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I saw this in a class observation in one of the schools. This application is free and easy to use. It is quite similar to Kahoot, but the learners only need their QR answer sheet provided by educator, instead of using smart phones or computer to answer questions.

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I found many educators in Estonia used this application in their classroom. Both adults and child learners appeared to be engaging to the lesson and while having fun.

This application allows you to create a set of multiple-choice questionnaire while learners with smart phones can answer by using the same link. Personally, I like the function of timing to show which participate is the quickest in answering.

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Join a game of kahoot here. Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn – any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages!

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First of all, I feel thankful for having this assignment because, as a practical person, this task to create a whole online module from scratch is very hands-on and directly serves the objective of this TAO Course to become an online adult educator.

Naturally, working with peers provide more fun and challenges at the same time. On one hand, while we discussed the concept of our course, I can tap new knowledge from my groupmates. I used to think that I had above-average level of technological knowledge. After a week of working in this project, I realized that there are so many aspects that other people know (a lot) more than me. It made me tried even harder to contribute my ideas to this project. I was also inspired by my peers’ creativity during our brainstorming for the theme of this mini-course. Most importantly, every meeting we had, it filled with laughter and positivity.

On the other hand, working as a group can be more challenging when there is a decision to make. Especially in the planning phase, disagreement occurs from time to time, and I was reluctant whether to be honest and disrupt the flow of groupwork, or ignore this conflict so we can move on. Apart from that, finding time to have a meeting was also more difficult compared to individual work. Even though we all agreed to have each meeting via Skype, there were dozens of back-and-forth exchanges of messages among us to find the right time to make a video chat.

Fortunately, it has been more than a year that we know and work together. We know how to communicate to each other and understand the differences of our personalities. While everyone was helpful and considerate, we also tried to balance the distribution of work between group members, which enabled me to fully engage to this project.

Link to our Mini-Course: https://andreaskollias.moodlecloud.com/course/view.php?id=3

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Here is my multimedia reflection of the course. I choose to use more advanced functions of PowerPoint such as online sharing (via OneDrive) and voice over my entire presentation. It is my first time using voice over and I really enjoy the result of it. I hope you do too!

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Store photos and docs online. Access them from any PC, Mac or phone. Create and work together on Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents.

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To me, technology of Cloud offer a leap of collaborative learning. Either from OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox, these tools allow multiple people to view or edit different types of files in real time. Document sharing becomes one click away. Submission of academic works can be done easily through Cloud as well.

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Create and collaborate on online documents in real-time and from any device.

Seamless collaboration, from anywhere

Edit together in real-time with easy sharing, and use comments, suggestions, and action items to keep things moving. Or use @-mentions to pull relevant people, files, and events into your online Docs for rich collaboration.

Write faster with built-in intelligence

Assistive features like Smart Compose help you write faster with fewer errors, so you can focus on ideas. And save time with spelling and grammar suggestions, voice typing, and quick document translation.

Seamlessly connect to your other Google apps

Docs is thoughtfully connected to other Google apps you love, saving you time. Reply to comments directly from Gmail, embed charts from Google Sheets, and easily share via Google Meet. You can even search the web and Google Drive for relevant content and images, directly from Docs.

Bring collaboration and intelligence to other file types

Easily edit Microsoft Word files online without converting them, and layer on Docs' enhanced collaborative and assistive features like action items and Smart Compose. You can also import PDFs, making them instantly editable.

Do more with add-ons

Access a variety of third-party applications, right from Docs. Whether it's an e-signature app or project management tool, open it from Docs to work faster.

Work on fresh content

With Docs, everyone's working on the latest version of a document. And with edits automatically saved in version history, it's easy to track or undo changes.

Stay productive, even offline

You can access, create, and edit Docs even without an internet connection, helping you stay productive from anywhere.

Security, compliance, and privacy

Secure by default

We use industry-leading security measures to keep your data safe, including advanced malware protections. Docs is also cloud-native, eliminating the need for local files and minimizing risk to your devices.

Encryption in transit and at rest

All files uploaded to Google Drive or created in Docs are encrypted in transit and at rest.

Compliance to support regulatory requirements

Our products, including Docs, regularly undergo independent verification of their security, privacy, and compliance controls.

Private by design

Docs adheres to the same robust privacy commitments and data protections as the rest of Google Cloud's enterprise services.

You control your data.

We never use your Docs content for ad purposes.

We never sell your personal information to third parties.

