Tag Archives: elearning

Authentic learning: presentation to NCIQF

  By netcrit | November 30, 2010 - 19:03 | Speak
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On Thursday 2 December, I am presenting at the National Curriculum Innovation and Quality Forum on the subject, “Risks and opportunities in authentic learning via the Internet”. The basic brief for this keynote presentation is to: summarise approaches to authentic learning in the BA (Internet Communications) at Curtin University; identify the key benefits in using a public knowledge networking approach to authentic learning; and highlight risks and strategies for managing those approaches in the pursuit of authentic learning online. While I hope to do that, with a particular emphasis on giving some examples from the great work that students in the BA (Internet Communications) have done, I also have found that in preparing my talk I have had to develop a more coherent argument about the nature of authenticity in learning and the relationship between education and learning. The talk can be found here: http://netcrit.net/content/nciqf2010.pdf Slides are here: http://www.slideshare.net/netcrit/risks-and-opportunities-in-authentic-learning-via-the-internet This paper draws also on some specific work I have done on the authentic assessment in our online conference unit, Internet Communities and Social Networks 204 (slides here) and more generally on social media and authentic assessment (presentation in the UK, May 2010 here) Some of the examples I refer to … Click to read more →

Risks and Opportunities in Authentic Learning via the Internet

  By netcrit | November 18, 2010 - 12:04 | Speak
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In late 2010, I am presenting a keynote paper at the The National Curriculum Innovation and Quality Forum 2010, in Melbourne. I will be speaking on the use of the Internet to promote authentic learning. In the paper I summarise approaches to authentic learning in the BA (Internet Communications) at Curtin University, identify the key benefits in using a public knowledge networking approach to authentic learning; and highlight risks and strategies for managing those approaches in the pursuit of authentic learning online. Slides and full text are available. Click to read more →

Surveys of students’ perceptions of teaching: a cautionary tale

  By netcrit | July 19, 2010 - 13:14 | Think
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A brief analysis of differences in the way three groups of students responded to a unit of study in Internet Studies @ Curtin University, using Curtin’s mandatory Evaluate student survey tool. What the analysis shows is that, at least to some extent, surveys like this reveal more about the nature of the students and their responses to our styles of teaching (for better or worse) than the actual ‘quality’ of what we do. Click to read more →

Should you use a wiki for teaching (and which one?)

  By netcrit | June 2, 2010 - 11:47 | Think
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I recently answered an email from a colleague asking for advice about wikis, especially in the face of his university’s (inevitable) suspicion about anything that is not authorised, locked-down, served from the campus and generally (IMO) unusable for agile teaching and learning. I thought I would share an edited version of my views, since it neatly captures some of what I’ve been thinking about as part of my ALTC project on Web 2.0 and online learning. Agile teaching: responding to needs and concerns in the learning design of students’ experiences, activities and tasks which takes account of current events, new technologies in ways that institutionalised curriculum design and enterprise technology practices can’t cope with because they are too structured, clumsy and slow-moving. Agile teaching implies agility of mind as well as design and technology – it’s being playful, picking up and putting down, making limited and short-term commitments to particular ways of teaching and content, on the basis that it’s more fun, more engaging and ultimately more realistic as an educator and thinker to be moving forward, not circling the bureaucratic wagons   Yes, we use wikis in our teaching, in two ways. First, some of the students naturally set … Click to read more →

Networked learning, the Net Generation and Digital Natives (#nlc2010 symposium)

