This is just the start of Connectivism

Today was the last Friday of our CCK08 course, I went to the live session at Ustream to find a link to an Elluminate session where people were gathered.  For the first time I had something interesting to share with voice.  What is it?

Smak posted in the chat: "@Stephen, George and others: Like to learn from you how decisions (say to connect and interact) are made". (Dec 1sr edit:John or Smak came by to let me know that Smak is his ID at Elluminate, thanks John!).p>

His question got me thinking because I belong, as far as I know, to the only group formed to make the final project. The team had set earlier an Elluminate session using the Webheads vRoom to decide what to add, change, agree on, etc. We are four members: Dolores from Spain, Carlos in Germany, Viplav in India and me from Mexico.  Only Carlos and I managed to get there.  It was very interesting  to watch our struggles to get to decisions in a connective way, we had lots of fun!  We are so diverse that it was not an easy task. I kept Smak question in mind and when Dave asked for speakers I raised my hand and at the appropriate time I got the mic, voiced his question and told them about our reaching decisions adventure.

Here are some of the questions  and comments posted in the chat:

• smak: I think this is the most important question in connectivism
• Wendy Drexler: Does decision making equal control?
• Lisa M Lane: and yet, decisions must be made
• ctscho: Decisions are local, perhaps?
• smak: @George: How about learning decision, individually, the network
• Wendy Drexler: With all of this connectivist content created as a result of this course, I'm already thinking about how I can organize it...bring it all together.
• Me: To have groups at the end is a very interesting journey, thanks!
• Jo Ann Hammond-Meiers: What is consensus versus honing in on a focused point
• Lisa M Lane: see, I knew it would come back to individualism (I didn't create any of the wikis I was promoting. LOL)
• Me:@ Viplav you're here too!  How have you find our decision making process?
• ViplavBaxi: @Maru: I think along the lines Stephen is talking right now
  - in a very individual manner, yet connected and evolving
• ViplavBaxi: @Jo: many other factors also enable - eg. common language, protocol
• Stian: @ViplavBaxi: Good point, would be very interested in exploring the role of language further.
• Stephen Downes: The way we create mechanisms to connect ... matters.
• Stephen Downes:  deaf networks, that all the nodes become the same (audio comment)
• Moderator (George Siemens): @maru - connectivism or cck08 attributes from the stance of the education field (To continue tagging)

This is just the start!  I would like to know about the research that surely will be conducted, keep me posted!  LOL No one will post me, RSS will! 

Playing with  SplashCast to create a demo and a collaborative site for the team to work independently but collaboratively,  I came up with this slide show.  I hope you have as much fun as I had while creating it!  (Only the first slide is in Spanish)

Wendy's exquisite video came to the table.  Enjoy!

This video came to put in place more pieces of the puzzle.  I've been thinking for a while that I need to define my needs and focus to get them covered.  Obviously I don't have the right connections or I'm looking in the wrong directions or I'm not looking at all.  I know about events serendipitously and many times I don't join the adventures I would like to participate in because I learn about them too late. So I need to observe myself, think and find out what I'm doing wrong.  Else, I go to Hubs where owners start sending daily emails advertising things, pissing me off with "sales", "unique opportunities to make money" and stuff just like in FaceBook. 

If they knew! LOL  Money is not my engine at the moment... has it been in any given period of my life? Yes, when I was homeless in Manchester while writing my Master thesis; my solution was to get a bicycle to save the bus fare for lunch, spend the night at the Maths building punching cards to get the SSPSx program running on ROSCOW and to sleep during the day in parks or in the living room of a charitable friend for a few days.

I'm looking for collaborators for my on my BaeL crusade, people that gets no harm speaking and writing in Spanish, bilingual people interested on Digital Literacy and web 2.0 tools but... what do I have to offer in return?  Well... learners of Spanish, English, Basic Microsoft programs, e-tools and... plenty of data to do research.  Ning provides plenty of data, that I don't know how to obtain yet but it's there for the taking. Yahoo Groups also provides data but not in the same handy way.  I want to learn how to take advantage of the stats feature in Ning, the doors at Manchester University are open for me and a PhD sounds attractive but... that will take time.

