First checkup for the VOC part of my blog

Now, I'm sending my blog to my tutor for the first comment round. I wish I hadn't been dragging my studies this long, but here I am. On the other hand, I think it can also be an advantage to have to go back to this world of iVET every now and then. In my current daily job, I do not and cannot think about and reflect on, let alone put in to practice, the things we have been dealing with in the iVET program. I think those who already teach and study at the same time have better possibilities to keep their studies on focus and try out for new methods, for example, and right away make use of what they've learnt. So for me, it is good to refresh my memories and thoughts about what we have been doing and about teaching in general.

Now, where was I...

Time seems to fly, really. After a year, I'm now back at my studies and the plan is to get them finished by the end of the year. I still have my optional studies and training left (more on these in PSP), so there is plenty to do, but it is not an impossible mission. I'll now start by finally finalising my blog for the VOC part.

VOC II

VOC II is now done, I have just returned my individual task to the return box. During our final VOC II session it was discussed that a similar kind of task about teaching environments and activities would have been nice also on VOC I. Firstly, we could have tried different types of learning environments, and secondly, maybe we could have already done some corrective actions based on the feedback or on how the other groups handled their themes.

New year with a new VOC group!

We are now starting the second part of VOC and our groups have been rearranged. The new group division is based on the order we are listed in our tutor's excel sheet (almost alphabetically), in other words, very scientific and heavily jugded decisions have been made when forming the new groups :o) Well, no matter what the grounds were, I think it is important for us to learn to work with different people also now when we are learning, because in the real working life we constantly face new and different people and have to be able to be team players.

However, I must admit that at first I was disappointed to find out that our wonderful group Cognitivism no longer exists, but I'm very interested in the subject we will be dealing with in the new group. The subject is special needs education, and we will be finding out and teaching the others about what requirements law puts on special needs education and how special needs education is carried out especially in vocational education.

Tutor's call

 

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:

• Inquiry-based learning
• Flipped Classroom 
• where to find relevant and reliable legal information
• copyright in Finnish education

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...

COLIGE project

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.

Session 6, Engaged learning

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.

Another try

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...

It's winter already...

So we have the first snow already, and I feel that I haven't had time to see the autumn yet.

My plan was to finish this first course VOC1 this autumn, but now it seems that my schedule is really too tight, mostly because of my new job. So let's see if I just concentrate on the optional courses now.

It has been a while since I've commented sth on this page. The summer and autumn have been quite busy, but now some things are finally on place.

I started at a new job a couple of weeks ago, the job is not permanent, so my plan is still to get these iVet studies done. However, my schedule may change a bit, but let's see how it goes.

Vygotsky

Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) was a Russian psychologist who developed the social development theory. In short, the theory is that “social interaction precedes development; consciousness and cognition are the end product of socialization and social behavior.”

Piaget’s understanding was that development must precede learning, but Vygotsky saw that social learning leads to development. “Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological).”

Another major theme in Vygotsky’s theory is the More Knoledgeable Other (MKO) which refers to someone who knows more (has a better understanding or higher ability level) on something than the learner. In practice the MKO can be anyone in position to teach and advice a learner.

Vygotsky also introduced the term Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) which means the distance from performing a task under adult guidance or with a peer to the student’s ability to solve the problem by him-/herself. So the learning zone is the distance.

(http://www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html)

Intended learning outcomes

Intended learning outcomes (ILOs) are defined as being statements of the things students are expected to know and be able to do when a learning period has been completed. ILOs also define how students should demonstrate their learning for assessment. (

http://as.exeter.ac.uk/support/admin/staff/programmeandmoduledevelopment/moduledescriptorguidance/intendedlearningoutcomes/)

ILOs exist to help students to understand what is expected of them, to help teachers to plan their modules, and to inform possible employers on things graduates should manage.(http://www.hiph-egypt.net/uploads/files/QAAP/Presentation%20on%20ILOs.pdf)

Something new

The start... my head feels empty although so many things are on their way... This will certainly be an interesting period of time.