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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

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.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • 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.
laurac75

Week 3 Reflection on Me as a student | Learning to learn with NGL - 1 views

  • digital natives and digital immigrants as defined by Prensky (2001).
    • laurac75
       
      Using ideas and principles from other sources
  • The answer is that I have been exploring where I fit both as a student and as a teacher.
  • ...17 more annotations...
    • laurac75
       
      Reflecting on my own practice
  • In my last post, I introduced Helsper and Enyon’s (2009) idea that exposure to, and experience using, various digital technologies can have more of an influence that generation age on determining whether a person has the characteristics of a digital immigrant or a digital native. Of course, nothing is ever so clear cut. In his blog, Wesley Fryer discusses this, and expands the immigrant vs native classification into four categories, as shown below.
  • Personally, I think even this is a simplification, and that a person’s classification may vary depending on the technology referred to. For example, until recently I was a digital refugee with regards to smart phones and associated apps – and yet reading news report on-line is an integral component of my daily routine. I would probably class as a Voyeur with regards to Twitter and Flickr in that I am aware of them, and will use them to gain information but I do not follow anyone, or actively participate myself. Thus there are multiple shades of grey.
  • Goodyear, Carvalho and Dohn (2014, p 140) state that networked learning “ is no longer exotic”, however, I would argue that this very much depends on on one’s own perspective, which in turn would be shaped by personal experience and knowledge (aka the whole digital landscape debate).
  • (see Koutropoulis, 2011) Prensky’s division
  • I would generally agree that as a student, I tend to be quite focused, like an ordered approach, and work better as an individual than as part of a community. The concepts of ‘shared learning’ is quite alien to me – as is the concept of allowing the “mess” to be apparent. It is quite contradictory to my scientific researcher – the data is analysed, the results and interpretation finalised, and the presentation polished before the work is released to the world at large (typically via a published paper or article). Only those directly collaborating on the work see the mess, being asked to share this process on-line is really quite intimidating to me, and conflicts with my view of professionalism (as well as my tendency towards perfectionism).
  • So, as a student, I think I challenges on several fronts, not just learning the technology, and associated pedagogy, but also challenges to how I perceive and present myself to the world, and what that means to me as a person, and as a collaborator.
    • laurac75
       
      Using other resources; linking concepts and ideas
    • laurac75
       
      NGL principles in a brpader context; Using other sources
  • about herself in the capacity of being a student,
  • smiss this message
    • laurac75
       
      Use of other sources
    • laurac75
       
      Use of other sources
    • laurac75
       
      Personal reflection on NGL principles
  • So, as a student, I think I face challenges on several fronts, not just learning the technology, and associated pedagogy, but also challenges to how I perceive and present myself to the world, and what that means to me as a person, and as a collaborator
    • laurac75
       
      Reflection of future development
    • laurac75
       
      Personal reflection of involvement in NGL
  •  
    An attempt to demonstrate how (if) I am meeting the assessment criteria for Assignment 1. I think the grading is rather oblique - how does one distinguish between acceptable and exemplary? Where does this post fit? Feedback or thoughts on this would be welcome.
  •  
    An attempt to demonstrate how (if) I am meeting the assessment criteria for Assignment 1. I think the grading is rather oblique - how does one distinguish between acceptable and exemplary? Where does this post fit? Feedback or thoughts on this would be welcome.
anonymous

Imagining Successful Schools - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • This system has infuriated and shamed teachers, and is a lot of the reason that teacher turnover is so high, causing even many of the best teachers to abandon the ranks.
    • anonymous
       
      This was always a topical conversation and was the reason some of my colleagues left. I saw engineers go from somebody with pride in themselves to saying that they had to leave because they did not like what was happening to them.
  • in order to meet the demands of a global economy, our educational system needs to be re-engineered for much higher performance.
  • No other country believes that you can get to a high quality educational system simply by instituting an accountability system,” he says.
    • anonymous
       
      Accountability is not the answer because it creates an "tick and flick" control mechanism, meaning more of the same.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • test-based accountability is “doing untold damage to the profession of teaching.”
  • The main thing that works is treating teaching as a profession, and teachers as professionals.
    • anonymous
       
      Oh gosh, how I wished this was so when I was in there. You do sometimes feel like the proverbial "glorified baby sitter." 
  • That means that teachers are as well paid as other professionals, that they have a career ladder, that they go to elite schools where they learn their craft, and that they are among the top quartile of college graduates instead of the bottom quartile.
    • anonymous
       
