Culture of Sharing:etmooc_Topic 1

I have been raised in educational settings where the teacher expected students to do their work alone, without even consulting others. I never really thought about anyone else's education. If I had a thought or idea, I kept it to myself. I thought if I shared what I knew with others they would get better grades than me. I was learning and that's all that really mattered. I realized now that I was wrong. I never imagined that by keeping what I know and not sharing it, I was denying my classmates an important learning opportunity for me and them.

We need to share what we know and what we create with other because the information changes rabidly and what we know today will be out of date tomorrow. When you share what you know and do with other, you learn much more than just keep it to yourself. When we share what we know or do with other, we build knowledge. We build upon our own knowledge and the knowledge of other through knowledge building community. We learn from each other much more than if we just learn by our self.

It is important as educators to cultivate the culture of sharing between students. If students practice sharing during their formal education, sharing will be a life style, they will practice sharing during their informal settings. So, rather than asking students to submit an assignment for the instructor review, students could be asked to share their product and their resources with students in the class.  

Connected Learning and PLN: ETMOOC 1

The first time I heard about PLN was last year in an educational technology course at New Mexico State University. I learned that PLN is about connecting with others through the web to create a knowledge building community in which we learn from each other and expand learning of each other through sharing the resources and ideas about o topic of interest. 

Twitter is one of my biggest PLN. My first tweet was in 2011. I was in Las Cruces, NM Studying PhD in education when my people, Egyptian people, protested against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak I wished if I am there. But Twitter enabled me to be up to date with what was happening there. The Egyptian protestors were taking live photos and video from the event and upload it to Youtube and tweet it, so the world could see what was happening, which played a great role in succeeding the revolution  

Classroom 2.0 is another important PLN from me. Classroom 2.0 is a social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and social media in education. The first time I heard about ETMOOC was in classroom 2.0.

This is my PLN:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/mariammatta  
Blog: http://mariam-abdelmalak.blogspot.com
Delicious: http://www.delicious.com/mariammatta  
Freindfeed: http://www.friendfeed.com/mariamabdelmalak
Tumblr:http://mariammatta.tumblr.com
Diigo: http://www.diigo.com/user/mariammatta
Wordpress: http://mariammmatta.wordpress.com/
Posterous: http://mariammatta.posterous.com  
Amplify: http://mariam.amplify.com  
Quora: http://www.quora.com/Mariam-Abdelmalak

Who I am: ETMOOC Introduction

Hi everyone, I am so excited to learn from you all in this new mooc

New roles for the instructor and students

Traditionally, the instructor h the only one who is responsible for teaching and learning. The instructor is the one who decide the content of the course, what should students learn, how they should learn it, and how to assess what they learned. The instructor is the one who search for the materials for the class, links, videos, texts, .... why?! why the instructor is the only one who is responsible for the above tasks. why students do not take part in that! Adult students, especially doctoral students, are capable learners. They can decide for themselves what they want to learn. They can search for learning materials (texts, resources, video, ...) for themselves. They can do that.

Teachers, by definition,  have more knowledge and experience in respect of the discipline more than the students. But students, adult students also have knowledge and experiences. they do not join the program empty mind, they have knowledge. Especially, when we talk about technology field, some times students know more knowledge and have more experience with the technology.

I am not saying that the instructor role is not important, and adult students did not need the instructor any more. I am saying why not change the role of the instructor and the student, change the role of the instructor from the only owner of knowledge and the sole decision maker to the role of a facilitator who guides students to achieve their needs, or discover their needs, and change the role of the student from receiver of the knowledge to knowledge builder. In other words, the instructor should create the learning space for students to make their own knowledge with his/her facilitation, guide, but without too much involve in that guide. It will take more time and efforts from students, but if it is about the student learning, then the students should work more than the instructor.

In a doctoral education class, the instructor created the space for students to be involved in deciding the course objectives. In the first day of the class, the instructor asked students to work in groups to come up with what they want to learn in the course, the questions they wanted to answer through this course.

Sara, one of the participants, did not write what she personally wanted to learn in the course. Rather she wrote what the instructor might want students learn in the course. Sara tried to see the course objectives from the instructor eyes, not from her eyes. She wrote: students will learn computer tools for organizing files. Sara even did not use the pronouns "I", she use "students". During the first interview with Sara, Sara kept complaining that the instructor said that "in this course you will learn what you want to learn, and i do not want to learn new computer tools, I know enough". If Sara did want to learn new computer tools, why she wrote learning computer tools as a first goal of her goals of the course.

so even students were invited to have power to decide what they wanted to learn, students do not know how to benefit from this opportunity. they tried to give power back to the instructor. it is how students were educated. she were taught to listen to the teacher, do what the teacher want them to do, learn what the teacher wanted them to learn. it is not important what i need to learn, what is important is what the teacher/instructor wanted me to learn. the instructor for sure has more knowledge and experience about the discipline than me, i am here to learn, and he for sure knows more than me. we trained that way. we trained that someone else makes the decision for us because they are more knowledge, more experience than us.

