Just yesterday, I had about 10-11 students from my course at UPOU: Civic Welfare Training Service (CWTS) Ecology Track. I received a yesss from resource persons, namely Kristoffer Ordonez and Anthony Arbias, environmental advocates and volunteers. Kris was a former student of mine who spearheaded the first Ecology Track on Treeplanting@IPO Dam for the CWTS last year while Anthony was referred to me by the UP Mountaineers to be an expert on Philippine Trees. I invited these precious individuals purposely to share their knowledge and experiences about: Watersheds+Reforestation+Philippine Trees+Volunteerism. Of course before their lectures, I didn't see them as precious at all, I only assumed they were down to earth individuals being members of UP Mountaineer, and perhaps a given that they are intelligent folks because they are from UP, the top state university of the country, and therefore can carry a lecture/ sharing session with UP students.
Of course, I label them only now as precious after learning about what they know and willingly share every chance they get through conversations while having treewalks, hikes, major climbs and camp outs. But of course, it quite impossible to set up a hike for busy working students who choose to earn their degree online, and put up with a course on citizenship education to fulfill actual hours of doing community service as mandated by law. This F2F session was meant for students to see the meaning behind a simple but humble act of treeplanting and nurturing as part of the community service of their choice=Ecology Track.
So, I've set up my WizIQ classroom to do its job, record the audio, video the ppt and student engagements with the topics at hand. I sat comfortably with my students cuz there was so much to learn. All this time, I thought the recording was "happening". But somehow the recording via WizIQ didn't capture what we all saw and experienced F2F. I know, I am still experimenting with using the tool to run a videocon ala webinar. I thought I could pull it with my current skills. Somehow it didn't happen the way I wanted and that's like all their efforts down the drain. The failed recording was either due to a shaky internet connection or some technical glitch I wasn't able to predict or my lack of skill and memory to do what I had to do. I feel terrible.
True, the students who arrived to witness the activity F2F brought home with them new found knowledge but how about the rest of my students who could not make it. Yeah, I got the ppt and I can easily upload this as a tutorial over at WizIQ or my google docs then embed the code onto my Moodle classroom. Or Maybe I can ask them to come around and record their talk all over again using my videocam. But no, this will not do at all. Why so....
Kris and Anthony's style was very much like storytelling ala peershare. They were there as simple folks, mountaineers who happen to love what they do and the knowledge they discover along the way. Hence sharing scientific knowledge+anecdotes of bits from here and there would be quite instinctive with hardly a 'script' to follow. This style of knowledge sharing I find hardly intimidating to both teachers and learners--it's what I describe as light but loaded. Kris' creative use of photos, numbers, symbols, maps and data generated from environmental assessments delivered as if he was just narrating a story over a campfire, a style which to my mind works best for this adult-learner population of undergrads. Anthony's aesthetic sense as seen through his choice of photographs (grabbed from friends and his own collection) and intentional use of the Filipino language bore his agenda to widen our knowledge and instill in our memory the taken for granted Philippine Trees. His science was a blend of indigenous knowledge from his actual explorations, studies and conversations with like minded individuals and botanists. Hence, the interaction which transpired all seemed to be an ongoing conversation and flow of ideas among peers, like a narrative in itself which can no longer be replicated. Meaning, that if ever Kris and Anthony would do this all over again to another audience, I am certain that a different set of interactions would take place. It is these types of unique interactions which mostly remain as hidden, and uncodified and now all the more worth capturing and replaying through a tool such as WizIQ.
Though someone has told me WizIQ is just a tool for teachers, in this learning context, it could have been a powerful tool. I am determined to do this better next time!!!
For now, I can only maximize this opportunity to codify the found stories in WizIQ's collection of public classes=interactions happening in the recorded classes of Nellie, Namrata and George...the only ones I can afford to observe and closely examine through my small study given the realities of my time. If I had a co-writer, we would have sufficient time to cover the works of Vinodita Sankhyan, Vijaya Lakshmi, and maybe Sharon Hartle or Sylvia Guinan. Perhaps a part 2 study will do later on.
