Spokane

Rethinking teaching: Networks and social connections George Siemens May 1, 2008 Pacific Northwest Higher Education Teaching & Learning Conference Learning Technologies Centre www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies

What are we really facing?
Social views of learning
Tools?
Distributed. Everything.
Learning networks
Control
And into the abyss of chaos we shall teach

Web 2.0 Millenials Open Education Resources Blogs Wikis Second Life Virtual Worlds Twitter Wikipedia YouTube uStream Podcasts flickr Skype Diigo Blogger Google Docs LMS Learning 2.0

Distributed learning Learner-centered Authentic Teaching Accountability Standards Online learning Hybrid learning Blended learning Globalization Digital literacy Digital divide

Reality?

Explosion

Information

An exabyte? How Big?
Five exabytes of information is equivalent in size to the information contained in 37,000 new libraries the size of the Library of Congress book collections.
UC Berkeley

In 2007 the digital universe equalled 281bn gigabytes of data, or about 45gb for every person on Earth
International Data Corporation

It took two centuries to fill the shelves of the Library of Congress with more than 57 million manuscripts, 29 million books and periodicals, 12 million photographs, and more. Now, the world generates an equivalent amount of digital information nearly 100 times each day.
Internet Innovation Alliance

Increased: Complexity and Access

Time: 1990-2001
Cost?: $3 Billion

Map your DNA
Cost?: $1000
“ You can discover your origins, learn what the latest genetic findings may mean for you, and connect genetically with friends, family, and others across the globe.”

Getting to 25%
Electricity =46 years
Telephones =35 years
Televisions =26 years
Broadband=6 years
McKinsey

IP traffic will nearly double every two years through 2011. Total IP traffic will nearly quintuple in the five-year period from 2006-2011.
Cisco’s “The Exabyte Era” 2007

Internet's current network architecture will reach the limits of its capacity by 2010
AT & T

Tools?
Learning networks
Control

Social theories of learning

Vygotsky Socio-cultural

Leontiev Action has not meaning in itself but in relation to others

“ The information required by individuals for functioning in society and for the survival of society itself is not carried in our biotic genes but in our societal institutions”
Tolman

Bandura
“ Socially interdependent effort”
Triad: Cognitive, biological, environmental

Relationship of
Activity
Individual
Society
Tools

Tools?
Learning networks

The tool is the thing...

Gibson: affordances “Action possibilities”

Extending ourselves: Technological advances

Tools?
Learning networks
Control

Let’s get fragmented

Pieces

Distribution

Cognition

Sensemaking
All meanings are created in the public domain...in collective situations and actions
Wittgenstein (Toulmin)

Knowledge

Creation

Learning

Duality of fragmentation
Ease of customization, adaptation, individualization
Pressure of building realities outside of solid frameworks

Tools?
Learning networks
Control

Connectivism

What do we mean when we say “Network Learning”?

1. Technical infrastructure

2. Network structure

3. Distributed cognition, knowledge, and learning

4. Network skills

5. Systemic views of networked learning, knowledge, and education

Tools?
Learning networks
Control

Who does what?
Who speaks? How?
Who has control?

Information is participation

Dilbert

Human face to murder
Jill Leovy: Homicide Report
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/homicidereport/

History Commons
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org

Open Educational Resources

Tools?
Learning networks
Control

Our reality
Tremendous growth of information and complexity
Our social nature
Tools to extend ourselves
Networks to filter, make sense, think, learn
Shifting control: Thinning class walls

On becoming...

Different teachers

Not only domain-specific knowledge

But connections

And new literacies

Literate/competent with networks

Literate with information
Finding
Evaluating
Filtering
Sharing
Re-creating
Collaborating

Literate with identity

Literate with process/tools
Media
Context
Tool selection
Process selection

From knowing something to connecting to something

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

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Spokane

by gsiemens on May 01, 2008

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Spokane — Presentation Transcript