Heli on Connectivism

I enjoyed greatly to participate in CCK-Ellumination about our own research and ideas. Here comes my slide – Leila was so kind to told about this in twitter already and I noticed that I have to put it here .

We had a conference week about net pedagogy in CCK09 and I will gather my thoughts if I have any -actually I try to find my new thoughts by writing this post. We had six sessions in our program, I participated three and listened to others. I must be well up-to-date about global net pedagogy developmental trends after this participation. Where to begin?

Frances Bell’s session was great because her preach- and- practice were in a good balance. She had a short introduction and we all participated by answering questions. She really listened and was interested about our answers both in the board and in the chat. The climate was friendly and warm, we collaborated basic questions. That’s why I got some ideas myself.

In other sessions I recieved much information via lectures, mainly by listening to the presentations. I had not earlier asked about abundance vs scarcity in pedagogy and I am not sure should I.. The learner has always abundance of challenges in front of oneself. The learner has to make decisions and put things in some order. It was Martin Weller who gave this theme to us.

Stephen’s first lecture was about all the open systems in the world. It is good to know them, I didn’t know all – now I have a summary. It is useful. Terry Anderson’s presentation was a good summary about open education in Canada. I had read his book about the new theory of online learning and could partly follow the quick presentation about it. I will continue studying his book because I have the opportunity to meet him again next Friday in another session.

Vicki Davis described and demonstrated many ideas she has  implemented with her pupils and internationally. She has a blog named coolcatteacher – I have followed it and linked to it in my Finnish blog. Excellent work, I enjoyed listening but she was so quick that I must listen again to understand all. The pictures were great and helped following. It is easy to agree with the main principles although I am working with adult students. Vicki is so experienced that she can differentiate between important and less important issues. It takes time to separate them. It was nice to get appreciation to Finland via OECD and PISA.

Stephen’s other lecture about LOLcats etc was confusing and hard to follow in my mind. I suppose that he wants to show us how restricted people we are – that we should live more open-minded and ask NEW questions all the time. He believes that our world has totally changed because of internet and mobiles and so on. He want to deal with all human knowledge and put in a new suitable order. He hates defining but he does it and uses mainly words, with a picture about network structure. It is not an easy job he wants to do. I feel empathy but I do not trust him and I cannot say why not.

Thanks for this CCK09 week and the opportunities to check the limits of my knowing. I visit our Moodle, too but I haven’t written there. I am visitor – nothing touches me there. I don’t like Daily any more, it is better to check recent posts from Moodle and Twitter -  why to put them in Daily? But many people like Daily and it is not a problem – recieve or not to recieve.

I greatly enjoy the definings of residents or visitors in the web, given by TALL blog (Online education with the University of Oxford). It is not about academic or technological skills, it is about culture and motivation. I am not a digital native, I am an immigrant but I love the openness of web culture and I am motivated to participate online. I am an online teacher with no classroom teaching. So, am I a resident in the web?

The resident is an individual who lives a part of her life online. The web supports the projection of her identity and facilitates relationships. She has an persona online which she regularly maintains. This persona is normally primarily in a social networking sites but it is also likely to be in evidence in blogs or comments, via image sharing services etc   She will  use the web to socialise and to express herself. She is likely to see the web as a worthwhile place to put forward an opinion. In fact the resident considers that a certain portion of their social life is lived out online. The web has become a crucial aspect of how to present oneself and how to remain part of networks of friends or colleagues.

The Visitor is an individual who uses the web as a tool in an organised manner whenever the need arises. They may research a specific subject. They may choose to use a voice chat tool if they have friends or family abroad.  They always have an appropriate and focused need to use the web but don’t ‘reside’ there. They are sceptical of services that offer them the ability to put their identity online as don’t feel the need to express themselves by participating in online culture in the same manner as a Resident.

I am definitely a resident in my professional life as a teacher and developer. I have a permanent blog in Finnish and a network around it. I participate in Finnish networks of social media and follow happenings also globally. I have an identity as an online teacher, it is a part of me. But I am not a resident in my private life, I only follow my daughter and her friends in FB but I don’t tell about myself there. I recieved some congratulations on my birthday, it was nice of course.

I am open in professional questions, I allow others to learn about my mistakes and I don’t worry about criticism. It is voluntary to read my blog. I have no spam or nuisance in Finnish, we have a language  that nobody can follow My teaching materials are open to colleagues but the learning environment of my institute is closed, I cannot change it. My blog is open and I have nothing against open teaching. Freedom is important to me, I hate schedules and orders..

I am a visitor in Twitter , I haven’t found my role there, only follow CCK09 via Google Reader. I am a visitor in FB, I like to see videos that my networked colleagues put there but I am not active myself. I have goals and I select my tools, I do not live in the web all the time. My focus is in learning and educational culture, not in technology.

Transparency is related to openness. Openness is most often related to content. Transparency involves making our learning explicit through forums, blogs, presentations, podcasts, and videos. Throughout CCK09, George Siemens made the statement that “when you are transparent in your learning, you are teaching others”. He continues: Most people, however, are uncomfortable taking the risk of posting half-baked ideas publicly. Trust and personal sense of security is important for learners. Learning is an act of vulnerability.

Yes it is, I could say. When I began blogging two years ago I was vulnerable and I had stopped if I got strong critique but I recieved positive comments and continued. Now I do not bother myself with this vulnerability question, I analyse happenings and ask feedback if I need. Sometimes I ponder why it is so hard to build connections in for instance CCK09? All my friends are from CCK08 or real life, only Frances that I began to follow this year and some outside the course but links found there. This is normal network life, isn’t it?

I continue my studies in CCK09 week 7. Power is always an interesting theme. I liked the papers given to us:

• W.H. Dutton: Through the Network (of Networks) – the Fifth Estate

• Network Logic: who governs in an interconnected world? edited by McCarthy, Miller and Skidmore.

I printed two papers dealing with teachers work: Ann Lieberman and Diane Wood (National Writing Project, USA) and Hargreaves answer to them. Actors are always enthusiastic about the development they feel and see around – and the researcher proves that nothing is sure.  We don’t know the cause-and-effect threads. – Nice to read but very common if you have done the same last 20 years.

Then I read Howard Rheingold’s Smart mobs. He describes  Netwar – and sees both Bark and Light in it. We hope that ‘good guys’ will lead the new forms of organisation but there is no guarantee about this. It’s important to follow discussions about swarm intelligence and the social mind. Global brain? Smart mobs are unpredictable and for instance I have learnt to be worried about this, new technology is not in the best hands of human mankind.

Manuel Castells  Afterword, why networks matter concludes the book. Castells believes in networks, I could say, in an astonishing way. Networks have developed because techology enables it and we live in a network society (not in an information society or ja knowledge society). Networks know no boundaries. The networking logic explains the features of the process of globalisation. Sociability is transformed in the new historical context: human need and desire for sharing and co-experiencing influences it. Societies exist as social forms of shared experience.

World is changing and nobody can tell us the focus. I appreciate Rheingold and Castells but they are not my gods We can see that technology gives us new devices and media tries to update itself, and networks have taken power (I am not sure about this). We need values not only new social media. I want to belong to Globaldignity movement, they have the dream I want to believe and work for better world for all humans. There is no simple way to take the power and leave all authorities behind, it is hard and permanent daily work and living with dignifying attitudes to other human beings.