The document summarizes three studies on connected learning in glocal learning networks. Study I examined how teachers facilitate design-oriented learning projects in international networks. Study II analyzed the learning communities that emerge and how tools support inquiry. Study III will explore how teachers facilitate joint knowledge creation. The studies involve schools in Finland and the US collaborating on topics like forests and water. Qualitative data like interviews and digital artifacts are analyzed to understand how connected learning enhances connections between students, peers and experts across borders. Technology supports international knowledge sharing but local creation. Future work aims to engage students and teachers in more shared international learning.

1. Connected Learning in Glocal Learning Networks
Saara Nissinen, Early Stage Researcher, UEF
Designed by: Freepik
ITK Doctoral Consortium | March 20th, 2019 | Aulanko, Hämeenlinna

2. Sub-studies
I Nissinen, S., Vartiainen, H., Vanninen, P., & Pöllänen, S. (2019).
Connected Learning Projects in Glocal Networks: Teachers’
Insights. Manuscript submitted for publication.
II Nissinen, S., Vartiainen, H., Vanninen, P., & Pöllänen, S. (2019).
Connected Learning in International Learning Projects: Emergence
of a Hybrid Learning System. Manuscript accepted for publication.
III Nissinen, S., Vartiainen, H., Vanninen, P., & Pöllänen, S.
Connected Learning and Joint creation of Knowledge in a Glocal
Learning Network. Upcoming research.
ITK Doctoral Consortium | March 20th, 2019 | Aulanko, Hämeenlinna
Designed by: Freepik

3. Designed by: Freepik
“Many young people
are taking to digital tools
and networks to connect
with communities of
interest, gain
specialized skills and
expertise, and engage
in shared projects and
causes…”
(Ito et al., 2018)
ITK Doctoral Consortium | March 20th, 2019 | Aulanko, Hämeenlinna

4. ITK Doctoral Consortium | March 20th, 2019 | Aulanko, Hämeenlinna
How do we transfer these
participatory practices to formal
education?
(Jenkins et al., 2016; Kafai & Peppler, 2011)

5. ✓ Knowledge creative
activities should be linked to
the learners’ own interests
(Ito et al., 2013, 4; Scardamalia & Bereiter,
2006)
ITK Doctoral Consortium | March 20th, 2019 | Aulanko, Hämeenlinna
Connected Learning
Designed by: Freepik
✓ Approached from the
sociocultural perspective (see
Kumpulainen & Sefton-Green, 2012)
✓ Enhances the
connection between the
learners’ academic and
unscholarly environments,
and extended communities
(Ito et al., 2013)

6. ITK Doctoral Consortium | March 20th, 2019 | Aulanko, Hämeenlinna
Research Questions
Study I 1. How do teachers facilitate and experience the
design-oriented process of creating and teaching in a glocal
learning network?
Study II 1. What kind of learning communities emerge in an international
learning project organized around the shared phenomenon of
inquiry?
2. How do the tools and technologies support students’ inquiries
and the creation of peer connections?
Study III 1. How do teachers facilitate the joint creation of knowledge in
an international connected learning project?
2. What does knowledge creation mean in the context of a
connected learning network?

7. ITK Doctoral Consortium | March 20th, 2019 | Aulanko, Hämeenlinna
Participants
USA Finland (N=)
Study I 1 science
teacher
(N=1)
3 8th-grade
classes,
13-14 year-olds
(N = 40)
1 class
teacher,
1 assistant
teacher
(N=2)
2 classes,
11-12 year-olds
(N = 15)
Teachers (N=3)
Students
(N=55)
Study II 1 science
teacher
(N= 1)
1 combined
7th-8th-grade class,
12-13 year-olds
(N=16)
1 class
teacher
(N= 1)
1 6th-grade class,
12-13 year-olds (N=
17)
Teachers (N=2)
Students
(N= 33)
Study III 1 class
teacher
1 2nd-grade class
7 year-olds
(N=?)
2 class
teachers,
1 special
education
teacher (N=3)
3 5th-grade
classes,
11-12 year-olds,
(N=?)
Teachers (N=4)
Students (N=?)

8. ITK Doctoral Consortium | March 20th, 2019 | Aulanko, Hämeenlinna
Qualitative Data
Study I
Teacher’s interviews Teacher’s reports Project blog Digital artifact
published on
the Openforest
portal
Study II Recorded
Skype
meetings
Blogs Questionnaire
Text Pictures Video ThingLink360
Study III Teacher’s interviews Teacher’s reports Joint digital artifact produced by
students

9. ITK Doctoral Consortium | March 20th, 2019 | Aulanko, Hämeenlinna
Analyses
Study I - deductive content analysis by Atlas.ti program
- two independent coders analyzed 83 text segments (13.02%) using
QCAmap software
Study II - deductive content analysis by Atlas.ti program to de- and re-construct the
emergent learning system of a glocal learning network (fig. 1)
Study III - deductive content analysis
Figure 1. The emergent learning system of a glocal learning network. (Liljeström, Enkenberg, Vanninen, Vartiainen, & Pöllänen, 2014)

