What I know this week that I didn’t last week…

You can learn a lot in a week…although in the same breath, it can feel that you forget a lot in a week too! It is simple to reflect on what you have learnt in the past week if it was something significant. I think it is easier to pick out these “eureka” moments from childhood – last week I couldn’t ride my bike, this week I can; last week I couldn’t tie my shoe laces, this week I can; last week I couldn’t count to 10, this week I can. As I get older, these “significant” learnings tend to be replaced with the question of how my knowledge in a specific area has grown within the week.

I suppose in the context of this course, I can clearly identify two area that I didn't know as much about about this time last week, and they are eportfolios and wikis.

I mentioned in a previous blog that when it comes to technology, at times I realise that I have been using something or have awareness but never realise what the proper term is – I feel this is exactly the route I have gone down with eportfolios. I knew what a portfolio was, and as per my first blog , I know what an “e” in front of something means, so by putting these 2 facts together, I worked out that it must be some sort of online/electronic collection of evidence. From all the reading and research of this week, I guess my instinct wasn’t far off.

As for wikis, I do use something similar to a wiki in work, but again I had never heard it referred to under this name. I just refer to it as a “shared document” or “an online document to update”. In the first week of the course, I had updated one so I am comfortable with how to edit (which is very similar to your standard Microsoft tools). I wasn’t aware this time last week how to set one up and that’s why I shouted for “help” in our group forum. So now I can set up and edit a wiki as if my life depended on it. It may not look pretty or glamorous, but thankfully at this stage, that’s not the point of it!

So that’s what I have learnt this week, I’m sure the coming weeks will have lots more learnings!