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My presentation in NLC2012, 2-4 April in Maastricht, Netherlands.
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Emerging Technologies and New Learning Ecologies: Learners’
Perceptions of Learning in Open and Networked Environments
Mohsen Saadatmand, Kristiina Kumpulainen
COMMUNICATION
PARTICAPTION
MANIPULATION
SH
AR
ING
CONNECTION SOCIALIZATION
CR
EA
TIO
N
Emerging Technologies and Education
Digital Literacies
Digital Scholarship
Open and Networked Learning
Ubiquitous Learning
Distributed Learning Environments
AFFORDANCES…
The abundance and the learner’s choices!
Open Educational Practices (OEP)
• Exploiting the digital networks
• New forms of dissemination and communication
• Embracing the affordances of new technologies
(Conole 2012)(Weller, Ed-Media 2011)
Open Digital
Networked
Scholarship
The Study
• The nature of learning in open and networked environments, learning activities and experiences of participants in open online courses
Methodology
• Research desgin
• Research context and participants
• Data collection
Qualitative Ethnographic Research
Online EthnographyAdapting ethnographic techniques in online contexts
Auto-ethnographyActive participation, Researcher’s experience
• Virtual Ethnography (Hine, 2000)
• Netnography (Kozinets, 2010)
Data Collection
• Online survey (low rate response!)
• Online semi-structured interviewing (12 interviews)
• Online public data (blogs, FB groups …)
• Participant observation
• Auto-ethnography
Theoretical Framework
• Networked learning ( Goodyear et al. 2005, Jarche 2010, Siemens 2005, 2008, De Laat 2006)
• Learning ecology ( Brown 2000, Barron 2006, Spires et al. 2009, Greenhow et al. 2009, Siemens 2003)
• Rhizomatic learning (Cormier 2008,2011, Engestrom 2007, Tella 2000, Conole 2012)
Networked Learning
• A genre of technologically-mediated learning in which social media and web technologies are used to promote connections between learner, human resources, content resources and learning communities and keep continually dealing with ever-increasing amount of digital information (Goodyear et al. 2005, Jarche 2010, Siemens 2005, 2008, De Laat 2006).
Image source: http://digitalriffs.blogspot.com/
Rhizomatic Learning
• Knowledge is negotiated, and the contextual, collaborative learning experience shared by constructivist and connectivist pedagogies is a social as well as a personal knowledge-creation process (Cormier 2008).
• The mycorrhizae-like nature of connections and interaction in networks and communities (Engestrom 2007).
• Innumerable number of rhizomatic connections and learning in the rhizome characterizes global connectivity bringing a lot of responsibility for organizing your own learning environment (Tella 2000).
Image: http://e4innovation.com/?p=489
Learning Ecology
• A metaphor to describe an environment for learning. A collection of overlapping communities of interest (virtual), cross-pollinating with each other, constantly evolving, and largely self-organizing (Brown, 2000).
• Set of contexts found in physical or virtual spaces that provide opportunities for learning, which may include formal, informal, and non-formal settings (Barron 2006).
• Learning ecology perspective as useful in conceptualizing learning & teaching across Web 2.0 spaces of home, school, work, and community (Greenhow et al. 2009).
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mmatasic/3473067292/sizes/m/
A new learning ecology for a new educational era
Spires et al. 2009
New Learning Ecologies are contextualized, variable, complex, and dynamic.
New learning Ecology
Spires et al. 2009
PLE is…
“Various tools to connect with people and resources and conversations you know ... I see the PLE various technologies in terms of process and organization.”
“ PLE is not just a personal space but also social landscape to promote various networking processes and how a learner can personalize the sets of tools, services and resources. Participants of the online courses see PLE as tools that enable them during learning and interaction.”
“My PLE is always includes my laptop, or some mobile device which is connected to the internet and when I am working I have this laptop and I go around my student bringing my laptop and I usually discuss subjects with them.”
“To me a PLE is just jargon for the collection of tools and individual uses to organize resources in a web-based environment. If you extended its meaning, it would also include classrooms, television programs, hallway meetings, etc. As a collection of tools, PLEs have the characteristics of being controlled by the individual learner, and represent that individual’s approach to material and social or professional connections .
• Co-creating• Collaborative
working
• Social networking• Professional
networking• Connecting
• Creating content• Reflecting• Commenting• Sharing
• Aggregating• Knowledge pull • Social
bookmarking• Annotating
PLE
Tools and Processes in a PLE
Choice of Tools
Blogs Twitter YouTube Facebook RSS
social-media-bandwagon.jpg
(Couros 2011)
Twitter was the main tool used by many of the participants.
- It is the best tool to be connected and to share ideas and post it to the network if something needed to be asked:
“Twitter I think the best tool for networking because I got a lot of contacts through twitter, networking with people that you haven’t even met before, just people having the same professional area as yourself .” “instant gratification of being connected to well renowned educators”
“... I tweeted the people can you please help me in this and this one of my colleagues which I follow on twitter and she tweeted things. So people kept mentioning things to me and advising me to use things and I really found a lot of help.”
- Seeking help and problem solving:
Blogging
Blogging was seen as one of the best way of reflecting on learning and keeping in touch with others
“I had been contacted by some people just because I am blogging on some topics … that’s I mean amazing. I like that very much.”
Learning in open and networked environments is…
Connected…
Being connected through various tools and media to different people, networks and resources is at the heart of learning in open and networked environments. It also includes connectedness in real life.
openness is the key...
Image source: rhizome-radar-21305479.gif
Disruptive…
In such unstructured learning settings many participants found learning sort of challenging and disruptive which means that it is difficult to manage all learning activities and the level of interactions.
Image source: http://tinyurl.com/6vyyesr
Self-organized…
Dealing with and immersed in a huge abundance of resources, tools and possibilities needs sort of self-organization; how to learn, which tools and resources to use, which readings to go through, how to make networking and how to develop connections.
Emergent…
Learning in open and networked environments is unpredictable and unprecedented. Learning activities and interactions are rhizomatically growing and the predictability of learning patterns during the course of learning is not as usual. It’s the potential and affordances of participatory media that provide such opportunities for emergence…
(William et al, 2011)
Image source: http://tinyurl.com/bobllhy
Learning in open, digital and networked environments!
Image source: http://www.slideshare.net/courosa/why-social-networks-matter
(Siemens 2012)
Learners expected to create, grow, expand domain and share personal sensemaking through artifact-creation
Sensemaking and Wayfinding in complex environments
Distributed, chaotic, emergent
(Jarche 2010)
3Ss
Questions, Comments
Mohsen Saadatmand
http//:blog.saadatm.com
Twitter: @saadat_m
