Academic Learning & Collaboration & Learning

Academic Collaboration & Learningin a Networked AgeDr. Alec CourosUniversity of ReginaJuly 2011

bit.ly/oslo2011

Faculty Proﬁle

The Blur

Photo-A-Day

Open CV

Open Access Journal

Open Teaching

“Web 2.0 tools exist that might allow academics to reﬂectand reimagine what they do as scholars. Such tools mightpositively affect -- even transform - research, teaching, and service responsibilities - only if scholars choose to build serious academic lives online, presenting semi-public selves and becoming invested in and connected to the work of their peers and students.” (Greenhow, Robelia, & Hughes, 2009)

journey(quick version)

Knowledge

knowledge• what is k?• how is k acquired?• how do we know what we know?• why do we know what we know?• what do humans know?• who controls k?• how is k controlled?

human thought/ideas human language source codehigh-level language (e.g. C++, Java, PERL) low-level language (assembly language) code irretrievable machine code (binary)

@jonmott

Collaboration

“given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow” (Linusʼ Law, Raymond 1997)

“A key to transformation is for the teaching profession to establish innovation networks that capture the spirit and culture of hackers -the passion, the can-do, collective sharing.” ~ Hargreaves, 2003

Openness

• philosophical stance • power & controlopen(ness) • access (short version) • design attributes - privacy/publics - transparency - accountability

open(ness) (short version) open education free software open source software open educational resourcesopen content open access publicationopen access courses open teaching open scholarship open accreditation

• pedagogical & pragmatic stance • knowledge exchange,networked curation, wayﬁnding, crowdsourcing, learning collaboration, problem (short version) solving • facilitated through personal learning networks/environments (PLNs/PLEs)

Free/Open Content “describes any kind of creative work in a format that explicitly allows copying and modifying of its information by anyone, notexclusively by a closed organization, ﬁrm, or individual.” (Wikipedia)

“...the power of the new software movement stems from the ʻgift cultureʼ....The Internet is a quintessential example of a gift culture. People are willing to makeall sorts of useful information available for free, in deﬁance of orthodox economic ʻrulesʼ that claim such voluntary behavior can occur only with ﬁnancial incentives.” (Bollier, 1999)

early lessons• knowledge needs to be free.• relationships trump content.• transparency & openness are powerful conditions for knowledge building.• distributed, weak-tie communities can help to solve complex problems.• education can greatly beneﬁt from the experiences of open (source) communities (i.e., networked communities of practice).

participatory media

media stats (2010)• 107 trillion emails (89% spam), from 1.04 billion users.• 255 million websites• 1.97 billion Internet users• 152 millions blogs• 600 million Facebook users (sharing 30 billion pieces of content per month)• 2 billion videos watched on Youtube daily• 5 billion photos hosted on Flickr Stats as of January 2011 via Royal Pingdom

“Privacy is no longer possible ...”

“Privacy is no longer possible ...” “... the technical infrastructure for creating and sharing content has been simpliﬁed to the point where anyone with even limited technical skills can participate.”

“Privacy is no longer possible ...” “... the technical infrastructure for creating and sharing content has been simpliﬁed to the point where anyone with even limited technical skills can participate.” “Social spaces and the process of identity creation and growing up require some “forgivability”.”

Easily Copied Instantly SharedEasily Edited Viewable by Millions

PRIVATE by DEFAULTPUBLIC with EFFORT

PUBLIC by DEFAULTPRIVATE with EFFORT

Best Job in the World

On Digital Video • “Ten years ago, not one student in a hundred, nay, one in a thousand, could have produced videos like this. It’s a whole new skill, a vital and important skill, and one utterly necessary not simply from the perspective of creating but also of comprehending videoStephen Downes communication today.

implications

ChangesEarly Day of PC in Schools Todayʼs Social/Mobile Reality

Informal Learning • “Informal learning is a signiﬁcant aspect of our learning experience. Formal education no longer comprises the majority of our learning.” •George Siemens http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

Network Literacies • “Understanding how networks work is one of the most important literacies of the 21st century.” (2010)Howard Rheingold

Services

HumanConnections

Crowdsourcing Example #1:Deconstructed

additional lessons• growing modes of access and the ability to publish & disseminate to wide audiences are key affordances.• (digital) citizenship & (digital) identity are emerging content areas that heavily implicate emerging pedagogies.• crowdsourcing & social curation of content will prove transformational for learning experiences.

practice

open teaching

network mentors

non-credit students

student-controlled spaces

aggregation

microblogging

shared resources

daily updates

What We Learned• Open access, low-cost, high impact.• Courses become shared, non-local, learning events.• Students immersed in a greater learning community.• Rethinking of space/interaction (walled gardens, open spaces)• Learning spaces controlled and/or owned by students.• Development of emerging literacies, relevant for other courses.• Pedagogy focused more on connecting & interactions; content important, but secondary.• Development of sustainable, long-term, learning connections.

conclusion

Sharing http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/dolmansaxlil/4802611949/

On Sharing ... “itʼs about overcoming the inner 2 year old in you that screams mine, mine, itʼs mine.” (Wiley, TEDxNYED, 2010)

Opennesshttp://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/bombeador/4396467701/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Identityhttp://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/jaumedurgell/740880616/sizes/l/in/photostream/

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/will-lion/3356252350/

Relationships

“My student was delighted by the attention her blog post had received; it gave her conﬁdence in her writing and bolstered her enthusiasm for our class.... We were no longer studying an important work of20th century literature within the narrow context of my syllabus; instead we had become part of aconversation that involved the broader reading public.As a professor, I was displaced from the centre of the conversation, which became more open, distributed and student-driven than it had been before.”

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/admitchell08/2574455073

Don’t limit a child to yourown learning, for he was born in another time. ~Tagore http://couros.ca couros@gmail.com @courosa

http://blog.saadatm.com	1414
http://www.scoop.it	578
http://storify.com	553
http://teachergatis.blogspot.com	482
http://www.pgsimoes.net	298
url_unknown	31
http://paper.li	9
http://101.edstartup.net	3
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	1
http://www.linkedin.com	1

Academic Learning & Collaboration & Learning

by Alec Couros

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