The Reform Symposium Conference is but one of a myriad of events taking place almost constantly now where teachers have opportunities for meeting in online spaces and sharing information and expertise with one another. The MOOC concept, whether xMOOC or cMOOC, provides steady often overlapping opportunities for deeper, more prolonged engagement not only with niche topics, but more importantly with others interested in those niches. Google Hangouts on Air now make it possible for anyone to simulcast an event, and many do, extending invitations to colleagues in a mushroom field of communities. It seems there is something of this nature going on every minute, and social media is working virally to spread the word among educators. Stepping back to a wider perspective on this phenomenon, what is going on every minute is networked, connectivist learning. Open education, driven by learners connecting with other learners, is taking place around the clock, around the globe, in countless free spaces, bound only by the amount of time participants can make to engage and absorb the knowledge inherent in their networks. The possibilities this unleashes are only starting to be realized by the brick and mortar establishment. Not that we should quit our daytime jobs any time soon, but we should certainly rethink them. This presentation will draw on present circumstances to inform how we might rethink our role as educators, or perhaps more importantly, encourage others to follow our example. The presenter has been involved in coordinating two virtual communities that have been interacting and learning from one another daily for the past decade. This presentation will show through representative examples how participants in these networks acquire the tools for re-thinking how they engage their students. Networked learning is ineffable in that it must be experienced to be understood, and those without that experience have difficulty grasping a full range of its affordances. As the behavior of participants in online networked learning changes, so their teaching styles change, and the better they are able to model for their students characteristics of what they find most effectively leads to their learning what they want to know in an increasingly interconnected world.

1. From teacher networked learning to
transformation in your classroom
Vance Stevens
Reform Symposium 4
http://reformsymposium.com
Oct 13, 2013

