This document summarizes a presentation about the Learning2gether initiative, which facilitates online professional development events. It discusses: 1) How Learning2gether has hosted over 200 events since 2011 on topics such as connectivist learning and using games like Minecraft for education. 2) How participants in Learning2gether events learn from each other through discussion and sharing experiences in a community of practice model. 3) Examples of how Learning2gether has experimented with MOOC models and gamification to provide engaging and interactive professional development for educators.

1. Find these slides at
http://tinyurl.com/vance2015featured

2. This talk touches on
● Almost 20 years experience with learners and
colleagues in virtual spaces practicing engagement in
online and blended contexts
● Burgeoning of connectivist learning opportunities from
pioneer days to the proliferation of those available
today
● Examples of how learning online reshapes our notions
of engaging with students

3. Featured Speaker
at 10:30 AM in room
718A at the Metro
Toronto Convention
Centre
● and listed on pages 19 and 153 in
the convention program
http://www.tesol.org/convention2015/co
nvention-news/convention-program-
(pdf)
● The presentation is listed on the TESOL
website under featured speakers
http://www.tesol.org/convention2015/featured-
speakers/invited-speakers
If you’re lookng for my Spring Blog Festival slides, that link has moved: http://tinyurl.com/sbf2015vance

4. ● 1995 - Dave Winet starts StudyCom (lasted through 2014)
● 1998 - Writing for Webheads (originally a course in StudyCom)
● 2000 - Invited speaker - TESOL 2000 Vancouver (demo’ed WfW)
● 2002 - Webheads in Action EVO session
● 2004 - George Siemens seminal work on connectivism (& Facebook)
● 2005 - Jeff Lebow and Dave Cormier start Wordbridges and EdTech Talk
● 2005 - 1st WiAOC: free, online, class roots, no funding or expenses
● 2006 - 1st K-12 Online Conference, same model above
● 2007 - Siemens organized Future of Learning, free, online
● 2008 - Siemens, Downes, Cormier 1st connectivist MOOC
● 2009 - 3rd and Last WiAOC (2nd in 2007)
● 2010 - Learning2gether launched

5. More
links
in top
bar
here

6. Crossing networks, building connections with
Learning2gether: An initiative of Vance Stevens
evolving most directly from the
● Synchronous meetings with Writing for Webheads meeting
each week from 1998 - 2001
● Synchronous meetings with Webheads in Action held
weekly since 2002 (chat logs exist from 1998-2008)
● Three WiAOC (WiA Online) Convergences in 2005, 2007,
and 2009

7. ● Started in September 2010, hosted apprx 250 events
● Has hosted conversations most weeks since, usually on
Sundays, schedule at http://tinyurl.com/learning2gether
o Not always well-known presenters
o Encourages all educators who enjoy connecting
with peers to contribute their voices to
perpetuating conversations at L2
● This presentation will explain how L2g works and how
you can contribute and participate

9. Purpose: this
is our public
planning wiki
http://learning2ge
ther.pbworks.com/

10. http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/volunteersneeded
Anyone can join the wiki
and enter their events here

11. http://tinyurl.com/learni
ng2gether
● Lists not just events
organized by L2g
o but all open events known
to L2g
o Open = no login, archives
available to anyone
● Chronologically, Times in GMT

12. Lists
● 23 events
in 2010
● approx.
200 from
2011
to 2014
● 12 in 2015
= 235
http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/archiveindex
http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/w/page/34456755/archiveindex

13. ● Description in
the ABOUT tab
http://learning2gether.net/about
● Videos, mp3s,
show notes,
slide URLs all
posted here

14. http://www.s
lideshare.net
/vances/learn
ing2gether-
classroots-
weekly-
online-
professional-
development

16. http://www.scoop.it/t/learning2gether
Scoop.it posts fed to
Twitter and Linkedin

17. https://twitter.com/sear
ch?q=learning2gether&src
=typd
● Posts made
automatically
from Scoop.it

18. https://www.linkedin.
com/in/vancestevens
to find my updates
● Posts made
automatically
from Scoop.it

20. https://www.facebook.com
/groups/learning2gether/
● Post both
announcements
of upcoming
events
● and also links to
archived
recordings
● in all our spaces

21. ● These are a few we
regularly post to
● Learning2gether is here
on G+
o Also set up Hangouts
on Air here
o Can schedule events
o Hold conversations
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/109504049211076695836

22. https://www.tagboard.com/learning2gether/search
Aggregates content from
Google+ and Twitter on
specified tags

23. https://plus.go
ogle.com/u/0/
events/ckmi5bc
s2572sa408vef6
4oa500
Our
current
favorite

24. ● At
http://webheadsin
action.org/live
● More information
here ...
Stevens, V. (2013). Tweaking
Technology: How Communities
Meet Online Using Google+
Hangouts On Air with Unlimited
Participants. TESL-EJ, Volume 17,
Number 3, pp. 1-16. Available:
http://tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej67/int.pdf

25. ● Frequent interaction with peers
● Shared problem-solving
● Connectivist professional development
changes mindset toward teaching
● Gain tips and tricks for use with students
● Learn how to truly flip
o Not only our classes, but
o Our professional development

27. • Series of 5-week online sessions
each Jan / Feb for the past 15 years
• These sessions I moderated resulted in formation of CoPs
– Webheads in Action modeled experiential social learning in
2002 (Stevens, 2004)
– Applying MOOC models sessions on Multiliteracies - EVO
MultiMOOC (2004-2014)
http://goodbyegutenberg.pbworks.com
– Gamification techniques in professional development Jan-Feb
2015 EVO Minecraft mOOC

