My personal learning diary was an adventure. It was intensive, long written and pure (me). What I can say is that writing regularly in this diary aka Posterous blog wasn't exactly possible as intended.

I wanted to write every Monday summarising the f2f session with our professor and a have weekly analysis. What I ended up doing was - using my mobile (Nokia E 72) and Evernote - typing thoughts, ideas and conslusions in it. So, there was a barrier for me not to use the blog.

Now, I want to catch up on the all the sessions I missed writing a report / conclusion for, also including the missing eLearning units 3 to 5 which I only created offline, unfortunately.

Here we go!

14.11.2011

 Topic: Didaktical-methodological Design / Schulmeister

Based on »Grundlagen hypermedialer Lernsysteme« (Rolf Schulmeister) Dr. Weber-Wulff told us about Schulmeister's way of Didaktics. She introduced the session with a division of Didaktics into models and elements.

Moreover, there were The Five C's of Internet-based Group Learning:

1. Create
2. Communicate
3. Cooperate – splitting work
4. Construct – finding structure, not the same as create
5. Collaborate – working together

 

A teacher in a collaborative environment is a learner as well.

...is one of those quotes you want to frame and show the typical teacher who not seldomly does not see him as a learner, in my opinion.

Weber-Wulff told us about the Humboldt approach (that Humboldt guy, I think both, are just great) which comprises the simple formula: teaching + research + learning. Yesterday, when preparing for the exam I had a tweet about another notion of (Wilhelm) Humboldt, who looked like this.

We heard about didaktical elements and terms like adaptable and adaptive where differentiated. I'm not sure I got the difference. But I think adaptable means that a material or matter can formed by the learner to fit the learner, while an adaptive "thing" tries to form itself to fit the learner - which could be hard or unmanagable.

Interaction is adaptable.

...is just another good quote from Weber-Wulff and you could deeply discuss this thesis. I'd say that interaction can be formed or learned but should be an intuitive kind of thing, with no stress of explicit learning. So it should be restrained learning (as Didaktics generally tries to be).

The last interesting thing for me was the so-called »socratic dialogue« (Maieutics). It means that we teach by asking and help to birth the learner's solutions – this of course just another core aspect of Didaktics in general.

 

21.11.2011

 Topic: Evaluation of Instruction – On-line Exercise Design

12.12.2011

 Topic: Computer Supported Cooperative Learning (CSCL) – Learning Communities

As I like to share knowledge, practices and findings I want to share my personal learning environment which I not only established because of the course I'm writing this blog / eLearning diary for.

It's the one which I use, adapt and modify since 2008 (when I started the job with eVideo). So I'll try to explain as detailed as necessary.

The PLE

Mobile

First, there ist my Nokia E72. It's one of those "ancient" smartphones with QWERTZ keyboard. I use it for digital note-taking because it's everywhere where I am.

If I need to draw I have an analoge (non-digital) black loose-leaf (book) with me. This is usually good for creative brainstorming sessions - which didn't happen in the context of this course but in general.

Stationary

Then there is my desktop or stationary setup. I use:

• Twitter and Facebook for my (almost) daily news digestion and fresh links general and specific topics. (the interactive PLE channels) When I do not tweet personal issues I'm always trying to create status updates as a (personal) infotainer. This means, that my tweets have a value which can be a) original, b) informative, c) often conclusive, d) entertaining (funny and humorous e) and (as I said) personal and highly subjective, of course. Twitter is my favourite tool for sharing personal findings and densing (having to dense) it to 140 characters.

• Google Reader and Feedly for the less serendipity-influenced reading. It carries out more structured and formal than the reading at Twitter and Facebook. I try to share articles with others by sharing aka pushing the "+1" Google+ button as long as the news is good enough. In contrast to Twitter and Facebook, the interaction is quite on a low level as I almost only click +1 and don't further comment on that "like".

• Diigo for permanent (socia) bookmarking of my favourite links. Moreover, I also do archive all my Tweets by starring them. (I could talk about Twitter and my fascination for it, quite a long time ^^)

• Read It Later to remind me what I wanted to read but didn't have the time to do it. (This list is fastly growing like a child in its early years. There is room for improvement on how to keep this list short). The links are non-permanent and can be seen on every device I use, which is a (very almost 5 years old) MacBook and an iPad - and on every desktop computer with a browser. Unfortunately I couldn't make it work URLs with a hash (#) in it.

• Instapaper as it was my (I think) very first bookmarking tool which I used additionally to the formerly very good service Delicious. For me, Instapaper has evolved into a bookmarking / reading list in which I save permanent links which help me building web sites and improve my (copy)writing. So, I use it for my profession.

