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The Networked Student
Posted: November 30th, 2008, 3:36pm GMT
Via Lone Wolf Librarian: The Networked Student was inspired by CCK08, a Connectivism course offered by George Siemens and Stephen Downes during fall 2008. It depicts an actual project completed by Wendy Drexler’s high school students. The Networked Student concept map was inspired by Alec Couros’ Networked Teacher. I hope that teachers will use it to help their colleagues, parents, and students understand networked learning in the 21st century. Anyone is free to use this video for education -
Community Connecting in order to Learn
Posted: November 30th, 2008, 12:53pm GMT
In the FOC08 meeting on August 5, 2008, Bronwyn Stuckey said, Community is a journey not a destination.George Siemens said during the Connectivism course that the learning is in the connections (or something rather similar).So a community is on a journey and that community is held together, however tenuously, by connections. Does it not follow that the community learns as it connects and further that the more connections equal more learnings?Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach is right! (I never doubted you -
Useful Sites (weekly)
Posted: November 30th, 2008, 7:30am GMT
digiteen2008 » Virtual World Digital Citizenship for Middle Schoolers This documents students using Google lively to teach other students about digital citizenship. Unobtrusive Collaboration in Google Docs | ICT in my Classroom Tom Barrett shares about using google docs in his classes and live marking Learning technology teacher development blog: Things You Can Do With Your WebCam 1 A great post about using webcams for learning/classroom activities. Blogging Rubric Blogging Rubric by Ryan -
Networked student
Posted: November 29th, 2008, 1:21am GMT
I found this thanks to CogDog. It is a simple, really easy to understand video about “connectivism”. Use it to promote network learning in school. The Networked Student was inspired by CCK08, a Connectivism course offered by George Siemens and Stephen Downes during fall 2008. It depicts an actual project completed by Wendy Drexler’s high school students. The Networked Student concept map was inspired by Alec Couros’ Networked Teacher. I hope that teachers will use it to help their colleagues, pa -
CCK08: before trying to outline a “final project” …
Posted: November 28th, 2008, 11:38am GMT
(Translation in italian, Translation booking) Before trying to outline a “final project” I would like to hear the voices of the students. Yes, because first of all, teachers must learn to hear the voices of their students, before applying methods, before thinking about theories, before outlining strategies. For me, it was not much about incorporating connectivist principles in my design and delivery of learning but the other way around, in a way. In eight years of activities, I went on through a -
Reflections on Open Teaching
Posted: November 28th, 2008, 7:05am GMT
George Siemens, via elearnspace, deliberated on how open teaching is intertwined with open learning; and the need to reconsider participation requirements in open teaching in light of challenges to ensure high level of participation by students. Excerpt: …openness may produce shared activity at some levels (students helping each other, taking on leadership roles, connecting to others outside of the course, etc). Open teaching is really best seen as open learning. When we learn in transparent -
Networked Student - The Video
Posted: November 28th, 2008, 5:54am GMT
With a style borrowed from the Common Craft videos, Wendy Drexler has put together an excellent video depicting what she calls the networked student. This is a terrific description of how networked learning may look for an individual student. Thanks Wendy for your obvious hard work on this concept and video! More info: The Networked Student was inspired by CCK08, a Connectivism course offered by George Siemens and Stephen Downes during fall 2008. It depicts an actual project completed by We -
Hopes & Dreams & Road Blocks OH MY… CCK08
Posted: November 28th, 2008, 4:53am GMT
I have been saving writing this post until this time in the course and until I had my first meeting with Alberta Ed, on the new CTS Curriculum for Middle Years and Junior High Focus Group. First off lets clarify my situation, this has been the first time I have been invited into these hallow halls, and see some of the inner workings of the Pillars of Education. Also the first time I have been back to Edmonton in nearly eight years, but I digress… I do not plan on mentioning anything t -
CCK08 Week 12: Research, Evaluation
Posted: November 27th, 2008, 10:43pm GMT
CCK08 Week 12: Research, Evaluation I think the most urgent research need in Connectivism is not to gain still more insights but to develop a conceptual arsenal, or toolbox, for expressing and proving these findings. Read more… 27 November 2008 | CCK08 -
Castles in the Cloud
Posted: November 27th, 2008, 8:50pm GMT
This video is just brilliant. It uses the format made famous by the Common Craft Show (think “Wikis in Plain English“) to discuss networked learning and Connectivism. It’s 5 minutes long but really easy viewing. URL: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=e7oFzmr9_M4 Description: “The Networked Student was inspired by CCK08, a Connectivism course offered by George Siemens and Stephen Downes during fall 2008. It depicts an actual project completed by Wendy Drexler’s high school students. The Networke -
Connected students: a resource
Posted: November 27th, 2008, 7:25am GMT
I have been following the Connectivism 08 online course on the fringes (not registered or anything) but catching up with the Friday chats when I can and have enjoyed them very much. Really good and thoughtful work going on there. The course is put together by George Siemens and Stephen Downes and lots of people are doing the course. And then today I found a video on YouTube via twitter, which I wanted to share as a great resource and example. Thanks Wendy The Networked Student was inspired by -
Social Computing
Posted: November 26th, 2008, 9:31pm GMT
