TheMedia is the

PedagogyJon Dron & Terry Anderson

Athabasca University

Learning & Networks Trump Teaching, Innovation and Pedagogy

ValuesWe can (and must) continuously improve the

quality, effectiveness, appeal, cost and time efficiency of the learning experience.

Student control and freedom is integral to 21st century life-long education and learning.

Continuing education opportunity is a basic human right.

E-Learning is not the same

Learning as Dance (Anderson, 2008)

Technology sets the beat and the timing.

Pedagogy defines the moves.

learning together

The two biggest e-learning success

stories so far?

The two biggest e-learning success

stories so far?

A typology of social forms

•Learning Alone•The group

Hierarchies, membership, intentionality, collaboration, boundaries

•The netPersonal connections, fuzzy boundaries, emergence

•The setPublication, aggregation, anonymity, cooperation

•The collectiveComputational agents, algorithms, analytics, visualization, crowd wisdom/mob stupidity

Learning AloneMaximizes Freedom:

Space, time, pace,

Allows and promotes individualization

Freedom from “group think”

Power of auto-didacticism

Lifelong learning

Freedom from groups

Self Directed or Self Paced learning

Learner sets start date and the time to completion

Continuous assessment

Maximizes learner control

Higher drop out

Ted Talks, Khan Academy, OERU

Only one of the Major MOOCs (Udacity) providers offers this option

Everyone can own a MOOC

Then there was groups…

Constructivist Learning in Groups• Long history of research

and study• Established sets of tools

– Classrooms– Learning Management

Systems (LMS)– Synchronous (chat, video

& net conferencing)– Email, wikis, blogs

• Need to develop face to face, mediated and blended group learning skills

Garrison, R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical thinking in text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2),

87-105.

• Increase in learning outcomes, social skills, positive attitudes to learning BUT

• “the need for cooperative teams to mature implies that cooperative learning does not yield an immediate improvement …need for patience and persistence… students experienced in cooperative learning”

Hsiung, C.-m. (2012). The Effectiveness of Cooperative Learning. Journal of Engineering Education, 101(1), 119-

137.

Flipped Classroom

Formal Education offers only these two models

…then networks

Networks

• Emergent• Persistent• Bursty• Span boundaries• Easy entry & exit• Often informal• Communities of practice

Networks add diversity to learning

“People who live in the intersection of social worlds are at higher risk of having good ideas” Burt, 2005, p. 90

Edge effects, estuary learning

Estuary Learning

Social Network Tools• Tools for Building Personal Networks of people and Resources• Means to reify and share knowledge• Ownership and identity• Supports long term networking partnerships, relationships, alumni• Weak and strong ties • Boundary crossing and serendipity• Place for coalescence of sets into networks and groups, nets into

groups.• Discovery, external validation and cross network enrichment

Privacy Concern by AgePrivacy Concern by Age

26

Anderson, T., Poelhuber, B., & McKerlich, R. (2010). Self Paced Learners Meet Social Software: An exploration of Learners’ attitudes, expectations and experience. . Online

Journal of Distance Education Administration, 13(3). http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/Fall133/anderson_poellhuber_mcKerlich133.html.

There were always sets…

…but we didn’t pay much attention to them

Sets:People with shared attributes and a

common virtual or physical space

Cooperation Sharin

g

Curation

TaggingCo-

editing

Co-creating

•Co-operation: working independently for the greater good

•Collaboration: working together for the greater good

Why sets?

Eric Whitacer’s Virtual Choir (4)

Sets are good for…

finding answers finding

people

starting groups and networks

diverse perspectives

serendipity

learner choice

freedom

reducing loneliness

Set of all people suffering from anxiety in online classes

Please take my survey on anxiety in online classes:  https://unt.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8qdDXVgm7vmYEtL

 This is a rather short survey (22 questions).  It is for an in-class

assignment, is a pilot for future study, and the results will not be published.  More details are on the survey’s informed consent

form.  

Thank you! 

--Alana S. Phillips 

doctoral studentUniversity of North Texasalanaphillips@my.unt.edu

Sets for Research as well as Learning

but…

Why contribute to a set?

