Group items tagged

Following on to the Networked Learning Conference 2012, selected papers have been upgraded and bundled into this interesting book, published by Springer. From practice to theory. Scooped by Steven Verjans onto Networked learning The Design, Experience and Practice of Networked Learning - Springer From link.springer.com - Today, 5:44 AM In the introductory chapter, we explore how networked learning has developed in recent years by summarising and discussing the research presented in the chapters of the book. The chapters are structured in three sections, each highlighting a particular aspect of practice. The first section focuses on the relationship between design and its influence on how networked learning practices are implemented. The second section extends this discussion by raising the notion of experiencing networked learning practices. Here the expected and unexpected effects of design and its implementation are scrutinised. The third and final section draws attention to a growing topic of interest within networked learning: that of networked learning in informal practices. In addition, we provide a reflection on the theories, methods and settings featured in the networked learning research of the chapters. We conclude the introduction by discussing four main themes that have emerged from our reading of the chapters and which we believe are important in taking forward the theory of networked learning. They are as follows: practice as epistemology; the coupling of learning contexts (the relationship and connection of learning contexts and spaces); the agency and active role of technology within networked learning; and the messy, often chaotic and always political nature of the design, experience and practice of networked learning.

Amazing paper by the Berkana Institute on how networks serve as incubators for CoPs, leaders, new ideas and ways of doing to emerge. It makes me think about leadership training programs vs. networks/forums for growing leadership in the collective. This aspect of emergence has profound implications for social entrepreneurs. Instead of developing them individually as leaders and skillful practitioners, we would do better to connect them to like-minded others and create the conditions for emergence. The skills and capacities needed by them will be found in the system that emerges, not in better training programs.

Interesting POV about how lack of bridging assistance in MOOCs may fall unduly heavily on learners who are not able to integrate ideas with their life experience. Quote: "Daphne Koller, promotes the "personalized" learning that a MOOC can offer. Coursera can track how each learner uses the course material and how his or her quiz performance correlates with given in-course behaviors. With that information, Coursera can guide students toward the activities that will best help them to learn: additional video lectures or a specific discussion-forum thread. I cannot customize each student's education as precisely as Coursera claims it can. But I can personalize it, in the sense that I can help students connect what they learn in my class to who they are as people-their biographies, aspirations, shortcomings. MOOC creators assume that learners' intellects are detachable from their broader life circumstances. You take the MOOC, but you're on your own in figuring out how your learning fits into the rest of your life-or how it might require changing your life. That's fine if you just need to know about analog circuits to work on a specific project. But people come to universities at all ages, with unsettled identities and life plans, or with plans that education itself will unsettle."

Blog by the Ed Techie --brings up implicit contract for MOOCs, --praises MOOCs for being an opportunity to explore ideas, test bed for one's own ideas --observes that online learning courses that have nothing to do with technology suffer from a divided focus as new online learners pick up the technology part of it, as technology becomes known, it recedes and main topic is elevated --finally, the learner has to make the connections because the facilitators and presenters don't do that for you

Jenny Mackness does it again: making important distinctions between curriculum led and community led learning within MOOCs; and how the balance may change based on successful formation of learning groups within the MOOC. She also asks about the difference between learning design and planning for learning. 1.14.23 on her blog.

blog post by Jenny Mackness on lurking in MOOCs and elsewhere, December 11, 2010. Raises issue on what is lurking? Is it absolutely no visible participation, some participation, or a full range of visible participation in several forums such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.? Why does lurking have to be viewed as negative or positive? Are obsessively-reflective learners automatically lurkers and therefore, not wanted in a MOOC?

Blog-post by Jenny Mackness, June 2011, summarizing key points from Etienne Wenger's address "Communities of practice CoPs have implications for organisations as they might be working under the radar of vertical accountability of the organisation (working on a horizontal dimension) Communities of practice cannot be built. Only members can build communities. But they can be enabled. A CoP is a learning partnership. A group may or may not be a learning partnership. A team is not usually a community of practice. A CoP is a vehicle by which an organisation can place its strategic development in the hands of the practitioners. A classroom is not a CoP. It is instructional design. Knowledge and learning Knowledge is power. Learning is a claim to competence. Learning is power in both directions. Learning is its own enemy. The paradox is that learning gives you power, but that power also limits your learning. Power and knowledge are always part of the equation. Learning is achieving a state of knowledgeability. The view of curriculum in institutions is 'to fill it up'. CoP theory view of curriculum is that learning has to follow construction of meaning, not precede it."

Jenny's blog post/learning artifact on questions to ask in designing a MOOC. Questions are useful for other learning enterprises and the MOOC image is delightful and amusing. Kudos to Jenny and her collaborators; very nicely done!

Jenny explains her experiences with cMOOCs and xMOOCs, and the difference between them as xMOOCs go beyond the didactic video lecture approach. She basis her blog on her experiences taking two xMOOCs and the several cMOOCs she has taken and designed and led. One of the biggest differences is that cMOOCs were designed to test out a theory, connectivist theory, while xMOOCs are not theory based. As a result, xMOOCs are convened on a designated platform, while cMOOCs are designed as massive networks, or to create them. Going forward, she believes that the route will depend on our fundamental beliefs of what education is for.