Stephen Downes presented a work in progress in Palermo this week, Learning Networks – Theory & Practice. In order to better understand it myself, I have put my notes up here, but please listen to Stephen’s audio file and look at his slide presentation. This presentation begs for a lot more discussion. What follows is my summary and any errors or omissions are my own:
First of all, traditional online learning has been institution-based, consisting of online courses, learning management systems, and closed networks of licensed content. Content is seen in terms of course packs and learning design linearly sequencing.
On the other hand, learning networks are not institution-based but resource-based within an open network. On the Web, content is not packaged but aggregated. E-learning is more of an
engagement and a conversation than an event.
From these premises, Stephen has developed several learning network design principles (works in progress he says) that specify how networks differ from traditional learning. These can be used as a means of evaluating new technology, to determine whether it is network-centric (see the slides for details).
- Decentralization
- Distribution
- Disintermediation
- Disaggregation
- Dis-integration
- Democratization
- Dynamism
These principles are based on Connectivism (see George Siemens’ post) and Stephen also links these principles to what Robert Paterson has written in Going Home: Our Reformation:
But these centralized systems, such as the LMS, are like a dysfunctional crutch –
There’s so much going on out there – you have to leave the cocoon and experience the web.
Stop trying to do online what you do in the classoom – it’s a different world online.
My own opinion is that the Web offered a lot of options for learner control, but this was co-opted by technology vendors and institutions. For instance, there are still “web-based learning program” that disable your browser’s navigation functions.
The fact is that the genie is out of the bottle, and we are in the metaphorical process of casting off the horseless carriage and adopting the automobile. Stephen’s framework, Rob’s vision and George’s pedagogy provide some of the foundation and now there are new tools, such as DrupalED, coming out of the artisans’ workshops to help us implement this framework. Allons-y!
Trusted networksBen:
Like democracy, the Web is messy. I agree that there is a lot of crap out there. That’s why I like blogs. They help me get to know the writer and develop a trusting relationship. I have got to know people like James Farmer, Jay Cross, Jon Husband, Rob Paterson, etc through our blogs.
I find that my social networks (connecting people to people) help me to determine the best content to check out to satisfy my learning needs. It’s similar to a classroom, except that on the Web I get to choose my teachers. Many of these teachers are in My Bloglines feedreader, and they are not anonymous.
Glad to know that you’re reading my blog, and thanks for all your comments :-)
BTW, here’s an interesting new model combining blogs, eportfolios and social networking, that might be of interest: ELGG
RE: trusted networksHarold,
I agree. I use the connections in my social network to filter out the irrelevant and rely heavily on recommendations/links. One challenge is when you go beyond one degree of separation the bond weakens but the value can increase (because the link is new). The problem is that my social network is all in my head and there are few tools to help me optimize it!
For example, blogs are good enough for today but they are really need to change in order to survive. Blogs are becoming so common that they run the danger of becoming another morass of web pages (albeit personalized from the author’s point of view) i.e. too much content. At some point you can only read so many blogs, even if you are scanning them.
Blogs are great at allowing the reader to connect to the author but it is difficult for readers to connect to other readers. For example at your blog I can’t show my name, it is locked being ‘visitor’. How can you or a reader put my comments in context if you do not know who I am? What happens if you/reader want to contact me or at least find out more about me.
If I post a comment the only way to find out if there are replies to it is to return to the site. It is quite difficult to have an ongoing conversation on a blog relating to an entry.
I feel that a blog that I read and like ends up being a dead end on my *social* network. I can’t easily expand my network beyond that blog/author node. It may have great content (perfect for my knowledge network) but hard to take it to the next level, the people behind the content. I like what you write about so you’re “on my list” but I also want to see what others think for it is that dialogue that produces another level of value, aka the wisdom of groups plus the knowledge of the individual.
That said I like the power of the blog for what it is today. I even started one myself on our company web site:
Ben’s Blog
Sincerely,
Ben
Ben’s Blogger profile
Good questionsLots of food for thought.
I agree that the anonymous commenting is a pain. You can request a member name from me, or you can sign in with a Drupal password – I think – but no one has done it yet. I’m just a team of one, and learning as I go …
Too muchI think the challenge is that through the Internet there is now too much anonymous content and too many anonymous people. Its like walking into a library hoping to find answers and finding a mass of unlabelled books and no one wearing name tags.
We continue to be seduced by technology and have yet to focus on ways to ‘optimize our networks’, whether they be LMSes (connecting people to content like courses) or social networks (connecting people to people), to create more effective learning experiences. Just like most of the content on the web is fairly anonymous we run the risk of the same thing happening to the people side.
Sincerely,
Ben