Group items tagged

Very very interesting--a year ago we talked about a learning concierge service in the studio. And look at Jane Hart's post published in July 2013 about how we need to provide such a service for people to take charge of their learning. She mentions towards the end of her post that this could be an outsourced function and then shares how she does it. Look at the link to her page describing the service here-- http://learningconcierge.co.uk/about/ She is offering a workshop, too, and one may join her free learning concierge practice group now. Will also share with Change MOOC for Brenda to see.

post by Samantha Whitehorne, January 24, 2014, on binge learning defined as "a personal online learning marathon of sorts". It comes from our love of Netflix binge watching a season's worth of shows over a weekend. Uses Udacity MOOC on computer science class. Example cited explains that MOOCer "registered for the course to "indulge an interest," similar to the reason why viewers binge watch TV shows, and why members may sign up for your association's online education." Cites Eli Dourado's statement: "Online education, if we do it right, could be like having an exceptionally well-rounded personal tutor who is willing to indulge any interest at any level of desired intensity."

DIY for after high school. Dropping out of college or not going at all is viewed as an alternative track for those who don't want to accrue massive debt and want to create the next "app" or online company.

Georgia Tech does a lot of its courses online and is encouraging more courses to go online. Some questions have been raised about the quality that I am still trying to explore. But the excerpt below on FAQ--last question--might be useful to us in describing our courses. Excerpt: "FAQ Will I get a certificate after completing this class? Certificate of Completion will be provided by Georgia Tech C21U What resources will I need for this class? You will a good internet connection as you may be downloading software, installing software and uploading files. What is the coolest thing I'll learn if I take this class? You will learn how to convert your face-to-face class to a robust online course"

Computer-mediated communication, WVUCCommMOOC, 2013.

This site, HASTAC (Haystack--Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory) is a super sophisticated version of what I hope the Studio will become.

This paper written by George Siemens in 2008 on Learning in Networks raises issues very similar to those we are raising in our discussion at CPSquare. This paper also has implications for how the Women's Learning Studio is launched into practice in its discussion of teacher as learning atelier, concierge, etc. 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.

Article in MindShift, KQED, April 24, 2012 by Nathan Miton. Fabulous because it recognizes that content is one leg of learning stool. Excerpt: But at such a huge scale, what are the digital methods of teaching that work best? Philipp Schmidt, founder of the free online university P2PU, preaches three building blocks: community, recognition and content. Endorsement of peer learning potential Excerpt: The Stanford professors readily admit that some of the students who participated in their online courses provided their peers with deeper, more comprehensive answers than they were able to. The exponential explosion in opportunities for learning. Excerpt: in the past 10 years I've heard people say campus-based education better look out, that this will be threatening to their business model, and I've never really felt that until the last six months. The pace of change in open education is qualitatively different than it was even a few months ago." A new breed of digital pedagogy/andragogy/heutagogy Excerpt: "We probably haven't fully made the transition to digitally native pedagogies and learning approaches," Carson said. "The first generation of distance learning is basically an attempt to move the classroom online, and I think that part of the scalable learning of these massive courses is the breakdown of that model."

article in Academic Matters, the Journal of Higher Education, by Stephen Carson and Jan Philipp Schmidt, May 2012 issue. Excerpt: "Expertise will be earned and maintained through ongoing lifelong education, not conferred once and good for life. Open learning systems offer the possibility for the kind of continuous lifelong learning that will be necessary as the pace of technological and scientific knowledge development increases. Like athletes, learners will not just learn once, but will maintain a level of performance ability in their chosen field through ongoing study and participation in learning communities."

Facilitating life long learning should be the goal of every teacher. I think that sometimes it is so cumbersome - passing tests, etc., that the fun part of learning is lost.

blog post by Jenny Mackness on blog aggregation and tools to aggregate, May 17, 2012. The blog goes beyond the choice of tool to tagging protocols and how to aggregate when some of the writing/reflecting by learners is done behind password protected walls.

Look at the reference to Open Culture which has 500 courses available free for people to take online.

Employer directed (and financially supported) and self-directed online learning in the workplace, Wired Campus, June 2, 2015

Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States is the tenth annual report on the state of online learning in U.S. higher education. The survey is designed, administered and analyzed by the Babson Survey Research Group. Data collection is conducted in partnership with the College Board. This year's study, like those for the previous nine years, tracks the opinions of chief academic officers and is aimed at answering fundamental questions about the nature and extent of online education. Based on responses from more than 2,800 colleges and universities,

Interesting post by Jeffrey Young, August 6, 2015, on George Siemens' reactions to closed door gathering of educators at the White House. Siemens wrote his own blog post linked to in this post. In this post, Young reports that Siemens came away with strong feelings -- "stunned" "exceptionally irritated" and "disappointed" "about what he heard there".

blog by Eli Dourado on March 6, 2013 on binge learning. Excerpt: A combination of technology (DVRs) and market service providers (Netflix, Hulu, On Demand) have transformed how and when and where we watch "television." I suspect that students want the same things. Technology and market forces appear to be reshaping how and when and where we learn. Perhaps we education providers should pay attention. But the kind of bingeing that people might like to do with online courses is entirely different. Most people who sign up for an online class at Udacity or Marginal Revolution University want to take the class for its own sake, not as a requirement for some broader credential. The point is not to learn and forget-it is to indulge an interest. This seems like a more natural way to learn than traditional educational structures can offer: develop an interest and mercilessly indulge it until another interest supersedes it. It is a method that conserves the mental energy associated with willpower, leaving more of the brain's resources to focus on the material itself. Since it relies on the student actually being interested in the class, it is hard to fit into a physical schooling environment, where classes have to begin on a schedule, go slow enough for everyone to keep up, and run in parallel with other classes. Online education also saves the resources associated with context switching. Humans are notoriously bad multitaskers. Each time a high school student has to change classes, she has to quickly stifle the thoughts and questions raised in previous classes to focus on the current class. She has to expend mental resources remembering where the previous session of the current class left off. And when she returns to the class that stimulated the thoughts that had to be stifled, she may not recall them. Far better to focus on-or even to binge on-one subject until she is at a good stopping point.

this Coursera course taught by professors at UC San Diego is "Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects", a four week course that starts October 3-November 3.

Tech-Enabled Learning by Whitehorne, Associations Now, January 2016, refers to recent survey on associations using technology to help their members/staff learn

study results presented in ScienceInsider, Aleszu Bajak, May 12, 2014 on traditional stand and deliver lectures 1.5 times more likely to fail with undergraduate students than in classes that use more active engagement methods.