Week 8 - DIGITAL - Networked Learning

(My notes and reflections)

We  are learning all the time, we are learning from things all around us. Bringing the outside world into everything we do.

Need to make connections to the community.

We need to help the students make connections to people and resources that can support their learning further.

Why connected learning?

Where learning has become meaningful and relevant.

Its about connecting learners to the world around them.

Developing a learning ecosystem.

Connected Learning

If “Connected learning is about much more than plugging youth into technology.” Then what is connected learning?

Due to the rapid change and technological advancement, the demands and opportunities placed on our students are greater than ever. Constantly changing networks (personal, social, and work) challenge students to process, learn, and respond to torrents of new information and new technologies. Learning is no longer framed by restrictions of time and place. Knowledge is now available everywhere, 24 hours a day so new models of education need to recognise learning as a constant with delivery modes and learning times as the variables.

New education models are needed to expand learning beyond the school through connected networks that bring education opportunities together into a seamless, integrated experience. In 2016 there is no reason why the abundance of resources and knowledge on the internet should be contained within a physical classroom, and there is little reason why a student should be confined to only taking courses offered by their school.

The notion of ensuring interchange and integration of learning networks and of the resources should underpin the construction of new education models. Connected learning and connectivism are two complementary views of the power of the network in 21st century learning

Connected learning is based on the potentials for learning offered by a connected world. While no single recipe exists for connecting learning, it does require teachers to have strong relationships with their students and for them to understand their interests, motivations and what they care about. Armed with this information teachers are able to better connect their own agenda to the lives of their students in a manner that is relevant and engaging to the learner. From the learner's perspective, connected learning is when someone is pursuing a personal interest with the support of peers, mentors and caring adults, and in ways that open up opportunities for them.

Connecting and Collaborating

Learners in the digital age are able to connect and collaborate with people beyond their physical environment. They can connect a range of information or data and draw on a range of perspectives to collaboratively generate and critique new ideas (Starkey, 2012).

Connected Learning and Equity

We’re seeing a widening gap between the privileged and less privileged young people...The tragic thing is that this inequity is expanding at a period when the technology actually allows much broader access. There’s nothing from a resourcing point of view that is keeping kids from accessing these opportunities online, but young people don’t have the institutional, the social and the educational support necessary to find those opportunities (Ito, 2014). 

How do we bridge these gaps?

- collaboration - helps reduce aspects of inequity - everyone potentially has access to opportunities.

New Formations of Whānau

The concepts of whānau (extended family) and whakawhanaungatanga (building family-like relationships) are central and critical because they underpin Maori understandings of human development and learning. They indicate both a sense of belonging to and a sense of relating to others,within a context of collective identity and responsibility. The whānau structure is a living entity, reaching across all contexts in Maoridom. In Maori medium learning settings in particular, the concept of whānau provides the school with a synergy,enabling students, teachers, family and community members to assume a degree of agency over education, to articulate their aspirations, and to develop their capabilities together (Smith, 1995).

Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) and Environments (PLEs)

A personal learning network is an informal learning network that consists of those people who a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from. These may be people known personally, but equally they may be people who are only connected via the Web, and there may be no personal interaction, simply an exchange of learning. The term 'personal learning environment' (PLE) is sometimes used in conjunction with PLNs, but focuses more on the toolset that learners use in order to implement their learning networks. In essence, it is possible to have a personal learning network that is entirely face to face (though this would be rather limiting). In contrast a PLE assumes a digital toolset that will support the interactive learning process (EDUCAUSE, 2009).

In Class Activities

While doing the in-class collaborative task 'How can/do you implement each of these in your practice?' use the following link. 

Six Principles of Connected Learning - hover your cursor over the picture on the web site (matching the one below) for interactive pop up descriptors. 

How might you promote equity within each of the six aspects of Connected Learning?

Our Ideas – Amanda and Paul #PalmerstonNorth #Classtask

-        Interest Powered

Providing programmes that are of a high interest level of the students involved? (Getting to know your students and building relationships) Finding what flicks their switch – interests/hobbies

-        Production Centred

There needs to be a meaningful purpose to the learning and a connection to the outside world and their own world, so their product has a real world context.

-        Peer Supported

A shared project/shared interest/shared motivation.
Talents and skills others have that you can tap into

-        Shared Purpose

Shared goal that everyone has a buy into. All are participants and owners (buy in)

-        Academically orientated

Inquiry model – driven by student interests and needs.

-        Openly networked

Links to family, online learning helps others connect

My first attempt of using Piktochart to show Helen's PLN (Personal Learning Network) and PLE (Personal Learning Environments) connections

Connectivism 

There are several principles of the theory of connectivism, as outlined by George Siemens in 2004, in his article “a learning theory for the digital age”. The theory says that learning and knowledge rest in diversity of opinions, and that learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources. The ability to see the connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill, and nurturing and maintaining these connections is needed to facilitate continual learning. Because information is constantly evolving, while there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow. The capacity to know more is therefore more critical than what is currently known, but currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities. Thus decision-making is itself a learning process relating to choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information. Finally, learning may reside in non-human appliances, embracing the knowledge inherent in digital networks.

We might briefly summarise the principles of connectivism as:

• Diverse opinions
• Seeing and maintaining connections
• Learning in non-human appliances
• Continual learning and decision making
• Currency in a shifting reality

In class we will view 'Dr George Siemens on connectivism' - and his perspective on where connectivism came from and what it means.

By using these online connections there is so much more knowledge and information at the tip of our fingers.

References:

Connected Learning Alliance. (n.d). Why Connected Learning. Retrieved from http://clalliance.org/why-connected-learning/

DML Research Hub. (2012). Connected Learning: Interest, Peer Culture, Academics. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFdzz26g-EE

DML Research Hub. (2014). Why Connected Learning. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFBqOgCssZI

EDUCAUSE. (2009). 7 things you should know about Personal Learning Environments. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7049.pdf

Ito, M. (2014). Why Connected Learning? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFBqOgCssZI

Smith, G. (1995). Whakaoho Whānau: New Formations of Whānau as an Innovative Intervention into Māori Cultural and Educational Crises, He Pukenga Korero 1(1): 18–36.

Starkey, L. (2012). Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge

University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. (August 2013). Overview of connectivism - Dr George Siemens. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx5VHpaW8sQ