Dave Snowden is well-known in the knowledge management field. He has been kind enough in the past to present to online conferences that we have hosted at University of Manitoba (most recently, our Future of Education conference). Over the last few years, his writings/presentations have taken a turn that very much fits in with concepts presented in this forum and in CCK08. Dave started blogging about two years ago, but I’ve been following his work through his publications and contributions to AC -
Systems for Supportive Open Teaching
Posted: November 26th, 2008, 8:10pm GMT
We’ve experienced this in CCK08: Systems for Supportive Open Teaching: “I think it more valuable to think about how openness changes the basic praxis of teaching from an essentially individual activity to a shared activity.” But, as we’ve discovered, openness may produced shared activity at some levels (students helping each other, taking on leadership roles, connecting to others outside of the course, etc). Open teaching is really best seen as open learning. When we learn in transparent ways, -
CCK08: Course Evaluation and Feedback
Posted: November 24th, 2008, 9:59pm GMT
My experience with Connectivism and Connective Knowledge 2008 has been tantamount to climbing Mount Everest. The amount of sustained energy required to maintain an upward assent has been extraordinary - with many colleagues turning back or stopping along the way - but in this lay one of the key sources of its engagement, and one that tied students together into a unique, shared experience. It’s been absolutely incredible. Every week yielded a fascinating new topic to be explored, and with it -
The Future of the Educational Marketplace
Posted: November 24th, 2008, 1:11pm GMT
I was reading Stephen Downes‘ article on the Future of Online Learning, and ran into a paragraph that hit home more than the rest, about the marketplace for course content. Today, much of the value derived from the learning marketplace is based on an artificially imposed scarcity – a scarcity of seats in classrooms, a scarcity of credentialing agencies, and a scarcity of educational publications, for example. These scarcities will disappear as governments prefer to fund education directly, and -
An Illichian Rant
Posted: November 24th, 2008, 12:42pm GMT
Editor’s Note: At one stage this post had a point, but somewhere along the line it seems to have derailed into a rant against the establishment. Criticism The challenges and obstacles facing the evolution and revolution of education can be traced back to a few key ideas – those of stratification, hierarchies, institutionalisation, power, and control. Essentially, characteristics that have nothing to do with education and learning, but everything to do with how it is controlled, dictated and m -
CCK08 Final presentation
Posted: November 24th, 2008, 7:08am GMT
CCK08 Final presentation As my final presentation, I uploaded a 2 minute Flash file (no audio, 4.5 MB). It answers the question “How has this course influenced my view of the process of learning” and is a reduced, visually enhanced version of my yesterday’s posting about the relationship between conceptual and social/ external connections. 24 November 2008 | CCK08 -
Mind Map + 11 Weeks = Done CCK08 Style
Posted: November 24th, 2008, 2:44am GMT
The second to last project is done, but is it. This is the type of project that could continually be retooled from time to time. Like a students grades, this only represents a snap shot in time. Will my picture be clear and show my thoughts, or fuzzy and make little sense even after hours of study. I let you be the judge: I realize this image is to small to see clearly, because of that I give two options: ubiquitous.posterous.com (Go here to see a large image) download the zip -
CCK08, thank you
Posted: November 23rd, 2008, 9:40pm GMT
(Both the foreground and the background images have been made with Wordle and processed with Gimp) (Translation in Italian) I went to explore the forest and I have found some flowers. Flowers are beautiful and it makes you feel good to find beautiful things. I didn’t pluck them because in my hands they would die. Instead, I will go back to find new ones and perhaps even more beautiful ones. The magic is not in the flowers but in what it let them grow. This post is just to say thank you to a numb -
CCK08 Final Cmap
Posted: November 23rd, 2008, 8:02pm GMT
CCK08 Final Cmap As an assignment of Week 11, here is my final Cmap. 23 November 2008 | CCK08 -
CCK08 Conceptual and Social layer
Posted: November 23rd, 2008, 7:03pm GMT
CCK08 Conceptual and Social layer The most intriguing question of this course was the relationship of the social/ external and the conceptual level of connectivism. It becomes apparent in Fuzzy categories, Structural preferences, Echo and resonating, and Knowledge residing externally. read more… 23 November 2008 | CCK08 -
Politics Will Not Always Be Local - The National Intelligence Council About the Future of Our Worlds
Posted: November 23rd, 2008, 11:30am GMT
The new secretary general of the United Nations is about to thank her or his election to various nonstate networks, a loose coalition of NGOs, religious groups, business leaders and local activists. This is only logical after those groups managed to set the international agenda on the environment. This success was possible because of some terrible climate-related disasters (remember the hurricane destroying part of Wall Street?) and by the use of the ubiquitous internet. Observers saw the shif -
Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - Nov 22 08
Posted: November 22nd, 2008, 10:34am GMT
As more and more students begin to attend online courses, is the educational system well aware of the potential of outside-the-classroom approaches in learning? George Siemens - Photo credit: Injenuity The abundance and consequent fragmentation of information gives increasing opportunity to specialized forms of education that more effectively address personal contexts and individual needs rather than the usual pre-packaged, dogmatic, teaching-like approaches. Educational technology expert Georg -
Open Education & Open Learning
Posted: November 21st, 2008, 10:12pm GMT
Open Education & Open Learning -
Digital Youth Report
Posted: November 21st, 2008, 5:52am GMT
