Week 10: Openness: Social Change and Future Directions

This is a heavy assignment week, no readings are assigned.

That said, Stephen offers two of his papers as optional reading:
– Models for Sustainable Open Educational Resources
– Reusable Media, Social Software and Openness in Education
Activities:

Mon: Recorded presentations and readings will be posted to the email list

Wed: Two Elluminate discussions (both sessions can be accessed via this link):

• 11 am CST: See time zone conversions. Howard Rheingold is our scheduled guest
• 7 pm CST: See time zone conversions. ‘

Friday: Discussion via USTREAM 11 am CST: See time zone conversion
Assignments:

1. Continue regular weekly activities – blogging, developing your concept map, and follow the distributed conversation through various sites (pageflakes, delicious, Google Alerts).

2. Complete and submit final paper (Due November 17). You can post the paper on your site as a blog post or post in the Moodle Forum

Week 9: What Becomes of the Teacher? New Roles for Educators

Readings

This is a heavy assignment week, no readings are assigned. George and Stephen will, however, provide a short paper/recording on the subject to initiate discussion…
Activities:

Mon: Recorded presentations and readings will be posted to the email list

Wed: Two Elluminate discussions (both sessions can be accessed via this link):

• 11 am CST: See time zone conversions. Howard Rheingold is our scheduled guest
• 7 pm CST: See time zone conversions. ‘

Friday: Discussion via USTREAM 11 am CST: See time zone conversion

Week 8: Power, Control, Validity, and Authority in Distributed Environments

Readings

The Fifth Estate – Through the Network (of Networks) .pdf

Network Logic: Who governs in an interconnected world? (.pdf) (this is a long paper/book. Skim sections that you find to be of interest).
Activities:

Mon: Recorded presentations and readings will be posted to the email list

Wed: Two Elluminate discussions (both sessions can be accessed via this link): 11 am CST: See time zone conversions7 pm CST: See time zone conversions. Alec Couros will be presenting during both times, followed by informal conversation.

Friday: Discussion via USTREAM 11 am CST: See time zone conversion
Assignments:

1. Continue regular weekly activities – blogging, developing your concept map, and follow the distributed conversation through various sites (pageflakes, delicious, Google Alerts).

2. Post your updated concept map on your blog.

3. Continue to work on your final presentation.

Week 7: Instructional Design and Connectivism

Week 7: Instructional Design and Connectivism (October 20-26)

Readings

New Schemas for Mapping Pedagogies and Technologies

Cloudworks: Social networking for learning design .doc file

Instructional Design and Connectivism (George Siemens) 23 minute presentation

Activities:

Mon: Recorded presentations and readings will be posted to the email list

Wed: Elluminate discussion 7 pm CST: See time zone conversions. Grainne Conole will be our guest at 11:00 am…

Friday: Discussion via USTREAM 11 am CST: See time zone conversion

Week 6: Complexity, Chaos and Randomness

Readings

Developing Online From Simplicity toward Complexity: Going with the Flow of Non-Linear Learning

Video Lecture: Complexity Science

Complexity and Information Overload in Society .pdf
Activities:

Mon: Recorded presentations and readings will be posted to the email list

Wed: Two Elluminate discussions (both sessions can be accessed via this link): 11 am CST: See time zone conversions7 pm CST: See time zone conversions. Alec Couros will be presenting during both times, followed by informal conversation.

Friday: Discussion via USTREAM 11 am CST: See time zone conversion
Assignments:

1. Continue regular weekly activities – blogging, developing your concept map, and follow the distributed conversation through various sites (pageflakes, delicious, Google Alerts).

2. Begin work on your second short paper.

Additional Readings:

The new dynamics of strategy: Sense-making in a complex and complicated world (.pdf)

Week 5 – Notes

Kveldens Elluminate session med CCK08 generte disse stikkord:

Group vs Networks:

Gruppe kjennetegnes av likhet:

• lik visjon
• like verktøy
• lik organisasjon
• groups collaborate – samarbeider

Nettverk kjennetegnes av ulikheter:

• ulike visjoner (individorienterte)
• ulike verktøy
• ulike organisasjoner
• groups cooperate – samvirker

Les også:

Seven Habits of Highly Connected People

1. Be reactive
2. Go with the flow
3. Connections comes first
4. Share
5. RTFM (learn for yourself, before seeking instruction from others)
6. Cooperate
7. Be yourself

Week 5

Week 5: Connectives and Collectives: Distinctions Between Networks and Groups

Readings

Groups Vs Networks: The Class Struggle Continues – Stephen Downes

That Group Feeling – Stephen Downes

Downes Interview: Groups and Networks (here’s the image from the video)

Group and Network (presentation, George Siemens)

Optional

Collectives, Networks and Groups in Social Software for E-Learning – Terry Anderson and John Dron

Activities:

Mon: Recorded presentations and readings will be posted to the email list

Wed: Two Elluminate discussions (both sessions can be accessed via this link): 11 am CST: See time zone conversions7 pm CST: See time zone conversions. ‘

Friday: Discussion via USTREAM 11 am CST: See time zone conversion
Assignments:

1. Continue regular weekly activities – blogging, developing your concept map, and follow the distributed conversation through various sites (pageflakes, delicious, Google Alerts). In your blog posts, consider the question: Have you begun to see the rudiments of a learning network forming? Has some of the conceptual uncertainty settled?

