summer school

Summer school | Paul Raper | July 24th, 2005

Hi Barry and all of you,

Firstly I think it's worth mentioning that the summer school was an outstanding experience. Thank you to all those who persuaded me it was worthwhile. You were not only right, but it was better than I ever expected.

The support from the Aston team was simply outstanding, and the warmth and support shared by the other course members was simply amazing.

We shared a lot of ideas, and discussed common problems and issues. We had some great times together, and it has to be said that the Wednesday evening in the Indian Restaurant was stunning. Thanks Sue, Ramesh and Muna.

Anyone who has not been to summer school should really try it. I shall be there again next year, oh, and if my original two and a half year course deadline somehow becomes the full five years, you'll know why.

Once again, if you haven't booked for next years summer school, book early as I have a feeling many of this years summer school attendees might be thinking of going again.

Paul

Re: Summer school | Jerry Talandis Jr. | July 24th, 2005

Hi Paul,

Wow, sounds like you had a great time during the summer school. Wish I could have gone!

I'm wondering if you or anyone else took any pictures. If you did, could you email them to me? I'd like to post them along with your message during the next DL Archive update. I've been into "decorating" pages there more often these days with graphics or pictures, so this would be perfect.

If any other attendees have something to say about the school, please tell us your stories. Perhaps CPs in the future would be more likely to attend summer school if they could read all about it and see some snaps.

Jerry
Japan

Re: Summer school | Paul Raper | July 25th, 2005

Hi Jerry,

It was a great experience. I could never have believed that distance learning could be this way.

Many years back I tried another course by distance learning and basically it was a disaster. Aston have somehow managed to make the whole thing feel in many ways like "Community Learning". For me there in lies the secret. We are in a kind of way like a community with a lot of common goals. It would almost be worth doing a thesis on how we learn versus how others learn, and why our system works so well and effectively.

I didn't take any pictures, but maybe one or two of the others did. I'm also hoping that some of the others will add to what has been said.

If no one from the university objects, maybe we could put up some of the support materials, like maps, and info from the library on how to use the electronic resources more effectively.

Paul

Re: Summer School | Jerry Talandis Jr. | July 25th, 2005

Hi Paul and other summer schoolers,

Yes, I feel the same way. Good idea about the thesis!

I didn't take any pictures, but maybe one or two of the others did. I'm also hoping that some of the others will add to what has been said.

You know, come to think of it, did they post some pictures of the summer school at the main EASG website? If anyone knows the link, please let us know.

I also hope other summer schoolers can post some brief reports: how did it go overall for you? What did you like/learn? What could be improved for next time? Stuff like that...

Jerry

PS: Yeah, again- if anyone has anything they want me to add to this discussion once it's archived, please send it to me at talandis@gmail.com. Pictures are good, or anything else, as Paul suggested. I suppose they have this already covered at the EASG site and the Quick Start Guide, but a little repetition never hurt.

Re: Summer school | Elizabeth Renshaw | July 25th, 2005

I would like to echo Paul's comments on the summer school. Although I only participated on the Thursday and the Friday (so unfortunately missed the Indian restaurant...) it really brought the course contents, the course tutors and some of the course participants 'to life'. I will definitely also be going back next year and would REALLY recommend it to everyone else 'out there'.

Elizabeth Renshaw
Bonn

Re: Summer School | Paul Raper | July 25th, 2005

Thanks Elizabeth,

It was indeed a pleasure to meet you. Putting names to faces, or faces to names, has been a major part of what it's been about. But let me echo something I said to Jerry. Of all the courses I have attended, and this includes distance courses, this has been by far the most rewarding. I think that Aston somehow creates a feeling of community. I truly feel that I am a part of something, not just a loan student somewhere out there on my own.

Julian called it membershipping, but I think and feel that it is more than that. I feel truly that I am a part of a group, and the group is fantastic.

Paul

Re: Summer school | Yvonne Beaudry | July 26th, 2005

I will definitely also be going back next year and would REALLY recommend it to eveyone else 'out there'.

I'm reading so many wonderful comments about summer school. I really wish I could attend.

This topic arose during Muna's Japan visit (at the lovely riverside pub, I beleive) but it would be great if it could be held in different parts of the summer. Many people who teach in schools in Asia are still in term time in July. If it were in August one year we could attend. How many of you would be affected by having some variety in when summer school is held?

Yvonne

Our community feeling | Jerry Talandis Jr. | July 27th, 2005

Hi Paul, 

You wrote recently: 

Of all the courses I have attended, and this includes distance courses, this has been by far the most rewarding. I think that Aston somehow creates a feeling of community. I truly feel that I am a part of something, not just a loan student somewhere out there on my own. Julian called it membershipping, but I think and feel that it is more than that. I feel truly that I am a part of a group, and the group is fantastic.

Well, it doesn't surprise me that you feel this way. I think a big reason you feel "a part of the group" because you are very active in it. You're active on this list, and you're giving up your time and energy to create and maintain a very useful webpage filled with awesome resources. You're always trying to help others, so you get a lot back yourself. Satisfying learning happens when you establish relationships with others and share your experiences and talents. Like the Beetles said, what you take is equal to what you give. I think this is an important point to keep in mind when going about a distance learning program, or anything in life, for that matter. Thanks for bringing it up. 

