Heli on Connectivism

1. What is the quality of my learning networks: diversity, depth, how connected am I?

A  year ago I began a blog which aimed to network online teachers in Finland. Now I have a community around it. I have seen that network matters, it is necessary. We can support and motivate each other.. development is so slow that if you are alone you can’t always believe in it. I don’t mean that I was the first networker in Finland, not at all, some had done it many years and  for instance, I heard about this course from one Finnish activist Anne Rongas who almost every day tells us good advices. Thanks to her. I had followed George and Stephen and given my colleagues links to them but not last summer when this course was planned.

The quality of my networks is an open question even to myself. I cannot live without networks but very few people are near me or deeply meaningful in my life and my development. If I were more open myself, could I have more deep connections? I don’t know. The quantity is no answer, it’s quality that matters – but without quantity you cannot have any quality.

2. How has this course influenced my view of the process of learning?

During CCK08 I have seen all this happen in a global level and I have enjoyed it. Affordances have been open but often neglected when I have been very busy in my work, I couldn’t change that situation.  I have enjoyed following this large open online course, social expectations and reactions. Very much depends on expectations: if you come to learn with others and from others, so you will get it.  I have got interaction enough for sense making or meaning making ( in my blogging).

3. How can you incorporate connectivist principles in your design and delivery of learning? I take this next and change the question: Which principles do I follow in my design and delivery of learning?

I have always been student-centered in my pedagogical solutions and as an online teacher it has been easy. Just now I have problems with the learning platform my institution has bought.. but my Finnish network is helping me to find good practices. Thanks to Juha.

Students learning is my focus and the three main areas around it are content, pedagogy and appropiate tools for digital implementation. You can follow my thinking here -  I didn’t find the address yet, but instead I found a link to Stephen. This is recommended to all students in our teacher education, perhaps you want to know that   Is that link the best one?

Many questions are open in didactics (was that only German concept, should I say pedagogy?) One of my open questions is: Students collaboration or free schedules? .. that problem I used to  solve by using asynchronous methods, so I can have both, I mean my students can collaborate with a free timetable.
George’s lecture about ‘Instructional design and Connectivism’ – it was easy to agree with, but I did not find any new ideas in it.  Perhaps I could not follow the 4 domains he presented? Should I? I have my own – only one learning object in English and I couldn’t find it myself .. very convincing, isn’t it?

4. What types of questions are still outstanding?

For instance: Continous feedback from my students online – I try a diary of learning platform (a blog, but not open). The quality of learning is always an open question, I don’t know if it can ever be solved. During my Christmas Holiday I will read again CCK08 materials for finding the best ones, best thoughts for me, I know there are many I haven’t noticed yet. So keep this all open, please.

5. I will try to find photos or pictures or paintings to decribe this all, I am not sure if it is possible but I use my Sunday for finding because I want to.

Here is a copy of what is asked to write at the end of CCK08:

“Your final presentation can be handled in a variety of formats: podcast, slidecast, Articulate presentation, video recording, Second Life presentation, or, if your feeling creative, an approach of your choosing. The final project should answer questions such as: What is the quality of my learning networks: diversity, depth, how connected am I? How has this course influence my view of the process of learning? What types of questions are still outstanding? How can you incorporate connectivist principles in your design and delivery of learning?”

Do I agree with this assigment? Perhaps. My first thought was to follow some of my cources (is there any connectivism) but I believe it’s more useful to follow myself, it is harder to change myself and my networks.

Quality of my networks: diversity, depth, how connected I am? Excellent question, can I see any development ? A  year ago I began a blog which aimed to network online teachers in Finland. Now I have a community around it, most with weak ties. Anyway, I have seen that network matters, it is necessary. We can support and motivate each other.. development is so slow that if you are alone you can’t always believe in it.

During CCK08 I have seen all this happen in a global level and I have enjoyed it. Affordances have been open but often neglected when I have been very busy in my work, I couldn’t change the situtation. And I am shy, I am not a talkative person even in using my mother tongue and this is my first blog in English. I know i cannot network globally in Finnish All happenings have taught me. I have enjoyed following this large open online course, social expectations and reactions. Very much depends on expectations: if you come to compete and show your own compentences , you can only get something inside these boundaries. If you come to learn with others and from others, so you get it.

I found many new interesting blogs every time I was seeking for .. and if I had given comments to others i had got more, but I have got enough for sense making or meaning making ( in my blogging).

Perhaps I plan a slideshare with photos or other pictures. I admire Irmeli´s presentation and Keith’s photo about this course. Photos speak: the bridge in fog is my favorite.

The quality of my networks is an open question even to myself. I cannot live without networks but very few people are near me or deeply meaningful in my life and my development. If i were more open myself, could I have more deep connections? I don’t know. The quantity is no answer, it’s quality that matters.

Some day I’ll continue to last 2 questions and all new ones that arise when writing these last blog posts in this course.

We have first beautiful winter day in my town in Finland today as you can see:

It is fine to work at home and look at that view while thinking. I have an ugly room in my institute, new but ugly.

Today I have the opportunity to study and I will stay at home. It was Sia who had links to inspiring learning spaces and so I became conscious about the importance of beauty. If you compare this winter photo with my september 20th autumn photo – you can see how wonderful it is to live in Finland.

