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Linda Raymond-Hagen

Social Sciences | Free Full-Text | On the Design of Social Media for Learning - 3 views

  •  
    Another article from Dron and Anderson extending some of the earlier work. Abstract follows. Is explicitly intended to help "design learning activities that make most effective use of the technologies" This paper presents two conceptual models that we have developed for understanding ways that social media can support learning. One model relates to the "social" aspect of social media, describing the different ways that people can learn with and from each other, in one or more of three social forms: groups, networks and sets. The other model relates to the 'media' side of social media, describing how technologies are constructed and the roles that people play in creating and enacting them, treating them in terms of softness and hardness. The two models are complementary: neither provides a complete picture but, in combination, they help to explain how and why different uses of social media may succeed or fail and, as importantly, are intended to help us design learning activities that make most effective use of the technologies. We offer some suggestions as to how media used to support different social forms can be softened and hardened for different kinds of learning applications.
  •  
    This paper presents two conceptual models that we have developed for understanding ways that social media can support learning. One model relates to the "social" aspect of social media, describing the different ways that people can learn with and from each other, in one or more of three social forms: groups, networks and sets. The other model relates to the 'media' side of social media, describing how technologies are constructed and the roles that people play in creating and enacting them, treating them in terms of softness and hardness. The two models are complementary: neither provides a complete picture but, in combination, they help to explain how and why different uses of social media may succeed or fail and, as importantly, are intended to help us design learning activities that make most effective use of the technologies. We offer some suggestions as to how media used to support different social forms can be softened and hardened for different kinds of learning applications.
Charmian LORD

Sugata Mitra: Build a School in the Cloud | TED Talk Subtitles and Transcript | TED.com - 1 views

  • I tried to look at where did the kind of learning we do in schools, where did it come from? And you can look far back into the past, but if you look at present-day schooling the way it is, it's quite easy to figure out where it came from. It came from about 300 years ago
  • They created a global computer made up of people. It's still with us today. It's called the bureaucratic administrative machine. In order to have that machine running, you need lots and lots of people. They made another machine to produce those people: the school. The schools would produce the people who would then become parts of the bureaucratic administrative machine. They must be identical to each other. They must know three things: They must have good handwriting, because the data is handwritten; they must be able to read; and they must be able to do multiplication, division, addition and subtraction in their head.
  • schools as we know them now, they're obsolete. I'm not saying they're broken. It's quite fashionable to say that the education system's broken. It's not broken. It's wonderfully constructed. It's just that we don't need it anymore. It's outdated.
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  • The Victorians were great engineers. They engineered a system that was so robust that it's still with us today, continuously producing identical people for a machine that no longer exists.
  • We know that people will work from wherever they want, whenever they want, in whatever way they want. How is present-day schooling going to prepare them for that world?
  • If you allow the educational process to self-organize, then learning emerges. It's not about making learning happen. It's about letting it happen.
  • The teacher sets the process in motion and then she stands back in awe and watches as learning happens.
  • We need to shift that balance back from threat to pleasure.
  • think we need a curriculum of big questions.
Anne Trethewey

Connected Learning: Reimagining the Experience of Education in the Information Age - 1 views

