Tag: collaborative learning

Online learning and online communities: Starting with my cultural context of learning, which has been a blend of New Zealand Maori tribal cultures, of colonial culture and generations of family farming culture. I’m going to reflect on what learning has been for my family and what it is becoming for myself and then consider how it is impacting on designing our learning spaces, online learning and online communities, from my experience so far.

Well known author and teacher developer Jim Scrivener spoke to me in an interview a couple of years ago about focusing on where learning is happening. He claims that we devote  lot of time as teachers to almost ritualistic teaching acts to engage and entertain students. In this article I go on to explore this idea further.

While contemplating project-based and experiential learning, Emma finds out some key truths for learning in the world of workshop artist Tony Gee, the Artistic Director and co-founder of Creation Myth Puppets. Tony has worked in the arts and as a puppeteer, for over 30 years, touring shows and workshops all over the world.

Social Learning is the informal learning that takes place in our fluid social spaces, and I argue these to be in face to face communities as well as online.  They are the spaces where we expand our learning networks and gain knowledge on the fly. Our communities of practice help us make sense of that knowledge in a timely fashion. It’s needs based learning. And it’s very necessary now.

These books on English language teaching are often on the recommended reading list given to you by many teacher trainers. Some may help with your pre-training tasks set for you by your tutors.