Welcome to Stephen's Web. Subscribe to OLDaily E-Learning News, Opinion, Technology. New Today Links and Resources (presentations include slides and audio recordings) Videos: RSS Feed: Podcast: Key Articles Scholarly Articles (Cites from Google Scholar for an H-Index = 14) Recent Popular Articles The Purpose of Learning, February 2, 2011. Social Network Twitter: Slideshare: Facebook: Flickr: Google: Blip.tv: Contact: stephen@downes.ca Stephen.Downes@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca Skype: Downes About Stephen Downes Stephen Downes is a senior researcher for Canada's National Research Council and a leading proponent of the use of online media and services in education.
Biographie Vision Statement My calendar. Dean Shareski: How To Make Better Teachers. Want to create better teachers? I know how. One word. Blogging. Now before you roll your eyes or accuse me of oversimplifying the very complex issue of teacher evaluation and monitoring, hear me out. I began teaching in 1988. It was a tough job and thinking about getting better was superseded by survival instincts. Early on in my career, there were several documents that the province produced in support of improved professional development.
When I discovered blogs almost five years ago, I soon figured out what that term meant. Dan Meyer, a Mathematics teacher in California writes: ... blogging was the cheapest, most risk-free investment I could have made of my personal time into my job. Thousands of other blogging educators could echo similar words. There's a natural transparency that emerges. Teachers have for years had to fill in a plethora of reports and forms which in essence are accountability papers. So here's my plan. Try that. PS. Is there a new (media-)historical type of learning emerging? | S e b l o g g i n g. Is there a new (media-)historical type of learning emerging? In my recent live presentation/session for PLENK2010 I was trying to argue that if we want to get any further with the notion of Personal Learning Environments (PLE), we need to stop staring exclusively at the current (and transient) level of technological (Web) development.
Instead, we need to analyse the “personal learning” side more seriously. One possible perspective to take here is a (socio-)historical one. What types of learning have emerged over time and coupled to what (media-)historical developments? Personally, I find it rather useless to talk about environments for personal learning (or Personal Learning Environments) without an exploration of the types of learning (or the types of learning activity) these, so called, environments are supposed to constitute, support, or facilitate (you name it).
In their recent book chapter “Lernkultur oder Lernkulturen – was ist neu an der ,Kultur des Lernens’?” … and so on… Applying Critical Reasoning. A PLENK participant wrote: I have found that when I actually apply my critical knowledge skills - questioning the status of procedures, rules and arguments- I pay a price.It may be that I am ignored or I am excluded. Or judged difficult. But the point is that even when we do enable our students to be users of knowledge - and encourage them to question, the pressure within society - our institutions - effects a price.The price is usually economic and social exclusion.Hmmm..What to do then? I have three major pieces of advice, gleaned from years of hard experience of exactly what you describe here. 1. Pick your battles 2.
Find your friends 3. The first means applying a judicious hand. And, as you pointed out, these same people will react badly when you attempt to inject a note of reason into the debate. So, pick your battles. The second applies to picking your friends. These are people you can work with, and people you should gravitate toward. Finally, third, produce. Do the work. We're doing SOMETHING right. Modelling PLE based learning. InWednesday's #PLENK2010 session Sebastian Fiedler gave us his thoughts and ideas on Personal Learning Environments. He moved the discussion from the technology to the concept and made us think about the personal learning, rather than the learning environment in PLE.
His model to analyse personal learning looked like this: During the discussion following his presentation quite a few questions were asked about this framework: would people move from 1 through a continuum to 5? How would this work? Of course while learners are going about their lives and are involved in activities that make that they learn, their personal development continues and I have found the Perry stages of development, as described in an earlier post, helpful in understanding how this might work. #PLENK2010 PLEs and learner autonomy. November 18, 2010 by jennymackness PLEs. Concept or Technology -This was the title of the presentation by Sebastian Fiedler in the final week of the PLENK course. This was a particularly stimulating session as you would expect from the title.
I haven’t had time to read Sebastian’s article yet – so everything in this post is based on my perceptions, understanding, and interpretation of what happened in the Elluminate session. It was quite a difficult session to follow – should I listen to Sebastian, or follow the chat, which was very active due to the stimulation of Sebastian’s presentation – but it modelled exactly the sort of learning environment we can expect when learners are autonomous in an open course. Sebastian started by saying that PLE is a counter concept arising from discontent with centralised course management. Which brings us to the question of what we mean by autonomy. Hopefully the recording of this session will be posted soon. Moderator. Oslo. Twitter – A Teaching and Learning Tool.
I think I have found the perfect place to reflect on the way a network, and specifically how Twitter, can impact on what goes on in the classroom. No mains gas, no telephones, no mobile signal, no internet connection, no possible way to interact with my personal learning network (PLN). Tucked away in the Cornish countryside the location of the cottage we are staying in provokes vocabulary such as: isolated, severed, detached and remote. But similar rhetoric could also be applied to the lack of connection I have with my network. I am removed from the network I want to reflect upon and away from the classroom that it can impact.
This perspective is welcome as it offers me clarity of thought, as I write, that I have not had for a long time. In this post I hope to unpick what my Twitter network means to me in terms of my classroom practise and explore the best ways that you can utilise it in your own classroom. Twitter: a communication tool Unique communication Manageable networks Creative Data. Functional illiteracy « Just Sayin' A recent email exchange with a (college) student: im emailing u because i need a grade from you on my progress report tomorrow or else i cant play sat if you could do that i would gladly appreciate it….also while i was looking at my grades on blackboard i saw a E for the folk and religious music quiz…i was wondering did i miss that day or did i just not get any points on the quiz Your current grade is a D+. Your grade for the quiz was 13 out of 24 (this information was included on the grade center site he was consulting). what the quiz points added in with the total?
I don’t know what you’re asking me. im asking was those 13 points included in with the total points because it had an E for the grade i was just wondering This is a native-born American student who has apparently graduated from an American high school. How can MFA not realize that we are ALL going to pay the price when our children grow up to be adults who can’t read, speak, or write? But we’re not measuring up. Sigh. Like this: