Does Education Need to Change?

George Siemens' recent post makes me smile:

"As a small research project, I’d like to ask people to answer the following questions (on their blog, in YouTube, Seesmic, or wherever - please post a link in the comments section below):

1. Does education need to change?
2. Why or why not?
3. If it should change, what should it become? How should education (k-12, higher, or corporate) look like in the future?"

I’ve been engaging in dialogue with my PLN about these questions for the past few years and I’m still nowhere near completing my response!

None-the-less, I'll assume this is a point form test, and that there is only one slim blank line below each question. Here are my responses:

1. Yes.

2. Because most present day educational practices are irrelevant, addressing expectations for previous generations, while failing to prepare students for what promises to be a very different future.

3. Education should foster the evolution of a diverse menu of learning experiences. Classrooms should be flexible environments able to adapt to the needs and interests of an increasingly connected student body.

Care to respond? Feel free to add your thoughts below. If you choose to make a blog post of your own, be sure to add a link to your post in the comments section of elearnspace.

Photo Credit: 416style

CCK08: Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Boltzmann, Witchenstien, Polanyi... Oh My!

During my noon hour today, I had the opportunity to join 40 CCK08 participants in what turned out to be an audio tutorial on "Rethinking epistemology: Connective knowledge". Although complex language was used to explain competing views , I found a path to follow - call it a yellow brick road of sorts.

While what is 'true' continues to move around in my mind, one pathway is being reinforced: the idea that learning has to be connected to an individual's experience, in order to gain traction.

One might think that the disagreements in our individual responses to the theory of connectivism might be due to the fact we've read different things, or that we've read things differently; but I now suspect that our diverse understandings are directly the result of our varied 'prior experiences'. After all, we have to 'connect' these new ideas, to existing understandings.

Stephen Downes brought this home for me when he broke down what at first seemed to be a straightforward question: "What is the capital of France?".

The number of connections necessary to make meaning of this question, gave me great pause. In order to respond with understanding, concepts of physical geography, cartography, politics, civics and more, would have to be considered. The thought struck me that the individuals in any classroom, are experiencing unique learning experiences, no matter the strategies being employed. Indeed, it may well be impossible for everyone in a room to make identical connections

The road became an even brighter shade of yellow with Dave Cormier's clarification of Rhizomatic Education. Hearing that "Learners need for the curriculum to arise from the group, in order to develop literacies and to make their own knowledge, and adapt to the world as it will be." My neurons made the 'connection' to the Reggio Emilia educational approach (which I first read about in Howard Gardner's "Frames of Mind"). It was the first time since the course began, that I was able to connect a concept from this course, to a concrete classroom application!

Just as the children in Reggio Emilia classes must have opportunities to explore relationships with fellow students and with a choice of materials, so too must participants in this course be provided with the freedom to explore areas of personal interest, and to make connections with fellow course participants.

Whether the 'connections' we're making are leading us to Oz or to Paris, at least we're having a say in which paths to take, and with which colleagues to link arms and ideas.


Photo Credit: Valerie

Will Lurkers share their Cognitive Surplus?

With the impending launch of CCK08, I've been thinking about the 'real' participants in this massive open online course. The number of folks who have are receiving the introductory 'Daily' from Stephen Downes and George Siemens is now touted at 'just under 1900', but how many will actually participate?

In Stephen's introductory email, it is clear, that the facilitators hope to provide differentiated learning experiences: "We expect, and want, each student to have a different perspective, to have viewed different resources. That's part of the theory of Connectivism, the idea that people have unique experiences."



En masse, those with the greatest potential to impact in the course, will be lurkers. Ken Allan, distance educator from New Zealand in a web article titled "Working with Online Communities led me to this conclusion:

"One behaviour in online groups that has been extensively studied is that of the non-participating members, termed the ‘lurkers’ - Etienne Wenger[2] calls them Legitimate Peripheral Participants. Lurkers are widely known to be among the majority of defined members and they have been found to make up over 90% of most online groups. They are perhaps the most important members in view of their potential to contribute to online groups."

To consider the potential impact of lurkers, familiarize yourself with Metcalfe's Law. My interpretation is that ""The value of a network increases exponentially with the increase in the number of 'active' nodes.

As Clay Shirky might suggest: "The value in media is no longer in sources but in flows; when we collaborate in sharing our cognitive surplus, it creates value that doesn't exist when we operate in isolation.""



While interested lurkers are more than welcome to engage with the content of CCK08, I'd like to invite the 1900 who expressed an interest, to engage with the participants of the course... If you need to step in lightly, maybe you'll consider adding a comment below?


Audio: If you'd like to learn more about CCK08, listen in on a conversation I had with my brother, which he published as the 'What is Connectivism Podcast'
Image: The map image is a screen grab from the collaboratively developed Google Map of CCK08 Participants.
Video: Clay Shirkey's "Cognitive Surplus" talk was recorded at Web 2.0.

