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Conclusion: Why should I bother about flexible learning?

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Conclusion: Why should I bother about flexible learning?

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I have had my doubts, but since we are all individuals, both educators and learners, we probably need different teaching- and learning styles. So I have to understand the benefits and limitations of different e-learning techniques and methods. However, Ken Robinson emphasize that the most important factor is the teacher!

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Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley

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Sir Ken Robinson outlines 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish -- and how current education culture works against them. In a funny, stirring talk he tells us how to get out of the educational "death valley" we now face, and how to nurture our youngest generations with a climate of possibility.

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Flexible learning - great for developing countries?

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Flexible learning - great for developing countries?

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The access to the internet of developing countries is much higher than our thought, as our e-classmate Åsa found (see below). However, lack of funding, lack of technology for synchronous meetings necessitates flexibility of teacher's ideas. (Nico)

As a teacher working with a international online course you would have to make some efforts to ensure that the mobile interface of course platform is functional and that the learning activities are feasable on a mobile phone. If you include synchronous learning activities you would maybe also offer the option to participate with chat instead of video. Chat is a communication tool which does not require a very good internet connection. (Åsa)

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Being the student - what are the demands on you

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Being the student - what are the demands on you

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One is that flexibility often entails that you have to juggle different parts of your life; studying, working, commuting, activities, interests, social- and familylife. Most probably, some choose online courses because they don’t actually have the time to study (Beatrice) (Mahieu & Wolming, 2013)

You can work as much as you want, but if you want there is a lot of more work to do. You need to meet deadlines, to collaborate, give peers support and feedback, (Nico)

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Peer to peer assessment vs teacher assessing the student. What are we assessing, what are the learning goals? Content, skills, attitudes/values, digital literacy, social competence, learning styles???

This issue is not well worked out.

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Being the teacher - what are the demands on you?

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Being the teacher - what are the demands on you?

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"How fast do students want an answer to a question to the chat-forum?(53 votes)

Immediately. I work with the problem NOW! 4%

I understand that it takes a few hours for you to respond. I do not want to wait any longer. 38%

I turn off my computer and hope to have an answer tomorrow night. 24 hours. 57%

I rarely have time to work on this more than every other day. 48 hours. 2%
5 days, I can wait. I find the answers in other ways. 0%" (Johan)

You have to be online, give quick answers, be supportive, facilitate, encourage and know both the content, the technology and put a lot of time in preparing the flexible education.

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Asynchronous e-learning: email, blogs, wikis, discussion boards, websupported textbooks,

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Asynchronous e-learning: email, blogs, wikis, discussion boards, websupported textbooks,

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Students have more time to reflect and comprehend complex issues, it is easier to find some new facts, have a look in a book, more content related discussions.

Negative: working in isolation, less feedback, less motivation, less social support. (Hrastinski 20008)

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Synchronous e-learning: videoconference, chat, instant messaging, face-to-face meetings, virtual classroom

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Synchronous e-learning: videoconference, chat, instant messaging, face-to-face meetings, virtual classroom

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Students become more committed, motivated and feel like participants. They get aquainted, plan tasks, provide support when problems arise and talk about other thins than class work.

Negative: Learners respond quickly because they do not want to disrupt, so focus is more on quantity than quality in conversations. (Hrastinski 2008)

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"online courses are more accessible and studying can be conducted basically when and where you please making them  suitable for a  wider group of students" (Beatrice)

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"Previously, I tried countless times to learn Italian by first generation (print media) and second generation (broadcasting media) distance education, but I never succeeded. On the other hand, I succeeded well with Swedish and English, but here I had constant interaction while living abroad." (Markus)

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There is no single definition but Ryan & Tilbury (2013) propose that it is "about enabling choice and responsiveness in the pace, place and mode of learning".