2. If you follow this presentation at
http://slideshare.net/vances
All the hyperlinks will work

3. Once upon a time (a digital story)
Sean Wilden yesterday at http://ltsig.org.uk/events/13-future-events/318121013-special-event-using-technology-in-teaching-principles-in-practice.html
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4. Isolation can be dangerous!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0Urj27gqIQ
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5. Welcome to the Read-Write Century
http://www.communitywiki.org/cw/ReadOnly
http://wizards-of-os.org/index.php?id=2322
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6. We can see an end
to isolation for educators
http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/4156
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7. Now more than ever
http://www.futureofeducation.com/page/plenarysugatamitra
but teachers must be beamed as master learners
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8. Richardson’s 6 ways to relearn
• Share everything (or at least something)
• Discover, don’t deliver, the curriculum
• Talk to strangers (filter and interact with
others in your personal learning
network)
• Be a master learner
• Do real work, for real audiences
• Transfer the power (over who drives
curriculum)
How to do these things is ineffable
(must be experienced)
From Slide 5 here:
http://www.slideshare.net/vances/learning2gether-to-develop-personal-learning-networks-to-modelcollaborative-learning-for-teachers-to-use-with-students
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9. What about isolation for students?
c.1995-6 Dave Winet offered classes for students to learn English
http://study.com
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10. Why do people want to study online?
• Teachers instinctively prepared syllabuses
http://www.internettime.com/Learning/The%20Other%2080%25.htm
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11. Not to ‘work’ but to socialize
• Students
rejected
the ‘work’
but in
1997-1998
were
attracted
like moths
to flame to
http://prosites-vstevens.homestead.com/files/efi/webheads.htm
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12. For example …
http://prosites-vstevens.homestead.com/files/efi/yaodong.htm
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13. About Yaodong in TESL-EJ, 2003
http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume6/ej23/ej23int/
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14. Yaodong keeps connecting, 2008
http://www.storyofmylife.com/User/user_story_view.aspx?storyId=2688&ChapterId=3952&UserId=3512
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15. Yaodong connecting Webheads 2001
http://prosites-vstevens.homestead.com/files/efi/chat2001/wfw011031.htm
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16. Sue visited Houston in 2002
http://prosites-vstevens.homestead.com/files/efi/sue_houston.htm
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17. How do we figure out how to structure
learning to meet social expectations?
• In Writing for Webheads
we learned from the students who interacted with us
– how to construct communities that would promote language
learning
– through greater opportunities to socialize in spaces where the
target language was used throughout
• In Webheads in Action
we teach one another experientially, so that we
– learn by trying out online community building techniques
– in spaces where technology is being used online to promote
greater awareness of how it might facilitate language learning
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18. Webheads in Action
http://www.vancestevens.com/paper
s/evonline2002/webheads_evo.htm
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19. Webheads: Community
Attribution: http://flickr.com/photos/94794165@N00/410359410/
From Slide 30 at http://www.slideshare.net/vances/modeling-social-media-in-groups-communities-andnetworks-socialnetworking-2009-online-conference
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20. WiAOC 2005, 2007, 2009
From Stephen Downes, Learning the Web 2.0 Way, 2007
http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/personal-learning-the-web-20-way
From Slide 3 at http://www.slideshare.net/vances/modeling-social-media-in-groups-communities-andnetworks-socialnetworking-2009-online-conference
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21. Model, demonstrate, practice, reflect
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22. Where did I get this?
I was only able to relocate this image for RSCON4 because I shared it on Facebook
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23. What would it look like?
If you wanted to model effective connected learning to
socially-oriented peers online? Maybe like this?
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24. Staff Room in the Cloud
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25. Staff Room in the Cloud
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26. Connectivism
Siemens, G. (2004-5). Connectivism:
A Learning theory for the digital age.
Elearnspace. Retrieved August 17,
2011 from
http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm
Siemens’s conclusions
can be startling
In this YouTube video, Siemens says at min 1:13
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqL_lsogeNU&feature=youtu.be
"Have you ever thought about how completely irrelevant
structured learning is?"
From slide 8 here:
http://www.slideshare.net/vances/how-mooc-learning-reaches-students-through-tpd
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27. It’s ineffable
• To understand how connected learning works, we
must experience online learning2gether
• Connected learning works well when teachers are
self selected, already in the choir, as are RSCON
participants
• The problem is when we go beyond to others
who have not experienced connected learning as
we have
• Fortunately, there are now burgeoning
opportunities for teachers to avoid isolation
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28. What’s happening just this weekend?
Jeff Lebow is streaming hangouts from KOTESOL
http://koreabridge.net/kotesolicstudio3.html
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29. SCoPE just wrapped up
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30. Moodle MOOC 2
http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/1411164-moodle-mooc-2-on-wiziq
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31. #eltchat
https://sas.elluminate.com/drtbl?sid=2008350&suid=D.AC3D28B09030E834760F4D57961C11
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32. TESOL CALL-IS / IATEFL LTSIG
http://ltsig.org.uk/events/13-future-events/318-121013-special-eventusing-technology-in-teaching-principles-in-practice.html
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33. EVO Electronic Village Online
January and February each year
http://evosessions.pbworks.com/
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34. Connected Educator Month
http://connectededucators.org/
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35. Oh, and I almost forgot …
http://www.futureofeducation.com/page/2013-reform-symposium
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36. Here a MOOC there a MOOC
From Karen Head: http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/here-a-mooc-there-a-mooc-but-will-it-work-for-freshman-composition/41883
• http://goodbyegutenberg.pbworks.com/w/page/62555597/moremoocs
• Http://www.connectivistmoocs.org/
Stephen Downes’s definitive archive of knowledge on MOOCs
(currently over 500 annotated references):
http://www.downes.ca/mooc_posts.htm.
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37. You can see what’s on, attend
or share with us at Learning2gether
http://learning2gether.net/about/
http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/w/page/32206114/volunteersneeded
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38. Saving the most important to the end
The Students!
• Our mindsets must change so that students
can be inculcated in the same way we are
learning to learn
• Students are already learning to connect (in
their way!) e.g.
– LA unified school district problem
– Tom Woods in Australia
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39. Tom Wood 2007
http://www.news.com.au/technology/no-penalty-forbypassing-conroys-web-filter/story-e6frfro0-1225854496213
http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/schoolboy-whiz-helpsdraft-labor-cyber-policy/2007/11/21/1195321833867.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Teenager-cracks-govts-84mporn-filter/2007/08/25/1187462562907.html
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40. We have to meet them
where they want to be
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/26/did-the-losangeles-school-system-really-not-see-this-coming-when-theyhanded-out-free-ipads-to-high-schoolers/
http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/los-angelesstudents-ipads-classroom-play-video-games-173850244.html
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41. Alan November on Global Voice
“Can you imagine giving every kid a laptop and not changing the audience?
But changing the device? How do you reconcile that?”
http://edtechcrew.net/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0EG_iwLrVw
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42. David Warlick on networking being
the boundary of the digital divide
Dave Warlick's K-12 Online Conference keynote: http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=144
We want our children to be
the students we want to teach
rather than teaching
the children who they are
and this is an insult
to our children
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTrMBmDK7Os
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43. Students learn best when they are
where they want to be
Chuck Sandy talked about
Design for Change
http://www.dfcworld.com/
https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/recording
/playback/link/table/dropin?sid=2008350&suid=D.
EED9A632C04487C03B9BF5F1E94B0A
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44. What’s with the MOOCs?
How MOOC Learning Reaches
Students through TPD
Vance Stevens
Higher Colleges of Technology, UAE
AAMC / PACE / KBZAC
Title slide from: http://www.slideshare.net/vances/how-mooc-learning-reaches-students-through-tpd
Stevens, V. (2013). What's with the MOOCs? TESL-EJ, Volume 16, Number 4, pp. 1-14: http://tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej64/int.pdf
Also available at: http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume16/ej64/ej64int/