Over at BoingBoing Cory Doctorow points us to a 3-year multi-million-dollar research effort to discern what the youth of America are doing online, and whether it is good for them or not. Two-pager, White paper, Book: Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out (download), Digital Youth homepage -
The End is NIGH (NIGH I SAY) CCK08 tick tock
Posted: November 21st, 2008, 4:37am GMT
We are approaching the final days of the grand experiment of Connectivism, and I are starting to fray at the edges. I will admit I am tired, this course plus my other responsibilities has been at times a little too much, so I feel it is time to reflect on the course and hopefully myself. I will state that I think the class was too large, they capped the registration of the course for a limited number of credit learners, unfortunately for them they did not cap the non-credit learners. -
Open Education Workshop: The CCK08 Student Experience
Posted: November 20th, 2008, 1:01pm GMT
Student Experiences In CCK08 View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: cck08 open) The above slides are to be used during a brief use case being presented tomorrow to the Open Education Workshop 2008 at Macquarie University. The talk covers an overview of “Connectivism and Connective Knowledge“, my experiences as a student of the course and a quick discussion of some of the tools used by the other students. Unfortunately with only 5 minutes allotted for the entire talk I can’t -
CCK08: a little learning experience
Posted: November 19th, 2008, 8:58pm GMT
(For students: Translation in Italian) To learn means different things. Generally speaking, actual learning implies a change of the state of mind. It may imply a different mood that allows you to do something unexpected. I learned a lot of things in this course. Among these there is a fancy one, for me. Software coding was a relevant part of my former researcher activity but since I was charged with teaching in the medical school I forgot about coding. Wandering in this course and browsing Steph -
Time Constraints and Personal Limitations
Posted: November 18th, 2008, 10:07pm GMT
This may be cheating slightly, but the last post was intended to make a point that I didn’t manage to get to, and that was a response to Jenny’s train of thought as expressed in “A 10 Minute Post.” In this post she discusses the following points: The issue of time constraints in connectivism and CCK08 Rapid interaction versus slow blogging, reflection and listening Their fundamental “meaning” for connectivism I’m a verbose writer. I have a great deal of trouble making a succinct point in 10 -
Blogging Exercise: The 10-Minute Post
Posted: November 18th, 2008, 10:07pm GMT
Jenny Mackness has unknowingly thrown down the gauntlet on a blogging exercise I think is very worthwhile and will be trying here into the foreseeable future. The idea is that you take 10 minutes – and 10 minutes only – and devote it to writing a post. The context of this idea is a video clip available on YouTube that was referenced in a recently The Daily, circulated by Stephen Downes. Not having the clip right in front of me, I can’t be sure of the exact “rules” (if they can so be called) – -
CCK08: learning lines
Posted: November 18th, 2008, 10:41am GMT
(For students: Translation in Italian, please book yourself before beginning the translation) Yesterday in a classroom I was trying to explain the rationale of our courses and it happened to me to sketch some sort of learning lines. The sketches seemed to be of some use. Here you have a somewhat refined versions. In conventional classroom work, activities are time constrained. There is a tight schedule and a sort of photo finish with final ranking. Time constraining prepares the students for mo -
The Future of Online Learning: Ten Years On
Posted: November 18th, 2008, 9:04am GMT
Stephen Downes has released a very interesting paper titled "The Future of Online Learning: Ten Years On". A must read for everyone interested in TEL. I also support Stephen's nomination for most influential blog post for 2008. -
It's Elementary #26, CCK08
Posted: November 17th, 2008, 4:07am GMT
It's Elementary #26, CCK08 Submitted by coordinator2 on Mon, 2008-11-17 04:07. It's Elementary Alice Mercer cck08 Dave Cormier Jose Rodriguez Lisa Durff Maria Knee 46:10 minutes (10.57 MB) Have a listen as the It's Elementary Team discusses the Connectivsm Course facilitated by Stephen Downes and George Siemens with our Guests Bradley Shoebottom, [ http://bradleyshoebottom.wordpress.com/ ] and Wendy Drexler [ http://teachweb2.blogspot.com/ ]With Dave Comier coming in to join the conve -
Is Resistance Futile?!? CCK08 - Paper 3
Posted: November 17th, 2008, 4:06am GMT
The inventor of the system deserves to be ranked among the best contributors to learning science, if not the greatest benefactors of mankind. Josiah F. Bumstead Regarding the invention of the blackboard (The future of education is hard to predict) The road that lies ahead is fraught with hope and disaster. Speculating on future variables and consequences of the will be educational system is no simple task, and can only be measured a success by overcoming the inertia of the c -
The Future of Learning: Ten Years On
Posted: November 17th, 2008, 12:01am GMT
Stephen Downes has written an important paper: The Future of Learning: Ten Years On. I need to spend more time reviewing the specifics of future learning, but after an initial read, Stephen has created a valuable document that should serve as a discussion piece for detailing the direction of our field. I suspect this document will be prominent in this week’s CCK08 dicussion on systemic change in education. I’d recommend Stephen arrange a few elluminate sessions in the near future to flesh out h -
CCK08: assignment 3
Posted: November 16th, 2008, 1:59pm GMT
(Translation in Italian) Here you have another assignment for students of the Facoltà di Medicina (INF08) and students of Teorie della comunicazione (TCO08). The attribution for the two groups are just an indication, all of you can choose one of the variants or do both of them. Students of Teorie della comunicazione (TCO08) Last monday in classroom we tried to focus on what’s really new in the internet hype. Among other things, we talked about the open source movement and the openness, sharing, -
CCK08: Power to the people?