  • the idea of a learning ecology, within which learning occurs everywhere, and with their goal to remove some of the obstacles which block the flow of information, knowledge, skills, and wisdom between different sectors.
  • ocus here on participation — in the learning process, in the governance of society — since the struggle to achieve a more participatory culture remains one of the central battles of our times.
  • the focus is on valuing the kinds of learning that children and youth value, the kind that is deeply motivating and tied in meaningful ways to their construction of their identity, recognizing that the goal of education in the 21st century should be in allowing young people to discover and refine their own expertise as they follow their passions and inform their interests
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  • he concept of “connected learning” remains a “work in progress,” and the best way to make progress is for thoughtful people, across a range of fields, to read, debate, and respond to their provocation and for those of us who find something here to value, to try to put its core principles into play through our work.
  • Connected learning is not, however, distinguished by a particular technology or platform, but is inspired by an initial set of three educational values, three learning principles, and three design principles
  • Equity — when educational opportunity is available and accessible to all young people, it elevates the world we all live in. Full Participation — learning environments, communities, and civic life thrive when all members actively engage and contribute. Social connection — learning is meaningful when it is part of valued social relationships and shared practice, culture, and identity.
  • Interest-powered – Interests power the drive to acquire knowledge and expertise. Research shows that learners who are interested in what they are learning, achieve higher order learning outcomes. Connected learning does not just rely on the innate interests of the individual learner, but views interests and passions as something to be actively developed in the context of personalized learning pathways that allow for specialized and diverse identities and interests. Peer-supported – Learning in the context of peer interaction is engaging and participatory. Research shows that among friends and peers, young people fluidly contribute, share, and give feedback to one another, producing powerful learning. Connected learning research demonstrates that peer learning need not be peer-isolated. In the context of interest-driven activity, adult participation is welcomed by young people. Although expertise and roles in peer learning can differ based on age and experience, everyone gives feedback to one another and can contribute and share their knowledge and views. Academically oriented – Educational institutions are centered on the principle that intellectual growth thrives when learning is directed towards academic achievement and excellence. Connected learning recognizes the importance of academic success for intellectual growth and as an avenue towards economic and political opportunity. Peer culture and interest-driven activity needs to be connected to academic subjects, institutions, and credentials for diverse young people to realize these opportunities. Connected learning mines and translates popular peer culture and community-based knowledge for academic relevance.
  • Shared purpose — Connected learning environments are populated with adults and peers who share interests and are contributing to a common purpose. Today’s social media and web-based communities provide exceptional opportunities for learners, parents, caring adults, teachers, and peers in diverse and specialized areas of interest to engage in shared projects and inquiry. Cross-generational learning and connection thrives when centered on common interests and goals. Production-centered — Connected learning environments are designed around production, providing tools and opportunities for learners to produce, circulate, curate, and comment on media. Learning that comes from actively creating, making, producing, experimenting, remixing, decoding, and designing, fosters skills and dispositions for lifelong learning and productive contributions to today’s rapidly changing work and political conditions. Openly networked – Connected learning environments are designed around networks that link together institutions and groups across various sectors, including popular culture, educational institutions, home, and interest communities. Learning resources, tools, and materials are abundant, accessible and visible across these settings and available through open, networked platforms and public-interest policies that protect our collective rights to circulate and access knowledge and culture. Learning is most resilient when it is linked and reinforced across settings of home, school, peer culture and community.
  • The urgent need to reimagine education grows clearer by the day. Research has shown that too many students are disengaged and alienated from school, and see little or no purpose to their education
  • The principles of connected learning weren’t born in the digital age, but they are extraordinarily well-suited to it. Connected learning seeks to tie together the respected historical body of research on how youth best learn with the opportunities made available through today’s networked and digital media
  • Connected learning is real-world. It’s social. It’s hands-on. It’s active. It’s networked. It’s personal. It’s effective
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    A description of some American academics getting together on the idea of connected learning. The post describes the values and principles underpinning their conception of connected learning.
djplaner

The reusability paradox - WTF? | Damo's World - 4 views

  • Learners construct new knowledge, upon their own existing knowledge.  This is very individualised, and based on each learner’s past experiences, and ways of thinking.
    • djplaner
       
      From a NGL perspective, I'd say that what people know is a network of connections - both internally in their brain and with the tools and artifacts they use. To learn is to make a new connection with that existing network. It's easier to make that connection when what you are learning is closer to where you are. The more it has in common with you.
  • Learning designers have some tricks to help deal with such diversity, such as researching your cohort, conducting a needs analysis, and ultimately categorising learners and focusing on the majority.
    • djplaner
       
      A major flaw in this approach is that it assumes that people fall into these categories. You are this type of person, you have this learning style which ignores the true variety of people. By spending a lot of time categorising you feel like you're trying to understand complexity, but never do. The book "The End of Average" touches on some of the problems with this. This type of approach doesn't work if you see the world as "complex, dynamic, and consists of interdependent assemblages of diverse actors (human and not) connected via complex networks"
  • three approaches
    • djplaner
       