Jerry
Japan

PS: Of course I feel the same way as you; we rock! :-)

Re: Our community feeling | Andy Boon | July 27th, 2005

Dear Jerry and Paul,

I second that emotion.

As a graduate of the program (2003), I still feel very much a part of it.

Andy
Japan

Re: Our Community Feeling | Paul Raper | July 27th, 2005

Thanks Jerry for your comments. I truly appreciate your support.

I agree that you often only get out of something what you put into it, but with this course we are given the opportunity to participate via this list which I must say I see as our life blood to communication and thus sharing ideas. I think it's extremely interesting though that this discussion has thrown up in my mind the question of how this impacts on what we understand about the process of effective learning. I have been recently reading a lot about learning processes through the CMD module, and it's in general an area of great interest to me. We must be able to somehow interpret from the data you are collecting here some interesting ideas on our own learning concepts.

We have made the point that by making an effort to engage in something brings back rewards in terms of increased knowledge and higher satisfaction levels. These in turn have brought out the idea or concept of a feeling of inclusion or membership or even community. So I wonder what that tells us about our students. Can we assume that students who are helped to feel a part of something and are offered an "inclusive" environment will prosper more than those who aren't? Can we further develop this idea to students who take these opportunities will also do better versus those who reject the chance to be a part of the learning environment? What sorts of people engage in the various forms of learning? What are their initial motivations? What keeps them engaged in it?

If someone had said to me two years ago: "why don't you do a correspondence or distance learning course?" I would have laughed. Having had a bad experience of one before, I would have considered it only for the most dedicated of people with an extremely high degree of self-discipline and motivation. But therein lies part of the answer to our question. In part, in order to learn something you have got to want to learn. You can take a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

But even if I had wanted to learn something, I believe the environment and circumstances have also to be right, and that's where the list and the people on it come in. If the list were not here, and the people who support it not there, I'm sure I would have stopped way back. In fact I can remember the relief I felt when I finally got onto it last year. As an individual I need to correspond and discuss ideas.

There seems to me as I said above to be some serious ideas hidden in here somewhere. I'm sure I'm not the first to be thinking about this, but I sometimes wonder if we don't look too much at trying to make data, when we can find some interesting answers much closer to home.

Paul

Community | Robert Haines | July 28th, 2005

Paul, Jerry and everyone,

When I read what Paul had written:

"I'm sure I'm not the first to be thinking about this, but I sometimes wonder if we don't look too much at trying to make data, when we can find some interesting answers much closer to home."

I thought, 'Yes, yes... I agree, Paul.'

Like Paul, and Jerry, I assume, the 'life blood' of our community is this list, or, better said, the people who keep it alive --- Okay, group hug everybody!:-) As someone who actually does feel a bit of the 'distance' in Distance Learning sometimes, I would actually still favor flesh and blood classrooms to my monitor interface (or whatever the PC- as in personal computer- term is). Maybe it also has to do with my teaching context, ie I think I'm one of the few, perhaps the only, ESL teachers on the list.   Sorry to sound so whiny, it's just an observation.

The only difference I see in what Paul says about the lesson we can draw from our experience as CP/members of this community about what out learners experience is that we all share a common language, and some of us even a common culture. The learners we work with are often grappling with language and culture in ways we don't have to. You know that, but it's a significant difference. Nonetheless, Paul is right about more 'affective' features of our learning being similar to those of the people we teach.   Folks in the TESOL world seem to disagree about the degree to which linguistic vs. paralinguistic (affective) factors should dominate the classroom experience. Wouldn't it be interesting to perform some discourse analysis --- Hey, Chomsky, that's another non-count noun after 'perform'!   (ahem)... to perform some discourse analysis or conduct corpus research on the types of language we use on this list to talk about our interests and work? Would we find that we favor one type of discourse to another? How do style and register come into play? Can we see a pattern of more paralinguistic or linguistic treatment of issues in our communication?

Rob

Re: Summer school | Richard Walker | July 28th, 2005

Yvonne/Paul,

I agree completely with your thoughts. For the Japanese contingent, possibly the first week in August would be best. It's asking a bit much, but perhaps there could be two summer schools? Then some participants might be able to attend both should they wish. This being unrealistic, how about a questionnaire being sent to participants re: optimum time for the Summer School?

We were fortunate to have had the chance to attend Muna's workshops here in Tokyo.   It was highly motivating, and eye-opening for me, and the chance to attend Summer School or any workshops at Aston HQ would amplify this motivation.  

Richard   

Re: Summer school | Sue Garton | July 29th, 2005

Hi all,

Point taken about the best week to hold the summer school. However, there is another consideration and that's the availability of tutors. If we moved the summer school to August, it's very unlikely that all the tutors would be able to participate, as some of us take annual leave at that time, while others are very busy with the intensive Certificate in TEFL programme we run. On the other hand, everyone here tends to be around and available until the middle/end of July.

It was once suggested that we might hold a one-week summer school in Japan, and we would certainly have considered it. However, extensive discussions failed to produce a week that enough participants in Japan could agree on!

I guess it's inevitable with so many people working in different circumstances, but, as always, we will take your opinions into account and try to come up with a satisfactory solution as far as possible.

Best,

Sue

 

Archive Categories