By the way, our last task was a great “refreshment” of the psychology knowledge that I had gained during my ”Lehramtstudium”: Behaviorism, cognitivism etc. I liked the idea of making graphical presentations very much (especially the Behaviorism-group) and I found the atmosphere nice. It was a real pleasure to work in such a creative class! 

Well, tomorrow is our pre-last session and that’s why it’s one of my last posts for this semester. I can say already that eLearning does make fun and that I’ve learned a lot of things in our seminar. Actually I’ve been telling myself everyday that I should write a post with my thoughts but I mostly forget it… I think that this is the biggest aspect about eLearning: self-discipline.  

I’ve just seen other pictures of the task 6 and found it really funny that most of us have also chosen locations at home (Selma, Luise etc)… Now I see that I’m not the only one who prefers learning at home:)…

Here are my impressions. I will start with the positive ones:

1. It was unusual – a new experience.

2. It was funny and the “virtual” atmosphere was very relaxed - everyone made jokes etc.

3. I was able to take part on the session directly from home, it means no long annoying ways with the public transport and no bad mood because of bad weather - one does not need to go anywhere. Home sweet home…

Negative aspects:

1. Technical problems – if someone cannot hear/see/speak/log in etc, it takes much of the session’s time to solve these problems.

2. No clear plan - I cannot figure out a specific theme or a goal of our session. Well, we’ve seen a video and have tried out software but I cannot definitely say that I have learned something.

To sum up, it was a trial session and I’m sure that with a bit more experience and a better organization it can become a great alternative to a formal lesson.       

Ralf has asked us to take two pictures of our eLearning and non-eLearning PLE. My typical problem: I’ve taken the pictures on the weekend and have forgotten to upload them in time. Somehow I start to think that I am a “bad” eLearner because everytime I turn on my notebook I become so easily distracted by my E-mails and all the stuff I have to download and print for my lectures that I end up turning off my pc some hours later without having done important tasks   …

Anyway, here are the pictures I’ve made. Don’t be surprised that both pictures show locations in my appartment. The explanation is quite simple: There’s no better place than home. Only at home I have the atmosphere that I need in order to enjoy learning. First of all, there I am mostly alone (as my husband comes back pretty late after work) and no one disturbs me; I have all the books I may need; I have an Internet access and a printer; I have my tee and a full fridge; I have my sofa, my favorite chair, my favorite lamp and all the things that can make learning so pleasant and comfortable.  

Therefore, as my favorite eLearning LE (summer version) I have choosed the sunny balcony where learning becomes so cozy, when I sit there with my notebook, surrounded by flowers, trees and birds. Since I have W-LAN this dream has come true:).

My favorite non-eLearning location is the sofa in the living-room. It is the best sofa for laying and reading ever:)!

Last week we had two more presentations: LMS (Learning Management Systems) and PLE (Personal Learning Environment). It actually turned out that LMS and PLE were two modern terms for things that we all know and use everyday. Thus, we found out that many universities in Germany work with three main LMS platforms: Blackboard, CommSy and Moogle. For instance, an example of a Blackboard-based LMS platform is STiNE. Uni Hamburg also offers several CommSy pages for different faculties (during the excercise we tried out the CommSy service of the math faculty).

The second presentation about PLE was much shorter, but very entertaining due to two videos that the group had prepared.   

Unfortunately we haven’t managed to present our “masterpiece”. On one hand, it’s a pity because Selma and I have invested time & efforts in preparing the slides and the videos and we do like the final version of our presentation; but on the other hand there have been some difficulties in organizing the ”male” part of our group. As a result, we found out that we had a new guy in the group…one day before the presentation deadline! It was very surprising because of the fact that this person had never worked with us in class and had also never introduced himself to Selma or me/ or never contacted us. Therefore, our guys did some work that wasn’t really coordinated with us and wasn’t big help:(…