Find the plan that's right for you

Google Docs is a part of Google Workspace

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Collaborate from anywhere, on any device

Access, create, and edit your documents wherever you are - from any mobile device, tablet, or computer - even when offline.

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Choose from a variety of dashboards, project trackers, and other professionally-designed templates to kick things off quickly.

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Google Docs: Online Document Editor | Google Workspace

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Use Google Docs to create, and collaborate on online documents. Edit together with secure sharing in real-time and from any device.

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A creative tool that becomes quite popular in this class. I used this for the first time last year to create a presentation. Although the result was not like what I expected becasue PowToon lacks function of pausing, which is important when conduction an interactive presentation. Otherwise, I love the flashy animation of this application and how easy it can be used, even for non-expert in computer graphic.

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Powtoon | Create Awesome Videos Yourself

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Powtoon gives you everything you need to easily make professional videos and presentations that your clients, colleagues, and friends will love! No design or tech skills are necessary - it's free, easy, and awesome!

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Although university libraries provides a large amount of academic resources, Google Scholar has even larger amount of database. Of course, many papers require a membership or purchasing, but this fast tool has served me greatly in finding references.

Google Scholar has the search logarithm like normal Google search, so sometimes it filters results for you, which might cause a problem because your search history can create bias.

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Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. Search across a wide variety of disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions.

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Learning online: massive open online courses (MOOCs), connectivism, and cultural psychology

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Learning online: massive open online courses (MOOCs), connectivism, and cultural psychology

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-          The article is started by differentiating cMOOC and xMOOC in perspective of psychology. xMOOC was developed by campus-based universities and is not pedagogically driven. Thus, their pedagogy is based on Behaviorist psychology. Meanwhile, cMOOC was developed with the explicit aim of exploring a pedagogy that divert from Behaviorism, Cognitivism, or Constructivism. The initiator of this type of MOOC introduced new psychological assumptions that they argued to be a new learning theory, which is called Connectivism (hence the name cMOOC).

-          However, the author argues that since connectivism does not adequately explain how learning occurs, it should not be considered as a learning theory, or as a theoretical guide for pedagogy in MOOCs and in Web 2.0 environments.

-          As connectivism is not a valid learning theory and behaviourism is an old pedagogical theory that should be modernised, a suitable pedagogy should be implemented to take over the framework of MOOCs.  In this case, the author suggests Vygotsky’s Cultural Psychology.

-          Cultural psychology generates two main mechanisms, which are transformation (interaction between systems of activity) and redistribution (process of internalisation and externalisation), that could be helpful for Web 2.0 environment.

-          Two ideas were proposed for a future MOOC pedagogy. The first one is the visualization of objects which would help learners with to give direction to their learning. The second one is the enabling of dialogic and sustained joint activity, which can help internalisation process of learners.

Clarà, M., & Barberà, E. (2013). Learning online: massive open online courses (MOOCs), connectivism, and cultural psychology. Distance Education, 34(1), 129-136.

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Five critiques of the open educational resources movement

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Five critiques of the open educational resources movement

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-          The aim of this paper is to question the implications of the open educational resources (OER) in higher education context by introducing five critiques.

1.       The term ‘openness’ and ‘freedom’ has been under-theorised in the concept of OER. The movement emphasised the removal of barriers such as financial, time, and location limitation. However, there is a lack of consideration for how learning might take place once these obstacles are overcome. The argument adopts the concept of positive liberty (freedom as self-mastered) and negative liberty (freedom from interference), and claimed that the OER focused on the negative liberty.

2.       The OER could lead to a new form of elitism because the perception of online degrees does not represent the same respect as degrees from traditional campus-based. It allows the privileging of institutional structure, where the inequality shows in the qualification and the quality of the guidance and support to online students, even though the OER tries to be assessed in the same way as campus-based education.

3.       Since the OER reduces institutional involvement to the roles of assessment and accreditation, the role and responsibilities of teacher is diminished to environmental facilitation and pedagogical strategy is compromised.

4.       The OER learning follows the humanistic approach and believes in an innate human ability to self-direct. However, there are other factors such as power and laws that influence an individual’s autonomy. This assumption also fails to adapt to local contexts and different cultures.

5.       The effectiveness of OER is frequently mentioned as the ability to reduce the costs of reproducing and maintaining online courses. The OER becomes an economically orientated product of the university and the learner participates as a consumer of global market.

Knox, J. (2013). Five critiques of the open educational resources movement. Teaching in Higher Education, 18(8), 821-832.