10. ITK Doctoral Consortium | March 20th, 2019 | Aulanko, Hämeenlinna
Results of Study I
Connected subjects Connected interest Connecting technologies
Peers Sense of community Co-creation of digital artifacts on
a local level
Extended peers Cultivation of interest and
inquiries
Connecting via blogs
Experts Participation in expert activities
on a local level
Collecting data via expert tools

11. ITK Doctoral Consortium | March 20th, 2019 | Aulanko, Hämeenlinna
Results of Study II
Connecting theme Joint theme/ driving
questions of the
individual class
Object of students’
formal questions
Object of students’
informal questions
American
students
Forest and water Human impacts on local
natural resources
Monitoring water
quality
Preventing of erosion
and stormwater runoff
Difference in peers’
school systems
Difference of peers’
daily lives
Difference of cultures
in Finland and the
United States
Difference in climate
in Finland and the
United States
Finnish
students
How Finns have
utilized/ are utilizing
forests and waterways?
Managing forests
Wood products
Peers’ daily life
Peers’ school system
Difference of cultures
in Finland and the
United States

12. ITK Doctoral Consortium | March 20th, 2019 | Aulanko, Hämeenlinna
Results of Study II
Community
resources
Information resources Tools and technological resources
for formal inquiries
and connection
for informal
connection
American
students
Peers
School board
member
Books, handouts,
Internet, EPA-website,
local forest, creek, and
pond
Blogger, YouTube,
email, Skype, video
editing applications,
digital cameras,
canoe, water purity
and quality measuring
tools, shovel, funnel,
nets, magnifying
glass, chest waders,
sampling equipment,
probes, pH-strips,
Chromebooks, tablets
(Android), paper, pen,
scissors​
Smartphone
application;Snapchat,
FaceTime, and email
Finnish
students
Peers
Senior foresters
ICT expert
Books, Internet,
Museum artifacts
iPads, 360 camera,
Thinglink VR, Blogger,
YouTube, email,
Skype, video editing
applications

13. ITK Doctoral Consortium | March 20th, 2019 | Aulanko, HämeenlinnaDesigned by: Freepik
✓ Design oriented networks
enhanced creating extended
learning networks and connections
between learners, peers and
experts especially in local context
✓ Technology was an important tool
for sharing knowledge between
the international communities, but
the technology supported creation
of knowledge stayed on a local
level
✓ Future challenge is to engage
students and teachers towards
shared learning objects in
international context (from dialogical to
trialogical collaboration [Hakkarainen & Paavola,
2009]).
Conclusions of
Study I

14. ITK Doctoral Consortium | March 20th, 2019 | Aulanko, Hämeenlinna
Conclusions of Study II

15. ITK Doctoral Consortium | March 20th, 2019 | Aulanko, Hämeenlinna
Thank you!
Contact information:
M.Ed., Ma., Saara Nissinen saara.nissinen@uef.fi
Supervisors:
Professor Sinikka Pöllänen sinikka.pollanen@uef.fi
Dr. Henriikka Vartiainen henriikka.vartiainen@uef.fi
Dr. Petteri Vanninen petteri.vanninen@uef.
fi

16. References
Hakkarainen, K., & Paavola, S. (2009). Toward a trialogical approach to learning. Transformation of knowledge
through classroom interaction, pp. 65-80. Retrieved from
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.470.4298&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Ito, M., Gutiérrez, K., Livingstone, S., Penuel, B., Rhodes, J., Salen, K., Schor, J., Sefton-Green, J., & Watkins,
S.C. (2013). Connected Learning: An Agenda for Research and Design. Irvine, CA: Digital Media and
Learning Research Hub.
Ito, M., Martin, C., Pfister, R. C., Rafalow, M. H., Salen, K., & Wortman, A. (2018). Affinity Online: How
Connection and Shared Interest Fuel Learning. New York: NYU Press.
Jenkins, H., Ito, M., & Boyd, D. (2016). Participatory Culture in a Networked Era. Cambridge, MA: Polity.
Kafai, Y.B., & Peppler, K.A. (2011). Youth, technology, and DIY: developing participatory competencies in
creative media production. Review of Research in Education, 35(1), 89–119.
Kumpulainen, K., & Sefton-Green, J. (2012). What is connected learning and how to research it? International
Journal of Learning and Media, 4(2), 7–18.
Liljeström, A., Enkenberg, J., Vanninen, P., Vartiainen, H., & Pöllänen, S. (2014). The OpenForest Portal as an
Open Learning Ecosystem: Co-Developing in the Study of a Multidisciplinary Phenomenon in a Cultural
Context. International Association for Development of the Information Society.
Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (2006). Knowledge building: Theory, pedagogy, and technology. In K. Sawyer
(Ed.), Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences (pp. 97-118). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Vartiainen, H. (2014). Principles of design-oriented pedagogy for learning from and with museum objects.
Publications of the University of Eastern Finland. Dissertations in Education, Humanities, and Theology, no.
60. University of Eastern Finland: Joensuu
Designed by: Freepik

17. Readings
Vartiainen, H., Nissinen, S., Pöllänen,
S., & Vanninen, P. (2018).
Teachers’ Insights Into Connected
Learning Networks: Emerging
Activities and Forms of
Participation. AERA Open.
https://doi.org/10.1177/233285841
8799694
Designed by: Freepik