Posted: November 16th, 2008, 1:20pm GMT
Many years ago I used to watch a pretty hopeless TV comedy called 'Citizen Smith' in which in Robert Lindsay played 'Wolfie' Smith, whose catch phrase was 'power to the people'. And I think that should be the catch phrase for connectivism.Attributes of connectivismSteven Downes (2008) in his post 'Networks, Power and Ethics' lists autonomy, diversity, openness and connectedness as attributes of a good network. Indeed, to me, connectivism is all about being able to identify one's own learning ne -
CCK08: How connectivism changes my teaching practice
Posted: November 16th, 2008, 10:35am GMT
Over the last few weeks I have been running a short postgraduate course for midwives looking at reflective practice and ePortfolios. I have been focusing a lot of my energies on thinking about tools and technologies, and how I can encourage the students to interact with them. But have I been looking in the wrong direction? Should I not have been looking at myself, as a teacher, and my role in relation to connectivism?Not just contentThe first thing that has struck me is that teaching isn't just -
CCK08: Connecting for Change: The New Role of Educators
Posted: November 15th, 2008, 9:03pm GMT
Circles of social fluency per Chris Lott, with a bit of help from me. This week's program on the Connectivism MOOC is about new roles for educators in a connected world, and the most interesting input was Nancy White talking about how we bring about change. Christy Tucker took great notes from the recorded discussion and the backchanneling of participants. My top 10 takeaways: Communities are the basis for change, and what they need more than anything now is excellent stewardship. Facilitat -
CCK08 Paper #3 Opportunities and Resistance
Posted: November 15th, 2008, 4:09pm GMT
(Questions: Q1. Difficult — Q2. Opportunities — Q3. Resistance — Q4. Weak ties) Q1. Difficult Why is it so difficult to change the practice of education? Because learning mechanisms involve subtle differences that are at odds with the binary thinking in terms of either correct or incorrect of education leaders. For many, learning still consists of absorbing facts, i. e. forming simple, binary (right or wrong) connections between concepts such as “Apple” and “Red”. In contrast, vague connec -
The road to the Future
Posted: November 15th, 2008, 1:49pm GMT
The Belgian Nobel Laureate in literature, Maurice Maeterlinck, has observed,At every crossway on the road that leads to the future each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand men appointed to guard the past. (Christenson, 2008)This is the reason cited for maintenance of the status quo and resistance to any change. I am certain this serves a very good cultural preservation function. But will it get us where we need to be going?We have a daunting task laid in front of us, namely to prepare K2 -
Daily Bookmarks 11/14/2008
Posted: November 14th, 2008, 8:30pm GMT
November 14, 2008 The Bamboo Project Blog: Deconstructing the Work Literacy Learning Event Michele Martin debriefs the experience of teaching the Work Literacy online course via Ning. Several things they did were very successful. Ning was a good platform, even though it’s intended as a social networking tool rather than a CMS. Explicitly saying that different levels of participation were acceptable meant that lurkers felt comfortable dipping in and out as legitimate perispheral participants. -
Poll: What tools do you use to engage in CCK08?
Posted: November 13th, 2008, 11:00pm GMT
This survey can be accessed directly here: “What tools do you use to engage in CCK08?” Loading… -
CCK08: Week 10, Openness
Posted: November 13th, 2008, 9:13pm GMT
I am still struggling with the role of openness in connectivism. Is it a prescriptive, integral part of the theory? Or is it just an ideal frame in which the descriptive power of connectivism can be shown particularly well? I won’t argue about open read access to as many published resources as possible. Of course this is desirable, without blocking firewalls or subscription walls (although it is paradoxically just the underdevelopped open access to professors’ books that require our LMSs to st -
Community Responsibility vol 1 - OMG is this a community?
