Metaphors for ‘University’ – A Survey

Posted on September 29, 2010 by JimS

Claude AlmansiBy Claude Almansi
Editor, Accessibility Issues

Mehmet Firat, a Ph.D. student at Anadolu University, Turkey, is gathering metaphors for “university”. This is great per se, and pertinent to several recent discussions on ETC Journal about the role of universities in education.

Mehmet Firiat and his colleagues are still wishing to gather more replies. I am impatient to read their report once they get and analyze them: This is an interesting way to conjure up a multi-subjective image of university. Continue reading →

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‘Web XXO’ – Week Three of PLENK2010 on Emerging Technologies

Posted on September 29, 2010 by JimS

Stefanie PankeBy Stefanie Panke
Editor, Social Software in Education

The third week of the massive open online course PLENK2010 centered around emerging technological trends and their impact on personal learning environments. The names for this “next Web” are manifold: Web 3.0, extended Web, Web eX, or X Web. It comprises themes like augmented reality, semantic web, location-based services, mobile computing and learning analytics (e.g., networks analysis).

Left: visualization of the participants (122) and posts (437), which looks like a drunk and angry sea-urchin. Right: visualization controls.A vizualisation of the discussion in a first week’s PLENK forum with SNAPP

Continue reading →

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Downes & Connell @ Eskow – A Case of Miscommunication

Posted on September 28, 2010 by JimS

Jim ShimabukuroBy Jim Shimabukuro
Editor

Stephen Downes, in a Stephen’s Web post (9.26.10), took umbrage at Steve Eskow‘s ETCJ article, “Annoyance at the Ubiquitous and Protean Notion of ’21st Century Skills‘” (9.24.10), which was a response to Dave Cormier’s “Twenty-six Centuries of Skills” (9.23.10).

Here is Downes’s post:

Steve Eskow takes a run at Dave Cormier, attracts my ire, and ignites a raft of comments. And it is worth stating again that the blog is not a formal essay, you are not expected to put the entire background of your (and others’) thought into a literature review preceding your few paragraphs, and attacking a post for what’s missing, rather than what’s there, is cheap criticism. “It is easy to extract one paragraph and present it without that context as overly sweeping generalization. It is a freshman mistake to do so.”

I read a great deal of Montaigne in my younger years and for a while I too was enamored of quoting Montaigne in order to show that someone’s great ideas had already been thought of by someone else. Then I grew up.

Continue reading →

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Attwell @ Preskett, or Don’t Fix It If It Ain’t Broke

Posted on September 27, 2010 by JimS

Jim ShimabukuroBy Jim Shimabukuro
Editor

Graham Attwell, in “Open Learning and Contextual Diversity” (Pontydysgu 9.27.10), is critical of some of the ideas in Tom Preskett’s The ‘Open Mode’ – A Step Toward Completely Online (9.24.10). He says, “I think Tom is mixing up a whole series of things here,” and then proceeds to straighten “things” out.

Unfortunately, Attwell’s good intentions are based on statements that are inexplicably confusing. For example, he says, “The move towards Blended Learning was driven by pedagogy and not by a retreat from Technology Enhanced Learning.”

What, exactly, does this mean? One has to wonder if Attwell actually understands the terms that he uses to purportedly set things straight. In fact, “blended learning” and “technology enhanced learning” are one and the same, so is he saying that the move toward blended learning was not driven by a retreat from blended learning? Furthermore, “pedagogy” simply means instructional strategy, so is Attwell saying that the move toward blended learning was driven by instructional strategy? If yes, then what does this mean? Continue reading →

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In Favor of Hybrid Education

Posted on September 27, 2010 by JimS

By Jan Schwartz

I work with people in alternative health care and career type schools. Hybrid education is excellent in these fields where some of the more kinesthetic skills cannot yet be taught online. I say “yet” because who knows what will be possible in the future?