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Discriminating factors between completers of and dropouts from online learning courses

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Discriminating factors between completers of and dropouts from online learning courses

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-          The researcher applies Composite Persistence Model (CPM) as the research framework. CPM identifies four components that influenced students to continue or drop out of their education programme. The four components can be divided into before admission (student characteristics and student skills) and after admission (external factors and internal factors).

-          Student Characteristics include age, ethnicity, gender, intellectual development, and academic preparation.

-          Student Skills cover technical and soft skills that benefits learning process, such as computer literacy and time management.

-          External Factors consist of financial status, time availability, encouragement form surroundings, etc.

-          All of the three mentioned components can influence the last component, Internal Factors, which includes students’ needs, self-esteem, goal commitment, habits, learning styles, for instance.

-          The researcher aims to find whether these four components influence online students to be persistent in their programme. And if so, which components can predict the success of completing online course.

-          Two surveys were given to distance learning students in Korea. The first survey measures academic self-efficacy and academic locus of control, while the second survey measures time and environment management, metacognitive self-regulation, and support from family and work.

-          The result shows that persistent students and dropout students were significantly different in Internal Factors and Student Skills. Especially the academic locus of control and metacognitive self-regulation for learning have higher correlations than the other factors to predict the dropout rate of distance learning students.

Lee, Y., Choi, J., & Kim, T. (2013). Discriminating factors between completers of and dropouts from online learning courses. British Journal of Educational Technology, 44(2), 328-337.

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Critical Inquiry in a Text-Based Environment: Computer Conferencing in Higher Education

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Critical Inquiry in a Text-Based Environment: Computer Conferencing in Higher Education

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-          This research aims to develop a tool (template of indicators and categories) for computer mediated communication (CMC) and computer conferencing for online educational context. The model of a Community of Inquiry was used as the main framework of the research.

-          Community of Inquiry assumes that learning occurs through the interaction of three core elements, which are cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence.

-          Cognitive presence is crucial for critical thinking, as well as creative thinking, in process of learning. Social presence supports the core function of cognitive presence in terms of promoting participation and free expression in learning environment. Teaching presence relates to the process of designing and facilitating learning experience.

-          In online learning context, text-based communication has more presence than traditional oral communication in face-to-face classroom. Although there are many disadvantages for text-based method, its key feature is to provide learners’ time for reflection, which becomes beneficial for higher-order cognitive learning.

-          One of the challenges of conducting this research is to choose indicators that are specific enough to be concrete, but still broad enough to be usable for analysis and application part.

-          Each element of Community of Inquiry was coded and analysed into several indicators that can be useful for creating better computer conferences and online learning environment.

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The internet and higher education, 2(2), 87-105.

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Interdependence of roles, role rotation, and sense of community in an online course

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Interdependence of roles, role rotation, and sense of community in an online course

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-          This paper explains a qualitative study on the use of asynchronous online learning in a real online course by relate it to role rotation and a sense of community.

-          Online learning nowadays relies very much on asynchronous communication, which educators and learners do not interact in real time, but uses tools like emails or web boards to exchange messages whenever and wherever they are convenient.

-          Although the system provides flexibility of learning, one of the major disadvantages of asynchronous online course is the isolation from instructor and other peers in the course that could cause several consequences of students’ performance. The author proposes the concept of sense of community (SOC) to alleviate this problem.

-          In order to create SOC, trust and feeling of belonging (connectedness) has to be established within the online learning community, along with mutual educational benefits received by interacting with others (learning).

-          Online interaction, which is a major factor that can promote SOC, is about generating dialogues rather than merely posting messages.

-          By assigning roles to learners, non-participated students will be more active while dominant students will be tuned down.

-          The researcher implemented Starter-Wrapper technique, which is the distribution of the role of discussion starter and discussion summariser in online forum to each student, and rotate to everyone.

-          Participants of the research are 37 undergraduate students enrolled in an online course from an American public university. The researcher used observation, survey, studting of materials, and interview as researching tools.

-          Result shows that students’ tendency to depend on their classmates and to participate is improved when using the starter-wrapper with roles technique.

Jiang, W. (2017). Interdependence of roles, role rotation, and sense of community in an online course. Distance Education, 38(1), 84-105.

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Using Transformative Pedagogy When Teaching Online

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Using Transformative Pedagogy When Teaching Online

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-          Transformative pedagogy does not only aim to increase knowledge of learners, but also provide opportunity to change their attitudes, expand their world view, and develop critical thinking skills.

