Where does your learning take place?

Thank you to all those who responded to last week's post, the information gained from your replies is enabling me to build a clearer understanding of the ways in which the blogs support your studies. Having thought some more about the way in which the blogs are used on the CG Arts course, I would be grateful if you could consider the following question:

In your opinion, how much of your learning takes place through the blogs and how much through physical sessions such as lectures, seminars etc?

All thoughts and comments welcome!

The research continues...

It's been a while since I posted on the Communities of Practice blog, over a year in fact. The blog was initially set up to gather student feedback about the use of blogs on the CG Arts course, and the comments that students provided in response to my questions have proved invaluable during the past year. The knowledge and understanding provided from observing the conversations on the CG Arts blogs has helped me work with tutors and course leaders to set up successful collaborative activities on myUCA and other learning tools, and I feel obliged to offer my thanks not only to all those who posted on my blog but to the CG Arts community as a whole. So..

Thank you very much to all CG Arts students and alumni!

The time has come to continue the research. Phil and myself are hoping to publish our findings later this year in order to spread the word about the success of the CG Arts online community and the potential benefits to other students and universities. But before we do, it would be great to get some further feedback from you about your experience of the use of blogs as part of the course.

I'm going to post a question per week for the next few weeks and I would love to hear your views, whether positive or negative. The question for this week is:

Although you are required to post your work on your blog for your tutor, how valuable to you are the conversations and interactions that you have with other CG Arts students on the blogs, and why?

As always, all thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Tony

The blog thickens...

Firstly I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to share their thoughts regarding their experience of blogging in the CGArts course. All your comments are useful, as they both confirm and challenge established theories of what constitutes an online community. I've been doing a lot of reading over the last couple of weeks (due to the fact that, like many of you, I have a scary deadline approaching...), and some interesting points have come out of the literature. If you have a few moments I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on the following question  - if you don't feel comfortable answering then please don't feel obliged to.

According to an article by the author Martin Dugage (2004), in order for an online community to function effectively it is necessary for the community to be 'closed' - i.e. not openly visible to everyone on the internet. The justification for this is to allow trust to build up between members of the community. So my question is:

How do you feel about the fact that your blogs are visible to anyone on the internet? 

Any and all comments gratefully received!

Blogging All Over The World

Thank you for taking the time to drop by. My name is Tony Reeves and I am a Learning Technologist at the University for the Creative Arts, and I do my best to help staff investigate ways in which they can use technology in their teaching.

I am currently researching the different ways in which blogs can be used as part  of a university course, and whether the ability for former students to contribute to the blogs is beneficial for current students. I would welcome your thoughts and comments about the use of blogs on the CGArts course - please feel free to share your experience by commenting on this post!

Many thanks,

Tony Reeves