Another Mahara Video

I posted my second Tutorial-ish Mahara Video. It is not quite like the first one, as in, it is not exactly a step-by-step guide through some basic things.
I wanted to make a Video about some of the common question I get asked during most of the Mahara introductory workshops: who can see my page? where do my documents go? And so on.

Since this topic is not something that is best shown on the platform itself, I tried to spice up the video with some nice little animations. The first time you use some kind of new application, it seems like endless trial and error. Even if you read and watch how-to-tips, the first time around, everything takes at least twice as long. It was nevertheless fun to think up and create the animations.

So here it is, and like the last time, it is in german.

My Mahara Video Tutorial

It all comes back around and starts to fit together. There are many possibilities that through new technology influence teaching and learning, without question. I have been thinking about experimenting with video tutorials. It actually started a couple of months back when I was working on some content for a newsletter. The idea was to send this newsletter to teachers every month with some information about a project. As a little nugget, it would include some form of new practical information, be it an App, a new Web 2.0 tool or something along those lines. So we found a couple of cool Web-Apps. We thought about writing a quick explanation about what it can do and how it could be used.

We didn't really have that much time to click through it and try everything. So we went on YouTube and started looking for tutorials, which we could attach as additional information for the teachers. It turns out there aren't that many video tutorials in german out there, especially for maybe lesser known Apps. That is where I first got the motivation to start something. I know there are a bunch of sites out there that put up lists and lists of Web 2.0 Apps, but clicking through all of them is tough. It would help teachers to just go on YouTube and type in an App name or maybe just a subject and then see short tutorials pop up. They shouldn't be much longer than 6-7 minutes. That way, even people with tighter schedules have an opportunity to check them out quickly and try to paint themselves a picture about the App and if it is worth using in their class.

Since I've been involved in teaching and coaching for quite a while now - so basically explaining for a living - I figured it shouldn't be that hard to record something for a couple of minutes. I got really lucky, because as it turns out one of the projects I'm involved in was somewhat in need for exactly that. This meant that I got an easy start, I got (had) to do my first tutorial about Mahara. This was exactly what I needed to get everything going and get to motivation to work through the issues you encounter in the beginning.

But enough about that, here is my first mini-tutorial about Mahara (this one is in german, but I might do something in english as well):

e-Learning platforms intro

Originally, I had planned on writing about the introductory seminars for Moodle in my last term at teacher training. It was an interesting experience, but I kind of got away from the topic as the term went on. Now I got the opportunity to hold a Mahara workshop for a couple of teachers and sort of experience the whole process from a different perspective. Although I've been working with Mahara for quite a while now, I actually never got around to work with it in a primary/secondary school setting.

The premise at both the workshop and my seminar was that the attendees were all rookies in terms of the platform itself. For the Moodle course, there were student teachers in their last term, while for the Mahara seminar, there were experienced primary and secondary teachers present. Obviously the biggest difference was that for the Moodle course we had a full university term to work with, but the Mahara seminar took around 2-3 hours. Therefore it is clear that there is no way to attain the same level of detail in a couple of hours compared to a process that lasts a couple of months.

My first encounter with both platforms was very similar. The first time I got in contact with each of them I basically didn't have any guidance. Our first Mahara version was very low on features and usability compared to every version since. Also, we were the first group at the university to use the platform, so we were kind of the test-dummies. I guess that's why my whole mindset later was to just go out there and click my way through everything by myself. I say that because my first encounter with Moodle was me getting the task of creating and filling a Moodle course structure with content, but the content I was supposed to work in, being nowhere close to my field of expertise.  So as I built and explored, I simultaneously learned about the platform itself - about what it can do, how it can do it. A thinking process for how it can be used properly for my own work started right away.

This "click-and-explore" approach is obviously not always the ideal choice. Especially when it comes to beginners for e-Learning platforms, there is a bit of restraint. Although I like to tell the participants in my workshops that they should do exactly that, I always leave it to the very end. It is important to get rid of the "fear of the unknown" in the beginning. The relationship between user and platform has to become somewhat natural for them to be able to use this approach. The best way to achieve that is still a simple step-by-step guide about the basic handling of the system. The key is to get to a spot where the handling becomes second-nature and you can focus on more important things, namely talking about the actual benefits for using a specific platform.