-          The author of this article proposes five ways for online educators to use Transformative Pedagogy effectively.

1.       Transformative pedagogy encourages supportive learning community because online learning environment eliminate the restriction of time and place, and many students feel more comfortable openly participating in virtual or text-based communication than in face-to-face setting. Eventually, transformative pedagogy will create mutual trust between educator and learners, and among the learners.

2.       Transformative pedagogy involves questioning students’ assumptions, self-scrutiny, and reflection. It encourages students to think about their experiences, beliefs, and even biases. Online platforms usually allow longer period for students to take time in their transforming thoughts and values.

3.       Transformative learning occurs when students feel motivated to contribute to the class. The role of learners is active, unlike the banking model, which teachers rely on lecture and knowledge transmission, while students take passive status. Online learning also encourages self-directed learners because there is an absence of teacher and peers pressuring their learning process.

4.        Online learning can be used on topics that require deep reflection, such as values and awareness. With transformative pedagogy, students can take time to think about real-world problems such as inequality of race and gender, and expand their consciousness.

5.       Transformative learning is a cycle between reflection and action. Conceptual revelation is not enough for transformation if not followed by implementation. Online learning provide a massive amount of sources that can inspire their actions.

Meyers, S. A. (2008). Using transformative pedagogy when teaching online. College Teaching, 56(4), 219-224.

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Week 3: On learning theories and related pedagogies

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Week 3: On learning theories and related pedagogies

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With my background in psychology, I am quite familiar with these theories. So I will begin by answering your second question that I don't think there is any learning theories which are completely irrelevant to teaching adults online. Even the most ancient one like Behaviourism is still able to create impact to the class. Deadlines, scores, grades are some external factors that help new learners to prioritise and make decisions of their learning journey. I agree with other comments that cognitive approach would work better in a long term since mostly it is internally directed, but in reality, online learners have to juggle with lots of responsibility. A short term stimulus like an email noticing them that they are behind in schedule can help shaping their learning behaviours such as planning and time management,

However, learning theories that was closing to my learning style were from Cognitive and Humanistic approaches. I have wrote some papers about Vygotsky's Social Constructivism and Roger's Learner-Centred Theory because both concepts believe in capacity human mind that they can learn much more than they appear. Putting faith in learners, if I may conclude it. While Humanism is, in my opinion, more philosophical, Cognitivism is based more on science. Vygotsky's theory significantly changed my framework toward education because, like some of the comments above, I was in an education system that used banking approach (teacher-centred, lecture-based). Social Constructivism focus on internalisation of the learners themselves. External experience is material for constructing knowledge, while knowledge itself is built internally. My role of "teaching" was shaped to become a scaffolder that supports construction of higher knowledge. One weak point of this theory might be that it relies very much on learners themselves, so in reality where there are objectives to complete and timeline to achieve, this theory might need support from other approaches in order to function in professional world.

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Week 2: Mixing and matching learning modules

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Week 2: Mixing and matching learning modules

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Thanks for sharing, Hannah! I love diagrams, and all types of visual aids, really. I should have seen this before reading the text of the week. :D

This makes me think of another benefit of a "modular course". It doesn't have to be a variety of subjects for learners to choose from, but it can be a variety of learning methodologies so adults can choose how they want to approach the subject. Based you your pretty image, I produced my diagram showing an example of a modular session. Although it's far from pretty, I hope it make sense.

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Week 2: Seamless and ubiquitous learning

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Week 2: Seamless and ubiquitous learning

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Hi Mary,

I think your last example about riding a bike sounds like a great idea! It's like to have audio guide to every where you go. The world is your museum! However, I also share your and Tove's concern that it could blur the line when to work and when to relax.

I think technology can be extremely useful if we use it consciously. Indeed no one would want Siri to stand behind our back and tell us where we are. Learning as well, should be active and conscious. Your smartphone should tell you the story of the monument only when you want to know about it. Seamless learning should occur when we want to learn, not when we should learn. The easier and faster technology helps us to grab data (aka knowledge), the more seamless our everyday learning can be, I think. Well, as long as it is a learning moment that we,ourselves, initiate.

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Week 2: Mixing and matching learning modules

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Week 2: Mixing and matching learning modules

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1. Is “mixing and matching” beneficial?

