Keynote presentation for #ALTC 2014. A fuller link to video & a summary of the keynote is here: http://catherinecronin.wordpress.com/2014/09/09/navigating-marvellous/
Abstract: Inspired by a Seamus Heaney poem (Lightenings viii), I’ll explore “navigating the marvellous”, the challenge of embracing open practices, of being open, in higher education, from the perspective of educators and students, citizens and policy makers. To be in higher education is to learn in two worlds: the open world of informal learning and networked connections, and the predominantly closed world of the institution. As higher education moves slowly, warily, and unevenly towards openness, students deal daily with the dissonance between these two worlds; navigating their own paths between them, and developing different skills, practices, and identities in the various learning spaces which they visit and inhabit. Educators also make daily choices about the extent to which they teach, share their work, and interact, with students and others, in bounded and open spaces. How might we construct and navigate Third Spaces of learning, not formal or informal but combined spaces where connections are made between students and educators (across all sectors), scholars, thinkers, and citizens — and where a range of identities and literacy practices are welcomed? And if, as Joi Ito has said, openness is a survival trait for the future, how do we facilitate this process of “opening education”? The task is one not just of changing practices but of culture change; we can learn much from other movements for justice, equality and social change.
5. Public domain: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division,
U.S. News & World Report Magazine Collection ppmsca.04295
CC BY Burns Library, Boston
College (Flickr)
7. At its best openness is an ethos
not a license. It's an approach to
teaching and learning that
builds a community of learners
online and off.
Jim Groom
@jimgroom
“
9. “I don’t think
education is about
centralized instruction
anymore; rather, it is
the process [of]
establishing oneself
as a node in a broad
network of distributed
creativity.”
– Joi Ito @joi
Slide: CC-BY-SA catherinecronin Image: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 yobink
13. There is a divide between formal and
informal learning.
Students navigate the dissonance
between these – with or without our
support.
14. …furtive thinking and behaviour around open-web
resources such as Wikipedia masks the level of use of
non-traditional resources and also masks the methods
learners use to increase their understanding of
subjects, creating what we have called The Learning
Black Market. The point at which learning takes place
is often not being discussed because either explicitly
or implicitly learners are being told by their educational
intuitions or perceive that the educational institutions
view that their information-seeking practices are not
legitimate.
David White, Lynn S. Connaway,
Donna Lanclos, Erin M. Hood & Carrie Vass
Evaluating digital services: a Visitors and Residents approach, JISC InfoNet
“
24. Khan Academy...
#studentvoice
Strange putting a face to the voice of my first year
maths lecturer!
Khan Academy is possibly one of the most useful
sources for students studying maths. The idea is
simple, If you don't understand the first time you
watch it... watch it again.
“
29. #icollab
We’re now looking at the ‘tag-team model’ of education: the
projects never end, as there is always a cohort to carry on, and
lead into the next group, and when they overlap that’s great –
that’s where the genuine collaboration happens. Traditionally,
we deliver modules/courses, neatly chunked into 12 weeks,
with units of assessment, leading to grades etc. and that’s the
way things are (generally) done. I’m not saying scrap all of
that, but I do think that modules are best served as
springboards to other things.
Increasingly, students are connecting across levels and
cohorts through Twitter and now we have ex-students getting
together with current students, undergrads coming to postgrad
classes (and vice versa) as they’ve connected online and have
a genuine interest in getting involved in other groups/further
curricula outside of their taught modules.”
Helen Keegan (2012)
@heloukee
“
39. #studentvoice
Openness...
“
I learned a lot more about writing to the public. Before
this I would have been less likely to express my views to
a group of people online whereas now I would not have a
problem in doing so.
By posting publicly it opened up our world to other
academics or people who are just interested in the
topic... I don’t think anyone would have thought that the
author of one of the works we were researching
would get involved.
“
40. #studentvoice
Social networks...
“
“
Before studying it, I used Facebook and Twitter mainly
just for keeping in contact with people, but since have
discovered they both have much more to offer.
They are places to discover new information and boost
your knowledge. That both education and socialising can
be rolled into one.
