“We are digital!”what it means to be an academic in the post-digital age

Digifest, Anglia Ruskin University, September 2016

Andrew MiddletonHead of Academic Practice & Learning Innovation, Sheffield Hallam University

@andrewmid

Backchannel

Please have your devices ready(or check who is connected near you)

We will co-produce a ‘take away’ on theSocial Open Learning Environment

using

#ARU_digiMe

My ecology

• From Photography -> Music -> Art -> Archives -> Tech -> Learning

• Media Enhanced Learning Special Interest Group (MELSIG)• Digital Voices – learner-generated digital audio for learning• Smart Learning – learner-generated context of smart devices• #BYOD4L – social media for learning• Personal Learning Network – knowledge, co-produce, trust,

feedback• Learning Spaces – the digital Hybrid Learning Space

idea thinkingboundary crossing

RICH DIGITAL MEDIA

USERGENERATED

MEDIA

BYOD

MOBILE LEARNINGOPENNESS

SOCIALLEARNINGNetwork

Social Open Learning Ecology

disrupts Models of Formal of Delivery

disruptsOne-to-Many model

disruptsDependency on Text

disrupts Provided Content model

disrupts Provided “Classroom" model

disrupts Provided Technology model

++

++

+SOLE

+the disruptive digital

Google Jockey

• Google Jockey?• 3 minutes only!• Everyone to have a ‘good enough’ understanding• Have you got a sense of what it is? How?

• 2 more minutes!• Take a position – think about what it might mean• I want you to be confident and ready to defend or attack what

is suggests

• From a standing start… the basis for learning

Stop watch

The digital hybrid learning space: ubiquity and pervasion

Paradigm shift or tipping point• No longer a ‘technology as deficit’ discourse• but… digital fluency through ubiquitous and pervasive behaviour

• Ubiquity = enabled everywhere (‘everyware’)• Pervasive = in everything we do

Learning ecology: lifewide and lifelong learning identity

“an open system, dynamic and independent, diverse, partially self-organizing, and adaptive.” - John Seely Brown (1999, p.3)

“the set of contexts found in physical or virtual spaces that provide opportunities for learning,”- Barron (2006, p. 195)

“an environment that fosters and supports the formation of communities and networks.- George Siemens (2003)

“an individual’s …processes and contexts, relationships, networks, interactions, tools, technologies and activities [providing] …opportunities and resources for learning, development and achievement.“- Norman Jackson (2016, p.2)

Learning isn’t a simple transactionIt’s an outcome of context

1.

2.

3.

4.

Learning ecology: lifewide and lifelong learning identity

Digital lifewide“… valuing and recognising learning and development gained through life experience, universities and colleges can greatly enhance individuals' preparedness for learning through the rest of their life.” - (Redecker et al., 2011) Agility

FluencyCapabilities

Literacies

Digital

Dynamism: currency and authenticity

Given Context Generated

Discover Knowledge MakeFact

Process Concept

Meta

Crea

teUnderstandAnalyseApply Evaluate

Based on Anderson & Krathwohl’s Revised Blooms Taxonomy (2001)

Learning with knowledge in a changing context

Digital ontology: extending our authentic reach

crossing spatial, temporal and personal-professional boundaries

Four ways to categorise of authentic learning,• real-world problems that engage learners

in the work of professionals;• inquiry activities that practice thinking

skills and metacognition;• discourse among a community of learners;

and• student empowerment through choice- Rule (2006)

Be

Belong

Do

BecomeD3Bs

Active Classroom

• Learner-centred • Contextualise and concrete (John Seely Brown)• Authentic and inductive (not seductive/reductive)• Work that matters to the student (Jerome Bruner)• Disrupted formality (experiential)• Connected, boundless and risky• Adaptable• Functional space - responsive furniture, technology

Emergence of the Non-formal – Are we attending our students?Is anyone worried about attendance?

20%formal

80%Non-formal Another 100%!!!

Lifewide

Are we attending to the

Lifewide Experienceof the whole learner?Who is thinking holistically about

Learning engagement and a sense of becoming

Backchannel: the digital and you

Backchannel: #ARU_digiMeThe next slides ask you to create to a resource together using twitter

Format: #ARU_digiMe {number} {response}

Later… review the twitter feed for the hashtag to construct Storify narratives based on our collective ideas(also… generating a PLN)

@andrewmid

Lifewide =TeachingLearningResearchHomeVoluntaryLeisure

Twitterfall

1. User-generated media disrupts Provided Content model

• User-Producer – ‘Prosumer’• Learner-generated content• Learner-generated context and

co-production• “We make, therefore we are”

Backchannel: #ARU_digiMe 1 What do you make digitally?

• The world of Google and Youtube…• Digital Storytelling• Note making and sharing• PALS Facebook groups - Honeychurch• Tweet chats – #LTHEchat, RONC Revision Group• Collaborative writing - MELSIG• Wiki projects - AllAboutLinguistics• TeachMeAnatomy

2. BYOD disrupts Provided Technology model

• Ubiquitous, so pervasive• Apps• Browser• Connectivity• Autonomy

Backchannel: #ARU_digiMe 2 How has your tablet changed your habits or those of your students?

• Smart Learning and MELSIG book• Whiteboarding• Backchannel• BYOD4L (5 day open activity running

again in 16-20th Jan 17)

3 Mobile learning disrupts Provided Classroom model

• portable handheld devices• on the move• being in remote, non-traditional, or authentic places• untethered TEL• our capacity to teach and learn in, across and

through a range of physical and virtual spaces seamlessly

• ‘place’ specific (meaningful space)• augmentation of corporeal space• remote eg field-based

Backchannel: #ARU_digiMe 3 Where do you or your students learn?

