Edited by Maria Strange, Tuesday, 12 Jun 2018, 14:08
Starting a new project always brings those feelings of
uncertainty, anxiety, fear, confusion, apprehension... I think I was
experiencing some of that… As our project entails reflecting on learning, we thought we should also be
reflecting on our experience while designing this project.
Our project started with a blank website! Perhaps not so blank but with
a template to be filled with the stages we were going to be developing.
Agreeing on regular meetings was a key stage which I think we successfully
achieved. After that, communications run smoothly.
We then started to think about context, personas, forces, force Map,
challenges. It then followed the research, with case studies and theoretical
frameworks. The design could not only represent a learning event, but a way of
working throughout life. Indeed, this is a critical challenge on itself! On a
final stage we started to work on the design by finding patterns and principles
which helped us to develop our prototype.
We are now quite close to the end, we are testing our prototype and our
project will end with a reflection over our work together during these six past
weeks. Learning and reflecting with a more social dimension, allow us to learn
not only from our own mistakes and successes but also from the mistakes and
successes of others. As the tutors said, it is not about the end result it is
about collaborative learning in a team. If we have achieved this, there is no
doubt that this learning experience has transformed us.
SPANISH
Comenzar un Nuevo Proyecto siempre hace resurgir esos sentimientos de incertidumbre, ansiedad, miedo, confusión, recelo… Creo que en verdad algo de todo eso estaba sufriendo. Como nuestro proyecto conlleva reflexión sobre el aprendizaje, pensamos que nosotros también deberíamos reflexionar sobre nuestra experiencia durante el diseño del proyecto.
Nuestro proyecto empezó con un sitio web en blanco! Quizás no tan en blanco sino más bien con una plantilla a llenar con las fases que teníamos que desarrollar. Ponernos de acuerdo en mantener reuniones frecuentes era una fase clave que creo superamos con éxito. Tras ello, las comunicaciones marcharon sobre ruedas.
Seguidamente tuvimos que empezar a pensar en contexto, personas, fuerzas, Mapa de fuerzas, desafíos. A ello le siguió el trabajo de investigación, con estudios de caso y marcos teóricos. El diseño no solo tenía que representar un evento de aprendizaje, sino una forma de trabajar en la vida. Desde luego, esto en sí ya es un desafío importante. En la fase final empezamos a trabajar en el diseño, tratando de hallar patrones y principios de diseño que nos ayudasen a desarrollar nuestro prototipo.
Ahora
nos encontramos muy cerca del final, estamos en la fase de prueba del prototipo
y nuestro proyecto terminará con una reflexión sobre nuestro trabajo en común
durante estas seis semanas pasadas. Aprender y reflexionar con una dimensión más
social, nos permite aprender no solo de nuestros propios errores y éxitos, sino
también de los errores y éxitos de los demás. Como el tutor dijo, lo importante
no es el producto final sino el aprendizaje colaborativo en equipo. Si hemos podido lograr esto, no habrá
duda que esta experiencia de aprendizaje nos habrá transformado.
Edited by Maria Strange, Tuesday, 12 Jun 2018, 14:04
Massive Open Online Courses, massive because they target thousands
of people, open because their content is free to learners, online because they
can be accessed by internet, and course because they follow a structured
learning.
David Cornier coined the term MOOC and the first MOOC was offered
in 2008: “Connectivism and Connected Knowledge” (CCK08) which was run by George
Siemens and Stephen Downes. From then onward, educational institutions all
over the world have run MOOCs which have attracted large and massive participation
of learners in the same course. Class Central, a search engine for free MOOCs,
claims that currently 81 million people are learning with MOOCs in 9,400 courses
run by more than 800 universities. Among the top MOOC providers we have Coursera,
edX, XuetangX, Udacity, FutureLearn, NovoEd, Canvas, Iversity, Udemy.
The main concept of MOOCs is based on social and
connectivist learning. One of the MOOCs challenges is the learner independence.
Self-directed learning has to be one of the primary strengths of learners,
while in a more traditional classroom the instructor takes the responsibility of
directing the learning (Kop 2011). According to Kop (2011) another of the
challenges is presence as a direct influential factor to motivation and
engagement of the learner: “the higher the level of presence, the higher the
level of involvement in the online activity”.
