March 8, 2012
Connectivism: why I’m a skeptic
Paul Left,
verso.co.nz, March 7, 2012.
Paul Left offers three reasons to doubt connectivism:
- "Because network connections are required at the micro level does not mean that they are necessarily a pre-requisite of learning at the macro level. There is a temptation to use one as an analogy of the other, but this seems likely to be an over-simplification."
- "Connectivism is overly focused on learning as managing information... For learning in a purely theoretical context, that might be fine. But as a professional developer, I’m more concerned with developing capability than knowledge."
- "Connectivism does not adequately build on the theoretical constructs I have found useful... concepts such as reflective practice or higher levels of thinking inherent in models such as Bloom’s taxonomy."
OER Quality Standards Project
Andreas Link,
OER Quality Research, March 7, 2012.
People involved in higher education are being invited to participate in a consultation on quality in open educational resources (OERs). Register here to participate. "The only condition is to teach in higher education: you can be a reader, a lecturer or a professor, you can teach on distances courses as well, the important thing, is that you teach in a university and you are interested in Open Educational Resources and democratic learning."
Commit to Open Education
Guy Barrett,
SCORE, March 7, 2012.
SCORE - The Support Centre for Open Resources in Education - has posted a form where you can register your commitment to open education. "It has been drawn up by the newly formed Open Education Group which aims to support, develop, sustain and influence policy in Open Education." It appears to emanate out of the Open University. The initiative has caught the attention of David Wiley, who writes, in an email, "Who is the newly formed "Open Education Group"? This is the name and
domain (openeducationgroup.org / openedgroup.org) of my research group
at BYU and we're trying to build some brand awareness around our work
under this name. No doubt this will all be settled amicably, but it points to a bit of a land-grab around the domain of open learning.
Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years
Robert Krulwich,
NPR, March 3, 2012.
This is just a great story, it shows how wonderful the internet is at showing us new and amazing thinsg, and finally, if I can't post a video of a great big stick insect being born on my blog then well I just don't know why I'd have a blog at all! Enjoy. "The story is simple: A bunch of black rats almost wiped out a bunch of gigantic bugs on a little island far, far away from most of us. A few dedicated scientists, passionate about biological diversity, risked their lives to keep the bugs going."
I Believe I Can Write - Dangerous Literacy
Miguel Guhlin,
Around the Corner, March 2, 2012.
This is interesting, and strikes me as right: "Economically disadvantaged students, who often use the computer for remediation and basic skills, learn to do what the computer tells them, while more affluent students, who use it to learn programming and tool applications, learn to tell the computer what to do. Those who cannot claim computers as their own tool for exploring the world never grasp the power of technology...They are controlled by technology as adults--just as drill-and-practice routines controlled them as students." It's a quote from Toward Digital Equity: Bridging the Divide in Education and is contained in a post looking at how literacy - and especially writing - can counteract that.
Here's a really good example: "Unhappy with portrayals of Native Americans in mainstream media, a group of students from South Dakota’s Rosebud Sioux Reservation created a video to show that their community is about more than alcoholism, broken homes and crime." It's about taking control of the imagery being used to portray you and your community, and redefining the narrative. "They weren’t content to be exoticized and knew how to tell the story of how they see themselves."
This newsletter is sent only at the request of subscribers. If you would like to unsubscribe, Click here.
Know a friend who might enjoy this newsletter? Feel free to forward OLDaily to your colleagues. If you received this issue from a friend and would like a free subscription of your own, you can join our mailing list. Click here to subscribe.