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thaleia66

The Role of the Educator | Stephen Downes - 1 views

  • The problem with focusing on the role of the teacher, from my perspective, is that it misses the point.
  • We continue to expect educators to play an active role in learning, but it has become more difficult to characterize exactly what that role may be.
  • students need prototypes on which to model their own work
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  • We begin by copying successful practice, and then begin to modify that practice to satisfy our own particular circumstances and needs
  • In addition to being expert in the discipline of teaching and pedagogy, the educator is now expected to have up-to-date and relevant knowledge and experience in it. Even a teacher of basic disciplines such as science, history or mathematics must remain grounded, as no discipline has remained stable for very long, and all disciplines require a deeper insight in order to be taught effectively.
  • What's significant about these examples is not so much the new opportunities they offer students, though there is that. It's that all of them redefine the educator's role in some significant way. They create entirely new categories of educator, such as "online lecturer" or "scientist studying polar bears". Entire disciplines, far removed from traditional "instructional design", are being created and populated by people who direct online videos, design learning communities, program massive games like Evoke. And they create new categories of roles and responsibilities for in-person educators.
  • Historically, it has been impractical to break up the roles of the teacher. You need a certain scale even to have a separate person assigned as a librarian or an audio-visual coordinator. You need a much greater scale, not to mention much better coordination, to have separate people assigned as lecturers, coaches, theorizers and evaluators. Yet relatively few of these roles need to be performed in person, and most of them scale pretty well.
  • what I find as I offer more and more types and instances of learning, both online and in person, is that we can achieve much more efficient, effective and rewarding learning by organizing the educational system according to the sorts of educational services people might want and need, rather than by predefined collections of students assigned, almost randomly, to individual teachers
  • one thing I have been observing is that educators have been gravitating toward one or another of these 23 roles. Some of them, presumably the more extroverted, have taken on the role of lecturer or demonstrator. Others, who were perhaps more technically inclined, have become programmers or bureaucrats. Still others, those perhaps work best with presence or human contact, prefer to function as coaches or mentors. Not everybody can perform every role; not everybody wants to perform every role.
  • it is frustrating when people identify the role of the teacher as the central factor influencing the success or failure of a student's education. Leaving aside any influence of external factors, such a statement begs us to question what aspect of the educator's role it is that is so vitally important. And while the likely answer may be that they all are, or that it depends on the individual student, it seems clear that continuing to treat them as a single role, to be performed by a single person, increasingly defies the reality that is today's educational system
  • Though there may still be thousands of people employed today with the job title of "teacher" or "educator", it is misleading to suggests that all, or even most, aspects of providing an education should, or could, be placed into the hands of these individuals.
  • not every student wants or needs the services of every role
Charmian LORD

Critical Theories on Education and Technology - PhD Wiki - 0 views

  • Feenberg and other critical theorists such as Ellul, Ihde and Irrgang maintain that technology is neither neutral nor autonomous but ambivalent. Ambivalent technology is distinguished from neutrality by the role it attributes to social values in the use and the development of technical systems.
  • technology is not a thing in itself but is inherently a process of social, historical and political cultures.
  • technology mediates experience, and through this mediation, it alters the experience of the phenomena.
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  • Arisaka (2001)
  • The future development of educational technology will not be determined by the technology itself, states Feenberg, but rather the politics within the educational community and national political trends. In taking a dialogic approach, he stresses educational technology of an advanced society should be shaped by educational dialogue rather than the production-oriented logic of automation.
    • Charmian LORD
       
      If this is the case, I may be "won over" by Feenberg's dialogic approach.  Let's see :)
  • According to Feenberg (1991), critical theory explains how technology is embedded in society through ‘technological code’ that is dialectical, contextual, aesthetic, and humanly, socially, and ecologically responsible.
  • In summary, Feenberg (2002; 5) calls for a profound democratic transformation of technologies, asking “can we conceive an industrial society based on democratic participation in which individual freedom is not market freedom and in which social responsibility is not exercised through coercive regulation?” He argues a good society should support the personal freedom of its members enabling them to participate effectively in a range of public activities. This can be manifest in democratizing technological design; pursuing a ‘democratic rationalization’ where actors participate in the technological design processes. For Illich (1973), ‘tools of conviviality’ produce a democratic and convivial society in which individuals communicate, debate, participate in social and political life, and help make decisions. Convivial tools free individuals from dependency and cultivate autonomy and sociality.
  • Don Ihde (1990)
    • Charmian LORD
       
      I think he missed the idea that some people like to learn online.  It may have come about for (mostly) financial reasons but has been put to good use by many.
  • E-learning literature increasingly perceives the role of the tutor as facilitator (Salmon, 2004), whilst in a connectivist learning environment, it may become further marginalised or even obsolesced (Siemens, 2004). This emphasis on informal and autonomous learning and student engagement with experts outside their formal educational institutions also recalls Illich’s (1970) community webs. Critical educators such as Freire and Feenberg are critical of the diminishing of critical engagement by the tutor and believe it is essential that teachers continue to have a directive role.
  • Friesen (2008) explores three myths pertinent to current e-learning literature: Knowledge Economy Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime Learning Technology drives Educational Change
  • Kellner stresses that multiple literacies, such as media, computer, and information literacies are required in response to emergent technologies and cultural conditions to empower students to participate in the expanding high-tech culture and networked society.
  • Karlsson (2002) however, suggests so called web literacies should be recognised and studied merely as print literacies that appear on the web. Feenberg (2002) reminds us arguments emerging around new educational technologies are nothing new. He suggests writing was one of the first (narrow bandwidth) educational technologies, and describes how Plato denounced writing as destructive to the dialogic relationship between teacher and student evident in spoken discourse. (Noble (1997) points out the irony in Plato using written text to critique writing, suggesting that similarly, the majority of current attacks on web-based media circulate online.)
  • What originated as a hastily-conceived title for a conference presentation has since become a catch-all term for a range of ‘ontologically non–compatible’ elements (Allen, 2008). In an attempt to conceptualize the meaning of Web 2.0, Allen identifies four key components: Technological implementations that prioritise the manipulation and presentation of data through the interaction of both human and computer agents. An Economic model. Using the Web to put people and data together in meaningful exchanges for financial gain. Users are perceived as active participants, engaged in creating, maintaining and expanding Web content. The politics of Web 2.0 are expressed in traditional democratic terms, which emphasises freedom of choice and the empowerment of individuals.
  • Under a critical perspective, the democratic forms of media consumption and production of Web 2.0 are challenged by the underlying “dictates of a neo-liberal socio–political hegemony” (Jarrett, 2008), as evidenced in the exploitation of user–generated content by major corporations (Petersen, 2008). As Silver (2008) reminds us, “when corporations say community they mean commerce, and when they say aggregation they mean advertising.” Scholz (2008) contends the Web remains largely the domain of “professional elites that define what enters the public discourse,” In addition, social conditions inherent in Web 2.0 practices such as personalization (Zimmer, 2008) and participatory surveillance (Albrechtslund, 2008) require a rethinking of traditional notions of identity, privacy and social hierarchies. As educationalists demonstrate an increasing determination to tap into the apparent technological and sociological affordances of Web 2.0, these are issues that cannot be ignored.
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    PhD students article summarising critical theories.
djplaner