Of course it takes a while to get over the shakiness, but most of the time e-Learning platforms work along the same principles and it is enough to give participants a simple framework of how to use the system. This is all easier said than done, but unless attending a workshop about a new e-Learning platform is "mandatory" (in their own mind), the participants are open to experiencing new things. It also adds extra motivation, helps swaying their mood and opinion if they are shown the "upgrades" a platform can bring to their teaching and their work.

All in all, it is interesting to think about personal experiences with a certain kind of introductory method and how it can work in various settings, be it beginners in the field of e-Learning or absolute pros wanting to try out something new.

Mahara Tutorial Updated

Quite a few things have happened since the initial launch of our handbook. A couple of graduations and system updates later we managed to release a new version. I wrote a blog post about the release of the handbook a while back.

Since then both my colleague and I graduated and our Mahara system has been updated as well. I don't actually know if there were any plans for an update, but through my work at a different seminar and university I took a look through it again. Granted, while we were working on the first version, we were kind of doing it on the side since our regular study schedule was still in place. I mention this, because upon looking through it, I found quite a few small mistakes that I was not really proud of.

The students at the seminar to whom I recommended it were also complete rookies, meaning they had never used Mahara nor any sorts of e-Portfolio software before. And this can even turn smaller mistakes in the handbook into big ones for the students. The good thing is that this tutorial was a passion project for both of us, so before the Masters program started, we took a bit of time out of our schedule and managed to fix the mistakes and also update it. This update was important regardless, because the first handbook was released about 2,5 years ago, meaning that there were quite a few things different in the newer Mahara versions.

Although there aren't any new features in use for the practical training we would have had to add, it was nonetheless important to update the language, a couple of explanations and pictures. If you are interested you can find it here, and feel free to let me know about any other mistakes you find!

ePortfolio - Fulfilling its Potential?

Before I get into it more, I’d like to quickly recap my connection to ePortfolio for all who are new to this blog. When I started my teacher training program one of my teachers, who is a big believer in all-Web 2.0 related teachings, started the implementation of an ePortfolio. The plan was to use it mostly for the practical training, but we also started getting more tasks and tried to use more than just one feature. This point wasn’t that easy because the version of our platform was slimmed down so much, that it made working with it in any capacity more stressful than fun. Starting my second year my university signed off on a research project about the use of ePortfolios in teacher education, where I started working as well. We are finishing up this project soon and I will post a nice page summarizing and showing everything we did.
During that time I was part of presentations at conferences, articles and also wrote a specific Mahara Manual for our student teachers. I also held workshops for a different university, for non-teaching students and helped them get to know ePortfolios and so on. The latest big thing was my Bachelor thesis  which I finished in the beginning of the year about, yes you guessed it right, the use of ePortfolios in teacher education.
So what I want to write about was sparked more by the experience with people not in teacher education and their acceptance and/or use of it rather than the topic I’ve been involved in very much the last couple of years.

Thinking back on how we started with the first version of our platform, it is almost unthinkable how different everything is now. Not only are we doing much more with it, we actually CAN do more with it. The main point of use for ePortfolios was for us to share our reflections and other documents with our teachers. We also used the group feature, which enabled us to somewhat work collaboratively. The limitations we encountered had nothing to do with us not getting proper work or enough work, it was simply because the system was not capable of doing more. Having said that, I am still sometimes surprised how it is used by some course leaders.

There are especially two examples that bothered me. For one of the workshops the only thing we had to introduce to the students (extra occupational Masters students) was how to create a folder, upload documents and put them on their page and make it available for their teachers to see. I get it that they have a lot to and that the main reason is that their teachers doesn’t have to deal with them sending them a bunch of Emails. But as much as I endorse the use of ePortfolios, if that is the only reason you want to implemented it, then I’d have to say that Dropbox offers the same thing with easier access and installation. Don’t just use for the sake of using it. 