Posted: November 13th, 2008, 1:43am GMT
Preamble This first post in the series of Community Responsibillity vs “The tragedy of the commons” is an attempt to lay the groundwork for the weeks to come and to start to tune the antanae to the idea of community. Where does it start and end? How do I know that I’m in a community? What should I do now that I’ve come to terms that I’m in one? These questions are at the heart of the community explorer’s mind as they wander through the internets… Critical Point - Community vs. Network In tak -
MOOCs might prove a practical answer?
Posted: November 12th, 2008, 12:25pm GMT
I had a fascinating meeting with two representatives of a Bejing school district last night. They are in Bremen as part of a European programme which including other things is developing a programme for the Continuing Professional Development of vocational teachers in the city. They came to visit us to discuss e-learning and how the use of new technologies might help in their project. The big issue that emerged was that of the scale of they challenge they face. Most of the teachers in vocatio -
CCK08: my assignments are optional …
Posted: November 11th, 2008, 10:12am GMT
(Translation in Italian Translation booking) Are my assignments mandatory? It depends. There are students that overreact by doing a lot of things. Good. For these students my assignments are optional: do them only if you like to contribute on the subject I’m proposing. Assignments are mandatory for those students who don’t know what to do. In the following, if you are going to warm up, assignments may become optional … -
CCK08: when students become frustrated …
Posted: November 11th, 2008, 9:55am GMT
(Translation in Italian Translation booking) Egocentricamente commented on the assigment 2 post that she finds enormously easier excel than google spreadsheet but she acknowledges to get nervous when becoming frustrated. I like this sort of comments because they foster discussion. It depends on what you want to do. It may be that google spreadsheet is not appropriate for what you are used to do with excel. I propose you write a post about the difficulties you have found in using google spreadshe -
CCK08 - Paper 2 Serialized Form - Final Paper - Just Handed In
Posted: November 11th, 2008, 4:41am GMT
Well the experiment of writing my second paper is complete, and sharing the process with the masses is also done. I have enjoyed the ups and mostly downs, as I have stated many times, writing is not my bag… but getting there. If you are still reading these posts, I hope you enjoy the definitive directors of my paper… Maybe later I will add deleted scenes =) Teachers in the Machine Teachers no longer have rooms filled with passive learners, mindlessly obeying the transmi -
CCK08 - Week#10 Discussion
Posted: November 10th, 2008, 9:55pm GMT
CCK08 - Week#10 Discussion Submitted by admin on Mon, 2008-11-10 21:55. Other Shows cck08 56:59 minutes (26.09 MB)Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Online Course Week#10 Discussion - Openness: social change and future directions November 14, 2008 -
Daily Bookmarks 11/10/2008
Posted: November 10th, 2008, 8:30pm GMT
November 10, 2008 Possibilities Abound–: Exploring, Considering and Proposing— CCK08 Collection of metaphors for new roles for teachers and instructional designers from a number of sources. Includes sharer, pattern builder, curator, organic gardener, wizard, and environmental engineer. Interesting place to start if you’re looking for different ways to think about our roles and who has the power. tags: cck08, instructionaldesign, teaching, connectivism Paper 2: Welcome to the Exploratorium! -
CCK08: assignment 2
Posted: November 10th, 2008, 3:55pm GMT
(Translation in Italian) Keep a diary of your activities. Go in Google Docs and create a new spreadsheet. Name it with your first and last name. Keep writing there your activities as I have shown in this example. Write there what you have done and the URL related to the activity: posts in your blog, contributions in the wiki, translations and so on. Evaluate your activity with a grade among 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. In a cell somewhere in the spreadsheet keep the average of your grades updated. Share your -
CCK08 - Paper 2 Serialized Form - Day 7
Posted: November 10th, 2008, 5:17am GMT
Trimmed much of the fat that was clogging the arteries and allowing clear thought to emerge. I like this final version, and recording the process and sharing for others has been an enlightening experience for myself. It has motivated me to think clearly and write better, finding approaches and times that suit my individual needs. Well, tomorrow the paper is handed in. But between now and then it will be read a couple of more times be me, tweaked a little and then the final judge (my wife) will -
Welcome to the Profession
Posted: November 10th, 2008, 12:35am GMT
You are likely familiar with the Hippocratic Oath through which graduates from medical school promise to practice with the best of their abilities. Many Canadians are at least passingly familiar with the Iron Ring Ceremony where unique pinky rings are granted to engineers upon completion of their formal education. As part of the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer the ring is a symbol that the graduate is obliged to act with the upmost professionalism. If teaching is such an important vocat -
Upcoming: Researching Learning in Virtual Environments
Posted: November 9th, 2008, 11:02pm GMT
Facebook is an important tool to stay informed about interesting events in Second Life, and the importance of Facebook in this regard is, in my humble opinion, even increasing. Liz Dorland posted this link about ReLIVE08, where we read: Welcome to the website for ReLIVE08 - 20th and 21st November 2008. Keynote speakers: Edward Castranova and Roo Reynolds. In response to demand we will be webcasting all keynote sessions and a selection of presentations live during ReLIVE08. We will also be p -