European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning - 3 views

  • The three generations of technology enhanced teaching are cognitive/behaviourist, social constructivist and connectivist.
    • anonymous
       
      Note: 3 Generations of technology enhanced teaching 1. cognitive/behaviouralist 2. social constructivist 3. connectivist
    • djplaner
       
      That prior note is not a great example of value adding - just repeating what was in the text.
  • tools can be used and optimized to enhance the different types of learning that are the focus of distance education theory and practice.
  • pedagogy and the technology must create an engaging and compelling dance
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  • postal correspondence
  • three (or more) overlapping generations
  • mass media including television, radio and film.
  • interactive
  • Indeed, though the authors of this paper are not in complete agreement about this, it is possible to think of pedagogies (considered as the processes and methods used in an attempt to bring about learning) as technologies, integral parts of a technological assembly that must work together with all of the other technologies to bring about a successful outcome
    • anonymous
       
      Note: Connection between technology and pedagogy
  • technologies evolve not through adaptation but by assembly, incorporating pieces of earlier designs
  • We will see that the ubiquitous capacity of the Internet is creating very profound opportunities for enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of all three pedagogical models.
  • instructional designer
  • positivist research paradigms and methodologies.
  • From behaviourist pedagogy emerged the cognitive learning theories that focus on how processing within the individual brain effects comprehension, understanding, storage and retrieval of information. Cognitive pedagogies arose partially in response to a growing need to account for motivation, attitudes and mental barriers that may only be partially associated or demonstrated through observable behaviours – yet they are directly linked to learning effectiveness and efficiency.
  • empirical testing
  • Methods that relied on one-to-many and one-to-one communication were really the only sensible options because of the constraints of the surrounding technologies.
  • “scientific models”
  • that guided the development, application and assessment of learning.
  • CB-based distance education is often developed in the suggested order
  • The model begins with designers selecting instructional goals. Instructional designers identify goals in discussion with subject matter experts with an eye to finding deficiencies in learners’ behaviour that can be rectified by new learning.
  • This is particularly salient when applied to a new generation of large scale MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)
  • ext and usually multi-media learning content. The effort and cost of “developing and selecting instructional
  • creation of brainstorming lists of possible goals, documentation of subject matter priorities, flow charts, gathering of lists
  • Today each of the instructional design activities (see figure Figure 1) is enhanced by a host of Web 2.0 tools.
  • f primary use are distributed text tools such as Google Docs, DropBox and wikis
  • As importantly, collaborative work and negotiation is not confined to text. Collaborative graphic tools, concept and mind mapping tools allow graphic representations of ideas and processes.
  • Low cost distributed project management tools allow teams to design, create, produce and distribute content at costs much lower than in pre internet days.
  • gh quality content defines CB models of distance education, its effective management and control is extremely important
  • the capacity to re-use content created by others is compelling – if not without its challenges.
  • multiple ways of sharing content
  • blogs to Facebook to YouTube and content management systems
  • Perhaps of deeper concern is the reluctance of distance educators to consume and customize content already created by others.
  • Many content developers define and pride themselves on the production of quality content – not by the consumption and customization of works that they did not produce.
  • The final affordance of the net – with tremendous, if as yet little demonstrated capacity to improve CB distance education pedagogy – is learning analytics.
  • mining information about patterns of behaviour in order to extract useful information about learning which can then be applied to improve the experience.
  • In this model, CB pedagogy may be adapted to service the unique learning needs, style, capacity, motivation and goals of the individual learner.
  • strive to create instructional designs that change and morph in response to individual learner’s needs and behaviours.
  • Open Learning Models (Bull & Kay, 2010; Kay & Kummerfeld, 2006) increase learner control and understanding of the system. Open models can also be used by teachers and other support staff to better understand and respond to individual learner needs, although there are potential and as yet unresolved issues with making such models intuitive to understand and control effectivel
  • important source of data to constructing the model is the user’s current and past activities with content in the learning context.
  • data minin
  • data mining
    • anonymous
       
      Note: Data mining provides an opportunity to identify patterns of student behaviour. This can be used to help teachers better tailor learning and resources to the student. I can see that online tools providing access to metadata, tools for running site-access reports, and and even tagging, might be relevant in this context.
  • From the brief examples above we can see how technologies and especially the Net afford multiple ways in which CB pedagogies and related instructional designs are enabled, enhanced and made more cost effective.
  • MOOCs
  • CB models are inherently focused on the individual learner. While there is a tradition of cognitive-constructivist thinking that hinges on personal construction of knowledge, largely developed by Piaget and his followers (Piaget, 1970), the roots of the constructivist model most commonly applied today spring from the work of Vygotsky (1978) and Dewey (1897), generally lumped together in the broad category of social constructivism.
  • groups of learners, learning together with and from one another.
  • Social-constructivism does not provide the detailed and prescriptive instructional design models and methodologies of CB driven distance education.
  • efines social constructivist learning contexts as places “where learners may work together and support each other as they use a variety of tools and information resources in their guided pursuit of learning goals and problem-solving activities
    • anonymous
       
      "social constructivist learning contexts...places 'where learners may work together and support each other as they use a variety of tools and information resources in their guided pursuit of learning goals and problem-solving activities" Sounds a lot like the NGL course!
  • eachers do not merely transmit knowledge to be passively consumed by learners; rather, each learner constructs the means by which new knowledge is both created and integrated with existing knowledge.
  • New knowledge as building upon the foundation of previous learning Context in shaping learners’ knowledge development Learning as an active rather than passive process, Language and other social tools in constructing knowledge Metacognition and evaluation as a means to develop learners’ capacity to assess their own learning A learning environment that is learner-centred and recognises the importance of multiple perspectives Knowledge needing to be subject to social discussion, validation, and application in real world contexts (Honebein, 1996; Jonassen, 1991; Kanuka & Anderson, 1999).
    • anonymous
       
      Note: Characteristics of Social Constructivism
  • learning is located in contexts and relationships rather than merely in the minds of individuals.
  • leave more room for negotiation about learning goals and activities among teachers and students.
  • less prescriptive
  • Social-constructivist models only began to gain a foothold in distance education when the technologies of many-to-many communication became widely available,
  • that being the loss of freedom associated with a commitment to meeting at a common time.
  • Time constraint issues are especially important to distance students, most of whom are juggling employment and family concerns in addition to their formal course work.
  • ata mining and learning analytics are not only used to support independent study based on CB models but are being utilized to support and enhance group work.
  • extract patterns and other information from the group logs and present it together with desired patterns to the people involved, so that they can interpret it, making use of their own knowledge of the group tasks and activities” (Perera et al., 2009).
    • anonymous
       