• Browser bookmarks...yes I do. The browser's bookmark bar is an exclusive area where only the very good things happen to occur and find a place. It's THE HOLY AREA of my personal browser (learning) environment. As a matter of fact, it happens that I don't wanna read all the news in a preformatted style, like Google Reader or Feedly deliver it (very niceley, though) for you. So, there are times when I want to read the news as they are intended by the creator - yes with all the ads and sometimes crappy stuff surrounding the core content. You can compare this bevaviour with listening to an album in order from track 1 to 12 not daring to skip. So, it's about the real (full) experience.

• Pen & Paper especially for the f2f classes on Monday with our Didaktics of Media professor. It's IMHO fastest way to record both, the matter (German: Inhalt) and the meaning (German: Gehalt) which is my personal reflection on a certain topic.

Finally there is Evernote, my very very favourite tool for bookmarking, memorizing, note-taking and ideaing (taking down notes, enhance and modify them from time to time). I used Evernote for preparing my Posterous blog posts and of course for the ever (lasting) notes. ,)

Last but not least (yes I wrote something similar already), I use Posterous for my personal learning diary and all the other blogs I randomly write in/into. I liked the idea of sending blog posts via e-mail though I find myself writing the blog post in Posterous' web interface instead of in the (g)mail interface. Anyway, Posterous will find a successor quite soon. The coming Semesterferien will give me the time deal with Calepinco which I have thrown an eye on.

Thanks for your attention!

___

Time spent: 110min (writing here in Posterous) +60min preparing in Evernote

I had the pleasure to learn about Machinimas in a video session. Matthias Löwe is the Machinima expert and Anja C. Wagner was the host - with Fabian Topfstedt technically working in the background.

Source: http://blip.tv/evideo/machinimas-kreative-spiel-filme-5721158

At a glance

• Round 2/5: a video-based eLearning unit
• Tester: Alexander Kluge
• View Date: 03.12.2011
• Name of unit: Machinimas: Kreative Spiel-Filme
• Who offers the unit? eVideo 2.6 »Film/Video 2.0« - HTW eLearning project 
• Producer: Matthias Löwe (hosted by Anja C. Wagner and Fabian Topfstedt in the background)
• URL: http://blip.tv/evideo/machinimas-kreative-spiel-filme-5721158
• Stated learning goals: Understanding machinimas in general
• Overall rating (1-10, 10 best): 8 - in comparison to the 1st unit. 10 - without comparison.
• Minutes needed: 33 (+10min transcripting the video, +120min writing the report)

Overall summary of the unit

The unit is a video-based eLearning unit about machinimas. Matthias cratches the history of machinimas while showing a lot of good examples. It gives you the impression that the idea of machinimas is not that new to you as non-gamer or casual gamer. After the unit you very much want to start creating those movies as it appears not so difficult to accomplish.

Detailed Experience

Did the given time suffice?

There was no time given for the unit. I'd see it more like an introduction to the subject itself. It's a starting point from where you can personally continue the journey - this is a typical approach of eVideo online sessions. The learner shall take its own steps while Anja C. Wagner (the host in the unit) and the expert (Matthias) provide good starting points and links.

Short synopsis of the unit

Machinimas are a combination and play on words comprising: Machine + Animation + Cinema. So what you basically want to achieve with those is creating movies using game graphics engines. It all started with Doom in 1993 where so-called speed runs where done, demonstrating how fast a player could run through a game's level while standing in competition with others.

Matthias goes into detail when he talking about in-game editors, story and video cutting while giving vivid examples, like Stunt Island (1992) in which you build your own routes or the 1k Project (2007) in which 1000 cars are film synchronously.

In the end he opens a discussion to join (speaking metaphorically). For him it's the constraints of the game and game engine which make machinimas interesting to work on. Therefore it's often a challenge against the game itself and its limitations.

One last very interesting part was the term »Creative Gaming« (2010) which is said to mean that a group of people act together on a machinimas - Matthias called it digital puppet theatre.

Reflection on your personal learning experience

I felt in warm and good hands being guided by Matthias. While he sometimes seemed a bit stiff - probably nervous - he did a good convincing job of telling me about machinimas. For me this is a reference I'd refer to anyone new to the topic and recommend every interested person.

No questions arose about things he mentioned. He spoke clear with a clear structure and order. As a visual person, I felt very much attracted by the visual hands-on way of giving me an understand of machinimas.

Though, I must admit it was - compared to my first text-based unit - less good with regard to the practical application. Without comparison to the first unit, it'd have been a 10 out of 10 as it serves "only" as introduction. The text-based unit I reviewed before did you hints, code, and a demo to work on by yourself.