CCK08: assignment 1
Posted: November 9th, 2008, 7:42pm GMT
(Translation in Italian) This is the first assignment for students of the Facoltà di Medicina and students of Teorie della comunicazione. The assignments for the two groups are different but, if you like, you can do both of them. Students of Teorie della comunicazione The recent bill (Legge 133) which establishes a substantial reduction to university funding, among other things, is a subject of vehement discussions here in Italy in these days. However, I’m afraid there is little discussion on ba -
CCK08 - Paper 2 Serialized Form - Day 6
Posted: November 9th, 2008, 4:05pm GMT
Today marks another good writing day, which got me to thinking about a comment Keith e-mailed to me. He notices that my comments about my writing depend on my mood that day, and that is there better times than others that one should write? I extend that by asking, if so, should not class assignment due dates be modified by each students unique ups and downs. I know the logistically nightmare this would create, but we would get the best work from our students most of the time… hmmm Anyway, thi -
MOOCs, Connectivism, Humpty Dumpty and more - with Dave Cormier
Posted: November 9th, 2008, 1:43pm GMT
Last weeks Emerging Mondays seminar was on the topic of MOOCs and Open Course Models. The speaker was Dave Cormier from the University of Prince Edward Island. Dave spoke about his experiences, so far, of the CCK MOOC on Connectivism and Connected Knowledge, the technological platforms being used to support participants, the tensions that exist within the course design and the peer support models that are being embraced. Dave’s introduction led to a wide ranging discussion including the natur -
It's Elementary
Posted: November 8th, 2008, 10:10pm GMT
Looking for participants of the Connectivism course to come on our live show and tell us:What are you learning in the CCK 08 course.What do you think of the course so far?It's Elementary is a live show on EdTechTalk every other Monday at 6pmPacific/9pmEastern at http://edtechtalk.com/liveWe use Skype + backchannel room + streaming to broadcast live shows. If you are interested, please leave a comment here.We would love to have everyone that can make it at the show-even George, Stephen, and Dave. -
Daily Bookmarks 11/08/2008
Posted: November 8th, 2008, 8:30pm GMT
November 8, 2008 Systems thinking and innovation | effectivedesign.org Live blogged notes from AECT about systems thinking, innovation, and games for learning. Lots of side comments too, including some good connections to instructional design and getting too bogged down in multiple theories. tags: instructionaldesign, theory, change, games, scaffolding, education, e-learning This is exactly what has happened to instructional design, and could by why theory and practice don’t meet. So much th -
CCK08: useless computer rooms
Posted: November 8th, 2008, 7:12pm GMT
(Translation in Italian) The blogroom materializes in one of our classrooms when needs arise. Yesterday I was in Empoli to discuss with some students. The university centre is new there and it is outfitted with advanced facilities, such as a sparkling computer room, the Aula Multimediale. We met there of course, being digital literacy the subject of the course for these students. Our computer room However, we used the Aula Multimediale as a normal classroom because we needed to use Web 2.0 tools -
CCK08 - Paper 2 Serialized Form - Day 5
Posted: November 8th, 2008, 5:31am GMT
The ups and downs of the writing process continues, today was more of an up. I feel what I wrote is long and windy and needs to be chopped and clarified, but it was nice to write and have ideas come forward easily instead of forcing them to the surface at gun point… Let me know what you think… Teachers in the Machine Gone are the days of classrooms filled with passive learners, obeying the transmission of expert knowledge from a central location. Teachers can no longer c -
Why information overload is good for you
Posted: November 7th, 2008, 3:38pm GMT
Ever tried to convince people to use RSS-feed readers and follow up the blogosphere? Especially journalists who already have to monitor the major news wires, their own sources, the other media? The classical counter argument is information overload. How to make sense out of hundreds or thousands of news sources, opinion makers, commentators, bloggers? Participating in virtual worlds, making geography collapse, does all that not lead to a dramatic information overload, leading to a nervous break -
Thinking about change
Posted: November 7th, 2008, 3:21pm GMT
As I was reading Bradley Shoebottom’s thought-provoking post about “the only constant in life is change – the changing roles of educators” I noticed the possibly related post link below it. I was hooked once again to follow a lead. The post was “The Business of blogging”. The author was Greg Whitby. He had read an article by Ian Grayson in the Australian on blogging in the corporate environment. I read that and then returned to Greg’s site. I mention all this to let you know my habits and how -
CCK08 - Paper 2 Serialization - Day 4
Posted: November 7th, 2008, 4:45am GMT
For anyone following this serialization of my posts to my final paper, you have seen the ups and downs of my writing. Tonight was a down… a real down… Minor adjustments were made and some partial paragraphs added… I just don’t think I have really hashed out my theme yet… Maybe tomorrow some more insight will occur… Teachers in the Machine Gone are the days of classrooms filled with passive learners, obeying the transmission of expert knowledge from a central locati -
CCK Week#9 Discussion
Posted: November 7th, 2008, 2:36am GMT
Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Online Course Week#9 Discussion - What becomes of the teacher? New roles for educators. November 7, 2008 Chat Log Below read more -