I teach a practice management class in an acupuncture school and it is a hybrid course. No hands on components (as in skill development with needling) are taught, but the nature of the practice is such that the students like having some face to face time because that is how they will be functioning with clients or patients when they graduate. We meet the first week or two in the classroom (I give them the choice at the end of the first meeting), usually one week in the middle, and then again on the final week. That’s 3-4 times out of a 10-week quarter. Continue reading →

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Annoyance at the Ubiquitous and Protean Notion of ’21st Century Skills’

Posted on September 24, 2010 by JimS

By Steve Eskow
Editor, Hybrid vs. Virtual Issues

A cranky, minority opinion on the Dave Cormier (“Twenty-six Centuries of Skills” 9.23.10) and Aaron Eyler (“Ignore the Test” 9-21.10) essays, and perhaps a cranky expression of annoyance at the ubiquitous and protean notion of “21st century skills,” which increasingly seems like an empty bottle that each user fills with his own educational cliches.

Here is the first paragraph of the Cormier article:

In the past several years I’ve been very fond of saying that moving into the 21 century has very much been a return to our roots. We are finding words like ‘tribe’ and ‘community’ ringing through the din of post-war individualism and we are turning to each other with words of trust and collaboration. Some of us are starting to see the established (and, pre-internet, necessary) forms of identifying reliability, competence, insight and creativity as outdated and difficult to work with. We are looking to the whole identity of a person, to the ways in which they have built the work and network they have as method of vetting the people we wish to work and innovate with. We are less interested in degrees, in ‘certificates’, as, for many of us in technology or education, these degrees do not actually mean very much. These are not new things… they are very old things… very old words, coming back to us.

“Our roots”? Not mine! What is “post-war individualism”? Are we really turning to each other with words of of trust and collaboration? Have reliability, competence, insight and creativity changed their meanings post-internet? Are we now really looking to “the whole identity of a person”?

Are we really less interested in degrees?

And so on . . .

Is this kind of gentle and empty generalizing now acceptable in Freshman English?

Are these 21st Century thoughts?

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The ‘Open Mode’ – A Step Toward Completely Online

Posted on September 24, 2010 by JimS

Tom PreskettBy Tom Preskett

Recently I have arrived at the opinion that developing a viable distance learning offering is the way to go for higher education (HE). Much of the e-learning I’ve been involved in has concentrated on developing blended learning where there was previously just face-to-face. This is largely like banging your head against a brick wall. This policy is often seen as a safer, less ambitious step along the learning technologies route.

THIS IS WRONG!

It’s wrong because most of the time the educators and the students don’t really want to use technology. They’ll do a bit for the administration, but for learning, no way. It’s a face-to-face course. Why tamper with it. I am of the opinion that this is misguided, but it’s not a battle worth fighting (for now). Fighting this resentment is unnecessary.
Continue reading →

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‘Locked’ Ning Networks? Access, Copyright and Privacy

Posted on September 23, 2010 by Claude Almansi

Claude AlmansiBy Claude Almansi
Editor, Accessibility Issues

Context

On September 14, 2010, after Ning had postponed the deadline for shutting nonpaying networks for the umpteenth time, I wrote:

I will not write another full post about Ning until the non paying groups have been deleted, or Ning gets bought by a more efficient firm, or disappears. But I’ve opened a Ning page on the wiki of ETC Journal where I shall attempt to keep track of what happens at Ning.

in a comment to my Why Unjoin Ning Networks that Won’t Pay (Aug. 28, 2010).

And now I am writing one, even though nonpaying groups have not been deleted and no one — to my knowledge — has shown any interest in buying Ning.  Motive: a discussion entitled “Deletion of Free Ning Networks?” started by Alex on September 18 in the Ning Creators network. Though it disappeared very quickly, there is a copy archived with WebCite® on the same day: http://webcitation.org/5sq785FZF.

Eric Suesz — senior community manager at Ning — participated in this discussion, stating that “All free Ning Networks are now locked and can’t be accessed.” This is simply untrue. Continue reading →

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PLENK2010: Week 2 – Personal Learning & Institutional Learning or ‘A Great Course in Diagram Making’!

Posted on September 22, 2010 by JimS

Stefanie PankeBy Stefanie Panke
Editor, Social Software in Education

Reporting on the activities and discussions within the Massive Open Online Course, Plenk2010, has become considerably more challenging since my first introduction of the course’s structure and concept. One reason is that the discussion forums of week one have been tremendously busy, producing a total of 427 postings. In many, if not all, the participants are blurring the theme of week one (general aspects and definitions) and week two (personal learning environments vs. learning management systems). An example is the side-debate that has spun around the problem of plagiarism and fake identities for the evaluation and grading of open learning activities.