Several "connections" have questioned the way I see my computer literacy or my illiteracies.  They interpret that as lack of self esteem but I see that as a reality.  I don't have a natural inclination to electronic devices or cables or plugs or computer tools; I'm clumsy, I take hours to do what Stephen suggest to do in ten minutes.  It's the same with cooking, I'm not a natural chef; I spend hours cooking what my sister cooks in half an hour.  In both areas I'm satisfied with my end products, the sites work, the tools do what they're supposed to do and the food tastes quite nice.  Sometimes I receive compliments from both areas.  The difference lies in that I have F.U.N. with  the computer and I hate the kitchen.  I rather spend my time having F.U.N.!

After Elluminate I went to my SLexperiments weekly meeting, were I felt like in the Chilbo SL Cohort.  SL continues to behave very badly, voice was down and we had to text chat... what a waste!  Besides, I'm tired, very very tired of typing.  You'll find the summary here.

(Btw: I don't know who Smak and Stian are. If someone knows their blogs, please share them to add the proper links here.  Thanks).

An Illiterate in the CCK08 course

Tonight, after the last  Elluminate CCK08 session, I went to Dave Cormier's blog and found his post about Literacy.  It was like if a veil was taken from my eyes, many of my discomforts found its place.

My reply there was:

Hi Dave!

Thanks for giving a name to how I felt during the CCk08 course, the word “inadequate” didn’t quite explain things for me. Illiterate is the perfect fit. In many aspects I was illiterate, in many others I remain so. I have a looong road ahead but now I see some paths.

I’m glad you explained to me some subtleties in the Korean language and culture, one of my best friends is Korean and I understand him a bit more now.

Thanks also for moderating the live online sessions. It’s been a pleasure hearing you.

Maru :X

Then I went to the Intro Emerging Tech 09 course wiki and found this video.  What caught my attention was that I had seen it before, finding little sense; today, I found more sense. Maybe, if I watch it again in the future I will see more patterns.

 

This morning's events are also clearer now after reading Dave's post.  I went to the  International Forum on Digital Contents (Ficod08 for his Spanish initials) in Second Spain.  Although it was in Spanish, it was about social networks and how are they used for business, I didn't understood some of the terms.  I saw that I had learned the technical words in English during the CCK08 course and I did not have the words in Spanish.  A side of my illiteracy showed up.

An hour later we had our weekly SLexperiments meeting in  Spanish, Dolores and I agreed on solving two things: my urgent problem to get rid of my cat paws and her required visit to Muvenation site.  Steve joined us and he helped me to select a new avatar, his Spanish is very good. The first new avatar remained with paws and I had to strip to sort out the problem, Steve's avatar respectfully turned his back to give my avatar some kind of privacy. I was so embarrassed!

With my new avatar  we went to Muvenation and met Daf there. Daf took us to where Dolores could join the Muvenation student's group that suited her needs and then we tested Daf's orientation site: 

http://slurl.com/secondlife/MUVEnation/212/194/100

Having satisfied our needs we rested by the fire.  It was a wonderful afternoon!

With my deepest gratitude to Dave, Stephen, George, Dolores, Steve and Daf.

CCK08 Final Mind Map

I'm placing here the concepts I found more relevant and how I see them relating and influencing one another.  The map itself has changed little, what has changed is how I understand it now.  For example, over the past two weeks the issue of Openness has gained more weight.

The red lines show a one way influence or impact; I may be wrong, maybe there aren't one way impact relationships with the concepts I mention.  The rest of the colours show the impact of one item; for example, the purple lines show the interaction of the concepts with our "Mind", the blue lines show the interactions with the "Context" and so on.

I understand better now what has happened to me and my connections this year (2008).  My offline connections have a new topic to talk about, besides that, the changes have been those brought about by life itself.  My online connections have widened, I got now a lot of new weak connections and a few stronger new connections.  With Becoming a Webhead (BaW08), Becoming an e-Learner project (BaeL), Connectivism and Connective Knowledge (CCK08), Connecting Online(CO09), Electronic Village Online moderator training (EVOMods09) and Corporate Learning Trends and Innovations (CLTI08) I have learned a lot this year.  My mind view things in a different way.

I see clearly that to have people hanging around with me they have to gain something valuable.  I understand now why when I had worked and pulled my share of work with some people who asked me to participate in their projects I got little or nothing in return when I asked for participation in mine.  They considered me some sort of an asset during their projects, what I did provided something valuable them and I was learning.  Once the project was ended if my project didn't go with their line of work they didn't participate, they wouldn't gain anything of value.  Reciprocity does not have anything to do with it, it's just the way a network works. It's a description of a fact, not a complain.