41. Open practices give us and our
students opportunities to cross
boundaries of geography, culture,
institution, term, education sector,
community, and/or power level…
45. DigiLit Leicester
Working to improve learner outcomes and raise standards
in secondary level schools across Leicester
through design & implementation of a digital literacy
framework for secondary school staff.
Josie Fraser, Richard Hall & Lucy Atkins
http://www.digilitleic.com
46. As studies become more contextualised it
seems that the real lesson of online identity is
not that it transforms identity but that it makes
us more aware that offline identity was already
more multiple, culturally contingent and
contextual than we had appreciated.
Danny Miller (2013)
@dannyanth
Photo by George Miller
(used with permission)
“
48. We proposed the idea of a Third Space where
teacher and student scripts – the formal and
informal, the official and unofficial spaces of
the learning environment – intersect, creating
the potential for authentic interaction and a shift
in the social organization of learning and what
counts as knowledge.
Kris Gutiérrez (2008)
University of Colorado, Boulder
“
49. People live their lives and learn across multiple
settings, and this holds true not only across the
span of our lives but also across and within the
institutions and communities they inhabit...
I take an approach that urges me to consider the
significant overlap across these boundaries as
people, tools, and practices travel through
different and even contradictory contexts and
activities .
Gutiérrez (2008)
“
51. If institutions of learning are going to help
learners with the real challenges they face...
[they] will have to shift their focus from
imparting curriculum to supporting the
negotiation of productive identities
through landscapes of practices.
Etienne Wenger (2010)
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
choconancy1
“
52. Manifesto for teaching online
MSc in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh
By redefining connection, we find we
can make eye contact online.
Place is differently, not less, important
online.
Community and contact drive good
online learning.
…
onlineteachingmanifesto.wordpress.com
53. There’s a risk that online education systems get
tooled to “the norm” – a roaming autodidact
a self-motivated, able learner that is simultan-eously
embedded in technocratic futures and
disembedded from place, culture, history, and
markets.
Tressie McMillan Cottom (2014)
“
tressiemc.com/2014/07/30/round-up-of-berkman-center-notes-and-reflections
54. Learners need to practice and experiment with
different ways of enacting their identities, and adopt
subject positions through different social
technologies and media.
These opportunities can only be supported by
academic staff who are themselves engaged in
digital practices and questioning their own
relationship with knowledge.
- Keri Facer & Neil Selwyn (2010)
59. Gardner Campbell – Ecologies of Yearning
youtube.com/watch?v=kIzA4ItynYw
Openness [is] process, not product after all. It’s not so much the what
we learn but the how and the who with and the why we do so… it’s
not so much about “open” as an adjective to describe education;
rather it’s “opening” as a verb to describe what we must do. What
we want students, learners, all of us, to do.
Audrey Watters (2012)
“
60. “We have to build our half of the bridge…” Colum McCann
Image: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Tim Haynes
61. Thank you!
Catherine Cronin
@catherinecronin
about.me/catherinecronin
slideshare.net/cicronin
Image: CC BY 2.0 visualpanic
62. References
Apple, Michael (1990). Foreword. In S.G. O’Malley, R.C. Rosen & L. Vogt (Eds.) Politics of Education: Essays
from Radical Teacher. State University of New York Press.
Atkins, L., Fraser, J. and Hall, R. (2014) DigiLit Leicester: Project Activities Report, Leicester: Leicester City
Council (CC BY-NC 3.0).
Cottom, Tressie McMillan (2014). Roundup of Berkman Center Notes & Reflections. tressiemc.com
Cronin, Catherine (2014). Networked learning and identity development in open online spaces. 9th
international Networked Learning Conference, Edinburgh.
Facer, Keri & Selwyn, Neil (2010). Social networking: Key messages from the research. In R. Sharpe, H.
Beetham & S. de Freitas (Eds.) Rethinking Learning For A Digital Age. Routledge.
Gutiérrez, Kris D. (2008). Developing a sociocritical literacy in the Third Space. Reading Research Quarterly,
43(2), 148-164.
Heaney, Seamus (1991) Lightenings viii, Seeing Things. Faber and Faber.