Did you achieve the stated learning goals?

As I said for an introductory unit I'd say that I got an idea of machinimas and feel attracted by the topic as it gives you just another way of telling your stories in a transmedial way.

Comment on the design - what was good, what could be made better?

The unit was a vivid mixture of theory (background) hands-on examples. As an introduction into the topic it was (almost) perfect - I don't know how it could have been much better.

I found it good that he very much stood in the background moderating the slides, preventing to show off himself as the expert or something like that.

To sum it up, the unit was adequately and very good designed!

Conclusion / Positive and negative aspects of the unit

Pro: He uses a very good structure, is very little showing off, and doesn't do too much talking/moderation while putting the games into focus.

Contra: He's a little stiff, sometimes.

He's not a fascinating speaker like you know from TED talks. It could be seen as a contra but I think this is ok for the target group which are not or little experienced people with regard to machinimas.

Further reading

Matthias also delivered some really great links for further reading. These were:

Biggest Machinima portal – http://www.machinima.com/

Machinima film festivals and awards:

• http://mmif.wordpress.com/
• http://www.bitfilm.de/festival/
• http://www.machinima-expo.com/

Random artists:

• http://litfusefilms.com/movies/ (Recht anspruchsvolle Kurzfilme)
• http://zeitbrand.de/ (Friedrich Kirschner)
• http://www.accursedfarms.com/movies/fm/ (Freeman’s Mind)
• http://www.pixeleyesproductions.com/ (Shelf Life)
• http://www.rockstargames.com/videos/video/4861 (Red Dead Redemption with John Hillcoat, the Hollywood director of “The Road”) 

News:

• http://goodnews.antville.org/
• The channels of http://machinima.com an http://kotaku.com
• The news of the film makers themselves
• http://creative-gaming.eu/

Events:

• http://play11.de/ – Festival für kreatives Spielen (3.-5.11., Bahnhofspassagen Potsdam, Ausstellung/Talks/Workshops)
• A MAZE - http://amaze-festival.de/blog/night-machinima-iii-wtf-di-27september-2011, Night of Machinima (every end of the month machinimas in the cinema, with workshop before!)

Transcript of the unit

1. Machinima

• Machinima = Machine + Animation + Cinema (1998, Hugh Hancock)

• Film aus Spielen machen schon früh, z.B.:
  • Speedruns in Doom (1993),
  • Trickjumps in Quake III (1999),
  • Fragmovies in CounterStrike (2000), v.a. um mit Anderen zu teilen und zu zeigen, wie gut man spielen kann.

• Editoren, Storys & Videoschnitt:
  • Stunt Island (1992)
    • Strecken zusammenbauen und mit Auto abfahren
  • Uwe Girlich: LMPC (1996)
    • Editieren im Spiel selbst
    • mit Quake-Engine
  • The Sims 2 (2004)
  • 1k Project (2007)
    • 1000 Autos werden gleichzeitig gefilmt dargestellt
  • Anna (2003)
    • Vogel wird zum Fokus im Film
  • GTA IV (2008)

2. Demo

• Praktiksches Beispiel: Garry's Mod (Aufnahme mit dem Tool FRAPS) 

3. Spielraum

• Einschränkungen durch Spiel bzw. Spielelemente selbst
• Wahl des Spiels zum Filmemachen nach seinem Interaktions-Spielraum
  • bietet Möglichkeiten zur kreativen Regiearbeit
  • Spannend: Kreativer Spielraum im Spiel vs. lineares Skript im Film
• Spiel mit dem Spiel (selbst)
  • oft schwer zu kontrollieren
• Vision des Filmemachers vs. die Intention des Spiels 

• Creative Gaming (2010)
  • mehrere Personen arbeiten synchronisiert zusammen
  • Digitales Puppentheater

• Beispiel: Freeman's Mind, 2007 (Half Life 1 gesprochen)
• Beispiel: Ill Clan (2003)

 

See the whole article as a formatted PDF:

 

Time spent: 60min

Definitions

Though it does not sound very appealing, mediated discourse is about having tough verbal and profound exchange of opinions with strong arguments. While discussion means:

lat. discutio, -cussi (quatio) = 1. zerschlagen, zertrümmern [...]

discourse is about splitting:

lat. discursus <ūs> m (discurro) – das Auseinanderlaufen [ militum ]

Discourse is a European thing

As the definitions are now clear, it's a good basis for further thinking about the discourse culture in the private, university and job context.

Mediated discourse was was today's topic in class and it means having a discourse with media, i.e. chat, wiki, forum, Twitter.

