Unbolting the chairs In the physical world, it goes without saying that not all classrooms look the same. A room that is appropriate for teaching physics is in no way set up for teaching art history. A large lecture hall with stadium seating is not well-suited to a small graduate seminar. And even within a particular class space, most rooms are substantially configurable. You can move the chairs into rows, small groups, or one big circle. The situation is starkly different in most virtual classrooms. This is not as it should be. Granted, some of these applications exist today and can be included in an LMS. Opening the Floodgates There are several different ways that software can be designed for extensibility. Nevertheless, even the most conservative estimate of Google Maps mash-ups is higher than the total number of extensions that exist for any mainstream LMS by an order of magnitude. Current Events AP News + Google Maps links US national and business news articles to their locations on a map. Life Sciences
Jan05_01 Editor’s Note: This is a milestone article that deserves careful study. Connectivism should not be con fused with constructivism. George Siemens advances a theory of learning that is consistent with the needs of the twenty first century. George Siemens Introduction Behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism are the three broad learning theories most often utilized in the creation of instructional environments. Learners as little as forty years ago would complete the required schooling and enter a career that would often last a lifetime. “One of the most persuasive factors is the shrinking half-life of knowledge. Some significant trends in learning: Many learners will move into a variety of different, possibly unrelated fields over the course of their lifetime. Background Driscoll (2000) defines learning as “a persisting change in human performance or performance potential…[which] must come about as a result of the learner’s experience and interaction with the world” (p.11). Connectivism
Personal Learning Environment; Your Thoughts I was honoured to be asked to moderate a session at the PLE Conference in Barcelona (#PLE_BCN on Twitter) to talk about what exactly is a Personal Learning Environment. In this session, myself and 3 other educators (Cristina Costa, Ilona Buchem and Wolfgang Reinhardt) that are located all over the world, will work with participants to figure out a definition for the PLE term. My brother, Alec Couros, talked about PLN’s vs PLE’s in a previous post and it is definitely a great read to see how he used his PLE to further his own learning on the very same subject. The fact of the matter is that a mutually agreed upon definition will never happen but it is beneficial for educators to think about key components of a PLE and how they can use this to further their own learning. We are starting with the following visual with 4 key areas to help define a PLE (Learning, Content, Social Interaction, and Technology): I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic with some guiding questions:
Bringing online learning to a research-intensive university A spirited debate recently arose on the International Forum of Educational Technology & Society (IFETS) listserv. A (real world) conference had been announced with the aim of "raising awareness of the benefits of using online technologies in supporting teaching, learning and assessment, with a particular emphasis on the impact of e learning." A university was organizing this conference and aiming it at the university sector. Contributors to the IFETS listserv questioned whether there was still a need for conferences on this topic. In my experience at the University College Dublin (UCD), understanding of the online medium's potential among faculty has always appeared limited. E-Learning and the VLE UCD is a traditional, campus-based university with a strong commitment to research. Nevertheless, a few academics at UCD have become enthusiasts for active and engaging e learning. Case Study The questionnaire included items on the respondents' views, experiences of and plans for e learning.
Personal Learning Envronments Networks and Knowledge ~ PLENK 2010 5 points about PLEs PLNs for PLENK10 The concept of the Personal Learning Environment in all of its wondrous forms has been one that I’ve struggled with over the last four or five years that I’ve been familiar with it. I’m very excited to be taking part in the PLENK10 course in order to take the time to focus on these ideas and get a clearer sense of what I mean by the word. I would add, that I think this is one of the central values of an open course… it provides the opportunity to bring clarity to a subject in a field… even if we end up with different clarities The PLE related to the LMS (LCMS, VLE etc…) I came to the idea of the PLE as an alternative to the LMS (learning management system, blackboard, moodle, desire2learn etc). POINT 1. Personal Learning Environment vs. POINT 2 – PLEs are (to me at least) the ecologies within which PLNs operate This is not true for all people and in all circumstances. POINT 3 PLEs need not be supported by educational institutions Who put the P in learning environments/networks?
