Backup, backup, backup

I think the recent online access problems just demonstrate that we should all keep systematic backups of ALL our OU work - even the stuff we think we couldn't possibly need.

Below are messages on the subject sent to the forums:


From: Jose Martel Penate 20 January 2009 07:00:56
Subject: Further to: On one week extensions
To: H808 08I ECA Queries

Dear all

This email follows on from my last email (see below) where I stated:

"It seems to me that I am being penalised because I was unfortunate enough to have had very little access to MyStuff and because other students were not prudent enough to fully backup their MyStuff files."

And that:

"I am fine with others being given a one week extension, but in that case, then so should I (and others)."

Are we not all adults here, with years of experience using computers? Are we not students attempting to call ourselves eElearning Professionals?

Then surely our years of experience using computers and our expertise as Elearning Professionals should have taught us that one should ALWAYS backup one's important information. I imagine we would all consider work produced for H808, and stored on MyStuff, as important.

Have we not all been abundantly aware of the continual MyStuff access issues?

Are we not all aware of the option to use Word for the ECA compilation that Helen and Robin have been all but pleading us to use at the slightest sign of problems using MyStuff?

I ask you then, is it reasonable that fellow Elearning Professional students are given a one week extension for neglecting to backup all their MyStuff files and thus being unable to produce the alternative Word ECA compilation?

I, for one, think IT IS perfectly reasonable. But, if it IS reasonable, then it IS as equally reasonable for ALL H808 students to be given an extension of equal length.

And I am curious, how does one prove that one has had problems accessing MyStuff, and how does one prove that one has only one copy of certain files and that that one copy is inaccessible on MyStuff?

Jose

-----------------------


From: Jose Martel Penate Tuesday, January 20, 2009 12:42 AM +0000
Subject: On one week extensions
To: H808 08I ECA Queries



Dear all,

I have just read that those students who consider they have lost time due to MyStuff accessibility problems over the weekend may request an extension of one week to submit their ECA.

At the risk of seeming unreasonable, I feel the need to protest that others may be given an extension of one week to submit their ECA, yet I will not.

Let me explain that I am fine with others being given a one week extension, but in that case, then so should I (and others).

I have repeatedly stated that I usually have no access to MyStuff. Throughout the whole course I have wasted many, many hours - I honestly don't know how many hours, but a lot - trying to access Mystuff without success. For this reason I have not been able to use MyStuff to store most of my work. I have it stored on my computer at home.

However, if I had been able to regularly access MyStuff, (and regardless of the scarcity of access problems) it would have seemed prudent to me to store full backup copies of my work on my home computer as well as "screen-dumps" of relevant MyStuff pages.

It seems to me that I am being penalised because I was unfortunate enough to have had very little access to MyStuff and because other students were not prudent enough to fully backup their MyStuff files.

Jose

Reflection for blog at 06-01-09

Right, things are getting serious now; if I want to leave 2 weeks for the ECA I need to finish units 8, 9 and 10 this week.

I'm amazed, with so little time left till the end of the course, that the tutors still haven't made a meaningful return to the forums.

I've read some other people's contributions (from the forums and their shared blogs) which have helped calm my nerves and given me some ideas (Emma, Colleen, Jim, Nigel S, Keely, Karen).

Let's see if I can post this to my blog today. I've had access problems again lately. Now I can usually view the blog but I can't edit the posts (I wanted to add tags to the posts that don't have them, which is about 90%), I wanted to change the name of the blog from "Metacog-what??!!) to something more formal/boring like "H808 blog". As I write this I'm still waiting for the blog to open. This morning I woke up thinking that I should perhaps move to a blog that actually allows me to use it 24/7. Some 3 years ago I blogged for about half a year. The experience was very positive as access was 24/7 and the blogs themselves had much greater functionality/"customisability". There was a definite sense of community that was enhanced by the blogs - not impeded by them.

It would be very nice if I got my TMA02 results back. I'd like to see the comments well before I have to write for the ECA. But Alan gave me an extension and my TMA02 was finally handed in on 26th Dec (coz of a couple of days of formatting problems).

