Rethinking Teaching & Learning
in a Networked Reality
Dr. Alec Couros
ECOO ’09

#ecoo

Who is this guy?

“Web 2.0 tools that might allow academics to reflect
and reimagine what they do as scholars. Such tools
might positively affect -- even transform - research,
teaching, and services 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, Robella, & Hughes, 2009)

three crowds

Mario Couros

Twitter in 60 Seconds

Twitter in 60 Seconds

The Way We Were

David Wiley
(Brigham Young University)
Then vs Now
Analog Digital
Tethered Mobile
Isolated Connected
Generic Personal
Consumption Creating
@opencontent
Closed Open

David Wiley
(Brigham Young University)
Education vs Everyday
Analog Digital
Tethered Mobile
Isolated Connected
Generic Personal
Consumption Creating
@opencontent
Closed Open

“... networked proximity facilitates new kinds of
spatially unbound community, and that these emerging
forms of sociality are equally or more meaningful than
the older ones. Community is thus “liberated”, unhinged
from space, and can be maintained regardless of
distance” (Mejias, 2007)

Rise of the PLN

trust

easy trust

What are some of the ways
that trust must be considered
when integrating technology
into teaching & learning?

humankind is mostly good

View on Society?

View on Society?

The Web as Random Acts of Kindness
(TED Talk)
@zittrain
• Technical infrastructure of
the web.
• Wikipedia’s content & form
• ‘Hitchhiking’ exists through
Internet-facilitated kindness,
collaboration, & sharing.

“Some of the comments on
Youtube make you weep for the
future of humanity, just for the
spelling alone, never mind the
obscenity and naked hatred.”
@leverus
(Lev Grossman)

The Machine is (Changing) Us
(Personal Democracy Forum)
• Inspired by McLuhan’s “We shape
our tools and thereafter our tools
shape us.”
• Youtube & other social media
mitigate “connection without
constraint”. In many cases this
leaves to “tremendously deep
communities”.
@mwesch

Heroes for our Mediated Culture

“The invention of the alphabet and the resulting
intensification of the visual sense in the communication
process gave sight priority over hearing, but the effect
was so powerful that it went beyond communication
through language to reshape literate society’s
conception and use of space.” (Gordon re: Mcluhan)

educators need trust

via @mcleod

via @shareski

i can haz internetz

@smartinez

What’s the point?
•What do we gain in trusting educators with
technology?
•What opportunities are lost without this
trust?
•What credibility is lost when we assume that
we have control when in fact we do not?
•(How/Where) can we redirect our efforts in
positive, meaningful ways?

learners need trust

Living & Learning with Social Media
(Penn State address)
Teens are not connecting in the
ways we fear. But, we need to
pay attention to:
•Properties: persistence,
replicability, searchability,
scalability, (de)locatability.
•Dynamics: invisible audiences,
@zephoria
collapsed contexts, blurring of
public & private spaces

“Kyle Doyle is not going
to work today, f*** it,
I’m still trashed
SICKIE WOO.”
“Cisco just offered me a job!
Now I have to weigh the utility
of a fatty paycheck against the
daily commute to San Jose and
hating the work.”

Bassman_Sean
(Scotland)
• Scottish teen who
participates in my open,
online grad course.
• Creative, motivated,
independent, connected,
respectful, cognizant and
intentional in managing
his digital identity.
@bassman_sean

networked
reality

simple technologies,
deep connections

in practice

Grade One - Expert Visits
@kathycassidy

Grade Five - Choir on Youtube

Grade Five - Choir on Youtube

Grade Six - Global Connections
@zbpipe

Grade Seven/Eight - Class Branding
@glassbeed

Grade Seven/Eight - Class Branding
@glassbeed

Beaver Country Day School - mashUp

Open Courses

Course Trailers

Course Trailers

Non-Credit Students

Dean Shareski
(Prairie South School Division)
• Master collaborator aka
‘Lazy Professor’.
• Connects preservice
teachers to classrooms
across the globe.
•Focus is on the power
@shareski
of sharing, and ‘paying
forward’.

pay attention to ...

Ubiquity

Real Time Web

RT Search

RT Collaboration

Trusted Groups

New Roles for Educators

Professional Identities

Professional Development Gone Wild!

Thinning Walls
Private Public
Closed Open

Where are you
on this hill?

• Let go

• Let go
• Rethink technology

• Let go
• Rethink technology
• Redefine leadership

• Let go
• Rethink technology
• Redefine leadership
• Understand media

• Let go
• Rethink technology
• Redefine leadership
• Understand media
• Knock down walls

• Let go
• Rethink technology
• Redefine leadership
• Understand media
• Knock down walls
• Expand notions of PD

• Let go
• Rethink technology
• Redefine leadership
• Understand media
• Knock down walls
• Expand notions of PD
• Believe

Don’t limit a child to your
own learning, for he was born
in another time. ~Tagore
web: couros.ca
twitter: courosa
google: couros
alec.couros@uregina.ca