harnessing the power of social networks in teaching & learning - ouit keynote

Harnessing the Power of Social Networksin Teaching & Learning

Dr. Alec CourosUniversity of ReginaNovember 2009

Who is this guy?

“Web 2.0 tools that might allow academics to reflect and reimagine what they do as scholars. Such tools might positively affect -- even transform - research,

teaching, and services responsibilities - only if scholars choose to build serious academic lives online,

presenting semi-public selves and becoming invested in and connected to the work of their peers and

students.” (Greenhow, Robella, & Hughes, 2009)

My Blog, My Hub

Photo Sharing

Video Sharing

Social Network Services

Content Sharing

Copyleft

Open Teaching

knowledge

• what is k?

• how is k acquired?

• how do we know what

we know?

• why do we know what

we know?

• what do humans know?

• who controls k?

• how is k controlled?

Key Questions

Knowledge

Objectivism

Group growth

(Schwier)(Leinonen)

Individual growth

Cognitivism

Constructivism

Social Learning

Changes in Edtech

David Wiley(Brigham Young University)

@opencontent

Then vs Now

Analog Digital

Tethered Mobile

Isolated Connected

Generic Personal

Consumption Creating

Closed Open

David Wiley(Brigham Young University)

@opencontent

Education vs Everyday

Analog Digital

Tethered Mobile

Isolated Connected

Generic Personal

Consumption Creating

Closed Open

open source software

open contentopen access publication

open accreditation

open education

open access courses open teaching

free software

open educational resources

Forms of Openness

how we view learning - institutional & informal

open content, access, publication, accreditation

Available Knowledge

Power & Control

Power & Control

Social Tools

social networks & media

• redefine communities, friends, citizenship, identity, presence, privacy, publics, geography.

• enable learning, communication, sharing, connections, collaboration, community.

• networks form around shared interests & objects.

Social Networks

A Connected Reality

Old World Networks

Mario Couros

Mediated Reality

Twitter in 60 Seconds

Each technology creates a new environment.

The old environment becomes content for

the new environment.

The effects of mediacome from their form

not their content.

Access

Ubiquity

Real Time Web

RT Search

RT Collaboration

RT Streaming

Social Reading

Trusted Groups

The Way We Were

Rise of the PLN

@jonmott

@jonmott

designing for openness

If you build it ...

Non-Credit Students

Social Affordance

Distributed Conversations

Culture of Sharing

Global Classroom

Invisible Colleges

PD Gone Wild!

Professional Identities

New Roles for Educators

Private Public

Closed Open

Thinning Walls

Trust(human kind is mostly good)

View on Society?

“Some of the comments on Youtube make you weep for the future of humanity, just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and naked hatred.”

(Lev Grossman)@leverus

• Inspired by McLuhan’s “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.”

• Youtube & other social media mitigate “connection without constraint”. In many cases this leaves to “tremendously deep communities”.

The Machine is (Changing) Us(Personal Democracy Forum)

@mwesch

Heroes for our Mediated Culture

via @mcleod

@smartinez

Teens are not connecting in the ways we fear. But, we need to pay attention to:

•Properties: persistence, replicability, searchability, scalability, (de)locatability.

•Dynamics: invisible audiences, collapsed contexts, blurring of public & private spaces

Living & Learning with Social Media(Penn State address)

@zephoria

“Kyle Doyle is not going to work today, f*** it,

I’m still trashed SICKIE WOO.”

“Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and

hating the work.”

• Scottish teen who participates in my open, online grad course.

• Creative, motivated, independent, connected, respectful, cognizant and intentional in managing his digital identity.

Bassman_Sean(Scotland)

@bassman_sean

In Practice

Grade One - Expert Visits

@kathycassidy

Grade Five - Choir on Youtube

Grade Six - Global Connections

@zbpipe

Grade Seven/Eight - Class Branding

@glassbeed

Beaver Country Day School - mashUp

University History - Twitter

Virtual Office Hours

“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.”

“The course ... has been the most profound pd experience I’ve ever had. It forced me to critique & review my

practice. I never knew how important social networks were. Now, I couldn’t be a teacher without being

connected. It’s drastically changed my view of education.”

• The future of learning is open, connected, & social.

• Learning networks redefine how knowledge is created, distributed & controlled.

• Meaningful learning is fostered through distributed networks based on trust.

The Big Ideas

web: couros.catwitter: courosagoogle: couros

alec.couros@uregina.ca

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

in another time. ~Tagore