Continue reading →

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The Euphonium Conundrum and the Online Option

Posted on September 22, 2010 by JimS

My niece’s daughter is now 10-years old, and she has reached the age where music instruction in school graduates to real band instruments. She was excited when she went in to meet with the music director and be assigned to an instrument. She wanted to play the saxophone, as her mother did. Alas, it was not to be. The band director looked at this tiny slip of a girl and decided that her mouth shape was not right for the saxophone, but it was perfect for the euphonium, and it just so happened he needed a euphonium player in the band. And so her musical dreams were dashed, and she will instead struggle with an instrument as big as she is, an instrument she will not possibly continue to play as an adult.

It reminded me of my son, who also wanted to play the saxophone. Unfortunately, by the time he went in for his appointment with the music director, the students with the earlier appointments had already filled the band’s need for saxophone players, and so my son was assigned to the clarinet, an instrument he hated. At least his music instructor was honest about his need for a clarinet player trumping my son’s need to play the instrument he wanted, unlike the instructor who invented the ridiculous story of my niece’s daughter having the perfect mouth shape for the euphonium. Continue reading →

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PLENK2010 – How Can PLEs Benefit My Students?

Posted on September 18, 2010 by JimS

Lynn ZimmermannBy Lynn Zimmerman
Editor, Teacher Education

Thanks to Jan Schwartz’s Learnings from a MOOC I decided to register for PLENK2010, and thanks to Stefanie Panke’s PLENK 2010: Just Like ‘Watching Football’ I started participating. For me, this experience embodies some of the concerns, confusion, and challenges that people  have who want to be technology savvy but are not quite sure about how to get there. It also brings to light how teaching and learning can really become more student-centered through the use of the e-learning environment. Both of these issues, affective issues and e-learning pedagogy, are important to consider in the evolution of technology as a part of educational design.

I started exploring the PLENK2010 site  a few days ago, and I have mixed feelings about the experience. There is a lot of uncertainty (for me) in the process which will shape my participation. First of all, there are many people participating as one big group, which I find chaotic. My style is to work alone or with a small group of people with whom I feel comfortable. One of my first tasks, therefore, is to find my comfort zone. Continue reading →

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‘Learning by Playing’: Seven Tips for Game Designers

Posted on September 18, 2010 by JimS

By Harry Keller
Editor, Science Education

I like video games and introduced my son to them with Wizardry I a very long time ago. For 20 or more years, I’ve been looking at ways to make videos games work in classrooms. So have many others. The recent New York Times article, “Learning by Playing,” explores some recent developments in schools.

This concept, gaming in classrooms, has many facets. Is the game a first-person shooter game (Doom), a resource management game (Railroad Tycoon, various Sim games), a role-playing game, or even massively multiple-player online role playing game (MMORPG, e.g., World of Warcraft)? Or is it a purely educational game? Do students learn more than just eye-hand coordination from games? Is gaming an appropriate use of classroom time? Does the answer change with the students’ age? Are games ready for prime time, and, if not, when will they be? Continue reading →

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PLENK 2010: Just Like ‘Watching Football’

Posted on September 15, 2010 by JimS

Stefanie PankeBy Stefanie Panke
Editor, Social Software in Education

This week marked the start of  PLENK 2010, a seven week online course on personal learning networks (PLNs) and personal learning environments (PLEs). The “Massive Open Online Course“ (MOOC) is sponsored and organized by the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute (TEKRI) of the Canadian Athabasca University. George Siemens (TEKRI), Stephen Downes (National Research Council of Canada), Dave Cormier (University of Prince Edward Island), and Rita Kop (National Research Council of Canada) serve as facilitators. In addition, several invited speakers will attend the weekly live sessions. More than 1300 participants have registered in the Moodle platform so far.

Continue reading →

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Living in Glass Schoolhouses: 21st Century Teaching and Learning Is Much More Than Standards

Posted on September 14, 2010 by JimS

By Robert Plants
Editor, Schools for the 21st Century

Last week, in the online publication Education Next, noted education columnist Chester Finn was critical of the organization Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

I think, in many respects, his criticism was right on the money and needed. The gist of his comments pointed out that the organization advocates the teaching of thinking skills devoid of content. The idea is not new, and there is sufficient research discrediting that approach. He pointed to Diane Ravitch, Daniel Willingham, E.D. Hirsch, and Jay Matthews as some of the more recent writers and researchers critical of the organization for the same reasons. He noted that the Common Core initiative was doing a much more effective job by infusing 21st century thinking and learning into its current content standards.

