Find these slides at

http://tinyurl.com/vance2015featured

This talk touches on

● Almost 20 years experience with learners and

colleagues in virtual spaces practicing engagement in

online and blended contexts

● Burgeoning of connectivist learning opportunities from

pioneer days to the proliferation of those available

today

● Examples of how learning online reshapes our notions

of engaging with students

Featured Speaker

at 10:30 AM in room

718A at the Metro

Toronto Convention

Centre

● and listed on pages 19 and 153 in

the convention program http://www.tesol.org/convention2015/co

nvention-news/convention-program-

(pdf)

● The presentation is listed on the TESOL

website under featured speakers http://www.tesol.org/convention2015/featured-

speakers/invited-speakers

If you’re lookng for my Spring Blog Festival slides, that link has moved: http://tinyurl.com/sbf2015vance

● 1995 - Dave Winet starts StudyCom (lasted through 2014)

● 1998 - Writing for Webheads (originally a course in StudyCom)

● 2000 - Invited speaker - TESOL 2000 Vancouver (demo’ed WfW)

● 2002 - Webheads in Action EVO session

● 2004 - George Siemens seminal work on connectivism (& Facebook)

● 2005 - Jeff Lebow and Dave Cormier start Wordbridges and EdTech Talk

● 2005 - 1st WiAOC: free, online, class roots, no funding or expenses

● 2006 - 1st K-12 Online Conference, same model above

● 2007 - Siemens organized Future of Learning, free, online

● 2008 - Siemens, Downes, Cormier 1st connectivist MOOC

● 2009 - 3rd and Last WiAOC (2nd in 2007)

● 2010 - Learning2gether launched

More

links

in top

bar

here

Crossing networks, building connections with

Learning2gether: An initiative of Vance Stevens evolving most directly from the

● Synchronous meetings with Writing for Webheads meeting

each week from 1998 - 2001

● Synchronous meetings with Webheads in Action held

weekly since 2002 (chat logs exist from 1998-2008)

● Three WiAOC (WiA Online) Convergences in 2005, 2007,

and 2009

● Started in September 2010, hosted apprx 250 events

● Has hosted conversations most weeks since, usually on

Sundays, schedule at http://tinyurl.com/learning2gether

o Not always well-known presenters

o Encourages all educators who enjoy connecting

with peers to contribute their voices to

perpetuating conversations at L2

● This presentation will explain how L2g works and how

you can contribute and participate

Purpose: this

is our public

planning wiki

http://learning2ge

ther.pbworks.com/

http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/volunteersneeded

Anyone can join the wiki

and enter their events here

http://tinyurl.com/learni

ng2gether

● Lists not just events

organized by L2go but all open events known

to L2g

o Open = no login, archives

available to anyone

● Chronologically, Times in GMT

Lists● 23 events

in 2010

● approx.

200 from

2011

to 2014

● 12 in 2015

= 235

http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/archiveindex

http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/w/page/34456755/archiveindex

● Description in

the ABOUT tabhttp://learning2gether.net/about

● Videos, mp3s,

show notes,

slide URLs all

posted here

http://www.s

lideshare.net

/vances/learn

ing2gether-

classroots-

weekly-

online-

professional-

development

http://www.scoop.it/t/learning2gether

Scoop.it posts fed to

Twitter and Linkedin

https://twitter.com/sear

ch?q=learning2gether&src

=typd

● Posts made

automatically

from Scoop.it

https://www.linkedin.

com/in/vancestevensto find my updates

● Posts made

automatically

from Scoop.it

https://www.facebook.com

/groups/learning2gether/

● Post both

announcements

of upcoming

events

● and also links to

archived

recordings

● in all our spaces

● These are a few we

regularly post to

● Learning2gether is here

on G+

o Also set up Hangouts

on Air here

o Can schedule events

o Hold conversations

https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/109504049211076695836

https://www.tagboard.com/learning2gether/search

Aggregates content from

Google+ and Twitter on

specified tags

https://plus.go

ogle.com/u/0/

events/ckmi5bc

s2572sa408vef6

4oa500

Our

current

favorite

● At

http://webheadsin

action.org/live

● More information

here ...Stevens, V. (2013). Tweaking

Technology: How Communities

Meet Online Using Google+

Hangouts On Air with Unlimited

Participants. TESL-EJ, Volume 17,

Number 3, pp. 1-16. Available:

http://tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej67/int.pdf

● Frequent interaction with peers

● Shared problem-solving

● Connectivist professional development

changes mindset toward teaching

● Gain tips and tricks for use with students

● Learn how to truly flip o Not only our classes, but

o Our professional development

• Series of 5-week online sessions each Jan / Feb for the past 15 years

• These sessions I moderated resulted in formation of CoPs

– Webheads in Action modeled experiential social learning in 2002 (Stevens, 2004)

– Applying MOOC models sessions on Multiliteracies - EVO MultiMOOC (2004-2014) http://goodbyegutenberg.pbworks.com

– Gamification techniques in professional development Jan-Feb 2015 EVO Minecraft mOOC

• Principles supporting MOOC approach

– Connectivism, Siemens (2004)

– Knowledge distribution in networks, Downes (2012)

– Rhizomatic learning and community as curriculum Cormier (2008)

