I tend to think that if the firewall becomes an inflexible tyrant, it will have the same fate as the Berlin wall.

I don’t see a problem with providing student email accounts… it could have many pluses! I’m reacting to the idea of forcing people to use only their student email account by blocking access to all others – without a discussion about the implications first.

I totally agree with the different purposes in different contexts… that would be a great way to help students generalise the different email platforms and hence the concept. But wouldn’t be possible if students can only access the one student email account.

BTW: I don’t reckon we need IT Support apologists – my experience with IT Support has been great! (Very supportive!)

And I agree that the school email could be used to help Computers a First Course students… as we’d certainly want them to feel confident accessing announcements about results or whatever related to school. But I’d also like to be able to help them print out that photo their daughter sent from overseas to their yahoo account (I’ve had quite a few such requests in tutorial time!)

And CFC is just an example – if the testing of the new filter the other month is anything to go by, I’ll need to make some pretty radical changes to the Web Design course too.

I’m sure these issues are being thought about in the right places, I just hope they’re being decided with learners in mind. I’d guess I’d like to be included in the discussion (along with other facilitators) rather than finding out during class when a new filter is being tested and my students can’t do their work.

Maybe… hopefully… the new filter was tested with the wrong settings :-)

I do like an interesting discussion! I can see from a practical perspective that using DET email accounts may be tricky. I guess I’m looking for the pluses. On the one hand I don’t want to sound like an organisational mouth-piece or DET IT apologist. On the other hand I don’t agree with the either-or approach. I’m not particularly for or against Yahoo email or school email. In the grand scheme of things they may both be irrelevant to learners in five years time.

From my English teacher’s perspective, email is just another text, not application dependant. Maybe we can show students that there are different kinds of email used for different purposes in different contexts. I create my own contexts for email messages when I choose to send them from different email accounts. I treat my home & yahoo email differently to my work email, just as I would my home, business & two mobile numbers.

Some may disagree with me – I do notice the trend towards merging the personal and professional into one space, but that’s another discussion!

The course outcomes for Computers, A First Course seem waffly enough to me to use whatever email app with students:
Completion of this course will enable first time computer users to achieve a basic understanding of computer systems, computer software and current
applications of computer technology. They will be able to access and use the
Internet to meet communication and information needs. It will allow them to make
informed decisions about computer software and hardware required for given
tasks. [my italics]

Or is that easier to say in theory than in practice? (I don’t actually teach it!)

Yeah, it certainly is about learning the concepts not the platforms, but that doesn’t happen straight away… Here’s a few issues that I can think of off the top of my head – be interested to hear your thoughts (sorry if they’re a bit scattered – trying to finish b4 the kids wake up!):

1) Generalising a concept is a higher-order skill

But not all courses “teach” these higher-order skills. Take Computers a First Course. People don’t always come away from the course “getting” the concept of email. They just know how to do a few basic things in their “yahoo page” (send an email with an attachment). But this is great, cause they can take this home and use it as their permanent email address. They start giving this email address to all their family members etc., practising all the time and continuing to develop their email skills even after the course ends.

2) Motivation for checking an email account

Scenario: On the other extreme, imagine a student with 3 or 4 email accounts, one that is checked daily as it’s my current favourite… friends, family and online contacts all use this address. Why will I be checking my school email?
* Just in case a teacher has sent something? Hmmm.
* Because it rocks… it’s way cooler than gmail or Microsoft’s new live.com mail? Hmmm.
* Because a teacher has told me that they’ll send some activities to our school emails? Hmmm… if I remember.
* Because my results will be mailed there? Yep… there’s one reason to check my email (after the end of semester)
Yet if these emails went to my normal address, I’d see them automatically.

I guess, no matter how I look at this from a learners point of view, I can’t see a reason for trying to force people to use a school email address. Great idea 5 years ago to provide an email address… not so great now.

On the other hand, if I were the project manager responsible for rolling out an email per student and wanted to show that the project was actually worthwhile…

Is there a page where we can read the changes that will be implemented? It would be helpful to read facts rather than me guessing! Thx for any thoughts :)

Does this mean we soon won’t be able to help people learn to use a simple tool like gmail or yahoo mail that they can also use to communicate with their family and friends in their life?

Instead I’m guessing we’ll be forced to teach students how to use a special TAFE email, and then they’ll be left on their own to figure out a normal email without even so much as a demonstration from us…

I help out in a tutorial session once per week and soo many people come along just to get help sending that email with photo attachments to their daughter overseas etc… to practise, practise and practise again…

…so much for life-based learning.

http://networklearning.blogspot.com/2006/04/simple-idea.html

Great questions Beth! I think you’re right, Fun must be a large part of engagement (it certainly works for the gaming industry! People spend hours, days even learning how to use new games!). It’s hard to make something boring fun though (I struggle with this all the time as our web design class knows well!). I wonder what other “attributes” keep people engaged?

Kathy Sierra writes a lot about this type of thing on her Creating Passionate Users blog. In one post, a Crash Course in Learning Theory she talks about building interest and engagement through progressive ‘levels’ – where each level ends with the learner having the “I rule!” feeling:

Game developers know the importance of “The Next Level”, and learning experiences must do the same. Each iteration through the spiral should start with a meaningful, motivating goal, followed by the interaction/activity/reading that moves you toward that goal, followed by a meaningful payoff. Ideally, the “meaningful payoff” leads right into the next motivating goal.

Actually, come to think of it, it seems like something is fun because it engages you, but you only get engaged in something if it’s fun… aargh. I guess that’s why Kathy refers to it as “Using a spiral model to keep people engaged”.