Tesol 2015 featured presentation on Crossing Networks, Building Connections to inspire always-on...
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Transcript of Tesol 2015 featured presentation on Crossing Networks, Building Connections to inspire always-on...
This talk touches on
● Almost 20 years experience with learners and
colleagues in virtual spaces practicing engagement in
online and blended contexts
● Burgeoning of connectivist learning opportunities from
pioneer days to the proliferation of those available
today
● Examples of how learning online reshapes our notions
of engaging with students
Featured Speaker
at 10:30 AM in room
718A at the Metro
Toronto Convention
Centre
● and listed on pages 19 and 153 in
the convention program http://www.tesol.org/convention2015/co
nvention-news/convention-program-
(pdf)
● The presentation is listed on the TESOL
website under featured speakers http://www.tesol.org/convention2015/featured-
speakers/invited-speakers
If you’re lookng for my Spring Blog Festival slides, that link has moved: http://tinyurl.com/sbf2015vance
● 1995 - Dave Winet starts StudyCom (lasted through 2014)
● 1998 - Writing for Webheads (originally a course in StudyCom)
● 2000 - Invited speaker - TESOL 2000 Vancouver (demo’ed WfW)
● 2002 - Webheads in Action EVO session
● 2004 - George Siemens seminal work on connectivism (& Facebook)
● 2005 - Jeff Lebow and Dave Cormier start Wordbridges and EdTech Talk
● 2005 - 1st WiAOC: free, online, class roots, no funding or expenses
● 2006 - 1st K-12 Online Conference, same model above
● 2007 - Siemens organized Future of Learning, free, online
● 2008 - Siemens, Downes, Cormier 1st connectivist MOOC
● 2009 - 3rd and Last WiAOC (2nd in 2007)
● 2010 - Learning2gether launched
Crossing networks, building connections with
Learning2gether: An initiative of Vance Stevens evolving most directly from the
● Synchronous meetings with Writing for Webheads meeting
each week from 1998 - 2001
● Synchronous meetings with Webheads in Action held
weekly since 2002 (chat logs exist from 1998-2008)
● Three WiAOC (WiA Online) Convergences in 2005, 2007,
and 2009
● Started in September 2010, hosted apprx 250 events
● Has hosted conversations most weeks since, usually on
Sundays, schedule at http://tinyurl.com/learning2gether
o Not always well-known presenters
o Encourages all educators who enjoy connecting
with peers to contribute their voices to
perpetuating conversations at L2
● This presentation will explain how L2g works and how
you can contribute and participate
Purpose: this
is our public
planning wiki
http://learning2ge
ther.pbworks.com/
http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/volunteersneeded
Anyone can join the wiki
and enter their events here
http://tinyurl.com/learni
ng2gether
● Lists not just events
organized by L2go but all open events known
to L2g
o Open = no login, archives
available to anyone
● Chronologically, Times in GMT
Lists● 23 events
in 2010
● approx.
200 from
2011
to 2014
● 12 in 2015
= 235
http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/archiveindex
http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/w/page/34456755/archiveindex
● Description in
the ABOUT tabhttp://learning2gether.net/about
● Videos, mp3s,
show notes,
slide URLs all
posted here
http://www.s
lideshare.net
/vances/learn
ing2gether-
classroots-
weekly-
online-
professional-
development
http://www.scoop.it/t/learning2gether
Scoop.it posts fed to
Twitter and Linkedin
https://twitter.com/sear
ch?q=learning2gether&src
=typd
● Posts made
automatically
from Scoop.it
https://www.linkedin.
com/in/vancestevensto find my updates
● Posts made
automatically
from Scoop.it
https://www.facebook.com
/groups/learning2gether/
● Post both
announcements
of upcoming
events
● and also links to
archived
recordings
● in all our spaces
● These are a few we
regularly post to
● Learning2gether is here
on G+
o Also set up Hangouts
on Air here
o Can schedule events
o Hold conversations
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/109504049211076695836
https://www.tagboard.com/learning2gether/search
Aggregates content from
Google+ and Twitter on
specified tags
https://plus.go
ogle.com/u/0/
events/ckmi5bc
s2572sa408vef6
4oa500
Our
current
favorite
● At
http://webheadsin
action.org/live
● More information
here ...Stevens, V. (2013). Tweaking
Technology: How Communities
Meet Online Using Google+
Hangouts On Air with Unlimited
Participants. TESL-EJ, Volume 17,
Number 3, pp. 1-16. Available:
http://tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej67/int.pdf
● Frequent interaction with peers
● Shared problem-solving
● Connectivist professional development
changes mindset toward teaching
● Gain tips and tricks for use with students
● Learn how to truly flip o Not only our classes, but
o Our professional development
• Series of 5-week online sessions each Jan / Feb for the past 15 years
• These sessions I moderated resulted in formation of CoPs
– Webheads in Action modeled experiential social learning in 2002 (Stevens, 2004)
– Applying MOOC models sessions on Multiliteracies - EVO MultiMOOC (2004-2014) http://goodbyegutenberg.pbworks.com
– Gamification techniques in professional development Jan-Feb 2015 EVO Minecraft mOOC
• Principles supporting MOOC approach
– Connectivism, Siemens (2004)
– Knowledge distribution in networks, Downes (2012)
– Rhizomatic learning and community as curriculum Cormier (2008)
• Gamification supplies
– a framework for teacher training to model learning
– that teachers can apply when conducting their own classes
• Remarkable affordances for facilitating learning
– in a range of subjects
– particularly foreign languages
● Engaging
– for young people
– teachers of all ages (Smolčec,
Smolčec, and Stevens, 2014)
This session invites interested teachers to join us in
playing Minecraft, learning all we can about playing
alone and together, and how Minecraft is being used
effectively in language learning. We'll learn by doing
and from one another. We'll start here:
http://www.tesl-
ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume18/ej70/ej70int/(Smolčec, Smolčec, and Stevens, 2014)
Target audience:
• Teachers with a
gaming problem
• Gamers with a
teaching problem
• Teachers of gamers
with a learning
problem
Why do this? Presenters intrigued by• The potential of the game for CALL • Notion that the session itself could be conducted as a
game, putting instructor in position similar to that of students
• What we would all learn from this perspective
● Proposal writer did not know how to
o Play the game well enough
o … to teach others to play it
● Moderators could not know
o If the approach would work
o What the outcomes would be
● Moderators rolled dice
o Predicted that by setting parameters
learning would occur along lines hoped for
• Minecraft can FLIP the normal student teacher dichotomy whereby
– teachers traditionally are older
– assumed to know more than their students.