Kop also claims that MOOCs learners need to adapt to different
critical literacies. As there is not educator guiding the learners, the learner
has to command critical thinking skills to challenge ideas and beliefs, to
search for further relevant information
and validate it, to understand the way
information is represented by media, to communicate and collaborate with others
producing and editing information in a variety of formats.
Stacey (2013) is more concerned about the pedagogy aspect of
MOOCS: “how can you effectively teach thousands of students simultaneously?” According to Stacey the high rates of MOOCs
dropouts are an indication of the need for a more innovative pedagogy. He
claims that at the beginning MOOC courses displayed potential pedagogical innovation:
social media & open education, connectivism, personal learning
environments, learning analytics. Courses like DS106 or PLENK2010 where built around
four main concepts aggregate, remix, repurpose, feed forward. However, this potential has been left unexplored
and the subsequent growth of MOOCs has been a step backward in pedagogy. Some
courses transferred the “campus-based didactic methods of teaching to the
online environment”, although others tried to include more social engagement
through forums and discussions and even peer-to-peer interaction. Yet, they are
still using objectivist and behaviourist methods of teaching and learning under
the assumption that with such a large amount of learners, social learning is
not feasible and the courses focus more on a digital interaction with the
platform.
Stacey also claims the best online pedagogies are those that
implement connections between students, between students and the instructor and
between students and others and they utilize the open web, open content and make
continuous improvements to the courses. Learning happens through relationship.
MOOCs and OERs need the environment of communities and
networks where their social learning can take place in order to disseminate and
find resources, discussed idea and connect with peers. This brought up the
concept of PLE (personal learning environment) that in turn has developed the
PLN (personal learning networks) which each learner construct to take control
of its own formal and informal learning. A PLN puts the focus on the people in
the network rather than on the technology.
Wikipedia defines PLN as: “an informal learning network that
consists of the people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from in a
personal learning environment. In a PLN, a person makes a connection with
another person with the specific intent that some type of learning will occur
because of that connection”.
Video Source: "What is a MOOC", Narrated by Dave Cormier
Video by Neal Gillis - Research by: Bonnie Stewart Alexander McAuley George Siemens Dave Cormier - CC-BY 2010.
SPANISH
El Mundo de los MOOC
Los MOOC
(acrónimo en inglés de Massive Open On-line Course), Curso On-line Masivo y
Abierto, son masivos porque están dirigidos a miles de personas, son abiertos
porque su contenido es gratis para los estudiantes, son online porque su acceso es a través de internet y son cursos porque
siguen una estructura de aprendizaje.
David Cornier
acuñó el término de MOOC y el primer MOOC:
“Connectivism and Connected Knowledge” (CCK08) fue impartido en 2008 por George Siemens y Stephen Downes. Desde
entonces, organismos e instituciones educativas de todo el mundo han impartido
cursos MOOC que han atraído grandes participaciones de estudiantes en el mismo
curso. Class Central, un motor de búsqueda de MOOC gratuitos, sostiene que actualmente
hay 81 millones de personas aprendiendo con cursos MOOC en 9,400 cursos impartidos
por más de 800 universidades. Entre los proveedores de MOOC más importantes se
encuentran Coursera, edX, XuetangX, Udacity, FutureLearn, NovoEd, Canvas, Iversity,
Udemy.
El concepto de
base de los MOOC es el aprendizaje social
y conectivista. Uno de los retos más desafiantes de los MOOC es la
independencia del estudiante. El aprendizaje autónomo se encuentra entre las principales
habilidades que los estudiantes deben dominar, mientras que en un aula
tradicional el instructor está a cargo de la responsabilidad de dirigir el
aprendizaje (Kop 2011). Según Kop (2011) otro de los retos que presentan los
MOOC es la presencia como un factor de gran influencia para la motivación e
implicación del estudiante: “cuanto más alto es el nivel de presencia, más alto
es el nivel de implicación en la actividad online”.
