Jenny Mackness

Hi Nick - many thanks for your 'thoughts from outside' which are very helpful. 

You are right - 'forget ease of use'. We have wondered whether we should cut down on the factors and in one workshop we ran we highlighted factors in each cluster and said to participants that if they found 25 too many, then just use the highlighted ones - but they all used them all anyhow. We also always say that it is a palette of factors, therefore select the factors that are appropriate and leave the rest - but usually people use them all. In one workshop we ran, a participant said that the factors were interesting because they raise questions and consider aspects of learning that are not usually found in evalution questions - and certainly we have tried to represent the complexity of learning. So - yes - the process is time-consuming and no- it is not easy, particularly to begin with and until the meaning of the factors and process has been somewhat internalised.

It is true that the factors have only been used to date in academic situations and within Higher Education - but not only in research situations. Our colleague Jutta Pauschenwein from Austria has used the footprints extensively with her colleagues and her students. She is interested in creating open learning environments and uses the footprints to explore how open they are. She blogs about her use of the footprints - http://zmldidaktik.wordpress.com/. You need to scroll through to find the posts and some are in German. So the footprints have not only been used for research purposes, although we and Jutta have pubished papers on them. I think some people can see the potential of using them for evaluation purposes - as Lisa Lane explained in her blog post following the workshop - http://lisahistory.net/wordpress/2013/11/course-footprints/ . Roy, Simone and I have never received any funding for this research. In fact, in all the research I have done, only one project has been funded.

But I think the most interesting question you raise is around this tension of how to represent the complexity of the learning process whilst at the same time making the process of drawing the footprints more accessible. I agree that it is something we need to work on if we want the footprints to reach a wider audience, but it's difficult to know quite where to start. We do know thought that if we could find some way of automating the drawing of footprints that would be a start. We also know that we have further work to do on the language we use.

Lots to think about and any suggestions would be welcome :-)

Thanks Nick.

Hi Barb - many thanks for this considered post. It's really good to know that you have tried drawing a footprint and that you managed it on your own.

One or two people we know have managed to draw their footprint without any discussion with us, by reading what is on the wiki and watching the video - but we know it is not easy and time consuming. Heli Nurmi wrote a series of six blog posts about drawing a footprint (http://helistudies.edublogs.org/). She is now steeped in EdcMOOC so you need to scroll back through the posts to find those about footprints. It would be interestingif you could get your course instructor to draw a footprint and then compare them - but she would need to be prepared to give up a bit of time!

The comment you make about images shaping constructs in the mind is interesting. We thought the images would be helpful, but i now wonder how much they will influence the way people interpret the factors. Interesting thought!

Thanks Barb.

As we have said elsewhere, Roy, Simone and I have spent many weeks, months, even years, discussing the language we use in our work on Footprints of Emergence. This week we posted our latest version of the critical factors we consider when drawing footprints of emergence. The content of this list (attached) is not different to the previous one, but it does include images. We thought these images might make the factors easier to use. What do you think?

Which of these images resonate with you? Which don't? And why?

Do you have any comments about the factors themselves and the way they have been organised into clusters?

We'd love to have your thoughts.

Jenny

Thanks to all who attended the webinar yesterday. Sylvia has posted the recording. This was our first attempt at going through the drawing process online - an interesting experience. In the past we have only run face-to-face workshops, so it was good to see that it can work online. The proof is in Lisa Lane's footprint, which she has posted on her blog and in the wiki and I have copied here below.

Lisa's blog post raises the question of when, why and how you might use footprints. Our focus has been to explore the ways in which emergent learning can be described and the factors which might influence emergent learning, but I think others might have more pragmatic uses for the footprints. It would be interesting to hear how people intend to use them, and if not, then why not.

A big thank you Sylvia for posting all this so quickly and for being such a supportive facilitator. Lucky SCoPE community to have you :-)