This document summarizes key ideas from a presentation by Dr. Alec Couros on networked learning. In 3 sentences: Couros discusses how Web 2.0 tools can transform research, teaching and service if academics build serious online presences. He advocates for innovation networks among educators that embrace open principles like those of open source communities. Couros shares lessons on knowledge, connections, openness and teaching from his experience participating in online networks and using open educational practices.

1. Why Networked Learning Matters
Dr. Alec Couros
University of Regina
July 2011

2. #ece11
bit.ly/ece11couros

3. me

4. Faculty Profile

6. The Blur

7. Photo-A-Day

9. Open CV

10. Open Access Journal

11. Open Teaching

14. “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)

15. journey
(quick version)

16. Knowledge

17. 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?

18. 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)

19. @jonmott

21. Collaboration

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

23. “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

26. Openness

27. “Open Education is the simple and
powerful idea that the worldʼs 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)

28. 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

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

30. 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)

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

33. 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)

34. 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).

35. participatory media

36. Changes
Early Day of PC in Schools Todayʼs Social/Mobile Reality

38. 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

44. “The average digital birth of children
happens at about 6 months.”

45. “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.”

46. cautions

48. Easily Copied Instantly Shared
Easily Edited Viewable by Millions

49. PRIVATE by DEFAULT
PUBLIC with EFFORT

50. PUBLIC by DEFAULT
PRIVATE with EFFORT

51. Best Job in the World

52. 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.

53. unlikely inspirations

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

62. 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

63. Shared Activities

64. Leveraging
Networks

65. Leveraging
Networks

69. Crowdsourcing
Content

72. Unintentional
Teaching

76. “To answer your question, I did use
Youtube to learn how to dance. I
consider it my ʻmainʼ teacher.”

77. “To answer your question, I did use
Youtube to learn how to dance. I
consider it my ʻmainʼ 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 ʻexclusiveʼ dance styles.”

78. Rethinking
Content/Originality

79. 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.

80. practice

85. open teaching

86. network mentors

87. non-credit students

88. course trailers

89. course trailers

90. student-controlled spaces

91. aggregation

92. microblogging

93. shared resources

94. daily social digest

95. 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.

96. conclusion

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

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

101. Openness
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bombeador/4396467701/sizes/l/in/photostream/

104. Audience

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

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

111. Relationships

115. “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 of
20th century literature within the narrow context of my
syllabus; instead we had become part of a
conversation 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.”

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

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