      Example of using data mining and learning analytics with the group.
  • LMS Moodle
  • Standard Moodle analytics allow teachers to view contributions or activities of individual learners
  • Google Analytics
  • Constructivist pedagogies use the diversity of viewpoints, cultural experiences and the potential for divergent opinion that is best realized through interactions with group members from other cultures, languages and geographies.
  • Naturally, technological affordances of most relevance to constructivist pedagogies focus on tools to support effective establishment, operation and trust building within groups. The technologies that support rich social presence, including full range of audio, video and gestures, are associated with enhanced trust development and increasing sense of group commitment
  • connectivism
  • learning is the process of building networks of information, contacts, and resources that are applied to real problems.
    • anonymous
       
      connectivism = learning is the process of building networks of information, contacts, and resources that are applied to real problems.
  • communities of practice
  • Connectivist learning focuses on building and maintaining networked connections that are current and flexible enough to be applied to existing and emergent problems.
  • capacity to find, filter and apply knowledge when and where it is needed
    • anonymous
       
      role of the learner is to have "capacity to find, filter and apply knowledge when and where it is needed"
  • The crowd can be a source of wisdom (Surowiecki, 2005) but can equally be a source of stupidity
    • anonymous
       
      "The crowd can be a source of wisdom (Surowiecki, 2005) but can equally be a source of stupidity"....a nice reminder
  • iticism of connectivism as being merely an extension constructivist pedagogy and those who argue that it is not really a complete theory of learning nor of instruction
  • gain high levels of skill using personal learning networks that provide ubiquitous and on demand access to resources, individuals and groups of potential information and knowledge servers. The second is the focus on creation, as opposed to consumption, of information and knowledge resources.
  • Bloom’s (1956) cognitive taxonomy place creation at the highest level of cognitive processing
  • elies on the ubiquity of networked connections – between people, digital artefacts, and content, and thus can be described as a network centric pedagogy and thus may be the first native distance education pedagogy, without previous instantiation in classrooms.
  • Effective connectivist learning experiences demand that learners have the tools and the competencies necessary to effectively find, sort, evaluate, filter, reformat and publish content on the net.
  • hese capacities rely on effective tools, high skill levels and a developed sense of network efficacy.
  • individuals and groups are helped to create and continuously augment, adapt and use a personal learning environment (PLE)
  • second key defining characteristic of connectivist pedagogy is the import placed on creating, sharing and publishing learner artefacts.
  • Connectivist learning designs, like constructivist ones, often involve collaborative or cooperative work between many learners. However, contribution often grows beyond the group to further encourage collaboration across time and space.
  • eyond the tools of creation instantiated within a PLE is an understanding of the technical and legal means to distribute work, while maintaining appropriate privacy levels and not infringing on the copyright nor plagiarizing the work of others.
  • The only solution to the privacy dilemma is to let each student and teacher set the level of access that they feel is most appropriate for them and more explicitly for the nature of the content being distributed.
  • Privacy concerns are also being recognised by the social networking giants.
  • Connectivist designs also involve the discovery of and contribution to new learning communities.
    • anonymous
       
      connectivist pedagogy encourages contribution to new learning communities - make your work accessible to others!
  • Learners are encouraged to make themselves, their contributions and their personal learning environment accessible to others. T
  • create and rate bookmarked resources t
  • hat others find useful, document their learning accomplishments via blogs, and share their discoveries and insights via micro blog feeds. In this manner they create and sustain learning networks that begin at the course level, but grow and evolve as the course of studies ends.
  • the emphasis is far more on the individual’s connections with others than with group processes designed to enhance or engender learning.
  • arder to apply analytics than in the more contained contexts of CB and social constructivist models.
    • anonymous
       
      It is harder to apply analytics than with CB and social constructivist models.
  • There is no central course, few common materials, no central binding point where interactions can be observed apart from each individual learner.
  • edagogy is, at heart, entirely focused on the individual learner.
  • The bottom three of Blooms original levels of learning – acquiring knowledge, coming to understand something or some process and applying that knowledge to a context – are clearly within the domain of CB pedagogies.
  • Moving up to the analysis, synthesis and evaluation levels brings us to the need for social perspective. This is often acquired through group and networked interactions characteristic of constructivist and connectivist pedagogical models.
  • Creation can be entirely original or as is more usual, creation involves the building upon, reinterpretation and contextualized application of older ideas to new contexts. Creation, the highest level of cognitive functioning usually requires mastery of the lower levels but, in addition, requires at least a small flame of creativity and insight.
  • Obviously the focus of connectivism with its inherent demand for students to create and distribute for public review and augmentation, fits well with the final creation level of the revised taxonomy.
  • here are many domains of knowledge in which creation of new knowledge is of much less importance than remembering and being able to apply existing knowledge.
  • No single generation has provided all the answers, and each has built on foundations provided by its predecessors rather than replacing the earlier prototype (Ireland, 2007).
  • As new technological affordances open up, it becomes possible to explore and capitalize on different aspects of the learning process.
  • For each mode of engagement, different types of knowledge, learning, and contexts must be applied.
  • students be skilled and informed to select the best mix(es) of both pedagogy and technology.
  • from the student-content interactions of cognitive-behaviourist models to the critical role of student–student interaction in constructivism, and finally, to the deeply networked student–content-teacher interrelationship celebrated in connectivist pedagogie
  • which students become teachers and teachers become students,
  • Connectivism is built to some degree on an assumption of a constructivist model of learning, with the learner at the centre, connecting and constructing knowledge in a context that includes not only external networks and groups but also their own histories and predilections.
  • he late Boston scholar Father Stanley Bezuska assembled a series of humorous quotes (see http://www.slideshare.net/committedsardine/funny-predictions-throughout-history) illustrating the doomsday predictions of teachers as they have been forced to deal with educational technologies.
    • djplaner
       
      This particular set of quotes has since been identified as a hoax - but an illustrative one. http://boston1775.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/the-myth-of-students-today-depend-on.html
  •  
    One of the readings from the course. Sharing it now as a little experiment in sharing annotations. In theory, if you view this page, you should be able to see the bits that I've highlighted and shared with the group.
thaleia66

