Rethinking teaching: Networks and social connections
George SiemensMay 1, 2008
Pacific Northwest Higher Education Teaching & Learning Conference
Learning Technologies Centrewww.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies
1. What are we really facing?2. Social views of learning3. Tools?4. Distributed. Everything.5. Learning networks6. Control7. And into the abyss of chaos we shall teach
Hype?
Web 2.0
Millenials
Open Education Resources
Blogs
Wikis
Second Life
Virtual Worlds
Wikipedia
YouTube
uStream Podcasts
flickr
Skype
Diigo
Blogger
Google Docs
LMS
Learning 2.0
Distributed learning
Learner-centered
Authentic Teaching
Accountability
Standards
Online learning
Hybrid learning
Blended learning
Globalization
Digital literacy
Digital divide
Reality?
Explosion
Information
An exabyte? How Big?
Five exabytes of information is equivalent in size to the information contained in 37,000 new libraries the size of the Library of Congress book collections.
UC Berkeley
In 2007 the digital universe equalled 281bn gigabytes of data, or about 45gb for every person on Earth
International Data Corporation
It took two centuries to fill the shelves of the Library of Congress with more than 57 million manuscripts, 29 million books and periodicals, 12 million photographs, and more. Now, the world generates an equivalent amount of digital information nearly 100 times each day.
Internet Innovation Alliance
Increased: Complexity and Access
Time: 1990-2001
Cost?: $3 Billion
Map your DNA
Cost?: $1000
“You can discover your origins, learn what the latest genetic findings may mean for you, and connect genetically with friends, family, and others across the globe.”
Getting to 25%
Electricity =46 yearsTelephones =35 years Televisions =26 years Broadband=6 years
McKinsey
IP traffic will nearly double every two years through 2011. Total IP traffic will nearly quintuple in the five-year period from 2006-2011.
Cisco’s “The Exabyte Era” 2007
Internet's current network architecture will reach the limits of its capacity by 2010
AT & T
1. What are we really facing?2. Social views of learning3. Tools?4. Distributed. Everything.5. Learning networks6. Control7. And into the abyss of chaos we shall teach
Social theories of learning
Vygotsky
Socio-cultural
Leontiev
Action has not meaning in itself but in relation to others
“The information required by individuals for functioning in society and for the survival of society itself is not carried in our biotic genes but in our societal institutions”
Tolman
Bandura
“Socially interdependent effort”
Triad: Cognitive,biological, environmental
Relationship of
ActivityIndividual
SocietyTools
1. What are we really facing?2. Social views of learning3. Tools?4. Distributed. Everything.5. Learning networks6. And into the abyss of chaos we shall teach
The tool is the thing...
Gibson: affordances
“Action possibilities”
Extending ourselves: Technological advances
1. What are we really facing?2. Social views of learning3. Tools?4. Distributed. Everything.5. Learning networks6. Control7. And into the abyss of chaos we shall teach
Let’s get fragmented
Pieces
Distribution
Cognition
Sensemaking
All meanings are created in the public domain...in collective situations and actions
Wittgenstein (Toulmin)
Knowledge
Creation
Learning
Duality of fragmentation
Ease of customization, adaptation, individualization
Pressure of building realities outside of solid frameworks
1. What are we really facing?2. Social views of learning3. Tools?4. Distributed. Everything.5. Learning networks6. Control7. And into the abyss of chaos we shall teach
Connectivism
What do we mean when we say “Network Learning”?
1. Technical infrastructure
2. Network structure
3. Distributed cognition, knowledge, and learning
4. Network skills
5. Systemic views of networked learning, knowledge, and education
1. What are we really facing?2. Social views of learning3. Tools?4. Distributed. Everything.5. Learning networks6. Control7. And into the abyss of chaos we shall teach
Who does what?
Who speaks? How?
Who has control?
Information is participation
Dilbert
Human face to murder
Jill Leovy: Homicide Report
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/homicidereport/
History Commons
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org
Open Educational Resources
1. What are we really facing?2. Social views of learning3. Tools?4. Distributed. Everything.5. Learning networks6. Control7. And into the abyss of chaos we shall teach
Our reality
1. Tremendous growth of information and complexity
2. Our social nature3. Tools to extend ourselves4. Networks to filter, make sense, think, learn5. Shifting control: Thinning class walls
On becoming...
Different teachers
Not only domain-specific knowledge
But connections
And new literacies
Literate/competent with networks
Literate with information
FindingEvaluating
Filtering
SharingRe-creating
Collaborating
Literate with identity
Literate with process/tools
Media
Context
Tool selection
Process selection
From knowing something to connecting to something
Websites and Newsletters
www.elearnspace.orgwww.knowingknowledge.com
www.connectivism.cahttp://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wordpress/
gsiemens AT elearnspace DOT org
