Where Is The M In Interactivity, Collaboration, and Feedback?

Where is the M in Interactivity, Collaboration and Feedback? Michael Coghlan Wireless Ready Nagoya (29/3/08)

Payphone Ladies

Mobile Learning is more than Mobile Technology
Stephen Downes on Leonard Low:
“ Low clarifies his thoughts on the definition of 'mobile learning', concentrating more on social factors (ubiquity, ease of use, appropriateness of use in public places, cost) rather than on the device itself.”
Low wrote:
“ Mobile learning is, after all, about the mobility of learning , and not merely the mobility of technology…but how we achieve that mobility of learning must consider the context of the learning, and not just the use of mobile technology, if it is to achieve its full potential.” (7/3/07)

Trigger Point
Dr Norbert Pachler (Mlearn Conference, 2007): Title : Thinking about the ‘m-’ in mobile learning (co-authored with Gunther Kress)

Progression……
Online learning
E learning
Flexible learning
M (mobile) learning
E + M = U (ubiquitous) learning (Janet Fraser, Monash University)

Abstract:
The marriage between education and Internet technology has effected an extraordinary assault on perspectives about teaching and learning. The role of the teacher, the nature and context of learning, the role, relative importance and agency of course content have all been challenged and redefined . Mobile learning complicates the picture even further. M-learning is not just about using laptops, smart phones, and tag and code readers. The wider context of mobility implies multiple contexts for learning, the blurring of social and academic spheres of activity , student collaboration and production of content, and a view of knowledge that is dynamic rather than static . How does a teacher foster and manage Interactivity, Collaboration, and Feedback in this context? How and where do teachers and students acquire the skills to operate effectively in an m-learning world?

Agency has shifted from teacher to learner; from teaching to learning

Shift from broadcast model to student content creation (user generated content)
IMPLICATIONS:
Not an entirely new idea - Jonassen: Technology as Cognitive Tools: Learners as Designers (circa 1994)
Assumed : students have phones, mp3 players, other media capturing devices; and the skills to use them effectively (see English and Advertising class blog)
These media capturing devices can be used anywhere anytime
Where is the quality control ? Who decides what constitutes quality? Is something other than quality now more important? eg engagement, motivation, increased levels of participation?
To what degree should this be allowed? What % of course content should be user-created? Are we talking about (core) syllabus? Or just for assessment purposes?
Where does user-generated content go? Should it be public? Should schools/colleges have to allow/sanction publishing of course content to public sites? (Media on the Move project)
Emphasis shifts from what you learn to how you learn

Mobility  Non-Linearity “non-linearity is damaging narrative”
The Bugbear of Literacy (Ananda K. Coomaraswamy; 1949) resented the impact of the written word on the oral tradition (and memory)
RELATED TRENDS
The rise of the rock video and the prevalence of rhizomic thinking
The revolution of hyperlinking
Multitasking (‘transmedia navigation’)

RHIZOMIC NATURE OF THE INTERNET

Horizontal Learning (multitasking) Instant Messaging Assignment SMS iPod Surfing Watching video/TV

HORIZONTAL V VERTICAL LEARNING

Vertical Learning (single focus) Assignment: What were the principal factors that led to the Indonesian coup in 1965 and the eventual downfall of President Sukarno? (5000 words)

Horizontal v Vertical Learning
The discerning eteacher:
Acknowledges the nature and influence of horizontal learning (multitasking)
Knows when to encourage vertical learning (single focus activity)

Fragmentation  lack of shared cultural experience
IMPACT:
“… we don’t have a common frame of reference anymore as to what constitutes truth or beauty or logic or anything” (Sessums quoting Kelley, Leyden)
The goal of schools to deliver a standard curriculum with common core values is being subverted > ethical challenge
Subcultures (communities of practice); individualised social and cultural experiences; a ‘distributed’ culture that is often transglobal
*‘diversification of cultural expression’; ‘channels’ (subcultures) provided by YouTube, Facebook, chosen RSS feeds and the like
Technology  ideology (technology has become a social marker)
Skills for success now achievable beyond the walls of education (rise in importance of informal learning)
*Jenkins et al