It's said to be a European thing. Having a discourse is not very common in the U.S. where our professor originally comes from. They have a very strong Q & A culture which is not very common with German students. They don't like posing questions publicly as they don't want look stupid to others. That's what our professor says. And I'd agree with that.

I'm also not the typical asking guy in public as I like to appear strong, knowing and intelligent towards others. But this opinion is about to die while thinking more about the reasons. What I will try for the future ist trying to encourage myself to pose more questions and be more open and "offensive" (eager) with regard to a discourse.

What I found out for myself is that the European (German) approach of talking, discussing and having a discourse in theory together with the pragmatism of the U.S. would be killer combination. I don't want to call it a perfect one, but it seems to be very very efficient.

Chat discourse

I'm a fan of chatting. I like text. I like to type. I like to reply. And I like to have it all archived and potentially visible (viewable) to others - in terms of multi-person chat.

Let me sum up what I found interesting to hear in today's lecture:

• Productive chat should not take longer than 60 minutes.
• Chat is best for seminars, not lectures.
• Students should be prepared for the chats in the learning and business environment.
• Avoid OFF-TOPIC conversations.
• Focus / Refocus the discussions as necessary.
• Write very very positive to avoid misinterpretation.
• Address people with @name.
• Have a clear beginning and ending.

It now looks like a good overview and dos and don'ts for an effective chat discourse and interaction. Voilà and credits to Prof. Weber-Wulff of course!

I found the rest of the lecture interesting but not worth making it a subject of discussion in this blog post.

Moreover

PS: There was a bit of off-topic when the professor told about a dissertation in which the most important theses where "banned" into 140 Twitter typical characters - which was interesting for me as a Twitter afficionado.

PPS: What I also liked the story of the professor telling us that she almost hated chat for being / spreading non-sense.

Further things which also came to my mind

The things in bullet points:

• #OccupyWallStreet, the engagement of the 99% against the 1%.
• Philosophie - Engagement (German arte TV, Video)

That arte video is interesting because of several aspects. For example it states the phrase:

Das Engagement des Philosophen ist, sich am Bestehenden zu reiben. – Platon, Siebter Brief

This sounds very much like what happens when you are in discourse. In a discourse it's okay to have resistance, you even reinforce that!

Time spent: 90 min (writing this post, watching the arte video about engagement)

So I read this article about Gamification: Using Game Mechanics to Enhance eLearning by Rick Raymer three days ago. It references the TED talk 7 ways games reward the brain by Tom Chatfield - as shown above. So, I would recommend to watch the ~17minutes talk and then go on reading my article.

In the following paragraphs I want to extract my key findings of Raymer's article - the ones which impressed me the most.

Like it and want it

As learning is about engaging and engaging being something rewarding, people will need to WANT and LIKE it in order to feel rewarded. If you want something but don't like it, no chance to be satisfied. If you like something but actually are not eager to want it, forget it.

(It's actually the same with women and relationships.)

Get into the flow (channel)

Source: Gamification: Using Game Mechanics to Enhance eLearning - Figure 3: Flow Channel

You either get bored and become anxious when the challenge and skill get out of sync, i.e. they no longer grow proportionally.

The interesting thing is that in games after a so-called boss battle (read: big challenge) was completed successfully, the challenge stays stable while the skill can further enhance.

In the (e)learning context the challenge rises immediately after the challenge was completed with success. In result this means a tougher challenge and a higher risk of failing!

Measure progress

It should be visible or made visible how far you've progressed in the learning unit or in whatever scenario you're in.

Reward effort

Trying doesn't mean that you become successful. You can do trial and error and never come to an end (and would need about 10.000 hours to master), like Bart Simpson does when his sister Lisa does experiments with him he doesn't get. That's why you'll need to reward the way the learner went so far - not the accomplished goal or success only. This could be done by cookies, brownies, any other sweets or by giving high-five.

Reward schedules

Find periods in which the learner gets rewards, e.g. after a certain (and always same amount of) time or a success.

Peer motivation

I mentioned high-five before as one form of reward. The essence of it is that it comes from other people - possibly ones you like, adore, admire and just respect. If they tell you that you did a good job, it's an exterior blast for your interior »motivating force«.

Time spent: Reading and listening = 60 mins, writing and reviewing 35 mins

Just to have it said also in this learning diary kind of way: Last monday in the fifth class in presence, all the fellow students presented their own text-based unit. As you've noticed I did a review of A List Apart's article »More Meaningful Typography«.