      Damien misses two additional possibilities here - Personalised learning - the use of Artifical Intelligence so that the unit of study is smart enough to respond to the individual student. But the problem with this approach is that it can generally only do this within a pre-defined body of knowledge. It doesn't work well with motivation and other forms of context - Personal learning - you put the agency back into the learner and allow them to be in charge of their progress through. The issue with this is that it assumes that the learner has the skill, knowlege and motivation to do this. It is also not a model that fits well with standard educational institutions. This links to the dual-layer pathways design aproach - http://www.edugeekjournal.com/2016/06/14/evolution-of-the-dual-layercustomizable-pathways-design/ And perhaps choral explanations and federation.
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  • meaningful for everyone
    • djplaner
       
      Or another option, help each learner make it individual to them.
  • These technologies become so complicated to use, that people simply don’t use them.
    • djplaner
       
      While I agree with this trend, I wonder whether there is anything that can be done about it. e.g. I think part of the problem here is the opaque nature of digital technology - https://davidtjones.wordpress.com/2016/06/28/the-nature-of-digital-technology-part-2/ Perhaps the problem with the workshop activity is that it's model is not readily apparent to the people who use it. The abstraction that has been made isn't communicated to the people using it, so they have to go through trial and error and generally fail. -- The Ben-Ari and Yeshno (2006) quote on the above link is good for this.
  • “the system does this, but I want to do that.”
    • djplaner
       
      I really like Kay & Goldberg's (1977) - that's right 1977 - 40 years - quote any attempt to specifically anticipate their needs in the design of the Dynabook would end in a disastrous feature-laden hodgepodge which would not be really suitable for anyone Reference on this page https://davidtjones.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/what-if-our-digital-technologies-were-protean-implications-for-computational-thinking-learning-and-teaching/
    • djplaner
       
      Perhaps that quote explains what students see when they see a course that relies on material that's been shared amongst various different STEM contexts When you can't connect something directly into your understanding and context, it becomes a feature-laden hodge podge that you just can't figure out how to connect to your practice and understanding.
  • What if a technology is so specific, it’s designed for just one person – yourself?
    • djplaner
       
      Which comes back to the option of providing the individual with the agency to make the learning personal to them. Giving them the agency to make connections into their networks. Of course, this approach isn't just some pancea. It has it's own challenges (especially when trying to concieve of it within existing mindsets/institutions) and also it's own weaknesses. The question is how to overcome those weaknesses and challenges in meaningful ways that addresses the resuability paradox.
  •  
    Damien is a ed developer at CQU. In this post he struggles with some of the common problems faced by that type of position and tries to understand them in the context of the reusability paradox. Some of this is inspired by my own thinking, hence it resonates with me. It also resonates with me because I see the possibility of a network perspective offering a useful way to look at these problems. I'm hoping to illustrate some of this via annotations. Whether this will be useful to you is another matter entirely. A lot of this is thinking out loud by both Damien and myself.
djplaner

The challenges to connectivist learning on open online networks: Learning experiences d... - 2 views

  • This paper raises questions on levels of learner autonomy, presence, and critical literacies required in active connectivist learning.
  • In e-learning, two major traditions have been prevalent: one where connections are made with people and the other where they are made with resources (Weller, 2007)
  • since the emergence and proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their increasing encroachment on everyday life, boundaries between settings in which people learn and in which they use technology for other activities have blurred, and perspectives such as connectivism have emerged
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  • From observations on PLENK it seems that for networked learning to be successful, people need to have the ability to direct their own learning and to have a level of critical literacies that will ensure they are confident at negotiating the Web in order to engage, participate, and get involved with learning activities.
  • People also have to be confident and competent in using the different tools in order to engage in meaningful interaction. It takes time for people to feel competent and comfortable to learn in an autonomous fashion, and there are critical literacies, such as collaboration, creativity, and a flexible mindset, that are prerequisites for active learning in a changing and complex learning environment without the provision of too much organized guidance by facilitators
  •  
    A journal article that gives a more formal treatment of issues in a connectivist context.
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
Anne Trethewey

