Where is the M in Interactivity, Collaboration and Feedback?

Michael CoghlanWireless Ready

Nagoya (29/3/08)

Payphone Ladies

Mobile Learning is more than Mobile TechnologyStephen Downes on Leonard Low: “Low clarifies his thoughts on the definition of 'mobile

learning', concentrating more on social factors (ubiquity, ease of use, appropriateness of use in public places, cost) rather than on the device itself.”

Low wrote: “Mobile learning is, after all, about the mobility of

learning, and not merely the mobility of technology…but how we achieve that mobility of learning must consider the context of the learning, and not just the use of mobile technology, if it is to achieve its full potential.” (7/3/07)

Trigger Point

Dr Norbert Pachler (Mlearn Conference, 2007): Title: Thinking about the ‘m-’ in mobile learning (co-authored with Gunther Kress)

Progression……

Online learning E learning Flexible learning M (mobile) learning E + M = U (ubiquitous) learning (Janet

Fraser, Monash University)

Abstract:

The marriage between education and Internet technology has effected an extraordinary assault on perspectives about teaching and learning. The role of the teacher, the nature and context of learning, the role, relative importance and agency of course content have all been challenged and redefined. Mobile learning complicates the picture even further.  M-learning is not just about using laptops, smart phones, and tag and code readers. The wider context of mobility implies multiple contexts for learning, the blurring of social and academic spheres of activity, student collaboration and production of content, and a view of knowledge that is dynamic rather than static. How does a teacher foster and manage Interactivity, Collaboration, and Feedback in this context? How and where do teachers and students acquire the skills to operate effectively in an m-learning world?

Agency has shifted from teacher to learner; from teaching to learning

Shift from broadcast model to student content creation (user generated content)

IMPLICATIONS:

Not an entirely new idea - Jonassen: Technology as Cognitive Tools: Learners as Designers (circa 1994)

Assumed: students have phones, mp3 players, other media capturing devices; and the skills to use them effectively (see English and Advertising class blog)

These media capturing devices can be used anywhere anytime Where is the quality control? Who decides what constitutes quality? Is something

other than quality now more important? eg engagement, motivation, increased levels of participation?

To what degree should this be allowed? What % of course content should be user-created? Are we talking about (core) syllabus? Or just for assessment purposes?

Where does user-generated content go? Should it be public? Should schools/colleges have to allow/sanction publishing of course content to public sites? (Media on the Move project)

Emphasis shifts from what you learn to how you learn

Mobility Non-Linearity“non-linearity is damaging narrative” The Bugbear of Literacy (Ananda K. Coomaraswamy;

1949) resented the impact of the written word on the oral tradition (and memory)

RELATED TRENDS The rise of the rock video and the prevalence of rhizomic

thinking The revolution of hyperlinking Multitasking (‘transmedia navigation’)

RHIZOMIC NATURE OF THE INTERNET

Horizontal Learning (multitasking)

Instant Messaging

Instant Messaging

Assignment

SMS

iPod

Surfing

Watching video/TV

HORIZONTAL V

VERTICAL LEARNING

Vertical Learning (single focus)

Assignment: What were the

principal factors that led

to the Indonesian coup in 1965

and the eventual downfall of

President Sukarno?(5000 words)

Horizontal v Vertical Learning

The discerning eteacher: Acknowledges the nature and influence of

horizontal learning (multitasking) Knows when to encourage vertical

learning (single focus activity)

Fragmentation lack of shared cultural experience

IMPACT:

“…we don’t have a common frame of reference anymore as to what constitutes truth or beauty or logic or anything” (Sessums quoting Kelley, Leyden)

The goal of schools to deliver a standard curriculum with common core values is being subverted > ethical challenge

Subcultures (communities of practice); individualised social and cultural experiences; a ‘distributed’ culture that is often transglobal

*‘diversification of cultural expression’; ‘channels’ (subcultures) provided by YouTube, Facebook, chosen RSS feeds and the like