Especially with these kind of students, it would be a great opportunity for them to really dig into it and use it as a presentation portfolio. In todays world, regardless of occupation, it will only be a positive thing if you show your employers or partners that you are creative, you know your way around the internet and computers, and can make your CV look professional. That is one of the things that I mentioned to them randomly; their version has the integrated Europass, that is pretty cool to use. I think if you sell it the proper way it can be useful for these kind of students, besides their obligatory duties at the university as well. It offers many possibilities but they all go to waste so easily if you don’t recognize them.

My second issue was with an extra occupational Bachelors Course. They had complained about their students forgetting a lot of the usage of the platform in the previous years since their courses were every two weeks, and they didn't get regular tasks to work on. We came in to do almost the same introductory course as for the course I mentioned above, but this course also had to write a blog, feedback their peers and their uploads and make it more personal by filling in the biography and trying to make it look better. Of course there will always be students who engage more in the things they are tasked with, so these are not the students that would worry me. I’m worried about the students who simply don’t care. This fact combined with their previous experiences that they seem to forget a lot should make me, as the course leader and teacher, think about how I can get them to be more active. Now the same things can be employed as with the Masters students, sell it to them as something useful and something they can all use in their personal lives as well. It sounds easy, and I know that even this way, people will not care. But why not make a Blog about their Jobs? Since these students all have a similar background, or at least a similar outlook, since they study the same specific program, they would definitely find common ground in their various jobs and experiences.
Obviously its just a random idea, but just like before, there is the potential to do more and engage them. This engagement in any work can also prevent problems of non-use that arose in previous courses.
I have to say that my background with this kind of work might be totally different. I have experienced everything I’d like to think. Beginning with a very basic version to new versions where we fully integrated our CV, we write Blogs, share material, collaborate and reflect etc.

Regardless I think the key with every tool is to know about its full potential, otherwise you might waste energy, while you and your students could be working more efficiently than before.

Exchange year in Göteborg, Sweden

Now that the first big wave of stress and astonishment has passed I can focus on my studies again.

In this autumn term I will attend three different courses which are all really exciting for me.
The biggest course is called English for young learners and is divided into three main topics: Didactics, Literature and Pronunciation.
My second course is called The School System in a Comparative Perspective which deals with all kinds of Educational topics.
The third course I'm taking is English: Oral and Written Proficiency. 
This is a great mix between pedagogic themes and also a general improvement of my own language skills.

I will get more into writing for the courses anyway, but I still have a few other topics to cover for which I had no time the last two months.
Also I'll still be using our Mahara Portfolio for my work here!
It offers a great Platform to organise my thoughts and assignments even though its not directly involved in my studies here, but I'm glad to have it nonetheless.

So, new posts will be up soon!

Bachelorthesis - Mahara and teacher education

The last few points are getting finalized, and then starting with the next term, a colleague and me are going to start to work on our Bachelor thesis, which will include a heavy dose of Mahara, and it's role in our teacher education at the University of Education Vienna.

Our Mahara-research project is in it's second year now, and we are getting more and more involved with Mahara as an ePortfolio tool for our student-teachers.

The thesis will include the basics of ePortfolios, what kind of portfolio types are there and how are they used. But our biggest focus will be on Mahara, not only on the technical part of it, but also the possibilities of its use.

Some of the data that’s available from our research project will also be processed, and we will focus on our teacher education. We are both very much looking forward to digging in and involving ourselves more and more into Mahara, ePortfolios and teacher-education at our University.

One of our goals was to put out a Mahara-Tutorial for our student-teachers, which we accomplished last semester. It wasn’t the first time we worked together on a Mahara task, but it was equally challenging and fun. As the research project went on, and we’re getting closer to the end of our studies, it seemed more and more obvious that our Bachelor thesis will be about Mahara in combination with our teacher education. One of the benefits of the research project was that we were able to see both sides: the student-teacher side, which uses Mahara as a tool during their studies, and also from the reseacher side, where we got to work on questionnaires and evaluate the results, create a Manual and generally help students with Mahara.