Kop también
sostiene que los estudiantes de MOOC han de adaptarse a una alfabetización
crítica diferente. Puesto que no hay un educador que guíe a los estudiantes, el
estudiante ha de poseer habilidades de pensamiento crítico para desafiar ideas
y creencias, buscar más información relevante y validarla, entender la forma en
que la información es representada por los medios, para comunicar y colaborar
con los demás produciendo y editando información en una variedad de formatos.
A Stacey (2013) le
preocupa más la cuestión de la pedagogía de los MOOC: “¿cómo puede uno enseñar
eficazmente a miles de estudiantes simultáneamente?”. Según Stacey los altos
niveles de abandono de los MOOC son una indicación de que se necesita una
pedagogía más innovadora. Stacey sostiene que durante la era inicial de los
MOOC los cursos exhibían una innovación pedagógica potencial: redes sociales y educación
en abierto, conectivismo, entornos personales de aprendizaje, recogida de datos
de aprendizaje (learning analytics).
Cursos como DS106 o PLENK2010 se construyeron alrededor de cuatro conceptos principales
agregar, re-mezclar, re-diseñar, retro-alimentar. Sin embargo, este potencial
se ha quedado sin explorar y el subsecuente crecimiento de los MOOC ha supuesto
un retroceso en pedagogía. Algunos cursos simplemente han transferido “los
métodos didácticos de enseñanza en campus al entorno online”, aunque otros cursos han intentado incluir una
mayor implicación social a través de foros, debates e interacciones entre
pares. Aun así, todavía se sigue aplicando métodos de enseñanza conductistas y
de objetivos al asumir que con tales participaciones masivas de estudiantes, el
aprendizaje social no es viable y los cursos terminan enfocándose más en una
interacción digital con la plataforma online.
Stacey sostiene
además que las mejores pedagogías online son aquellas que implementan
conexiones entre estudiantes, entre estudiantes y el instructor y entre
estudiantes y demás individuos y que utilizan web abierta, contenido abierto y
realizan continuas mejoras de los cursos. El aprendizaje se produce a través de
las relaciones entre los estudiantes.
Los MOOC y los
OER (recursos educativos abiertos) necesitan el entorno de comunidades y redes donde
su aprendizaje social pueda tener lugar para poder diseminar y encontrar
recursos, debatir ideas y conectarse con los pares. Esto ha hecho que surja el
concepto de PLE (personal learning environment ) entorno personal de
aprendizaje que a su vez ha desarrollado los PLN (personal learning networks) o
redes personales de aprendizaje que cada estudiante construye para tomar
control de su propio aprendizaje formal e informal. Un PLN pone el foco de
atención en los individuos de la red en lugar de en la tecnología.
Wikipedia define
una PLN del siguiente modo: “una red de aprendizaje personal (PLN por sus
siglas en inglés: Personal Learning Network) es un conjunto de herramientas,
procesos mentales y actividades que permiten compartir, reflexionar, discutir y
reconstruir conocimientos con otras personas, así como las actitudes que
propician y nutren este intercambio.”
Sources:
An Introduction to MOOCs, Openness and innovation in elearning, Open University
Kop, R. (2011) ‘The challenges to connectivist learning on open online networks: learning experiences during a massive open online course’, International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning.
Stacey, P. (2013) ‘The pedagogy of MOOCs’, Musings on the edtech frontier.
Edited by Maria Strange, Tuesday, 12 Jun 2018, 14:05
Martin Weller
(2012) describe the differences between big OER and little OER
·
Big OERs are institutionally generated ones that arise from projects
such as Open Courseware and OpenLearn. These are usually of high quality,
contain explicit teaching aims, are presented in a uniform style and form part
of a time-limited, focused project with portal and associated research and
data.
·
Little OERs are individually produced, low cost resources. They are
produced by anyone, not just educators, may not have explicit educational aims,
have low production quality and are shared through a range of third party sites
and services.
I don't know why, but this brings
me back the dilemma between Professional Publishing and Self-Publishing.
We are experiencing an emerging urge
for people to engage or contribute to the global community, or what Weller refers
to as Public Engagement in his book
Digital Scholar: “The ‘public’ includes individuals and groups who do not
currently have a formal relationship with an HEI through teaching, research or
knowledge transfer”. Although, some
people might regard this urge as Populism
(on its democratic tone, i.e. Wikipedia). The battle of Common Folk against Academic
Elitism.