• Experience of participants in our EVO session that when Minecraft introduced to young learners
– Students tend to take charge of their learning
– Guide teachers into the vagaries of the game
● Participants included 3 teens with skills
sought by adults
o Young learners self-esteem
increased with respect to their
“teachers”
o Teachers gained greater awareness
of what it is to be a learner in a
game-driven and task-based
environment
We created a portal here https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/112993649763396826671
● Teachers attracted to the concept, including
o several with experience in the game
o one of whom became co-moderator
(Kuhn, 2015)• Participants attracted
– not because their learning paths had been prescribed for them in a pre-set syllabus
– but to the game experience, and assumption they would learn from it
Participants learned that by entering the “game” or session learning would happen ● in a way that participants would come to understand● by experiencing the process ● that Ito et al (2010) characterize as “hanging out,
messing around, and geeking out”(e.g. ‘check it out’, ‘explore it in a community setting’, ‘get reallygood at it’ --> be able to use it as a tool)
Teachers who learn gaming through the experience of playing as learners are learning how to● Design worlds within the game context that will meet
their curriculum objectives ● Create an engaging and enjoyable experience and
task-based environment for learners
(Minecraft has been shown anecdotally
to be effective in doing that)
Teachers can be made aware of the affordances of games like Minecraft ● by creating such spaces with one another● interacting in those spaces with young
learners who in effect become their teachers
Serves as an example of how we teachers can use what we have learned through our experience with MOOCs ● to form communities of practice ● to reboot our own learning,
using the community as curriculum (Cormier, 2008)
More information on CaC here
from my earlier presentation
http://tinyurl.com/tesol2015vance-mooc
• Cormier, D. (2008). Rhizomatic education: Community as curriculum. Innovate, 4(5). Reprinted with permission of the publisher and retrieved from http://davecormier.com/edblog/2008/06/03/rhizomatic-education-community-as-curriculum/.
• Downes, S. (2012). Connectivism and connective knowledge: Essays on meaning and learning networks. Stephen's Web: My eBook. Retrieved fromhttp://www.downes.ca/files/Connective_Knowledge-19May2012.pdf.
• Ito, M., Baumer, S., Bittanti, M., Cody, R., Herr-Stephenson, B., Horst, H. A., … & Tripp, L. (2010). Hanging out, messing around, and geeking out. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. E-book retrieved fromhttps://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/free_download/9780262013369_Hanging_Out.pdf.
• Kuhn, J. (2015). Meaningful Play – Making Professional Development Fun. TESL-EJ, 15(4),1-8. Retrieved from http://tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej72/int.pdf.
• Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Elearningspace. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm.
• Smolčec, M., Smolčec, F. and Stevens, V. (2014). Using Minecraft for Learning English. TESL-EJ, 18(2),1-15. Retrieved from http://www.tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej70/int.pdf.
• Stevens, V. (2004). Webheads communities: Writing tasks interleaved with synchronous online communication and web page development. In Leaver, B. and Willis, J. (Eds.). Task-based instruction in foreign language education: Practices and programs. Georgetown University Press. pp. 204-217.
• Stevens, V. (2014). Connectivist Learning: Reaching Students through Teacher Professional Development. in Son, J.-B. (Ed.). Computer-assisted language learning: Learners, teachers and tools. APACALL Book Series Volume 3. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 150-172.
• Find this slide presentation online at
http://tinyurl.com/vance2015featured
• The session was recorded and the mp3 is here:
http://learning2gether.net/2015/03/27/learning2gether-with-
call-is-webcasting-from-the-2015-tesol-convention-in-toronto/
• More about Learning2gether
– Planning: http://learning2gether.pbworks.com
– Upcoming events: http://tinyurl.com/learning2gether
– Archives: http://learning2gether.net
If you’re lookng for my Spring Blog Festival slides, that link has moved: http://tinyurl.com/sbf2015vance