Social Media and the 'Spiral of Silence' | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Li... - 2 views

  • A major insight into human behavior from pre-internet era studies of communication is the tendency of people not to speak up about policy issues in public—or among their family, friends, and work colleagues—when they believe their own point of view is not widely shared. This tendency is called the “spiral of silence.
  • Not only were social media sites not an alternative forum for discussion, social media users were less willing to share their opinions in face-to-face settings.
  • The traditional view of the spiral of silence is that people choose not to speak out for fear of isolation
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  • People also say they would speak up, or stay silent, under specific conditions.
  • Their confidence in how much they know.
  • The intensity of their opinions.
  • Their level of interest.
  •  
    Social media (network learning) doesn't always change everything. Again perhaps the fear of being "wrong" in public is factor? Being different is hard
  •  
    I found this article really interesting - particularly the hierarchy of relationships in which people were comfortable sharing their views - family, then friends, then colleagues and then facebook or twitter. To me, this suggests that discussions are most likely to occur in situations where people are confident of being accepted regardless of their views on an individual topic. This has interesting implications for teaching - and links in with some of the literature on creating "safe" learning environments. However, I wonder whether we need more of an emphasis on building/strengthening relationships between students - and what implications this has for group sizes, and how we manage learners.
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
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  • 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
paul_size

Writer Unboxed » Networking for Writers - 1 views

  • introverted writer
    • anonymous
       
      Why is there always an assumption that writers are introverts!!
  • You want to approach someone with the intent to have a long-term mutually respectful relationship
  • treat the writer like you would your friend with a truck.
    • anonymous
       
      Very true, I've experienced this and also done this. Treat them like I would want to be treated. The golden rule, but oh so true.
    • paul_size
       
      I heard a good one the other day - 'treat them as they want to be treated.'  Kind of adds a different way of looking at things.  
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  • Approach writers you admire.
    • anonymous
       
      I admire several Australian authors. This would be great. I just went and saw David Malouf but was too shy!
  • Make sure that your work is in a somewhat similar vein.
  • Comment in a friendly and funny way on their posts and blogs.
  • Re-post their important announcements.
  • Be an active participant in author groups. Like this one!
    • anonymous
       
      This is what I need to do more of.
  • Leave only sincere, glowing reviews on Amazon/Goodreads etc.
  • Go to author readings.
  • Be yourself. It’s okay if you’re shy.
    • anonymous
       
      Phew!
  • Do not send private email messages to writers asking questions you could have answered yourself using Google.
    • anonymous
       
      Lol!
  • Do not complain publicly when people don’t respond to your unsolicited overtures.
    • anonymous
       
      Ouch, I've done this, lol
  • Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
    • anonymous
       
      Love this quote. I try to practice this with my friends, students and family.
    • paul_size
       
      Thought provoking this one is.
  •  
    A good article for networking for writers. From a NGL perspective, it includes online and in-person.
  •  
    A good article for networking for writers. From a NGL perspective, it includes online and in-person.
djplaner

Clay Shirky (cshirky) on Twitter - 0 views

  •  
    The first of a collection of "people" (see the people tag associated with this link) that I (and we) are going to curate using Diigo. The idea is that these people are potentially interesting to follow in terms of NGL. More details of this will be outlined in the week 2 page on the course blog (coming RSN). Clay Shirky is an academic and writer around the Internet and society. One of his talks is mentioned in the week 2 materials.
muzedujourney

Giving Good Praise to Girls: What Messages Stick | MindShift - 0 views

  •  
    How praise impacts on learning and the brain development associated with that. I feel this article relates to connectivism as learning in this way invloves challenge and perhaps failure. The article alludes to the idea that failure is a good thing and if we praise the process rather than the outcome we support learning. I wonder if this is true for adult learners as well? Should we be placing more emphasis on encouraging and supporting the process of learning so that what is being learnt is just as important as how it is being learnt to equip people for the world of the future and for people to be job ready?
djplaner

