Cllr Dr Wendy Maples (BA, MA, PhD, SFHEA) is a Green Party Councillor and Education Consultant who graduated with an MA in Online and Distance Education in 2016. Here she talks about the impact her studies have had on her approach to new technology in education and public services.
Wendy writes:
Changes in education generate a lot of headlines. Hyperbolic stories suggest we are under imminent threat from new technologies. When I first started teaching, Wikipedia was going to destroy higher education; today it’s LLM-generated essays; in between it was online teaching and learning.
I had been a university lecturer and academic author for over 20 years when I took my first MAODE course (the predecessor to the MA in Online Teaching https://www.open.ac.uk/postgraduate/qualifications/f98). I’d read Vygotsky and Paolo Friere and managed a team of (wonderful) tutors – but I wanted to update my professional practice.
The MAODE made me a more deeply reflective practitioner and gave me the skills and confidence to evaluate the promises of new teaching and learning tools and environments, as well as the variable existing conditions that affect education practice and practitioners. I’ve recently created professional development materials for ‘hybrid’ learning centres where there may be computers but, from one day to another, no electricity to run them, and I’m currently preparing the 6th edition of Good Essay Writing (Redman and Maples, Sage) and considering how ChatGPT can be used to help students improve their essay writing.
I bring my MAODE learning into my education consultancy work of course, but also into my work as a local politician. During the pandemic, I was able to facilitate our town’s very first online and hybrid Council meetings despite some colleagues’ anxieties and heel-digging resistance. More recently, I’ve ensured councillors have had considered discussions about introducing ‘digital’ into the adult social care sector and the importance of carers’ as well as clients’ support needs.
I dip into the Alumni circle from time to time and am always re-invigorated by the variety of inspiring practices of my former fellow learners. I also look forward to the online conference where new MAODE students and invited guests talk about their wide-ranging projects and research.
It is truly exciting to see this community of practice in action and to continue to be a part of it.
Interested in finding out more about The Open University’s Masters in online teaching?
In 2023 we launched the OU’s new Masters in Online Teaching, an innovative postgraduate programme exploring the ways that new media, digital pedagogies and cutting-edge educational technologies can be used effectively and equitably, across multiple sectors, to engage diverse learners and meet their needs. The programme offers flexible study pathways featuring a choice of topics, study intensity and study timing, and the option to include credit from a select postgraduate microcredentials.