Post on 06-May-2015
description
Dr. George Veletsianos Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning & Technology
Associate Professor School of Education and Technology Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC
eLearn Center– Open University of Catalonia, September 30, 2013
The significant opportunities and challenges that learners,
educators, researchers, and learning institutions are facing in the
age of "open" and "connected"
Gràcies per la seva hospitalitat i per la
invitació a passar temps amb eLearn
Center
School of Education and Technology http://tinyurl.com/RRUMALAT
The MOOC phenomenon
• MOOCs & rise of “edtech”
– A symptom or a solution?
Contemporary universities are facing numerous powerful forces that may
shape their future.
a worldwide economic downturn
globalization and competition
changing demographics
curtailment of public funding
pressures for accountability
impact of emerging technologies
(Morrison, 2003; Schwier, 2012; Siemens & Matheos, 2010; Spanier, 2010).
a worldwide economic downturn
globalization and competition
changing demographics
curtailment of public funding
pressures for accountability
impact of emerging technologies
(Morrison, 2003; Schwier, 2012; Siemens & Matheos, 2010; Spanier, 2010).
An increasing desire by faculty
members, educators, &
designers to “do better” to “do
more”
What is our opportunity?
• To be involved in the design of future educational systems. How?
– Advocacy – Partnerships – Design & Development – Research
Higher Education in 2012-2013:
Sense of urgency. And tension.
Techno-enthusiasm & techno-determinism* dominate
e.g., Technology will ____________
Narratives of disruption & revolution
(*skeptics != naysayers)
Disaggregation & Unbundling
“Whether the practice is called
outsourcing, contracting out, or
privatizing, the impact is the
same. Food services, health
care, the bookstore…endless
array of activities that
universities used to manage…”
Kirp, .L (2003). Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bo3om Line: The Marke9ng of Higher Educa9on.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
“Online program management services”
The role of the faculty member
The roles of instructional designers, tutors, instructors
“academic freedom, shared governance, a livable wage, greater job security for non-tenure-track faculty teaching and scholarship cannot be fully unbundled…”
Academic Advisor, Mentor, Coach Instructor/Instructional Technologist Professor/Instructional Designer
Course assistants Teaching assistants
What is our opportunity?
• To prepare learning designers for a new era of educational technology
Efficiency. Automation. And robots.
Open Practices
Open Education Open Scholarship
Networked Participatory Scholarship: “scholars’ use of participatory technologies and online social networks to share, reflect upon, critique, improve, validate, and further their scholarship” (Veletsianos& Kimmons, 2012)
Open courses & Open teaching
Veletsianos (2013); Veletsianos & Kimmons 2012, 2013
Announcements
Draft papers
Open textbooks
Syllabi + Activities
Live streaming Live-Blogging
Collaborative authoring
Debates + commentary
Open teaching
Public P&T materials
The doctoral journey (e.g., #PhDChat)
Crowdsourcing
What do they share?
Why do they share?
• Faculty use blogs to: – Explore scholarly ideas (Kirkup, 2010) – Re-envision their identities as public
intellectuals (Kirkup, 2010) – Share knowledge (Kjellberg, 2010) – Connect with other researchers (Kjellberg,
2010) – Reach multiple audiences (Kjellberg, 2010;
Martindale & Wiley, 2005)
Open Sharing
The open web is a monstrous place
The open web is a wondrous place
Identity & Participation
“I made it [Facebook] this hybrid space ... and sometimes it's really annoying. … I keep thinking I should be writing or looking at data, and I'm doing this! … I created the conundrum that I live in now.”
“My position [as a professor] is building a community of teachers that I talk to ... where you can share, and so [participation in these spaces] makes total sense.”
“All the [expletive] is not really worth it. … I think that it's okay for students to not know everything about their professor. … [These practices] add to the complexity of those who struggle with the home-work balance and the ... technology pull. … I don't have time for you. “
Veletsianos & Kimmons, 2013
Designing for Learner Experiences
What is it like to participate in open online learning?
Veletsianos, G. (2013). Learner Experiences with MOOCs and Open Online Learning. Hybrid Pedagogy. Retrieved on Sept 29, 2013 from http://learnerexperiences.hybridpedagogy.com.
Key takeaways
• We should be asking students to do a discipline, not just read about it.
• In the frenzy surrounding the rise of “edtech” and MOOCs, it seems that student voices and experiences are rarely considered.
• To gain a holistic understanding of learner experiences researchers need to use multiple methodologies.
• Macro (Kizilcec, Piech, Schneider, 2013) • Learners were: “Auditing, Completing. Disengaging, Sampling”
• Micro • “[I was] left with a partial sense of accomplishment and feelings of hollowness and incompleteness.”
Key takeaways
The realities of open online learning are different from the hopes of open online learning.
We only have small pieces of an incomplete mosaic of students’ learning experiences with open online learning.
What do we want learner experiences to look like?
Thank you!
www.veletsianos.com
@veletsianos on Twitter
veletsianos@gmail.com