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I like this term "free-range learning" and believe it might be part of the Studio language. "Ms. Morgan borrows the phrase "free-range learning" to describe students' behavior, and she finds that they generally shop around for content in places educators would endorse. Students seem most favorably inclined to materials from other universities. They mention lecture videos from Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology far more than the widely publicized Khan Academy, she says. If they're on a pre-med or health-science track, they prefer recognized "brands" like the Mayo Clinic. Students often seek this outside content due to dissatisfaction with their own professors, Ms. Morgan says." Also this comment: I don't think academe has really come to grips with the very large role peer-to-peer sharing plays in the way students learn. We proved this interesting phenomenon this year in a very large online course that we were in the process of redesigning. One section of the course piloted the redesign, which had dropped the former textbook in favor of all online content, cut out 1/3 of the subject areas covered in the old version of the course and changed the assignment instructions and interaction modalities radically. Despite the fact that all students in the pilot section were fully informed that they were in a different and new course, and were required to go though an extensive introductory module covering all aspects of the new version of the course, including the syllabus, and were required to pass a test covering the course requirements and structure, we still had something like 5% of the students turn in work that was based on the old course assignments and old course structure. Some of them had apparently not read any of the assignment instructions from their own section, and were relying entirely on peers in other sections for information on how to complete assignments.

****This post by Derek J. Keenan explains his Social Professional Learning Model that served as his Masters Capstone paper at Alberta University, April 23, 2012. Its core is an action research approach to learning enriched by and anchored in social media. Substitute teacher with "other named professional" and it works for people in all types of work/interests. There is also a short (s cultivating connections with the people who have the same self-directed learning quest as you. The next step is reciprocating by publishing and sharing what you know or believe to be true. Throughout it is your experience that informs your participation and your participation informs your level of understanding--you are constantly learning and eventually building your personal learning network relationships to be there for you.

Just found out about this MOOC that starts next week (April 30--5 weeks long) by Curtis Bonk, a professor at Indiana University. It's on Instructional Ideas and Technology Tools for Online Success. I would like to see how he structures this class and learn a lot, too, about the topic. Every MOOC is a chance to learn!

Brain Pickings, blog by Maria Popova, master curator, March 9, 2012 Extremely interesting blog on discovering information on the internet and sharing it with others.

5 minute interview by Brooke Gladstone with Maria Popova on NPR, March 23, 2012 on Maria's suggested curator's code. Don't know that her symbols are the best way to attribute stumbling across interesting writings that lead one to the source of various ideas (since as a comment pointed out below, the symbols don't appear on our keyboards). But it does argue for a consistent way of acknowledging the paths/combinations one goes through to build a map linking together concepts/ideas/new variations to readers/learners.

An interesting website that offers eCoach services to help someone become an online facilitator of professional learning communities. Scroll down to see promise of stimulus funds for eCoach certification.

Interesting opportunity?

Blog post by Ron Carlee, October 25, 2011, on Societal Impacts of Digital Exclusion, TechSoup for Libraries. He was "asked to comment on the importance of digital technologies from the perspective of local govenrments." Great quote for connected learning value. See cost proposition below: This increased societal connectiveness and awareness, however, is only available if one is connected. If you're not connected, you're really not connected. In an earlier day, we could legitimately debate the importance of a digital divide relative to other public priorities. In its infancy, informational technology was interesting and useful, but was it truly essential for everyone all the time? This is no longer a credible question. Without digital connectivity in the 21st century, people will earn less, pay more for the things they buy, live life with fewer personal connections, and they will not be exposed to virtual worlds of vast knowledge, art, and even frivolity. If we really care about having successful communities of educated people who can compete in a global economy, who are entrepreneurial and creative, if we really want people to connect with one another, if we want our institutions to connect with the people they serve, if we want a sustainable world that improves the lives of all people, then we must ask the question: can any community afford involuntary, digital exclusion for any of its residents?

interesting website that chronicles instructional development; appears to be crowdsourced to some extent. Barbara Bray and Charlotte McGovern are the e-coach team.

An interesting eportfolio approach to a PLN/PLE by Chan Sook

Interesting blog post on Inc., March 12, 2012 by Dave Balter and Jennifer Lum on spiderweb mentorship and horizontal entrepreneurialism. Think this has implications for connected learning, too. Excerpt: Spiderweb mentorship: Successful entrepreneurs and executives actively pushing people up and into the ecosystem. Horizontal entrepreneurism: Collaboration across companies, with entrepreneurs enthusiastically supporting each other.