Mindful or mindless? - Cognitive Edge - 1 views

  • A second problem is an over focus on the individual and insufficient focus on their interactions and the need to engage in those interactions
  • Focusing on the individual in isolation from the community is a form of neo-liberal disenfranchisement
  •  
    The topic of this post is not directly related to NGL. What I think is relevant/important is the quote an over focus on the individual and insufficient focus on their interactions and the need to engage in those interactions Which I think is a perspective/problem that resonates with NGL. NGL at some level is about encouraging, enabling, and thinking about the interactions - the connections. As you are thinking about your DBR projects, consider how, if, and what your project is doing about the interactions between the people and objects within your particular context. For a concrete example, I'll turn to a particular bandwagon of mine. A couple of people have "as teacher" roles that involve helping teachers use digital technologies effectively. Often the problem here is framed as digital literacy. The individual teacher doesn't know enough about technology to fix the problem. The common solution is to do some form of Professional Development so that the individual can develop the knowledge. Which for me, brings back the quote. - "focus on the individual and insufficient focus on their interactions" A NGL solution to this problem would - I think - focus more (but not entirely) on the interactions.
djplaner

Find your people - Meetup - 2 views

shared by djplaner on 29 Jul 15 - Cached
  •  
    Meetups are one way of using technology to enable connections to be made between people around common interests.
anonymous

FuturistSpeaker.com - A Study of Future Trends and Predictions by Futurist Th... - 0 views

  • how much training should be required prior to taking a job, and whether the investment of time and money spent on training should be optimized around the company or the employee, knowing there will always be some in-house training required.
  • When we look at the bigger picture of retraining for this and many other professions, knowing that people will be rebooting their careers far more often in the future, with time being such a precious commodity, how do we create the leanest possible educational model for jobs in the future?
  • Micro-Colleges are any form of concentrated post-secondary education oriented around the minimum entry point into a particular profession. With literally millions of people needing to shift careers every year, and the long drawn out cycles of traditional colleges being a poor solution for time-crunched rank-and-file displaced workers, we are seeing a massive new opportunity arising for short-term, pre-apprenticeship training.  Many Micro-Colleges will fall into the category we often refer to as vocational training, a term poorly suited for the professional craftsmen, artisans, and technicians they will be producing. Since status and credentialing are critical elements of every career choice, any training producing specialized experts will need to come with industry-recognized certifications and titles.
    • anonymous
       
      We will always need some kind of industry-recognised certifications and titles. I think so as it would be ridiculous if someone could label themself as an engineer without showing that they have completed some kind of certificate outlining their skills. An individual could claim anything but would need social validation that they do indeed have the skills.
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  • On the other side of the equation are people who go through all the work of getting bachelor and master degrees and still not having the skills necessary to gain employment. Traditional colleges, for the most part, do a great job, but they are all oriented around seat time. They also come with the overarching philosophy that nothing of value can be learned in less than four years, a timeframe woefully out of sync with someone needing to change career paths. So at what point is education “too lean,” and conversely, when is it “too fat?”
  • The Micro-College approach to training brewmasters would be an intense 2-4 month training program with a designated apprenticeship period learning on the job.
  • Since my coursework happened in the pre-computer era, most of the skills I needed after computers were introduced were primarily self-taught.
    • anonymous
       
      This is an example of situational learning. He is learning in other contexts, not just formally.
  • Perhaps the most valuable courses with long-term relevance were classes in writing, English, speech, art, design, and the special research projects that forced me to find my own answers and write a final report. The art helped me understand that engineering was a form of creative expression.
    • anonymous
       
      Creative expression is essential for understanding.
  • If the school were tied to an industry-specific apprenticeship program with a near-perfect handoff between academia and real-world work happening inside the industry, what would a super-lean engineering program like this look like?
    • anonymous
       