Well, after 20 mins the blog still isn't opening. I started a blog for my students on Blogger so I know that it's accessible here in China. I'll open one for H808 now. This is very disappointing. Not at all what I expected when I started this course.

Ok, I've set up my new blog. It's at http://jmartel-h808-blog.blogspot.com/ . But I can't move posts over because I can't access my OU blog!!!!!!!!!! I've tried using Safari, Firefox and IE on a Mac, and IE7, Firefox and Safari using XP. At least my blog is showing no favouritism...Ah, I spoke too soon, a few minutes later IE7 on XP opened my blog - with errors, however the main text is visible. Then I tried to add a post and it's now loading interminably. Ok, time to forget moving the blog. I'll do that when I can.

More on CA8.1

00:39 today

Visible to all Open University users

(For CA8.1 podcast link and transcript see below.)

So, technology related competence for Unit 8:
- Installed and learnt to use Audacity and Lame encoder
- Used these to make a podcast
- Also learnt to use Keynote (Mac's PP style presentation tool)
- I already knew how to use iTunes
- I had already knew how to upload mp3s to podcasting website

I finally decided on a topic for the podcast; wrote some text and recorded it using Audacity and Lame.

Not having a sound studio is a problem when you live in downtown Shanghai - not the quietest of places at any given time! But I used a headset with mic and hoped for the best. The sound quality seems ok though of course not studio quality. My delivery of the text could be better, but generally I think vocalisation is ok and I did try to use different speed of delivery to differentiate between the podcast text itself and example-text (listen to the podcast and you'll understand what I'm talking about).

I didn't re-read any instructions for Audacity (if I did actually read any in the first place) and managed through some trial and error to make an mp3 recording of just under 6 minutes. I decided not to edit using audacity so I had to rerecord the whole thing or almost the whole thing a few times. I decided that would be more straightforward and probably quicker than trying to figure out how to edit using Audacity. But if I had to use the tool, I now feel confident that it can do the job and that I could learn to edit using it if needed. Of course I still prefer iMovie for audio and video editing.

While experimenting with the idea of using podcasts in the classroom, I decided to try out Mac's Keynote (Power Point (PP) Mac style, as it were). I wanted to see if it was easy to embed podcasts into a PP style presentation. I found out that Keynote is wonderfully simple to use. Adding photos, music or video is as simple as drag and drop. Then you resize and reposition using mouse/trackpad and cursor. I watched a single, brief, online video tutorial and was compiling my presentation seconds later. I added text and photos to "slides". I added video to slides and then added music on top. I had slides with different themes and had text, photos and video on the same slide. And all was achieved very intuitively and with great control over the results. I now feel confident that I can make a good-looking multimedia presentation for class that I can fully control/adjust in real-time. Using video-podcasts embedded in a mult-media presentation like this can be a very useful and effective way of highlighting various aspects of western culture for my Chinese students. I'm sure the excellent visual quality and clean finish of Keynote will impress and help maintain students' interest. Topics can be introduced and referenced very effectively leaving more time for students to actually practice their English speaking.

Podcasts can also be a great way for f2f TEFL teacher to save his/her voice from overuse in class. The podcasts (especially videopodcasts) can also be used to expose students to different authentic, native, English accents in a "natural" environment (on screen) - vital if the student is to communicate effectively in the real world.

And of course, the podcasts and whole presentations can be uploaded to a site or blog for the students to access at will in their own time.

Problems/issues that the students may encounter accessing/using the podcast/keynotes are:
- many students don't have computers and so getting access to a computer can sometimes be a problem

- some students claim not to have much practice using a computer - which could in turn lead to problems/delays accessing files in their own time. [Though I tend to think that this "excuse" is used to explain why they haven't done homework/accessed the files etc.]

- in class, equipment may fail or be incompatible.

- as there is only a computer for the teacher in my classrooms, the students won't have accessibility problems/issues when viewing the podcasts in class.

---------------

My podcast for CA8.1 will open directly clicking on http://www.switchpod.com/users/jm4298/JoseMartelH808PodcastforCA81.mp3 or go to feed://www.switchpod.com/users/jm4298/feed.xml to choose the link from the 4 OU podcasts I've published there. The file is just under 6 minutes long and 5.3MB.