Definitely, yes. Since I was a child I always want to learn only the topics I was interested in. Although I learn now that it was also important for me to be exposed to some subjects that I don't like in order to integrate them into advance disciplinary. As an adult, however, we have limited time that has to be divided to our career, family, friends, recreational activities, and self development. Mixing and matching concept seems to respond to that, because now adults can choose only some part of a module that are relevant to their context or that they are interested in.

2. What kind of learners & types of learning are suitable?

Self-directed adults who have objectives in their mind about what they want to learn or develop.

3. Experience of “mixing and matching” units of learning?

I've never had a full programme of mixing-and-matching course before, but I believe the biggest pro would be for learners who get to maximise what they learn from a shorter amount of time, while one of the con might be for educators who would have more difficult time to assess whether the learners achieve the learning objectives, since everyone learns much differently.

4. Freedom to tailor formal education studies in Thailand?

Short answer would a no, for formal education system in Thailand. Usually all lecturers have fixed syllabus that they have to follow each week. They might be some hidden modularisation in some classes for some teachers, but I have never seen or heard of.

In university, the system of elective courses can be considered a pseudo-mix&match programme. Although it is not a different modules mixed in one course as the definition of the concept, it is a combination of different courses that students can choose to integrate to one degree as a whole.

5. Suggest to the designers of our programme?

That would be a dream! I have attended some online courses and never felt like those courses were tailored for me as an individual. For our programme, I think we can start with offering several concepts of online learning in one week for all of us to choose. We can discuss during our web conference to share what we've learn (like the concept of Flipped Classroom). Then next week we can choose from different tools of online learning, then different case studies, then different platforms, trends, theories, etc.

6. What is "micro-masters" or "nano-degrees"? Who benefits from it?

I agree with Mary, Preeti, and Tracy on the definition and benefits of Micro-Masters and Nano-degrees. I also would like to focus on blue-collar job level and people with low income. This new education certification can provide more access to higher qualification to them because it requires less time investment and tuition fee.

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Characteristics of Adult Learners with Implications for Online Learning Design

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Characteristics of Adult Learners with Implications for Online Learning Design

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-          The article aims to relate adult learning theories and characteristics to the online learning environment, using several theories to explain adult learning phenomena and give suggestions for future practice.

-          The author demonstrates that online environment in higher education is growing. For example, distance education courses were offered in 56% of degree-granting institutions in the U.S. In 2004-2005, there was the largest growth rate in online enrolment, which was around 35%.

-          Explain the advantage of teaching adults and accept the limitation of adults compared to children. Since memory decreases with age, adult educators should adapt to learner’s biological condition by applying certain tools and methodologies such as graphs and images, bigger fonts and colour coded, using metaphor and practice, and chunking information.

-          Since adults have different background and preferences, learning style should take into consideration for curriculum design. The author suggests using learning style inventories test, even though it has been criticised.

-          The author uses Knowles’ (1973) five assumptions of Andragogy as a foundation to other extended adult learning theories, which are Self-Directed learning, Experiential Learning, and Transformative Learning. He also includes criticism of the theories along with their practical application.

-          Experiential learning is learning through experience and reflection. The reflection can occur before experience (reflect on prior knowledge) and afterward, which makes it a cycle of learning.

-          Self-directed learning explains the concept which learners take the initiative of their own learning in identifying learning goals and process.

-          Transformative learning is a process of critical reflection which learners make meaning out of the world through experiences, and eventually change their thinking process or the way they function.

Cercone, K. (2008). Characteristics of adult learners with implications for online learning design. AACE journal, 16(2), 137-159.

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Week 7: NASA and Crowd-sourcing: Exploring Space with Collective Knowledge

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Week 7: NASA and Crowd-sourcing: Exploring Space with Collective Knowledge

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I have same thought with you about Google when I read the second question. At least Wikipedia is a non-profit and it keeps all information open. Google, on the other hand, gathers every input we made, including pictures, videos, texts, even voice messages when you make a call via google chat, etc. Their exceptional logarithm was developed by crowd-sourcing, but it becomes privately owned by Google.

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Thanks for your interesting question Jodie. Before I answer I would like to mention that the way you formed your question by using terms like “personal response” and “preferable” makes me feel safe to share my thought and opinions freely. I really appreciate that.

My short answers would be “both” and “depends”.

In some field of studies such as medicine, physics, agriculture or mechanics, the “uniform, standard, globalized” curriculum would help students from around the world to have access to updated technical knowledge in their field. This way, MOOC would decrease the educational gap between different regions such as urban vs rural communities, or developed vs underdeveloped countries. I guess, for content-based courses, this element should be emphasised.