Continue reading →

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Learnings from a MOOC

Posted on September 7, 2010 by JimS

By Jan Schwartz

In fall 2008, I participated in a semester long MOOC — Massive Open Online Course — through the University of Manitoba. The name of the course was Connectivism and Connected Knowledge; Stephen Downes and George Seimens facilitated it. Of the over 2000 enrollees from all over the world, I think fewer than 30 took it for credit. It was one of the most fascinating educational experiences I’ve ever had, and by the way it was free. For those interested, there is a short explanatory slide deck.

I admit to being primarily a lurker in the early part of this course because I had no idea what connectivism and connected knowledge meant, but by the end of the course I had a pretty good idea. A lurker in this instance is similar to an auditor in a face-to-face class; she is there to soak it all up, but not really to participate. There were published readings each week, but most of the learning came from other participants. We posted on Twitter, blogs, wikis, social bookmarks, and Moodle, which was the “home” platform for the course. There were even some discussions happening in Second Life. (Yes, eventually I started to participate.) In addition there was a once a week synchronous discussion on Elluminate. Continue reading →

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Prensky’s Solutions for Public Schools Are Woefully Simplistic

Posted on September 7, 2010 by JimS

John SenerBy John Sener

[Note: This article was first posted as a comment (9.7.10) on Marc Prensky‘s “Simple Changes in Current Practices May Save Our Schools” (7.12.10). It also refers to Steve Eskow‘s comment (9.6.10) on the article. -js]

Sorry, but I do not share others’ enthusiasm for Prensky’s approach. The idea to distribute 55 million tarballs is extremely expensive and highly impractical as Steve Eskow’s post illustrates. In fact, such an effort would be seen as a “Trojan horse” attempt to impose federal control over education, and face broad resistance as a result.

His other specific ideas are nice but hardly original — in fact, no doubt they are being done by hundreds, in some cases thousands, of teachers and thousands, perhaps millions, of students.

The real issue for me is: why do 55 million schoolchildren have to be involved in this? Yes, the BP spill affects everyone; so do thousands of other issues. Wouldn’t sending out 55 million tarballs deprive teachers of the opportunity to experiment and innovate, which Prensky purports to advocate? Please note carefully: Prensky did NOT say, “develop a program to send out tarballs to every teacher who requests one.” No, instead he proposed a blanket “solution” for everybody. The distinction is crucial, and not merely rhetorical, as it reflects an ultimately authoritarian approach to moving forward. Continue reading →

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Is the Scientific and Engineering Approach to Education Doing More Harm Than Good?

Posted on September 4, 2010 by JimS

By Steve Eskow
Editor, Hybrid vs. Virtual Issues

[Note: Earlier today (4 Sep. 2010), Steve Eskow posted the comment below in the ongoing discussion on William H. Zaggle‘s Educational Engineers: The Missing Link in Innovation. -js]

If one looks carefully at the last 60 years of educational history, isn’t it possible to conclude that the ideology of education as a science and engineering as the development of the tools to implement the findings of educational science and measure its results have indeed found their way into mainstream practice and that Charters and Anderson (see Zaggle’s article) were successful as prophets and preachers?

Schools and colleges have instructional “designers.” They insist on teaching faculty to begin such “design” by listing their “measurable objectives” (“objectives” have to be “measurable”).

“Assessment” is now a commonplace of educational jargon. And “assessment ” often – usually – means such “objective” techniques as multiple choice questions.

Is it possible to argue that the attempt to create a science and engineering approach to education have done little good and much harm?

[Note: In an email exchange a few hours later re his comment above, Steve said, “Jim, your note prompted me to look for and, surprise, find my copy of a 1962 book by Raymond E. Callahan, Education and the Cult of Efficiency. See if you can find a copy somewhere. Chapter 2  is titled “Reform-Conscious America Discovers the Efficiency Expert,” and it is all about the importation of Taylor’s “Scientific Management” into the American classroom. Steve.  -js]

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