Technology ideology (technology has become a social marker) Skills for success now achievable beyond the walls of education (rise in

importance of informal learning)*Jenkins et al

New Learning? No - different conditions and environments a new habitus of learning (Learning 2.0?) Despite Prensky’s mantra that Gen Y brains are wired

differently, the physiology of learning has not changed But learning no longer confined to the classroom or

working with immediate peers Teacher no longer the sole source of content We now have a “decentralisation of resource provision” the blurring of social and academic spheres of activity

“The whole world has become curricularised.” (Pachler)

Image courtesy of Nancy White

Agency is on the learner to turn information into knowledge

The new model supplies ‘stuff’; not knowledge, which an individual assembles according to their own interests

Text WAS knowledge pushed; NOW text is a resource that learner must make sense of > self-knowledge

The Nature of Text

Formally, text arrived as a settled, final, coherent body of work from acknowledged expert who was an authoritative source

Contemporary text: contingent, multiple authors (no authoritative source with attendant power); provisional; [wikis, blogs, podcasts]

We are moving from a world of stability > a world of fluidity; from a world of canonicity > a world of provisionality

Mobility =

Mobility = fluidity = negotiation (of meaning) > creation of knowledge

Mobility implies a sense of incompletion Mobility in the sense that : 

The individual is always ready to be a ‘learner’ and to turn the environment into a site for learning. Continually in a state of incompletion and moving towards completion (dynamic); mobile not only physically but conceptually. The whole world has become ‘curricularised.’

Courtesy of Greg Whitby

Learning in the 21st Century

“ I have seen predictions that a student doing a 3 year course by 2012 will experience the situation where most of the knowledge they have gained in year one will be completely out of date by the time they finish year 3.”

“…the only sustainable approach…will be to find the learning and teaching strategies which will ensure that people embrace attitudes and behaviours anchored in lifelong learning.”

“It is becoming …an imperative for industry to have staff who are lifelong learners and highly ICT literate.”

Greg Black, CEO, education.au (Campus Review 16/10/07)

http://flickr.com/photos/7447470@N06/1345266896/

WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF ALL OF THIS ON

• INTERACTIVITY?• COLLABORATION?• FEEDBACK?

How and where do teachers and students acquire the skills to operate effectively in this type of mobile world?

Please add your thoughts to the wiki at

http://whereisthem.wikispaces.com/

"In a world in which each individual can pursue most any personal purpose in most any place that suits him, all on his own initiative, the habit of relying on authoritative institutions, which operate through commands enforced by penalties and inducements, may sharply diminish. (McClintock, 2000)

Interaction and Assessment

“The renewed emphasis on collaborative learning is pushing the educational community to develop new forms of interaction and assessment.” 2008 Horizon Report

Interactivity/Interaction

Interactivity v Interaction

Interactivity - relationship with computer or software

Interaction – relationship with other people

Interactivity

(Photo courtesy of Ron Oliver)

Interaction

Image courtesy of Marg O’Connell @The Web: inspiring great online teaching

INTERACTIO

N

Recent virtual environments…

…provide both Interactivity + Interaction

http://flickr.com/photos/teachandlearn/2332548574/

Interactivity/Interaction

When the whole word is ‘curricularised’, every place, every person, every event is part of the new habitus of learning, and you see your interaction with everything as a potential point of learning: a learning opportunity

Important that connections between lecturer and students is frquent, and offered via many channels

Less communication more often? (eg Twitter) Teachers as guide not sage Activities and tasks should have interaction between

learners built in ie be collaborative in nature

Collaboration

Collaboration

Authority is distributed, decentralised Continuous self and peer assessment Self – assessment:

What do you want to make meaning (learn) about? (CHOICE) How do YOU think you went? What are YOUR standards?

