Reflections on ETMOOC, Week 2

Week 2 of ETMOOC has drawn to a close, and Week 3 is waiting in the wings. So far I have not been blogging regularly, but I have been reflecting quite a lot on the range of fascinating topics that my emergent learning community has explored.

On Sharing Learning
My thinking, in response to the prompt, "How do you share/show your learning" has been circling around a concept map I created in 2009.  The purpose of this CMAP was to show my understanding of what constitutes a PLE, and to help me understand what my PLE looked like at that time:

After watching the archived version of Alec's session on connected learning, I have been thinking about how differently my visualization might look now. The graphic illustrates my emphasis on adding tools to expand my learning environment -- tools to help me aggregrate information and turn that information into knowledge.

There isn't much emphasis on people in this diagram. They're present, of course, but the emphasis is on my own individual process of accessing information, curating it, and essentially, storing it away.  There isn't much emphasis on the PLN -- the network of people.  The people are crucial because, according to George Siemens, "the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing."

So how can I broaden my rudimentary PLE to be a more inclusive, more connected PLN? In last week's Twitter chat, I discussed with some other ETMOOC participants some of the practicalities of sharing:  blogging more, sharing/promoting my blog posts (read: not being terrified of showing my learning process!), and commenting on others' posts more regularly.  I did not catch Sue Water's session on blogging, but I gather that she covered some of these tips.  I hope to catch up with that session soon.  Doing more than retweeting others' material -- including at least MT-ing -- is another strategy I will be trying. So far I have found the ETMOOC community very supportive, and as a result, I have gathered many more followers on both Twitter and G+.  Now,  according to connected learning paradigms, it is my responsibility, even as a "new" node in the network, to share what I know.

The importance of sharing is clearer to me now.  However, I am still troubled by issues of privacy and intellectual property, which I hope we will discuss in more detail at some point, and which I hope to work through more fully in another post.

On Connected Learning and Teaching Practice

One way that George Siemens characterizes connected learning is through the example of social networks.  He writes that "within social networks, hubs are well-connected people who are ale to foster and maintain knowledge flow.  Their interdependence results in effective knowledge flow, enabling the personal understanding of the state of activities organizationally."

The teacher/learner as a knowledge hub is a metaphor that appeals to me enormously. It shifts thinking and practice away from the teacher/student hierarchy which has traditionally dominated the classroom.  Will thinking about teaching and learning through the lens of connected learning enable me to really move beyond the teacher/student hierarchy of the traditional classroom?  I hope so.

However, I still have some questions. For example, as Angela Vierling-Claassen asks: "What kind of educational practices are possible when we confront the true unknowability and incompleteness of our pedagogies, when even as we come together we lack the knowledge necessary to answer basic questions of survival and justice? As Ellsworth asks, “What kind of educational project could redefine ‘knowing’ so that it no longer describes the activities of those in power ‘who started to speak, to speak alone and for everyone else, on behalf of everyone else.’” (Ellsworth, 1989, p. 321) To me, a question then becomes can a constructivist MOOC, moocified course, or personal learning network do exactly what Ellsworth is calling us to do? How can we be sure that these projects will really bring out the new voices instead of just brining us the voices that have already spoken?"

In addition, it seems to me, that there are still lingering practical issues to be overcome. How can I,  in the words of bell hooks, teach to transgress, if my students (especially those who would benefit most)  have limited or constrained access to online technologies?  Or if they don't, contrary to widespread belief, have smart phones? Tablets? Or even a reliable computer? It seems unlikely, but every term, a small but significant proportion of students encounter basic access issues. I wonder, then, in the spirit of curiosity more than critique, to what extent  this paradigm of learning, even as it promises the potential for social justice, takes into consideration issues of privilege?

Works Cited

Siemans, George.  "Connectivism:  A Learning Theory for the Digital Age." elearnspace. 12 December 2004.  25 January 2013.

Vierling-Claassen, Angela. "MOOCs as a Liberatory Project." Liberation Math.  22 January 2013. 25 January 2013.