This week started with one of the most boring classes I have ever taken
since I have started the course at Haga-Helia. With all due respect to Mr.
Yari, his classes were very boring since he was silent most of the time. The subject
was about performance assessment in educational organizations. He was well
prepared and the contents of the subject was very good. The problem was in the
way of teaching and representing the lessons. I think that I have learnt
something from these classes. I have practiced how to feel as a student when
the lecture becomes so boring. I really, want to make sure in the future that I
make my lectures as fun as possible to avoid this situation. I have nothing to
say about the subject itself because there was not a lot of explanation rather
than moving slides and keep silent for a while to read them and we as students
comment on them.
But in the end of the week there were opposite situations where I have a lot of fun and really benefit from the last two days of the week. First on Wednesday, we had a very beneficial conclusion about learning theories and methods with Ms. Mari and Katri. I was the presenter of our group and I had to represent almost every aspect about the cognitive learning. I feel happy that I have discussed this theory with my colouges and summarized it to represented to the other groups in the class. I wish I have discussed the other theories since I felt that I have refreshed my information by such conclusion session.
Thursday was the special day for me not only in this week but also in the entire program. It was the day of the trip to Omnia. In Arabic, omnia means the good wish. For example we say, my omnia to have such and such. Omnia we have visited was a vocational school where students are trained in different majors. The most interesting thing about it was using a method of learning called Mobile Learning. Students are given i-pads when they are registered to use during the entire period of their learning. I enjoyed it since my major is computer since and I like using technology in the learning processes. I think not only me but the entire group have enjoyed the trip to Omnia.
I'm sorry that the classes on Monday and Tuesday were boring to you. As you know this program is jointly organized by HAAGA-HELIA and Educluster Finland (a subsidiary of University of Jyväskylä). Jari works at the University, and is perhaps a little bit more of a theoretical guy than we at the university of applied sciences (although Merja and Katri are highly competent doctors, even theoretically speaking, they still have a practical touch in their way of implementing their teaching). But as you put it yourself: you can always learn something, even from the poor performances. If nothing else, they make you think, how could I avoid the same problems.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that mobile learning is the next big thing! I have now used iPad for almost two years, and already it seems I have had it for ever, and I sometimes wonder, how I could get along without it! I really wish all my students could experience the same.
I think one of the obstacles in mobile learning is updates. When I was in charge of updating the computers at my old school, I made an image of the computer and distributed it over the network to all the workstations. That same is not possible with mobiles. E.g. with one license you can install the app to five devices. School bundles are not yet available in Finland, so somebody needs to do the purchases with a credit card. All that makes maintenance difficult, and that is why many it-departments at schools aren't too keen on having iPads. This,however, cannot be a major obstacle, there is so much to be gained that I'm all for iPads in education, even if it might cause some extra work at it-department!
- Irmeli