I am much in favour of any one and
in any form contributing to the global repository of education, but there has
to be a clear indication on what has got value and what hasn’t. However, having
said that I feel that value can also
be a relative concept as it depends on what you already have: an empty plastic
bottle could have cero value for the western individual but it could be a useful
liquid storage for someone in a developing country. Shakespeare was of questionable
value in his time as he wrote in a vernacular language like English was, and
not in the more elitist language like French.
Thinking on the benefits and
drawbacks of Big OER and little OER, I feel that little OER needs to build
trust and work on quality. On the other hand Big OER needs to reduce cost and save
time and not better way than the mutual collaboration by Big OER using trusted little
OER. A regulated peer-review system is needed for little OER, but then again if
it is regulated it might lose its folk nature. The solution perhaps is self-regulation
folk where everybody is capable of reviewing everything, but ultimately the use
that Big OER makes of little OER would settle the best credentials for sustainability
of OERs in general.
Source: Big&Small.jpg Christos KalohoridisKindle Entertainment derivative work Adam Cuerden - Big&Small.jpg
SPANISH
Martin Weller
(2012) describe las diferencias entre Recursos Educativos Abiertos (REA)
grandes y pequeños.
• “Big OERs are institutionally generated ones
that arise from projects such as Open Courseware and OpenLearn. These are
usually of high quality, contain explicit teaching aims, are presented in a
uniform style and form part of a time-limited, focused project with portal and
associated research and data” (Los REA grandes son los que están generados
a nivel institucional y emergen en forma de proyectos como Open Courseware y
OpenLearn. Estos gozan normalmente
de una gran calidad, contienen objetivos pedagógicos explícitos, son
presentados con uniformidad y forman parte de un proyecto específico de tiempo
limitado con portal y datos e investigación asociados)
• “Little OERs are individually produced, low
cost resources. They are produced by anyone, not just educators, may not have
explicit educational aims, have low production quality and are shared through a
range of third party sites and services” (Los REA pequeños son recursos de bajo coste producidos a
nivel individual. Están
producidos por cualquiera, no solamente educadores, puede que no tengan objetivos
pedagógicos explícitos, una calidad de producción baja y sean compartidos a
través de sitios y servicios de terceras
partes).
No sé por qué
pero esto me recuerda el dilema entre Publicación Profesional y la Auto
publicación.
Estamos presenciando
el cada vez más expreso deseo de participación de la gente en la comunidad
global, a lo que Weller se refiere como Public
Engagement (Compromiso Público) en su libro Digital Scholar: “The public includes individuals and groups
who do not currently have a formal
relationsip with an HEI through teaching, research or knowledge transfer” (el
público incluye individuos y grupos que actualmente no tienen una relación
formal con una Institución de Estudios Superiores, a través de transferencia de
conocimientos, investigación y enseñanza).
Aunque algunos puede que vean este manifiesto deseo más bien como Populismo (en
su tono más democrático, i.e. Wikipedia). Es la batalla del folclore contra el
elitismo académico.
Estoy a favor de
que cualquiera y en cualquier formato contribuya al repositorio global de
educación, pero debería haber una clara
distinción de que tiene valor y que no lo tiene. Sin embargo, dicho esto creo
que el concepto de valor es relativo pues depende de lo que uno ya tiene: una
botella de plástico vacía no tiene ningún valor para el individuo occidental
pero puede ser un utensilio provechoso de almacenar líquidos para alguien en un
país en vías de desarrollo. Las obras de Shakespeare tenían valor dudoso en su
tiempo pues escribía en una lengua vernácula como era el inglés y no en una
lengua elitista como el francés.
Pensando en los
beneficios y desventajas de lo REA grandes y los REA pequeños, pienso que los
REA pequeños tienen que inspirar más fiabilidad y aumentar su calidad. Por otra
parte los grandes REA tienen que reducir sus costes y ahorrar tiempos de producción
y no puede haber mejor forma que la mutua colaboración de los dos tipos de REA.
