Although I spoke with my iVET tutor already a month or so ago, I must write here that at least to me as a student it gives a lot of new energy just to have someone from the 'course' to call and ask how I'm doing. Well, had my tutor given me depressing feedback, the situation would certainly have been different. But luckily he didn't :o)
Anyhow, it may depend on different personalities and some may disagree, but I think that when most of the things happen online, students might start to wonder if they really are self-guided to the right direction. On the other hand, each of us students is a member of some group, so the group work probably prevents us from going too wrong in our individual tasks.
I have finally been updating my blog. I have added here some material on the individual tasks we have had:
I also wrote down some thoughts and main points of the VOC sessions our group has had. Although I have been slow in starting to write the blog, I noticed today when looking at my notes on different tasks that it was a rather reflective experience to briefly go through what we have done so far.
The pieces are beginning to fall on their places and I can more clearly see the connections between different topics, and even the big picture of iVET program. I quess it can be harder to maintain one's focus when not working with students or teaching but doing something totally different during those 8 working hours a day.
But more blog polishing on the way...
I have received a lot of material from my COLIGE project 'pair' and have been reading it through. I must admit that it is not probably the easiest task for me to try to plan a lesson for people studying subjects like dynamics, in particular, because any mathematical formula makes me somewhat uneasy. It is not enough to learn the formula, you have to make sense of it as well.
However, I find the variety among students in the class in question very interesting because based on a mock assessment, their knowledge and skills cover almost all possible options in a scale from 1 to 100.
Our group, we had a debate, a planned one, that is. Surprisingly, I liked the format very much. I don't know how it felt for the other members of our group or the audience, but I think it was great and our 'captain' is great. I must admit that I also liked the fact that there was no technical gadgets to worry about. Of course it wasn't very nice to be on the losing side when there was a vote, but I'll survive.
I very clearly understood that I'm a visual learner more than an auditive learner. Through the end of today's second presentation which only had voices, no faces, nothing except for a lovely image from Azores or somewhere, I found it very hard to stay focused. I need something, if nothing else than at least a ppt presentation to view, it helps me follow!!!
This task included also an individual BLORK task: to describe what is inquiry-based learning. You can find the my description of inquiry-based learning here.
The most challenging AC session so far was today, challenging because of technical issues. The learning outcome (not probably the intended one) was that more practice and an accurate plan B is needed to be able to cope smoothly with unexpected turns. In particular, when trying sth new.
Our iVET group has started with full speed by now. We are quite an international composition and we come with different professional backgrounds. Thanks to that, there are very interesting points that come up both during our task preparation meetings and in the actual meetings we have.
Since I don't have any real teaching experience, some more theoretical points become more understandable when those members that have already been teaching even for many years share their knowledge originating from real life teaching.
In general, different tools, AC and virtual teaching as a teachig method is becoming more and more manageable as our group progresses. Although we may have some problems with connections from time to time or someone forgets to mute his/her microphone in the main room (despite of our teacher's several remarks :), I feel that in this sense we are quite nicely on track.
I'm back in iVET. I started in this program last year already, but due to the lack of time, I wasn't able to participate the sessions and use as much time to these studies as would have been needed.
It seems that I will have more time to concentrate on iVET next fall. So looking forward to it...