CCK08: In Need of a New Operating System
Posted: November 7th, 2008, 2:20am GMT
Accelerating change has never been adopted or accepted in classrooms around the world, even though most educators have come to accept change in their daily lives. Instead, as an organization, formal education has acted like a brake, forestalling significant change be it in the tools we use to teach and learn, or the theories we adopt in developing new teaching strategies. In my second year of teaching, I was able to purchase my first home computer… an AT machine with a 386 microprocessor and t -
CCK08: How to write assigned posts
Posted: November 6th, 2008, 8:45pm GMT
(Translation in Italian) Dear students, here you have the rules to write the assigned posts. Assignments will arrive later on. Rules are useful to work and cooperate in the complexity of our world. However, the validity of rules depend on context and, since context may always change, it is good to be observant but it is even better to be also vigilant about context, at the same time. Sticking to a system of rules in presence of a significant change of context may be stupid, dangerous and even cr -
Daily Bookmarks 11/06/2008
Posted: November 6th, 2008, 8:30pm GMT
November 6, 2008 eLearning Learning Aggregated resources for e-learning. Essentially, this aggregates feeds from a large number of e-learning-related blogs and lets you do a metasearch across them. You can also browse by keyword, tools, and companies. tags: e-learning, learning, web2.0, tagging CCK08: List of change tactics from 1st Elluminate session Screenshot of the brainstorming on how to make change happen with Nancy White leading the CCK08 discussion tags: cck08, change, changemanagem -
CCK08 - Paper 2 Serialized Form Day 3
Posted: November 6th, 2008, 5:06am GMT
The Brain was working a little better today and I think the writing followed suit… As always, the paragraphs have been completely reworked and the paragraph on Professional Development was written completely without critical thinking and was flowing, but now needs to be shaped from its fuzziness into something slightly coherent… Let me know how the thoughts are forming for you… Teachers in the Machine Gone are the days of classrooms filled with passive learners, obeyi -
Guesting with Connectivism & Connective Knowledge
Posted: November 6th, 2008, 12:20am GMT
Today I am a guest conversationalist (??) in the Connectivism & Connective Knowledge course run by Stephen Downes and George Siemens. This is the course I was hoping to participate in, but the flurry of travel killed that idea. We had the first session this morning, and we’ll have another later today. The details: You won’t want to miss the online sessions this week. Nancy White is our scheduled guest. We have two Elluminate discussions (both sessions can be accessed via this link): 11 am -
CCK08: Iterative, Appreciative Change
Posted: November 5th, 2008, 7:33pm GMT
November 5, 2008 Recursive flower These are my liveblogged notes from this morning’s live session for CCK08. Although I usually aim for a fairly complete transcript of live sessions, I spent more time paying attention to and participating in the backchannel chat today. Therefore, some of the questions and discussion near the end aren’t included in my notes. My comments are in italics. There are a few comments copied directly from the chat. The recording will be available at some point under We -
CCK08 Paper 2 Serialized - Part 2
Posted: November 5th, 2008, 5:27am GMT
Yesterday I began the process of writing my second paper for CCK08, and decided to serialize the process at the end of each writing cycle for the day. I know I may not write a lot for any given day, and by reviewing previous posts you will see a fair amount of reworking in a paragraph that was already written, plus paragraphs that change, or appear… But hey isn’t that what writing is about… To be honest at this time I have a gut feeling where I want this paper to go, but not sure how -
Online Communities Mini-Conferences
Posted: November 4th, 2008, 9:56pm GMT
Passing this along from Leigh Blackall…This is a terrific set of “mini-events” around a variety of online community and collaboration topics. NOT TO BE MISSED! Participants in the Facilitating Online Communties course have come together to coordinate an online mini conference. Below are the range of events scheduled so far. Keep an eye on the conference wiki for up to the minute details. See you there! A mini conference for Facilitating Online From Facilitating online communities Date: 2 - 9 -
Week 2 Paper In Serial Form - CCK08
Posted: November 4th, 2008, 5:12am GMT
Many a great writer has written their works in Serial Form, I however am not one of those great writers (lets be honest) For the last paper I posted the rough draft on both this Blog and within Moodle. I got some interesting feedback that was very helpful for completing the final draft. I thought for this paper I would try something a little different. I hope to finish a paragraph a day and then post for comments from my various networks, this is more an experiment on the efficiency -
CCK08: Connectivism and the Challenge of Making Connections in Vast and Complex Networks
Posted: November 4th, 2008, 3:17am GMT
We're now 2/3 the way through the 12-week MOOC (online course) on Connectivism and Connective Knowledge. Next week we get into the role of the teacher and the future of education in an online, connected world, and I'll have a lot to say about that. But while there has been some discussion about complexity in this course, we have made little progress in dealing with the ultimate question that I think this course raises: In a world with a billion people online, connected in multiple and unfathoma -
It’s about the journey, not the destination
Posted: November 3rd, 2008, 10:34pm GMT