REA grandes usando REA pequeños de fiabilidad. Quizás sea necesario un sistema
regulador de revisión de pares (peer-review),
pero una vez más si hay regulación entonces se pierde el carácter de folclore.
La solución quizás es un folclore auto-regulado donde todo el mundo tiene
capacidad de revisar todo, pero en última instancia el uso que los REA grandes hagan
de los REA pequeños establecerá los mejores credenciales para la sostenibilidad
de los REA en general.
Edited by Maria Strange, Tuesday, 12 Jun 2018, 14:06
There are three OER issues which I would like to explore, as
I believe they will be key to the future development of OER into formal
education: sustainability, cultural and social barriers, and rights.
Sustainability – I see Open Educational Resources have
received an enthusiastic welcome into the informal learning. However, I feel that for
the OER wave to continue in the long term and expand into formal education not
only the learners, but also the providers of the learning, will have to believe
with great passion that they are worth the investment of time in terms of
efficiency and reputation. The driving force will rise from the bottom but ultimately
its implementation will have to come from the top.
Social and cultural barriers – Western pedagogy is
based on western ways of living and learning. The social and cultural
differences will be passed through the curriculum of the OERs. This could emerge
as obstacles for learners and barriers for teachers to adapt them into their educational
programs. Therefore I think it will be necessary a bigger collaboration and partnership
with different cultures and ways of thinking: “localizing globalisation”.
Rights – Openness for many is sharing, giving access.
However, giving access to creative work raises difficult dilemmas of waving away
certain intellectual rights. For centuries Creation
has enjoyed a sense of possession which
in recent decades has ended on a strong commercialization
of creative works. Changing this culture of creative work as possession needs an
entirely new philosophy to approach creative works. I do not expect all
creative work to be of public domain, but I do feel that Education should not be
handled as a private possession.
SPANISH
Hay tres cuestiones sobre los Recursos Educativos Abiertos
(REA) que me gustaría explorar aquí, ya que pienso que tienen una importancia
clave para su desarrollo futuro en la educación formal: sostenibilidad,
barreras sociales y culturales y derechos intelectuales.
Sostenibilidad – Pienso que los REA han
sido recibidos con gran entusiasmo dentro del aprendizaje informal. Sin
embargo, creo que para que este flujo de REA continúe a largo plazo y se expanda a la
educación formal, no solo los estudiantes sino también las instituciones
educativas tendrán que tener una enardecida certeza de que merecen la pena la inversión
de dinero y tiempo en términos de eficacia y reputación. La fuerza motora surgirá
desde abajo pero en última instancia su implementación
tendrá que venir desde arriba.
Barreras sociales y culturales –
la pedagogía occidental está basada en formas de vivir y aprender occidentales.
Las diferencias sociales y culturales se
plasmarán en los programa de los REA y
ello podrá crear obstáculos para los estudiantes e impedimentos para que los
profesores puedan adaptar los en sus programas educativos. Por ello creo que será necesaria una mayor colaboración y asociación con diferentes culturas y formas de pensar: "localizar globalización"
Derechos intelectuales –
Para muchos la educación abierta significa compartir, proporcionar acceso. Sin embargo,
proporcionar acceso a trabajos creativos conlleva dilemas complicados en cuanto
a la cesión de derechos intelectuales. Durante siglos lo Creativo ha disfrutado
de un sentido de posesión que en las últimas décadas ha descendido en una
fuerte comercialización de trabajo creativo. Cambiar esta cultura de ver lo
creativo como posesión hará necesaria una nueva filosofía hacia la creatividad.
No quiero decir que todo el trabajo creativo tenga que ser de dominio público,
pero creo que la Educación no debería ser maniobrada como posesión privada.
Video Source (YouTube): TEDxNYED - David Willey - An Interdisciplinary Path to Innovation
Many times languages and
cultural differences can be a barrier to sharing knowledge.
"There
is a need for a new understanding of access to content capable of addressing
the cultural and linguistic barriers that exist beyond opening the access to
resources" (Cristobal Cobo, University of
Oxford, 2013 - http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1493/2482).
According to the paper ‘State
of the Commons’, people are sharing with CC licenses in 34 languages. However,
the Ethnologue Catalogue recognises 7,099 languages spoken nowadays.