Transcript:

Hello and welcome. My name is Jose Martel and I'm a student on the open University's course H808 The Elearning Professional. This podcast is a requirement for Core Activity 8.1.

I will briefly talk, from a personal perspective, on some aspects and issues of student group-collaboration in an asynchronous forum, especially when different time zones are involved.

It might be helpful to hear something I wrote when participating in a group collaboration with students in a time zone 8 hours behind my own:

"Most of the time I felt isolated, working alone in a time zone 8 hours ahead of the rest of the group. I could only hope for replies to my comments towards the end of my day (from 4pm onwards), by that time I had often been working on the activity from 7am to 10am then gone to work for 7 hours and returned after 6pm. My comments seemed distant in time and thought by then. It was sometimes hard to keep an interest in my point of view when I had posted a reply 12 hours before and had moved on in thought, but then would have to go back to reply to the old thoughts that were still being dealt with by other members of the group. It is possible that rest of the group also found it bothersome having to allow for the my late replies."

Something else that can negatively affect group collaboration are time limits. For the group activity just mentioned we had one week to prepare for, discuss and produce the required result. Here's a related text I wrote at the time:

I often had the impression that the group as a whole wanted to complete the activity with, "the easiest/less problematic route being taken" [...] that their overriding concern was finishing the activity (and moving on). Perhaps the asynchronous forum with time constraints and the fact that members were/are strangers may have been contributing factors. The general consensus seemed to be to try to integrate as many ideas as possible, to make it an inclusive-[activity] (regardless of an unsatisfactory outcome).

At the time I felt strongly enough about the issue to post a forum message. Here's an excerpt:

I'd like to question whether these quickie group activities are useful enough to us to warrant the additional stress and opportunities for discord and even antipathy that they bring. Also, I think often the lack of clear leadership (coupled with lack of time) within the group will result in the easiest/less problematic route being taken or an "ok, whatever you think is best" or even an "ok, whatever" attitude. All/some group members may not express their true thoughts through lack of interest, a desire to accept anything just to move on, wanting to avoid even the slightest confrontation, wanting to feel part of the group, other.
There may not be a good opportunity for real discussion, especially if members are in distant time zones.
These group activities can merely emphasise how much some of us are not part of the group activity or H808 cohort. And at best (worst?) they may only help to form cliques.

I feel it's essential that teachers/tutors need to give clear instructions and be actively monitoring the forums in order to pick up on problems/guide/give advice in a timely manner. I wrote that:

Perhaps given more time, clearer guidelines and guidance, the activity could have been more successful. However, even with improvements of presentation, H808 does not seem to have students who are ideally placed to participate effectively in, and learn from, group activities.

That also questioned whether group activities carried out via online asynchronous forums by students (and in particular, students who have full-time professional occupations) who have little time or inclination to collaborate will provide good opportunities for learning. At the time I said that I thought there was little deep-learning being achieved.

To sum up:

Group collaborations using online asynchronous forums can be problematic. Some issues to bear in mind can be the danger of pronounced feelings of isolation students can feel, especially when additionally displaced by time zones.

The group should be given enough time to complete the activity without feeling too pressured into avoiding discussion in order to finish the task.

An issue not previously mentioned, could be the need to make sure that students (especially students who don't know each other well) understand that asynchronous forum dynamics require a more cautious approach to discussions and problem solving. Verbal and non-verbal aspects of face-to-face discussions/meetings are absent so the risk of misunderstandings is greatly increased. And the resultant need to clearly state and clarify points made can add additional stress to the situation.


This has been Jose Martel presenting a podcast for Core Activity 8.1 of the open University's course H808, The Elearning Professional. The podcast briefly outlined, from a personal perspective, some aspects and issues of student group-collaboration in an asynchronous forum, especially when different time zones are involved. 

Thank you for listening.