The End of the University as We Know It - The American Interest - 0 views

  • People will not continue to pay tens of thousands of dollars for what technology allows them to get for free.
  • Power is shifting away from selective university admissions officers into the hands of educational consumers, who will soon have their choice of attending virtually any university in the world online.
  • Now anyone in the world with an internet connection can access the kind of high-level teaching and scholarship previously available only to a select group of the best and most privileged students.
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  • researchers at Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative, who’ve been experimenting with computer-based learning for years, have found that when machine-guided learning is combined with traditional classroom instruction, students can learn material in half the time.
  • Top schools like Yale, MIT and Stanford have been making streaming videos and podcasts of their courses available online for years, but MOOCs go beyond this to offer a full-blown interactive experience.
  • Teens now approaching college age are members of the first generation to have grown up conducting a major part of their social lives online. They are prepared to engage with professors and students online in a way their predecessors weren’t
  • What is emerging is a global marketplace where courses from numerous universities are available on a single website. Students can pick and choose the best offerings from each school; the university simply uploads the content.
  • The era of online education presents universities with a conflict of interests—the goal of educating the public on one hand, and the goal of making money on the other.
  • One potential source of cost savings for lower-rung colleges would be to draw from open-source courses offered by elite universities. Community colleges, for instance, could effectively outsource many of their courses via MOOCs, becoming, in effect, partial downstream aggregators of others’ creations, more or less like newspapers have used wire services to make up for a decline in the number of reporters.
  • To borrow an analogy from the music industry, universities have previously sold education in an “album” package—the four-year bachelor’s degree in a certain major, usually coupled with a core curriculum. The trend for the future will be more compact, targeted educational certificates and credits, which students will be able to pick and choose from to create their own academic portfolios.
  • The open-source educational marketplace will give everyone access to the best universities in the world. This will inevitably spell disaster for colleges and universities that are perceived as second rate.
  • Likewise, the most popular professors will enjoy massive influence as they teach vast global courses with registrants numbering in the hundreds of thousands (even though “most popular” may well equate to most entertaining rather than to most rigorous).
  • Because much of the teaching work can be scaled, automated or even duplicated by recording and replaying the same lecture over and over again on video, demand for instructors will decline. 
  • Large numbers of very intelligent and well-trained people may be freed up from teaching to do more of their own research and writing. A lot of top-notch research scientists and mathematicians are terrible teachers anyway.
  • Big changes are coming, and old attitudes and business models are set to collapse as new ones rise.
  • if our goal is educating as many students as possible, as well as possible, as affordably as possible, then the end of the university as we know it is nothing to fear. Indeed, it’s something to celebrate. 
  •  
    I came across this piece looking for connectivism at TED after reading the Downes piece. I remembered a talk I watched last semester that spoke of connectivism historically - as something very old, not necessarily connected to the digital revolution. This was such a provocative piece, though, I thought I would share it, and will post more reflections on my blog. Lisa
Trevor Haddock

Taylor & Francis Online :: Literacy, literacies and the digital in higher education - T... - 1 views

  •  
    Abstract This paper is a critical review of some recent literature around the 'literacies of the digital' in schools and higher education. It discusses the question: 'what does the conjoining of the terms "digital" and "literacy" add to our understanding of teaching and learning in higher education'? It explores the continuing role of critical literacy in relation to the idea that digital literacies are transformative for pedagogy in this sector.
Charmian LORD

Connectivism: Learning theory of the future or vestige of the past? | Kop | The Interna... - 1 views

  • To what extent do existing learning theories meet the needs of today’s learners, and anticipate the needs of learners of the future?
  • If older theories are to be replaced by connectivism, then what are the grounds for this measure?
  • If connectivism is to build on older theories, how is the integration of the old and new theories to be conducted?
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  • The wide range of approaches and learning paths that are available to redesign curricula cause friction for educators and instructional designers who are required to deliver course materials in accordance with learning outcomes prescribed and mandated by educational institutions.
  • Connectivism stresses that two important skills that contribute to learning are the ability to seek out current information, and the ability to filter secondary and extraneous information.  Simply put, “The capacity to know is more critical than what is actually known” (Siemens, 2008, para. 6)
  • The developmental implications of Downes’ definitions of learning and knowledge are far-reaching.  If learning transpires via connections to nodes on the network, then it follows that the maximization of learning can best be achieved through identifying the properties of effective networks, which is precisely what Downes sets out to achieve in Learning Networks and Connective Knowledge.
  • Siemens (2006b) highlights other factors that may inform the development of a new learning theory, namely “how we teach, how we design curriculum, the spaces and structures of learning, and the manner in which we foster and direct critical and creative thought in our redesign of education” (p. 6).
  • roponents of connectivism are “exploring a model of learning that reflects the network-like structure evident in online interactions,” (p. 12) but is this enough to constitute its formulation as a new learning theory, and does connectivism have anything new to offer?
  • the way in which global networks and communities of interest are currently being formed through emerging technologies is encouraging young people, in particular, to develop new, creative, and different forms of communication and knowledge creation outside formal education
    • Charmian LORD
       
      do I classify as young? :)
  • his will undoubtedly cause friction in institutions and class rooms, particularly as (adult) educators themselves do not always feel comfortable with the new developments because they have not been shown adequately, or explored for themselves, how the new and emerging technologies could enhance their working practice.
    • Charmian LORD
       
      This is the issue I am facing.  People need time to work it out, good questions about the use of technology and information about how it will not increase their workload or decrease it (leading to a lack of work).  Is this possible?  How possible?
  • A paradigm shift, indeed, may be occurring in educational theory, and a new epistemology may be emerging, but it does not seem that connectivism’s contributions to the new paradigm warrant it being treated as a separate learning theory in and of its own right.  Connectivism, however, continues to play an important role in the development and emergence of new pedagogies, where control is shifting from the tutor to an increasingly more autonomous learner.
thaleia66

The Global Search for Education: Can Tech Help Students Learn? | C. M. Rubin - 0 views

  • teachers who are more inclined and better prepared for what are known as student-oriented teaching practices, such as group work, individualized learning, and project work, are more likely to use digital resources. But in many cases, teachers were not adequately prepared to use the kind of teaching methods that make the most of technology
  • Overall, the most successful plans were incremental and built on lessons learned from previous plans.
  • There is increasing recognition of the important role of teachers in education. But we need to go beyond the idea that teaching is an art that requires exceptional talent. There are exceptional teachers, but we need to support the professional development of all teachers, and we can do so if we invest in the scientific base of the teaching profession and empower those very exceptional teachers to become leaders who inspire other teachers.Technology offers great tools in this respect. I'm thinking of platforms for collaboration in knowledge creation, where teachers can share and enrich teaching materials; of the amount of data that can be collected to measure students' learning; or of the increasing use of blended learning models in teachers' training, in which online lectures are combined with individualized expert support and feedback from peers. Because they enable feedback loops between theory and everyday classroom practice and are supported by a network of like-minded peers, these models have been found to be much more effective than the traditional model of courses, workshops, conferences and seminars
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  • Integrating technology successfully in education is not so much a matter of choosing the right device, the right amount of time to spend with it, the best software or the right digital textbook. The key elements for success are the teachers, school leaders and other decision makers who have the vision, and the ability, to make the connection between students, computers and learning.I would encourage all educators to invest in their professional knowledge about how technology can improve their work practices.
Trevor Haddock