In addition and as giving credit indirectly, I'll try to list the most relevant reviews for me:

• accesseLearning Tutorial-  Making Scripts and Java accessible
• Code School - TryRuby
• Mark Pilgrim & the community - Dive Into HTML5
• Open Learn - The Open University - Speeches and speech-making
• Adobe Developer Connection - Beginner's Guide to Adobe Edge Preview 3

I chose those because I'd have done them myself if wasn't so much interested into typgraphy right now.

Time spent: 10min

I had the pleasure to read about more meaningful typography by Tim Brown, published at A List Apart, and look at it from an eLearning point of view. You'll find out in how far I've learned something having read that article.

As a format I chose the given one by our professor. Go!

At a glance

• Round 1/5: - a text-based eLearning unit
• Tester: Alexander Kluge
• View Date: 06.11.2011
• Name of unit: More Meaningful Typography
• Who offers the unit? A List Apart
• Producer: Tim Brown
• URL: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/more-meaningful-typography/
• Stated learning goals: Learning to apply modular scales to help me create more balanced web designs with CSS.
• Overall rating (1-10, 10 best): 9
• Minutes needed: 30 (+60min further reading, +90min writing the report.)

Overall summary of the unit

The unit is a text-based eLearning unit about modular scales in relation to web typography. They relate to each other in meaningful ways, such as the golden ratio (1:1.618) and are applied with the help of simple math, CSS and a hands-on example - while the author recommends not to apply them in a dogmatic manner, as it does not always fit. Improvisation and intuition are the keywords here.

Detailed Experience

Did the given time suffice?

Since it's a blog article or essay - and definitely not typical eLearning unit - there are no times given in order to complete it. I needed about 30 minutes for the pure reading. I spent some time on some of the links and material the author provided, which took about 1 hour.

Short synopsis of the unit

To sum it up, Tim Brown tries to convey the message that dealing with typesetting, visual harmony and balance, type density (»typographic color«), legibility, and at least a bit of math. Not in the focus but very important to take down is the fact that Brown sees text, typography and the content in general as the best starting point for a web site to be designed appropriately.

Reflection on your personal learning experience

I found it really helpful and appropriate to start with the golden ratio when talking about balanced typography. Almost instantly after having explained the general idea of a modular scales he dives directly into an example.

It was a comprehensible step by step guide starting with creating a so-called »web font specimen« which comprises downloading the specimen, adding a typeface and checking how the type is rendered in your browser; and continuing »double-stranded modular scale«, i.e. choosing two modular scales which was calculated by a little tool. The third and last step was to apply the modular scale we already have in web design, i.e. plain and simple CSS.

That's the point where Brown talks about density of paragraphs, type rendering, optimizing legibility and the pain of choosing the right type face.

The unit helps me understand how easy you can forget about weighed CSS designs which almost is due to time restrictions or lazyness.

Did you achieve the stated learning goals?

I can't say that I achieved my stated learning goals. It'd be more honest to say that I created a (look and) feel for this issue and refined it compared to my existing knowledge about web typography.

Comment on the design - what was good, what could be made better?

The beginning is almost ideal:

• Introduce the perennial (immer wiederkehrend) keyword - which is not the subject itself.
• Define the subject itself in general.
• Introduce an example and stick to it throughout the process.

The middle part starts the step-by-step hands-on process:

• Transfer the subject to the domain in question by applying it in the example.
• Give the reader extra information about the importance of what they're doing.
• Provide the reader with examples to further enhance the example applied.

In the end a discussion is started:

• How does that technique / thinking / paradigm fit into the existing world and work?
• In how far is it probably not new?
• Conclude / What do we learn from that?
• Further reading / dive deeper into the topic!

I don't see a better way for designing the unit better as comparison is missing. In my world this is a reference unit on how to deal with engaging web designers to create "more meaningful typography" just as the title says.

Conclusion / Positive and negative aspects of the unit

Finally, I would say that the unit is a very good starting point to awake awareness about the issue and importance of beautiful typography, especially with regard to the user's experience.

It's a really good point to start content-oriented in contrast to canvas-oriented as the canvas is so diverse these days (from 1920*1080+ to 320*240 pixels) that your ideal one-fits-it-all world is no longer up-to-date.

What I didn't see was the difference between the (modularly) scaled and non-scaled version - at first glance. But after my second glance I saw the subtle difference. It really looked less bulk and "hammer like".

See the whole article as a formatted PDF:

Time spent: 25min

That 4th monday in presence was interesting. We learnt how to prepare a course for university Bachelor students of Int. Media & Computing - those guys which we used to be long time ago. ;)

Instructional planning

I'm not so much a teacher. I try not to educate but to have the right answer. So, the role is new to me. There are 7 workflows to consider in so-called instructional learning:

• Target group
• Goal determination
• Content structure
• Methology
• Media use
• Securing the results
• Evaluation

They comprise the following questions and issues.

