Learning with Technology

Survey says students don't think their schools' tech is current

Learning with technology is great at the comfort of your home where you pay the bills according to your needs and means. Most governments will not provide the funds necessary for the maintenance and upgrade of the equipment and infrastructure at school. It's just too expensive. I suggest students, who cannot afford technology, receive help from the government so they can enjoy the privilege of learning at home or library with teacher facilitation and support. I believe online teamwork at a distance at the comfort of one's home, library, or elsewhere may help students focus better on their studies than face-to-face teamwork at school.

Flexible Learning - To Do List

1. Read more about flexible learning from the perspective of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework's Flexways site and the extra resources below.

2. On your blog, write a short story about a day in the life of someone who is considering doing your course. This person, called X, has a range of flexible learning needs. Your story should highlight issues that X may have for NOT doing your course, as it is set up at the present time.

The person called X may have some of the following issues: has a full time job and can't afford to leave it for study; is unable to move towns to attend classes; has difficulties learning in classrooms and at the pace of others; is unable to pay fees; believes your course does not fit exactly the range of things X wants to learn, may not feel comfortable using computers, has a disability, has family responsibilities...

The purpose of you writing this story is to consider as many reasons as you can where people might NOT be able to access your course (or an aspect of your course). HINT: If you are able, it is best to base your story on a real situation which you have encountered or heard about.

3. Leave a comment and/or suggestion on another participant's blog.

4. Attend workshops
An experiential session on how to write effectively for a blog in this course - 2 April 1-3pm in H311. This will also be offered in an online session - 8 April 7 - 8 pm. Some sites to look at before the session:

10 tips on writing a blog post.

My PLE is like my cooky baking (PLE = personal learning environment) - a good example of a post by Sarah Stewart.

Library session - effective use of online databases and Google Scholar - Thursday 9 April - 1.30-2.30 in BG1 (back room ground floor) at the Bill Robertson library - 135 Union Street East, Dunedin. Jacinda Boivin will show you in a hands on session how to become more effective at finding online information using the online databases and Google Scholar.

An online version of this is being organised so watch this space.

Posted by Bronwyn hegarty

Labels: FL09, What is flexible learning?