Saskatoon

Education: An ecology of connections George Siemens May 14, 2008 TLt Summit Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies

Let’s have a revolution!! (but they take time)
Complex and complicated
What technology does to/for us
Ecologies
The person formerly known as teacher
The Learner

CHANGE

Social and technological collisions

Perez, C. 2004 from 1971 Information/telecommunications from 1908 Oil/Automobile/Mass production from 1875 Steel/Electricity from 1829 Steam/Railways from 1771 Industrial Year Technological revolution

Technological Conceptual

Why change?

Divine Right

Unfair system: Access Barriers

Resonance

But, these things take time

Tension points of education
Open/Closed
Amateur/Expert
Foster/Command
Network/Hierarchy

Reduce barriers

Increased opportunities

Increased participation

Where are we now? Technological Conceptual Here Here Here

Ecologies
The Learner

Complicated

To know the right answer

Complex

When we see complex as complicated…

Satisfied with false knowns

Creation of new frameworks, desire to simplify

When we iconosize concepts, we strip them of the opportunity to morph

Nothing is more pernicious in science than attempts to establish adherence to doctrines
Radcliffe-Brown (1940)

Ecologies
The Learner

Technology as blessing and curse

Balance is the new extreme

Boundaries between people

But what happens to us?

What of community?

Fragmentation
Information
Identity
Understanding

The more we become distributed, the more we yearn to centralize

But individual centralization

Ecologies
The Learner

Learning as network formation and navigation Connection are sufficient

Networks occur within ecologies

Ecologies: environments that fosters and supports learning
Chaotic
Structured informality
Adaptive
Alive
Diverse
Emergent
Self-organizing, individually directed

Education as ecology
Classroom, courses, programs, system
Beyond formal
Beyond myopic view of learner

Ecologies
The Learner

Instructor’s role

Educator as scaffolder? Accreditor?
Network administrator
Curator/concierge
Product/process…content/interaction

Blend, spectrum
Formal to informal
Gradients of technology use
Contextual

EC & I 831
http://eci831.wikispaces.com/

How are ideas vetted/validated?
Source of validation:
By experts? Amateurs? Unwashed masses?
Method:
By networks? Openness? Hierarchical?

Ecologies
The Learner

“ people have much more knowledge than appears to be present in the information to which they have been exposed”
Landauer and Dumais (1997)

Biggs SOLO

Learner’s role

Wayfinding Darken, R. 1996

On becoming…

Move to exploration

Websites and Newsletters
www.elearnspace.org
www.knowingknowledge.com
www.connectivism.ca
http:// ltc.umanitoba.ca/wordpress /
gsiemens AT elearnspace DOT org

Saskatoon

by gsiemens on May 15, 2008

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