The good thing about about a four hour train journey is that you get the chance to find hidden blog posts that you had forgotten all about … Blimey ….
‘Here’s a rather long one I made earlier ‘ way back in July …. In relation to my adventures with the #FOS4L bods ….
Flexible, Open, Social Learning
Day 1
REFLECTIONS on Digital Literacy and Identity
I really enjoyed today although I must confess I found it really hectic but so enjoyable all the same. There is such a friendly atmosphere in the #fos4l community. So many familiar faces and loads of new ones. I was really pleased to see my fellow #BYOD4L collaborator Isobel Gowers. We had loads of fun on #BYOD4L particularly when we did a google hangout with the fabulous Sam Illingworth. Sam does the voice overs on the FOS animations in partnership with the awesome design skills of the lovely Ellie Livermore (Ellie also did all the design work for the OER15 conference and an amazing artwork installation at OER14 where I first got to meet her, so it was really nice for me to see some more familiar names on the production team list for FOS !)
There are loads of other familiar names popping up too that really made me feel at home. Some people I know in ‘real life’ so we already have some sort of bond but others started off as purely ‘virtual’ connections I’m always amazed just how quickly I can feel a connection with someone in an online space. I love learning new things particularly when you don’t realise you are learning.
We had our first Twitter question shower on Monday evening too. I have taken part in tweet chats before but this was my first experience of a question shower. It was great fun but really REALLY hectic … The lovely Sue Beckingham has done a great introduction to Twitter showers which you can see here (this explains it much better than I can do I’m not even going to go there )
This is also my first role as facilitator and I’m really enjoying that too. As I’m also a participant there is a whole lot of FOS love going around in my house at the moment. Even the kids refer to me as “mummy’s in the dining room ‘fossing’ 🙂
Storify : https://storify.com/FOSchat/foschat
https://foslearning.wordpress.com/topics/1-digital-literacy-and-identity/
Day 2 REFLECTIONS on Flexible Pedagogies
It’s always the way isn’t it when you plan to do something and then something else comes up. I found myself finishing an assignment at around midnight last night and today I have been preparing for an interview tomorrow so my head has been in the shed. That said I did manage to do the odd bit of FOS today and was pleased to have caught the last bit of the Twitter shower this evening. Disappointed though that I didn’t get to do any piccies today as I joined too late and then didn’t have time. I hope to do a visual representation when I get a chance though as I have been experimenting with sketch noting recently isn’t an app called Zoomnotes.
The storify of tonight’s Twitter shower is here .
https://foslearning.wordpress.com/topics/2-flexible-pedagogies/
Day 3 REFLECTIONS on Supporting Learning
Today was all about Supporting Learning and myself and the amazing Neil were down to facilitate the Twitter question shower this evening. I must confess that Neil did the lion’s share of the practical stuff which I really appreciated as being a newbie I did find it all quite tricky to manage. The FOS community is so supportive and proactive mind you that just as my mentors Christie, sue and Chris had reassured me it all went very much to plan and probably would have done so with or without my input ! It was a great experience to do however and there was a great atmosphere and buzz around the different aspects of supporting learning. We were really fortunate to have Keith Smyth taking part in the Twitter shower and it was great to have his insight and perspective on the 3 E’s framework developed at Napier. We discussed all sorts of elements about E, E and E and it was so encouraging and comforting to see all the different practices going on around the different institutions and the fact that we are all trying to grapple with the same sort of stuff.
It was lovely to hear from my fellow OER15 pal Simon Thompson who explained that Leeds have also introduced the 3Es framework but have extended it further.
I really enjoy interacting in an environment like FOS and I find that it really is possible to learn without realising it and that this is made all the more fun when it is organic and collaborative. Yes it can be hectic at times seem quite overwhelming and chaotic but it works , we’ll certainly for me anyway.
The storify can be found here along with a wonderful Twitter map provided by the awesome Whitney Kilgore and co. It was great to be in touch again with Whitney after our initial meeting up during #BYOD4L
https://foslearning.wordpress.com/topics/3-supporting-learning/
Day 4 REFLECTIONS on Communities and Collaborating
I’m afraid Today was a bit of a light touch for me as bizarrely I found out last minute that I have an interview tomorrow so I had to dedicate my time to preparing for that. As always though the rest of the FOS team were really supportive and got on with it while I followed the odd Twitter chatter and tried to contribute as and when. Sadly though I didn’t make tonight’s Twitter shower which was a real shame as I am sure I would have loved it. I enjoyed reading the storify none the less though.
https://foslearning.wordpress.com/topics/4-communities-and-collaboration/
Day 5 REFLECTIONS Open Education
Today is the last day of FOS. I’m writing this while on the train back from Bristol. Thought I would take advantage of a valuable bit of dedicated travel time to try and catch up on my blogging stuff so this post might be added to later !! I’m really looking forward to the Giant Hangout tonight at 8pm although as should be a lovely close to the proceedings…..
Reflecting on the whole nature of Flexible Open Social Learning this morning as I travelled on my outward journey I was struck by the fact that I was sat in a train carriage with lots of other people all busy going about their own business but seemingly in an individual capacity. I didn’t count them all but as I was stood up for some of the journey this gave me the opportunity to look around me ( as I didn’t have my own head buried in my iPad as I do now ! ) and I noticed that pretty much with only one or two exceptions nearly everyone had their head buried in either a smart phone or tablet and there were LOTS of people with headphones.
Now I don’t really travel by public transport very much although I may well be doing so in the future 😉 so while this isn’t probably a novel observation for other well travelled folk is was a real eye opener for me, I found myself wondering whether people were being ‘social’ on virtual level but by its nature being solitary in a physical capacity as there were no exchanges of friendly glances, hardly anyone spoke or smiled, not out of rudeness but simply out of busyness. it certainly made me rethink my engagement in the real world.
https://foslearning.wordpress.com/topics/5-open-education/
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