Target group is about the questions:

• Who are the objects?
• What should they already know?
• What do they already know?
• Are there troublemakers in the group?
• What is the learning environment?

Goal determination is about the issues:

• What is supposed to be learned?
• What capabilities are to be learned?
• What qualifications are to result?
• Bloom Taxonomy
• Why are these things to be learned?

Content structure is about the questions:

• What structure does the content have? (Make it a story.)
• Is there a flow, an exposition?
• How does this structure differ from what the learners already know?

A nice term in this context was »didactical reduction« which means to reduce material to important stuff and structure it.

Methology is about the questions:

• What does the teacher expect to do?
• What does the teacher expect the learners to do?
• What teaching methods will be used?
• What social forms will be used?

Media use is about the issues:

• What media will be used?
• Does it work?
• Preparation of the media
• Do the media cause problems?
• Contingency plan! (Have a Plan B! Try the media you're going to use in class.)

Securing the results is about the questions:

• How can the material learned be made visible?
• Is there a product from the instruction?
• How can the material learned be made visible?
• Is there a product from the instruction?
• How will this be produced?
• Will it be presented?
• Will it be preserved?

Evaluation is about the questions:

• Did the learners learn what they were supposed to?
• Grading!
• Teacher reflection

Applying the scheme

While we learned about the "race", we applied choosing a topic of interest - which was "Stacks & Queues" (S & Q) for my group.

Target group & Goal determination

The target group, defined as 2nd semester Media & Computing students, needs to know about Java basics, arrays and linked lists in order to understand stacks and queues. It then learns about the LIFO and FIFO principle which build the basis of stacks and queues.

The students learn to initiate S & Q, apply CRUD operations, manage exceptions and evaluate their contents.

With regard to Bloom's taxonomy we thought the learning happens on the Knowledge and Skill level (K and S).

In the end, the students shall be capable of applying those patterns in the real programming world and environment, as S & Q are crucial to know about.

We didn't further apply the schemata.

Distance Education Instruction

The professor rushed through that part as time was missing!

It was a lot about Gagné and his 9 steps to »ensure effective learning«:

• Capture learner's attention.
• Inform learners of objectives.
• Stimulate recall of prior learning.
• Present the content.
• Provide learning guidance.
• Elicit (entlocken) performance.
• Provide feedback.
• Assess performance.
• Enhance retention (Speicherung im Gehirn) and transfer to job.

Credits

The class and content ist mostly taken from »The basics of e-learning: an excerpt from Handbook of Human Factors in Web Design«.

Time spent: 1h

In the next few paragraphs I want to summarize the last three weeks, as I have the impression it helps me recapitulating what happened so far.

While writing I felt a bit like Special Agent Dana Scully writing reports for Walter Skinner about her FBI partner Fox mulder - except for the fact that I'm observing myself and writing about myself. At least, it helps me staying motivated writing those blog entries. Very cool, right? ;)

 

10.10.2011

What did we deal with?

As far as I can remember and see from my notes, we did the following:

We got to why we deal with didaktics with a "k". Didaktics is based on a German theory and therefore uses a "k". It's also a favourite topic of the professor. ;)

We talked about the didaktical triangle which comprises:

• the target group,
• methods
• and the content.

When we deal with didaktics it's about the theory and praxis of teaching and learning. You could also call it »mediated instruction« which sounds less frontal and more understanding to me.

Important persons to mention in this context are Lothar Klingberg (Book: "Einführung in die Allgemeine Didaktik") and Stefan Hopmann ("Restrained Teaching: the common core of Didaktik").

Hopmann defined a circle which consists of four parts:

1. Preparing
2. Working with new content
3. Controlling + Evaluating
4. Working with old content

...and so on.

So, learning is about head, heart and hands - which sounds very "bloomish", so very much like Bloom's taxonomy we dealt with in the last Monday's session.

Finally, we had a task where we should recognise unknown letters (words) and build your own name out of them. They were special as they were accompanied by graphics helping to understand the letters, and there were words used in the plural. It was also about the way the words sounded like, e.g. "Apfel" sounds different from "Äpfel" although apples are shown in either case.

What was interesting for me?

Hopmann is definitely interesting. I'll try read his paper about the common core of Didaktik.

I found it interesting to hear that we're moving from a word culture to a pictorial culture. It gives more people the chance to become an icon designer and earn a living from that - I guess. :)

What questions arose for me?

Could be seen as off-topic, but I wondered:

How do I know which I sources I really need? or in other words:

How do I know a source is reliable and valuable - before reading the whole content and before loosing sight of what's going on.