      Wow, I'm so with this, as a professional tutor my rate is less than 25% of what a lawyer or accountant would get for the same time.
  • When I suggested that American cities couldn’t afford to pay teachers the way we pay engineers or lawyers, Tucker scoffed. With rare exception, he said, the cost per pupil in the places with the best educational systems is less than the American system, even though their teachers are far better paid. “They are not spending more money; they are spending money differently,” he said.
    • anonymous
       
      When an individual is treated like a professional they raise the bar. I have seen this in all my encounters with students. How they are treated is how they behave.
  • Tucker would not abolish tests, but he would have fewer of them.
    • anonymous
       
      This is great! I don't think we should do away with assessment completely but we should be using them as more of a tool for innovation.
  • And they would have a different purpose: In the high-performing countries, the tests exist to hold the students accountable, rather than the teachers.
    • anonymous
       
      This is what I thought would happen when wanting to become a teacher but then I felt that the teachers were criticised if students did not perform. As a senior English teacher this is definitely the prevailing discourse.
  • When a school falls short, instead of looking to fire teachers, the high-performing countries “use the data to decide which schools will receive visits from teams of expert school inspectors. These inspectors are highly regarded educators.”
    • anonymous
       
      Back to the inspectors, or I would rather say more like advisors who work with teachers improving their craft. I loved the idea of team teaching but a lot of teachers were not open to it, mostly I think due to the fear of being judged but for others it was a control issue too, "no one can teach like I do"mantra, which happens because of a perceived threat to ego that makes individuals more fearful.
  • Tucker envisions the same kind of accountability for teachers as exists for, say, lawyers in a firm — where it is peers holding each other accountable rather than some outside force. People who don’t pull their own weight are asked to leave. The ethos is that people help each other to become better for the good of the firm. Those who successfully rise through the ranks are rewarded with higher pay and status.
    • anonymous
       
      I am wondering whether this only works in private organisations. In public institutions as there is a lack of the profit motif, there is much more of an inclination to remove individuals perceived as a threat to one's status or worldview rather than how they are performing for the company. 
  • Would the teachers’ unions go along with such a scheme? The unions would certainly have to shed some of the things they now have, such as control of work rules.
    • anonymous
       
      This points illustrates something fundamental - you never hear of lawyer or accountant unions, only teacher unions. Why?
  • fixation with test-based accountability
    • anonymous
       
      There is certainly this happening.
  • every other successful country has
    • anonymous
       
      Is this a blanket statement, or a the grass is greener on the other side of the fence or is it true? 
  •  
    There are quite a few of us who are thinking a lot about the future of schooling. What do you think of his recent article?
mari marincowitz

Can a test measure your imagination skills? | ideas.ted.com - 0 views

  • there is growing evidence that the capacity for imagination is tied to something called the “default mode network,
  • the default mode network
  • springs to life
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • whenever you’re thinking about nothing in particular
  • 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.”
  • 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
  • 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
  • Like any human performance metric — IQ, LSAT scores, batting averages — the imagination quotient is intended to predict a competitive advantage
  • “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.
  •  
    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.
djplaner

Education in the information age: is technology making us stupid? - 2 views

  • A recent study suggests that our modern lifestyles are making us “less intelligent” than our ancestors, at least at a genetic level.
  • When it takes a mere few seconds to find information about almost any topic, the value of knowledge and expertise is being devalued as information becomes cheaper and more accessible.
  • Our relationship with and understanding of knowledge and expertise has struggled to keep pace with the rapid democratisation of information.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Although there is little conclusive evidence to support some of the more outrageous claims being made, there is at least a distinct possibility that while information is everywhere, knowledge is declining and technology is to blame.
  • So perhaps what is more important is not whether technology is making us stupid but if educational systems need to shift from teaching us what to think, to showing us how to think
  • In terms of what this means for education, psychologist Robert Bjork and his team at UCLA have been investigating what they call “desirable difficulties”. A desirable difficulty is a feature of a learning situation that is deliberately made more challenging to enhance learning.
  • Kahneman’s research on dual process theory suggests we mostly rely on what he calls “system one” thinking. That is thinking that is fast, efficient, mostly automated, and very good at detecting patterns, relying on short cuts or heuristics wherever possible. “System two”, on the other hand, requires slow, deliberate thought and is much more taxing of cognitive resources. System two is where the heavy lifting is done.
    • paul_size
       
