Presentation for #eci831 given on October 18, 2011.

1. EC&I 831: Social Media & Open Education
“Social Media, Networked & Learning, Identity”
Dr. Alec Couros
October 18, 2011
Dr. Alec Couros

2. me

3. Faculty Profile

4. The Blur

5. http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/3974469907/

6. An Open Educator

9. Open CV

10. Open Access Journal

12. “Web 2.0 tools exist that might allow academics to reflect
and reimagine what they do as scholars. Such tools might
positively 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)

13. journey
(quick version)

14. Knowledge

15. 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?

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

17. @jonmott

19. Collaboration

20. “given enough eyeballs,
all bugs are shallow”
(Linus’ Law, Raymond 1997)

21. “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

24. Openness

25. “Open Education is the simple and
powerful idea that the world’s knowledge
is a public good and that technology in
general and the Worldwide Web in
particular provide an extraordinary
opportunity for everyone to share, use,
and reuse knowledge.”
(William & Flora Hewlett Foundation)

26. open(ness)
(short version)
open education
free software
open source software
open educational resources
open content
open access publication
open access courses
open teaching
open scholarship
open accreditation

27. • pedagogical affordance.
• knowledge exchange,
curation, sensemaking,
wayfinding, collaboration,
connected(ness) crowdsourcing, remixing,
(short version)
problem solving ...
• facilitated through personal
learning networks/
environments (PLNs/PLEs)

28. Free/Open Content
“describes any kind of creative work in a
format that explicitly allows copying and
modifying of its information by anyone, not
exclusively by a closed organization, firm, or
individual.” (Wikipedia)

30. Why Do Students Go to University?
Content Degrees
Social Life Support Services
(Wiley, 2010)

31. Why Do Students Go to University?
PLoS
GCT
Wikipedia MCSE
Google Scholar ACT
OCW
Content Degrees
Flatworld K arXiv.org CNE
CCNA
Open Courses
Facebook Twitter
Skype
Social Life Support Services
MySpace Yahoo! Answers
MMOGs
Quora
ChaCha
(Wiley, 2010)

32. early lessons
• knowledge needs to be free.
• relationships trump content.
• transparency & openness are powerful
conditions for knowledge sharing.
• 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).

33. participatory media

34. Changes
Early Day of PC in Schools Today’s Social/Mobile Reality

35. 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

38. cautions

39. “The average digital birth of children
happens at about 6 months.”
“In Canada, US, UK, France Italy,
Germany & Spain ... 81% of children
under the age of two have some kind
of digital profile or footprint.”

41. Easily Copied Instantly Shared
Easily Edited Viewable by Millions

42. PRIVATE by DEFAULT
PUBLIC with EFFORT

43. Best Job in the World

46. 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 video
Stephen Downes communication today.

47. affordances

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

49. Politics
Howard Rheingold
http://www.anduro.com/calgary-mayor-race.html

50. Services

51. Reputation

52. Creative Projects

57. “Dear Photograph:Thank you for everything we had.”

59. Leveraging
Networks

63. “To answer your question, I did use
Youtube to learn how to dance. I
consider it my ‘main’ teacher.”
“10 years ago, street dance was very
exclusive, especially rare dances like popping
(the one I teach and do). You either had to
learn it from a friend that knew it or get VHS
tapes which were hard to get. Now with
Youtube, anyone, anywhere in the world can
learn previously ‘exclusive’ dance styles.”

66. 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 environments.

67. critical considerations

68. ‘know-what’ vs. ‘know how’

69. new roles

70. transition

71. inspirations

72. Example #1: Connecting to Experts
@kathycassidy

73. Example #2: Transparent Walls
@royanlee

74. Example #3: Publishing in the Open
ps22chorus.blogspot.com

75. Example #4: Making It Relevant
@danikabarker

76. Example #5: Rethinking Classroom Time
@karlfisch

77. Example #6: Learning/Sharing in the Open
@christianlong

79. Example #7: PD Anytime, Anywhere

80. there are thousands of examples
but this is not the norm

81. big ideas to consider

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

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

85. Identity
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaumedurgell/740880616/sizes/l/in/photostream/

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

91. Relationships

92. @shareski

93. conclusion

94. 21st Century Learning
• “What happens to
traditional concepts of
classrooms and teaching
when we can now learn
anything, anywhere,
anytime?”
Will Richardson

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

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