WoLF Project Video Transcript

Project Manager: The WoLF Project is a project between Leicester College and the Beyond Distance Research Alliance at Leicester University and it is funded by JISC. What we are doing is working with a group of students who are Leicester College students they are studying on a Foundation Degree in Educational Studies. We are giving them a mobile device in that they can take into their work place and capture moments of reflection.

There are two parts to the project really; the first part is the students using the mobile device as a means to reflect on their practice. With the mobile device they can capture photos, video clips or do some sound recordings.

The second part of the project is the development of a Moodle site for the student to use. They are able to access this from home. Part of their project for their course is to work collaboratively with their peers and they can do this using the chat room functions, Wikis and forum postings. One of the key issues about the project is that the students only meet for four hours per weeks and the rest of the week they are in the workplace or at home. Their workplaces tend to be primary school settings or early years settings to work collaboratively without the use of Moodle would be quite impossible.

Student: I’m an HTLA which is a Higher Level Teaching Assistant in a village primary school. I’ve been working in the education setting for 15 years now and I thoroughly enjoy every minute of it. Every day is different; every day is a challenge which makes my job even more appealing.

We were give this mobile device (holds up device), just like a mobile phone really which makes it more appealing to my generation. With your mobile phone you can access it quite easily to do voice recordings, camera to take recordings, video snap shots. You can use it as a mobile phone but I prefer to use my own to be honest.

I’ve used the Moodle web site quite a lot actually. I found it very interactive; it’s very accessible any hours of the day. I found I go on first thing in the morning anything from quarter past five, because that is when I’m up. It’s really, really good. I have done an online tutorial with Kirsty which was a totally new experience but it was great because I could ask questions I hadn’t had time to task and I got instant feedback, straight away. I’ve looked at accessing the reflective journal, updating that every week, and again Kirsty has given me feedback in a couple of days. I’ve been onto the technical forum which was great because I’ve had a couple of problems with different issues and they’ve been resolved because Lucy has got back to me. I’ve found it easier than trying to get in touch someone by phone because leaving a message, you are never sure it’s got there. But you send it straight through, on the Moodle site, you’ll know you’ll get something back within the next few hours.

I found I was a little bit anxious I think to start when I first heard about the Moodle web site. I thought “how is this going to impact on me personally?”, but I found it a great asset. I mean I’m not particularly up on the “jargon” they have. I like to use the internet, I like using my digital camera, I’m quite happy to transfer and put my photos together, and I like to use search engines. I’m by no means on a par with anybody else. My kids are far better, they are teenagers. I can ask “what is a wiki?” and they rattle it off, they say “I’m going to do this…”, and “Mum you should put that in s a zip compressed file” (indicates it is over her head), “what is that?!”. But it has been great and I’ve found it very comfortable to work with.

Tutor: I’m the Course Team Leader for the Foundation Degree in Educational Studies which is a part-time Higher Education course. It’s run every Monday. It’s generally for students who are currently Teaching Assistants and are doing a part-time route into teaching.

Moodle has changed the way I work in several ways really. The first way is that for part-time learners it’s a fantastic way of communicating with them throughout the week, so whether that be in an electronic tutorial or email or texting, students can clarify any issues they have with tasks and also it gives me an alternative way of marking their work. So that, for particularly new students, when they are anxious about submitting their first assignment I can give them formative feedback along the way. So that is the first reason, a communication tool.

The second way would be a way of storing my own administration so documents I have to provide for the college like the College SED (Self Evaluation Document), I store them all on Moodle, along with marking, along with any other course documents that I’m asked to provide, it’s particularly useful with inspection.

Prior to Moodle existing, we’ve always, for the first module, asked the students to compile a reflective journal. So week by week the students are asked to reflect on the session, the content of the College session, and to link that to their practice in the workplace. Prior to Moodle this was done as a paper based portfolio that would be submitted to me in July then I would mark it. Since Moodle has happened I can give them (the students) weekly feedback on their entries so we can sharpen up study skills, look at the way students do referencing, look at how they are reflecting and analysing and go beyond the descriptive which is the method of an HE Level course.

The students are quite active in using Moodle. For some of their portfolio tasks they can collect data using the mobile device then they upload that data to Moodle. One example would be that students record their target child in the classroom setting, carry out an observation, for example, Piaget’s Conservation system and then they upload that to Moodle. Then there is the possibility for us to share that as a group. So it really makes teaching and learning a bit more real and brings the early years classroom into the FE classroom.