      Dual process theory...interesting way of viewing thinking processes.
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. "
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?
  • 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?”
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  • 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.
  • 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.
Linda Raymond-Hagen

Education 3.0: Altering Round Peg in Round Hole Education | User Generated Education - 1 views

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    What follows is my Ignite talk for ISTE 2013.  It was rejected by the selection committee.  As I already conceptualized the talk and think it is such an important topic, I am disseminating my text ...
  •  
    What follows is my Ignite talk for ISTE 2013.  It was rejected by the selection committee.  As I already conceptualized the talk and think it is such an important topic, I am disseminating my text ...
djplaner

Chris Bigum (cj13) on Twitter - 0 views

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    Chris is a "retired" Professor of Education. Has been writing and thinking about the impact of ICT on formal education and learning (which he refers to as "the L word") for a long time. The Public Click Pedagogy reading from week 1 originates largely with Chris.
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    Chris is a "retired" Professor of Education. Has been writing and thinking about the impact of ICT on formal education and learning (which he refers to as "the L word") for a long time. The Public Click Pedagogy reading from week 1 originates largely with Chris.
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.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • 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.
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    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.
ggdines

Week 3 Diigo activity: Where has NGL come from? | GG's Blog - 0 views

  • Greater scaffolding to allow people to get familiar with the setup process and tools being used – simpler and fewer tasks in the first couple of weeks. I think this would have helped and allowed time for participants to allocate greater time to connecting with each other. I feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks and readings and tool setup – that I haven’t really been able to concentrate on making meaningful connections. Goodyear talks about access barriers on page 34 in relation to better user interfaces – for me the barrier isn’t about the interfaces but about getting used to “how things work” in this course.
    • ggdines
       
      Uses NGL principles to understand participation and explain what happened. AND Draws on a range of NGL ideas that are linked together as part of the explanation.
  • I think what I am saying also ties in a little with Anne’s post for this activity – but I think that the lack of connection might be because there is too much to be done and not enough time to get to know our environment.
    • ggdines
       
      Something about building on work of other participants
  • Homophily phenomenon
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • mergence of Web 2.0
  • The e
  • It also confirms that to get the most out of them you need to develop “literacies” to navigate them effectively.
anonymous

Still linear in a networked world - 1 views

  • Books are linear and foster concentration and focus, while the web, with all its hyperlinks, is kinetic, scattered, all over the place
    • anonymous
       
      Boy, I am finding this to be true. It's almost like my thinking has become like this. What do we do if we don't foster sustained thinking? We cannot afford to let it go as the deep sustained thinking is what enables changes in paradigms. 
  • I’m still linear in a networked world
    • anonymous
       
      Me too, but is this because I'm Generation X, on the cusp of Y, or because I love reading. Hmmmm
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    How many of us are in-between worlds, the linear narrative or the networked narrative? I'm definitely in-between. Please just post either or both. :)
Kath Gregory

Think Global | Promoting education for a just and sustainable world - 1 views

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    Perfect Idea for schools, bringing what we know to be happening to the children
Trevor Haddock

A Vision of K-12 Students Today - YouTube - 0 views

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    This project was created to inspire teachers to use technology in engaging ways to help students develop higher level thinking skills. Equally important, it serves to motivate district level leaders to provide teachers with the tools and training to do so.
anonymous

A Principal's Reflections: Learning Artifacts - 0 views

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    I found this article in my search for networked and global learning examples. I think it is a great demonstration of the principles.
djplaner

The End of 'Genius' - NYTimes.com - 0 views

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    Or perhaps an explanation of why genius never really existed. It's all about the connections. @gsiemens tweeted this article with the comment "The essence of networked learning "one entity helping to inspire another" Am thinking seriously of setting this as one of the core readings in the coming week or two. Mainly trying to really challenge the common conception that learning is all in your head and not in the connections.
thaleia66

Sugata Mitra | School in the Cloud | TED.com - 2 views

  • 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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    I wonder if 'ask Mr YouTube' comes under the category of peer-shared knowledge? I think the gaming community might think it does if the industry of 'let's play' videos is any indication. I wonder then if this industry might also come under the category of student-generated learning?
thaleia66

Henry Jenkins - Participatory Culture - 1 views

shared by thaleia66 on 10 Aug 15 - No Cached
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    Not exactly connectivism, but I think has many synergies and parallels.
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
  • ...97 more annotations...
  • 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.
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