During working on the course assignment, Antony found that the final project did work for him. The final project was asking to write chapter 3 of the dissertation, and he was not ready yet to write chapter 3. he even did not have a dissertation focus yet. because how the course was structure, where the instructor keep repeating this course this you course, "you decide what you want to learn and how you can learn". Antony felt empowered to talk to the instructor and explain to her that the final project would not work for him and he wanted to change it to something else, such as making a video, or learning and use a technology tool for research. But he did not. Antony did not have the courage to go to talk to the instructor to change the assignment. he said,"it is fear. it is how i was educated. it is how i used to".

so even students were invited to have power in their education, there are obstacles that inhibit us from using that power. how were students were educated in the past affected how they are learning in the present, and will affect how they will educate their students.

students empowerment to make decision is not an easy task. it takes time. not only in one semester students can be empoered to do things they did not do, such as to make decisions. not in one semester and in one course students can be empowered. it takes time, and needs consistent efforts to do that.

Feminist Research Methods

Feminist Research Methods course goes so fast; this is its sixth week. When I reflect back to the beginning of the course, I find that I really learned many new concepts, skills and experiences.   

I learned that I as a researcher have to pay attention to my location/locations both within the research context and in broader social contexts in order to undertake ethical research, especially in collaborative research contexts. I learned that I have to be aware of how my own positions and interests are imposed at all stages of the research process-from the questions I ask to those I ignore, from whom I study to whom I ignore, from problem formation to analysis, representation, and writing- to produce less distorted of reality (Kirby, Greaves & Reid, 2006).  That is, who I am and where I am situated do make a difference to the knowledge I produce (Kirby et al.). Also, I learned that I as a researcher should recognize that I have multiple positionalities based on sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disability, class, and age; I am a Christian, middle class, young and heterosexual woman. According to Sultana (2007), “recognizing and working with multiple positionalities of researchers and research participants that are constantly negotiated is needed in creating ethical relations, which should be encouraged and embraced in undertaking challenging but rewarding field research” (p. 383).

 Therefore, I need to openly and honestly recognize my locations and experiences and be aware of the influences that may shape what I hear and how I interpret.  I have to engage in continuous critical reflection or “reflexivity” in research, which involves “reflection on self, process, and representation, and critically examining power relations and politics in the research process and researcher accountability in data collection and interpretation” (Sultana, 2007, p. 376). In other words, I as a researcher have to reflect on how I am placed in power relations and how that influences methods, interpretations, and knowledge production. That is, reflexivity “can strengthen our commitment to conduct good research based on building relations of mutual respect and recognition” (Peake and Trotz, as cited in Sultana, 2007, p. 376). In addition, I learned that it is important that reflexivity occurs from the beginning to the end of the research process, not just adding it on at the beginning of the research.

In addition to checking my locations and engaging in reflexivity in research, I learned that I have to honestly and authentically represent the voices and the lived experiences of my research participants if I want to engage in collaborative research. I learned that I have to hear what others are saying; even it contravene my prior expectations or threatens my interests (Kiby, Greaves & Reid, 2006). Especially, when I choose to engage in social struggles with those who have been exploited and subjugated, I have to engage in what Fine (1994) calls “working the hyphen”, to tell more about myself and far more about “Othering”. Fundamentally, working the hyphen means creating occasions for me and my research participants to “discuss what is, and is not, ‘happening between’, within the negotiated relations of those story is being told, why, to whom, with what interpretation, and whose story is being shadowed, why, for whom, and with what consequence” (Fine, 1994, p. 135). 

References: 

Fine, M. (1994). Working the hyphens: Reinventing self and other in qualitative research. In N.

Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds). The landscape of qualitative research: Theories and issues (pp.130-155). London: Sage Publications.

Kirby, S., Greaves, L. & Reid, C. (2006). Experience research social change: Methods beyond

the mainstream. Second Edition. Canada:Broadview Press.

Sargeant, J., Mann, K., Vleuten, C. & Metsemakers, J. (2008, Jan.). “Directed” self-assessment:

practice and feedback within a social context. Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Profession, 28(1), 47-54.

Sultana, F. (2007). Reflexivity, positionality and participatory ethics: Negotiating fieldwork

dilemmas in international research. Journal compilation © ACME Editorial Collective, 374-385.