2. If you have not done so, set up an account with Google Reader and subscribe to a few of the blogs from fellow participants that you’ve found to be insightful or valuable in your learning.

Week 3: Notes – 5 principles of learning theories

What is connectivism?

1. Need to externalize to make sense: use of language, artefacts, art and other artefacts that let us express our selves to others.
2. Need for frameworks and structures for sensemaking: theories, philosofies and concepts
3. Need to socialize and negotiate around knowledge: what we know are shaped by dialog with others
4. Our mind is a patterning mind: attuned to note, reconized and draw patterns from complex environments and situations
5. Our desire to extent humanity – through technology: overcoming our limitations through the use of devices and inventions

Connectivism:

1. Knowledge is networked and distributed
2. The experience of learning is one of forming new neural, condeptual and external networks
3. occurs in complexx, chaotic, shifting spaces
4. Increasingly aided by technology

We need to understand how and why connections form, to be able to design classroms and create curriculum.

Types of network learning: there is a symmetri of relations between all three networks

• Neural: learning is the formations of new neuro connections
• Conceptual (Ausubel): depth of understanding is related to the conceptual network that learners have formed or the relationship between concept or ideas that learners have formed in a particular disiplin. The ability to learn new information is often related to excisting conceptual network or to the excisting understanding of a field. A bit of understanding, makes integrating new knowledge easier. Connection creates meaning. A state of knowing, is a state of connectivness.
• External and Social networks: A function of how we are connected to others and information

How does learning occur?

Læring i nettverkssammenheng er en funksjon av dybde og mangfold av forbindelser. Vår mulighet til å forstå er relatert til kvaliteten og hvor konsekvent vi er forbundet med ideer og begreper/forestillinger. Dette eksisterer på alle tre nivåer. Det relateres også til frekvensen av eksponering. Og måten dette integreres med andre ideer, forestillinger og forståelse er med på å bestemme hvordan vi forstår det. Og til slutt, relatert delvis til mangfold, er prinsippet om “sterke og svake bånd” . De sterke bånd kan typisk defineres i et “verden er liten” fenomen, hvor vi er godt knyttet til andre noder av informasjon eller konsepter (eller neuroner om du vil). Og de “svake bånd”, er dem som forbinder separate verdener. Vi får mye av vår nye informasjon fra svake forbindelser, ettersom de eksisterer i nettverk vi ikke har hyppig kontakt med. Det kritiske prinsippet her er å gjenkjenne at forskjellige typer nettverk med sine forskjellige typer kjennemerker tjener forskjellige typer læringsbehov. Læring brytes ned til formingen av forindelsen.

Teknologien – dagens – fører til nye rammer innenfor nettverk:

• Innholdsproduksjon og deling øker (alle kan produsere og publisere) = overflod (abundance)
• Dialog med andre (internett/telefon – kommunkasjonen øker, det er mange stemmer i den offentlige sphære) = kompleks
• Simulasjons erfaringer (dokumentarer, virtuelle opplevelser (videooverføringer), deltakelse i virtuelle verdener gjør at vi kan utvide våre erfaringer på en måte som ikke er mulig i et fysisk miljø = utvidelser / forstørrelser

Week 4: History of Networked Learning

Readings

A History of the Social Web

A Brief History of Networked Learning George Siemens

Optional

A Folk History of the Internet – this is very much a work in progress that I have been assembling over the years. If you are logged in on my website (downes.ca) you can edit the contents of this wiki. – Stephen

Activities:

Mon: Recorded presentations and readings will be posted to the email list

Wed: Two Elluminate discussions (both sessions can be accessed via this link): 11 am CST: See time zone conversions7 pm CST: See time zone conversions. ‘

Friday: Discussion via USTREAM 11 am CST: See time zone conversion

Assignments:

1. Export the image you’ve completed to date on your concept map and post on your blog

2. Complete your first paper: Assignment 1 (Due date: October 6, 2008). You can post the paper on your site as a blog post or post in the Moodle Forum

3. Regular weekly activities should continue: blogging, developing your concept map, and follow the distributed conversation through various sites (pageflakes, delicious, Google Alerts)

Week 3: Properties of Network

Tuesday nigh at Chillo – CCK08 SL cohort (blogpost on Diginalet)

Readings

Networks for Newbies .ppt

Stephen Downes: Learning Networks: Theory and Practice .ppt and audio

George Siemens Introduction to Networks

Activities:

Wed: Two Elluminate discussions (both sessions can be accessed via this link): 11 am CST: See time zone conversions7 pm CST: See time zone conversions. The 11:00 AM CST session will feature a presentation by Valdis Krebs on social and business networks.

Friday: Discussion via USTREAM 11 am CST: See time zone conversion
Assignments:

1. Post comments and reflections on week 3 readings on your blog. Participate in discussions in the Moodle forum. Provide comments to blog posts of other course participants.

2. Continue to develop your concept map

3. Review the assignment requirements for your first paper

4. If you have not done so, begin to follow the distributed conversation on course’s Pageflakes site