      I remember in my first year of teaching saying to myself "this is what I have spent four years training for." I though something is seriously wrong when I was trained to be more of an academic than someone to manage a classroom.
  • It’s easy to imagine that as traditional colleges see their student base decline, many will begin to partner, merge, and purchase fledgling Micro-Colleges and begin incorporating these new areas of study into their own catalog of course offerings. 
  • Since existing colleges bring with them credit-granting accreditation, along with status, credibility, and the ability to offer student loans, in-house Micro-Colleges will likely become a rapidly growing part of campus life. Many colleges will find the Micro-College niche they take on to be the key differentiator between them and other schools.  Using the school-within-a-school approach, core Micro-College programs will become feeder mechanisms for additional types of credentialing.
    • anonymous
       
      Very interesting idea. Judging by what I have heard from students this would be preferable. 
  •  
    The concept of "micro colleges" - colleges that offer qualifications at a fraction of the time and cost. What do others think about this? I'm certainly interested as I think the teaching degree of four years is way to long.
anonymous

Why Do Americans Love to Blame Teachers? - The Atlantic - 1 views

  • America hates teachers.
    • anonymous
       
      This is so true and incredibly demoralising. I saw many teachers go down because of it.
  • programs like Teach for America are promoted as a kind of missionary calling, in which young fresh-faced college graduates replace lazy, stubborn, unionized teachers.
    • anonymous
       
      I have always said that teaching is treated like a "calling," almost like women are nuns and they devote their lives to it. 
  • That single class of people is then systematically demonized, as politicians and pundits present "worst of the worst" cases as emblematic of the whole.
    • anonymous
       
      This occurs in every industry but particularly so in industries that are less powerful.
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  • In fact, I think you could argue (though Goldstein does not quite) that moral panics do more than demonize a group of people. They serve in part to create a group of people—to delimit or describe a particular identity and mark it as deviant.
    • anonymous
       
      This reporter is smarter than your average bear!
  • Moral panics create identities in order to regulate them.
    • anonymous
       
      Holy schmoly, a moral panic increases regulation, of course
  • value-added measures all have a wide margin of error, and are quite sensitive to manipulation (such as teaching to the test).
    • anonymous
       
      I have definitely seen this.
  • the good teacher/bad teacher dichotomy is predicated on the idea that the bad teachers are already in place and must be driven out by the good teachers. The dream, from Beecher to today, seems to be that if only our schools could get rid of the career educators and install angels instead, the millennium would arrive.
    • anonymous
       
      Lol, but very true!
  • long-term profession
    • anonymous
       
      In my experience most teachers did treat it as a long term profession, some being so demoralised that they did not leave due to a lack of self belief.
  • more responsibilities
    • anonymous
       
      More responsibilities is good but not in addition to. 
  • There are bad accountants, but we don't define "accountant" as an identity to be policed in order to solve our nation’s economic woes. There are bad doctors, but even at a time when medical malpractice suits are frequent, the idea of replacing doctors isn’t at the center health care reform.
    • anonymous
       
      Very true, I find this most annoying for teachers.
  •  
    I'd be interested to see what any of you think about this issue. It was something that bothered me as a high school teacher.
djplaner

Wearable technology | rebeccaedu8117 - 1 views

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    Wanted to highlight this from Rebecca to make a point about broadening concepts of NGL. It's about making connections with technologies and without. Often this is interpreted as people creating information for others, or consuming information created by others. Wearable technologies - especially of the type talked about by Rebecca - provide connections to information in a way previously much more difficult. But they can also be used to scaffold learning. e.g. the "learning to run 5Km" app that Rebecca talks about in her previous post. Suggesting a possible way to break out of the LMS and social media into a very different type of network learning.
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)
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?
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • 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.
sharonngl

http://conference.anglicanschoolsaustralia.edu.au/files/Stage1_RufusBlack_Gen%20E%20-%2... - 0 views

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    Something my headteacher passed onto me. A great read about where we as are today regarding Globalisation and digitalisation. It also tells us what we as a country need to do to increase our interaction with other countries and digitalisation in the future. A fantastic example of why we need to introduce NGL to young people.
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.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • 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.
  •  
    PhD students article summarising critical theories.
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