Enhancing Fieldwork Learning (EFL) http://www.enhancingfieldwork.org.uk

4 Open learning disrupts models of formal delivery

Cronin (2014) after Alec CourosBackchannel: #ARU_digiMe 4 Define what network means to you

• Much more than MOOCs• Much more than OER

(content)• Content or community?• PLEs and PLNs

4Rs (Wiley) Reuse, Revise, Remix, Redistribute (5.Retain)Content focussed…

5 Social learning network disrupts One-to-Many model

• Socially inclusive – CoP, d3Bs, collegiality

• Lifewide and lifelong – the whole student

• Media neutral – across media space not because of it

• Learner-centred – promoting self-regulation

• Co-operative – working alongside (more than collaborative)

• Open and accessible - spatial, temporal and social openness

• Authentically situated – connecting learning, social and professional networks

Backchannel: #ARU_digiMe 5 Where do you or your students learn?

5Cs: Connect, Collaborate, Communicate, Curate, Create(Nerantzi & Beckingham)Social Media for Learning Framework (Beckingham & Middleton)

6 Rich digital media disrupts dependence on text

• Beyond text• Video• Screencasts• Photographs• Images• Audio

Backchannel: #ARU_digiMe 6 How do you or your studentsuse media other than text now?

Media Hopper – University of EdinburghDemocratising the use of media in learning and teachingAudio Briefing, Audio Feedback, Audio Summaries, Student Audio Notes– versatile, personal, clear, timely user-generated, process notesWhiteboarding – grabbing whiteboard workings, group narrated, mindmaps

Middleton (2016) Reconsidering the role of recorded audio as a rich, flexible and engaging learning space

Class play-listing (co-constructed) YouTube channel ‘video social bookmarking’“I’d like to start the lecture each week by showing one of our videos and writing responses to it on Twitter. We’ll create a course playlist of selected videos and our challenge is to build up our viewing figures over the semester.” - tutor

RICH DIGITAL MEDIA

USERGENERATED

MEDIA

BYOD

MOBILE LEARNINGOPENNESS

SOCIALLEARNINGNETWORK

Social Open Learning Environment

disrupts Models of Formal of Delivery

disruptsOne-to-Many model

disruptsDependency on Text

disrupts Provided Content model

disrupts Provided “Classroom" model

disrupts Provided Technology model

++

++

+SOLE

+

Flipped learning – more than online video lectures

Preliminal Acquisition of foundational knowledgefactual, procedural, conceptual and metacognitive (Krathwol, 2002)Activities: enquiry, proposition making, reading, curation, etc…Liminal Threshold Diagnostic (liminalty) – online or clickers

Analysis and identification of threshold concepts (Meyers & Land)

Tutor clarification of threshold conceptsDeep active augmented exploration through collaborative problem or project based co-production and peer ‘crits’, etc.Feed forward – creative synthesis e.g. PDP, note making, digital artefact making or curation, connection making, building of digital portfoliosPreparation for preliminal acquistion

Pre-class

In-class

Post-class

Pre-class

Open Educational Relationships [OERs]: rethinking the 5 Rs?

Actively being open in your practice to others engaging with you, being open to network possibilities including repositioning of your practice, assuming others are open.

Reuse

Acknowledging in your practice the (potential) benefit from a repositioning or re-contextualisation of your practice in critical (positive) ways or expansion of network connections.

Revise

Incorporating, adding meaning to and multiplying knowledge by using the work of others to generate new ideas, develop and value networks through continual engagement in different spaces.

Remix

The expectation of divergence, that networked nodes redirect trains of thought. Awareness, consideration and negotiation of risks associated with sharing your practice and navigating different networks and spaces. Recognition that connection also means disconnection.

Redistribute Ecology of connected open scholarship facilitating the growth and exchange of knowledge beyond the original network/connections/spaces, offering kindness and support in the exchange/network/space

Retain

Inspired by the work of Catherine Cronin, Frances Bell, Maha Bali, Bonnie Stewart, Martin Weller, Dave Cormier and others whose work include critical perspectives on openness, digital scholarship, networked identities/practices and connected learning.

Middleton & Jensen, 2016

A layer ‘bridging’ or connecting experience of learning across formal/non-formal spaces

Emergence of the Non-formal: Augmented Learning SpaceFinding the digital

Formal experienceFacilitating…

Dominant non-formal experience

Augmented experience

Permeable interstice

Independent, autonomous learningSelf-direction (UG) towards self-determination (PG)Enquiry, Problem and Project-based active learning

Social, Open Learning Ecology and PLNsSocial Networking, social media, audio, video, gameful learning, etc, etc

What it means to be an academic in the post-digital age

• 5Rs of Open Educational Practice (OEP) or Relationships OER2 mean being open in practice and seeing learning as open-ended and authentic

• SOLE – disruptive convergence means understanding the implications of the whole picture

• Augmented layer – there is a digital hybrid space that connects the lifewide learning ecologies of our students and ourselves

• Connections and Content are in tension

Thank you

“We are digital!”

Digifest, Anglia Ruskin University, September 2016

Andrew MiddletonHead of Academic Practice & Learning Innovation, Sheffield Hallam University

@andrewmid