Socializing Teaching and Learning Presented to: Canadian Network for Innovation in Education George Siemens June 18, 2008 Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies

Technology

Is not neutral

And it’s not “only a tool”

Cognition and mind as social phenomenon: - Mind/self created through social participation - Practices/tools/language are social constructions - Power fashions practices/tools Garrison, 1995, p. 737

Cognition and mind as social phenomenon:

- Mind/self created through social participation

- Practices/tools/language are social constructions

- Power fashions practices/tools

Garrison, 1995, p. 737

“ designed, accessed, interpreted, and used to further purposes that embody social values” Bruce & Hogan, 1998

“ designed, accessed, interpreted, and used to further purposes that embody social values”

Bruce & Hogan, 1998

“ every technology has a philosophy which is given expression in how the technology makes people use their minds, in what it makes us do with our bodies, in how it codifies the world, in which of our senses it amplifies, in which of our emotional and intellectual tendencies it disregards” Postman, 1998

“ every technology has a philosophy which is given expression in how the technology makes people use their minds, in what it makes us do with our bodies, in how it codifies the world, in which of our senses it amplifies, in which of our emotional and intellectual tendencies it disregards”

Postman, 1998

Technology as Faustian bargain What are we getting? What are we giving?

What are we getting?

What are we giving?

Consider...

Technology is an ideology a carrier of affordances a disrupter an enabler a reflector of mindsets/world views a shaper of new realities

an ideology

a carrier of affordances

a disrupter

an enabler

a reflector of mindsets/world views

a shaper of new realities

“ What we have here is a transition from a stable, settled world of knowledge produced by authority/authors, to a world of instability, flux, of knowledge produced by the individual...” Institute of Education, London, 2007

“ What we have here is a transition from a stable, settled world of knowledge produced by authority/authors, to a world of instability, flux, of knowledge produced by the individual...”

Institute of Education, London, 2007

“ by creating space and place, we create ourselves” Cannatella, 2007, p. 632

“ by creating space and place, we create ourselves”

Cannatella, 2007, p. 632

Co-evolution of individual and related network Lazer, 2000

Co-evolution of individual and related network

Lazer, 2000

Fifth estate: reshaping “communicative powers of individuals and groups” W. H. Dutton, Oxford, 2007

Fifth estate: reshaping “communicative powers of individuals and groups”

W. H. Dutton, Oxford, 2007

Complexification of knowledge reduces individual capacity to apprehend its unity

Complexification of knowledge reduces individual capacity to apprehend its unity

“ The major responsibility of education is to arm every single person for the vital combat of lucidity” ...New problem: access to info, skills to organize info Morin, p 12, 13, 1999

“ The major responsibility of education is to arm every single person for the vital combat of lucidity”

...New problem: access to info, skills to organize info

Morin, p 12, 13, 1999

Participatory sensemaking De Jaegher, Di Paolo, 2007

Participatory sensemaking

De Jaegher, Di Paolo, 2007

New media adds new opportunities for connections/relations, enacting latent ties Haythornthwaite, 2002

New media adds new opportunities for connections/relations, enacting latent ties

Haythornthwaite, 2002

Social activity system...heedful interrelating Weick & Roberts, 1993

Social activity system...heedful interrelating

Weick & Roberts, 1993

“ Gossip, people-curiosity, and small talk...are in essence the human version of social grooming” Zufekci, 2008

“ Gossip, people-curiosity, and small talk...are in essence the human version of social grooming”

Zufekci, 2008

Shall we chat?

What are the implications for teaching/learning?

Learning is... Contextual Situational Tool-mediated Social Networked Carries DNA of previous ideologies

Contextual

Situational

Tool-mediated

Social

Networked

Carries DNA of previous ideologies

Individual knowledge possible due to social practices of engagement Tsoukas, 1996

Individual knowledge possible due to social practices of engagement

Tsoukas, 1996

What do different technologies do?

Connect

1. Access

2. Presence

3. Expression

4. Creation

5. Interaction/co-creation

6. Aggregate our fragmentation

...and while we’re here..

Open Online Course: Connectivism and Connective Knowledge (Sept, 08) http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/connectivism/

(Sept, 08)

http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/connectivism/

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

www.elearnspace.org

www.knowingknowledge.com

www.connectivism.ca

http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wordpress/

gsiemens AT elearnspace DOT org