Seeing as the point of the blogging exercise was to say a little about myself, I felt I should write another posting this evening. Before long I will be a blogging fanatic at this rate!
Well I am Lindsey and I work as an Educational Technologist at the University of Portsmouth on the sunny (!) South Coast. It hasn't been particularly sunny over the last few days as we've been under the snow like everyone else in the country. I love snow though so no problem for me.
My job as Educational Technologist has a few different types of work involved, though mostly they fall under the umbrella of supporting the academic staff in their use of the VLE. We use Blackboard at Portsmouth, just like Brookes Virtual, so everything looks very familiar. A typical day at work for me would involve answering a few emails and telephone calls from staff who are trying to achieve something on the VLE but can't quite work out how, or who are experiencing technical problems through no fault of their own - sadly the latter is all too common...one of the disadvantages of elearning. I am also responsible for training staff to use the VLE, both in group workshops and one-to-one. In addition to this, I take on projects from individuals and departments to put materials into the online format. Examples of these are converting course materials into designed webpages, creating course structure within the VLE and making up icons so that the pages look a bit more 'designed'.
As you can see from above, my job is very much on the support side, which leaves me a little lacking on the pedagogical side. This is why I wanted to take this course. I wanted to find out what elearning other people are doing with their students in other institutions. I want to experience first hand what it is like to be a student online so that I can take away with me what works.
Outside of work I live in Godalming near Guildford in Surrey with my boyfriend Paul. It's a bit of a commute to work, but I'm able to work at home occasionally and am lucky enough to be able to share a lift with a lecturer who lives just down the road. We have a pet house rabbit which I'm sure most people think is a bit eccentric, but in my opinion rabbits are the perfect house pets - they make no noise, little mess, and are very friendly and docile. The only downside is the chewing - at the last count he'd been through two laptop cables and a rug...but we love him to bits!
So that is me in a nutshell. Bye!
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Taking the plunge!
Well, I've been putting this off for a few days but now I'm going to post my first proper blogpost! It's a really strange experience for me as I am in a support role at the University of Portsmouth, used to answering technical queries from students trying to post blogs themselves, but I've never been an online student so have never really had to blog myself!
I can now completely see what people are always saying about the 'lurkers' in the online environment...that was me this week. I logged in to read the discussion forums yesterday and started to feel very nervous. Many of the other participants in the course are academic staff and some have been involved in teaching online before. Everyone seems to be very confident about posting to the boards, and the posts are all interesting and well thought out. How would I ever be able to match them! I had an email from Patsy this morning to remind me about contributing and that has sparked me into action! I realise now that the only person I would be letting down by not involving myself would be me! And far from being afraid of the other posts on the boards I should learn from them and use the wide range of knowledge amongst the other participants to my advantage. After all, that's what learning online is all about isn't it - the participation and communication? I also now know that I can bring something to the discussion boards as I have a lot of experience of the technical side of eLearning, and I know what is technically possible and what might be less so.
I have learned a valuable lesson this week. There will always be students like me who take a little longer to become comfortable with sharing their ideas and opinions. It might take a little longer and a little more effort on the part of the tutor to coax us in, but not too much I hope in my case! Thank you Patsy for your email this morning, it was just the virtual 'push' I needed.
I can now completely see what people are always saying about the 'lurkers' in the online environment...that was me this week. I logged in to read the discussion forums yesterday and started to feel very nervous. Many of the other participants in the course are academic staff and some have been involved in teaching online before. Everyone seems to be very confident about posting to the boards, and the posts are all interesting and well thought out. How would I ever be able to match them! I had an email from Patsy this morning to remind me about contributing and that has sparked me into action! I realise now that the only person I would be letting down by not involving myself would be me! And far from being afraid of the other posts on the boards I should learn from them and use the wide range of knowledge amongst the other participants to my advantage. After all, that's what learning online is all about isn't it - the participation and communication? I also now know that I can bring something to the discussion boards as I have a lot of experience of the technical side of eLearning, and I know what is technically possible and what might be less so.
I have learned a valuable lesson this week. There will always be students like me who take a little longer to become comfortable with sharing their ideas and opinions. It might take a little longer and a little more effort on the part of the tutor to coax us in, but not too much I hope in my case! Thank you Patsy for your email this morning, it was just the virtual 'push' I needed.
Monday, 26 January 2009
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