Travels in the new learning landscape

Travels in the
New Learning
Landscape.
by
Helen Crump
MOOCing
about:
digitised
pedagogies – a
point of no
return?
Centre for
Research in the
Social
Professions
[CRiSP]
IT Sligo
15th Nov 2013
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/38795936@N00/8244333625/

Introductions.
I live in Rossinver, Co. Leitrim.
I work in community education, supporting and
helping people with their literacy practices.

I’m a recent graduate of St. Angela’s College,
Sligo where I completed an M.A. in Technology,
Learning, Innovation and Change.
My dissertation investigated the disposition of
HE lecturers towards the adoption of Twitter
practices.

Digital Literacies: my take.
Social, situated practices. Context is key.
Not simply skills and/or competencies.
Practices form important part in
meaning making and identity. They
embed ideologies.

I’m a literacies practitioner and a learner.

Literacy practices are changing.

…becoming more digital and connected.

eLearning: VLE or Web 2.0?

small pieces loosely joined

Conole et al., 2006, p. 95

students have ‘marked lack of enthusiasm’ for institutional VLE.

Social media.

Source: Goodfellow and Lea, 2007, p.50

participatory; ‘sites of practice’, not ‘tools’.

Microblogging and social networking.

Twitter, a tool for professional development.

Trivial and terrific tweets.

opportunities arise.

Open education.
Welcome!
The Program for Online
Teaching Certificate Class,
an open online class, will
begin again in September
2013.. The class is free,
offered by the Program for
Online Teaching (not an
accredited institution), run
by volunteer faculty and
participants, and open to
everyone. We offer a
certificate for those who
fulfil the syllabus
requirements, and open
participation for anyone
not interested in the
certificate.

Learningcreep is born, a blog to take my learning forward.

MOOCs.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

MOOC MOOC #moocmooc Jan 6th to 12th, an examination of the MOOC phenomenon offered by Hybrid Pedagogy.
Open Learning Design Studio’s MOOC – “Learning Design for a 21st Century Curriculum” #OLDSMOOC Jan 10th to Mar 13th, offered by JISC.
Educational Technology & Media #ETMOOC Jan 13th to Mar 30th, offered by Alex Couros @courosa and ‘conspirators’.
eLearning and Digital Cultures #EDCMOOC Jan 28th to Mar 3rd, offered on the Coursera platform by a team from Edinburgh University.
Social Media #CNSoMe Feb 25th to May 5th, offered on the Canvas Network.
Open Course in Technology Enhanced Learning #ocTEL April 3rd to June 21st, offered by The Association for Learning Technology (ALT).
Exploring Personal Learning Networks #xplrpln Oct 7th to Nov 7th, offered by Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, MSLOC

my MOOCs (so far).

Classification of MOOCs.
Grainne Conole, “the current discourse
around the concept of xMOOCs and cMOOCs
is an inadequate way of describing the variety
of MOOCs and the ways in which learners
engage with them.”
https://twitter.com/audreywatters/status/314119610851008512

Suggested twelve dimensions of MOOCs:
1. degree of openness
2. scale of participation (massification)
3. amount of use of multimedia
4. amount of communication
5. extent to which collaboration is included
6. type of learner pathway (from learner centred
to teacher-centred and highly structured)
7. level of quality assurance
8. extent to which reflection is encouraged
9. level of assessment
10. how informal or formal it is
11. autonomy
12. diversity

Variety of ways to engage (variety of ways to think about success too).

Connectivism.
(Siemens, 2004, Downes, 2006)

The central aspect of
connectivism is the metaphor of
a network with nodes and
connections. The network
metaphor allows for the notion
of "know-where“ - where to find
knowledge when it’s needed.
Downes: “at its heart,
connectivism is the thesis that
knowledge is distributed across
a network of connections, and
therefore that learning consists
of the ability to construct and
traverse those networks”.

connections create meaning.

Rhizomatic learning.
Deleuze & Guttari, 1980; Cormier, 2011

A rhizome is the stem of a plant that
sends out roots and shoots as it
spreads (creeping buttercup). It’s
unbounded and messy; it grows and
spreads in unpredictable and strange
ways. It has no beginning or end… like
the learning process.
Rhizomatic learning acknowledges that
learners come from different contexts,
that they need different things, *…+. It is
a commitment to multiple paths.
The metaphor for a successful
rhizomatic learner is that of a nomad.
Nomads have the ability to learn
rhizomatically, that is to ‘selfreproduce’, to grow and change ideas
as they explore new contexts.

learning nomads gather what they need for their own path.

Lurking and learning vicariously.
Lave and Wenger, 1991 ; Bandura, 1962

Learning vicariously:
learning, and the acquisition of
new behaviours, through
observing the behaviour of
others.
Lurking: newcomers enter a
community of practice by a
process of
“legitimate peripheral
participation”. Over time, this
participation becomes more
engaged and more complex,and
increasingly drawn towards the
centre of the community.

look and learn; legitimate peripheral participation.

