Conversations in the CloudStrategies for Implementing Open Reflective Writing Experiences

Welcome to this three part course • Our goal is to explore ways in which we can enable open reflective

writing and debate with our students • You will have an opportunity to build a learning activity which makes

use of this technique• You will have an opportunity to take part in a collaborative reflective

writing community• We will then share our experiences implementing this within our

discipline

Image from Ng'ambi, D. (2010) Mobile Learning in Africa: a case of anonymous SMS http://www.slideshare.net/Ngambi1MLearning/

What has prompted this series?

• My own experience in CSCW 586 • In a single term course we produced

• 364 Reflective blog posts• 1,020 Comments by peers

• Blogs and comments on readings were worth 35% of the course grade

• Was it worth it?

https://cscwuvic2015.wordpress.com

The Disposable Assignment• These are assignments that students complain about doing and faculty

complain about grading. They’re assignments that add no value to the world – after a student spends three hours creating it, a teacher spends 30 minutes grading it, and then the student throws it away.

• What if we changed these “disposable assignments” into activities which actually added value to the world? Then students and faculty might feel different about the time and effort they invested in them. I have seen time and again that they do feel different about the efforts they make under these circumstances.

(Wiley, 2013)

Wiley, D. (2013). What is Open Pedagogy? Iterating Toward Openness Blog, October 21, 2013. http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/2975

Also see: Hendricks, C. (2015). Non-Disposable Assignments in Intro To Philosophy. You're The Teacher: Teaching & Learning, and SoTL, in Philosophy, August 18, 2015. http://blogs.ubc.ca/chendricks/2015/08/18/non-disposable-assignments-intro-philosophy/

Questions to consider • How do we currently access student writing?• How do we currently facilitate student discussions?

Specifically for experiential learning• How do students demonstrate their learning during their

placement?• How can open reflection be used to demonstrate their

learning?

Some examples

UNIV 291 Courses• Virginia Commonwealth

University• Single credit course which

required students to engage in small research projects during a community bike race

• Topics ranged from diversity/culture, art/media/communication, team dynamics, inside the sport, community issues, business of cycling

http://richmond2015.vcu.edu/courses.html

UNIV 291 Event Planning and Promotion

• Short course outputs ranged from a series of reflective posts to the creation of videos and media

• All of the artefacts created in the course are openly available providing visible evidence of the students work

• The open artefacts also become a university and wider community resource

http://rampages.us/manika/

Community support networks at VIU

http://wordpress.viu.ca/ddcc/ http://wordpress.viu.ca/mbaenglish/http://wordpress.viu.ca/viuasc/

• Multi-author sites created to support VIU students and communities

VIU Faculty of Education Post Baccalaureate Program

• All support for the program moved to open access

• Building archive of capstone community action projects into the site for future learners

• Students also develop professional practice ePortolios over many years in the program

https://wordpress.viu.ca/pb6education/

Student Projects and Portfolios

http://studentblogs.viu.ca/erringtontkd/ http://studentblogs.viu.ca/knyvan/

CSCW 586

• Single course site, all students as participant and peer reviewers

• Weekly reflections on readings and peer review of reflections

• Many students responded to comments on their reflections

Biology 325 • All students built and maintained their own

site• Posts were aggregated into a parent site• Tasked with creating two articles on a local

bird species of their choice• Comments emerged as students reviewed

one another's work

http://wordpress.viu.ca/biol325

http://phylogame.org/

• Student generated cards representing aspects of biodiversity

• An open resource which can evolve and grow over time

http://studentblogs.viu.ca/http://wordpress.viu.ca/

Get social• Any direct link to a post, page or media object on a site can be

shared via social networks • There are ways to track these interactions to see how our work is

being used

Growing Social Media | Flickr - By mkhmarketing Licensed with Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic / CC BY 2.0

Opportunities for discussion, peer review, and feedback

Self reflection

• Individual access

• Ongoing

One to one reflection

• Controlled access• Small group size • Synchronous or

asynchronous

Group reflection

• Controlled access• Medium group size• Synchronous or

asynchronous

Open reflection

• Open access• Supports network

formation• Synchronous or

asynchronous • Discoverable• Provides resource for

future learners

Privacy controls • Allow search engines to index this site – open to the world

• Visible only to registered users of this network –available only to the VIU community

• Visible only to registered users of this site – available only to people I add to the site

• Visible only to administrators of this site – available only to people I add to the site as administrators

Potential configuration for using VIUBlogs

Single faculty authored site (faculty eportfolio, course site, project/research site)

Multiple faculty authored site (faculty community, department, community of practice)

Shared faculty and student community site (course site, shared project reflections)

Multiple student sites (individual student reflections, eportfolios)

Multiple student sites aggregated to parent site (individual student reflections, eportfolios)

Potential benefits • Showcase VIU students in community• Provides resources for future students• Gives students choice in terms of how they present their work • Provides opportunities to showcase multimedia demonstrating work

done and experiences had• Opportunity to develop literacies around publishing on the open web

including best practices, basic copyright, and the organization of content

• Students can take their work with them when as they advance

Next steps • What sort of projects might we pilot together?• What configuration for using VIUBlogs might

work best for you?• How can open student reelections be

incorporated into your current learning designs?

• Can we start drafting the components of a reflective entry compilation of entries (for experiential learning) or a significant online discussion (for MBA)

http://wordpress.viu.ca/conversationsinthecloud/

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Prepared by: Michael Paskevicius Learning Technologies Application DeveloperCentre for Innovation and Excellence in Learningmichael.paskevicus@viu.ca

Follow me: http://twitter.com/mpaskevi

Blog: http://wordpress.viu.ca/ciel

Presentations: http://www.slideshare.net/mpaskevi