so I went to the session with the best title in the entire programme - Who's afraid of blogs, wikis, podcasts, and the big, bad CMS? A Digi-Drama about Fear 2.0
This session was absolutely fabulous - it started with a montage of 3 videos, they are intentionally provocative and challenging, and I encourage everyone to take the time to watch them. They are all great but the Teacher Fear/Fear 2.0 is my favourite - when I see stuff like this I always find it so humbling, now this is what I call a learning object. These guys are clearly playing at a different level.- Let me know what you think to them
Fear 2.0: Are We Stagnating? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfv7smXyccs&feature=related
Fear 2.0: Institutional Fear http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HdWMmx_7YE&feature=related
Teacher Fear/Fear 2.0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QdH70_nuVQ&feature=related
Each video got a round of applause in the session, so then we are back to the discussion part of the session.
a couple of asides:
the 5 presenters were from 4 different institutions who knew and had been working together for 3 years, but they had all met online originally, following blogs, commenting and sharing on wikis and later keeping in touch through skype and twitter. 2 of the 5 met face to face for the first time at this ELI
the session was packed and attracted the big names, so the discussion/debate was advanced - but great! one of the presenters (who was fantastic) had been to our session and was very complimentary.
I got the feeling there wasn't anything I could think of that those presenters hadn't done, they were inspiring, but they were also balanced - they presented in the videos the polar opposites of web 2.0 and a CMS (VLE) but did acknowledge that the answer for everyone was realistically somewhere between the two.
A bit of controversy when they declared that faculty and students should decide what technologies to use, not IT experts... the room was clearly split
We did a piece of groupwork about fears on campus and overcoming fear. It was a great discussion and as I fed back to the room about our group discussion Bryan twittered: "My small group's rep is brilliantly summarizing our notes. Uh-oh, we look revolutionary." - that's me he's talking about, you know!!
The whole group discussion was also fab: here are some notes/prompts/questions - let me know if anything needs explaining more:
This cross-institutional group mentor faculty members at each other institutions
Student comment - "tell the professor to ask us less questions he already knows the answer to, just tell us"....or let us explore new questions together
Questions (no prizes for guessing who asked these):
What do we do about the media panics, how do we counter this scaremongering that has little or no evidence base but seems to quickly influence the law?
How do we deal with all the weirdness around teens and sex, students are not "kids", why do we insist on pushing them into the dark corners?
The responses to the questions were the "model answers" - expose the students to the full richness of the environments and then when blogspam, flaming or "odd" questions are asked, embrace them, discuss them and allow students to learn from them - and I am certain that this is exactly what these presenters do, but can we really expect every academic to feel comfortable doing this?
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8 comments:
Interesting videos, though I liked the first one more than the teacher fear one, as it seemed a bit repetitive comparatively.
I think that they missed out on an important fear for staff members, which is often about trying something different or using a new technology. A lot of the fears expressed in the video seemed to be about their work being exposed, or making a mistake in front of the students. I think there is also a fear of trying something new, it not working, and then students suffering as a result. So it's just easier to keep doing the same thing. I suppose the way to get around this is to try incremental changes, but with things changing so rapidly online, is this a realistic option?
I thought all 3 had something to offer us back here - certainly the 1st one to get a broader message across about the realities of the web - loved that ever incresing sarcastic tone near the end! All 3 would make great discussion openers, but I'm with Brian and his comments on number 3. Sounds a fantatstic session - and obviously some great reporting in there by our very own LT/BA!
Where's Kay - not reading much from her. Hope she's doing her bit for the DF event back here!
fantastic videos!
i thought the teacher fear one did pick up the issue of fear of students suffering (part and parcel of fear of making a mistake?) - but maybe it's open to interpretation.
laughed out loud at the disney/copyright message, and the very very silly star trek/python mash up - but aside from that, the whole thing is very engaging and thought provoking.
Hi Anne - glad to see you online - I was just gonna post about Kay's whereabouts but she has beaten me to it.
I agree Liz - I love the Disney copyright thing too.
On the repetition point I'm not sure - at first it bugged me, but in the room, I think on balance it added to the effect - not so much a public info video as the others but just kept pushing the point home even when you didn't want (need?) to hear about it. Perhaps I should have said - the videos were shown "theatre style" - in the dark and in silence - only thing missing was the popcorn - so perhaps that added to the intensity.
I'm so glad you went to this one, i'm looking forward to interrogating you further when you get back.
Brian has a point about trying something new - and I think this is where self appointed lables do so much harm - "I don't do computers" "I'm a technophobe". Having said that when I watched the third one, I was alarmed at how true it felt – and if I feel like that, where do we start with the rest of the university? There is so much to work with here – did Kay rugby tackle any of the presenters to take part in our DF event?
no, kay didn't go to this one - but I have follow up contacts for a couple of them and I get the impression they would be happy to do something remotely and post it online for us...they didn't seem afraid at all :-)
Liz, I see what you mean about the interpretation. Are staff afraid of looking a fool because of a mistake, or afraid of the hurt it would cause their career, or that it could harm the students' education? Maybe lots of different reasons wrapped up into a simple explanation.
This was brilliant in so many ways. I think we should use this within AI to continue the discussion that's emerging here. Also...ALSO: Media Interventions - if anyone ever wondered how we could be doing more with media this is a fantastic example of a digital media learning object and the concept of Media Interventions. This (teacher fear - i haven't caught up with the other 2) is what I am so keen to get our staff and students doing with video: "short, provocative, challenging, orientating, motivating media objects leading to further learning activity." So now you know!
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