Focus

Depth and engagement

Trust

The problem of evil

The problem of stupidity

The problem (?) of diversity

open

unprotected

disclosed

exposed

insecure

closed

protected

private

hidden

safeDron, J., & Anderson, T. (2014) Agoraphobia and the modern learner. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 3. http://jime.open.ac.uk/article/2014-03/html.

Collectives

Capture information and actions of the crowd

Process

Feedback processed information to the crowd

capture

process

feedback

Collective concerns

filter bubbles

path dependencies

intentional abuse selection

bias

Matthew Effect

missing pedagogical models

setnet

group Universities departmentscompaniesnationsTribes

Social networks - friends, work, community

Subject areasGeographically collocated people

ClassesTutorial groupsSeminarsProject teams

ad-hoc learning networksclubs & societiesCommunities of

practice

Wikipedia editorsSubject area mailing listsalumni networks

Blends and combinations

Generations of distance learning pedagogies

1.Behaviourist/Cognitive – Self Paced, Individual Study,

2.Social constructivist – Groups, classes

3.Connectivist – Networks 4.Holist - Sets and Collectives

Anderson, T., & Dron, J. (2011). Three generations of distance education pedagogy. International Review of Research on Distance and Open Learning, 12(3), 80-97

Priv

ate

Publ

ic net

group

set

individual

Is the LMS BAD?

• Bricolage – the LMS as Enterprise Systems doesn’t allow or cater for bricolage.

• Affordances – resulting in an inability to leverage the affordances of technology to improve learning and teaching.

• Distribution – the idea that knowledge about how to improve L&T is distributed and the implications that has for the institutional practice of e-learning."

http://davidtjones.wordpress.com/David Jones

Walled Gardens (with windows)

• Connectivist learning thrives in safe learning spaces with windows allowing randomness, external participation and public presentation

Athabasca Landing

• User owned and generated tool kit

Enactment At Athabasca Landing

Landing.athabascau.ca

• Elgg based, open source• Walled garden WITH windows

– very fine permissions controls

• Beyond the LMS• Adoption issues

The Social Aggregations and Tech of 3 Generations of Connective

Pedagogies

• Individuals

• Groups

• Networks• Sets

3rd Gen. Connectivist

2nd Gen. Social Constructivist

1st GenCognitive/

BehaviouralSelf Paced

Learning Tech

LMS

NetworkTools

aupress.cawww.irrodl.org

Open Scholars Write and Read

Open Access Books

Teaching in Blended Learning

Environments: Creating and Sustaining

Communities of InquiryVaughan, Cleveland-

Innes, & Garrison

Jon Dron - jond@athabascau.cahttp://jondron.athabascau.ca

http://jondron.org@jondron on almost everything

Terry Anderson- terrya@athabascau.ca

http://terrya.edublogs.org

Coming soon (July 2014)….Teaching Crowds: Learning and Social Mediahttp://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120235

Slides at http://tinyurl.com/CNIE2014

Terry Anderson terrya@athabascau.ca

Blog: terrya.edublogs.org

Your comments and questions most welcomed!

Student - Teacher/Content Interaction

• “MOOC video producers currently base their production decisions on anecdotes, folk wisdom, and best practices distilled from studies with at most dozens of subjects and hundreds of video watching sessions.”

Guo, P. J., Kim, J., & Rubin, R. (2014). How video production affects student engagement: An empirical

study of mooc videos. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the first ACM conference on Learning@

scale conference. Retrieved from http://groups.csail.mit.edu/uid/other-pubs/las2014-

pguo-engagement.pdf

Guo, P. J., Kim, J., & Rubin, R. (2014). How video production affects student engagement: An empirical study of mooc videos. Paper

presented at the Proceedings of the first ACM conference on Learning@ scale conference. Retrieved from

Guo, P. J., Kim, J., & Rubin, R. (2014). How video production affects student engagement: An empirical study of mooc videos. Paper

presented at the Proceedings of the first ACM conference on Learning@ scale conference. Retrieved from