Social media, the democratisation of knowledge and physiotherapy. Can they play nice together?

• elearningeuropa.info

  • “PLEs are more a methodology or an approach to technology enhanced learning than an application.”
  • the introduction of e-learning led to a reverse in pedagogic innovation
  • I tend to think that knowledge is best shared and developed through communities of practice. Communities of practice as Etienne Wenger says are based on a shared repertoire of communal resources (routines, sensibilities, artefacts, vocabulary, styles, etc.) that members have developed over time.

• Connectivism & Connective Knowledge » Where does the learning occur??

  • One of the challenges faced by traditional education is found in the very goal of its existence (second only to its role as providing value statements through accreditation): to present bounded structures of knowledge in order for others to learn a discipline. Or put another way, schools and universities help students make sense of a discipline.
  • There are two elements under consideration:
  • 1. The curriculum itself
  • This is what learners must learrn.
  • Curriculum/content is created and disseminated through research and publication. This content then forms the basis of instruction. Nothing new here, with the exception of the argument that the scholarly publication process is too slow.
  • It’s this content that most people see as the important part of education.
  • We make learners do all sorts of fun things to get this to happen: cases, problem-based learning, games/simulations, lectures, podcasts, tests, eportfolios, and so on.
  • 2. The framework of sensemaking
  • Should the educator provide a formed narrative of coherence? Or should learners be tasked with this? Should the educator create a fully bounded content structure? Or should the content interaction opportunities be more fluid? And what about interaction? Should it be under the control of educators? Or should learners self-organanize as they deem worthwhile? This is where education truly begins to change. Tweaking content creating and delivery models is perhaps a start. But it’s not transformative.
  • It means the conversation is more chaotic. It means that we’re always missing something. Everyone is. Some important conversation, somewhere, is being overlooked. Why is that so discomforting?
  • We expect the academy to be a place that provide clarity, a path forward

  • When we then step into a course and discover the conversation is distributed and that the expected frameworks for telling us what to think don’t exist, we get disoriented.

    But isnt’ that life?

  • Isn’t that how real learning occurs? In business? In our personal lives? Who actually possesses a framework fo sensemaking in advance of encountering novel problems? Or who can rely on the “narrative of coherence” provided in advance of becoming a parent?
  • We can’t manage it all. We must choose. As we move through this course, we’ll focus more on what it means to choose – i.e. what types of networks we want and need to build. For now, realizing that our ability to make sense is under our control.
  • Where is the learning in this? The learning exists in the process of forming and navigating networks. Some sources we filter. Some thinkers we value greatly. Others we ignore.