28. • Principles supporting MOOC approach
– Connectivism, Siemens (2004)
– Knowledge distribution in networks, Downes (2012)
– Rhizomatic learning and community as curriculum Cormier
(2008)
• Gamification supplies
– a framework for teacher training to model learning
– that teachers can apply when conducting their own classes

29. • Remarkable affordances for facilitating learning
– in a range of subjects
– particularly foreign languages
● Engaging
– for young people
– teachers of all ages (Smolčec,
Smolčec, and Stevens, 2014)

30. This session invites interested teachers to join us in
playing Minecraft, learning all we can about playing
alone and together, and how Minecraft is being used
effectively in language learning. We'll learn by doing
and from one another. We'll start here:
http://www.tesl-
ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume18/ej70/ej70int/
(Smolčec, Smolčec, and Stevens, 2014)

31. Target audience:
• Teachers with a
gaming problem
• Gamers with a
teaching problem
• Teachers of gamers
with a learning
problem

32. Why do this? Presenters intrigued by
• The potential of the game for CALL
• Notion that the session itself could be conducted as a
game, putting instructor in position similar to that of
students
• What we would all learn
from this perspective

33. ● Proposal writer did not know how to
o Play the game well enough
o … to teach others to play it
● Moderators could not know
o If the approach would work
o What the outcomes would be
● Moderators rolled dice
o Predicted that by setting parameters
learning would occur along lines hoped for

34. • Minecraft can FLIP the normal student teacher
dichotomy whereby
– teachers traditionally are older
– assumed to know more than their students.
• Experience of participants in our EVO session that
when Minecraft introduced to young learners
– Students tend to take charge of their learning
– Guide teachers into the vagaries of the game

35. ● Participants included 3 teens with skills
sought by adults
o Young learners self-esteem
increased with respect to their
“teachers”
o Teachers gained greater awareness
of what it is to be a learner in a
game-driven and task-based
environment

36. We created a portal here
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/112993649763396826671

37. ● Teachers attracted to the concept, including
o several with experience in the game
o one of whom became co-moderator
(Kuhn, 2015)
• Participants attracted
– not because their learning
paths had been prescribed for
them in a pre-set syllabus
– but to the game experience,
and assumption they would
learn from it

39. Participants learned that by entering the “game” or
session learning would happen
● in a way that participants would come to understand
● by experiencing the process
● that Ito et al (2010) characterize as “hanging out,
messing around, and geeking out”
(e.g. ‘check it out’, ‘explore it in a
community setting’, ‘get really
good at it’ --> be able to use it
as a tool)

40. Teachers who learn gaming through the experience of
playing as learners are learning how to
● Design worlds within the game context that will meet
their curriculum objectives
● Create an engaging and enjoyable experience and
task-based environment for learners
(Minecraft has been shown anecdotally
to be effective in doing that)

41. Teachers can be made aware of the
affordances of games like Minecraft
● by creating such spaces with one another
● interacting in those spaces with young
learners who in effect become their
teachers

42. Serves as an example of how we teachers can use what
we have learned through our experience with MOOCs
● to form communities of practice
● to reboot our own learning,
using the community as curriculum (Cormier, 2008)
More information on CaC here
from my earlier presentation
http://tinyurl.com/tesol2015vance-mooc

43. • Cormier, D. (2008). Rhizomatic education: Community as curriculum. Innovate, 4(5).
Reprinted with permission of the publisher and retrieved from
http://davecormier.com/edblog/2008/06/03/rhizomatic-education-community-as-
curriculum/.
• Downes, S. (2012). Connectivism and connective knowledge: Essays on meaning and
learning networks. Stephen's Web: My eBook. Retrieved from
http://www.downes.ca/files/Connective_Knowledge-19May2012.pdf.
• Ito, M., Baumer, S., Bittanti, M., Cody, R., Herr-Stephenson, B., Horst, H. A., … & Tripp,
L. (2010). Hanging out, messing around, and geeking out. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
E-book retrieved from
https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/free_download/9780262013369_Hangi
ng_Out.pdf.
• Kuhn, J. (2015). Meaningful Play – Making Professional Development Fun. TESL-EJ, 15(4),1-
8. Retrieved from http://tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej72/int.pdf.

44. • Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Elearningspace.
Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm.
• Smolčec, M., Smolčec, F. and Stevens, V. (2014). Using Minecraft for Learning English.
TESL-EJ, 18(2),1-15. Retrieved from http://www.tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej70/int.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 programs.
Georgetown University Press. pp. 204-217.
• Stevens, V. (2014). Connectivist Learning: Reaching Students through Teacher
Professional Development. in Son, J.-B. (Ed.). Computer-assisted language learning:
Learners, teachers and tools. APACALL Book Series Volume 3. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 150-172.

45. • Find this slide presentation online at
http://tinyurl.com/vance2015featured
• The session was recorded and the mp3 is here:
http://learning2gether.net/2015/03/27/learning2gether-with-
call-is-webcasting-from-the-2015-tesol-convention-in-toronto/
• More about Learning2gether
– Planning: http://learning2gether.pbworks.com
– Upcoming events: http://tinyurl.com/learning2gether
– Archives: http://learning2gether.net
If you’re lookng for my Spring Blog Festival slides, that link has moved: http://tinyurl.com/sbf2015vance