Academic Collaboration & Learning
in a Networked Age

Dr. Alec Couros
University of Regina
July 2011
bit.ly/oslo2011
me
Faculty Profile
The Blur
Photo-A-Day
Open CV
Open Access Journal
Open Teaching
“Web 2.0 tools exist that might allow academics to reflect
and reimagine what they do as scholars. Such tools might
positively affect -- even transform - research, teaching, and
  service responsibilities - only if scholars choose to build
 serious academic lives online, presenting semi-public
 selves and becoming invested in and connected to the
            work of their peers and students.”
                   (Greenhow, Robelia, & Hughes, 2009)
journey
(quick version)
Knowledge
knowledge
•   what is k?
•   how is k acquired?
•   how do we know what
    we know?
•   why do we know what
    we know?
•   what do humans know?
•   who controls k?
•   how is k controlled?
human thought/ideas

 human language
       source code

high-level language
  (e.g. C++, Java, PERL)



 low-level language
   (assembly language)

     code irretrievable

   machine code
         (binary)
@jonmott
Collaboration
“given enough eyeballs,
  all bugs are shallow”
    (Linusʼ Law, Raymond 1997)
“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
Openness
• philosophical stance
                   • power & control
open(ness)         • access
 (short version)
                   • design attributes
                      - privacy/publics
                      - 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 scholarship
               open accreditation
• pedagogical & pragmatic
                     stance
                    • knowledge exchange,
networked            curation, wayfinding,
                     crowdsourcing,
 learning            collaboration, problem
  (short version)
                     solving
                    • facilitated through
                     personal learning
                     networks/environments
                     (PLNs/PLEs)
Free/Open Content
  “describes any kind of creative work in a
  format that explicitly allows copying and
 modifying of its information by anyone, not
exclusively by a closed organization, firm, or
           individual.” (Wikipedia)
“...the power of the new software
 movement stems from the ʻgift cultureʼ....
The Internet is a quintessential example of
  a gift culture. People are willing to make
all sorts of useful information available for
   free, in defiance of orthodox economic
 ʻrulesʼ that claim such voluntary behavior
 can occur only with financial incentives.”
                  (Bollier, 1999)
early lessons
•   knowledge needs to be free.
•   relationships trump content.
•   transparency & openness are powerful
    conditions for knowledge building.
•   distributed, weak-tie communities can help
    to solve complex problems.
•   education can greatly benefit from the
    experiences of open (source) communities
    (i.e., networked communities of practice).
participatory media
media stats (2010)

•   107 trillion emails (89% spam), from 1.04 billion users.

•   255 million websites

•   1.97 billion Internet users

•   152 millions blogs

•   600 million Facebook users (sharing 30 billion pieces of
    content per month)

•   2 billion videos watched on Youtube daily

•   5 billion photos hosted on Flickr
                            Stats as of January 2011 via Royal Pingdom
“Privacy is no longer
     possible ...”
“Privacy is no longer
     possible ...”

          “... the technical infrastructure for
          creating and sharing content has
          been simplified to the point where
                anyone with even limited
           technical skills can participate.”
“Privacy is no longer
     possible ...”

          “... the technical infrastructure for
          creating and sharing content has
          been simplified to the point where
                anyone with even limited
           technical skills can participate.”

   “Social spaces and the process of
    identity creation and growing up
      require some “forgivability”.”
Text
Easily Copied     Instantly Shared




Easily Edited   Viewable by Millions
PRIVATE   by DEFAULT




PUBLIC    with EFFORT
PUBLIC    by DEFAULT




PRIVATE   with EFFORT
Best Job in the World
On Digital Video

                     •   “Ten years ago, not one student in
                         a hundred, nay, one in a thousand,
                         could have produced videos like
                         this. It’s a whole new skill, a vital
                         and important skill, and one
                         utterly necessary not simply from
                         the perspective of creating but
                         also of comprehending video
Stephen Downes           communication today.
implications
Changes




Early Day of PC in Schools   Todayʼs Social/Mobile Reality
Informal Learning


                 •   “Informal learning is a
                     significant aspect of our
                     learning experience.
                     Formal education no
                     longer comprises the
                     majority of our learning.”

                 •

George Siemens

                            http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm
Network Literacies



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



Howard Rheingold
Services
Human
Connections
Crowdsourcing
 Example #1:
Deconstructed
Crowdsourcing
 Example #2:
Deconstructed
Crowdsourcing
 Example #2:
Deconstructed
Crowdsourcing
 Example #3:
Deconstructed
Crowdsourcing
 Example #4:
Deconstructed
additional lessons
•   growing modes of access and the
    ability to publish & disseminate to wide
    audiences are key affordances.
•   (digital) citizenship & (digital) identity
    are emerging content areas that
    heavily implicate emerging
    pedagogies.
•   crowdsourcing & social curation of
    content will prove transformational for
    learning experiences.
practice
open teaching
network mentors
non-credit students
student-controlled spaces
aggregation
microblogging
shared resources
daily updates
What We Learned

•   Open access, low-cost, high impact.

•   Courses become shared, non-local, learning events.

•   Students immersed in a greater learning community.

•   Rethinking of space/interaction (walled gardens, open spaces)

•   Learning spaces controlled and/or owned by students.

•   Development of emerging literacies, relevant for other courses.

•   Pedagogy focused more on connecting & interactions; content
    important, but secondary.

•   Development of sustainable, long-term, learning connections.
conclusion
Sharing




          http://www.flickr.com/photos/dolmansaxlil/4802611949/
On Sharing ...


       “itʼs about overcoming
       the inner 2 year old in
           you that screams
       mine, mine, itʼs mine.”
           (Wiley, TEDxNYED, 2010)
Openness




http://www.flickr.com/photos/bombeador/4396467701/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Identity




http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaumedurgell/740880616/sizes/l/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/3356252350/
Relationships
“My student was delighted by the attention her blog
   post had received; it gave her confidence in her
 writing and bolstered her enthusiasm for our class....
  We were no longer studying an important work of
20th century literature within the narrow context of my
       syllabus; instead we had become part of a
conversation that involved the broader reading public.
As a professor, I was displaced from the centre of the
 conversation, which became more open, distributed
      and student-driven than it had been before.”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/admitchell08/2574455073
Don’t limit a child to your
own learning, for he was born
  in another time. ~Tagore


       http://couros.ca
     couros@gmail.com
          @courosa

Academic Learning & Collaboration & Learning