“Social Media, Networked & Learning, Identity”Dr. Alec CourosOctober 18, 2011Dr. Alec Couros

EC&I 831: Social Media & Open Education

me

Faculty Profile

The Blur

http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/3974469907/

An Open Educator

Open CV

Open Access Journal

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

service 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, Robelia, & Hughes, 2009)

journey(quick version)

Knowledge

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?

human thought/ideas

human language

high-level language(e.g. C++, Java, PERL)

low-level language(assembly language)

machine code(binary)

source code

code irretrievable

@jonmott

Collaboration

“given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow”

(Linus’ Law, Raymond 1997)

“A key to transformation is for the teaching profession to establish innovation networks that capture the spirit and culture of hackers -

the passion, the can-do, collective sharing.”

~ Hargreaves, 2003

Openness

“Open Education is the simple and powerful idea that the world’s knowledge is a public good and that technology in

general and the Worldwide Web in particular provide an extraordinary

opportunity for everyone to share, use, and reuse knowledge.”(William & Flora Hewlett Foundation)

open source software

open contentopen access publication

open accreditation

open education

open access coursesopen teaching

free software

open educational resources

open(ness)(short version)

open scholarship

connected(ness)(short version)

• pedagogical affordance.

• knowledge exchange, curation, sensemaking, wayfinding, collaboration, crowdsourcing, remixing, problem solving ...

• facilitated through personal learning networks/environments (PLNs/PLEs)

Free/Open Content“describes any kind of creative work in a format that explicitly allows copying and

modifying of its information by anyone, not exclusively by a closed organization, firm, or

individual.” (Wikipedia)

Why Do Students Go to University?

Content

Social Life

Degrees

Support Services

(Wiley, 2010)

Why Do Students Go to University?

Content

Support ServicesSocial Life

Degrees

WikipediaPLoS

OCW

Open Courses

Google Scholar

arXiv.orgFlatworld K

MCSEGCT

ACT

CCNACNE

Facebook

MMOGsMySpace

Twitter

Yahoo! AnswersQuora

Skype

(Wiley, 2010)

ChaCha

• knowledge needs to be free.• relationships trump content.• transparency & openness are powerful

conditions for knowledge sharing.• distributed, weak-tie communities can help

to solve complex problems.• education can greatly benefit from the

experiences of open (source) communities (i.e., networked communities of practice).

early lessons

participatory media

Changes

Early Day of PC in Schools Today’s Social/Mobile Reality

Stats as of January 2011 via Royal Pingdom

media stats (2010)

• 107 trillion emails (89% spam), from 1.04 billion users.

• 255 million websites

• 1.97 billion Internet users

• 152 millions blogs

• 600 million Facebook users (sharing 30 billion pieces of content per month)

• 2 billion videos watched on Youtube daily

• 5 billion photos hosted on Flickr

cautions

“The average digital birth of children happens at about 6 months.”

“In Canada, US, UK, France Italy, Germany & Spain ... 81% of children under the age of two have some kind

of digital profile or footprint.”

Easily Copied

Viewable by MillionsEasily Edited

Instantly Shared

by DEFAULT

with EFFORT

PRIVATE

PUBLIC

Best Job in the World

Stephen Downes

• “Ten years ago, not one student in a hundred, nay, one in a thousand, could have produced videos like this. It’s a whole new skill, a vital and important skill, and one utterly necessary not simply from the perspective of creating but also of comprehending video communication today.

On Digital Video

affordances

Howard Rheingold

• “Understanding how networks work is one of the most important literacies of the 21st century.” (2010)

Network Literacies

Howard Rheingold

http://www.anduro.com/calgary-mayor-race.html

Politics

Services

Reputation

Creative Projects

“Dear Photograph:Thank you for everything we had.”

Leveraging Networks

“To answer your question, I did use Youtube to learn how to dance. I

consider it my ‘main’ teacher.”

“10 years ago, street dance was very exclusive, especially rare dances like popping

(the one I teach and do). You either had to learn it from a friend that knew it or get VHS

tapes which were hard to get. Now with Youtube, anyone, anywhere in the world can

learn previously ‘exclusive’ dance styles.”

• growing modes of access and the ability to publish & disseminate to wide audiences are key affordances.

• (digital) citizenship & (digital) identity are emerging content areas that heavily implicate emerging pedagogies.

• crowdsourcing & social curation of content will prove transformational for learning environments.

additional lessons

critical considerations

‘know-what’ vs. ‘know how’

new roles

transition

inspirations

@kathycassidy

Example #1: Connecting to Experts

@royanlee

Example #2: Transparent Walls

Example #3: Publishing in the Open

ps22chorus.blogspot.com

Example #4: Making It Relevant

@danikabarker

Example #5: Rethinking Classroom Time

@karlfisch

Example #6: Learning/Sharing in the Open

@christianlong

Example #7: PD Anytime, Anywhere

there are thousands of examples

but this is not the norm

big ideas to consider

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dolmansaxlil/4802611949/

Sharing

“it’s about overcoming the inner 2 year old in

you that screams mine, mine, it’s mine.”

(Wiley, TEDxNYED, 2010)

On Sharing ...

Identity

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaumedurgell/740880616/sizes/l/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/3356252350/

Relationships

@shareski

conclusion

Will Richardson

• “What happens to traditional concepts of classrooms and teaching when we can now learn anything, anywhere, anytime?”

21st Century Learning

http://www.flickr.com/photos/admitchell08/2574455073

http://couros.cacouros@gmail.com

@courosa

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

in another time. ~Tagore