New Learning? No - different conditions and environments
a new habitus of learning (Learning 2.0?)
Despite Prensky’s mantra that Gen Y brains are wired differently, the physiology of learning has not changed
But learning no longer confined to the classroom or working with immediate peers
Teacher no longer the sole source of content
We now have a “decentralisation of resource provision”
the blurring of social and academic spheres of activity

“ The whole world has become curricularised.” (Pachler) Image courtesy of Nancy White

Agency is on the learner to turn information into knowledge
The new model supplies ‘stuff’; not knowledge, which an individual assembles according to their own interests
Text WAS knowledge pushed; NOW text is a resource that learner must make sense of > self-knowledge

The Nature of Text
Formally, text arrived as a settled, final, coherent body of work from acknowledged expert who was an authoritative source
Contemporary text : contingent, multiple authors (no authoritative source with attendant power); provisional; [wikis, blogs, podcasts]
We are moving from a world of stability > a world of fluidity; from a world of canonicity > a world of provisionality

Mobility =
Mobility = fluidity = negotiation (of meaning) > creation of knowledge
Mobility implies a sense of incompletion
Mobility in the sense that :
The individual is always ready to be a ‘learner’ and to turn the environment into a site for learning. Continually in a state of incompletion and moving towards completion (dynamic); mobile not only physically but conceptually. The whole world has become ‘curricularised.’

Courtesy of Greg Whitby

Learning in the 21 st Century
“ I have seen predictions that a student doing a 3 year course by 2012 will experience the situation where most of the knowledge they have gained in year one will be completely out of date by the time they finish year 3.”
“… the only sustainable approach…will be to find the learning and teaching strategies which will ensure that people embrace attitudes and behaviours anchored in lifelong learning.”
“ It is becoming …an imperative for industry to have staff who are lifelong learners and highly ICT literate.”
Greg Black, CEO, education.au (Campus Review 16/10/07)

http://flickr.com/photos/7447470@N06/1345266896/
WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF ALL OF THIS ON
INTERACTIVITY?
COLLABORATION?
FEEDBACK?

How and where do teachers and students acquire the skills to operate effectively in this type of mobile world?

Please add your thoughts to the wiki at
http:// whereisthem.wikispaces.com /

" In a world in which each individual can pursue most any personal purpose in most any place that suits him, all on his own initiative, the habit of relying on authoritative institutions , which operate through commands enforced by penalties and inducements, may sharply diminish . ( McClintock , 2000)

Interaction and Assessment
“The renewed emphasis on collaborative learning is pushing the educational community to develop new forms of interaction and assessment.” 2008 Horizon Report

Interactivity/Interaction

Interactivity v Interaction
Interactivity - relationship with computer or software
Interaction – relationship with other people

Interactivity (Photo courtesy of Ron Oliver)

Interaction Image courtesy of Marg O’Connell @ The Web: inspiring great online teaching INTERACTION

Recent virtual environments…

… provide both Interactivity + Interaction http://flickr.com/photos/teachandlearn/2332548574/

Interactivity/Interaction
When the whole word is ‘curricularised’, every place, every person, every event is part of the new habitus of learning, and you see your interaction with everything as a potential point of learning: a learning opportunity
Important that connections between lecturer and students is frquent, and offered via many channels
Less communication more often? (eg Twitter)
Teachers as guide not sage
Activities and tasks should have interaction between learners built in ie be collaborative in nature

Collaboration

Collaboration
Authority is distributed, decentralised
Continuous self and peer assessment
Self – assessment:
What do you want to make meaning (learn) about? (CHOICE)
How do YOU think you went?
What are YOUR standards?
Collaboration is extremely difficult – needs to be taught (BYU?) [need to learn to negotiate conflict, give and receive criticism which may be taken personally]

Feedback

Feedback
Ongoing (no endpoint)
Linked to your own personal choices about what you learn, how you learn, and how you choose to be assessed
A new cohort of Internet content rankers are very familiar with the giving and receiving of feedback
How deep should the feedback go?
Less communication more often? (eg Twitter, SMS) [horizontal learning; multitasking]
Still a role for trad approaches to push/probe deeper (will peers do this effectively? (Who’s going to tell you it’s drivel?)