• Half an Hour: New Technology Supporting Informal Learning

  • This paper described experimentation in the development of distributed online courses and in software – particularly, the personal learning environment – that support the formation of connections between the far-flung pieces of such courses
  • suggests a pedagogy of participation rather than retention, and even suggests distributed and locally-based forms of evaluation and assessment
  • The intent of such systems is to to facilitate the conversation and interaction around episodic learning events in a distributed environment, transforming them from elements in a linear flow-based design to free-floating objects in an environment
  • In addition to providing an engaging and immersive environment for student learning, substantially improving motivation and interaction with the learning material, games and simulations are able to support learning in complex environments, offering a subtlety simple instruction-based or lecture-based learning cannot offer. (Squire, 2005)
  • games and simulations fall into a category similar to lectures and presentations in that they involve statically designed learning objectives and strategies. (Amory & Seagram, 2003)
  • we often do not know what it is we want to teach the student. (Caine & Caine, 1997) Today’s environment is variable, which means situations – and hence, fact – change fluidly. One day Pluto is a planet, the next day it is not. One day Czechoslovakia is a country, the next day it is not. One day capitalism is the unassailable foundation for our economic system, the next day, following a market collapse, it is not. Moreover, today’s environment is complex. The relations between variables cannot be described or even predicted.
  • learners themselves are changing
  • It has even been suggested that our interactions with modern communication technologies change the way we think. Even if we reject such descriptions as students as overly broad and inaccurate generalizations – and there is good reason for doing so – it is nonetheless the case that the needs, capabilities and interests of the target audience is rapidly shifting and changing
  • It is not merely to create a network into which to situate episodic learning, but rather, to create a network that learns and thus adapts and reshapes itself based on those conversations and interactions. (Downes, 2007)
  • the best we can manage is to teach students how to learn, and to encourage them to manage their own learning thereafter
  • how we learn itself is something that changes, and cannot be precisely taught
  • For this reason, we need to see the educational system itself as adaptive rather than merely prescriptive
  • knowledge exists in the minds of the members or participants, and this knowledge is derived from their direct (and recent) experience in the field
  • In addition, the need for content and support emerges from conversations among the participants. These interactions are able to reveal not only what company commanders know, but also what they don’t know (and need to know). The interaction, in other words, meets and addresses an objection often put of self-directed learners, that they don’t know what they need to know. (Clayson, 2005)
  • The core of a social networking technology is the capacity to create links between members in a community – to create, in other words, social networks
  • Topics, for example, are not assigned centrally, but are instead created by individuals ‘tagging’ certain content with terms or categories they choose themselves. (Barsky & Purdon, 2006) Each person’s social network on a social networking site, moreover, is unique; there is no definitive grouping of people, only a clustering of people with more or less similar interests.
  • users jump from service to service, creating (and discarding) new identities as needed. A typical web user may have multiple ‘home pages’ – their personal blog, their photo page on Flickr or Picassa, their Google Reader account, shared documents through Zoho, their video page on YouTube, their Twitter account, their profiles, on Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, their Wikipedia login, their email accounts, and (often least) their university LMS login. While real friendships and communities develop through this mélange, loyalty to online sites and services is limited and fleeting. (O’Brien, 2007)
  • The idea of the personal learning environment is that it performs many of the functions of a content management system and of a social network system but from the perspective of the individual rather than the community or the institution. (Attwell, 2006) Hence, the PLE may be understood as the intersection of the multiple home pages employed by any given individual. In the first instance, the PLE is a concept, rather than an application – it is the idea that a person’s web presence can be distributed. (Attwell, Graham Attwell: “Knowledge is best shared and developed through communities of practice”, 2007)
  • Because there were so many people contributing to the course, and because the content of the course actually shifted and varied according to participation and input into the course, it was necessary to emphasize to students that their role in the course was not to attempt to assimilate all course content. This was neither possible nor desirable. Rather, students were told that their role was to select and sample course content, pursuing areas of interest, reading related material from both within and outside the course, and then to contribute their unique perspective based on this reading. (Siemens, Where does the learning occur??, 2008)
  • we are currently seeing experimentation in the development of distributed online courses and in software – particularly, the personal learning environment – that support the formation of connections between the far-flung pieces of such courses
  • In the PLE project being undertaken by the National Research Council, the functionality of the PLE is depicted in four major stages: to aggregate, that is, to collect content from the individual’s and other online content service providers, where aggregation includes elements of recommendation, data mining and automated metadata extraction ; to remix, or to organize content from several different sources in different ways, including through automated clustering; to repurpose, or edit, localize, or otherwise modify or create new content; and to feed forward, or send the content to subscribers and other web services, either via RSS syndication, email, Twitter, or other relevant services. (Downes, Theory of Learning Networks, 2004)
  • the PLE is not a recreation of the capabilities of the learning management system, but rather, a learning network