On the other hand, online learning is more fun when you have ”personalized, idiosyncratic” way of learning. Different activities and learning sequences (learning methidology) can be adopted to many online modules according to learners‘ need, even in highly technical fields like what I mentioned above. However, content wise, I think it would work best in soft topics (I don’t know how to call them) such as community management, psychology, or language and culture, because these topics require an integration of learners’ context in order to practise in real life.

Now I would NOT be surprise if the comment below would point out other broader areas that I am not thinking of, since my experience with MOOC is quite limited.

Since you mention these two paths, I feel like this course moves toward the prior rather than the latter, especially for the content. What do you think? Maybe Andreas can elaborate on the structure of this course, and where you intend this course to be between these two paths?

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This is a good piece of work! Usually I would learn about the good, and some of the bad, but the ugly (the bottom part) is very much interesting it got me reflecting for quite awhile.

Thanks for sharing, Hannah!

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Week 6: The Other Adult Learner in art and other forms of expression

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Week 6: The Other Adult Learner in art and other forms of expression

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I like you elaboration Zainab. I did not know before that, in this context, our culture is very much similar. Although we faced the same struggle, now we are also facing the same change.

I think the main idea of seniority has both benefit and drawbacks. Although students are supposed to respect and follow their teachers' instruction, they know that the teachers will protect them as one of their "clan". A lot of the time when I was in non-academic-related troubles in school or university, I can also rely on teachers that they would step up beyond their job description to help their students. It is like exchanging between a part of independence and a part of protection.

In my region we are also facing the same change that children nowadays are influenced to be more outspoken, which is a good thing in my opinion. But I have seen a lot of them still expect teachers to bend the rules for them when they were late in registering a course, or in trouble with their social life. I think it would be fair if you want to be independent, you have to be responsible as well. Someone told me it's a Generation Me thing, but obviously this is not an academic claim.

I also agree with your answer to Tony. I think we all are adapting to each other's culture. Some might have to adapt more than the others, but that's the whole reason of attending an EU education system in international context like IMAESC.

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Week 6: The Other Adult Learner in lived experience

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Week 6: The Other Adult Learner in lived experience

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Thanks for the YouTube video, Tracy. I had some reflection when I watched it and thought of some adult learners I came across during my work experience.

Those kids in the back, who did not move and only watched the game being played by other kids, reminded me of some students who sat still and were not participating in my learning class. Those people were perceived as the "other" adult learners that we are talking about; the one who looks demotivated, the one who needs more guidance and gently push to start their work, or the one who avoids your eye contact when you look at them from the front of the classroom. The reason that they became silent and inactive can also be because of external factors, such as the curriculum that designed for specific groups, or the activities that do not make everyone feels comfortable to participate. Those kids in the video got to move because the rules were made for them. It was also possible that those other adult learners were forced to be that way.

I completely agree with your last sentence that, as an adult educator, we have a powerful role to make sure that learning environment support all the learners from different backgrounds. Of course there will always be other reasons to make learners become othered, such as interest in the content, attitude toward educator, or even their current emotions.

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Hi Loren, I like your elaboration, especially on cognitive presence.

I agree with you that repetition helps a lot here, especially the main message which is the steps of CPR. However, there are some points that are crucial for life saving such as where exactly to hit when you do a back blow or how to do recovery position. I considered these to be key points but they were not mentioned as often.

Reflecting on what you mentioned about repetition of messages, I think if I were a part of this Lifesaver development team, I would put all the key messages in the last slide of the video, because some learners might not finish all 4 videos in one go, and it also provides different learning methods (reading after practicing) as well.

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The video from the link was really inspiring, Preeti!

Usually we would see CPR (and first aids) training as a job for certain organisations such as hospitals and government sectors, so it is refreshing to see these students taking part in raising awareness of life saving. I believe that if the community initiate its own project (as opposed to top-down campaign from those institutions), it would reach to its members better, the knowledge will be sustained longer, and they would know how and where to access this knowledge for the future.

I am curious to know whether this clip made as a part of school assignments, or it's purely for community development? Do they repeat this practice regularly? I would like to know how the students manage to keep this knowledge circulating.

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Since I am familiar with PowToon and Prezi, I decided to give Easel a shot because it was new to me.