Re Perkin's "The Third Social Revolution"

24 Nov 2008, 11:38

Edited by Jose Martel Penate, 24 Nov 2008, 11:44

Visible to all Open University users

Perkin in 1996 states that "The modern world is the world of the professional expert" (Perkins 1996, p1) as opposed to the industrial world dominated by capitalists. Perkin maintains that professionals' "power, prestige, influence, and
incomes stem from their possession of specialized knowledge, based on education, competitive merit, and experience on the job–in a word, on their human capital." (Perkins 1996, p1). Perkin states that "the key players are the professional managers of the great corporations and their counterparts ingovernment, the state bureaucrats" (Perkins 1996, p6). These professionals deal in "knowledge-based
services" (Perkins 1996, p6), "sophisticated services which have transformed human life" (Perkins 1996, p6). Perkins maintains that "As long as the particular expertise is scarce [...] the expert can command a rent as surely as the landlord or owner of industrial capital" (Perkins 1996, p7).

Stan (2008) points out that "Perkin’s view of society is closely related to the concept of the information society since an important part of being a professional is having information and being able to make use of it. This is one reason why the centrality of higher education is one of the major trends that Perkin attempts to explain."

Perkin warns that the more powerful professionals "are the elites who will make or break modern post-industrial society" by their "intelligence, enlightenment and integrity" though the unique cultural inheritance, social structure, and political ingenuity of each advanced country" is also a factor (Perkins 1996, p7).



References:

From: Philippa Perry 2 18 November 2008 19:00:26
Subject: Is this a professional society?
To: Alan Clarke
Cc: H808 ac6 Unit 6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_society


From: Mitchell Stan20 November 2008 13:51:53
Subject: Core Activity 6.1 on Perkins
To: H808 ac6 Unit 6

Perkin, H. (1996) Chapter 1 of The Third Revolution: Professional Elites in the Modern
World, London: Routledge. Available as a course resource.

Tags: student professional perkin unit 6 perry stan the third social revolution

If busy, don't read this. But if you're busy, why are you in the cafe?

19 Oct 2008, 14:57

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From: Jose Martel Penate 19 October 2008 14:42:38
Subject: If busy, don't read this. But if you're busy, why are you in the cafe?
To: H808 08I Cafe

Some unpolished reflections

Some of the altercations/troubles/run ins that I have experienced on the forums could be attributed to my lack of a professional attitude. Though some people might say it boils down to a lack of consideration of other people's time. I sometimes favour a relaxed getting-to-know-people attitude, but others on the forums prefer to just get on with their lives, and don't want to have to waste time reading stuff they don't need to know.

When I first started H808 - seems like a very long time ago, but only about 5 weeks - I was expecting (at least hoping) for there to be lively debate and a strong sense of community. Today, I simply doggedly carry on with that ideal, but without the expectation. I've accepted that most students on H808 don't have time for "chitchat" and don't seem amused by my attempts at lightheartedness. In fact, I think that most of the 67 students that are enrolled on the course don't even log onto the forums at all! (And OU, is that really 67?? Are you sure you didn't mean to say 6 or 7?!)

I see the same few names again and again. And when the names do change it's only to say that they're too busy to participate any further. Surely this must happen with every presentation of this and other intensive course geared toward professionals. Why don't the OU build in a greater element of collaboration? Maybe the OU knows that more pressure to collaborate would simply result in fewer people enrolling on the course. People are busy, they have just enough time to study and prepare a paper or two, and that's it. Optional collaboration, though it has many educational benefits just isn't going to be achieved or even attempted by most people. Those who lose out are not those that choose not to collaborate, it's the ones who want to build a lively community and can't.

Another issue is that of the range of personalities, backgrounds, intelligences, even time zones. People who are very different quite simply don't want to bother getting to know each other. But are they confusing the issue of getting to know each other with that of academic debate? Still, I get the distinct impression that professionals on this course don't want to mix with the less professional. Maybe it's because the professionals can't think down to my level and I can't operate on theirs.

Jose

CA4.1 - notes for my initial group input

17 Oct 2008, 10:40

Edited by Jose Martel Penate, 17 Oct 2008, 10:52

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Point 1 of the CA4.1 instructions/brief states, "Form small groups of about four to six students. Use the course forum or the course wiki to compare multimedia skills amongst the group members, and to find out who is in a position to offer help."

