Day five-Presentation of completed work and summary

This was the last day of the program and we completed the exercise of creating a learning program. The students set up a wiki to design the program and then used tools like digital story telling and blogs to create the learning experience. They designed the summative assessment around the use of these tools and the result was an engaging program.

By the end of the exercise they could envisage the use of eLearning in their programs to engage students and implement a shift away from traditional expert centred delivery to one that was more self directed and collaborative. We discussed the future of eLearning and they felt that there was a move in Korea to explore a different approach to educational delivery although the need for flexibility was not so important there was a growing need to use technology to better engage students in the learning process.

The week long program was a success and I believe the most successful to date. Suk agreed with my impressions and we plan to write a joint article on eLearning comparing the Korean and Australian experiences in the use of eLearning. Korea and Australia have very different cultural backgrounds and their approaches to teaching and learning. Also, Korean educationalists may be more isolated from the international online eLearning community because of the language barrier, yet over the past 4 years I have observed similar in changes in teaching and learning in both countries, although at a slower rate in Korea.

It will be interesting to see what the learning landscape is in 2009 and how the two countries journey down the path of teaching and learning in the 21st Century.

Day four-Virtual worlds, learning design and designing a program

Today we explored the virtual world of Second Life with Jo Kay who is an international leader in this use of virtual worlds for educational delivery.

Jo presented in world by talking us through the process and what we were seeing via Skype. So Jo and I (aka White Donardson) met in Second Life. Jo explained what we were doing, Suk translated the presentation and I recorded it on my iPOD. We went to Jokadia (Jo's island) the International Spaceflight Museum and to Wheelis Island. Several of the trainers teach children with a disability and so were interested in what was happening in Second Life for those with a disability. The session was a great success thanks to Jo (and she was in Edinburgh delivering at 12.30am!).

We then discussed learning design. pedagogy and how eLearning could be implemented into a learning program. The trainees then began designing a program on Korean Energy Conservation as an exercise. it was uplifting to see the trainees starting to link the theory and practice that we had been discussing during the program.

Day three-More tools, learning management systems and mobile learning

Today we covered more web 2.0 tools such as pod and video casting, and digital story telling. Jong Hwa did a presentation of how he implemented the use of Moodle after he had attended my lectures a few years ago. This invited some lively debate about LMS's, Jong Hwa spent considerable time setting up Moodle and populating it with lots of resources but the students were lukewarm in their response. The debate centred around the different cultural approaches to learning in South Korea ie students expect to be told everything they need to know, they memorise and then regurgitate to pass exams. Self directed study is not implemented widely. Although the students identified that this was changing and there was a need o reconsider a the pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning

Day two-21st Century learning and new tools

Today we discussed the concept of learning in the 21st Century and the approach to capability development-Life Based Learning. I believe this philosophy underpins the embedding of eLearning.

We also discussed Web 2.0 and has this phenomenon has affected how people connect on the www. The importance of networking to stay abreast of educational change and to learn was also discussed. we covered common tools such as wikis, blogs and digital story telling. The students could see benefits in these tools especially digital story telling.

Link to flickr photos

Day one-Overview of eLearning, current research and the Australian Context

This is the first day of my lectures in Korea. Today I will be giving an overview of eLearning and the current research and Australian context. over the past four years of coming to Korea I have observed common themes occurring here and in Australia. It seems that even though Koreans have a more traditional approach to eLearning they are too seeking how we can change practice and have the mainstream, rather than the early adopters embracing eLearning and embedding it into everyday practice.