  By netcrit | May 4, 2010 - 15:06 | See
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Disclaimer: Live blogging Networked learning, the Net Generation and Digital Natives Symposium Organisers: Chris Jones, The Open University, United Kingdom 7th International Networked Learning Conference 5 papers (abstracts) Diversity in interactive media use among Dutch youth A van den Beemt, S Akkerman, P. Simons Learning and Living Technologies: A Longitudinal Study … Ruslan Ramanau, Anesa Hosein, Chris Jones Learning nests and local habitations: Locations for networked learning Chris Jones and Graham Healing Digital natives: Everyday life versus academic study Linda Corrin, Sue Bennett, Lori Lockyer Supporting the “Digital Natives”: what is the role of schools? Rebecca Eynon Born into the Digital Age in the South of Africa: the reconfiguration… Laura Czerniewicz, Cheryl Brown Introduction (Jones) – key points – moral panics around young people; young people are agents of change, this is not happening ‘to’ them; there is no generational change – yes, there are changes, but not tied to a specific generation. Emphasises that all the papers to come will show there is no evidence for a ‘net generation’. Diversity in interactive media use among Dutch youth Refers to impact of Oblinger and Prensky on Dutch educational thinking, focusing on interactive multimedia; calls for research to see if there … Click to read more →

Exploring sociotechnical theories of learning technology (#nlc2010 symposium)

  By netcrit | May 3, 2010 - 19:56 | See
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Disclaimer: live blogging Exploring sociotechnical theories of learning technology 7th International Networked Learning Conference Symposium Organisers: Linda Creanor & Steve Walker Glasgow Caledonian University, The Open University, United Kingdom 4 papers (abstracts) Interpreting Complexity: a case for the sociotechnical interaction framework as an analytical lens for learning technology research Linda Creanor & Steve Walker Network theories for technology-enabled learning and social change: Connectivism and Actor Network theory Frances Bell The social construction of educational technology through the use of proprietary software Chris Bissell Social presence in online learning communities Karen Kear Initial reaction: the very existence of this symposium, and its framing, suggests that people in learning technologies research and development may not, in their community of practice, have an explicit and reflexive discourse which understands technologies in society. Interpreting Complexity Claims that technological determinism is starting to dominate discussions of education and technology, especially under the guise of Web 2.0 and evangelism for the uses of these new technologies. Intrested in the new contexts of co-created content and knowledge, but have some questions about the emerging trendy theories (such as connectivism). Asks us to “make a problem of what technology is” – outlines the standard four – ANT, SCOT, … Click to read more →

Google vs Facebook vs the Internet

  By netcrit | May 2, 2010 - 20:27 | Think
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I commented recently on Twitter that Facebook = the new AOL and, not surprisingly, then discovered that many others (e.g. Kottke.org had already had my apparently novel insight! (This effect can either deflate one’s confidence or increase it – I am not the first, but I am as wise as the crowd – some examples from the crowd thanks to googlesearch). And, clearly, Facebook is trying to create an experience of online life / augmented reality / social and cognitive networking that stands apart from, or is potentially isolated from the ‘web’ within which Facebook exists – though it claims to be embedding itself into the web, of becoming a sort of underlying social networking of people, data and places throughout the web, I actually see the plan as one to enable its users to never leave the facebook environment except when prompted to do so by something in facebook, and then be returned to facebook. So, in this model of online behaviour, Facebook users would look out over the low walls of the garden and observe interesting things elsewhere in the jungle of the net; would at times scurry out into that jungle, but otherwise would remain safely inside … Click to read more →

Authentic Assessment in the era of Social Media: ideas and applications from Internet Communications

  By netcrit | May 2, 2010 - 12:19 | Speak
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While visting the UK, I will present a detailed account of the way social media, Web 2.0 and the read/write web cab be understood for higher education in terms of authentic assessment. Crucially, I am trying to show, by examples from the Internet Communications course at Curtin, how the use of Web 2.0 in blended and online learning can more generally be based on real-world knowledge production, in knowledge networks, that bridge the growing gap between formal and informal learning via the Internet. Slides with notes available. Click to read more →

Modelling the Knowledge Networking Dynamics of the Contemporary Web

  By netcrit | April 24, 2010 - 15:44 | Think
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Brief outline of my emerging model of knowledge networking in the web: identifies four elements (NOT website categories!) – information pumps; cognition engines; social environments; and publication outlets. Any effective knowledge network creates itself through the interaction of humans and machines across all four dynamic elements. Click to read more →