Not unless...WizIQ for some reason would like to celebrate their latest award by launching an online contest: for teachers and learners themselves to pick 1 favorite recorded live class, blog about it to tell us why!!! Imagine replaying a mash up of all these fave classes in a user conference, wow...I'd love to see inserts of Mr Machlan's EduPunk videos on a wide screen, and a 3D version at that, lol. Wishful thinking, lol.
What remains still, are stories online learners tell others about classes happening for them @WizIQ. Some could be a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly. Still some, are meant to be played over and over again.
Of course, I label them only now as precious after learning about what they know and willingly share every chance they get through conversations while having treewalks, hikes, major climbs and camp outs. But of course, it quite impossible to set up a hike for busy working students who choose to earn their degree online, and put up with a course on citizenship education to fulfill actual hours of doing community service as mandated by law. This F2F session was meant for students to see the meaning behind a simple but humble act of treeplanting and nurturing as part of the community service of their choice=Ecology Track.
So, I've set up my WizIQ classroom to do its job, record the audio, video the ppt and student engagements with the topics at hand. I sat comfortably with my students cuz there was so much to learn. All this time, I thought the recording was "happening". But somehow the recording via WizIQ didn't capture what we all saw and experienced F2F. I know, I am still experimenting with using the tool to run a videocon ala webinar. I thought I could pull it with my current skills. Somehow it didn't happen the way I wanted and that's like all their efforts down the drain. The failed recording was either due to a shaky internet connection or some technical glitch I wasn't able to predict or my lack of skill and memory to do what I had to do. I feel terrible.
True, the students who arrived to witness the activity F2F brought home with them new found knowledge but how about the rest of my students who could not make it. Yeah, I got the ppt and I can easily upload this as a tutorial over at WizIQ or my google docs then embed the code onto my Moodle classroom. Or Maybe I can ask them to come around and record their talk all over again using my videocam. But no, this will not do at all. Why so....
Kris and Anthony's style was very much like storytelling ala peershare. They were there as simple folks, mountaineers who happen to love what they do and the knowledge they discover along the way. Hence sharing scientific knowledge+anecdotes of bits from here and there would be quite instinctive with hardly a 'script' to follow. This style of knowledge sharing I find hardly intimidating to both teachers and learners--it's what I describe as light but loaded. Kris' creative use of photos, numbers, symbols, maps and data generated from environmental assessments delivered as if he was just narrating a story over a campfire, a style which to my mind works best for this adult-learner population of undergrads. Anthony's aesthetic sense as seen through his choice of photographs (grabbed from friends and his own collection) and intentional use of the Filipino language bore his agenda to widen our knowledge and instill in our memory the taken for granted Philippine Trees. His science was a blend of indigenous knowledge from his actual explorations, studies and conversations with like minded individuals and botanists. Hence, the interaction which transpired all seemed to be an ongoing conversation and flow of ideas among peers, like a narrative in itself which can no longer be replicated. Meaning, that if ever Kris and Anthony would do this all over again to another audience, I am certain that a different set of interactions would take place. It is these types of unique interactions which mostly remain as hidden, and uncodified and now all the more worth capturing and replaying through a tool such as WizIQ.
Though someone has told me WizIQ is just a tool for teachers, in this learning context, it could have been a powerful tool. I am determined to do this better next time!!!
For now, I can only maximize this opportunity to codify the found stories in WizIQ's collection of public classes=interactions happening in the recorded classes of Nellie, Namrata and George...the only ones I can afford to observe and closely examine through my small study given the realities of my time. If I had a co-writer, we would have sufficient time to cover the works of Vinodita Sankhyan, Vijaya Lakshmi, and maybe Sharon Hartle or Sylvia Guinan. Perhaps a part 2 study will do later on.
Not unless...WizIQ for some reason would like to celebrate their latest award by launching an online contest: for teachers and learners themselves to pick 1 favorite recorded live class, blog about it to tell us why!!! Imagine replaying a mash up of all these fave classes in a user conference, wow...I'd love to see inserts of Mr Machlan's EduPunk videos on a wide screen, and a 3D version at that, lol. Wishful thinking, lol.
What remains still, are stories online learners tell others about classes happening for them @WizIQ. Some could be a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly. Still some, are meant to be played over and over again.
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