It's hardly easy to be softly hard: freedom and control in learning spaces

Its hardly easy to be so0ly hard: freedom and control in learning spaces Terry Anderson Jon Dron

Agenda• The nature of technologies and pedagogies CollecAve• Reviewing GeneraAons of Distance EducaAon and Pedagogy net set• Aligning them with Groups, Sets and Nets Me group• Case study using Athabasca’s Landing Elgg installaAon

Overview: Genera.ons of distance learning pedagogies 1. Instruc(vist – Self Paced, indiv-‐ Individual Study, etc Hardclosed idual 2. Social construc(vist – Groups, classes, etc group So0 3. Connec(vist – Networks, net MOOCs, etcopen 4. Holist -‐ Sets and set Collec@ves

ProposiAon #1The Next GeneraAon Learning Evolves From and With Past GeneraAons

Proposi.on #2• Different Structures/Pedagogies/Technologies, with different affordances and degrees of hardness affect our use. We shape We shape our dwellings our tools and and a0erwards thereafter our dwellings our tools shape our shape us lives

Learning as Dance (Anderson, 2008) • Technology sets the beat and the Aming. • Pedagogy deﬁnes the moves.

Technologies• The orchestraAon of phenomena to some use (Arthur, 2009)• Assemblies of hard and so0 components• Pedagogies are among the so0 components of all learning technologies

technologies So5 Hard the adjacent possible path dependenciesﬂexibility and freedom freedom from errorCreaAvity UniformityOrchestraAon of OrchestraAon of phenomena by humans phenomena embeddedSo5 is hard Hard is easy

1. Behavioural/CogniAve Pedagogies InstrucAvist• “tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em,• tell ‘em • then tell ‘em what you told ‘em”Direct InstrucAonISD

Enhanced by the “cogniAve revoluAon”• Chunking • CogniAve Load• Working Memory• MulAple RepresentaAons• Split-‐afenAon effect• Variability Effect• MulA-‐media effect – (Sorden, 2005) “learning as acquiring and using conceptual and cogni.ve structures” Greeno, Collins and Resnick, 1996

Behaviourist/CogniAvist – Knowledge As a Thing:• Logically coherent, exisAng independent of perspecAve• Largely context free• Capable of being transmifed• Assumes closed systems with discoverable relaAonships between inputs and outputs• Readily deﬁned through learning objecAves

Technologies of Ist genera.on• CAI, Text books, Classic Correspondence Course Packages, One way Lectures, Video and Audio Broadcast Con.nuous adap.vity

Social Focus of Ist generaAon Individual Learner

Instruc.vist freedoms net set group • Loca(on • Subject where? what? • Time • Delegability when? choosing to choose • Pace • Technology how fast? using what (medium/tools)? • Sociability • Approach with whom (if anyone)? how (pedagogy, process)?noAonal levels of choice once a typical course is in progress 15

Hardness ear’s bed learning Papa B of individual

Future of Ist genera.on• OERU• Limitless, very low cost content• Challenges of accreditaAon• The (forever?) just around the corner, ‘learner adaptaAon’ technologies

Content:A bargain even at 80% oﬀ??Interac.ve MIT coursesMITX Announced Most of us like Free!

Shameless Plug and Giveaways!Issues in DistanceEducaAon Serieshfp://aupress.ca

2nd GeneraAon DESocial ConstrucAvist Pedagogy

Construc.vist Learning is: “learning is a con.nual conversa.on with the external world and its artefacts, with oneself and with other learners and teachers” (Sharples, Taylor & Vavoula, 2007)• “Learning is located in contexts and relationships rather than merely in the minds of individuals” Greenhow, Robelia & Hughes (2009), Kathy Sierra hXp://www.speedofcrea.vity.org/

Group as the Social Unit of Social ConstrucAvist Pedagogy

Why Groups?• “Students who learn in small groups generally demonstrate greater academic achievement, express more favorable altudes toward learning, and persist …• small-‐group learning may have parAcularly large eﬀects on the academic achievement of members of underrepresented groups and the learning-‐related altudes of women…” • Springer; Stanne, & Donovan, (1999) P.42

Problems with Groups• RestricAons in Ame, space, pace, & relaAonship -‐ NOT OPEN• Overly conﬁned by leader expectaAon and insAtuAonal & curriculum control• Usually Isolated from the authenAc world of pracAce• “low tolerance of internal diﬀerence, sexist and ethicized regulaAon, high demand for obedience to its norms and $ exclusionary pracAces.” Cousin & Deepwell 2005• “Pathological politeness” and fear of debate• Group think (Baron, 2005)• Poor preparaAon for Lifelong Learning beyond the course• Unscalable

Group model• Membership and exclusion, closed • Hierarchies of control• Focus on collaboraAon and shared purpose• teachers: guides group 25

Social construc.vist freedoms net set group • Loca(on • Subject where? what? • Time • Delegability when? choosing to choose • Pace • Technology how fast? using what (medium/tools)? • Sociability • Approach with whom (if anyone)? how (pedagogy, process)?noAonal levels of choice once a typical course is in progress 26

Baby Bear’s bed?• Trust both opens and constrains• Typically a structured process• But…• OpportuniAes for negoAaAon of control• Shi0ing boundaries• Diversity valorized• Big issue: gelng it just right for everyone (assessment?)

3rd GeneraAon Connec(vist Pedagogy• Learning is building capacity -‐ networks of informaAon, contacts and resources that can be applied to real problems.