As I am fluent in two
languages: English and Spanish, I thought it could be a good idea to start
sharing some content of my blog in those two languages to reach a bigger
audience.
Muchas veces las diferencias lingüísticas y culturales
pueden ser un obstáculo para compartir conocimientos.
“Es necesario encontrar un nuevo concepto de acceso al
contenido que pueda tratar los obstáculos culturales y lingüísticos que existen
más allá de un acceso abierto a los recursos” (Cristobal Cobo, University of
Oxford, 2013 - http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1493/2482).
Según el artículo “State of the Commons”, la gente está
compartiendo bajo licencias CC en 34 lenguas. Sin embargo, the Ethnologue
Catalogue cataloga 7.099 lenguas que se hablan en el mundo hoy en día. Puesto que domino
dos lenguas: inglés y español, he decidido que sería una buena idea compartir parte
del contenido de mi blog en estas dos lenguas para llegar a una mayor
audiencia.
It’s hard to find clarity in a sea of over 7,000 languages
(Es difícil hallar claridad en un oceáno de mas de 7.000 lenguas)
Edited by Maria Strange, Friday, 23 Mar 2018, 13:49
My experience with open education has been with OU with
regard to formal learning. With regard
to informal learning I have been using open resources related to my work in
translations and language learning. I am a great devotee of YouTube as I have
been able to learn nearly anything I have need from them. I also like TED talks,
Podcast and Blogs. I have tried some
MOOCs but not with much success as I usually drop out after a while.
Also in order to help my children with their homework, I
have accessed different websites which help you with SATs and GCSEs, especially
when I had to re-study integers and squares number .....
Mi experiencia
con la Open University ha estado ligada al aprendizaje formal. En cuanto al aprendizaje informal he tenido
experiencia con el uso de recursos abiertos relacionados con mi trabajo de
traducción y enseñanza de lenguas. Soy un gran admirador de YouTube pues he
podido aprender casi todo lo que he necesitado de ellos. También me atrae TED
talks, Podcast y Blogs. He intentado hacer algún que otro MOOC pero sin gran
éxito porque normalmente los he abandonado después de un tiempo.
También para
poder ayudar a mis hijos con los deberes, muchas veces he accedido a sitios web
de ayuda con los SAT y los GCSE, especialmente cuando he tenido que volver a
estudiar integrales y raíces cuadradas
Edited by Maria Strange, Thursday, 22 Mar 2018, 21:30
New Media Consortium’s Horizon Project: 2017 Higher Education Edition suggest six emerging technologies which will have a significant impact on learning in the future: Adaptive Learning Technologies, Mobile Learning, The Internet of Things, Next-Generation LMS, Artificial Intelligence, Natural User Interfaces.
Thinking on Languages I think the following three are the one that will have the greatest impact: Adaptive Technologies, Mobile Learning, Artificial Intelligence.
Adaptive Learning Technologies -
I believe it will still take few years (5-6 perhaps!) for schools to implement this technology in the language classroom.
Although already commercially implemented, it is rarely used for teaching languages at schools. "Adaptive learning is seen by its advocates as a ‘game-changer’, something that will revolutionize learning (including language learning), making it more economical, more efficient and more personalized. Still a largely unfamiliar term to most language teachers, it is already a central concern to large educational providers, such as universities and chains of language schools, as well as major" publishers of ELT materials (Kerr, 2014)
"A student completing a traditional homework assignment has no idea if a word they are using is correctly spelt or used in the correct context.Adaptive learning solutions provide students with this feedback instantly. This immediately engages users with relevant feedback, allowing them to quickly adjust and take ownership of their learning" (source: Adaptemy https://www.adaptemy.com/997-2/- https://www.adaptemy.com/adaptive-learning-technology-supports-languages/)
Mobile Learning
I believe mobile learning is nearly getting its way into the language classroom, it is just a case of reassurance some more skeptical language teachers.