45. Updated April 7, 2013
Thinking SMALL: Training Teachers
in Web2.0 Tools for
Teaching and Learning EFL
Vance Stevens, UAE: HCT / PACE
TESOL in Dallas, Texas, March
22, 2013
CALL-IS & Elementary
Education InterSection Session
New Tools/Techniques in CALL
eLearning in Action
Conference
April 2, 2013
HCT Sharjah Women’s College
Title slide from: http://www.slideshare.net/vances/training-teachers-in-web2

46. RSCON4
Vance Stevens
http://advanceducation.blogspot.com
All materials presented here available at the blog URL above
and at
http://slideshare.net/vances
http://www.futureofeducation.com/forum/topics/fromteacher-networked-learning-to-transformation-in-your

47. Some articles about Webheads
•
Yilmaz, B, and Stevens, V. (2012). Webheads in Action: A community of practice scaffolding multiliteracies skills in teacher professional development.
Writing & Pedagogy 4,1:135–146.
•
Stevens, Vance. (2010). Webheads and Distributed Communities of Practice. Global Neighbors: Newsletter of TESOL's English as a Foreign Language
Interest Section, EFLIS News March 2010 Volume 9 Number 1:http://www.tesol.org//s_tesol/sec_issue.asp?nid=2994&iid=13069&sid=1
•
Stevens, Vance. (2007). Webheads as agents of change in overlapping clouds of distributed learning networks. APACALL Newsletter 11, pp. 3-8.
Retrieved December 18, 2007 from: http://www.apacall.org/news/Newsletter11.pdf.
•
Stevens, V. (2004). Webheads communities: Writing tasks interleaved with synchronous online communication and web page development. In
Leaver, B. and Willis, J. (Eds.). Task-based instruction in foreign language education: Practices and programes. Georgetown University Press. pp. 204217.
–
–
–
There is a full text of a late draft of my article here, though references are not included:
http://vancestevens.com/papers/webheads/taskbase_ch10june192003.htm
An earlier version has the references, and also images that were intended to illustrate the article:
http://vancestevens.com/papers/webheads/taskbase_full.htm
Here is a Commentary: from the Linguis list, May 2005. AUTHORS: Leaver, Betty Lou; Willis, Jane R. TITLE: Task-Based Instruction in Foreign Language
Education SUBTITLE: Practices and Programs PUBLISHER: Georgetown University Press YEAR: 2004 "CHAPTER TEN: Webhead communities: Writing tasks
interleaved with synchronous online communication and web page development (Vance Stevens) Another instance of virtual classroom implementing
writing tasks is described in this chapter. The author reports activities of groups of learners and teachers involved in online writing practices. The writing
tasks were aimed at purposeful interaction and technology was a vehicle of implementing pedagogical principles not the driving force. The author's initiative
for conducting an online writing and grammar course is reported to have been the starting point of this community of online writers called Webheads. The
group interactions involved various topics including projects on which teachers interacted and themes and tasks of interest to learners. Cost, ease of use,
multicasting capability, and cross platform adaptability were the criteria in selecting the tools for computer mediated communication. Email groups, web
pages, and synchronous chat were the major modalities of interaction and implementation of tasks. After a brief discussion on evaluation and in the
conclusion section the author mentions lowering affective obstacles and promoting a sense of community as the main message from the project and
recommends that the model be applied in other situations. In an appendix some technology related issues are dealt with.
•
Stevens, V. and Altun, A. (2002). The Webheads community of language learners online. In Syed, Z. (Ed.). The process of language learning: An EFL
perspective. Abu Dhabi: The Military Language Institute. pp. 285-318. 2001mli_stevens-altun2mb.pdf. There is a pre-publication version of this paper
at http://sites.hsprofessional.com/vstevens/files/efi/papers/t2t2001/proceeds.htm
•
Stevens, Vance. 1999. Writing for Webheads: An online writing course utilizing synchronous chat and student web pages. A paper submitted for the
4th Annual Teaching in the Community Colleges Online Conference: Best Practices In Delivering, Supporting & Managing Online Learning, April 7-9,
1999 - http://sites.hsprofessional.com/vstevens/files/efi/hawaii99.htm
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