the “whats” to be learned
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Education 2020 - 'Connectivism' - 3 views
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Includes: 1. A definition of connectivism 2. Video by George Siemens - 'Connectivism: Socializing Opening Learning.' 3. Video 'The Networked Student' 4. Slideshare - 'Elements of Connectivism' Stephen Downes 5. Slideshare - 'Connectivism and Personal Learning' by Stephen Downes
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Thanks Anne, I love Siemen's Principles of connectivism - really hits the nail on the head.
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9/15-9/28 Unit 1: Why We Need a Why | Connected Courses - 1 views
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As Neil Postman has noted, you can try to engineer the learning of what-bits (The End of Higher Education, Postman), but “to become a different person because of something you have learned — to appropriate an insight, a concept, a vision, so that your world is altered — is a different matter. For that to happen, you need a reason.”
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So what is the real “why” of your course? Why should students take it? How will they be changed by it? What is your discipline’s real “why”? Why does it matter that students take __________ courses or become _________ists? How can digital and networked technologies effectively support the real why of your course?
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Can a test measure your imagination skills? | ideas.ted.com - 0 views
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there is growing evidence that the capacity for imagination is tied to something called the “default mode network,
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Universities, businesses and government agencies all compete for cognitive “talent,” and they frequently rely on intelligence testing to help them find it. Meanwhile, the evidence that intelligence testing may not work as advertised has been growing
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you have to think of intelligence — when defined as problem-solving ability — not as a singular quality but as a spectrum. On one end is deductive, rules-based reasoning and on the other is imaginative, possibilities-based improvisation
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our apparently mindless moments are actually humming with cognitive activity. Instead of letting moments of free time slip away, they say, our brains “capitalize on them to consolidate past experience in ways that are adaptive for our future needs.”
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Like any human performance metric — IQ, LSAT scores, batting averages — the imagination quotient is intended to predict a competitive advantage
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“If you have an imaginative capability to envision future possibilities, alternatives and scenarios — that’s going to be predictive [of success] across the board,” he says.
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Albert Einstein said: "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Hopefully there would be more scope in future educational systems to measure those skills. Can imagination be measured in all subjects? In the visual arts, I certainly think it could. Even just from observation in my art classes, it doesn't take much to see which students can "think for themselves" and come up with intelligent solutions to creative problems.
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The reusability paradox - WTF? | Damo's World - 4 views
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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"
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three approaches
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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
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These technologies become so complicated to use, that people simply don’t use them.
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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.
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“the system does this, but I want to do that.”
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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/
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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.
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What if a technology is so specific, it’s designed for just one person – yourself?
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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.
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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.
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Improvisation Blog: Some Reflections on the #pleconf and 'cool technology' : What Softw... - 0 views
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Now social software is rather old, everyone knows about (even if they don’t use it), and not particularly exciting
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ignore the new ‘cool stuff’ as somehow not ‘personal’ seems short-sighted
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Groups Vs Networks: The Class Struggle Continues ~ Stephen's Web - 0 views
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Groups require coordination. They require a leadership or a leader which is why we get all of this stuff on leadership.
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Networks, by contrast, require autonomy. That is to say each individual in a network operates independently.
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Week 3 - Where you and NGL have come from, and where you're going | An experiment in Ne... - 3 views
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Choosing to Leave Private School for a Self-Directed Journey | GenDIY - 3 views
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Nick initiated this experiment to convince others at his school that students need space to drive their own learning as part of their education
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"By explaining something to a peer, synthesizing and concretizing vague concepts, it strengthens my confidence in the mastery of a topic."
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We can go much farther, and get there far more efficiently, with self-paced study.... We can often reach more ambitious goals if we are given the latitude to set those goals for ourselves.
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Sugata Mitra | School in the Cloud | TED.com - 2 views
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The "Hole in the Wall" project demonstrates that, even in the absence of any direct input from a teacher, an environment that stimulates curiosity can cause learning through self-instruction and peer-shared knowledge.
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Writer Unboxed » Networking for Writers - 1 views
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introverted writer
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treat the writer like you would your friend with a truck.
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Approach writers you admire.
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Be an active participant in author groups. Like this one!
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Be yourself. It’s okay if you’re shy.
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Do not send private email messages to writers asking questions you could have answered yourself using Google.
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Do not complain publicly when people don’t respond to your unsolicited overtures.
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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.”
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Pushing the Boundaries with Networked Learning | Boldly going where I haven't... - 0 views
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I was just reviewing GG’s Blog and came across a post where GG posted a personal teaching philosophy mind map. The philosophy matched very closely with my approach to teaching and also my aims through this course. One aspect of GGs philosophy which I had not really considered in my own context however, was the idea of Life Long learning.
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Edit: 17 August – Oops, I just revised my first ‘As teacher’ post and realised I did in fact allude to life long learning as one of my teaching objectives here, although I did not consider the idea in depth at all. I am surprised that this was part of my thinking in week one and that I had forgotten this 2 weeks later. As a student of NGL, this has shown me what an excellent idea blogging is for tracking my learning, and also how valuable it is to be able to reflect and edit/build on previous posts. It has also demonstrated to me what a ‘messy’ pathway my learning follows – a concept which has been identified by Bigum and Rowan (2013) “Learning new material, developing new skills or making new discoveries can be complicated, lengthy
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I was just reviewing GG's Blog and came across a post where GG posted a personal teaching philosophy mind map. The philosophy matched very closely with my approach to teaching and also my aims through this course. One aspect of GGs philosophy which I had not really considered in my own context however, was the idea of Life Long learning.
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Learning and Sharing with Ms. Lirenman: Using Twitter in a Primary Classroom - 0 views
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t's a great way for the parents to know what's going on in the classroom at the exact time a tweet is being sent
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It's pretty powerful when a six and seven year old writes something to someone they look up to and that person takes the time to respond back to them.
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Using the characters from Little Red Riding Hood we pretended to be one of them and tweeted out in their voice
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Connected Learning: Reimagining the Experience of Education in the Information Age - 1 views
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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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Social Media and the 'Spiral of Silence' | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Li... - 2 views
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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.
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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.
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The traditional view of the spiral of silence is that people choose not to speak out for fear of isolation
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Social media (network learning) doesn't always change everything. Again perhaps the fear of being "wrong" in public is factor? Being different is hard
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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.