I had the wonderful experience yesterday of participating in a workshop with George Siemens. I’d read George’s connectivism article a while ago, and jumped at the chance to be involved in this workshop.
One of the pre-readings: Beyond the Horseless Carriage - harnessing the power of ICT in education and training, provides a really excellent summary of all that George talked about during his presentation segment of the workshop, but for me, the most interesting part of the workshop was the dialogue on issues like Intellectual Property, Security, online identity, LMS’s and using the right tools fol learning (the ones that our learners can use in life, work and learning - something that I’ve been thinking about lots lately - see Learning Tools for Life).
George comments on a recent post about this very issue (the tools that we use with our learners):
We shouldn’t own the space of learning. The students should. We shouldn’t ask them to create a new account, or learn a new tool every time they switch to a different institution or a different job. They should have their own tools…and we should “expose” our content so they can bring it into their space (pick any tool - drupal, blogger, myspace, facebook, elgg). And the conversation that ensues should be controlled (from a public internet or private ownership stance) by the learner. When the learner graduates, the content and conversations remain his/hers.
When we make our content available for learners in a format that is recognizable by their existing tools, the content itself can be integrated with how they live their life. Learning isn’t a classroom centric process. Life doesn’t have to stop when learning starts. We can live and learn simultaneously…but only when we are dealing with tools that we control…and models that permit adaptation for changing environments.
For me this is the most important point: that learning isn’t a classroom centric process. As long as learning remains a classroom centric process, our learners will tend to be dependent on classrooms to learn. We’ve been trying to extend learning outside of the classroom and into the lives of learners with our Web Design course, and I had the opportunity to demonstrate how we’re trying to do this as part of the workshop - which was great fun for me! I did a bit of a role play/performance to keep it interesting - and hopefully it provided an example of how the tools can be used.
I only hope that George’s workshop starts conversations that will help us question and adapt our practise as educators. Of course we won’t all agree, but the important thing is that the conversations happen and we learn from each other. One of the principles of Connectivism is that:
- Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning
The funny thing is, I find it easier to nurture connections and learn with educators from outside of the institution within which I work! Why is that? Why is it difficult for us to nurture and maintain connections within the organisations that we work? Is it related to time? Or organisational structures? Access to information? Until we can connect, we’re not going to be the learning organisations that we aspire too. Hmm…Any thougths!
Thanks for sharing your workshop experience. I feeling very strongly about students owning their space and contnet. I am looking forward to seeing George at Randwick.
I am afraid it is a time factor in my case. I guess there are ways that management could encourage connectivism.
Time certainly is always a factor when trying to connect with others within work - especially with everything you’ve got on atm Jude!
Although, if the conversation or learning opportunity is engaging, I’ll end up making time for it even when I shouldn’t. Kindof like walking along in a hurry for the train at night when you suddenly see a huge meteor… i stop worrying that I’ll miss my train and enjoy the moment. So maybe we just have to learn to be more engaging?
Enjoy the workshop/presentation at Randwick! Look forward to reading your reflections on your blog.
Hi Michael,
I had great feedback from the other IT head teachers about your simulation from the workshop. Definitely evidence that you are connecting with people within your organisation! What you are feeling might be a factor of proportions i.e you might see one person from one organisation who is connecting with you in the first place because they are interested versus being in a very large organisation surrounded by people with varying degree of interest. I not sure but it’s just a thought. Sharing our experiences can only improve the balance.
Take care
Sherrie
Sherrie said:
Totally :) I certainly enjoyed yesterday, but as you hinted, a one-off organised workshop in a large organisation is different to connecting and learning naturally together on an on-going basis. (These excellent one-off workshops certainly do help to nurture natural conversations and learning, which is wonderful)
Maybe rather than asking “why is it difficult”, we should better ask: How can we nurture connections and conversations naturally within our large organisations?, which you already answered well with “by sharing our experiences” :)
Wonder how we can do this over the whole state? Perhaps a directory of bloggers within the organisation to help us find each other? (like Microsoft and lots of other large organisations have - see Government Blogging). And of course, hosting more excellent workshops to encourage discussion and sharing of ideas!
Hi Michael - fantastic presentation! What you’re doing with the Web Design course is obviously rewarding for learners and teachers alike. I totally agree that learning isn’t a classroom centric process - certainly not in OTEN’s case as we have no classrooms at all!
Which brings me to muse about how different we all are, even if we’re in the same learning organisation. I really appreciate what George also had to say about basing learning around context. I don’t think OTEN runs a web design course but had a quick look at another IT module and there are 599 currents enrolments (not to mention those that have already completed this year) so there are obviouly different challenges & constraints. Maybe one way to nurture connections is to get to know each other better? The Siemen’s worksop was a good start…
Hi Carmen. I’d love to hear more about how you (all) at OTEN cope with no classrooms at all? That’s a significant constraint to work with (but one that’s necessary for many people doing your courses!) Must be hard to get students connecting with each other? Or perhaps without the convenience of a classroom, learners make more efforts to interact with each other online?
The workshop was certainly an excellent way to start connecting with people (seemed to be mostly head teachers/managers?). I found it an excellent, fun, interactive and inspiring event (Thanks to all those who organised it)