Group items tagged

Blog post by William Bowen, March 25, 2013, on movement towards online education. He would like more hard evidence to understand impact/success among other effects, tool kits (platforms), new mind-set to attempt online to reduce costs without adversely affecting educational outcomes, what we must retain in terms of central aspects of life on campus such as "minds rubbing against minds." Excerpts: "My plea is for the adoption of a portfolio approach to curricular development that provides a calibrated mix of instructional styles." ... "Their students, along with others of their generation, will expect to use digital resources-and to be trained in their use. And as technologies grow increasingly sophisticated, and we learn more about how students learn and what pedagogical methods work best in various fields, even top-tier institutions will stand to gain from the use of such technologies to improve student learning."

"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."

Somewhat pessimistic view of formal educational systems failing to embrace the learning potential supported by new social technologies. Aviram says that culture determines learning boundaries and the use of 2.0 technology. Scandinavia and Holland are open in their learning attitudes; most of the rest of Europe and the United States are not.

Virtually Foolproof blog on Ender's Game and Cognitive, Collaborative, and Collective Learning, January 23, 2012. Remarkable blog provoked in part by Dave Snowden's presentation at the Change MOOC, week of January 16, 2011 on what kind of learning is required in different situations.

Slide show by Harold Jarch on PKM--personal knowledge management--uses systems theory to show how we learn on mega (society), macro (organization), and micro (person) levels. (February 2010) It seems to me that a large part of a MOOC's value is forcing people to build a personal knowledge management process. They might have been able to ignore such a need before enrolling in a MOOC but cannot manage the avalanche of material otherwise. Not only do they need to become better organized in their seeking (this is where the MOOC departs from the day to day personal/professional learning sequence since it aggregates the begining content for them and continues to aggregate the work of MOOC participants), they then need to make sense of it (here again the social filtering and assessment are very helpful), and share their findings/unique perspective. As feedback is received, it motivates the first learner to keep trying to go forward. We all need an alliance of informed and thoughtful folks to keep up with the speed of change. The tools developed in the course of the MOOC can then be the core of PKM. This slide show also makes me realize that ALL online learning communities require some type of PKM and if one doesn't have a regular method for pulling information in and pushing tentative or firm opinions/conclusions out, full value cannot be realized.

This is a wonderful blog that details different configurations of and commitments to online learning by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, April 2011, prompted by her frustration over someone dismissing all online learning opportunities. Read the whole thing!

excerpt from AICPA website on the future of learning "Ellen Wagner has studied the Hype Cycle as it relates to education. In 2012, MOOCs and gamification were trending up the cycle toward the "Peak of Inflated Expectations." In 2013, MOOCs were adopted in many learning capacities and met with some criticism. This, says Wagner, is all part of the cycle. "When this new thing does not do all of the things that we say it's going to, we get disappointed and say, 'Ah, well, it doesn't really work very well.' The fact is that it probably worked fine all along, but when we start inflating our expectations for what it can do, it's not going to ever be able to meet those expectations." MOOCs"

Amazon reviews of The Extended Mind collection of essays edited by Richard Menary and how far an accessible, reliable, and fully trustworthy object can "produce effects/results that are sufficiently comparable to those of components of the natural (internal, biological, original, classic) mind; in essence, it's about multiple realizability/functionalism." The examination of the extended mind, to me, relates to connectivism learning theory in how we expand our minds by belonging to learning networks that exponentially increase our knowledge or access to it through objects or people sharing their understanding.

Choose, Commit, Crash, Create, Copy, Converse, Collaborate which Quinn calls the 7 C's of natural learning. He urges designers to build systems that encourage learners to engage in this way. Some pushback in the comments on the use of a mnemonic as a stifling controlling device in the hands of a 'learning manager.'

blog on connectiv--heutagogy, andragogy, pedagogy

Beautiful 5 minute video on Personal Learning Networks for educators but I believe this orientation could/should extend to all professionals in their work/personal lives, too. Uploaded by skipvia on June 10, 2010 on YouTube.

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

Paper by Mandia Mentis on assisting practitioners to navigate the "changing and complex terrain of e-learning and topography." (2008) The graphics depict clearly the continuums (and choices!) that exist on traditional to emergent technology, pedagogy from homogenous to diverse, and context from formal to informal that make up elearning. This paper explores the issues that affect the role of online learning facilitator. ***

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!

article in eCampus news that Bronwyn Stuckey identified on Facebook for me on what MOOCs don't have but should. I had never thought about the physical lack of immersion in MOOCs. "There is a totality of experience in the classroom that sitting at home with a laptop cannot deliver. In other words, the 'event boundaries' that generate and support the appropriate cognitions, expectations and behaviors for learning are lacking. I suspect some of this problem could be overcome by using wholly-immersible virtual reality delivery methods, where there is a proper 3d perspective present, and even avatars of the other students too (groups contexts are important for learning - think transactive memories)."

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

Godin has started Krypton learning groups for f2f gatherings. Interesting development. Looks like learning bubbles to me.

A brilliant look by Wenger-Trayners on social learning leadership disciplines, December 30, 2014

access to several TribalCafe Slideshare programs that present social learning, social media and agile leadership, social strategy, nonprofits social media, etc.

A wonderful testimonial by a language arts teacher--Melinda Rench--in IL on the value of connecting with peers via social media (Ning, Twitter, and personal networks) to feed her mind and soul, Winter 2012. See excerpt below: "Using social networks to further my learning has enriched my professional life in more ways than I can name. I have a support network, a never-ending source of inspiration and new ideas, and a learning network that spans the globe. It is professional development that matters and feeds my soul."