Link Project summary

OverviewMatthew AllenCurtin University of TechnologyALTC Teaching Fellow 2008
LinkLearning in networks of knowledge

The LINK Project summarised
Link is developing new methods of learning via the Internet, re-invigorating university-level online learning by updating techniques and pedagogies to take account of the changing nature of the Internet in society today.
The project focuses on the challenges of creating a student experience that is centred on knowledge production in a networked environment, with an emphasis on how to assess students’ learning in authentic ways

The LINK Project: 3 components
KnowledgeNetworking
AuthenticAssessment
Web 2.0 &Social Media

The LINK Project: 3 components
Web 2.0 tools make KN happen; knowledge is networked because of them
Assessment motivates to do networking; to be authentic has to be networking
KnowledgeNetworking
AuthenticAssessment
Web 2.0 &Social Media
If not social media, assessment less authentic; tools enable new forms of assessment

Assessment Matters
30+ years of research and everyday experience tells us that, mostly, students are driven by assessment (for better or worse); that ‘attentiveness’ makes for better learning.
However assessment causes anxiety; assessment can become a power game between students and teachers; assessment has deeply affective components.

Authentic Assessment
Assessment can be authentic in many ways:
Aligned with learning outcomes / curriculum
Similar to real-world applications, or in context
Consistent with the students’ everyday knowledge world
Realistic to the conditions of academic labour

Assessment in networked world?
Assessments are authentic for a knowledge networking world if they tend towards distributed, fragmented and semi-collaborative forms, inevitably involving some or perhaps many online activities;.
Perhaps, too, they are authentic for students if they compete successfully for attention – assignments are ‘media’ to be consumed.

Assessment types in net studies
Participation for the Internet, not just in the unit
Students find blogs relevant to topics being studied; engage in dialogue with blog authors and audience via commentary on blogs.
Constructive conversations, but not (just) with other students; distributed knowledge work in real world
(Planned for use in semester 1, 2010; preliminary skills developed in first-year units 2009)

Group projects for online publication
Students work in small groups to produce a report for public presentation; detailed criteria to judge output –limited guidance about process.
Emphasis on collaborative knowledge production: collaborate via technologies that suit (Twitter, Ning, meetings, email, chat). Reality is using variety of technologies.
(Trialled in semester 2, 2009; revised and re-used 2010); developed with Elaine Tay

Web Presence
Students build a public website (via Wordpress); must include various elements of web presence; in later-year units, students expand web presence as real online communication and centrepiece of knowledge networking.
Web presence is being ‘available’ for knowledge networking.
(Trialled in semester 2, 2009; revised and re-used 2010); developed with Tama Leaver and Stew Woods

Web 2.0 Distributed Cognition
Many Web 2.0 sites involve simple ‘tasks’ which make humans and computers work together (mindmapping, word clouds, and more).
Students read and do; portfolios pragmatically capture for assessment.
(Assessment trialled in 2009; new tools and ideas to be added 2010); developed with Tama Leaver and Elaine Tay

Conclusions
Authentic assessment has multiple dimensions and tensions. To be truly authentic to educational processes, the real world has to be ‘accommodated’; calls for real-world authenticity are real for future work, not students’ current situation; assessment done well takes more time than teachers are permitted
What counts as ‘knowledge’ is changing
How we ‘do’ knowledge is changing
Knowledge networking expands what can be assessed
Assessment values students’ knowledge networking

Recent papers
Allen, Matthew. (2009). Education and the Internet: Web 2.0 and renewed innovation in online learning, TLF 2009, Perth, January 2009.
Tay, Elaine and Matthew Allen. (2009). Re-invigorating the use of the Internet in higher education. ANZCA Conference, Brisbane, July 2009 Knowledge networking expands what can be assessed
Allen, Matthew. (2009). Authentic Assessment and the Internet: Contributions within Knowledge Networks. Proceedings of World Conference on E-Learning
Allen, Matthew and Jane Long. (2009). Learning as knowledge networking Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering and Computer Science 2009

More information on Link
Matthew Allen, Curtin University of Technology, ALTC Teaching Fellow 2008
m.allen@curtin.edu.au
http://netcrit.net
http://altc-link.wikidot.com
Generously supported by the Australian Teaching and Learning Council as part of its Fellowship program: http://altc.edu.au

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Link Project summary

by Matthew Allen on Nov 16, 2009

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