academhack » Blog Archive » The University and the Future of Knowledge - 0 views
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My central claim is that the organization of the University is based on a factory/print broadcast, model of knowledge creation and dissemination, and thus is ill prepared (or perhaps cannot make the transition) into the new knowledge landscape.
Here we are…there we are going « Connectivism - 0 views
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Learning consists of weaving together coherent (personal) narratives of fragmented information. The narrative can be now created through social sensemaking systems (such as blogs and social networks), instead of centrally organized courses. Courses can be global, with many educators and participants (i.e. CCK08). Courses, unlike universities, are not directly integrated into the power system of a society. Can decentralized networks of autonomous agents serve the same function as organized institutions? But who loses, and what is lost, if the teaching role of universities decline?
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So learning is developing a story from one's schema of a thing!
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"But who loses, and what is lost, if the teaching role of universities decline?" My concern surrounds the word teaching. Who said that is their primary role? Isn't it licensing, formally sanctioning persons so they can enter the world of work with the "proper" credentials? Did you learn anything in your college days?
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So what really needs to change is not the university, but the culture it serves...
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The virtues that a society finds desirable are systematized in its institutions. However futile this activity, it helps society, and media, to hold people accountable, to devise strategies, and create laws so people feel safe. Similarly, results that are desirable (financial, educationally, etc) are systematized to ensure the ability to manage and duplicate results. I shared some thoughts on this systematization last year as a reason for the currently limited impact of personal learning environments (PLEs). Quite simply, even revolutionaries conserve.
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Teaching is what is most at risk. Can a social network - loosely connected, driven by humanistic ideals - serve a similar role to what university classrooms serve today? I hope so, but I don’t think so. At least not with our current mindsets and skillsets. We associate with those who are similar. We do not pursue diversity. In fact, we shy away from it. We surround ourselves with people and ideas that resonate with our own, not with those that cause us stress or internal conflict. Secondly, until all of society becomes fully networked (not technologically networked, but networked on the principles of flows, connections, feedback), a networked entity always risks being subverted by hierarchy. Today, rightly or wrongly, hierarchy holds power in society.
The 'Web Squared' Era - Forbes.com - 0 views
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Web 2.0, the name we gave this phenomenon in 2004 when we named our new conference, turns five on Oct. 5
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Web Squared.
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Web Squared is another way of saying "Web meets World."
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Visions from Two Theories: Overview of social evolution (past, present, and future) in ... - 4 views
Gin, Television, and Social Surplus - Here Comes Everybody - 1 views
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television watching? Two hundred billion hours, in the U.S. alone, every year. Put another way, now that we have a unit, that's 2,000 Wikipedia projects a year spent watching television. Or put still another way, in the U.S., we spend 100 million hours every weekend, just watching the ads.
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The physics of participation is much more like the physics of weather than it is like the physics of gravity. We know all the forces that combine to make these kinds of things work: there's an interesting community over here, there's an interesting sharing model over there, those people are collaborating on open source software. But despite knowing the inputs, we can't predict the outputs yet because there's so much complexity.
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The normal case of social software is still failure; most of these experiments don't pan out. But the ones that do are quite incredible
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Reflections on open courses « Connectivism - 4 views
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In education, content can easily be produced (it’s important but has limited economic value). Lectures also have limited value (easy to record and to duplicate). Teaching – as done in most universities – can be duplicated. Learning, on the other hand, can’t be duplicated. Learning is personal, it has to occur one learner at a time. The support needed for learners to learn is a critical value point.
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Excellent insight!
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Here's the key: if what we are typically doing in our classrooms can be easily duplicated, then it has lost its value in both the wider economy and in the educational ecosystem. We university professors must redefine the way we add value to our students' personal learning networks.
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Learning, however, requires a human, social element: both peer-based and through interaction with subject area experts
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Content is readily duplicated, reducing its value economically. It is still critical for learning – all fields have core elements that learners must master before they can advance (research in expertise supports this notion). - Teaching can be duplicated (lectures can be recorded, Elluminate or similar webconferencing system can bring people from around the world into a class). Assisting learners in the learning process, correcting misconceptions (see Private Universe), and providing social support and brokering introductions to other people and ideas in the discipline is critical. - Accreditation is a value statement – it is required when people don’t know each other. Content was the first area of focus in open education. Teaching (i.e. MOOCs) are the second. Accreditation will be next, but, before progress can be made, profile, identity, and peer-rating systems will need to improve dramatically. The underlying trust mechanism on which accreditation is based cannot yet be duplicated in open spaces (at least, it can’t be duplicated to such a degree that people who do not know each other will trust the mediating agent of open accreditation)
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Free Online Courses, at a Very High Price - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 3 views
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A success for college-made free online courses—except that Mr. Ziegler, who works for a restaurant-equipment company in Pennsylvania, is on the verge of losing his job. And those classes failed to provide what his résumé real ly needs: a college credential.
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the recession and disappearing grant money are forcing colleges to confront a difficult question: What business model can support the high cost of giving away your "free" content?
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David Wiley, open education's Everywhere Man
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Education at the fork in the road - 5 views
Future of learning: LMS or SNS? - 7 views
The Technological Dimension of a Massive Open Online Course: The Case of the CCK08 Cour... - 7 views
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highlighting the purpose of the tools (e.g., skill-building) and stating clearly that the learners can choose their preferred tools
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Although formal attendance seemed to be the main driver for completing assignments and the course, the main reason for not completing the course was a lack of time
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Learners, in the absence of a stronger motivation, attend only partially
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The Technological Dimension of a Massive Open Online Course: The Case of the CCK08 Course Tools Problematic study of CCK08 -- sample size was way too small, would have been more interesting to examine ways in which instructor choices of tools influenced student tool use -- choices are exclusive, so can't put "confusing" and "overwhelming" at the same time.
EduGeek Journal » Blog Archive » New Vision LMS and Personal Learning Environ... - 3 views
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