So as one of our research team members suggested that we write a Bachelor thesis together it hit us as the most obvious idea. It sounded exciting right from the start even though we had a lot to do at the end of this semester and couldn’t focus that much on it, the start of the fall semester will also mark the start of our work!

finally...the Mahara Tutorial has been released

It was about time. After a roughly three week delay, we were able to launch our Mahara Tutorial. We hit a few bumps on the way, especially time-management and communication-wise, but at the end of the day my colleague and I were able to finish it off properly.
A specific practical-training Manual was already in the research plans for the second semester, but after our research regarding the acceptance of Mahara in the first semester, it became clear that a proper tutorial is really much needed.
The tasks for the students teachers evolved with Mahara (we had an older version of Mahara for our first year), including adding specific pages for practical training and personal development, in form of a ‘Gazette’ page, which includes reflections, tasks and also material to share with colleagues.
But since it was something for future student-teacher newcomers, we pretty much started from scratch.
The first chapter includes a basic outline about what it’s all about. Then the first few steps: registration, filling your profile and so on. But since we wanted to focus on the specific practical-training approach, the next chapter was already about how-to create a page and how-to upload files into it. One chapter gives a quick overview about the group-option, which is pretty basic, since most of the students are familiar with forums and how to communicate with their help.
The new part, even for us, was the Gazette page. This page defines the collaboration part of our e-Portfolios. Basically it includes three blogs: useful material, thought a day and link a day. For one, it is about sharing your thoughts about practical training, and also sharing useful links and material with your colleagues. The Gazette page also includes milestones, which are also new, where you can track your progress, either regarding your studies or practical training. The last part is reserved for the main tasks from practical training.

So we held the whole thing pretty basic, and as of right now, more and more students are updating their e-Portfolio with the help of our Tutorial.
But the key thing is that the next generations of student-teachers at the Univerity of Education Vienna will be able to get up-to-date smoothly with this Tutorial, right from the start.

first eLearning conference - Moodle, Mahara and ePortfolio

Last thursday I had the opportunity to go to an eLearning conference about Moodle with my professor and one of my colleagues. We got to present Mahara and our use of it in teacher training. Even tough I had no prior experience with Moodle, it was still pretty exciting to be part of a conference and to be part of presentation.

And now I just want to give you a short summary of my experience (also you can check out some of the pictures here):
We are working with ePortfolios for almost one and a half years now, and we use Mahara as our platform. At this conference I got a little bit of taste of what Moodle is all about. On the other hand, I was kind of disappointed that there weren’t a lot of practical examples from teachers and educators. Of course I didn’t get to see all the presentations, but the ones I attended and where the title had at least something to do with teaching always ended up with way too much focus on the technical side. But since it was my first Moodle conference I can’t be certain that every one of them is like this, and I’m also sure that if you’re more familiar with it, then the things involved all become more interesting.
I was really looking forward to our presentation as it was the first I could ‘officially’ present at a conference. The template for it was a presentation my professor gave at the Online Educa in Berlin last year. But since then we made a lot of progress with our research project, so could already implement our findings.
The first part was just basic introduction about the University of Education, our teacher training and about what Mahara is and how we use it. My part was to talk about the setup and structure of a students ePortfolio, in this case I showed mine. Since the beginning of our Mahara usage, a lot has changed in the way we setup our portfolios. Part of it was that our old Mahara version wasn’t very good to look at and not that much fun to work with, but as soon as we got upgraded, whole new world opened up to us and it became real fun to build our ePortfolio.
So after I showed the students portfolio, my colleague talked about our use of it. Especially the collaboration and communication part, where we get together in groups and share materials but also send reminders regarding exams and deadlines.
The last part was about the research project and some basis statistics that outline the usage and approval of Mahara, compared between student groups (e.g. first semester students and third semester students).
After we were done there were some good questions regarding the reflections with our portfolio and how we incorporate it into our ePortfolio. It was great to know that Mahara is already in use in schools and also used actively in the classroom.
All in all I think it was a good opportunity to connect with other educators who already have experience with Mahara, and also with people who want to incorporate Mahara in their teaching.