 

17.10.2011

What did we deal with?

For this session we dealt with Constructivism and Behaviorism. That topic got my attention mor than the firs session. I'll try to define both terms.

Constructivism

Constructivism is a learning theory which is about the internal structure of the learner. It deals with the process of self-organization whereas new content builds upon old.

It's always the challenge to master the chain of conflict.

In order to master or solve those conflicts (problems) there are three components to consider:

• Cooperation,
• Communication,
• Interaction.

Important persons in this context are Piaget and Seymour Paper ("the children's machine").

Behaviorism

It's about behaviour and how to tell if you've learned something. Moreover, it's about the chain:

impulse - reaction - behaviour.

Important to note is B.F. Skinner who wrote »Waldon Two« and about respondent behaviour in contrast to operant behaviour.

What was interesting for me?

With regard to operant behaviour Skinner did an experiment about condition in which he used reinforcement, punishment and extinction. For example, by nodding you agree with what your opposite is stating. You positively reinforce continuing saying things he just said.

There are three kinds of reinforcement:

• Primary r. (food, touching,...)
• Secondary r. (money, praise,...)
• Informative r. (right/wrong answer, feedback)

Another way to let behaviour happen is prompting. When it's successfully applied you use fading, meaning apply less and less prompting. If the behaviour is still not perfect (whatever that means), use shaping.

 

24.10.2011

What did we deal with?

We talked about learning goals or objectives. It was a lot about gaining responsibility for your own learning - seen from a conceptual level of learning things.

What was interesting for me?

What I found particularlyl useful was the choice of words in the learning content. So, by saying »understand« and »know« you talk quite general. By using »list« or »define« you, as a learner, get a more specific idea what you're supposed to do.

I found the phrase "to beat something into a student's brain" or in short »inculcate«.

Time spent: 3h

Learning diaries

Having read about learning diaries in those three German sources supplied by Dr. Weber-Wulff...

• Lerntagebuch by ZUM-Wiki
• Kooperatives Lernen und Publizieren: Lerntagebücher?
• Lerntagebücher als Werkzeug für selbstorganisiertes Lernen

...I got to the idea of using an inherited version of them for the client's work I do for a living.

So, I'll try to apply clients reviews in which I summarize what went well and wrong. With the help of that I try to sharpen my objective thinking and improve the way I approach clients and their work.

I will deal with Bloom's taxononmy in a future post but what I can see now is that the Lerntagebebuch is missing the psychomotor skills, i.e. what you do with your hands. So when talking about KSA (Knowledge, Skills, Attitude) in Bloom's taxonomy, Skills are missing in the Lerntagebuch template I mentioned before.

Learning diaries like SCRUM

If you think about it, learning diaries are of the same pattern as the daily standup meetings using SCRUM - an agile software development approach. You tell your colleagues about the things you accomplished, you had problems with and the ones which will come up in the next (or two) week(s). That's cool and crazy! :)

I think the Lerntagebuch template by the Institut für Schulentwicklungsforschung (IFS) Dortmund helps me with my further entries in this learning diary. Though, I must admit that I feel like a Grundschüler again - but never used a Lerntagebuch in primary school, as far as I can remember (except from the non-school diary, of course). ;)

Also, I remember that we had to write reports every week in my internship in school and my apprenticeship after school. Can't say exactly if it helped me afterwards, but I liked writing it - so it was not so much a pain as it is for others, I guess. :)

Take-away

So, for the next Monday sessions where we have physical meetings I'll try to follow those steps by Johannes Kepler Universität Linz Institut für Pädagogik und Psychologie:

• Take general notes in the lesson.
• Take learning diary notes immediately after the lesson (about 1/2 to 1 DIN A4 sheet).
• Recap the most important content (active repitition).

• Formulate in your own words (establishes a personal connection):
• e.g. by agreeing and disagreeing with a reason.
• e.g. by creating connecting to personal experiences.
• e.g. by describe own ideas.
• e.g. by developing own solution proposals.

• Take down what you didn't understand by formulating a question - to be solved in the next lesson.
• Judge the lesson - by grading your participation and your learning process & progress with a reason.

I feel like I'm learning (how to learn) again - or I feel like I'm studying again, in the traditional sense of dealing with a topic by contemplating, reflecting and evaluating.