- In two forum messages (see highlighted text in messages below) I pointed out that I have a limited amount of experience creating and manipulating audio and video. I have mainly used Apple/Mac computers and free (Mac) compatible software. This means that my experiences may not be of direct use to others who are pc/Windows users. I did try (and will continue to endeavor) to give general advice and suggestions in any areas I can help. And by the way, I think all - or nearly all - of the free software I mention has Windows versions.

Point 3 of the CA4.1 instructions/brief states, "Read the Penn State material on what constitutes evidence of learning and contribute to a discussion in your tutor group about this, both your own learning and that of your students (if you have them)."

- I read the Penn State material. It gives basic, though (still) useful, advice on what type of files to use in a (Penn state) eportfolio:

.pdf files
- Portable Document File (PDF - not to be confused with Personal Development File, also shortened to PDF in some papers). Using a pdf helps ensure that the viewer of a document will see it as the creator of the document intended; e.g. formatting issues will not arise. The Penn State material seems to suggest that in order to create, read/view, print or store pdfs one needs Adobe software. Though Adobe continues to be a (the?) leading pdf developer, there are many software developers that offer pdf tools. Adobe and others offer free basic versions of pdf software. However the ideal pdf tool for each individual can only be found after trailing various options. I normally use Mac's own pdf solution, Preview, to read most pdfs, although I do have the latest Adobe reader installed. I also have the free pdf annotator, Skim, installed and use it as a very flexible solution for adding notes to/highlight/underline/etc pdfs.

Publishing images to the web
- The Penn State paper notes that web browsers handle GIF and JPEG images well (this information may be outdated - are there other equally good/better file formats?) and details the main differences between GIF and JPEG image files. I've never published images to the web but I have edited images, again, mainly on my Mac (using iPhoto). Usually I have never done more than crop images or perform some basic enhancement (straighten, adjust brightness or contrast, etc.). Also, I've always worked with jpg files (on my Mac "JPEG" is called "jpg"), or converted files to jpg for ease of use/compatiblity with Windows users, e.g. my screen grab/screen dump/screenshot application/software produces TIFF files. I've never really worked with image metadata (e.g. the date a photo was taken; the camera used; the settings used) - largely because importing images (e.g. my digital photos) directly into iPhoto causes iPhoto to handle metadata in the background and display more-user-friendly "tags" - and as long as I can view a photo I'm not that fussed about the image quality.
- I've used iPhoto to create digital photo-books of still images that can be presented as a slide-show with the optional incorporation of the optical sensation of movement (i.e. a video compilation of still images that uses the Ken Burns Effect to give the sensation of movement/video - "give life to still photographs by slowly zooming in on subjects of interest and panning from one subject to another", Wikipedia).

Sound as evidence
- The Penn State paper gives ideas for using sound as evidence, from simply recording an event, to linking to an audio file, to embedding sound into a webpage. Using Mac's GarageBand software - according to the blurb, Mac's "personal recording studio" application - I could record/compose/compile music, podcasts or sound effects. I've never really used it for more than an hour or two when getting my hands on a new mac (I have 3 now), and then I hide the application away never to be seen again. I could dig it out but I seem to remember that it looked quite complicated (though it's probably not if I understood a little about making music) and I think I'd prefer to use my video application, iMovie, to replace the sound track to videos or superimpose sounds or add a voiceover.
- Linking the H808 podcast was the first audio linking I've ever done, and I've never embedded anything into a webpage.
- There's free audio conversion software called Switch that I've used in the past to convert music videos (mp4 and WMV (Windows Media Video file)) to mp3. It can convert loads of other file types as well.

