Yesterday I turned this blog to an European project and found the question why it was possible to study globally but harder to work in small groups of different universities. And today I found a discussion about the same theme in elearningeuropa pages (communities> discussions):
“Web 2.0 is about social networking and the impact it has on learning or learning 2.0 is that it supports and enables learning networks. Rather than trying to limit the social networks in the boundaries of educational environments I would sport George Siemens and his theory of connectivism arguing that learning networks need to be open, with the learner in control. Learners should be able to choose networks that they trust and belong to. Web 2.0 is promoting and supporting such openness and connectivity the challenge is for educational institutions to develop a supporting culture of sharing and exist as an ecology not in isolation.”
And following:
“Yes, I think that the topic of “connectivism” by George Siemens is very interesting and challenging too.
I would agree that learning networks should be open and that learner should be in control of their learning and so have the chance to chose the networks they trust the most.
But still as you said “the challenge is for educational institutions to develop a supporting culture of sharing and exist as an ecology not in isolation”…. and this is very very challenging today…. I have no idea how institutions could overcome “competitions among them” and “privacy issues” among users, since in my experience even publishing an individual assignment in the provided course forum was not an easy task for the more shy or introverted student. In my experience it is not easy for any students to share with other peers (imagine if with milions or bilions of people..) their assignments, because they will receive a mark for that….I think this is still a tricky topic which need to be further researched and investigated.”
I love these writings and agree with them mostly. But it is not at all impossible for students to work openly, I have many experiences about success in shared knowledge and shared assessment in my online courses. People can share but institutions have problems in sharing because of continuous competition. So the project must be really useful to all participants? Usually it is, I suppose, otherwise it doesn’t begin.
Sharing is a skill that can be learnt.. and millions of people do it every day. For instance I am shy and introvert 
After travelling in global world with CCK08 course, this blog will continue in Europe. I will gather here information and knowledge about EDINET, not only the project itself but all the topics around it:
- networking
- ICT students professional growth
- ICT teachers development in their work
- guidance processes
- online pedagogy
Here comes first material: Designing and investigating pedagogical scripts to facilitate computer supported collaborative learning, dissertation by Raija Hämäläinen 2008, University of Jyväskylä. You can find it as pdf opening “Julkaisun verkkoversio”. This publication was very useful when we planned a questionnaire for students in Edinet pilot.
Elearnineuropa pages gather very much knowledge about projects and happenings in Europe. It is worth following. I must remember the possibility to publish there.
There are other Virtual Campus projects in Europe: ReViCa (Reviewing Virtual Campuses) seems very interesting. After my global virtual study experiences I wonder why it seems to be hard to develop joint courses for many universities. CCK08 was not official, perhaps it succeeded therefore? Projects also report problems in online pedagogy and want a general concept map about it. I have to collect my online pedagogy here for getting feedback.
Welcome all old and new friends who are interested in these themes.
Our Massive Open Online Course ended a month ago and I have spent my Christmas time listening to our recordings and reading Moodle discussion and blogs. What do I think about the course now, afterwards?
George said in the last course blog:
“By way of a final analysis, thousands came, less stayed, and even less contributed. Did we change the world? No. Not yet. But we (and I mean all course participants, not just Stephen and I) managed to explore what is possible online. People self-organized in their prefered spaces. They etched away at the hallowed plaque of “what it means to be an expert”. They learned in transparent environments, and in the process, became teachers to others. Those that observed (or lurked as is the more common term), hopefully found value in the course as well. Perhaps life circumstances, personal schedule, motivation for participating, confidence, familiarity with the online environment, or numerous other factors, impacted their ability to contribute. While we can’t “measure them” the way I’ve tried to do with blog and moodle participants, their continued subscription to The Daily and the comments encountered in F2F conferences suggest they also found some value in the course. – All in all. It was fun. I’ll try and pull together more cohesive reflections over the next few weeks. As will Stephen and the numerous participants, I imagine.”
There was a recommedation to look at Wendy’s work. The final “project” for enrolled participants is to reflect on the quality of their own learning networks. Wendy Drexler posted a video of her final project that is (deservedly) getting significant attention: Connectivism: Networked Learner
I agree it is fine. And I found many other interesting visualisations about networking. For instance Maru worked with Carlos and Viplav (Mexico -Spain-India). John told about his flight and Jenny her experiences.
What is Connectivism or what is best in it? I have tried to understand … it must have something to do with networking online. Perhaps it was Rodd who spoke about pedagogy of networks, could it be .. or methodology of online networking or.. Connectivism is not a theory but an approach, point of view or .. Connectivism developers are practitioners and courageous to try new things. CCK08 answered to the question What is possible in a global online course?
Because I have problems in finding appropriate concepts in English, I use George’s writing 12.12. in his blog. Boldings are mine, I am considering those parts.
“In a post expressing ideas similar to Wendy Drexler’s Networked Student video, ed4wb contrasts education as traditionally conceived and as it might develop in the future. Several useful diagrams emphasize the type of control shift occurring in how learners access content and participate in conversations. I’ve been a bit bothered lately by how networked learning is increasingly being conceived – i.e. a function of external and social networks. This is the most obvious way to explain learning. For example, I grow my knowledge as I connect to other people and information sources.
This is, however, not a complete view of learning. If learning is only about external connections, then how can gradients of understanding be considered? Or how can expertise (yes, it still exists…) be described in relation to novices? If our focus is only on the external act of networking with others, have we moved much beyond behaviourism? We can still use a network metaphor to address this concern, however. As suggested during CCK08, learning can be seen as networked in at least three distinct ways: neural, conceptual, and external/social. The underlying structure in each instance is a network, but what is being connected is obviously different in each instance.”
In this chapter we can see the level of connectivism today. The same elements could be seen when we planned research about CCK08 in Moodle: we can follow external connections, perhaps some social happenings, something about conceptual changes. Mostly we follow tools only.
It is much harder to understand learning (or teaching or guiding or facilitating). Much to do …