I have been playing with it for about an hour and was not impressed because its functions are similar to PowerPoint and Keynote. The strong point of this app might be cool templates and artworks. However, to get full access, you need to be a paid member.

Then a funny thing happened to me when I accidentally clicked the new template, and my whole slide was gone! And undo button does't bring it back! Autosave and history track? No! Farewell to my work.

Personally, I would definitely go back to Google Slides, which is also an online tool and is more user-friendly and free.

I will come back tomorrow to finish the task and will give my reply here.

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Although I agreed with many parts of the main message by Andreas, I share your idea from the first bullet point regarding methodology of online teaching.

One of the paragraph mentioned that “online teachers are under constant pressure to adopt the pedagogic practices that are dominant in the respective field of professional/academic practice.” However, with my limited experience in adult online teaching, I have received and witnessed vast opportunities for online educators to be creative and innovative, similar to what was mentioned in the following paragraph of the main text.

It is common for educators from formal education to feel that there is a pressure for them to follow the existing path of teaching, but they don’t know that it is, most of the time, also fine, to experiment new teaching methods with new tools and new media in online context. My experience taught me that most of the pressure I used to feel was self-created illusion. I am glad I had courage to break away from it, and of course, with support from understanding supervisors.

I believe that the diverse nature of online classes forces teachers to be adaptive to changing circumstance, even sometimes it does not fit with existing guidelines. In the same course, one online class maybe engaging and interactive, while another may be filled with “lurkers” who tend to read but refrain from participation. Different tools and approaches should be modified to respond to different learning environment. Online education is relatively a new field with new challenges arise constantly, but I believe that, in order to develop this field, educators should explore many different paths, rather than feeling pressure to follow traditional methodology.

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I would say that my community only include Bangkok area as I am aware that it is different in other regions of the country. In Bangkok, modern technology is not just accessible, but required in order to communicate, transport, keep up with news (learning), etc. My parents, my uncles and aunts, and most of my friends' parents can use smart phones and internet on PC to some extent. I think it's the same whether young or old people, that we only use software that we need in our daily lives. Some older people do not know a lot of apps maybe because they are not necessary for them. But older adults can definitely know more if they want to know more. So I think Ageism is not that strong in my community. Surely there might be some presence of Ageism, but like Mary stated, I think it's individual rather than communal.

I remember when I taught my mom how to use PC, it was difficult for her to control the mouse, but so was I when I first started using a PC. However, in the end she went back to radio in order to consume daily news. It was not because of her skills in technology, but it was much convenient for her to listen rather than to read. She demonstrated her online skills when she chose YouTube and Radio apps over subscribing to news website. Online learning platform is not popular in my community not because of ageism, but because of lacks of learning options that suit the various needs of older adults.

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Week 6: The Other Adult Learner in art and other forms of expression

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Week 6: The Other Adult Learner in art and other forms of expression

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When I saw this topic, I was very determined to contribute something here because I am one of the movie lovers. Turns out it was not easy to find one with the context of “othered” adult learners in formal or non-formal adult education.

I guess it’s not true because these characters of demotivated, inert, and dependent adults are everywhere in films, only that they were not the center of the stories. The first character I was thinking of was Claire Fisher from the TV series Six Feet Under (2001 - 2005). Initially, the character fits perfectly in your description of the Other Adult Learners as “passive and expects from others to tell her what to learn and why, she is not valuing her experiences, she has no interest in learning new things, she does not feel responsible for her own decisions.” Claire appeared to be the same both academically and socially. Her common response to many dialogues would be “whatever.” As the character developed, Claire found her way as an artist, a photographer, to be specific. She became an active learner who had goals in her life.

Claire’s storyline reflects on the reality of adult learning that being the Other Adult Learner is not because of personality. It is situational. Different people have different interests and different threshold to be activated. I still believe that every single adult can be an active learner, but in their own way and in their own field. Adult educators should find the right temperature to bring out motivation from the learners. I used to deliver a course about health issues to villagers in rural area and I thought everyone should be motivated because everyone owns a body that needs healthcare. However, there were still the Other Learners in my session. As an adult educator, I should know that it was not because of “them”, but it was about how I can portray the importance of taking care of their health, or show them how dangerous it is if they don’t. Preparing sequences of curriculum and choosing activities to fit their background would also be some elements I should have paid more attention.

Thus, I think being an Other Adult Learner is a moment of being Claire. We can mitigate that by learning about the learner’s interest and point of view before starting education programme, or doing Need Assessment, in short.