Video as evidence
- The paper gives basic information on making video clips. It actually mentions iMovie as an application to use. I have used iMovie to edit video and extract still images from video. Some months ago I imported AVI video taken by my father's JVC cam into iMovie, but for some reason the sound was lost. Later I learnt to strip the audio from a copy of the original video clip using Switch and added the sound track to the video using iMovie. Currently I use iMovie to edit short video clips of my baby daughter, captured using a Canon digital camera with SD card storage. The camera produces .MOD files which I used to convert to .AVI files by simply replacing the file extension (i.e. delete "MOD" in the file name and write "AVI" in its place), then I could view the files using VLC, but with no sound. I later learned to upload the MOD files directly into iMovie which converts the video into a QuickTime Movie (.MOV file). The problem with the MOV file is that it's quite large, and I can't view MOV files on my mp4 player. So I learnt to use DivX Converter to make smaller files that are viewable on my mp4 player. By "learning to use DivX Converter" I mean that I "dropped" a MOV file in the DivX Converter window and sometime later out popped the converted file.



---------------------------------

From: Jose Martel Penate 16 October 2008 15:22:26
Subject: My podcast
To: H808 08I Tech and Skills

Hi all,

I've shared 24 seconds of video (a podcast) of my little baby daughter. The video should be viewable on Windows iTunes. If you don't have iTunes then you could try downloading a great free media player called VLC. It will play most formats you're likely to come across (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/).

By the way, it took me 10 minutes to put together the video. That includes selecting the material, editing it and uploading it.

My podcast url: http://media.switchpod.com//users/jm4298/forH808podcast.m4v
Or the "feed" : http://www.switchpod.com/users/jm4298/feed.xml

Jose



-------------------------------



From: Jose Martel Penate 17 October 2008 02:59:51
Subject: Reply to Keely & Nigel S re my podcast
To: H808 08I Tech and Skills

Hi Keely and Nigel,

Thanks, my little baby daughter is lovely!

Yes, there is sound Nigel, you may have to turn the volume up on your player/computer - though you don't hear my daughter laugh (and she squeals or shrieks more than laughs at the moment), you'll only her mother making silly sounds for our daughter's amusement.

I would love to be able to offer you (all) some advice with this but I'm little more than a semi-experienced user myself. The great benefit that I have is that I'm using a Mac computer. Part of the basic software package that come with a Mac are sound and video editing programs. These programs are very intuitive for basic functions, and with the more advanced functions users can put together a music album or a full-length feature film.

All I can say is that Weller's instructions ("Create a podcast" at http://learn.open.ac.uk/mod/resourcepage/view.php?id=90977&direct=1) for making an audio-podcast seem overly complex - of course this in order to try to help the very inexperienced student. But in essence - and while still holding out for confirmation from Helen - (I think) all you need to do is make an mp3 sound file.

This would mean that you make a recording and if it's not an mp3 file you convert it to mp3 using one of the many popular and free audio conversion programs. I often use Softpedia to find free software (http://www.softpedia.com/). Softpedia have different areas for Mac, Windows and Linux. I tend to go for software that has been downloaded by many people over a number of months - I also might do a google search to see what user reviews I might find - these steps are intended to try to filter out buggy software and select something that works and is useful. Once you have the mp3 file you upload it to Switchpod.

For the video-podcast, I used my Mac's iMovie application/software. I clicked to start a New Project and selected the 4:3 aspect ratio for the finished video (other viewing ratios are mobile phone (3:2) and widescreen (16:9)). I selected 1 clip from video I already had and put it into the New Project area. I selected another clip and placed it next to the 1st clip. I named my project and exported it (made it into a file I could email) as a medium sized video (viewing area of 640x480 pixel resolution) suitable for viewing on computers and that still has a smaller file size (4.8MB). I then I uploaded the file to Switchpod.

On the Mac it's all very easy, but you're using pcs with Windows.

If you do try to experiment with video, I'd suggest:

- never use an original valuable source/file, always use copies to play around on

- don't worry about content, just try to learn how to do it

- keep file sizes small! ("Small means quick": quicker response from your computer - less time waiting for processes to get done; shorter upload/download times; etc) Especially for experimenting, make short videos that have a small viewing area (see above), and opt for lower quality resolution if you know how (the lower the resolution, the smaller the file size)

- if you don't have a video camera (remember that digital (still photo) cameras can often take short videos) but do have editing software you could try experimenting with the demo video that the software may have. Or you could try downloading video from the web to mess around with (remember to scan with up to date anti-virus protection) - that video may be copy/edit protected though so perhaps search for/google non-comercial, everyday people's home videos (but remember copyright issues when linking to the OU). Your mobile phone might also have a video camera, but unless you already know how to download the movie files to your pc (and can convert the files if necessary) this option may not be worth the bother.