Learning typography

Quelle: Fontblog - Warum Steve Jobs ein Kontrollfreak war

As I not only want to learn about didaktics in the media context, but typography as a side topic, I found and become fond of a tool named KernType, the kerning game. I tried it twice. With my first attempt I achieved 75 points. The second try resulted in 95 out of 100, which is good motivation to continue working on that subject! :)

As it's written in the image above, the kerning game is »part of Method of Action, an online course to help programmers learn design.«

At the risk of sliding into "off-topic" I found the founder's philosophy very interesting. They say:

Information ≠ knowledge

Knowledge is acquired by actually doing things and reflecting upon it. Proactively thinking about how you can improve what you did.

There is second application called Shape Type, the letter shaping game. It's more complex with regard to time. Therefor, I will learn & play it later. :)

Time spent: 4h

The first seven days (leaving out yesterday's lecture) were mostly about the one blog post I published last week. In it you'll find what was going through my mind and passed my eyes and ears.

To sum it up:

Last week I learnt about the general idea of storytelling, its ingredients and the term transmedia storytelling and storybuilding. I set my goals and expressed my expectations for this course.

My goal for this week is to deal with the links provided by Dr. Weber-Wulff about learning diaries in general. Also, I'll see if I can find out more about Film/Video 2.0 and probably a bit about typography.

So far, I wouldn't say that I've observed something to help me learn better. It gets better, I guess.

Cheers!

Time spent: 30min

Hi my name is Alex. I do study in the Master's program at the HTW Berlin, University of Applied Sciences. This semester I take the course called »Didaktics of Media« - yes with a _k_ as its idea is based on the German way of didactics.

In a learning diary I'll try to brainstorm, take notes and do a lot of reflection. Feel free to join the conversation and comment on the posts I create. I'll write at least once a week. For all other notes I'll use the great Evernote.

First, I'll introduce the subject I want to deal with in the next four months. Let's start with the real content!

My subject

Beside the general topic, i.e. Didaktics and Media, I want to deal with two more subjects whereas I focus them alternately. These are:

• Film / Video 2.0, incl. (Transmedia) Storytelling
• Typography (side topic)

The idea is to practically apply the methods and techniques I learnt when dealing with media didaktics in general. This why I hope it becomes more hands-on.

Film / Video 2.0 & Transmedia Storytelling

On Monday evening (10.10.2011, 8pm) I had the pleasure to have an online session with Christian Henner-Fehr (@kulturmanager) using Adobe Connect. The session is part of the @evideohtw course I'm taking being called »Film/Video 2.0« - curated by @acwagner. It was closed (non-public) session, so here's a summary of it.

Summary of the online session

A story

He started explaining what a story (German: Geschichte) is in general. Acccording to Artistotle a story has a beginning, a middle and an end. It follows certain rules.

According to Henner-Fehr, it's not something trivial you do in a daily routine. Good examples are the Greek mythology and the narration pattern »heroe's journey« (German: Heldenreise).

Heroe's journey

It comprises of:

1. The Call to Adventure (German: Ruf des Abenteuers)
2. Departure into the Unknown (German: Aufbruch ins Unbekannte)
3. The Road of Trials (German: Weg der Prüfungen)
4. The Treasure (German: Der Schatz)
5. The Return (German: Die Rückkehr)

The steps can be divided furthermore. But this is ok to get a general overview. So, we know what a story is! But what is storytelling then?

Storytelling

Storytelling is not the same as a story, because:

• storytelling conveys knowledge,
• and pursues a certain target.

The old-fashioned storytelling sticks to one medium. That's ok. But when we deal with transmedia storytelling diverse media merge and "crash" with each other.

Well, that's storytelling. Something, i.e. a story, which follows a quite linear script and finalizes at the point the creator wants it to do so.

Storybuilding

In contrast to telling a story there's also the term »Storybuilding« which describes the action of creating a story while doing. It doesn't have a determined ending. Instead the story's contributors build it like a building would've been built - step by step not sure where it might end (in contrast to a real world building, of course!).

Intertextuality

Henner-Fehr also mentioned the term »Intertextuality«. I can't quite remember what that was all about. But it has to with the fact that single text is always in (inter)connection with other parts of text - no matter if they're written in the same document or elsewhere. Correct me if I'm wrong!

My expectations

I expect to learn about efficient learning and dealing with unknown topics. I wanna know how I become an expert, a.k.a. a person who can talk about a subject confidently in class or in the "real world" (in front of clients, business partners or at conferences).

My learning goals

After those four months I want to be capable of talking about modern ways of (transmedia) storytelling in the Film & Video 2.0 context. I especially want to use the knowledge for my Master Thesis which I'm going to write in about one year.

Time spent:

• 4h, incl. 1h online session,
• and 1h assembling and translating all the notes into this blog post.

 

Updates:

[added slides of Christian Henner-Fehr about Transmedia Storytelling, 11:30]