Now I would end my post here, but as I was typing, a Katy Perry’s song called Roar was played. The first verse of the lyrics was quite significant in portraying my culture of being a classroom’s student.

“I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath.

Scared to rock the boat and make a mess.

So I sat quietly,

agreed politely.”

In my culture, students are expected to “agree politely” rather than “to rock the boat.” Learning is depended on teachers. And I did have, as Knowles (2005) mentioned, "a form of culture-shock when first exposed to truly adult educational programs."

However, this is not necessarily related to the earlier point I made.

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I was really impressed with the production of this "training tool". The videos did not only provide information about CPR and other basic first aids (Cognitive Presence), it also allowed learners to practice at the same time (impressive Teaching Presence).

I have worked with the national and international Red Cross for more than 5 years and had some experience in first aid training. However, when I practiced the chest press with the videos, I found out that what I have learnt from training manuals is definitely not enough.

Although the videos were very interactive and gave practical content, they would not apply to my community in Bangkok. First of all, only a small number of our population can communicate fluently in English. Reading and answering questions can take longer time. Instead of giving realistic tone of emergency, the timing function would make learners frustrated and tend to click without fully internalise the content.

Context and culture also plays its part here. Videos and role-play are most effective when participants can relate to their life (Social Presence). Rescue operators and ambulance system work differently in my country. And we definitely do not have easy access to defibrillators. Actually, this was the first time I have seen such device. However, the video managed to capture the panic and fear, which are common in human nature. It made me feel the importance of CPR.

Although this particular set of learning tool might not be so useful in my community, I really wish my country would develop a similar tool to educate first aid to the community members. Most of my friends only received such training only once or twice in their lifetime, and it would be easily forgotten if not practiced. Schools and workplace cannot organise CPR training that everyone can practise regularly. This is where online tool can fill the gap and broaden access of learning to individual level. The LifeSaver project gives audio-visual experience with real practice to its users. It would highly benefit my community once it adopts Thai culture aspect.

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So I tried SlideTalk this time. It is also the first time for me and I enjoyed using it very much.

Although PowerPoint, Google Slides, etc. have voice over function, this app allows you to use different voices and different accents to narrate you slide show. For example, my slide will be narrated by Yoda and Queen Elizabeth impression.

[this presentation includes audio]

http://slidetalk.net/Home/Viewer?video=2485744

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This class motivated me to explore new tools to make a presentation.
I found this website/application and had such a fun time using it.

Apart from regular slide presenting, this application allows voice-over function, which can be chosen by pre-made voices with different languages, tone, and accents options.

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Create Presentation Video Online | Online PowerPoint Presentation | SlideTalk

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Slidetalk is Powerpoint-to-Video with automatic voice over. Turn your eLearning content, marketing material and tutorials into engaging talking videos.Now turning a PowerPoint presentation into a movie or creating video presentation online is easier. Visit SlideTalk online to know more.

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I have used this tool with a class of adult learners during my previous job. It was very engaging, fun, and private. My content doe not have to be published, and my learners' result does not have to be shared.

Nearpod allows educators to create a collaborative platform where students can response to the presentation real-time.

The only downside is that it requires every participant to have a computer or smart phone to use this application.

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Nearpod: Foster a love of learning in every student

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Create active learning experiences students can’t wait to be a part of.

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Like many of us here, I believe that peer grading is an interesting tool that comes with concerns and questions of how to effectively implement it. While peer grading can be used to unburden the work of teachers and educate students by reading each other's work at the same time, there are many pitfalls that can make this tool jeopardising the grading system. For example, knowledge capacity and trust factors, which were explained by earlier comments.

Professionally, I have some experience with online/blended learning from several courses that I delivered as an adult educator. The educator team indeed faced challenges in time management because we had dozens of essays and case studies submitted by participants but not enough time to read through all of them. Peer grading (or I would like to call it peer-assessment in this case) can come in handy since it was not just about getting high mark, but it was about learning from each other. With this environment, we could eliminate or lessen the sense of competitiveness, and use peer assessment to help each other develop their work.

However, the context is completely different in MOOC, where grading and ranking is a part of its evaluation system. To implement peer grading system, I agree with others here that anonymity is one of the essential key to deliver unbiased evaluation. Graders should also demonstrate their grading methods and justify why a particular mark is given. Educators can then randomly check some of the work from time to time if they want to ensure the genuineness. I believe educators can still be in a part of peer-grading system rather than leave full authority to the students.