Better Late Than Never

I've been spending some time organising my digital paraphernalia over this Christmas break and freely admit to missing some of the forum action from the PLENK2010 course. Revisited some of the blogs of some of the participants and stumbled across a video on succeeding in a MOOC by Dave Cormier which also generated some discussion about the entire concept of the PLE/PLN phenomena. I'm not convinced either way at the moment, but there is no doubt that the PLENK course was the best professional development I've experienced in many years - I'm still exploring leads and refining ideas generated through my participation and am loving the journey.

Be Very Afraid

I realise now now hopefully outdated this blog has become but with Christmas around the corner and so much to refine I anticipate it will remain so until at least January. However I choose not to feel too guilty as the blog remains of great relevance for me as a documentation of my thoughts and clarification of learning post PLENK.

For the moment I will concentrate on something a little easier - including some topical not necessarily PLENK related discoveries. Stumbled upon Be Very Afraid, the brainchild of Professor Stephen Heppell, an event which connected students from all over the UK to showcase incredible ICT related projects. You can also listen to Stephen's insights at the Virtual Staffroom which is a wonderful repository of podcasts with predominantly Australian educators. 
Of course these presentations are the products of true 'digital natives' a term touted by Marc Prensky to be the norm rather than the exception, a perception I strongly challenge. I believe I am in good company, not a lone voice in the wilderness, supported by Jamie McKenzie's article Digital Nativism Digital Delusions and Digital Deprivation  the Accidental Pedagogy blog  and well attested by Chris Betcher's personal experience with his students in his post "The Myth Of The Digital Native" on his Betchablog. Chris's post inspired some wonderfully insightful responses from his readers. The somewhat churlish response of Prensky to Chris's tweet re a Prensky presentation is interesting to say the least.

Now, as to who should be very afraid ? 

I would suggest:

1. Parents of students whose teachers are complacent and rely on system generated professional development to maintain professional credibility.
2. Executive staff in schools and institutions who with a wave of the hand dismiss the Web2.0 and Web3.0 reality as easily as they would a spider web outside the entrance to their homes
3. Students whose ICT proficiency and esecurity is placed at risk by mundane resources, trusting parents, squandered budgets and outdated instructional methods

What is needed is a substantial dose of enthusiasm for transformative change as espoused by Karl Fisch and this seems to be more feasible if bonds can be forged by like minded 'compulsive learners' and spread through a 'meganetwork' a network of vibrant Personal Learning Networks

Using PLE/Ns effectively: skills, mindsets, and critical literacies

Apple, Orange Or A Real 'Lemon' ? 

The focus has shifted to the skills needed to ensure success within PLE/Ns. What impact does literacy have on a learner's ability to not only function, but flourish in a digital world ? George Siemens believes that being literate requires technical skills, conceptual mindsets, as well as an attitude of tolerance of complexity and ambiguity.

  
A bit of fun - an online tolerance of ambiguity test. Additionally, an interesting study which explains that 'personality and tolerance of ambiguity' are also referred to as language ego, ego boundaries, or cognitive flexibility (Guiora,1981; Ehrman, 1993)It seems that various studies have shown that learners who can tolerate moderate levels of ambiguity are more likely to persist in language learning.

As I see it, the greatest hindrance to comparing theories is that there is no universally accepted definition of any of them. As with the PLN/PLE debate, it appears to boil down to 'scholarly' opinion. And what is quite unnerving to the student, if 'academics' disagree after studying a theory in great depth, what sense of clarity are the 'others' expected to achieve.
 

Firstly why do so many theories begin with "C" ? If I was going to submit a theory at some stage, I certainly wouldn't give it a title which began with "C". Connectivism, Constructivism, Constructionism, Cognitivism. Perhaps something with "Z" or "X" would make it easier to remember. However I can't think of one which suits so I'll go with the 'C' bandwagon and suggest 'Complexitism'. Humans are too complex to be pigeonholed according to any criteria which has a cognitive functioning component. If its so clear, why so varied ? 

Theories have their place - I enjoy reading about them, however I act according to my intuitive barometer. Their value lies in facilitating discussion and refinement of strategies which is the toolbox of the educator.I don't rally behind the banner of any one exclusively. Our ability as educators to critically evaluate learning theories is limited to a great extent by the degree of 'at the chalkface' experience. I look to my experience over 35 years of teaching and modify my approach according to my analysis of learner needs. I believe there are disadvantages in attaching pedagogical practice to the bandwagon of any one theory. Experience is the most humbling of teachers. If one accepts the concept of 'individual differences' there can be no justification in placing 'all the eggs in one basket'.