"I still use desktops in my class to access language-based websites, and use Google Docs to allow students to work together. You can also connect a desktop computer to a whiteboard and project Google Images onto it. It’s an invaluable resource for language teaching. However, mobile devices allow you and your learners to interact seamlessly with each other, in both formal and informal learning contexts"..(Norton, 2014 for the British Council)
This is the future which will change how language learning and broadly any learning will be. It will allow more "hands-on" learning. We are already seeing the first steps with Amazon Echo for example (imagine your own personal Echo at home programmed in French so you can practice listening and speaking anytime; you can also take it anyway!) However to develop real AI in language more progress in natural conversation and natural responsiveness will be necessary.
Since I watched Star Treck in the nineties I have always been impressed by the Holodeck rooms.
Fancy be a physics student sat at the same table with Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton?
Perhaps in a couple of decades you might! As you might just go into a classroom where Madrid, Paris or London streets have been recreated with Holographic Technology for children to learn languages in real-context. and with real native interactions.
Edited by Maria Strange, Thursday, 22 Mar 2018, 21:30
Evaluating technology
Learning and teaching through technology
[Source: Price, Linda and Kirkwood, Adrian (2011). Enhancing professional learning and teaching through technology: a synthesis of evidence-based practice among teachers in higher education. Higher Education Academy, York, UK.]
When would we say a specific technology is good for supporting a particular eLearning project?
What evidences would we collect and why?
We would need to base our decision on the levels of learning purposes: efficiency, enhancement, transformation and impact. We would also have to take into account the educational purposes: mobile, learning difficulties, engagement, feedback, practice, revision, reflection, linking theory to practice.
But how will we know that the time spent on the technology is going to bring benefits to students and teachers? We would want to have an inform-wise investment, show good practice and highlight lessons learned and make decisions on effective uses of technology.
We would have to analyse how the technology achieve the learning goals, how teaching context is accommodated and how the technology integrate with the needs of the students.
It is known that technology can enhance learning and teaching but aligning technology with the learning goal is critical for the successful implementation of the technology. It is not the technology by itself the defining factor, it is how the technology is used to achieve the learning goals and how it is integrated with the needs of the students and the context.
Edited by Maria Strange, Thursday, 22 Mar 2018, 21:31
Siemens uses Vaill’s quote (1996) “learning must be a way of
being” to emphasizes the need for learning theories to take into account the
social environments. Along these lines, he argues that behaviorism,
cognitivism and constructivism applies better to learning instructional
environments but they do not reflect the impact of nowadays technology.
He continues arguing that knowledge life has different measurement
before and after technology development. Before technology development,
knowledge life was measured in decades while nowadays is measured in months and
years. The American Society of Training and Documentation (ASTD) highlight the
“shrinking” issue of knowledge, meaning that what we learn today become rapidly obsolete.
Organizations are developing new ways of instruction to battle this knowledge
shrinking issue.
Learning trends are moving now into: lifetime learning; a
variety of informal learning settings; learning and work related activities are
getting blurred; technology is “rewiring” our brains and ultimately our thinking;
learning theories are “off-loading” on to technology; know-where is replacing
know-how and know-what.
As defined by Driscoll (2000), Siemens indicates that
learning is a change in performance which comes as a result of the learner
interacting with the world. The debate on learning from Behaviourism, Cognitivism and Constructivism is trying to explain where knowledge is and comes from: is it innate; does
it come from experience; is it knowable? is it negotiable through experience
and thinking or is it constructed? Etc. The common factor for all the three
theories is that knowledge is an objective; it is attainable through reasoning
or experiences.
Behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism focus on how
the person learns: Behaviourism states that learning
is about, behaviour change, Cognitivism builds on learning as
mental process and sees learning as a memory process and Constructivism sees learning as a
process of creating knowledge from experiences.
However there are limitations to these learning theories as they
fail to explain the social side of learning and promote the individual
learning. They do not discuss the impact of technology on the learning process
and how learning changes when seen through technology.
Connectivism sees personal knowledge as “comprised of a
network, which feed into organizations and institutions, which in turn feed
back into the network, and then continue to provide learning to individual.
This cycle allows the learners to be up to date in their field through the
connections they have formed”. Connectivism bases its theory in learning
through the personal network.
In brief Connectivism supports that access to what is needed
is more important that what the learner currently possesses” and provides the
insight to learning in the new digital area.