Daphne Koller: What we're learning from online education | Video on TED.com - 0 views

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    Daphne Koller is enticing top universities to put their most intriguing courses online for free -- not just as a service, but as a way to research how people learn. With Coursera (cofounded by Andrew Ng), each keystroke, quiz, peer-to-peer discussion and self-graded assignment builds an unprecedented pool of data on how knowledge is processed. With Coursera, Daphne Koller and co-founder Andrew Ng are bringing courses from top colleges online, free, for anyone who wants to take them.  We should spend less time at universities filling our students' minds with content by lecturing at them, and more time igniting their creativity … by actually talking with them." (Daphne Koller)
debliriges

Tony Bates - 0 views

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    Online learning and distance education resources for post-secondary education Resources for students, faculty and academic administrators links to Open textbook 'Teaching in a digital age'
djplaner

AJET 26(3) Drexler (2010) - The networked student model for construction of personal le... - 7 views

  • Students engaging in networked learning research must be more self-directed
    • Anne Trethewey
       
      Raises the question - what about those students who do not possess these skills?
    • paul_size
       
      I agree, if they do not possess these skills then what?  And is that necessarily a bad thing?  How do we support those with the skills at the same time as those without the skills?
  • balance between structure and learner autonomy
    • Anne Trethewey
       
      Recognises that particular skills are require and may need to explicitly taught.
  • take an active role in the learning process by making decisions
    • Anne Trethewey
       
      Active participation = decision making
  • ...39 more annotations...
  • If the learner has primary control, the teacher must consider alternative assessments (Pedersen & Liu, 2003)
  • The role of a teacher within a student-centered approach to instruction is that of a facilitator or coach (Wang, 2006)
  • The students in this study are in effect, networked learners in training.
    • Anne Trethewey
       
      Love this view of students working to acquire NGL skills - "networked learners in training"
  • A teacher is better equipped to facilitate networked learning if he or she has experienced the construction of such a model first hand
    • Anne Trethewey
       
      Just as well we are all taking this course! :)
  • Figure 2: The Networked Student
    • Anne Trethewey
       
      A model of the networked student.  Like how it incorporates all aspects of a students life, not just online!
  • He or she constructs knowledge based on experiences and social interactions (Jonassen et al., 2003)
  • He asserts that learning and knowledge rest in diversity of opinions, and learning is a process of connecting nodes or information sources (Siemens, 2004).
    • Anne Trethewey
       
      Constructivism influences.
    • paul_size
       
      This is a really nice line.  I like the idea that through collaboration we can leverage off diversity.  
  • Technology supports this appropriation as a collection of tools that promote knowledge construction, an information vehicle for exploring knowledge, an active learning tool, a social medium to promote conversing, and an intellectual partner to facilitate reflection (Jonassen et al., 2003). Each of these components is present in the
    • Anne Trethewey
       
      Technology SUPPORTS the learning.
  • The networked student constructs a personal learning environment one node at a time. Once these connections are formed, they must be revisited and built upon to facilitate further learning. The personal learning environment lives beyond time spent in a classroom, especially if the learner chooses to activate it. Yet even in the situation where one learner abandons the personal learning environment, if created as an open resource, it becomes a strong node from which others can learn.
    • Anne Trethewey
       
      A nice example of how constructivism works in students construction of knowledge both inside and outside the confines of the classroom.
  • The teacher is necessary to help the students navigate the breadth of content, apply the tools properly, and offer support in the form of digital literacy skills and subject matter expertise.
    • Anne Trethewey
       
      To achieve depth of understanding, students still require teacher assistance and guidance. 
    • paul_size
       
      I guess this links in nicely with assignment 1 and our posts on how NGL can inform our roles as teachers.
  • Teacher beliefs about the value of technology as a teaching tool may determine effective integration more than traditional forms of professional development (Mueller et al., 2008).
    • Anne Trethewey
       
      Teacher beliefs about the value of technology = successful integration.
    • paul_size
       
      I agree.  The teacher plays such an important role in all of this.
  • Table 1: Patterns for networked learning (Goodyear, 2005, p. 1
  • The personal learning environment can take the place of a traditional textbook
    • Anne Trethewey
       
      Interesting concept given Brendon's current textbook debate!
    • paul_size
       
      I like the idea of empowering networked students and by enabling them to transcend the traditional concept of the classroom by user friendly web applications.  What about the implications for the work environment?  As David talked about earlier in once of his posts about his experience and finding, I think it was, USQs tools not as useful as the ones outside of work.  How do we empower ourselves in a limited environment?
  • Traditional, lecture-based classrooms are designed as passive learning environments in which the teacher conveys knowledge and the student responds (Chen, 2009).
    • paul_size
       
      I liked this line - for me it really sums up my work environment at present. It's a passive, top down culture where you are lucky if you are the recipient of knowledge rather than a partaker in the journey.
    • paul_size
       
      I think that using Diigo for me is a great example of were learning moves beyond the passive to an integrated environment.  
  • "He or she supports the students in their search and supply of relevant material, coordinates the students' presentations of individual milestones of their projects, moderates discussions, consults in all kinds of problem-solving and seeking for solutions, lectures on topics that are selected in plenary discussions with the students and conforms to the curriculum" (Motschnig-Pitrik & Holzinger, 2002, p. 166).
  • scaffold the learning process
  • Examples of emerging web applications for each of these categories are highlighted. The Networked Student Model establishes a baseline that begins to address what level of structure is needed to facilitate networked learning while providing a foundation for greater student control over the personal learning environment.
    • paul_size
       
      scaffold the learning process... what level of structure is needed to facilitate networked learning while providing a foundation of learner control. For me this is the reality at the moment with NGL. What structure do I need to support my knowledge development? It's about my PKM as well and already that has changed since my initial blog.
  • Networked learning, constructivism, and principles of connectivism inform the instructional design and provide a foundation on which future studies can explore the impact of networked learning on K-12 students and teachers.
  • It is the combination of these connections, especially in concert with human to human contact, that provide the most powerful learning potential (Goodyear, 2005).
  • The significant connections in Couros' view of the network include colleagues, popular media, print and digital resources, the local community, blogs, wikis, video conferencing, chat/IRC, social networking services, online communities, social bookmarking, digital photo sharing, and content development communities (Couros, 2008).
  • The networked student follows a constructivist approach to learning.
  • The Networked Student Model of constructing personal learning environments is reflected in many connectivist principles.
  • Conversely, in the networked learning environment, blogging is a key component of the personal learning environment through which students respond to and collect the opinions of others. Students identify blogs that target a specific unit of study, and they have the option to respond with opinions of their own. They are taught to discern between fact and opinion and appreciate the value of both.
    • paul_size
       
