Having avoided taking part in a MOOC since they became the latest fad, I have now taken the plunge and enrolled on the ALT ocTEL MOOC.
It only started yesterday, so it is way too early to tell if I will complete the course. One of my reasons for undertaking the ocTEL is to see if this is a format that could be used for staff development in my own college.
One of the first questions that we need to look at on the oCTEL is:
What is the most important question about TEL for you?
Having been involved in TEL (and all the previous variations for a while now) the most important question I seem to have asked throughout that time and continue to ask is:
How do we create a culture in which TEL can be effectively used by all staff and learners to improve learning?
From my perspective and experience, TEL encomapasses both technology and learning, however the real deciding factor in using TEL to enhance and enrich learning is through cultural change.
Culture change is possible, but not necessarily straightforward or easy.
What I want to know and learn from others on the ocTEL is how do we influence and achieve cultural change?
Hi James
Yes! The question I’ve been forming was pretty similar to this – for me, I seem a lot keener than my students, and some of my colleagues. Francois Desjardins recently gave a presentation at the university where I teach, and I asked him about student resistance to TEL – his answer was that trust needs to be built with students. Easier said than done in a traditional university setting with quite large class sizes!
I had written my big question – how do we get staff to engage. Then I read your post and realised that my question was actually about changing culture. So I rewrote my post
http://morethanjustcontent.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/whats-my-big-question-about-tel-octel/
I certainly dont have a clear answer but I think I have the start of a few ideas