April Hayman & Natalie Laderas' presentation for the New Learning Technologies/SALT 2010 conference held in Orlando Florida.
This presentation overviews three main points of Hayman & Laderas' case study: design comes first; the point of open source; and leveraging the power of learning as a community.
2. The purpose of the study (April) Close your eyes. What do you hear? I hear the water. I hear the birds. Do you hear your own heartbeat? No. Do you hear the grasshopper which is at your feet? Old Man, how is it that you hear these things? Young Man, how is it that you do not?
3. The three takeaways (Natalie) 1. Design comes first 2. The point of OS 3. The power of learning as a community
16. Contact info April Hayman Eugene, Oregon ahayman@iste.org Aprilhayman.com Natalie Laderas-Kilkenny Portland, Oregon natalie.laderas@educationnorthwest.org Nkilkenny.wordpress.com
Editor's Notes
When you walk out of here, you should have 3 main takeaways: 1, that design comes first, regardless of software licensing2. What the point of open source is, particularly in relation to e-learning and design3. Leveraging the power of learning as a community Hand and Fingers 3 by digital_a http://www.sxc.hu/photo/642231
Why not moodle?We reviewed a lot of open source software once decided on who the learner was, what the course was going to be about, and a general structure.Sakai, Moodle, Claroline: learning management systemsJoomlaExe: authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markupXerte: Xerte provides a visual, icon-based authoring environment that allows learning objects to be easily created with the minimum of scripting.Elgg: social networking platform
Amazon vs community models per David Wilkins of Mzingahttp://www.slideshare.net/MzingaMarketing/the-amazon-model-and-community-model-the-intersection-of-lms-and-learning-20-presentationLMS vs Social networking platformAn LMS tends to be compartmentalized and linear.A Social Networking platform allows for before, during and after learning.Why choose Elgg over a traditional learning platform?We feel that learning happens before, during and after the formal educational event. Using this particular format allows users/learners to create a community of practice or learning around a particular topic area and continue to do so after the learning event has finished.There are two basic models of social learning: amazon and community.The Amazon model has content at the center with social activities around the edges. The social learning is focused on the content and builds the community around the subject matter.The Community model focuses on social networking, although formal learning can be a part of the activities. The community is held together by the social activity not the content.
The structure of our particular course used a hybrid of the Amazon & Community model. All the activities were designed around the subject matter. Blogging, wikis (pages), The Wire )twitter-like plugin), group discussions.
Freedom is being a responsible member of our community. This means that anything that we discover through the use of open source software and the application of the open source philosophy should be given back to the community for further use, development, research and study.Active involvement is key to the success of an open source community. Contributions to the community range from small to large actions. Any kind of involvement in one community of practice spills over into others. Its not a freebie handout but if you do that, you miss the point of open source. The point of open source is that the product or tool grows and improves with the involvement and input of its user community. Firefox.Blender.Linux.Audacity.Gimp. Linux. Drupal. All have active user communities. In the beginning, we missed the point of Open Source because we looked at it specifically as free tools. What we learned though was that despite the price tag there is a deeper connection and responsibility for using code or programs developed by the community. It is the community that fixes bugs. It is the community that develops plugins and widgets. It is the community that helps shape the program. The source code may be free but it comes with a price.
Facilitator acts more as a guide or moderator who promotes learning within the course community.Encouraging skills needed in a learning community What skills does the facilitator need?online facilitation & Web 2.0 savvinesscommunity management – promote discussion, watches & observes interactions and community development; encourage collaborative inquirytopic expert – expert practitioner rather than PhD academicsWhat skills does the student need? web 2.0 savvyLifelong learnerBe open to social learning & sharingBalance diplomacy with effectivenessNot a control freak!Intrinsic motivation to be in the course and to continue learning with and from the communityTools by Rogel http://www.sxc.hu/photo/324936
Facilitator acts more as a guide or moderator who promotes learning within the course community.Encouraging skills needed in a learning community What skills does the facilitator need?online facilitation & Web 2.0 savvinesscommunity management – promote discussion, watches & observes interactions and community development; encourage collaborative inquirytopic expert – expert practitioner rather than PhD academicsWhat skills does the student need? web 2.0 savvyLifelong learnerBe open to social learning & sharingBalance diplomacy with effectivenessNot a control freak!Intrinsic motivation to be in the course and to continue learning with and from the communityTools by Rogel http://www.sxc.hu/photo/324936
Facilitator acts more as a guide or moderator who promotes learning within the course community.Encouraging skills needed in a learning community What skills does the facilitator need?online facilitation & Web 2.0 savvinesscommunity management – promote discussion, watches & observes interactions and community development; encourage collaborative inquirytopic expert – expert practitioner rather than PhD academicsWhat skills does the student need? web 2.0 savvyLifelong learnerBe open to social learning & sharingBalance diplomacy with effectivenessNot a control freak!Intrinsic motivation to be in the course and to continue learning with and from the communityTools by Rogel http://www.sxc.hu/photo/324936
Lessons learned:Design comes firstThe point of open source is responsibility to the community and giving backLearning is a community activityNext Steps:To explore further the ideas of community of practice and social learningReplace some of the forum activities with chat activitiesMore use of “The Wire” to share informationThink Twitter in education and its usesIntegrate wiki software into the Elgg siteThe course right now is linear and not set up to be ongoing. Our next step is to change the model we have set up to make it a community resource and build that interaction and lifelong learning.To apply this design process to a larger subject and to develop a community around it.Thumbs Up! By MagicMarie http://www.sxc.hu/photo/963932