The Executive Summary of the 1990 Delphi Report from the American Philosophical Association (Critical Thinking: A Statement of Expert Consensus for Purposes of Educational Assessment and Instruction) states:

The ideal critical thinker is habitually inquisitive, well-informed, trustful of reason, open-minded, flexible, fair- minded in evaluation, honest in facing personal biases, prudent in making judgments, willing to reconsider, clear about issues, orderly in complex matters, diligent in seeking relevant information, reasonable in the selection of criteria, focused in inquiry, and persistent in seeking results which are as precise as the subject and the circumstances of inquiry permit. Thus, educating good critical thinkers means working toward this ideal.

Daunting task for both educators and students ! I expect a highly evolved, well balanced personality would be a good place to start. Hands up all those who have evolved thus far ? My hands shall stay by my side for now !

Evaluating Learning in PLE/Ns

 WHO DOES IT, HOW DO THEY DO IT, AND IS IT WORTH DOING ?

Assessment and learner evaluation presents a probem similar to that which exists between hard and soft systems:
Apparently, hard processes = learning management systems and standardized testing  ans soft systems = no clear way to ascertain the quality or depth of learning. Therefore it doesn't require an extraordinary leap of faith to assume that an effective system of learning would maintain a balance between hard processes, soft processes and technologies which would reflect the needs within a particular context.

My focus therefore is to explore "how do we measure what matters, and, to whom does what we measure matter? 

There's been much discussion about the differences between testing, evaluating and assessing. The terms appear to frequently be used interchangeably. As I understand it, testing applies to assessments which have definitive yes/no answers e.g yes/no and multiple choice tests. Evaluation enters into a greyer area where judgements are made by the evaluator. For example, a teacher may use testing to identify  a students understanding of mathematical processes, however taken into account would be their daily interactions, conditions at the time ongoing assessments

Reading Keith Hamons post generated a new perspective for me.

All statements about any student are provisional. "This is John, an exemplary A student, and this is Mary, a problematic F student" are both provisional, and do not say all that can be said or measured about either John or Mary or about ourselves for measuring and saying such things. That to teach any thing, we must define that thing, but our definitions are always provisional, always subject to change, usually sooner rather than later.

I'd not really thought about it in this way before. I had of course considered the element of subjectivity with respect to many forms of assessment. However, the pigeonholing of a student can have great impact on not only future learning but on life. Many students are hamstrung by low expectations formulated by uninformed educators. While tests can generate a peer comparative 'score' and are situational, the evaluation of attitude and values is completely subjective and can be more reflective of the personality dynamics existing between teacher and student. There  is a real danger of students only living up to what appears to be expected of them.


Additionally:

"Our educational systems are overwhelmingly informed with the myth of the individual. Our testing regimes, grading regimes, pedagogies, epistemologies, and learning theories are all based on the individual, ignoring the role of the network or rhizome, in the creation and management of knowledge"

I have observed that the vocal MOOC contibutors are comfortable pursuing their own leads which supplement the course readings and generate discussion. Consulting the course agenda in order to guide thinking processes has been helpful and to see how the topics relate to one another - a learning destination.

In my field of primary education, diagnostic testing prior to the commencement of a unit represents a gauge of sorts. The comparison of diagnostic and summative assessment results represents a yardstick. Formative assessment is also often included which allows for an ongoing evaluation of both student progress and pedagogical effectiveness. The program is 'supposedly' dynamic, continually revised for maximum productivity.Hmmmm......

With a MOOC, the strengths and weaknesses of the guinea pigs are unknown, and the facilitators are unfamiliar with the learners' normal learning paradigm, so perhaps the best assessor of learning in this case would be the learners themselves. If the MOOC were to re-create a 'traditional' pedagogical stance with facilitator as imparter of knowledge, I would doubt its effectiveness, however this has not been the case and I would suggest that the only form of attempted manipulation appears to have come from a small minority of participants with a personal agenda.

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-teaching-challenge-creating-an-emotional-connection-to-learning-part-1/

September 28, 2010

Rob Kelly offers an interesting perspective in  Online Teaching Challenge: Creating an Emotional Connection to Learning, part 1  He states that learning research indicates that people learn better in the presence of some emotional connection — to either the content or to other people, however he agrees that the creation of this emotional connection is particularly challenging in the online classroom, where most communication is asynchronous and lacks many of the emotional cues of the face-to-face environment.

Rick Van Sant, associate professor of education at Ferris State University agrees that :

“One of the things we know about learning is that learning with emotion is a far deeper experience than learning without emotion,” 

Van Sant uses the site www.ted.org/ in his courses (Technology, Entertainment, Design) This features top presenters talking about a diverse offering of topics. Van Sant believes that technology provides access to a vast array of content which possesses the potential to resonate emotionally with students in this way, however he sees barriers in the delayed response time, not being able to respond in the moment to engaging content. 

