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)