Ito, Joi (2011, December 5). In an open-source society, innovating by the seat of our pants. The New York
Times.
Keegan, Helen (2012). A new academic year: global, connected, creative – and not (quite) a MOOC.
Miller, Danny (2013). Future Identities report. Foresight Project, DR2.
Pew Research Internet Project (2013). Social Media Update 2013.
Rainie, Lee & Wellman, Barry (2012). Networked: The new social operating system. MIT Press.
Watters, Audrey (2012). Gardner Campbell, J. Alfred Prufock, and the Ecologies of Yearning. hackeducation
Wenger, Etienne (2010). Knowledgeability in Landscapes of Practice SRHE Conference 2010. In deFreitas &
Jameson, Eds. (2012) The e-Learning Reader.
67. Reclaim Open Learning
“Showcases innovation that brings together the
best of truly open, online and networked learning
in the wilds of the Internet, with the expertise
represented by institutions of higher education.”
http://open.media.mit.edu/
69. Open Mercia @OpenMercia
Collaboration by developers, data analysts and policy
advisors – from the public sector, voluntary sector,
academia and technology SMEs;
Interested in encouraging openness by default and with
specific reference to data, encouraging the release and
use of open data for social, economic and
environmental benefit.
Editor's Notes
This is one of the best definitions I’ve seen of Education… and how open, networked practices are changing, and will change education.
Not connected/limited by geography, space, time... but connected by our own ideas, passion, commitment via open practices & social media.
QUESTION: How best can I help my students to live & thrive in this world?
…this informs my practice (learning, teaching, research)
Rainie & Wellman: developed Castell’s concept of Networked Individualism
Manuel Castells: “morphology of contemporary societies is the network.” - previous sociological models defined by hierarchies and 1-to-many communication patterns declining in importance.
Info & Comm Ecologies strikingly different..
Social Networks – networks vs. groups
INTERNET – baked-in ethic of openness & innovation
MOBILE – affects our sense of Time & Place… + Presence
Transformation in <10 years (ALL AGES!)
We are all Networked Individuals (whether FB, Twitter, Skype)… Networked Learners.
Q? SEARCH + CONNECT
Google, Wikipedia, YouTube (many things are students are counseled NOT to do!)
Unfortunately, many of our students (NIs) rarely get the opportunity to learn & develop their skills for networking & networked learning within formal education.
In all our attempts to build learning platforms, to tame the wild & open web, we may be reinforcing a lesson with unintended & negative consequences…
There is a DIVIDE between Informal & Formal Learning
Students must navigate the dissonance between these:
Informal / everyday / open
Formal / institutional / bounded
Our message: Don’t rely on Google. Don’t use Wikipedia.
Discuss in forum in VLE (which will disappear in 3 months…)
Here are 6 videos & 12 readings to use…
Curation & Structure… but we mustn’t stop there!!
Excellent DV/DR work…
Title… borrows a metaphor from Seamus Heaney.
Heaney wrote a beautiful multi-verse poem (1991Seeing Things)
Definition… Lightening: To make light, illuminate or brighten.
Based on an ancient Irish legend about monks in Clonmacnoise, amazed to see a ship in the sky above them.
Anchor line got caught, a crew member climbed down… could not breathe + was helped to return to “the sea” above.
The legend highlights the existence of (at least) two realities, with beings in one space often unaware of and unable to survive in the other.
Learning Spaces in HE consider the different spaces where students + educators interact. We, of course, are active in many spaces – both physical + virtual – as are our students (e.g. multiple FB groups, various SM apps, blogs, etc).
8 years ago, Alec Couros created this
even by mid-2000s, the way educators learn + teach + share was changing – due to the ability to network openly, with access to a huge amount of content and people – globally.
Of course it’s not just teachers who are networked individuals…
Focus here is not on choices *between* these (many of us use all 3)… but to consider/explore all 3…
Q: What happens in these spaces?
Q: What’s possible in these spaces?
Physical spaces = safe spaces for learners to develop & to share – with teacher, sometimes one another.
Group dialogue, collaboration
Create Community
Synchronous
Bodily markers
BUT!! Time & Space, asset for building community also barriers
BUT!!
