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

Slide 1: Where is the M in Interactivity, Collaboration and Feedback? Michael Coghlan Wireless Ready Nagoya (29/3/08)

Slide 2: Payphone Ladies

Slide 5: 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)

Slide 6: Trigger Point  Dr Norbert Pachler (Mlearn Conference, 2007): Title: Thinking about the ‘m-’ in mobile learning (co-authored with Gunther Kress)

Slide 7: Progression……  Online learning  E learning  Flexible learning  M (mobile) learning  E + M = U (ubiquitous) learning (Janet Fraser, Monash University)

Slide 8: 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?

Slide 9: Agency has shifted from teacher to learner; from teaching to learning

Slide 10: 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

Slide 11: 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’)

Slide 12: RHIZOMIC NATURE OF THE INTERNET

Slide 13: Horizontal Learning (multitasking) SMS Surfing Instant Messagin g iPod Watching Assignment video/TV

Slide 14: HORIZONTAL V VERTICAL LEARNING

Slide 15: 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)

Slide 16: 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)

Slide 17: 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

Slide 18: 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

Slide 19: “The whole world has become curricularised.” (Pachler) Image courtesy of Nancy White

Slide 20: 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

Slide 21: 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

Slide 22: 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.’

Slide 23: Courtesy of Greg Whitby

Slide 24: Learning in the 21st 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)

Slide 25: WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF ALL OF THIS ON • INTERACTIVITY? • COLLABORATION? • FEEDBACK? http://flickr.com/photos/7447470@N06/1345266896/

Slide 26: How and where do teachers and students acquire the skills to operate effectively in this type of mobile world?

Slide 27:  Please add your thoughts to the wiki at http://whereisthem.wikispaces.com/

Slide 28:  "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)

Slide 29: 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

Slide 30: Interactivity/Interaction

Slide 31: Interactivity v Interaction  Interactivity - relationship with computer or software  Interaction – relationship with other people

Slide 32: Interactivity (Photo courtesy of Ron Oliver)

Slide 33: Interaction N TIO AC ER INT Image courtesy of Marg O’Connell @ The Web: inspiring great online teaching

Slide 34: Recent virtual environments…

Slide 35: …provide both Interactivity + Interaction http://flickr.com/photos/teachandlearn/2332548574/

Slide 36: 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

Slide 37: Collaboration

Slide 38: 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]

Slide 39: Feedback

Slide 40: 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?)

Slide 41: How hard do you push? “We have to teach them to take responsibility.” (Jackie Pedley)

Slide 42: 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

Slide 43: How and where do teachers and students acquire the skills to operate effectively in this type of mobile world?

Slide 44: Awareness or a Set of Skills?  New Practices predicated upon an awareness that things have changed…

Slide 45: 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/

Slide 46: Awareness:  More about ‘learning to be’  part of a participatory culture  a networked learner/educator  part of a community

Slide 47: Paradigm Shift #1

Slide 48: Paradigm Shift #2? COMMUNITY-CENTRIC

Slide 49: 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….

Slide 50: 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

Slide 51: 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

Slide 52: The excellent eteacher:  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)

Slide 53: The excellent eteacher:  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)

Slide 55: Resources:  Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Edu st Century ; Jenkins et al, 2006  Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2. ; 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 ; Christopher Sessums, 2007  Horizon Report 2008; New Media Consortium

Slide 56: Resources:  Ten Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes To Be a More Success – Lisa Neal  Ten Web 2.0 Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes to Be a More – Stephen Downes