The nature has seasons and it can change, how about educational systems? Our topic this week .. change in human mind or only a system, often only on papers? How an I stay optimistic? Let’s study…

This is paper 3 in CCK08

Reflect on the opportunities and resistance found in society and organizations in adopting different approaches to teaching and learning.

Why is it so difficult to change the practice of education?

All institution aim to stay as they are. Teachers have got priviledges and they want to keep them and perhaps more. We have school buildings and classrooms – so we have to use them effectively. Certification systems are the way forward to universities.. to high salaries and so on. Show must go on, you know. In this blog a friend of mine is pondering “What is wrong in ..?” We have a lot to do, I suppose.

What kinds of opportunities can we embrace if we are able to make fundamental and systemic changes?

That is a tough question. I don’t know, really. Can embrace? .. is wise to embrace? is possible to embrace? I see fundamental and systemic changes need changes in human consciousness. Political decisions are always surface compromises. Changes in consciousness happen very slowly if they are deep. The best in last week was the video of Howard Rheingold (Ted ideas worth of sharing, 19 minutes). That video was just what I needed, it gave me back the Hope of Better Future. He has been working with these issues some 30 years and he still believes in mankind. Thanks for it.

What can we learn from voices of resistance?

Voices of resistance force us to consider deeper, to argument better and to be persistent. Not bad?  But I have to confess that often I am tired about resistance, I don’t love it

Can our current world of weak ties and easy connections produce the depth of learning required to meet the complex challenges facing our future?

This is most important and tough to answer. Howard gave me hope. He saw the Way: new collaboration. We need next economy form after capitalism, new forms of well being. We already have certain kind of sharing (Linux, Google, Wikipedia) . We have projects of collaboration, so it is possible. We don’t know enough yet.. what the basic principles will be, but we have to think about it. Get the co-operation project started, said Howard Rheingold to us.

There are projects, indeed. You ain’t yet, says Pekka Himanen, great young Finnish philosopher, at the end of “The Finnish Dream.” I am already a member of Global Dignity. Welcome there! These projects require effort and collaboration!

….

Reflection: I am astonished about writing, I had taken a break in CCK08 because I had to write an article in Finnsh and I was busy and full of stress and my English was sleeping totally. But here I am, gathered some thought, sharing them. Sorry that haven’t read others’ blog posts and can’t link to them. But some day I will. And I am in time, it is three hours to midnight in Finland just now when I publish this. So I am not a bad student, yeah?

This week I have two times classroom teaching, normally only online teaching (working, facilitating). I notice that I have alienated from classrooms, I wonder why adult people must be in a classroom at a certain time. The other period begun at 8:00 o’clock(or it should, only one was present at that time, and me if course).

While working as online teacher I am totally free. I prefer asynchronous methods – adult students need freedom like me. No alarm clocks no time hunting, no hurry to any place, no voice using. But most students say that meetings in classrooms are important and it is necessary to see each other. I meet them online. Is this a guestion of learning, changing habits or is it in personality? I am introvert and need my own pace, I like slow working and peaceful thinking (or I am simply lazy). Some teachers don’t want to leave classrooms because they want to be in front of their pupils. (Institution stays, we have buildings and curriculums, this is not a psychological case at all).

Anyway, my first teaching period is over and I liked it. Students were experienced teachers who wanted to develop their online teaching, materials and pedagogy. We met in a computer class- I had prepared links to Second Life and we discussed about possibilities in using it, and problems of course. Then I showed my Finnish blog that focuses on online teaching, I have got an community around it. It was useful to me and to others because there took the space, I was one of participants and I had experiences to share and I wanted to share. Not bad, not at all. But it was not nice to wake up early and be at their school 8:00 am.

Tomorrow I have a group of young adults who have begun studies in educational sciences. Their program consists of  three classroom periods and this is the last one. I have last two hours. My online course begun in June, there are many assigments, questionnaires for refreshing their own thoughts, poems, aforisms, and recommedations about scientific books of course. Some case (material in internet) and optional assigments (movies, novels) and self assessment in the end. Students write a learning diary (blog) continually.

25% have done all and they liked the freedom: I forced them to build up their assigments, I gave only material to use (and freedom to use almost what ever). In the beginning they were embarrased, but after studyind they are very content. They have understood why they have to choose. I followed their blogs and answered at once if they had questions. Sometimes I felt that support was needed and so I gave it.

My subject is educational and developmental psychology. I think that becoming conscious about oneself (a little) is the focus. They practice reading and writing and correct citations, and that is OK but I hope that they connect their experiences and observations  with readings. I do not like copies of any kind.

The last 75 % of my students have done only some simple tasks or nothing. I they are present I should help them, and how? I ask students to tell each other what they have found and I tell how I see ’sensemaking in psychology’. What is my role as a teacher? I want to meet the students, really. They tell in their blogs feedback about meetings, they tell what touched and why (serious things cannot be said aloud at once).

I respect my students and trust that they can study and want to study. If some cancel, it is not my problem – they have something that is more important, they cannot take to time. I want to encourage, I must be sensible to unsure … I must be myself and now I have to go to sleep that I am not tired tomorrov.