More pedagogies of web 2.0
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Emergent learning (Williams et al., 2011)
Participatory Learning (Davidson and Goldberg 2009)
Learning 2.0 (Downes, 2005)
Networked Learning (Goodyear et al. 2004)
Ubiquitous Learning (Cope and Kalantzis 2008)
Communities of Inquiry (Wenger 1998, Garrison and Anderson 2003)
Abundant learning Weller (2011)

learning on the open web.

Heutagogy.
Hase and Kenyon, 2000 : Blaschke (2012)

Heutagogy: the study of self-determined
learning.
In self- determined learning it is
important that learners acquire both
competencies and capabilities.

Competency: proven ability in acquiring
knowledge and skills.
Capability: learner confidence in his or
her competency and, as a result, the
ability “to take appropriate and effective
action to formulate and solve problems
in both familiar and unfamiliar and
changing settings”.

“I’m convinced the best learning takes place when
the learner takes charge” – Seymour Papert

Heutagogy looks to the future in which
knowing how to learn will be a
fundamental skill given the pace of
innovation and the changing structure of
communities and workplaces.

the realisation of which can come from the learning design.

Design like a pyro technician.

for the learner experience and stand back (with safety plan).

Design with the teacher as learner.

negotiate content and methods; support each other through
social media, peer assessment and discussion groups.

Design along the PAH Continuum.

Pedagogy:
start with a known subject,
the delivery of which a
teacher is confident with
Andragogy:
negotiate with the learners
how they might study that
subject in ways that
motivate them
Heutagogy:
offer creative ways in which
the learners might express
what they have learnt
Garnett, 2010

help learners become more autonomous & purposeful in how they learn.

Assessment and accreditation.
Digital artefacts
Open badges and digital certificates

Source: Amy Burvall

“digital life has changed
who we are”.

Source: Tanya Lau

“we shape our tools… and then our tools shape us”.

New tools & technologies; new affordances & constraints.
Steve Wheeler:
• New societal needs require new
methods of teaching
• New methods of teaching need new
theories - theories for the information
age.
• New theories must be applied to
explain and underpin the new
practices that need to emerge to
meet the new expectations.
• New methods cannot be fully
explained or justified by old theories.

and a new mind set.

Social learning.
Social learning - you’re
already doing it. It’s going on
all the time; it’s just that social
media helps enable it on a
much larger scale - Jane
Bozarth

learners are increasingly coming to expect a social experience.

Online communities: communities of practice [CoPs].

a shared passion, and a desire to learn how to do it better.

Learning online.

it’s all learning.

Social media literacies.

Howard Rheingold
Social media literacies
Howard Rheingold’s 5 social media literacies:

get net smart and thrive online.

Information overload.

Clay Shirky: “it’s not information
overload; it’s filter failure.”
Information filters:
• technical algorithms (search
engines)
• personalised algorithms (RSS feeds)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/2595497078/sizes/m/

so what can I do to fix it?

• social algorithms (network
connections)

Personal learning network [PLN].

http://www.flickr.com/photos/catspyjamasnz/7089515065/

design your PLN: build your filter.

A PLN is your professional lifeline.
PLNs, or personal learning
networks, are trusted digital
networks of people (experts and
peers) and resources (websites
and tools) which serve as
sources of support and
information, and which may be
enriched by reciprocal sharing.
The main benefit of a PLN is
often derived from the
conversations, personal
connections and the
relationships formed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/courosa/2922421696/

Alec Couros: “the tools come
and go, but the relationships
endure.”

it can play an important role in CPD & lifelong learning.

Personal knowledge management [PKM].

Harold Jarche: “As a single
node in a network, you have to
show that you are of some
value. This means contributing
your knowledge, in whatever
form you like. *…+ If you do not
share, you will not benefit
from a knowledge network or
community of practice. But,
knowledge sharing requires
practice, like working out
loud or narrating your work”.

seek-sense-share, work out loud or narrate your learning.

Use your PLN and PKM skills to work smarter.
Work smarter:
• make connections
• get feedback and inspiration from
others
• collaborate on projects and
research
• be more innovative

Harold Jarche: “we need to make
social networks, communities of
practice and narrative part of the
work”.
It’s a matter of developing both strong
and weak network ties.
Image source: www.jarche.com

co-operate, collaborate and innovate.

All the while building your reputation.

take charge of your digital identity, and your destiny.

Learning practices are changing, becoming more
digital and more connected.
But remember: these are
emergent practices and
pedagogies. Therefore,
experimentation, evaluation and
research is needed so that
individuals can identify those that
are relevant to them and will
provide lasting value.

time to experiment.

Thank you, if you’d like to connect.

Twitter: @crumphelen
Blog: learningcreep.wordpress.com
LinkedIn: ie.linkedin.com/in/crumphelen/
Email: crumphelen@gmail.com

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