I mean, really, where did we think all of this was going to go?
George Siemens further explores the idea of a world without courses in 3 areas: 1. Content
Conversations and Connections
Reputation and Accreditations
This would be a real revolution in learning and education, and it's intriguing to imagine the possibilities even if it is (as Siemens admits) very speculative.
eLearn: Case Studies - Telling an Old Story in a New Way: Raid on Deerfield
Case study of a website using primary sources to tell the story of the raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts in 1704. Also asks how you determine the success of a site like this, which isn't formal e-learning.
You can read picture books online for free at this site, but the exciting part is being able to create your own books using their authoring tool and collection of images. Author blogs and other features are also available.
Game Couch: Interview: Dr. Cheryl K. Olson co-author of Grand Theft Childhood
Interview with the author of a book about extensive research on violence in video games. Instead of just researching the effects on college students playing for 15 minutes, this author looked at real children and how they play games. One finding was that many children who play violent games use it to "get their anger out."
In 2007, results from a breakthrough Harvard video game study found that children used video games to manage their feelings, the stereotype of the socially stunted gamer was a myth, and there was no obvious connection between violent games and youth crime.
growing changing learning creating: Relying on inner teachers
Looking at changing education and giving learners control of their own learning, letting their "inner teachers" guide them.
When we assume each student has an inner teacher within their minds, we will stop interfering with the discovery, cultivation and trust building with that inner teacher. The inner teacher will come to the fore of the students learning experiences and and reconfigure how they picture learning occurring. Problems with a particular learning challenge or patterns of learning efforts will get worked out between the student and the inner teacher who already knows what the underlying problems are.
When immersed in learning from everything that happens, people will appear very fascinating to each other. No two people will be the same and offer so much more to explore as their mysterious nature captivates other learners. The process of getting learned about by others-- will give each a feeling of being understood. A context of mutual respect, insight and acceptance will dramatically reduce the urge to get attention, get even or act out frustrations.
George Siemens presents ideas about what a world without courses would look like. We have lots of pieces of content that can be distributed for learning, but how do we assign value to that learning? What about a reputation system, where experts recognized within the network can evaluate the work of others? What about recommending other learning resources, like Amazon recommends other books? Siemens raises some very interesting possibilities here.
Collected statistical databased from the UN--basically a free meta search across UN data. Covers population, education, employment, environment, and other statistics.
Social and emotional benefits of blogging include better social support networks and feel more part of a community.
<p>Bloggers reported a greater sense of belonging to a group of like-minded people and feeling more confident they could rely on others for help.</p>
<p>All respondents, whether or not they blogged, reported feeling less anxious, depressed and stressed after two months of online social networking.</p>
Learning through Blogging: Graduate Student Experiences
eLearn Magazine on one instructor's experiences using blogs with graduate students. He found that blogs were very motivating for students and helped them learn and reflect. His experience with blogs was very positive.
In reality, most students write many more entries than the minimum required. They also read each other's entries, and comment on them, as do I as the instructor. While the blog writing is motivated as a class assignment, student enthusiasm for the activity is contagious: Once a critical mass of active student bloggers is established (and of course, there are some who steadfastly refuse to have anything to do with it, incentives and penalties notwithstanding), off they go!
Large list of image resources. In spite of the title, many of these also turn up copyrighted images (e.g., Google Image search), but there are some interesting collections for noncommercial use too.
Connectivism Positions ~ Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes
Stephen Downes comments on student work from the course Building Online Collaborative Environments, where students support positions for and against connectivism
George Siemens comments on some of the student work for a course I developed, Building Online Collaborative Environments. The specific assignment is a wiki resource where students defend a position either for or against connectivism.
Information and technology literacy model plus curriculum for K-12 through higher ed. Can be used as a problem solving model too. Includes 6 stages: task definition, information seeking strategies, location & access, use of information, synthesis, and evaluation.
Jeff Jarvis asks what the disaggregated university would look like, with students and professors both picking and choosing the best of what they wanted.
Start here: Why should my son or daughter have to pick a single college and with it only the teachers and courses offered there?
Similarly, why should a professor pick just from the students accepted at his or her school? Online, the best can pick from the best, cutting out the middleman of university admissions.
Once you put all this together, students can self-organize with teachers and fellow students to learn what they want how and where they want. My hope is that this could finally lead to the lifelong education we keep nattering about but do little to actually support. And why don’t we? Because it doesn’t fit into the degree structure. And because self-organizing classes and education could cut academic institutions out of the their exclusive role in education.
Examines the change in the economy to free products and services as the costs approach zero. Several models are shown, such as the "freemium" model that Flickr uses with a free service plus a premium paid service.
Creating Passionate Users: Ten Tips for New Trainers/Teachers
Kathy Sierra, from 2005, arguing that simply having taken a lot of classes doesn't make one a good teacher or trainer ("I'd make a good brain surgeon, because I've HAD brain surgery.") However, she also argues that motivated people can be self-taught.
But with that out of the way, nobody needs a PhD (or in most cases -- any degree at all) in education or learning theory to be a good teacher. Just as there are plenty of great software developers and programmers without a CompSci degree. People <i>can</i> be self-taught, and do a fabulous job, for a fraction of the cost of a formal education, but they have to be motivated and they have to appreciate why it's important.
Clark Quinn on the value of understanding the theories behind instructional design. He suggests that at least some exposure to the theories is necessary because you have to understand WHY you're doing what you're doing.
You don’t have to read Vygotsky in the original Russian, but what you can <strong><em>not</em></strong> do, and I see all too often, is follow a cookie-cutter approach which says “I have to have an introduction, concept, example, …”, and then write one of each without understanding what are the key principles behind each of those elements.
Note that Cammy is a ‘reflective practitioner’ to use Schön’s term, as she reads and <a href="http://learningvisions.blogspot.com/2007/05/humble-learning-moment.html" title="Cammy Bean's learning reflections" target="_blank">reflects</a> on what she does. That’s why she’s effectively done her own ‘masters’ in learning/ISD. So, I’m not comfortable with trusting experience over time to yield competent results, I think it takes someone being an ongoing learner. That’s easier in a well-designed program, though the caveat is that all programs are not necessarily well-designed.