Connectivism and the modern learner Recently, I read a blog article about connectivism by Debora Gallo. Soon after, I attended a presentation about m-learning by Jan Herrington, in which she too mentioned connectivism. This got me thinking… I don’t know anything about connectivism! So after several hours of unenlightened googling, I decided to bite the bullet, go back to first principles and read George Siemens’ seminal paper, Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. Theoretical foundations Siemens describes connectivism as “the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organisation theories”. According to Chaos Theory, everything is connected, as illustrated so eloquently by the Butterfly Effect. While chaos may appear a random mess at first glance, the theory holds that order does in fact exist. So if we view chaos through the lens of Network Theory, we see the universe as a massive, complex network. The point for the learner is whether you can recognise the underlying pattern.
JISC Digital Literacies programme: A history of Digital Literacy in UK & EU #JISCDigLit — Digital Fingerprint Sarah Payton & Tabetha Newman The EU describes it as digital competency. Lots of debate about what it is, but if we’re talking policy at institutions, it’s important to know what you are seeking to implement. Recommended books: Great (simple) definition of digital literacies: Arguments against “digital natives”: Students often get disheartened when they search the web. Students need to move beyond practitioner training, and into being strong independent learners, who are confident to go off and try for themselves. We have to accept that ‘new’ is here to stay, and that we will no longer be ‘masters’. Assessment needs to change, to ensure that students will NEED to remix the information that’s available, rather than the “digital parrot” [my words!] Mentioned in the chat: Majority of support available is processes. European Union – recognized the need for more training for a knowledge economy (rather than a production economy), see
Developing digital literacies Overview Many learners enter further and higher education lacking the skills needed to apply digital technologies to education. As 90% of new jobs will require excellent digital skills, improving digital literacy is an essential component of developing employable graduates. Courses that embed core digital skills, as well as subject specific use of technology, enable students to gain the skills and confidence they need to use digital technology not only to support their learning but also in the workplace. We’re working with colleges and universities to embed core digital skills into the curriculum. By digital literacy we mean those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society: for example, the skills to use digital tools to undertake academic research, writing and critical thinking; as part of personal development planning; and as a way of showcasing achievements. Developing Digital Literacies programme
Digital technologies and the tensions between research and teaching | Higher Education Network | Guardian Professional Several participants expressed concern about the tensions between the demands of research and teaching in last Friday's live chat, which asked what good teaching should look like in higher education. . Aidan Byrne, senior lecturer in English, cultural studies and media at Wolverhampton University said he was suffering the consequences of prioritising teaching: "When I started here, people told me I should concentrate on teaching rather than research. I did and now I'm under the cosh when it comes to REF [the research excellence framework]." Another panelists Rosalind Duhs, senior teaching fellow at the Centre for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching, University College London, identified a lack of time as the main barrier preventing academics from engaging with developing their teaching – especially with REF deadlines approaching. A better use of new technology is often advocated as a solution to this time trap. "Academics are not really 'teachers' but enablers of learning.
The rise of e-reading Released: April 4, 2012 By Lee Rainie, Kathryn Zickuhr, Kristen Purcell, Mary Madden and Joanna Brenner One-fifth of American adults (21%) report that they have read an e-book in the past year, and this number increased following a gift-giving season that saw a spike in the ownership of both tablet computers and e-book reading devices such as the original Kindles and Nooks. The rise of e-books in American culture is part of a larger story about a shift from printed to digital material. Those who have taken the plunge into reading e-books stand out in almost every way from other kinds of readers. Most of the findings in this report come from a survey of 2,986 Americans ages 16 and older, conducted on November 16-December 21, 2011, that extensively focused on the new terrain of e-reading and people’s habits and preferences. Key findings: Those who read e-books report they have read more books in all formats. For device owners, those who own e-book readers also stand out. 48% bought it.
More support needed for Generation Y Clearly, the majority of young researchers do not fully appreciate the benefits and virtues of these resources. We found that students were reticent about using particular social media tools unless they were immediately applicable to their research disciplines or to the focus of their studies. Louisa Dale According to a UK study conducted by JISC and the British Library, research students need more informal and face-to-face support if they are to obtain the maximum benefit from open web technologies and social media. Whilst online forums were used by 23 per cent of all students, only 13 per cent played an active role in discussions. 23 per cent followed blogs but only nine per cent regularly contributed to their own blog. Louisa Dale, Senior Relations and Support Manager at JISC, spoke to ScienceOmega.com to explain more about the intentions behind this project. The results of this study will come as a surprise to many.
Personal - Professional - Organisational: three basic online identities There are three main ways we can characterise most peoples online internet and mobile activity and presence. Let me state up front that these distinctions are purposely blunt, but do act as effective and critical distinctions, especially when talking to people about how and why they can manage their online identities. They're also very indiscreet, leaky categories, although it is of course possible to find examples of people who's online identity is confined to or dominated by a single category. The three main categories I use then are personal, professional, and organisational. Personal use might include using dating sites, having a social network account to connect to friends and family, uploading your family photos to a photo-sharing site.
The Difference Between Digital Literacy and Digital Fluency | SociaLens Blog Update 6/13/2012: We finally finished our book on this topic. It is available in print here, and in Kindle format here. You can also download a sample chapter here: here (601k PDF) Literacy and fluency* have to do with our ability to use a technology to achieve a desired outcome in a situation using the technologies that are available to us. ..and it applies to our ability to use digital technologies to have the intended positive effect on people and situations: Note that a literate person is perfectly capable of using the tools. *For the sake of simplicity, we have boiled all of this down to three levels of skill, and have given them what we think are easy-to-understand names. Related Posts:
Digital Literacy @ University of Worcester