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This paper written by George Siemens in 2008 on Learning in Networks raises issues very similar to those we are raising in our discussion. Google Scholar, Scopus, and open access journals offer increased access to academic resources; an extension to more informal approaches such as regular internet search and Wikipedia. Social software (blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, instant messaging, Skype, Ning) provide opportunities for learners to create, dialogue about, and disseminate information. But what becomes of the teacher? How do the practices of the educator change in networked environments, where information is readily accessible? How do we design learning when learners may adopt multiple paths and approaches to content and curriculum? How can we achieve centralized learning aims in decentralized environments? This paper will explore the shifting role of educators in networked learning, with particular emphasis on curatorial, atelier, concierge, and networked roles of educators, in order to assist learners in forming diverse personal learning networks for deep understanding of complex fields.

great background on George Siemens

Howard Rheingold interviews George Siemens on MOOCs, May 2011, 21 minutes long video Youtube based, Week 1, September 12, 2011 EXCERPTS that intrigue me: At 2.12 into interview: "We encouraged people to create their own spaces. Our assumption was that educational institutions need to stop providing spaces for learners to interact, and allow learners to bring their spaces with them which means they have an archive. So people were setting up spaces in Second Life. We had the course syllabus translated into 5 languages, we had 2,300 people signed up to join. We let people do basically what they wanted." At 3:22 -"We wrap the social elements around the content. That's how traditional education is done. Here is your text, here is your readings, now talk about it. Our assumption was partly that we wanted the social interactions to actually produce the content which doesn't mean that we wanted to run through open meadows learning randomly. We still started off each week with readings, literature that we wanted them to engage in, videos, we wanted to keep everything open. We did have a closed journal but those were optional." 4:11 "The content isn't what you are supposed to master at the starting point. The content we provide you with at the start is the catalyst to converse, to form connections with other learners in the course, with other academics around the world, to use the content as a conduit for connections. Because once the course ends, the learning experience typically in a university setting typically stops. It's done. And even if you are really passionate about it, the university severs those connections on your behalf. But with the internet, those connections exist well past the course." But if your colleagues are blogging ... or are active on the internet, it's easy to stay connected. 6:05 HR question: In regard to Moodle are you using a Discussion Board or chat board, what parts of Moodle are you using? 6:12 "We are continuing to experime

Social Networked Learning in Complex Information Environments by George Siemens, Slideshare, January 13, 2012, presented at American University at Society for Learning Analytics Research Fabulous overivew of social networked learning. 1/4 the students in HE took at least one online class in Fall 2010

Lisa and Doris - a bit in the middle here about over-abundance of information for your next event... Otherwise, nice intro to GS and his work and his interest in SNA and analytics as ways to improve learning and how learning might operate outside the context of a siloed course

Fabulous discussion by Siemens on how their DALMOOC that started recently was designed to solve certain problems such as the 1. students floundering for lack of timely support 2. Learners having limited engagement in developing knowledge together 3. Learners not getting to know each other 4. Availability of MOOC resources after course is finished 5. Lack of adaptivity of content for learners to start where they are and proceed with their interests

essay by George Siemens, 1/31/14, on why MOOCs and the discussion/dialogue they promote are good for higher learning overall.

#change11, blog post by Bon Stewart, May 2, 2012 And here's the rub... "The original MOOCs - the connectivist MOOCs a la Siemens & Downes, and the work of David Wiley and Alec Couros and others - have been, for the most part, about harnessing the capacity of participatory media to connect people and ideas. They've been built around lateral, distributed structures, encouraging blog posts and extensive peer-to-peer discussion formats. Even in live sessions showcasing facilitator's expertise, these ur-MOOCs have tended towards lively backchannel chats, exploring participants' knowledge and experiences and ideas. They've been, in short, actively modelled on the Internet itself. They've been experiential and user-driven. Their openness hasn't stopped at registration capacity, but extended to curricular tangents and participatory contributions and above all, to connections: they've given learners not just access to information but to networks. They've been messy, sometimes, but they have definitely not been business as usual. The problem with EdX is that, scale and cost aside, it IS essentially a traditional learning model revamped for a new business era. It puts decision-making power, agency, and the right to determine what counts as knowledge pretty much straight back into the hands of gatekeeping institutions."

Article identified on Stephen Downes' home page, Juy 20, 2012. Excerpt "Although MOOCs share the common characteristics of being large courses open to anyone, there are two main types, one called an "x MOOC," and another called a "connectivist MOOC." The companies and partnerships that fall into the "x MOOC" include Coursera; an MIT and Harvard partnership called EdX, and a new venture founded by three roboticists called Udacity. Other universities follow a connectivist MOOC model developed by George Siemens, Stephen Downes and Dave Cormier in 2008. What's the difference between the two? Connectivist MOOCs are more social and focused on deriving meaning of the learning experience with others, Virginia Commonwealth's Becker said. And they allow students to participate through blogs, RSS feeds and other decentralized methods, said Downes, a senior researcher for Canada's National Research Council. By contrast, x MOOCs emphasize content mastery, centralizes courses on one website and uses automated grading tools to support hundreds of thousands of students. But regardless of the category, MOOCs as a whole will change how universities offer courses, Downes said. And they're not going away. "Universities can't just keep doing what they're doing and hope this whole online thing goes away," Downes said."

Wonderful blog by George Siemens from 2010 enriched with good comments and exchange on teaching in social and technological networks. He reviews the traditional role of a teacher in a classroom (role model, encourager, supporter, guide, synthesizer) and shows how this model falls apart in a distributed learning network with multiple educator inputs and peer-based learning. Instead he says the roles teachers play in networked learning environments are to amplify, curate, find the way to help students make sense of information fragments, aggregate, filter, model (to build apprenticeship learning), and provide a persistent presence (place to express herself and be discovered).

George Siemens on the role of the teacher

video that came up in CPsquare discussion 10/2013 on Open Social Learning in Higher Education

In trying to implement an open course for educators in West Africa, they found that everyone engaged, except the West Africans

Nice compilation in GlobalHigherED of bloggers' reactions (including Siemens) to Thrun's denunication of MOOCs for regular university students, November 15, 2013.

Introductory video by George Siemens, Change MOOC 2011-2012--Week 1, September 12, 2011

The Connectivist Phenomenon, pre-course activities for the EDC MOOC on Slide Rocket. Great presentation and spirit depicted here.

"attributes. When entities are connected to other entities, different attributes will be activated based on the structure of those connections and the nature of other entities that are being connected. This fluidity of attribute activation appears to be subjective, but in reality, is the contextual activation of the attributes of entities based on how they are related to other entities. Knowledge then is literally the connections that occur between entities. I don't see networks as a metaphor for learning and knowledge. I see learning and knowledge as networks. In global, digital, distributed, and complex settings, a networked model of learning and knowledge is critical."

Prezi by Jenny Mackness, sui Fai John Mak, and Roy Williams on MOOCs, offered at Networked Learning Conference, posted April 2010.

Excellent comparison of xMOOC and cMOOC and justification of cMOOC by who else, the cMOOC creator himself, Stephen Downes, February 11, 2015. Highly recommend it.