greater online community. It was also great to discuss ideas and to brainstorm on the different presentations that we had to post online. It was always a team effort and will continue to encourage students to be interactive and engaged even in an online space. Also, one has to be aware of online etiquette; that you have to be respectful of others in your group and aware of what and how you communicate to others so that the presentation becomes a team effort.

Topic 4 : Course Design was a challenging topic and it took a while for us as a team to discuss and agree on a strategy to present the topic. As most of us had been involved in course design, there was more brainstorming as usual as we had to combine all our experiences and expertise to produce a course design together. It turned out really great in the end. 

I will also be using some digital tools to enrich my lectures with students for example flip grid, popplet, coggle and padlet. I also intend to explore other digital tools especially gamification and the awarding of digital certificates or badges as rewards for online assessments and activities. I think that students could become motivated towards learning more in their course content if an element of fun is included! There are also various teaching and learning models and e-learning, that I would like to research and also apply to my learning designs to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom with my students.

In conclusion, I have learned more about engaging in an online collaboratively with others who share the same passion for teaching and learning in an online community and what it really means to be a digitally literate individual!