      I think the key here is being able to discern between fact and opinion.  How is this taught to kids today?  I am not a teacher, on the ground with students so any thoughts on this would be great. 
  • The networked student constructs knowledge that can be built upon in other contexts. That knowledge resides within the network to be activated by the learner at any time in the future. There is always the capacity to add nodes to the network (Siemens, 2009).
    • paul_size
       
      I think this links in nicely with Communities of Practice the construction of knowledge.  The knowledge is held within the community and it is by participation that one moves towards mastery (Wenger, 1988).
  • Ultimately, meaningful learning occurs with knowledge construction, not reproduction; conversation, not reception; articulation, not repetition; collaboration, not competition; and reflection, not prescription (Jonassen et al., 2003).
    • paul_size
       
      So meaningful learning comes through knowledge construction.  Not cutting and pasting.  It's about getting out there and into the real world and feeling the experience.
  • Learning potential exists in what the student does with the compilation of content and how it is synthesised.
  • exploring problems, asking questions, making discoveries, achieving new understanding and fulfilling personal curiosity" (National Science Foundation, as quoted by Chang & Wang, 2009, p. 169)
  • The networked student test case follows a single iteration, design based research process (Ma & Harmon, 2009) for analysing a problem, developing a solution, testing a prototype, and reflecting on the results.
  • The students had never participated in networked learning, so a significant amount of time was allotted at the beginning of the project to address digital literacy as well as task and organisational skills that would be required in the online environment.
  • The process and tools are overwhelming to students if presented all at once.
    • paul_size
       
      Here here!
  • Achieving the delicate balance between teacher control and student autonomy is an ongoing challenge when facilitating student use of new technologies for self-regulated learning
  • While the Networked Student Model affords the learner more control and responsibility, the teacher must continually balance this freedom with enough structure to keep students on task and engaged in the learning process.
  • Adopting a networked learning approach would require considerable teacher professional development and a philosophy different from that of most current educators. The implications of the latter on the potential of networked learning are far reaching. They extend to school policy, hiring practice, and pre-service teacher education.
    • paul_size
       
      Makes you think about the future of NGL and implications.
  • cognitive apprenticeship model
  • The Networked Student Model is a work in progress. As web technologies evolve and personal learning management becomes easier, students will gain even greater access to knowledge and more learning control. The construction of personal learning environments has potential; however, extensive research is needed to document best practices, explore the changing role of teacher and student, apply evolving innovations, refine instructional design, and consider pedagogical implications. Social networking and sharing of personal learning environments between students holds further promise as more students participate in networked learning and post their results in an open forum.
  •  
    Journal paper from author also involved in the "networked student" video that appears in this list. "Principles of networked learning, constructivism, and connectivism inform the design of a test case through which secondary students construct personal learning environments for the purpose of independent inquiry. Emerging web applications and open educational resources are integrated to support a Networked Student Model that promotes inquiry-based learning and digital literacy, empowers the learner, and offers flexibility as new technologies emerge. The Networked Student Model and a test case are described in detail along with implications and considerations for additional research. The article is meant to facilitate further discussion about K-12 student construction of personal learning environments and offer the practitioner a foundation on which to facilitate a networked learning experience. It seeks to determine how a teacher can scaffold a networked learning approach while providing a foundation on which students take more control of the learning process. "
murramumma

Vark preferred learning styles and online education: Management Research News: Vol 27, ... - 0 views

  •  
    Vark preferred learning styles and online education. This is available in full text through USQ however I could not link to it there.
Anne Trethewey

Educational Leadership:For Each to Excel:Preparing Students to Learn Without Us - 3 views

  • The reality is that despite having talked about personalized learning for more than a decade, most schools and teachers have been slow to discover its potential through the use of the social web, interactive games, and mobile devices.
    • anonymous
       
      Comments like this make teachers appear lazy. Using the word "slow" implies that teachers are ignorant and not proactive. I have seen many teachers wanting to integrate these technologies but finding the curriculum and day to day life of being a teacher as exhausting.
    • mari marincowitz
       
      I totally agree on this, Annelise. The problem is that the whole school system has not kept up the way technology has changed our daily lives and ways we interact and learn. For example, I'm teaching the IB Visual Art curriculum, a rigorous 2-year course for grade 11 and 12 learners. The sheer amount of work that need to be achieved in a very short period, makes it impossible to spend hours integrating new technologies that are not directly related to achieving the objectives set out by the IB to pass this exam. My husband teaches IB Psychology and the final examination is a traditional written exam, mostly based on students' ability to memorize large amounts of work. This means that students need to practice writing traditional pen and paper tests. This leaves little space for interactive games or application of new technologies. The curriculum will need to change before teachers can effectively discover the potential of these new technologies and consequently redefine their teaching.
  • schools see the eruption of technologies and environments that allow for personalized learning as a "disruptive innovation
    • anonymous
       
      Not in the schools I have been in.
  • we need to fundamentally rethink what we do in the classroom with kids
    • anonymous
       
      True, we do need to rethink but I think the model is fundamentally flawed.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • are we preparing students to learn without us? How can we shift curriculum and pedagogy to more effectively help students form and answer their own questions, develop patience with uncertainty and ambiguity, appreciate and learn from failure, and develop the ability to go deeply into the subjects about which they have a passion to learn
    • anonymous
       
      This is what the subject NGL is encouraging. We learn without teachers, where we answer our own questions, develop patience with uncertainty and ambiguity, appreciate and learn from our "mistakes," and follow our passion.
  • writing blog posts
    • anonymous
       
      A very good idea and something I was doing with my year 11s and 12s. Some loved it and others wanted the "paper and pen" approach. I found female students were more resistant as they were not as active in online forums as the males, but this is only my experience. I had many females complain, even some to their parents saying that they wanted to receive everything I did in hard copy, despite even the parents having access to all the online materials.
  • model the learning process together
    • anonymous
       
      A great idea, modelling active learning.
  • Assessment changes as well. Donhauser says that the emphasis moves to assessing in the moment rather than at the end of a book or unit. "Rather than having a defined product that I receive from 25 students," she says, "I receive 25 individual assignments with their own unique content, insights, and styles." Using Google Docs, students continually update their progress, and she provides regular feedback. Students also give one another feedback on their plans as they go. Everyone follows a rubric that covers such areas as standards, learning outcomes, artifact explanation, blog posts, learning activities, work ethic, and research. Personalized learning like this requires students to reflect deeply on their effort and assess their work and progress, a fundamental part of developing the skills and dispositions to continue learning after the class ends.
    • anonymous
       
      I can see how it will take very brave souls to implement this approach in the current schooling model. I have seen massive resistance, and mostly because it is seen as "extra" on top of everything else. Education is like a "black hole" - never ending and constantly growing. :0
  • the truly personal, self-directed learning that we can now pursue in online networks and communities differs substantially from the "personalized" opportunities that some schools are opening up to students. Although it might be an important first step in putting students on a path to a more self-directed, passionate, relevant learning life, it may not bring about the true transformation that many see as the potential of this moment.
    • anonymous
       
