Open and networked practice
The final project artefact is intended to be an
open educational resource, so developing the project in an open environment was
a meaningful way to explore and role model online participation. Online
networks and open practices are an integral part of my personal (as a student)
and professional (as a practitioner) world. Four main platforms were used to
inform and develop the project: the Open University, Twitter, a personal blog
and open journals. As the project was situated in my professional context,
using established networks outside of the Open University was important. Other practitioners
and Scouting volunteers presented different viewpoints, and diversity of
opinion was helpful in critically reviewing the project development.
This personal blog was
used as the central point with which to share the development of the project. I hope the blog has afforded participation in digital ‘creation’, alongside the development
my digital identity. It does have a limited audience, but sharing posts through
Twitter has increased this and also helped to extend the discussions (thanks all). New and existing
contacts have aided reflection and signposted to further research and
resources. Twitter was also beneficial when looking at the macro-environmental
factors. Using the hashtag facility as a search tool highlighted current
debates, projects and interested people. Furthermore, it afforded research on
the move as posts could be read or bookmarked for future review from a mobile
device. The main impact in being more open was that practitioners outside of
the Open University engaged in the debates. This gave assurance, credibility
and confidence in the project’s relevance for the wider world.
Creating posters and peer review
The creation of a conference poster presented a
chance to explore new, online, multimedia tools and consider alternative forms
of digital creativity.
Multimedia
methods
In
face-to-face practice a variety of methods and media are used to deliver
educational material and I wanted to mirror this within the project. I wanted
to tell a story, but to keep the messages simple and reflective of core values,
in order to engage and motivate the intended audience. Mayer’s (2005) cognitive
theory of multi-media learning however, reminds us that we have separate,
limited, channels for processing auditory and visual information and we need to
get the mix of media right in order to actively process information and create
coherent mental representations.
As
Scouting is about ‘learning by doing’, I adopted this approach. By experimenting
with different media formats and presenting them early for review, I was able
to determine the most appropriate approach. Animations provoked more emotional
responses and recognition of their story-telling potential. The final decision
to use a slideshow based animation was a result of asking Scouting volunteers
to feedback on two different kinds of animation, in order to get a different
perspective. They viewed the slideshow animations as more interactive and
engaging, with greater potential for re-purposing.
The
role of feedback
The process of engaging in feedback, on our own
as well as others work, aided poster development. Feedback developed from
simple comments to more detailed and constructive guidance as we engaged with
other student’s material and reflected back on our own. A good example of this
is how later feedback often asked about the theme and the artefact, as more
students realised this was not explicit within their own posters. The first poster version created provoked
attention-grabbing, motivational responses and
recognised the impact of the visuals and logical approach it afforded. However feedback also helped develop the poster so that it became more
explicit in the concepts it was exploring and included clearer
links to the project questions and outcomes. Once again,
feedback from outside of the Open University was also sought, to ensure that
the approach and messages maintained a wider relevance, but also kept the wider
network updated with the project progress. The process of feedback also helped
in determining potential accessible alternatives. Following feedback and discussion
with fellow students in OULive, an audio text version was created, which responded
to comments and a simple slideshow version, with embedded
alternative text for screen readers, for those who needed time to navigate the
slides or visual descriptions of the content. The process of giving and
receiving feedback has therefore been invaluable in critically evaluating the
development of project resources.
So thanks all for being part of the project too!