Post by Katie Salen, July 26, 2012, Leveling Up project at Connected Learning Research Network. I like this emphasis on individual and collective gains in connected learning networks. And how connected learning is "value additive." Excerpts: "Further, because connected learning, as a model, advocates for experiences that offer low barriers to entry and information, social supports for learning, and diverse opportunities for the development of interest and expertise, it must also advocate for outcomes that are both individual and collective in nature. It is no longer enough to develop metrics and pathways for individual outcomes; we must also find ways to recognize outcomes produced by groups or communities and provide pathways for collective participation. Or so our hypothesis goes." As a community, the members of Ravelry produce knowledge and expertise, projects and products with academic, civic, and peer value. The welcoming nature of the site and the mere existence of the thousands of groups it hosts are mechanisms inviting participation and the development of shared knowledge. Conversely, the environment provides individuals with opportunities to acquire social, economic, and cultural capital, to learn domain-specific content and skills, and develop metacognitive skills and learning dispositions. Unlike models of learning that center solely on individual outcomes and competition for zero-sum resources and rewards, like those seen in most schools, Ravelry exemplifies how connected learning is value-additive, elevating individuals and collectives in an integrated way. High-functioning connected learning environments are characterized not only by engaged learning at an individual level, but by high quality content and standards and collective purpose that is shared by all participants.

List of projects in Connected Learning Research Network as of July 27, 2012 Note this Longitudinal study of Connected Learning by Ben Penuel of late elementary and middle school students in connected learning environments and the "relationship of participation to valued outcomes. These outcomes include interest development, persistence in learning, civic participation, and development of a positive sense of the future." Could these outcomes be the same for WLS Studio connected learners?

An interesting diagnostic on practices of successful people--series of questions around 9 elements, like content and format--offered free by author Heidi Grant Halvorson of book Nine Things Successful People Do Differently, found 8.6.2012

Blog post by Lara Galinsky on Dowser (who's solving what and how), August 6, 2012 "This may sound idealistic but we are already on the way. According to Net Impact's recent Talent Report: What Workers Want in 2012, the Millennial generation wants, and expects, to do good and do well in their paid work. In fact, a majority of students (65 percent) expect to make a difference in the world through their work, and 53 percent would take a 15 percent pay cut to work for an organization whose values matched their own. However, in my experience, too few of these students know the kind of difference they want to make, and how to make it. And that is the real opportunity. In order to harness this generation's desire to create change, we must move away from the antiquated concept of vocation, which emphasizes what's in it for the individual: whether it will sustain their interest or bring them fame or fortune. Instead, we need to help young people start their professional lives by asking questions. What issues, ideas, people, and projects move them deeply? What problems are theirs to own? How can they combine their heads and hearts to address those problems? What is their unique genius and how can it be of use to the world beyond themselves?"

article on business owner-peer support groups, NYT, May 24, 2012. Ken Prest sent me this article. Interesting set-up. What is/should be transferrable to Studio idea?

Very interesting interviews with six global leaders on leading in the 21st century "But the common themes that emerged from these conversations-what it means to lead in an age of upheaval, to master personal challenges, to be in the limelight continually, to make decisions under extreme uncertainty-offer a useful starting point for understanding today's leadership landscape."

This excerpt from an interview with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, PLP founder, captures critical points for PD online. "Will and I agreed that we would only work with teams of school-based educators because the research made it clear that it was collaborative teams within in a school, working together, that really brought about sustainable improvement. That would give us what we needed to anchor the virtual experience in a local context. We also wanted participants to experience a global community of practice-to be able to have conversations with people very different than themselves, with fresh perspectives. Our thinking was that if we put teams of educators who had different ideologies, different geography, different purposes and challenges, all together in the same space, then they could each bring what they did well to the table and people could learn from that. Ultimately that would mean public, private, Catholic, and other kinds of schools; educators teaching well-to-do, middle-class, and poor kids; educators in different states and nations, at different grade levels, and in different content areas and roles. What ultimately grew out of our brainstorming was a three-pronged model of professional development that emphasizes (1) local learning communities at the school/district level; (2) an online community of practice that's both global and deep; and (3) a third prong that is more personal-the idea of a personal learning network that each educator develops as a mega-resource for ideas and information about their particular interests and areas of practice. (These three prongs are described in depth in a new book, The Connected Educator, where PLP community leader Lani Ritter Hall and I tell the story of the evolution of our model and the very solid research base behind it.)

interesting site for career transition strategies, Dorothy Dalton who looks to be our age. This post has good ideas for preparing for online interviews.

An interesting assessment of how stage fright was picked up and reported in thousands of tweets elevating a single appearance into an epic disastrous event, and how absence from Twitter by the presenter, compounded the error. If anyone thinks that social media can be ignored, they need to read this blog post. Love the quote below from Chris Taylor about how the communications game has changed: It's Twitter, the Internet's first responder, that is primarily responsible for changing the laws of media physics. There are just too many witty things to be said in the space of 140 characters, especially with a moment as shadenfreude-filled as this. Thousands got the Bay-bashing bug, and I certainly wasn't immune. (Hey, it's not every day that a parody of that Aerosmith tune from Armageddon pops up complete in your head.)