Open & Networked Learning for #ECI831

Introduction to Open
& Networked Learning
Dr. Alec Couros
University of Regina

EC&I 831

“given enough eyeballs,
all bugs are shallow”
(Linusʼ Law, Raymond 1997)

“Open source software
communities are one of the most
successful -- and least
understood -- examples of high
performance collaboration and
community building on the
Internet today.”
(Kim, 2003)

“A key to transformation is for the
teaching profession to establish
innovation networks that capture
the spirit and culture of hackers -
the passion, the can-do,
collective sharing.”
(Hargreaves, 2003)

• philosophical stance
• power & control
• access
open(ness) • design attributes
(short version)

- privacy/publics
- audience
- transparency
- accountability

open(ness)
(short version)
open education
free software
open source software

open educational resources

open content
open access publication

open access courses
open teaching
open accreditation

David Wiley

“openness is the only
means of doing education”

“if there is no sharing,
there is no education”

@opencontent

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb0syrgsH6M

Dean Shareski

“the moment we focus
on protecting our work
we are in someways the
antithesis of a teacher”

@shareski

http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=610

• pedagogical & pragmatic
stance

connected • knowledge exchange,
curating, wayﬁnding,
(ness) crowdsourcing,
(short version) collaboration, problem
solving
• personal learning
network/environment
(PLN/PLE)

Personal Learning Environments

... systems that help learners take control of
and manage their own learning. This includes
providing support for learners to

• set their own learning goals
• manage their learning; managing both
content and process

• communicate with others in the process of
learning

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_personal_learning_environments

Challenges
“An institution-controlled tool presents the user with a
ﬁxed interface of controls (instruments) that the user
must learn to use effectively if they are to access the
service provided. It is a feature of the current Web
environment that the use of a large number of these
interfaces creates an obstructive user experience,
made worse by the lack of ﬂexibility the user has for
integrating the different services they access. To
operate within this environment, the user must manage
a number of different dispositions and skills required for
different interfaces.
(Johnson et al, 2006)


Challenges (continued)

“... the change from content that was developed by
expert and/or teachers towards possibilities and
challenges to make use of the bazaar of learning
opportunities and content leads to the necessity of
advanced self-organizing and searching in the Web - in
other words: media competent learners.

(Schaffert & Hilzensauer, 2008)


What are your thoughts, considerations or
challenges on PLE/PLNs so far?

Are they important/necessary for present or future
learning?

Do they potentially challenge or augment what we
do in formal learning environments?

Is this all hype - some sort of corporate-driven,
ʻtechno utopianismʼ?

“Tell me ... what it is I am
educating and what sort of world
we live in, and I will tell you what I
am aiming at.”
(Garforth, 1962)

David Weinberger

The Web is “a world of
pure connection, free
of the arbitrary
constraints of matter,
distance and time.”

@dweinberger

connected reality

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImAD8BOBOhw

Social Tools

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/9119028@N05/591163479/

Age of
Networks

http://www.ﬂowtown.com/blog/the-2010-social-networking-map

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/scriptingnews/2699829038/sizes/l/

quick stats (2009)

• 90 trillion emails sent annually from 1.4 billion email
users

• 234 million websites

• 1.73 billion Internet users

• 126 millions blogs

• 350 million Facebook users

• 4 billion images on Flickr

• 1 billion Youtube videos served daily.

Stats as of Jan 22/10 via Royal Pingdom

Stats as of March 17/10 via Mashable

Michael Wesch

Youtube & other social media
mitigate “connection without
constraint”. Often, this leads to the
development of “tremendously
deep communities”.

@mwesch

The Web as Random Acts of Kindness

• Technical infrastructure of
the web.

• Wikipediaʼs content & form

• ʻHitchhikingʼ exists through
Internet-facilitated kindness,
collaboration, & sharing.

@zittrain

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/will-lion/3974469907/

Owing a domain name is
about claiming your piece
of the internet. You’re no
longer renting, you’re a
home owner.
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/35723943@N00/2379057597/

Private Public

Closed Open

Shifts

standard based to interest based
place/time to anytime/anywhere
individual to networked group
private to public
paper to digital
linear to distributed
synchronous to asynchronous

@willrich4

Have we seen a signiﬁcant change
in the media landscape? Is there
any truth to the often stated effects
of the ʻdigital ageʼ (e.g., are kids
different?)

If these shifts are real, how do
educators adapt to these changes?

“Understanding how networks
work is one of the most important
literacies of the 21st century.”
(Rheingold, 2010)

Ze Frank

“any individual entity
that pretends to
understand the rules
that guide this space is
under an illusion”

@zefrank

Example #1 - Connecting to Experts

@kathycassidy

Example #2: Publishing in the Open

ps22chorus.blogspot.com

Example #3: Use of Public Content

@christianlong

Example #7: Real-time Feedback

Example #8: PD Anytime/Anywhere

What can we learn from non-edu. culture (e.g., sub culture)?

Can you offer examples of exemplary networked practice?

Are there implications for teacher education or ProD?

Obsolescence never meant the end of anything,
itʼs just the beginning.
~ Marshall McLuhan

web: couros.ca
twitter: courosa
google: couros
couros@gmail.com

Open & Networked Learning for #ECI831

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