How hard do you push? “ We have to teach them to take responsibility.” (Jackie Pedley)

Feedback
Adrian Miles (RMIT): quality of concept, not technological design skills
Urge students to slow down, reflect, evaluate
if the task is well-crafted, assessment is self-evident and feedback is more formative than summative
Can be sent/received any time; not just in class or when you pick up assignments

How and where do teachers and students acquire the skills to operate effectively in this type of mobile world?

Awareness or a Set of Skills?
New Practices predicated upon an awareness that things have changed…

Education by and large has not changed. Syllabus/curriculum is still rooted in a past paradigm of fixed knowledge. The world beyond classrooms has changed a great deal, and will continue to do so at an ever-increasing rate…… Photo courtesy of Sawrah, http://flickr.com/photos/sawrah/314474272/

Awareness:
More about ‘learning to be’
part of a participatory culture
a networked learner/educator
part of a community

Paradigm Shift #1

Paradigm Shift #2? COMMUNITY-CENTRIC

How do I work?
I know from my own life that something has changed. I am now a much more social learner. I like to draw on the knowledge of others who I can contact and with whom I can discuss issues... I have definitely changed the way I learn, and have found a more enjoyable way of learning. Technology, and the connections it affords, has made that possible.
I doubt that I could study a formal ‘course’ anymore….

Acquiring the Skills
Join an online community or email list
Ask questions and initiate discussions about your interests and needs
Start publishing or tracking blogs, podcasts
Do an online course in multiliteracy
Create social bookmarking and photosharing accounts
Create media – start simple:
Upload photos to Flickr; comment on others’ photos
create Digital Stories (Photostory, Moviemaker) and upload to YouTube
Search YouTube and other video repositories for educational content and start using it in your teaching
Place yourself in the new habitus of learning – you need to do it to understand and internalise the power of networks; reading and observing will not achieve this philosophical seachange
Put yourself to the side; know that the best teachers are always willing learners

The excellent eteacher:
has an online presence/website (eg course homepage on LMS, or own website, blog, etc)
Knows how to use technology for delivery and assessment and therefore has a blog, a wiki, or podcast site
Includes media in delivery and production of teaching materials and student assessment
Models and teaches digital literacy
Creates and provides digital resources
Teaches search, validation, and verification skills
Employs and models RSS as a means of aggregating and distributing content

Teaches about, and employs collaborative approaches
Switches between sage and guide as appropriate
Knows when to call in the wisdom of the experts to balance the wisdom of the crowd
Acknowledges the value of informal learning
Accepts that engaging learners is necessary (and that probably means using technology)

Acknowledges that students may assess the value of a resource via their networks rather than accept the word of the expert (teacher/lecturer)
Uses social bookmarking for collective mining and sharing of resources
Is a good (and frequent) online communicator
Knows how to effectively combine synchronous and asynchronous modes of delivery
Is able to teach in a virtual classroom/web conferencing environment (eg Centra, Elluminate, etc)
Must be e-connected and draw on the resources of their networks to remain current (and demonstrate to students)

Resources:
Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21 st Century ; Jenkins et al, 2006
Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0 ; John Seely Brown, Richard Adler, 2008
Media on the Move ; New Practices Project, 2006
URGENT: 21st Century Skills for Educators (and Others) First ; George Siemens
Read, Write, Mix, Rip, and… Burn, Baby, Burn: Notes on How Social Media Affects Conventional Teaching and Learning Practices ; Christopher Sessums, 2007
Horizon Report 2008 ; New Media Consortium

Resources:
Ten Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes To Be a More Successful e-learning Professional – Lisa Neal
Ten Web 2.0 Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes to Be a More Successful E-learning Professional – Stephen Downes

Where Is The M In Interactivity, Collaboration, and Feedback?

by michaelc on Mar 28, 2008

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Where Is The M In Interactivity, Collaboration, and Feedback? — Presentation Transcript