      I think the demand for personal learning is increasing, particularly amongst male students. The proliferation of information on the web and the active engagement. Argghh, I just found out that Robin Williams has died. I'm heartbroken, i loved him.
    • djplaner
       
      You're not alone in that feeling.
    • djplaner
       
      On a less important topic, how would personal learning fit within a school setting with set curriculum etc? I can see a distinct difference with what is possible in NGL and what could be done in my undergraduate course.
  • By pairing personalized learning and technology, a teacher can help students learn what they need to learn through the topics that interest them most.
    • Anne Trethewey
       
      An interesting statement - especially in light of many of the restrictions now placed on teachers in Australia with the new national curriculum, especially P-6.  Over the last few years, the explicit teaching focuses and prescriptive nature of many subject outcomes has seen my teaching change fundamentally, and I do not believe for the better. I know longer have the same scope and professional leeway to tailor learning to needs and interests of my students.  One-size DOES NOT FIT ALL!
  • Finding Their Passion
    • Anne Trethewey
       
      Have explored 'Genius Hour' with my students in an attempt to introduce more opportunity for my students to engage in learning that is more in turn with their interests and passions.  Find time in a very hectic curriculum and timetable is the greatest hurdle!
  • It requires a totally different skill set on the teacher's part," Stutzman says. "We have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, because we don't know the exact direction that a class will go when we walk in.
  • Personal and autonomous learning is self-directed and self-selected according to the learner's own needs, preferences, and learning arrangements … Truly autonomous and personal learning means making our own choices about what we wish to play or learn with, whom we wish to learn with or from, where we want to do this learning, when we prefer to learn or play, and how we want to learn. (personal communication, October 3, 2011).
  •  
    A very good article on encouraging students to personalise their learning to their personal interests, just as NGL is doing. It illustrates how learning should be self-directed.
  •  
    A very good article on encouraging students to personalise their learning to their personal interests, just as NGL is doing. It illustrates how learning should be self-directed.
djplaner

Invited Topics - L@S: Fourth Annual ACM Conference on Learning at Scale - 1 views

  • Large-scale learning environments are incredibly diverse: massive open online courses, intelligent tutoring systems, open learning courseware, learning games, citizen science communities, collaborative programming communities, community tutorial systems, and the countless informal communities of learners are all examples of learning at scale.
    • djplaner
       
      An example of "NGL" learning environments that are not necessarily based on formal education. Good example for looking beyond MOOCs and other formal education to what you might do "as learner"
  •  
    Call for papers for the "Learning @ Scale" conference, which focuses on one type of NGL (large-scale environments). It offers some interesting concrete examples of different types of large-scale environments - moving beyond the traditional formal education conception.
jenleighc

Let's Talk about MOOC (online) Education--And Also About Massively Outdated Traditional... - 0 views

  •  
    Cathy Davidson blog, raises the issue of old pedagogy in new technology.
muzedujourney

Can Free, High-Quality Education Get You A Job? | MindShift - 1 views

  •  
    Article about MOOC's and wether they can level the playing field. Would employers employ someone who had completed certificates for online courses rather than those who had diploma's and degrees from the same institutions.
djplaner

Ed-Tech and the Templated Self: Thoughts from the "Reclaim Your Domain" Hackathon - 0 views

  • That is, I want to talk about ed-tech as a “personal endeavor,” one that enables student agency, and not simply an “institutional endeavor,” one that sees students as the object of education
  •  
    Some thoughts about the "Reclaim Your Domain" project and its links to education and some ideas related to NGL. I'm exploring how the NGL course blog can be re-developed and extended using the Reclaim Your Domain services. There's also a bit in this post connecting with what identity means in an online/networked environment.
Brendon Willocks

iThink, iTeach, iTeens | Slide to unlock…learning… - 3 views

  • previous Blog post
    • Brendon Willocks
       
      Reference to previous thinking in relation to NGL. Not 100% sure here how to add the spta tage. #spta
  • r 8 Humanities class and also my Yr 12 ITS classes
    • Brendon Willocks
       
      Turn to face-to-face network for information first. Perhaps this is just a comfort zone. I need to a more PCP approach. #spta
  • Flappy Golf
    • Brendon Willocks
       
      Multiple links to external sites. I wonder if this link opens in a new browser window, or if it is the same. ??? Dont want it to be the same window becasue we always want to keep the user on the original blog. #spta
  • ...41 more annotations...
  • poll.
    • Brendon Willocks
       
      Created a poll to see what game to learn to play. But given the size of my current network the number of votes is less that optimal. Still need to work on expanding my network and connections.
    • djplaner
       
