eLExp Assignment 3: Final Reflection …
I began the course with a mission. My mission was to write a short story for children that would be enjoyable and encourage them to read more. I had this with my cousins in mind as they are boys who dislike reading because they think they cannot read. To start off, I believe that I have been able to do this successfully, although not entirely complete, the work I have put into this is definitely something I am proud of. However, the disappointing fact is that I did so with little help from the course. What was supposed to be my greatest support was not the case.
The course …
Now the course is provided by the BBC. It is essentially a text based course in which exercises are given at the end of each topic which are structured logically into four different components – setting, characters, action and then the culmination of previous work into a story. I found this quite complementary to my read/write learning style and had no issues with it. However I expected more from the course. Considering it was an e-learning course I believed it would be more technologically enhanced and thus made more engaging because of different modes of delivery. But the closest thing to that was a flash version of the article by Diana Wynne Jones that accompanied the course and that didn’t even work! I tried to solve this problem by clicking on a link that said “Get Flash” because I thought my computer was not enabled with that program. Instead I am diverted to another e-learning course designed to acquaint first time users with the Internet. And then I realise that it probably didn’t work because of the browser (Firefox) I was using and so I switch to Internet Explorer and encounter the problem of an extremely slow download, which I cannot blame on my Internet provider as I am using broadband. And so I resort to the text-based version.
Another problem I faced was the fact that there was no feedback at all! It was essentially up to me to approach other people for their opinions but what I needed was the opinions of someone who knew what they were talking about, an expert … the teacher. And so this fails me as an aural learner because there is no communication.
Overall I think the course needs to be updated a great deal in terms of how it is delivered. It does provide a good solid ground to begin writing as the content and advice is very helpful. Although the course was disappointing my experience has been thoroughly enjoyable. I think being as motivated as I was got me through the course and kept my creative juices flowing. I had ideas spilling out all over the place and to be able to create a unique story has been a reward in itself. I hope to finish the story and see how my cousins like it and hopefully it will be equally rewarding for them in terms of getting them to read more and enjoy it.
So what did I learn from this experience? Well I learnt a lot about myself in that I am a very good independent learner – I say this because I have the ability to source my own support materials and learning aids (eg: going to the library borrowing children’s books, collaborating to create visual images of characters). However I must say my time management wasn’t too impressive towards the end of the course as I neglected to factor in my other assessments that were due in the same week. I also set really ambitious timeframes in which I would complete the lessons. Furthermore, I have learnt more about e-learning as an education tool. It is effective because I can choose when to do it but I would stress the necessity of a facilitator or adequate support systems as well as engaging modes of delivery. I also think that I need to go easy on my responses because I write way too much.
It’s been fun, frustrating and revealing but I would not recommend others to do the same course. Maybe if it was fixed then maybe.