Predictions for e-Learning in 2011 At the start of each year, eLearn Magazine's editors, advisory board members, and other contributors predict what changes are afoot for the coming 12 months. Here are our predictions for 2011. The Rise of Curation The massive amount of information online needs better curation so that more people benefit from it. You know what I mean if you ever tried to benefit from a conference or course remotely by reading the Twitter stream. With the increased use of technology in all education and training and the increased use of mobile phones globally, it makes less sense than ever to talk about e-learning and m-learning. —Lisa Gualtieri, eLearn Magazine editor-in-chief, and adjunct clinical professor at Tufts University School of Medicine [Twitter: @lisagualtieri] Change One Teacher at a Time 2011 will see more progress, albeit at a leisurely pace, of new technologies in the classroom. Working and Learning Merge! —Charles Jennings, Duntroon Associates and Internet Time Alliance —Roger C. Going Deeper
What Is Web 2.0 by Tim O'Reilly 09/30/2005 Oct. 2009: Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle answer the question of "What's next for Web 2.0?" in Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On. The bursting of the dot-com bubble in the fall of 2001 marked a turning point for the web. The concept of "Web 2.0" began with a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International. In the year and a half since, the term "Web 2.0" has clearly taken hold, with more than 9.5 million citations in Google. This article is an attempt to clarify just what we mean by Web 2.0. In our initial brainstorming, we formulated our sense of Web 2.0 by example: The list went on and on. 1. Like many important concepts, Web 2.0 doesn't have a hard boundary, but rather, a gravitational core. Figure 1 shows a "meme map" of Web 2.0 that was developed at a brainstorming session during FOO Camp, a conference at O'Reilly Media. Netscape vs. At bottom, Google requires a competency that Netscape never needed: database management.
Modelling PLE based learning InWednesday's #PLENK2010 session Sebastian Fiedler gave us his thoughts and ideas on Personal Learning Environments. He moved the discussion from the technology to the concept and made us think about the personal learning, rather than the learning environment in PLE. His model to analyse personal learning looked like this: During the discussion following his presentation quite a few questions were asked about this framework: would people move from 1 through a continuum to 5? Of course while learners are going about their lives and are involved in activities that make that they learn, their personal development continues and I have found the Perry stages of development, as described in an earlier post, helpful in understanding how this might work.
Mobilizing and Globalizing with Online Education Whatever the times, education is an important vehicle to rise above certain of life's inequities. While many countries, including so-called third world nations, have slowly been building their educational systems, America—despite its policies, programs, and good intent—has paid mere lip service to the realization of its educational goals. Consequently, education in many states in America is witnessing a breakdown. For example, in the state of Georgia, high school graduation rates are low, and college graduation rates even lower. What these figures project for our students' futures, in terms of jobs and the attendant quality of life (let alone gender and race relations), is anyone's guess. Like a call from a person on the verge of committing suicide, these figures are a clarion cry for help which must not be ignored. Setting aside lofty rhetoric: We must mobilize education! Inclusiveness is also evident in new curricula for existing and new courses and programs of study. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
OCC2007: a challenge to connectivism This is a longish post - sorry. If you don't have the time or patience for it, then read only the last three (very short) paragraphs. Obviously we won't resolve this particular difference of opinion by arguing who is the better chess player. I will therefore simply assert that I'm quite good and leave it at that. Chess is interesting (and unusual) in that it can be completely described in language. This is all to say that what Bill says is possible , that "Calculating accurately ahead, sometimes quite a few moves, makes the difference between winning and losing. Quite right. Language is useful and its precision helps eliminate errors. The question, though, is deeper than that. First, do we play chess (solely) by constructing strings of inferences (ie., sequences of moves in chess notation)? And second, even when we construct strings of inferences, is this how we actually think , or is this how we describe how we think? Obviously, each question has a bearing on the other. Quite so.
Seven Strategies for Supporting Personal Learning Environments at Work Yesterday I started to answer Glen Ross's question about how to support staff in developing and using personal learning environments (PLEs) by defining what I mean when I talk about a PLE. Today I'm getting to the real meat of Glen's question, which is how to support staff in creating and using their own PLEs. Nurture a Culture of LearningStaff have to feel that learning is part of their jobs and that the organization they're working for truly supports their professional development. I've written before about how to create a learning climate here and here and I think that without this critical component, PLEs are really dead in the water. As part of this process, I would also suggest helping staff understand and develop the skills of personal learning, which I think many of us lose along our way through academia and the work world. And your organization will need to cultivate a tolerance for taking risks and making mistakes, assuming that it hasn't already done that.