- I've used DivX in the past. It's a set of popular editing/conversion/player tools (http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/). Basic functionality is free: you can convert various video formats to DivX - a good quality but (relatively very) small file size. The DivX developers agree that software should be easy to use, so check it out if you have no editing solution that you're happy with at the moment.

Jose

What is an eLearning Professional: my thoughts (@19th Sep08)

29 Sep 2008, 05:04

Edited by Jose Martel Penate, 29 Sep 2008, 05:07

Visible to all Open University users

From: José Martel Penate 19th Sep 2008
Subject: What is an eLearning Professional: my thoughts
To: H808 08I Alans Group

Hi all,

I’m going to try and write down my thoughts on what I feel being an elearning professional is.
It’s quite hard because up until a few weeks ago I’d never really thought about elearning as a profession at all.

Like Robin Goodfellow, I ‘tend to view elearning as primarily about teaching”. It seems to me that Gill Kirkup shares that view when she states the UK Acadamy’s set of 5 professional values. However, I’m not sure that I fully agree with Robin Goodfellow’s “big P, little p” distinction. Is actually belonging to some self-regulating professional body a guarantee of professional conduct or of a particular learning outcome? Couldn’t a little p professional be just as, or more reliable, or effective a practitioner, as a big P Professional with all their pomp and circumstance?

Of course, if, or should I say, when, I become an elearning professional I’m sure I’d prefer to be able to set a clear distinction between the proficient amateur and their more learned counterpart represented by yours truly. After all, how else could I justify my fee?

But, yes, I would hope that the knowledge and expertise I gained, from the money I paid, for the education I received, that with some effort I converted into a sheet of paper, does make me stand out from those with lesser knowledge and skills.

So what is an elearning professional? I suppose, since there is no regulating body, it’s whatever you want it to be. However, I have the sneaking suspicion that I’m expected to give a less flippant reply. So I’ll say that an elearning professional is what I’m going to be.

My forum introduction (v1.1) (@19th Sep08)

29 Sep 2008, 05:00

Edited by Jose Martel Penate, 29 Sep 2008, 05:11

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From: José Martel Penate 19th Sep 08
Subject: Fwd: Jose's introduction v1.1
To: H808 08 ac_UNIT 1 INTRO


Hi all,

Firstly, apologies for my late arrival; hope I can catch up fairly soon.

And now the intro...

I'm Spanish, and grew up in England.

For the last couple of years I've been employed as an oral English teacher in China. Currently I "teach" 2nd year students at a university in Shanghai.

My doing a MAODE stems more from wanting to move onto a different, hopefully more satisfying career path here in China.

Why China in particular? Well, my wife is Chinese and we live in Shanghai with our lovely 8 week old, baby girl.

This is my first module of the MAODE. And my first time studying at this level. And my first online course.

I seem to be the least "professional" of my tutor group (Alan’s) which, initially, I find a little intimidating. However, this does mean I have a great opportunity to learn from my fellow members’ experience and expertise in related fields.

Some of you may have noticed that I'm having problems accessing messages on First Class. I'm not sure if this is because I'm (usually) using a Mac, coz I'm in China, both, or neither. But please bear with me while I try to sort out these problems.

By the way, you may already know that my being in China means I'm (usually) 8 hours ahead of UK time (GMT+8). This probably won't be too inconvenient for my tutor group and still allows for real-time IMing or talking over the internet at sociable hours if the need arose or the group decides it may be beneficial.

Over the next few months I hope we all have a stimulating, productive, and enjoyable time on this course together.

Jose

Ok, I've just read Alan's welcome and I think I need to expand this intro a bit.