Baby Steps Are Not Enough

"If we continue to take 'baby steps', we'll one day have to take a giant leap!" George Siemens



Earlier today, on the first day of the ABEL Summer Institute at York University, I had the opportunity to duck into an intimate conversation/workshop with George Siemens and 8 other educators. Although I was only able to be present for 20 minutes or so, I found myself nodding in agreement at a number of realizations:

Current read/write tools for publishing student work provide opportunities for an expanded audience, but opportunities to expand the conversation are yet to be fully realized.

'One computer per individual' programs don't necessarily provide the interactivity that can be leveraged in 'one computer per group' classrooms.

In order to understand the importance of collaborative learning, educators should tap into personal learning networks beyond their classrooms/schools/districts.

Every day that we take 'baby steps' we continue to fall behind. What will it take for education to become relevant to the futures of our students?

Upon my return home, my feed-reader led me to this video from Candid Camera that illustrates for me how difficult it is for new teachers to avoid falling into the stale teaching methods of their staff room peers.



Taking even 'baby steps' among colleagues who are resistant to change, can be a major challenge! Even though babies learning to walk are allowed to fail and grow with support nearby, our 'baby steps' in developing teaching strategies and learning skills for the 21st century are often done without such backing.

Thank goodness, we've found one another!


Photo Credit: B. Baltimore Brown

Will Different Become the Norm?

The Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Open Course is ramping up with participants planning a number of networking events including face-to-face get-togethers. In "More is different..." George Siemens anticipates how scaling up a learning event to include hundreds of participants increases the complexity of the learning environment:

1. Less control on the part of the instructor
2. More need for learners to define and forage for needed content and relationships/learning connections
3. More noise, chaos, confusion
4. Greater flow of information, leading to individuals with high “network literacy” feeling more at ease in the course.
5. Greater involvement of learners in assisting each other
6. For some learners, increased need for centralized spaces that serve as “jumping off” points.
7. Reduced sense of singular expertise (i.e. facilitators) and greater reliance on ideas and expertise shaped through collaborative/collective discourse
8. Greater segmentation - learners will find others with similar interests and they will form small sub-groups as a means to cope with complexity and to individualize their learning

Although it wasn't always appreciated by my colleagues, many of these 'different' characteristics were signs to me that learning was taking place in my own 'small scale' classroom. Scaling up, these differences are also evident in the greatest mass classroom on the planet: the World Wide Web.

In leveraging current and evolving network structures in CCK08, my hope is that the characteristics predicted by George, will be emulated in future networked learning environments, both large and small.

Photo Credit: David Reece

Walking the Talk: CCK08

For the past 7 years or so, I have been involved in teaching continuing education courses that deal with a wide variety of communications technologies. It has been my very good fortune to be involved in continual learning in the online environment. Beginning in September 2008, I will be a participant in what I suspect will be one of the most unique courses ever launched.

Courtesy of the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba, George Siemens and Stephen Downes, two innovative leaders in connectivist learning, will be leading hundreds of educators in the 'open' Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Online Course.



Admittedly, the major attraction of this course, is the range of 'connected' edu-bloggers and twitterers with whom I hope to interact in constructing knowledge in a networked learning environment. With the launch of the course Connectivism & Connective Knowledge blog, I'll be using The Clever Sheep Blog to reflect on much of the collaborative learning taking place throughout the course.

Trusting fully in the instructors, my online peers, and the evolving online learning tools we'll be leveraging, I have no doubt that we'll be pushing the boundaries of teaching and learning. If you have an interest in discovering more about connected learning by 'walking the talk', consider signing up.

A parallel 6 minute podcast on this idea is now available.
Photo Credit: Paul Watson

Leading Learning

Leading Learning is underway, with plenty for the attendees to consider.

George Siemens shared a thought-provoking presentation after the recovery of his operating system. I'm ruminating on the idea that educators have lots of work to complete before schools can experience a true renaissance. Beyond exploration and experimentation, we need to gather data to appease stakeholders prior to the implementation of 're-schooling' initiatives.

Ken Hudson (A.K.A. Kenny Hubble) shared his experience as the Manager of Academic and New Media Services in coordinating the creation of a 'Second Life' learning environment for Loyalist College in Ontario Canada. The "Light On - Light Through" podcast interview with Paul Levinson provides insight for those interested in learning more about this project.

Rodd Lucier (hey that's me!) presented 'Let's Ban Chalk' a workshop on how to engage the World Wide Web as a replacement for the chalkboard, including how to develop a personal learning network. A grateful nod to Lee Lefever of Common Craft for enlightening participants on how to 'be a good explainer'!

I couldn't resist podcasting about a few of my thoughts from Day 1.