Collaboration is extremely difficult – needs to be taught (BYU?) [need to learn to negotiate conflict, give and receive criticism which may be taken personally]

Feedback

Feedback

Ongoing (no endpoint) Linked to your own personal choices about what you

learn, how you learn, and how you choose to be assessed

A new cohort of Internet content rankers are very familiar with the giving and receiving of feedback

How deep should the feedback go? Less communication more often? (eg Twitter, SMS) [horizontal

learning; multitasking] Still a role for trad approaches to push/probe deeper (will peers

do this effectively? (Who’s going to tell you it’s drivel?)

How hard do you push?

“We have to teach

them to take responsibility.”

(Jackie Pedley)

Feedback

Adrian Miles (RMIT): quality of concept, not technological design skills

Urge students to slow down, reflect, evaluate if the task is well-crafted, assessment is self-

evident and feedback is more formative than summative

Can be sent/received any time; not just in class or when you pick up assignments

How and where do teachers and students acquire the skills to operate effectively in this type of mobile world?

Awareness or a Set of Skills?

New Practices predicated upon an awareness that things have changed…

Education by and large has not changed. Syllabus/curriculum is still rooted in a past paradigm of fixed knowledge. The world beyond classrooms has changed a great deal, and will continue to do so at an ever-increasing rate……

Photo courtesy of Sawrah, http://flickr.com/photos/sawrah/314474272/

Awareness:

More about ‘learning to be’ part of a participatory culturea networked learner/educatorpart of a community

Paradigm Shift #1

Paradigm Shift #2?

COMMUNITY-CENTRIC

How do I work?

I know from my own life that something has changed. I am now a much more social learner. I like to draw on the knowledge of others who I can contact and with whom I can discuss issues... I have definitely changed the way I learn, and have found a more enjoyable way of learning. Technology, and the connections it affords, has made that possible.

I doubt that I could study a formal ‘course’ anymore….

Acquiring the Skills

Join an online community or email list Ask questions and initiate discussions about your interests and needs Start publishing or tracking blogs, podcasts Do an online course in multiliteracy Create social bookmarking and photosharing accounts Create media – start simple:

Upload photos to Flickr; comment on others’ photos create Digital Stories (Photostory, Moviemaker) and upload to YouTube

Search YouTube and other video repositories for educational content and start using it in your teaching

Place yourself in the new habitus of learning – you need to do it to understand and internalise the power of networks; reading and observing will not achieve this philosophical seachange

Put yourself to the side; know that the best teachers are always willing learners

The excellent eteacher:

has an online presence/website (eg course homepage on LMS, or own website, blog, etc)

Knows how to use technology for delivery and assessment and therefore has a blog, a wiki, or podcast site

Includes media in delivery and production of teaching materials and student assessment

Models and teaches digital literacy Creates and provides digital resources Teaches search, validation, and verification skills Employs and models RSS as a means of aggregating and

distributing content

The excellent eteacher:

Teaches about, and employs collaborative approaches

Switches between sage and guide as appropriate Knows when to call in the wisdom of the experts

to balance the wisdom of the crowd Acknowledges the value of informal learning Accepts that engaging learners is necessary (and

that probably means using technology)

The excellent eteacher:

Acknowledges that students may assess the value of a resource via their networks rather than accept the word of the expert (teacher/lecturer)

Uses social bookmarking for collective mining and sharing of resources

Is a good (and frequent) online communicator Knows how to effectively combine synchronous and

asynchronous modes of delivery Is able to teach in a virtual classroom/web conferencing

environment (eg Centra, Elluminate, etc) Must be e-connected and draw on the resources of their

networks to remain current (and demonstrate to students)

Resources:

Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century; Jenkins et al, 2006

Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0; John Seely Brown, Richard Adler, 2008

Media on the Move; New Practices Project, 2006 URGENT: 21st Century Skills for Educators (and Others)

First; George Siemens Read, Write, Mix, Rip, and… Burn, Baby, Burn: Notes on

How Social Media Affects Conventional Teaching and Learning Practices; Christopher Sessums, 2007

Horizon Report 2008; New Media Consortium

Resources:

Ten Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes To Be a More Successful e-learning Professional – Lisa Neal

Ten Web 2.0 Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes to Be a More Successful E-learning Professional – Stephen Downes