Teaching Implementation 1 – Professional Teacher training

Overview

 17.09.2019

 This is the start of the implementation phase after the planning phase from last week. Same as before there are three groups with three topics. These three topics cover different ways through which we can implement learning. The focus was on Virtual environments. 

Our topic was: What traditional teaching methods work with Virtual Environments? What don’t? What features are better  in Virtual Environment (compared to frontal teaching — and why are they better)?

In our group we had three meetings. Two meetings to discuss and finalize our task and one meeting to come up with the rules that we can follow in our group. 

In between the meetings we had our individual tasks. And one member was assigned to compile all the suggestions and ideas into one presentation. 

We used 6 methods that work with virtual environment in our presentation. We also had some examples of teaching methods that we think will not work in the online environment. Finally we talked about features of virtual environments that are both present in Synchronous and Asynchronous teaching methods. Obviously we made our presentation in a way that can be considered interactive as we gave our audience small text about teaching methods to read and discuss about them. We spent at least 15 minutes for reading and discussions. Overall we did not get any negative feedback on our groups presentation. Unless our tutors can have something specific for us. 

On the group dynamics side in our group there were some miss understandings and some lack of communication and initiatives. As a result we lost one member. 

There were some absentees during the group meetings but they informed us before hand except one member who it turns out not looking at the school provided email and missing out on so many important emails that we are sending. Hopefully it will all be sorted out. 

 Other groups

As mentioned above that there are three groups and all the groups are teaching about implementation phase. The other two groups had some interesting topics as well:

• How can present Virtual Environments be made versatile and activating?
• Safety in Virtual environments. (Safety, equality, network bullying, others, laws…) Consider both from the viewpoint of the student and the teacher.

There were some useful links and ideas that personally I liked. I can definitely use the links to further improve my knowledge. 

One thing that I learned and was new to me that I would like to share here. It was about Different era that we live in dating back a century. What I did not knw is that now we are living in and EXPERIENCE ERA. 

What? what is this? who said it? In short it is learning through experiences. Wait, what? Imran you are a facilitator and you always talk about experiential learning. How did you miss this? I guess I needed to reflect more on what I am doing. It was all along in front of me and I never thought about it. 

Little bit about what I am doing these days. Stay with me. it will be cleared in the next paragraph. I am doing my PhD on a topic called: Facilitating Graduate Employabaility (short topic). To collect my data I have designed a course. My course is workshop based and it is going to help students practice three soft skills, Communication, motivation/initiative, and Leadership. 

So, why did I tell you all this. Two reasons. First, I am helping my students to practice and learn these soft skills with the help of experiential learning through the use of reflection and feedback. Second reason is, just a minute please, first you need to know that future of virtual environments and in general where is our education system going in the next 50 years. 

Future of Virtual Environments

So, in my opinion the future of virtual environments is going in two directions. Augmented reality and Virtual Reality platforms. Do I really need to say more? No I don’t think so. You get the point. Google the terms now if you are still wondering. Organizations and social media platforms have already started to make hardware and software for both VR and AR platforms. In 50 years technology will be understood as a second nature. Learning will happen in VR and AR. Start learning to use these platforms or learn to make them if you have the capacity. Also in the future you will need some soft skills to get an edge over your competition. Do you know what are those soft skills going to be? Well, you guessed them right. They are collaboration, creativity, communication, taking initiatives, motivation, and leadership. This is my second reason if you are still wondering where is my second reason or when is it coming. People who are going to be good at technology more than other which it seems like everyone will be then the only difference that will make you get the jobs will be through your soft skills competence. That is why I am doing my PhD in this field and trying to create courses that will facilitate learning through practicing soft skills. 

Reflection

Group Work

My reflection as an individual: In our group we had some conflicts and it is a good thing. It showed that what are our strengths and weaknesses. A bit of reflection at least helped me to understand the situation. I will definitely take some steps in order to not come across the same issues again. All we needed an half an hour to listen to each other and talk things over. One member did take an initiative to connect with other members of the group using Microsoft team. There was no follow up from the member as no one in the group talked about it including from the member who took the initiative. On the other hand I created google docs for sharing ideas and I let everyone know through email, messages etc. I made sure that everyone managed to get the document and started contributing. The other member who made Microsoft team did not follow up on his initiative which in turn brought out no communication and only misunderstandings. As a result that member left the group. 

Note: There was another issue as a result of these miss communications that I cannot mention here. 

Group reflection in my opinion: The purpose of writing this above context here is to remind you and to myself that little things if ignored can lead to unnecessary conflicts.We say things in a heat of a moment that brings us back to starting line. So, in our group we had to start all over again by talking about group rules etc. In Susan Wheelan’s group development model terms from reaching to a stage 2 we came back to stage 1 to start all over again. Our conflicts helped us to reach stage 2 but we were unable to keep our selves in this stage and manage our conflicts. In stead of moving past conflicts to stage 3 we came back down to stage 1. As a group we have started to raise more questions and in case of any conflicts we must talk to each other and find solutions in the future.  

Teaching

So, if you have not read my previous post then it is time to go back and read it. In my reflection I mentioned that I feel like giving presentations and not teaching. Well, nothing changed this week either. Short answer is, due to our groups internal conflict. This is not an excuse. It was a distraction and due to limited time I just kept it to myself and did not share about changing the way we are presenting. 

All I can say is that next time it will be different. I guess Kimmo read my previous post as he tried to tell us that you are creative people and you can experiment with the different ways of teaching. I am hopeful that I get to experiment different ways of teaching in the future virtual classes.