“Tyranny of the Architecture” – History – Tradition
Q: Whose voice is privileged?
Q: Whose K is privileged?
Possible to build a community of learners in places like these, but challenging IF we limit ourselves to JUST these.
BOS:
Online architecture, bits / atoms, flexible
Fewer temporal constraints (e.g. asynchronous) – though still semester-bound
Fewer identity markers work by Jen Ross & Sian Bayne re: embodied vs. virtual teaching
BOS Challenges:
Private & closed
In a typically configured VLE teacher/instructor is literally privileged
OOS:
Solutions are likely to be multimodal
Build trust, build relationships… mess, challenging
Cross boundaries temporal, spatial, geography, culture, institution, education sector
BOS:
Connected, but we cannot simultaneously share our community with our networks – combine them – share our work with wider audience. MESSAGE: what we do here is separate from all else we do; Formal learning divorced from rather than integrated with Informal learning practices and literacies.
OOS:
Enable NETWORKED / CONNECTED learning
Organising principle is the network
Open… share In/Out and Out/In (share our networks)
Distributed discussions: Students, scholars, independent thinkers
Let’s not conflate Open and MOOCs.
Purposeful open practices in conventional classroom & online courses can help students to create their own meaning, in authentic contexts.
Ask students! (Humility again…)
And... a reflection on Khan Academy.
Participate openly as a community of learners.
Use the group to leverage the power of the network.
#icollab = community of practice students & lecturers in 7 HE courses, at 7 different institutions, across 6 countries, who are studying – and creating -- mobile & social media
P2P sharing (e.g. Scoop.it)
Visualisation of network connections around hashtag #icollab.
The tool is TAGS Explorer, created by Martin Hawksey – enables visualisation of network connections.
Distributed discussions: Students, scholars, independent thinkers…
Purposeful, Related to learning & assessment
cross boundaries geography, culture, institution, term time
IDENTITY! we continually create/develop our identities, in interactions with others
“We create, maintain & revise… the story of who we are.” (negotiate)
Present different facets of our IDs in different contexts.
DIGITAL IDENTITY = online persona
This photos captures some of the ambivalence that many of us feel about our digital identities. (relevant to online interactions)
Most students come to HE with online identities related to their interests outside school and university.
HOMAGO (Mimi Ito) –
Many students already have a confident social online identity – around their friends, their interests, etc. – and use various online identities for interacting and informal learning.
BUT NOT ALL!!
…but developing an identity as a learner, a writer, a scholar, a citizen…. these are important tasks as part of education.
As educators we have a role in supporting students in developing their digital identities, to support lifelong learning, to model good practices in these online spaces.
Simplistic to assume that a pseudonym & avatar in SM is artificial or in authentic. It can be a way of expressing authenticity that is not possible in other contexts.
Many metaphors used by researchers exploring these ideas… liminality, metaxis, 3P, 3S (and 4P, 4S!).
3S = metaphorical space, an environment for cultural hybridity, open discourse, knowledge and experience sharing and reflection.
3S = hybrid space, i.e. networked, bridged, dynamic, multimodal, open (time-space)
“in-between” space where the negotiation of different cultures occurs
“Third Spaces” of Learning - Kris Gutiérrez
(study of literacy practices in primary school language learning context)
Knowledge NOT = Curriculum
Knowledge = “a living landscape of communities of practice that contribute in various ways” to our learning and to our identities
OOS = 3S = hybrid activity that bridges the official & unofficial spaces of both learning… formal and informal.
3S = hybrid activity that bridges the official + unofficial spaces of both learning… formal + informal.
Transformative space not limited by rigid identities
Learn across temporal, spatial & historical dimensions
Students can reconceive who they are!
Educators & Students interacting in Open Online Spaces:
Potential to be “social peers”
Develop new identities – social & civic identities, as well as learner identities
Negotiating productive identities… students bringing their identities, developing them.
We are living through a moment of great change in education. EDUCATORS and STUDENTS must be involved in creating more flexible, networked & open educ.
We need to move towards our students.
Colum McCann (Irish author): “We have to build our half of the bridge… no matter who or where we happen to be.”