Slides for #eci831, October 26, 2010. More on the session here: http://eci831.wikispaces.com/10-26-10

1. Introduction to Open
& Networked Learning
Dr. Alec Couros
University of Regina
EC&I 831

2. influences

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

4. “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)

5. “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)

6. • philosophical stance
• power & control
• access
open(ness) • design attributes
(short version)
- privacy/publics
- audience
- transparency
- accountability

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. • pedagogical & pragmatic
stance
connected • knowledge exchange,
curating, wayfinding,
(ness) crowdsourcing,
(short version) collaboration, problem
solving
• personal learning
network/environment
(PLN/PLE)

13. 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

14. 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)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_personal_learning_environments

15. 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)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_personal_learning_environments

16. 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?

17. context

18. “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)

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

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

21. affordances ...

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

23. @jonmott

24. Free/Open
Content

27. Access

30. Age of
Networks
http://www.flowtown.com/blog/the-2010-social-networking-map

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

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

33. 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

34. Stats as of March 17/10 via Mashable

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

40. The Web as Random Acts of Kindness
• Technical infrastructure of
the web.
• Wikipediaʼs content & form
• ʻHitchhikingʼ exists through
Internet-facilitated kindness,
collaboration, & sharing.
@zittrain

41. possibilities ...

42. Networked
Learning

46. Personalization

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

49. 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/

50. Visitors vs. Residents

51. Shifting Roles

54. Private Public
Closed Open

55. 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

56. 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?

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

58. Ze Frank
“any individual entity
that pretends to
understand the rules
that guide this space is
under an illusion”
@zefrank

64. a few
affordances

65. Example #1 - Connecting to Experts
@kathycassidy

66. Example #2: Publishing in the Open
ps22chorus.blogspot.com

67. Example #3: Use of Public Content
@christianlong

68. Example #4: Portfolios

69. Example #5: Social Reading

70. Example #6: Global Mentoring

71. Example #7: Real-time Feedback

72. Example #8: PD Anytime/Anywhere

73. 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?

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

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