Edited by Maria Strange, Thursday, 22 Mar 2018, 21:31
What is really innovation? Is it creation? Is it starting something new?
Is it just a new idea, a new technology, etc. or is it new ways to do things, new ways to learn and work? Or perhaps ultimately innovation is real change?
But if we continue to apply new ideas or new technology to old ways of doing things how will innovation be able to introduce change?
With regards to eLearning, where does innovation lie: on Technology or on Pedagogy?
McAndrew and Farrow (2013) highlight six stages in the challenges faced by OER (legal, practical, technical, pedagogic, economic, transformative) and twelve key challenges (assessment/evaluation, technologies and infrastructure, institutional policies, use and reuse, sustainability, copyright and licensing, teaching, educational methods, quality, adoption, research, access). However, they focus on 3 aspects of OER which have the potential to challenge existing institutional structures (assessment/evaluation, technological infrastructure, research and scholarship).McAndrew and Farrow also identify the key challenges facing OER in four different categories (persistent challenges, underlying challenges, sticking points and emerging challenges).
OER can question the validity of existing institutional systems but it is important, according to McAndrew and Farrow, that an open model like Open Educational Practices is adopted rather than just focussing on the resources themselves.
Finally what do we think are the hardest challenges facing OER movement?
Some of us believe is quality and accreditation as a key for validity, others think technology is the key for openness in the sense to give access to everyone. In terms of the challenges people face for innovation in their own context, the majority would agree that policies and infrastructure is the highest barrier.
Edited by Maria Strange, Thursday, 22 Mar 2018, 21:29
Boccaccio’s Decameron is one of the most ancient storytelling
where social and cultural values are shared in a collaborative way. 100
stories, shared in 10 days by 10 young people as a mean to mentally escape the
horrors of the Black Death in Italy.
La gente è più acconcia a credere il male che il
bene.
People are more inclined to believe in bad
intentions than in good ones.
Third Day, Sixth Story
The Decameron Web, developed by the Italian Studies
Department at Brown University, tries to revive learning in a collaborative and
pleasurable style but still with an educational purpose in mind. The site is a
platform where literary discussion about the context of the Decameron and Boccaccio
takes place. Students and scholars can send their own work as well as using the
resources available on the web. In this way students can learn from scholars by
either observing or participating with small contributions of their own.
As Brown and Adler indicate in their article “Minds on Fire”,
The Decameron Web is a project where “community is added to content”, where
learning about and learning to be is combined in the new social learning of Learning 2.0 which creates a “participatory
architecture for supporting communities of learners”.
The importance of the Decameron Web is the provision not
only of educational content but also of a community (a community of students
and scholars). The Decameron Web is full of source materials, annotations,
bibliographies, essays and audio/visual materials on the work and content on
the literary, historical and cultural context of the Decameron. The site
clearly represents an open source communities sharing Open Educational
Resources.
The web is still open and fully functional. I have tried to
research related topics but all my searches take me to the articles about the Decameron
and its impact and interpretation as an extraordinary piece of literary work.
With regard to the Decameron Web the majority of my searches make reference to
John S. Brown lectures about social learning.
Edited by Maria Strange, Thursday, 22 Mar 2018, 21:29
Our journey has started!
Now that we know who we are with in this journey and we have welcomed each other, we are ready to go.
I am glad to be able to have access to the Forums where we can learn from each other and reflect on our learning. We need to remind ourselves that is not only about WHAT we are learning but HOW we are learning.
Writing a journal to reflect on our learning is not an easy task, it is something that needs encouragement and some resilience, however it carries many learning benefits: facilitates engagement, helps monitoring progress, it is a good tool for later follow up or it can be used as a study diary, brings consistency and reinforce learning etc., but specially it adds to ownership of learning...
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The main concept of MOOCs is based on social and
connectivist learning. One of the MOOCs challenges is the learner independence.
Self-directed learning has to be one of the primary strengths of learners,
while in a more traditional classroom the instructor takes the responsibility of
directing the learning (Kop 2011). According to Kop (2011) another of the
challenges is presence as a direct influential factor to motivation and
engagement of the learner: “the higher the level of presence, the higher the
level of involvement in the online activity”.