      I probably would have suggested "Clash of Clans", which wasn't an option. But then perhaps that's just because my boys enjoy it.
  • “Attempts at integrating technology within education, however, have often focused on enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the status quo, replacing traditional instructional approaches with ones that are technologically reinforced, yet qualitatively similar” “Research continues to show that access to technology alone has limited impact on learning outcomes and instructional methods and is often used to support passive, teacher-centered, and didactic instruction”
  • learning is often seen as a single and sporadic classroom activity as opposed to an endeavor that is ongoing, lifelong, and independent of educational institutions and age
  • it is important for learners to understand, and instructors to acknowledge, that knowledge is distributed and that the instructor is not the sole source of knowledge on a topic
  • We should aspire for learning that changes the ways a learner acts in the world. We want learners to talk, discuss and share their learning with family and friends, rather than compartmentalising
  • “transformative learning experiences cannot be”imposed” on learners.” invited, and encouraged, and facilitated.
  • Siemens (2005) describes the following characteristics of connectivism: Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions
  • Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources
  • The near infinite potential of dancing with anyone, anywhere, anytime coupled with the vast sound tracks and light shows (open educational resources) accessible on the Net, demand that learning be an experience of connecting and applying resources, rather than memorizing particular tunes or steps. The art of improvisation, of learning to dance, becomes the life learning skill – accumulating static data or memorizing scripts becomes obsolete.
  • When I reflect on other courses of formal study that I have undertaken at this university there are a diverse array of online teaching practices evident. Some model, facilitate and challenge learning just like this one; while others have an approach of ‘here is the assessment, good luck…see you at the end’. I need to make sure that all of my teaching is supportive and challenging to students learning – there is limited learning with the ‘here is the assessment…enjoy’ approach.
  • ‘As Student’
  • “It is through writing our ideas down that we make what we learn explicit, thus enabling us to “reflect upon it, and reanalyse it in light of new and sometimes conflicting information” (Goal et all., 2008).”
  • Riel and Polin reading is that we are a knowledge-based community given we “construct, use, reconstruct, and reuse knowledge in deliberate, continuous cycles” (p. 32).
  • ‘As Student’
  • sharing our ideas in PCP is not scary and threatening, but can help ourselves and others. Everybody’s ideas seem obvious to them. What is obvious to me is amazing for someone else.
  • I continue to do my work, I tell my little tales and share my point of view. Nothing spectacular, just my little thoughts.
  • ‘As student’ I was initially hesitant to share my thoughts opinions and ideas because I wasn’t sure if they were worthy of sharing. They are nothing different or innovative. But through engagement in Blogging and the non-threatening nature of the task – just blog, it doesn’t have to be perfect – has assisted a great deal. Overtime I have noticed that I am more comfortable sharing ideas.
  • feeding forward’, as identified by Downes (2011).
  • “We suggest three distinct but overlapping forms of learning within communities (task-based, practice-based; knowledge-based learning) and discuss practical design implications of these distinctions.”
  • learning theory has evolved from a cognitive theory of acquisition of knowledge to a social theory of increased participation in activity (Bruner, 1973; Cole, 1988; Lave, 1988; Mehan, 1983; Nonnan, 1980; Rogoff, 1994; Wertsch, 1997).
  • ntellectual development becomes a process of negotiation of meaning in everyday practice with others (Dewey, 1916; Vygotsky, 1978).
  • Learning occurs through engagement in authentic experiences involving the active manipulation and experimentation with ideas and artefacts – rather than through an accumulation of static knowledge (Bruner, 1973; Cole, 1988; Dewey, 1916).
  • Wenger (2000) uses the metaphor of a garden to describe the nature of support that works for something as delicate as a community of practice. You cannot, he says, make the flowers grow by pulling on their leaves. You can, however, keep the flower beds free of weeds and pests, ensure there is water and sunlight, and you can even apply some plant food. But the flowers must do their own growing. What does that sort of support for the flowerbed look like in an isolated and troubled profession such as teaching?
  • ‘As Student’
  • ‘As Student’
  • sharing our ideas in PCP is not scary and threatening, but can help ourselves and others. Everybody’s ideas seem obvious to them. What is obvious to me is amazing for someone else.
  • feeding forward’, as id
  • We suggest three distinct but overlapping forms of learning within communities (task-based, practice-based; knowledge-based learning) and discuss practical design implications of these distinctions.”
  • earning theory has evolved from a cognitive theory of acquisition of knowledge to a social theory of increased participation in activity (Bruner, 1973; Cole, 1988; Lave, 1988; Mehan, 1983; Nonnan, 1980; Rogoff, 1994; Wertsch, 1997).
  • tellectual development becomes a process of negotiation of meaning in everyday practice with others (Dewey, 1916; Vygotsky, 1978).
  • Learning occurs through engagement in authentic experiences involving the active manipulation and experimentation with ideas and artefacts – rather than through an accumulation of static knowledge (Bruner, 1973; Cole, 1988; Dewey, 1916).
  • Wenger (2000) uses the metaphor of a garden to describe the nature of support that works for something as delicate as a community of practice. You cannot, he says, make the flowers grow by pulling on their leaves. You can, however, keep the flower beds free of weeds and pests, ensure there is water and sunlight, and you can even apply some plant food. But the flowers must do their own growing. What does that sort of support for the flowerbed look like in an isolated and troubled profession such as teaching?
  • d social bookmarking in t
  • “Learners need to find their own unique pathway to transformative understanding of networked learning. There’s no simple and straightforward way to mastery that can be taught.”
  • ‘The past always looks easy and the future always looks challenging’.
  • Our information overload is a filtering issue and we are having filter failure.
  • lexibility is the greatest strength.
  • online learning is that it is asynchronous and students can participate and engage with content anywhere, anytime. I believe the f
  • Siemens (2004) also notes that learning occurs in informal and non-formal learning contexts.
  • “Knowledge is contained in the links between interconnected nodes and learning is the creation of these connections and the ability to traverse these connections. “For an individual this is about growing the connections in the mind by growing the connections.”
  • Alec Couros pointed out in a keynote from FUSION 2013 that – “There is strength in weak ties. Our acquaintances, not our friends, are potentially our greatest source of new ideas and information” (paraphrased from Gladwell, 2010).
Trevor Haddock

Open Education for a Global Economy - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  •  
    An article about ALISON which collects vocational training courses for free delivery similar to what Khan Academy provides for academic courses.
laurac75

An unfinished symphony: 21st century teacher education using knowledge creating heutago... - 0 views

  •  
    an example of using Web 2.0 methodologies within university education
ollie1

Chapter 3. A Typology of Social Forms for Learning - 5 views

  • In brief, the evolved form illustrates three kinds of aggregation of learners in either formal or informal learning: groups, networks, and sets. We originally conflated sets with a further emergent entity that is not a social form as such, which we have referred to as the collective
  • the tutor can respond directly to questions, adapt teaching to the learner’s stated or implied reactions, and the learner can choose whether to intervene in the course of his or her own tuition without contest with others (Dron, 2007
  • one-to-one dialogue represents an “ideal” form of guided learning, at least where there is a teacher who knows more than the learner and is able to apply methods and techniques to help that learner to learn
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • t continues to play an important role in network forms of sociality because of the essentially one-to-one edges between nodes that lead to what Rainie and Wellman (2012) refer to as “networked individualism”—
  • However, one of their defining characteristics is that their members are, in principle and often in practice, listable.
    • djplaner
       
      For me, this category is where all of Riel and Polin's (2004) types of community fit. The notion of community (as per Riel and Polin) doesn't capture the full set of possibilities that are observable on in netgl
  • People may be unaware that they are part of a set (e.g., people with a particular genetic marker), or they may identify with it (e.g., people who are fans of football or constructivist teaching methods).
    • djplaner
       
      In my context "as teacher" - helping other academics learn how to learn online - the Set may be one of the missing considerations in staff development. i.e. all of those people teaching huge first year university courses could be said to belong to a set. Yet there is - at least at my institution - very little sharing/engagement/learning within this set. Most of it occurs within their group (e.g. the school of education) even though chances are that someone teaching a large first year education course has more to learn from someone teaching a large first year accounting course than from someone teaching a Master of Education course with 12 people in it.
  • Group-oriented systems tend to provide features like variable roles, restricted membership, and role-based permissions. Network-oriented systems tend to provide features like friending, linking, and commenting. Set-oriented systems tend to provide tools like topic- or location-based selections, tags, and categories.
    • djplaner
       
      The design of the technology you use can be very important. Trying to create network learning with a group learning tool (e.g. Moodle) can be difficult. One of the reasons why this course has moved to using an open blog, rather than Moodle.
  •  
    Chapter from the Dron and Anderson book that expands upon the "group, networks and collectives" paper (by Dron and Anderson) from week 3
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