Come mothers and fathers throughout the land And don’t criticize what you can’t understand Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command Your old road is rapidly agin’. Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand For the times they are a-changin’. – Bob Dylan (“The Times They Are A-Changin‘”) The Glee Club When I was in primary school I decided to join the Glee Club, which was an extra curricular activity for students interested in singing. I hadn’t ever sang befo -
CCK08 Meta notes
Posted: November 3rd, 2008, 10:07pm GMT
Many speculations about the different participation styles have been written and already been interpreted for criticism. Since Stephen explicitly asked (why not subscribing), I want to give answers for my own case. I did not know in advance if I would be among the many of the 2000 who just wanted to look at the massive spectacular and then drop. As I wrote in my introductory expectation I estimated two weeks of staying for me. So you may count me as the opposite of one who dropped unexpectedly -
CCK08 Short Paper 2: Changing roles of educators
Posted: November 3rd, 2008, 8:25pm GMT
(I must admit to be really surprised, here you have the translation in Italian but look at the history: November 4, 2008 at 2:44:43 am by michele November 4, 2008 at 2:41:15 am by michele November 4, 2008 at 2:29:18 am by Giulia November 3, 2008 at 10:53:45 pm by Andreas Formiconi Do my students sleep sometimes ?) I’d like to tell you the story of Don Milani. A priest active in Tuscany, next to Florence, in the sixties. He was in the church against the church, his basic poi -
Wasted Time - CCK08
Posted: November 3rd, 2008, 3:24am GMT
I have been wrestling with this issue for awhile and have recently remembered that it is time to give a quick post about this, so here it is. “What can we do to minimize loss of time (regarding mistakes) while using connectivism?” Connectivism offers a Utopian vision of education, one might say the Star Trek for tomorrow’s classroom. However I fear a Dystopian reality is more likely. I will start by giving an example: I was teaching my middle school students Science, and mentioned i -
Case Study in Control and Instructional Design
Posted: November 2nd, 2008, 2:07pm GMT
My son, who is a sophomore at Bridgewater State College, texted me Friday. He was fuming about an incident in his Intro to Communications class. The teacher has a strict attendance policy: if you miss more than two classes you have 20% deducted from your final grade. My son attends class once a week for three hours (on a Friday, no less). He makes sure he is there. On Friday, he had his laptop open to take notes. It should be noted at Bridgewater the students are required to purchase a laptop. -
CCK08 Paper #2: What could be
Posted: November 1st, 2008, 7:38pm GMT
“Enjoy a creative stroll in rethinking ‘what could be’” Yes, educators’ roles are changing. But not in a radical, decisive way, as if the actors only needed to memorize a new text and change their costumes. There is still the stage director and the theatre principal (the reality of the actors’ current position), the audience (the students who might desire the Nuremberg funnel), and the actors themselves (who might not always be the ideal cast for the juvenile beau). And they all have a certain -
CCK08 Current Cmap
Posted: November 1st, 2008, 6:51pm GMT
The Cmap of Week 1 - 8 is due. I did not prune the more detailed branches and twigs, but I tried to do something like cartographic generalization. “Zoom in” for the Week 5 - 8 version below. (In case your browser has the “Enable Automatic Image Resizing” checked (in Tools > Internet options > Advanced) you may have to click the large version again, because I did not use the CmapTools default of 300 % image scale (using the Options button on the “File > Export map as… > Image -
CCK08: Let’s begin to work together …
Posted: November 1st, 2008, 6:11pm GMT
(Versione in italiano) About half of the expected final number of students have enrolled, that’s fine. Now, in order to give substance to the blogroom you have to begin to use web feeds (in italiano … vista la differenza?) so that each of you can be aware of what others, included myself, have written in their own blogs. First, you should subscribe to Google Reader. This is the feed reader (also called aggregator) provided by Google, among other web services. There are other feed readers in the i -
CCK08 Week 8: Validity
Posted: November 1st, 2008, 2:22pm GMT
For me, the most interesting topic of this week is the assessment and assurance of validity and credit. In the context of connective knowledge, it bears major challenges. The traditional practice of assessments is largely shaped by a measurability delusion and the simple belief in determinable truths and collectable facts that has no room for complex patterns of weak ties. Similarly problems are apparent with traditional citation practice which tries to guarantee validity by building on well-s -
Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - Nov 1 08
Posted: November 1st, 2008, 10:45am GMT
“New technologies offer new opportunities for educators to increase learner engagement and improve the overall value of the learning experience." (Source: George Siemens) George Siemens - Photo credit: Dean Shareski Is your university or college using Facebook, wikis, podcasts, or other social media technologies to communicate, interact and engage with its students? Educational technologies expert George Siemens, focuses once more on the relevance collaboration technologies have in shaping toda -
CCK 08 - Week#8 Discussion
Posted: November 1st, 2008, 12:14am GMT
CCK 08 - Week#8 Discussion Submitted by admin on Sat, 2008-11-01 00:14. Other Shows cck08 Dave Cormier George Siemens stephen downes 54:58 minutes (25.16 MB)Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Online CourseWeek#8 DiscussionOctober 31, 2008