He regrets the loss of many teahcable moments
In a typical online learning environment, students react and post to a discussion board or blog and wait for a response. “I think it’s one of the downsides of asynchronous learning. You lose that opportunity for the teachable moment,” Van Sant says. “There are many positive aspects to online learning, such as thoughtful reflection. One of the things I see, the students who do not often volunteer or engage in on-the-fly discussion in a face-to-face classroom will turn around in an online environment and become significant discussants. Not that they’re lazy in the classroom; they just don’t process information on the fly quite like somebody else.”

“The goal isn’t to cater to all eight individual multiple intelligences. It’s about providing, over the range of a course, the opportunity for people to learn and express their learning within their strengths and not always have to operate within their deficits. To do that, you need variety. You need redundancy. You need multiplicity. You need different ways of sharing and knowing. … What happens here is working in a much richer environment. It is a challenge for us to understand that in this rich environment we’ve got to become masters of that domain.” 

Rob Kelly, Online Education, Online Teaching Challenge: Creating an Emotional Connection to Learning, part 2,September 30, 2010

 With online learning being a relatively new medium the jury will be out for some time yet as to the effectiveness of this type of study, particularly in a largely unstructured course such as a MOOC. From what I have read and heard, the main features essential to good practice seem to be: dialogue(both sunchronous and asynchronous); learner commitment; facilitator support and a strong degree of learner autonomy.This autonomy impacts on, and is impacted by, time management, content choices, pace, interface navigation and assessment.
Perhaps all indications lead to rethinking our notion of 'individual' as a discreet individual to the notion of a Janus like personality, two pronged, a mashup of a unique humaneness and a network rhizome !

Personal Learning Networks - What's in a name ?

Has the PLN become the PLE or has the PLE become the PLN

Corinne Weisburger's slideshare presentation "How To Create Your Personal Learning Network For Professional Development And Research" helped to clarify somewhat my understanding of the nature of PLNs and demonstrated strategies which could be used for customising that network. 

"....PLNs are deliberately formed networks of people and resources capable of guiding our independent learning goals and professional development needs.... "

Learning via a PLN may be connectivist or constructivist in nature(depends on which hat one wears and I'm not sure which suits me yet, then again perhaps I'll tend towards the constructionist by the end of the journey), multiple rather than single user generated. Then again, will a PLN by any other name smell as sweet? An interesting take on "What's new in the world?" raises the point that:

.......Personal Learning Networks are all the rage at the moment. As with a lot of “modern” things, they’re existed for a long time but have now got a snappy new name. It used to be called “advice from friends and colleagues”. But in the era of social media the word friend has taken on a new meaning. Social media has provided me with a lot of friends who I’ve never met and never spoken to. I’ve exchanged a few tweets with them, commented on or received comments on a blog article, or maybe read a few forum posts, and as a result these people are, in Web 2.0-speak, friends........     

It may simply be a case of 'everything old is new again'. Having been an educator for over 35 years now, I've been witness to the rebirth of many techniques and philosophies, each with a new glossy jargonistic name. The process, not the name, is what has ramifications for the learner, who becomes part of an increasingly global learning community.  This concept is not new, the global perspective is. With the advent of the Web 2.0 paradigm, and the accompanying digital explosion, the learning network has taken on a far greater significance, its value lying in its future potential rather than its current reality in many closed MLEs which fulfil institutional rather than individual needs. 

 

I enjoyed John Spencer's perception of a PLN as being a mindset not a 'thing' or a 'process'. Interestingly the author stated that he created it while doodling and feeling bored to death at a professional development meeting. I speak from personal experience when I state that professional development meetings are out of bounds for me. It's been many many years since I actually learnt anything of professional significance in one of those environments. They follow the same format: gratuitous long winded introductions; minimal input from the 'experts' who have been provided at great expense; the compulsory brainstorming sessions, followed by workshops and group presentations. Once the general consensus is reached with the lowest common denominator prevailing, gratuitous thanks are delivered and the obligatory, (again gratuitous), evaluation sheet distributed. Call me jaded, but I'd rather play polo with Genghis Khan than 'network' at one of these meetings. I believe we all should resist the sabotaging of our learning environments in such fashion, personal or otherwise.

I view the network as being ‘Janus like’, with one face representing the individual and the other, the group which provides the stimulus for looking at another perspective. This is of benefit to both the individual and the group. 

Discovered a most amazing widget "Garys Social Media Count" created by Gary Hayes (an Aussie resident) Just had to share !

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