Unlike most or all of you, I don't plan on using the knowledge and skills gained on the course at my current school/place of work. It's not that I think the kids wouldn't benefit from some sort of online support programme or PDPs, etc, or that my uni has any such programmes in operation or even planned (though a foreign oral English teacher is perhaps the last person to know about such things on a Chinese university campus, with any of the Chinese teachers coming in only slightly ahead). No, the kids would benefit from such programmes, and I might even say they (desperately) NEED them. The problem is that there would be no support from the administration on any level, and it goes without saying that the students would reject the slightest suggestion that they should take resonsibility for their own learning. And don't even mention the word "lifelong"!
So, at the moment I have a pleasant, vague sort of plan in which I hope that the MAODE can lead me away from state-run schools entrenched in their ways, while helping me steer clear of private schools obsessed with profit. Where I'll end up I'm not sure, but hopefully some place where learning is still or newly valued.

Thankfully still pre-Gattaca - a reply to a forum post

29 Sep 2008, 03:08

Edited by Jose Martel Penate, 29 Sep 2008, 03:40

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A reply to the post by:
From: Philippa Perry 2 28 September 2008 15:39:44
Subject: ePortfolio focus
To: H808 ac6 UNIT 2


Hi Philippa (and the rest of the group),

I've also been looking or hoping for more balance in our reading, so I'm glad to find your reasoned, "sceptical" point of view.

From my non-techie standpoint, I'm not concerned about problems of interoperability. To me it seems to make financial sense for major platform developers to work towards industry standards, though this may not prevent niche-market technology having compatibility issues. I'd agree with Jafari (2004) in saying that the main (technological) issue is ensuring that the eportfolio interface is one that the average enduser will want to use. This means complete integration with other school/university/company systems; transferability of data; and perhaps lifelong accessibility, among others.

An interesting and, I think, important point you've raised - one that I haven't come across in my (limited) reading, or even really thought about - is that of the effectiveness of the eportfolio as a recruiting tool. I had wondered about issues of artifact authenticity - which could be met with a lifelong university eportfolio address (Jafari 2004), but what happens when a student does a Masters or PHD at a different university or when the student enters employment, will they need a different eportfolio address, and different eportpolios, for each institution/company, thus defeating the ideal of a centralised repository of information? However, you focus on the employer's need to find truth/specific answers/the real warts and all underbelly amongst all the lies(?) and disinformation/prepared responses/dazzling presentations that most potential employees will attempt to fabricate.

I'm still unsure how eportfolios will prove to be more useful to most employers. Right now CVs can be 2 or 3 A4 pages long plus cover letter, and employers may receive tens even hundreds of CVs for each post. How much time would the employer/HR department give each CV? How much time would the employer/HR department want to give each CV!? Now, how much time would that employer/HR department need to invest in order to examine each creative, wonderfully presented, multimedia eportfolio? Could the employer/HR department be sure that time invested would produce sufficient/worthwhile returns?

Perhaps this problem may lead to the development of eportfolio scanning technology that can, in fractions of a second, automatically select a manageable shortlist of candidates' eportfolio applications - from a possibly huge and impossibly time-consuming list - thus selecting, and more worryingly, rejecting candidates without a human ever viewing their meticulously complied life story.

I think there is a general consensus that eportfolios can be an invaluable aid to learning, but perhaps HR departments may still favour CVs for most work placements. At least until efficient, cost-effective, eportfolio scanning technology comes on the market...or DNA testing becomes legal.

Jose

Attempted focused musing and rumination

27 Sep 2008, 22:53

Edited by Jose Martel Penate, 27 Sep 2008, 23:01

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Do we need to prove something in our messages to each other?

Do any of us (students) want a sense of community? Or is it enough to simply comply with the course requirement to communicate with each other, since it seems that many of us have little in common and have no need, or desire, to befriend our "peers". When I talk about blogs I keep referring to a sense of community, but we're not here for community, we're here to learn/get a qualification.

Does professionalism breed contempt?

Does the use of 'professionalese' promote an increasing intectuallisation of our OU environment and manner, intelectuallisation that some of us need to in order to pass this course?

One of my first contributions to the forums was an attack on professional-elitism. However, now some days later, I'm wondering whether a professional can be anything but an elitist. And it's a fact that academia does have its requirements for precise language use - a precision that does make sense to me.

Hmmmm...Ok, maybe I should think about things that are more relevant to the actual course...