Dr. Alec CourosUniversity of ReginaAugust 2011

Deep Learning in the Age of Distraction

#cesd73

bit.ly/cesd73

me

Faculty Profile

http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/3974469907/

The Blur

Life Stream

eci831.ca

my motivation

context

Changes

Early Day of PC in Schools Today’s Social/Mobile Reality

Stats as of January 2011 via Royal Pingdom

media stats (2010)

• 107 trillion emails (89% spam), from 1.04 billion users.

• 255 million websites

• 1.97 billion Internet users

• 152 millions blogs

• 600 million Facebook users (sharing 30 billion pieces of content per month)

• 2 billion videos watched on Youtube daily

• 5 billion photos hosted on Flickr

myth of the digital native

Children and young people are described as ‘the collaboration generation’, eager to work together

towards common goals, share content and draw upon “the power of mass collaboration”. This combination of individualisation and collaboration is often presented

as giving young people a propensity to question, challenge and critique. These are individuals who “typically can’t imagine a life where citizens didn’t

have the tools to constantly think critically, exchange views, challenge, authenticate, verify, or debunk.

The Digital Native - Myth & Reality, Selwyn (2009)

Are We To Believe This?

Or This?

Or This?

“... age is not a determining factor in students’ digital lives; rather, their familiar and

experience using ICTs is more relevant.”

“... age is not a determining factor in students’ digital lives; rather, their familiar and

experience using ICTs is more relevant.”

“... the notion of ‘digital natives’ is inaccurate: those with such attributes are effectively a

digital elite. Instead of a new net generation growing up to replace an older analogue generation, there is a deepening digital

divide ... characterized not by age but by access and opportunity.”

Visitors vs. Residents

social disconnection?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dkuropatwa/4285762190

•(Post WWII) “Spaces like dance halls, roller rinks, bowling alleys, and activity centers began offering times for teens to socialize with other teens.... By the late 20th century, shopping malls became the primary public space for youth socialization. While shopping malls once welcomed teens, teens primarily seen as a nuisance now.... What emerged with the Internet was a radical shift in architecture. It decentralized publics.”

@zephoria

danah boyd

Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites, boyd (2007)

narcissism?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alainbachellier/2572801898/in/photostream/

•“The profile serves as a digital representation of one’s taste’s, fashion, and identity. In crafting the profile, people upload photos, indicate interests, list favorite musicians, & describe themselves textually & through associated media.

•“The vast majority of social network site use amongst use does not involve surfing to strangers’ profiles, but engaging more locally with known friends and acquaintances.

•Youth look to older teens & the media to get cues about what to wear, how to act, & whats’ cool,

@zephoria

danah boyd

Socializing Digitally, boyd (2007)

‘Bieber Fever’

Maria Aragon

Rebecca Black

•“What you see on Youtube are tremendously deep communities ... people revealing parts of themselves that they refuse to reveal even to their family or to their closest friends.”

•Youtube mitigates our desire to connect without the constraint.

@mwesch

Michael Wesch

“Heroes for our Mediated Culture”

is tech making us stupid?

“As we are drained of our “repertory of dense cultural inheritance”, we risk turning into “pancake

people” -- spread wide and thin as we connect with the vast network of information accessed by the mere touch of a button. (Nicholas Carr, 2008)

5 Main Myths

•Texting is full of abbreviations

•The abbreviations are new.

•The fact that people leave out letters show they don’t know how to spell.

•Young people are putting these abbreviations into home and exams.

•Texting shows the decline of the English language.

@mwesch

David Crystal

Texting & Literacy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Boj8VYzDAy8

Texting & Literacy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Boj8VYzDAy8

“... in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else:

a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is

rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information

creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.

(Herbert Simon, 1971)”

practice

deep learning?

Deep Learning

• “Deep learning is learning that takes root in our apparatus of understanding, in the embedded meanings that define us and that we use to define the world.” (Tagg, 2003)

• “Characteristics of deep learning are the integration and synthesis of information with prior learning in ways that become part of one’s thinking & approaching new phenomena and efforts to see things from different perspectives. (Kuh, Chen, Laird, 2007)

Models of 21st Century Learning

• The Collaborator uses networks of people, knowledge, skills & ideas as sources of learning - emphasis on social interactions.

• The Free Agent makes use of continuous, open-ended & life-long styles and systems of learning.

• The Wise Analyzer gathers evidence of effective activity, scrutinizes it and applies its conclusions to new problems & new contexts.

• The Creative Synthesizer connects across themes and disciplines, cross fertilises ideas, integrates separate concepts & creates new vision and new practice.

21st Century Learning and Learners, Friesen & Jardine (2007)

21st Century Readers/Writers Must ...• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology.

• Build relationships with others to pose & solve problems collaboratively and cross culturally.

• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes.

• Manage, analyze, & synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information.

• Create, critique, an analyze multimedia texts.

• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments.

NCTE Framework for 21st Century Curriulum & Assessment (2007)

Jenny Johns

Example #1: Using Relevant Modes

Jenny Johns

Example #1: Using Relevant Modes

Example #1.1: Using Relevant Modes

@danikabarker

Example #2: Power Of (Global) Audience

ps22chorus.blogspot.com

Example #2: Power Of (Global) Audience

ps22chorus.blogspot.com

Example #2.1: Power Of (Global) Audience

Beyond Friending, Gold, 2011

Example #2.2: Power Of (Global) Audience

“My student was delighted by the attention her blog post had received; it gave her confidence in her

writing and bolstered her enthusiasm for our class.... We were no longer studying an important work of

20th century literature within the narrow context of my syllabus; instead we had become part of a

conversation that involved the broader reading public. As a professor, I was displaced from the centre of the conversation, which became more open, distributed

and student-driven than it had been before.”

Beyond Friending, Gold, 2011

Example #2.2: Power Of (Global) Audience

@bryanjack

Example #3: Giving Voice

@bryanjack

Example #3: Giving Voice

@kathycassidy

Example #3.1: Giving Voice

@ddmeyer

Example #4: Going Deep

Example #4.1: Going Deep

Example #5: Utilizing Networks

@glassbeed@langwitches @hdurnin

Example #5.1: Utilizing Networks

Example #5.1: Utilizing Networks

Example #5.2: Utilizing Networks

Example #5.4: Utilizing Networks

Example #6: Importance of Multimedia

@karlfisch

Example #6.1: Importance of Multimedia

@kutiman

Example #6.1: Importance of Multimedia

@kutiman

Example #7: PD Anytime, Anywhere

Example #7.1: PD Anytime, Anywhere

@jgates513

Example #7.1: PD Anytime, Anywhere

@jgates513

there are thousands of examples

but this is not the norm

the big ideas to consider

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dolmansaxlil/4802611949/

Sharing

“it’s about overcoming the inner 2 year old in

you that screams mine, mine, it’s mine.”

(Wiley, TEDxNYED, 2010)

On Sharing ...

Audience

Identity

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaumedurgell/740880616/sizes/l/in/photostream/

“You are not Facebook’s customer. you are the product that they sell to real customers - advertisers.

Forget this at your peril.”(Greenberg, 2010, via tweet)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/3356252350/

Relationships

@shareski

@shareski

conclusion

Being Mindful

“Education ... has produced a vast population able to read but

unable to distinguish what is worth reading, an easy prey to

sensations and cheap appeals.”(Trevelyan, 1942)

Asking the Right Questions

http://couros.cacouros@gmail.com

@courosa

Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born

in another time. ~Tagore