Dr. Alec CourosAt Michigan State UniversityOctober 27, 2012

Open And Connected LearningLeveraging Networks for Learning

#coetc12

me

Last Updated 2006

Personal Open Spaces

Open Teaching

Open Tenure/Promotion App

“The Open Scholar is someone who makes their intellectual processes digitally visible and who invites and encourages ongoing criticism of their work and secondary

uses of any or all parts of it -- at any stage of its development.” (Burton, G., 2009)

Open Doctrine

changes

“in 2007 YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000”

“More video is uploaded to YouTube in one month that the 3 major US networks created in 60 years.”

“72 hours of video are uploaded every minute, or one hour of video is uploaded to Youtube every second.”

atoms <---> bitsscarcity <---> abundanceconsuming <---> creatingindividuals <---> networks

control <---> freedom

significant shifts

current context - new affordancestools, content, networks

tools

Early Days of PCs in Schools Today’s Social/Mobile Reality

Toward a Mobile Reality

Convergence

NY Subway

JB Concert

photographed by George Couros

Source: google.com/think/insights

Objectivism

Group growth

(Schwier)(Leinonen)

Individual growth

CognitivismConstructivism

Social Learning

shifts in edtech

content

George Siemens

• “Informal learning is a significant aspect of our learning experience. Formal education no longer comprises the majority of our learning.”

•

Informal Learning

http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

@drtonywagner

“Today knowledge is free. It’s like air, it’s like water...

There’s no competitive advantage in knowing

more than the person next to you. The world doesn’t care what you know. What the world cares about is

what you can do with what you know.” (2012)

networks

Social Networking Services

Six Degrees of Separation“the idea that everyone is on average six steps away, by way of introduction, from

another person in the world.”

“Chance favors the connected mind” ~ Stephen Johnson

@elenelli

@npyrini

Strength of Weak Ties“There is strength in weak ties. Our

acquaintances, not our friends, are potentially our greatest source of new ideas and

information.” (paraphrased from Gladwell, 2010)

Where Good Ideas Come From“The trick to having good ideas is not to sit

around in glorious isolation and try to think big thoughts. The trick is to get more parts on the

table.” (Steven Johnson, 2010)

networks1. mechanism: enable communication &

collaboration in ways that were once impossible.

2. inspiration: connect us to new ideas & expand our thinking & potential for innovation.

* ‘us’ meaning those who are increasingly literate

inspirations & possibilitiesvalue of free, weak ties, visible learning

value of free

@esrtweet

“Gift cultures are adaptations not to scarcity but to abundance .... In gift cultures, social status is determined not by what you control, but by what you give

away. (1997)

“For Unleashing the Ideavirus, Godin released the entire eBook on the Internet for free, which led to eventual publishing deals in 41 countries and a public speaking career.”

“the song intentionally lacked a copyright so that people would be encouraged to create their

own online parodies, in essence their own "XYZ Style"”

21st Century Learning Networks

21st Century Learning Networks

strength of weak ties

Howard Rheingold

• “Understanding how networks work is one of the most important literacies of the 21st century.” (2010)

Network Literacies

@dlnorman

@giuliaforsythe

@noiseprofessor

@noiseprofessor

@noiseprofessor

@timlauer

“The gene has it’s cultural analog too: the meme. In cultural evolution, a meme is a

replicator and propagator - an idea, a fashion, a chain letter, or a conspiracy

theory. On a bad day, a meme is a virus”

Lowenstein, 1999

memes

http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/3601144842/sizes/l/in/photostream/

“To run for president in the age of the Internet is to risk your words, your image and - most

importantly - your mistakes, will be photoshopped clipped, edited, remixed and

remastered online in the form of a viral meme.”

“...for all the money, tax revenue and intelligence that Western governments have at their disposal (they) seemingly cannot get their heads around a simple enough concept that wherever one

is, someone is watching and recording.”

Zack Whitaker

making learning visible

“To answer your question, I did use Youtube to learn how to dance. I

consider it my ‘main’ teacher.”

“10 years ago, street dance was very exclusive, especially rare dances like popping

(the one I teach and do). You either had to learn it from a friend that knew it or get VHS

tapes which were hard to get. Now with Youtube, anyone, anywhere in the world can

learn previously ‘exclusive’ dance styles.”

Nick

MattKirk

how are you making learning visible?

how are you contributing to the learning of others?

#eci831

cMOOC pedagogy relies heavily on gift economies, weak ties, participatory

culture & making learning visible

network mentors

non-credit students

course trailer

student-controlled spaces

co-created & shared resources

“I was able to go out and learn throughout the entire week, the entire year, and I’m still

learning with everyone.”

“The best part of the course is that it’s not ending. With the connections we’ve built, it

never has to end.”

@jonmott

concluding thoughts

(Joichi Ito)

http://couros.cacouros@gmail.com

@courosa

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

in another time.” ~Tagore