ConnecAvist Knowledge is A Process• Emergent• Distributed and diverse• ChaoAc• Fragmented• Non sequenAal• Contextualized

What is Connected Knowledge?• Knowledge is deﬁned by its creaAon through acAviAes – Accessing informaAon – EvaluaAng, ﬁltering – Conveying ideas – Reformalng, mashing – Analyzing, – CollaboraAng (Barth 2004)

Networks add diversity to learning“People who live in the intersecAon of social worlds are at higher risk of having good ideas” Burt, 2005, p. 90

Networks Celebrate and SAmulate CogniAve DiversityArises when from:• different types of informaAon and knowledge perspecAves• different ways of viewing the world or a specific problem interpretaAons• different ways of categorizing a problem or parAAoning perspecAves • heurisAcs yielding different ways of generaAng soluAons to problems• predicAve models -‐ different ways of inferring causes and effects (Fisher, L. (2009)

The net model• bofom-‐up, open• inclusive• focus on individual and connecAons• teachers: role models and co-‐travellers net 33

net set Connec.vist freedoms group • Loca(on • Subject where? what? • Time • Delegability when? choosing to choose • Pace • Technology how fast? using what (medium/tools)? • Sociability • Approach with whom (if anyone)? how (pedagogy, process)?noAonal levels of choice once a typical ‘course’ is in progress 34

Mama Bear’s bed• Limitless assembly• Limitless choice• Limitless dialogue• But too so0?

But do learning networks really work??• Network ghost towns• Build it and they may come, but not likely• When is the last Ame you checked into your Friendster account?

Fear of open spaces• “The property of knowledge as as a body of vefed works comes directly from the properAes of paper …. There is lifle to none of the permanence, stability and community fealty that a body of knowledge requires and implies. The Internet is what you get when everyone is a curator and everything is linked” – David Weinberger P. 45

choice != controlit’s not just about networks

Set model #nlc2012• cooperaAon, anonymity• focus on ﬁltering and selecAon• tags and categorisaAon• teachers: analyzers, curators and publishers• AnalyAcs• CollecAves set 40

Sustaining AesMaking Aes Social interest sites, Wikipedia, Ad hoc networks Google Search, TwiOer, Knowledge diﬀusion Pinterest, etcSocial capitalSocial presence CooperaAonEmergence SharingShi0ing net set SerendipityContextual Interest -‐orientaAon MOOCs, blogs, Sense-‐making LinkedIn, social group CollecAve intelligence IntenAonal discovery networks, etc CollaboraAon Structure Roles classes, tutorial groups, Membership learning management IntenAon and purpose systems, etc Hierarchies The classical ‘class’ model

4th generaAon of learning pedagogy• reducing choices to only those choices that learners want or need to make

GeneraAons of distance learning pedagogies 1. Instruc(vist – Self Paced, indiv-‐ Individual Study, etc Hardclosed idual 2. Social construc(vist – Groups, classes, etc group So0 3. Connec(vist – Networks, net MOOCs, etcopen 4. Holist -‐ Sets and set Collec@ves

net set Holist freedoms group • Loca(on • Subject where? what? • Time • Delegability when? choosing to choose • Pace • Technology how fast? using what (medium/tools)? • Sociability • Approach with whom (if anyone)? how (pedagogy, process)?noAonal levels of choice once a typical ‘course’ is in progress 44

How holist? re ru ctu • plenty ra stI nf • openness (resources, people) • so0 and malleable systems tu re • feedback loops rucSt • sAgmergy, social navigaAon • sociability • adapAve hypermedia • collaboraAve ﬁltering • learning and process analyAcs • Hard when wanted, so0 when not 45

The collec.ve• Emergent structure collecAve• Individual behaviours aggregated net set• The crowd becomes an acAve agent that advises, ﬁlters, suggests or group shapes

Collec.ves

Some concerns Deliberate aXack ConﬁrmaAon bias The Mafhew Eﬀect Filter bubbles PreferenAal afachment Mob stupidity Cold start problems ValorisaAon of narcissism Mismatched social forms So0 is hard Lost in social space Blind leading blind Loss of narraAve Making landscapes for emergent pedagogy Context separaAon Control of privacy

So0-‐to-‐hardIn pracAce… GeneraAons 1-‐3 (and 4) Sets, nets and groups

The Landing Placorm1,424 plugins available, our installaAon using about 90Fairly strong development team, plofed roadmap 50

What is the Landing?• Walled Garden with Windows• A Private space for AU• A user controlled creaAve space• BouAque social system• Networking, blogging, photos, microblogging, polls, calendars, groups and more• DiﬀerenAaAng and merging work, from school, from fun

A sod space 24

Mul.ple ra.onales collecAveSustaining .es Coopera.onMaking .es SharingAd hoc networks SerendipityKnowledge diﬀusion net set Interest -‐orienta.onSocial capital Sense-‐makingSocial presence Collec.ve intelligence Inten.onal discovery group Courses CommiXees Research groups Study groups Centres and departments 53 67

group net set Where to look ﬁrst

Popular ac.vi.es Wiki photosub-‐ wiki page Blog posts (4135)Discussion topics bookmarks Files (4023) Wire posts (2335)

Hard spaces“Opening up small spaces within what exists” Tara Fenwick

Filling gaps with people

Stretching tools

Filling gaps the Landing way

New Users Added per week Currently: 3250 users

Landing Groups• 271 Groups• Average of 10.79 members each

Sets, groups, nets (in that order)100 75 50 25 0 blogs wikis bookmarks photos public Set Net Group 62 80

• hfps://landing.athabascau.ca• terrya@athabascau.ca• jond@athabascau.ca

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It's hardly easy to be softly hard: freedom and control in learning spaces

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