• @ryantracey Agreed. The process, rather than the certificate, should be emphasised #
• RT @wesleylynch: Video comparing iphone and nexus – http://ow.ly/17iBb. Can’t imagine how the iPhone will survive, Android is already better #
• RT @psychemedia: Are Higher Degrees a waste of time for most people? http://bit.ly/buKpOW. IT professionals are hardly “most people” #
• University finds free online classes don’t hurt enrollment http://bit.ly/9zztuR #
• Mobile Learning Principles – interesting, but unrealistic in a developing country. “Mobile” does not = smartphone http://bit.ly/97WUu4 #
• Presenting while people are twittering, an increasingly common backchannel. Be aware of it and use it if possible http://bit.ly/bymSUE #
• Presentation Zen: The “Lessig Method” of presentation. Great resource on improving your presentation skills http://bit.ly/aTykYr #
• About “P”! « Plearn Blog. This post raises some interesting questions about the challenges of using PLEs http://bit.ly/9cDqd6 #
• Crazy Goats. I don’t usually share this sort of thing, but this pretty amazing http://bit.ly/9Hg32e #
• Learning technologies in engineering education. For anyone interested in integrating “distance” with “practical” http://bit.ly/a9lclC #
• Think ‘Network Structure’ not ‘Networking’. I always thought “networking” was too haphazard to bother with http://bit.ly/acuw1g #
• Clifton beach earlier today. I think I like it here http://twitgoo.com/dv85w #
• @davidworth Hi David, thanks for the blog plug #
• @sharingnicely: go around institutional pushback when policy is unfriendly to OER #OCW #
• @dkeats: free content enables students to use scarce financial resources to acquire tech instead, which grants access to vastly more content #
• Butcher: the curricular framework must drive development of OER – content comes after learning #OCW #
• Neil Butcher from OERAfrica: OER can’t work without institutional support #OCW #
• Why is copyright in OER even an issue? Copyright applies equally to OER and non-OER #OCW #
• If you think of a degree as a learning experience, rather than a certificate, formal accreditation is less important. See P2PU #OCW #
• Is there a difference between OER and #OCW I’m wary of the emphasis on content as a means of changing teaching practice #
• @dkeats Improvement in quality is always important, isn’t it? No-one is aiming for mediocrity #
• OCW workshop at UWC today, OCW board present incl. MIT OCW, should be a good day, quite proud its happening here #
• RT @cristinacost: RT @gconole: Sarah Knight on JISC elearning prog including excellent eff. practice pubs http://bit.ly/c1wVF6 #
• RT @c4lpt: MicroECoP – Uisng microblogging to enhance communication within Communities of Practice http://bit.ly/9ofx3O #microecop #
• Making the Pop Quiz More Positive. I like the change of mindset that the post suggests, pop quizzes aren’t punishment http://bit.ly/d5IiMV #
• @cristinacost Looks good, you’re further along with your project than I am with mine, I might have to come to you for advice #
• Problem-Based Learning: A Quick Review « Teaching Professor. Nice, short summary of why PBL is a Good Thing http://bit.ly/cOAQeY #
• @cristinacost What’s your interest in Buddypress? I recently set up WPMU/BP platform for physio dept social network to explore CoP #
• Microblogging to enhance communication within communities of practice http://bit.ly/a0saa4 #microecop #
• There’s a war goin’ on here, donchaknow? Retro copyright posters at EdTechPost http://bit.ly/aBsVwu #
• Post by Howard Rheingold on crap detection on the internet should be required reading for everyone online http://bit.ly/dsGtha #
• Scroll down for the 5 C’s of Engagement on Postrank’s “What it is” page. Is it useful for building social presence? http://bit.ly/983dcL #
• Great post on 3 strategies to manage information: Aggregate, Filter and Connect. The last one is hard (for me anyway) http://bit.ly/diItNr #
• Great post on the importance of not only filtering information, but using it meaningfully http://bit.ly/bk21Ol #
• Siemens’ post on moving from educational reform within the system, to a “no boundaries” approach http://bit.ly/bMnKXu #
• Web 3.0 and Its Relevance for Instruction – interesting article on how a next generation web could be used in education http://bit.ly/axYyEr #
• Freedom helps kids learn more « Education Soon http://bit.ly/bBbGvB #

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A few days ago I wrote about employing technology in classrooms and how we need to make sure that it’s appropriate technology and not being used just because we can.  I felt at the time that it probably wasn’t a good idea for students to have their own machines in front of them because of the many distractions present online.

Today I came across an article that discusses the scenario (i.e. laptops in classrooms) from both perspectives, and offers some insight into the issue.  I’m intrigued at the possibility that laptops and internet connectivity may bring some advantage to the classroom.

The one point mentioned in the article that resonates strongly with me is the use of the word “engagement”.  I’ve often felt that students in my classes aren’t actively engaged with the content and recently I’ve started to think about options in terms of encouraging that process.  The idea that managing the expectations of both staff and students is also a powerful factor that’s often left to chance.

I guess it comes back to the point I made in the first article.  It’s not enough to throw technology at learning / teaching and expect it to solve the problem (if there’s even a problem to solve?).  The use of appropriate technology needs to be integrated into the curriculum if it’s to make any positive impact.

Here’s the link to the article:
http://bwatwood.edublogs.org/2008/11/16/students-and-laptops-in-the-classroom/

And to a site related to discussions about the use of laptops in classrooms:
http://cte-laptop.wetpaint.com/?t=anon

Here are my notes from the second keynote address I attended at the SAAHE conference at the University of Stellenbosch on 20 June, 2008.

Professor Christina Tan from the University of Malaya (Malaysia) discussed the importance of ensuring competence among those responsible for examining students, as well as a few interesting points on why we examine and it’s relationship to the curriculum. Again, the emphasis is on medical students and again, I feel that the principles outlines are equally applicable to our approach to assessing physiotherapy students.

You can download my notes in the following formats:

OpenDocument (.odt)
PDF (.pdf)
Microsoft Word (.doc)