• Gamification supplies

– a framework for teacher training to model learning

– that teachers can apply when conducting their own classes

• Remarkable affordances for facilitating learning

– in a range of subjects

– particularly foreign languages

● Engaging

– for young people

– teachers of all ages (Smolčec,

Smolčec, and Stevens, 2014)

This session invites interested teachers to join us in

playing Minecraft, learning all we can about playing

alone and together, and how Minecraft is being used

effectively in language learning. We'll learn by doing

and from one another. We'll start here:

http://www.tesl-

ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume18/ej70/ej70int/(Smolčec, Smolčec, and Stevens, 2014)

Target audience:

• Teachers with a

gaming problem

• Gamers with a

teaching problem

• Teachers of gamers

with a learning

problem

Why do this? Presenters intrigued by• The potential of the game for CALL • Notion that the session itself could be conducted as a

game, putting instructor in position similar to that of students

• What we would all learn from this perspective

● Proposal writer did not know how to

o Play the game well enough

o … to teach others to play it

● Moderators could not know

o If the approach would work

o What the outcomes would be

● Moderators rolled dice

o Predicted that by setting parameters

learning would occur along lines hoped for

• Minecraft can FLIP the normal student teacher dichotomy whereby

– teachers traditionally are older

– assumed to know more than their students.

• Experience of participants in our EVO session that when Minecraft introduced to young learners

– Students tend to take charge of their learning

– Guide teachers into the vagaries of the game

● Participants included 3 teens with skills

sought by adults

o Young learners self-esteem

increased with respect to their

“teachers”

o Teachers gained greater awareness

of what it is to be a learner in a

game-driven and task-based

environment

We created a portal here https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/112993649763396826671

● Teachers attracted to the concept, including

o several with experience in the game

o one of whom became co-moderator

(Kuhn, 2015)• Participants attracted

– not because their learning paths had been prescribed for them in a pre-set syllabus

– but to the game experience, and assumption they would learn from it

Participants learned that by entering the “game” or session learning would happen ● in a way that participants would come to understand● by experiencing the process ● that Ito et al (2010) characterize as “hanging out,

messing around, and geeking out”(e.g. ‘check it out’, ‘explore it in a community setting’, ‘get reallygood at it’ --> be able to use it as a tool)

Teachers who learn gaming through the experience of playing as learners are learning how to● Design worlds within the game context that will meet

their curriculum objectives ● Create an engaging and enjoyable experience and

task-based environment for learners

(Minecraft has been shown anecdotally

to be effective in doing that)

Teachers can be made aware of the affordances of games like Minecraft ● by creating such spaces with one another● interacting in those spaces with young

learners who in effect become their teachers

Serves as an example of how we teachers can use what we have learned through our experience with MOOCs ● to form communities of practice ● to reboot our own learning,

using the community as curriculum (Cormier, 2008)

More information on CaC here

from my earlier presentation

http://tinyurl.com/tesol2015vance-mooc

• Cormier, D. (2008). Rhizomatic education: Community as curriculum. Innovate, 4(5). Reprinted with permission of the publisher and retrieved from http://davecormier.com/edblog/2008/06/03/rhizomatic-education-community-as-curriculum/.

• Downes, S. (2012). Connectivism and connective knowledge: Essays on meaning and learning networks. Stephen's Web: My eBook. Retrieved fromhttp://www.downes.ca/files/Connective_Knowledge-19May2012.pdf.

• Ito, M., Baumer, S., Bittanti, M., Cody, R., Herr-Stephenson, B., Horst, H. A., … & Tripp, L. (2010). Hanging out, messing around, and geeking out. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. E-book retrieved fromhttps://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/free_download/9780262013369_Hanging_Out.pdf.

• Kuhn, J. (2015). Meaningful Play – Making Professional Development Fun. TESL-EJ, 15(4),1-8. Retrieved from http://tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej72/int.pdf.

• Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Elearningspace. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm.

• Smolčec, M., Smolčec, F. and Stevens, V. (2014). Using Minecraft for Learning English. TESL-EJ, 18(2),1-15. Retrieved from http://www.tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej70/int.pdf.

• Stevens, V. (2004). Webheads communities: Writing tasks interleaved with synchronous online communication and web page development. In Leaver, B. and Willis, J. (Eds.). Task-based instruction in foreign language education: Practices and programs. Georgetown University Press. pp. 204-217.

• Stevens, V. (2014). Connectivist Learning: Reaching Students through Teacher Professional Development. in Son, J.-B. (Ed.). Computer-assisted language learning: Learners, teachers and tools. APACALL Book Series Volume 3. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 150-172.

• Find this slide presentation online at

http://tinyurl.com/vance2015featured

• The session was recorded and the mp3 is here:

http://learning2gether.net/2015/03/27/learning2gether-with-

call-is-webcasting-from-the-2015-tesol-convention-in-toronto/

• More about Learning2gether

– Planning: http://learning2gether.pbworks.com

– Upcoming events: http://tinyurl.com/learning2gether

– Archives: http://learning2gether.net

If you’re lookng for my Spring Blog Festival slides, that link has moved: http://tinyurl.com/sbf2015vance

http://tinyurl.com/vance2015featured