An exercise in self-diagnosis... possibly

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I arrived late for MUVEnation, and missed the pre-week 1 activities. By the time I'm signed up, the activities are already hidden. The Module 1 summary asks for my self-diagnosis, and reading the work of others I guess this is something I can no longer get at. I hatch a cunning plan, I’ll simply answer the same question as everyone else and no-one will be any the wiser. I snigger at my own subtlety…

"I am your friend. I don’t work in education. You are talking to me about the idea that we all learn from each other, in all kinds of contexts, and that this can often be richer than more formal classroom based learning. I am sceptical. Tell me about an informal learning experience you have had online in which collaboration was involved, show me a concrete example to help me to see what you mean."

I have a great example of this.

A few years ago I got interested in family history. Not only has the web opened up access to resources that would have been impossible to access even a few years ago, it’s opened up access to a whole community of like-mined enthusiasts. I can look up census data, parish records, and the family trees of other researchers, kindly made available to all.

I want to know about the military uniform my great-uncle Henry is wearing in a photograph, the members of the Rootsweb UK Military mailing list will look at the photo and help me. http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/UK-MILITARY

I need to find out about a street in Hackney in 1840, someone from the East of London Family History Society will help me out. http://www.eolfhs.org.uk/

I want to know more about the Elder Dempster fleet in 1920’s – there are enthusiasts out there just itching to tell me. http://www.elderdempster.co.uk/

In return, I’m happy to take a Sunday trip out to St Stephen’s church to photograph the spire that was repaired after it was struck by lightning in 1783 by the ancestor of someone in Omaha… Not only have I found out stuff, I’ve been taught how to find out stuff; not by following a curriculum, but by being pointed at useful resources, by having principles explained, being told where to look, and told how to look. I know an immeasurable amount more about my family history, and about how to find out still more. I take pleasure in sharing what I know with others. So we grow.

Left: Grandad Arthur with my Nan Nel....Middle: Great Uncle Henry with Great Aunt Jo....Right: Great Uncle Terry with Great Aunt Olive

Thanks to friends on the Rootsweb UK Military History list I know that Henry is wearing the pre-1935 uniform of the Norfolk Regiment. He died at Kohima in Burma on 28 May 1944, aged 31.

Addendum (Friday, 28 November 2008)

I check back to other student's responses to this activity and belatedly realise they've answered three question, not one. The sniggering now seems a little premature... Here's my answers to the other self-assessment questions:

"We all explore new technologies, some grab our attention more than others, some seem revolutionary, others simply bore us. Tell us about that new tool, or set of tools, you have just discovered that really excites you, talk about the potential it has to change your work. What do you want to do with it?"

Well Doctor, it's like this... All my life I've had a tendancy towards enthuiasm for new stuff, even when the new stuff does the job less well than the old stuff. Tinkering around at the edge of what's possible, finding out how far it can go. Not that I'm an authentic cutting-edge researcher or anything, but I do like to dabble. New stuff rarely bores me, because newer stuff always comes along.

At the moment I'm keen on Second Life, hence participating in the MUVEnation course. Here's a quote that sums it up, taken from the recently published JISC report Serious Virtual Worlds - A scoping study. “(T)here is a clear need to identify frameworks and models for supporting learning in immersive worlds... In addition, practitioner and learner practice guides to support innovators using these applications would benefit the whole community”. (de Freitas, 2008). While the technology is absorbing and fun what I'm really interested in is the pedogogy that needs to underpin it. At the moment I don't see that they're very different to those of good pedagogy IRL.

de Freitas, S. (2008). Serious Virtual Worlds - A scoping study. Retrieved November 29, 2009, from JISC: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/seriousvirtualworldsreport.aspx

"Do you see yourself as a pioneer? Do you think you are more innovative than others in your organisation? Do you think your organisation is lagging behind? Tell us how you feel about this?"

Yes, yes and yes... and I feel pretty damned smug about being so smart. Which illustrates the danger of immersion. While I'm convinced that virtual worlds will sooner or later (probably sooner) play and important part in education I don't yet know exactly how this will work, and I doubt anyone who thinks they've already got the answers (though I'm very happy to listen, 'cos you never know...). It's good to get excited, but a little humility will be appropriate for a while yet.