I understand that Openness is a delicate issue for people and organizations.  Some people and institutions say they are open to new ideas, that they want collaboration but in the practical sense they want you to do things in a certain way and don't accept changes.  It's their organization, their project, their wiki, their site and they have the right to have it as they want it.  It's very difficult to let go of power and control, to set a common goal, elicit participation and receive it as such.  I don't see that happening soon.  I didn't see evidence in Stephen's predictions on the future but what a wonderful piece to read.

His words: "To learn is not to acquire or to accumulate, but rather, to develop or to grow. The process of learning is a process of becoming, a process of developing one’s own self".

I wonder how could I use iCall? Stephen mentions that this allows events and syndicated contents to circulate within the same network, creating an association between time and content that is dynamic, fluid, and distributed.

How could I enable my communities? "At most, the educator needs to ensure that the tools are there for students to use, and that the channels of communication, from student to student, from community to community, are open".

I'm puzzled.  Why didn't Stephen mention "Equity" in his recent SL Conference as a feature of Reliable Networks?  Is that so unreachable?

Nancy at Learning Trends and Innovations 2008

Learn Trends Digital Habitats

From: Nancy White.

Nancy is one of the Jewells I found in CCK08. She shared this slide show with us this at her Learning Trends Elluminate session. I find it inspiring to say the least.

Learn Trends Digital Habitats

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: learning groups)

The slides I'm using in a webgathering on November 19th at the online LearnTrends 2008

SlideShare Link

Account of Stephen Downs visit to Second Spain

Stephen Downes very kindly agreed to guest a conference about Networks within organizations in  Second Spain.  The SIM was unstable, the participants that arrived on time had no problems with sound but  some of the latecomers could not hear him or my translation.  His talk ended and the round of questions was held on the text chat expecting to reach everyone in the room.  People were eager to ask and get answers so they put up with the unexpected heavy text chat while Stephen very patiently waited until I typed the translation to continue.

The content of his conference is available in the following videos that he gently provided before hand.

Talking to educators, he told them he wasn't going to talk about how to teach their students,  he would rather talk about how could they manage their own learning because that was the important point.

His views of a Networked organization sound like a dream from the point of view of the members of an organization, to be able to choose which product to sell by pursuing your interests and talents would be fantastic. Can you imagine?

From the point of view of the organization itself, this view requires them to let go, to leave their mission behind, to foster openness, diversity, autonomy and connectedness. I guess the feeling there would be fear, you'll have to trust others, to believe they'll do their best in their field.  Stephen  mentioned that to manage a company in a traditional way is not efficient, people work for their own interest not for the interest of the company owners.

If we own an organization, what we have to think about is how to set activities that mean, quoting Stephen, "A mutually beneficial exchange of value". As Jorge Cuevas says: "Give others the chance to win too", this is, make others gain something valuable working with you,  while you get something valuable also for yourself.

It was a pity that the SIM behaved so badly. There were people who could not hear a word of all that was said, the richness of Stephen's voice was lost for them; it's certainly not easy to translate to and from a text chat but it was a different experience. I had never translated online with no body language clues!

Stephen Downes in Second Spain today

Today at 21:00 GMT, Stephen Downes will be at Connectivitas in Second Spain guesting a round of questions about Network Learning within Organization. Check your local time here.

This event comes about thanks to the diligent work of Esperanza Román and Dolores Capdet who are doing wonders in Second Spain.

Esperanza kindly placed the two videos send by Stephen Downes in her blog, please feel free to visit.

The SLURL for UniHispana Auditorium is:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/UniHispana/208/1/77

In case that you have difficulties to enter, this is an alternate SLURL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Faro%20de%20UniHispana/52/5/77

I hope to see you there.

Why is so difficult to change the practice of Education? Third CCK08 paper.

I think that the main reason lies on the self image that the teachers held about themselves and in the way in which the students perceive education.  I wish I knew about a practical way to shift those positions.

The teacher's traditional position.

In a traditional way a teacher stands out of the crowd, in a way that medical practitioners did some years back as pictured by Quino in his famous cartoon (Quino cartoon, page 5, Mafalda, book 9;1977). In that view teachers are considered vessels of knowledge, leaders of the future generations.  In rural places they are treated with awe and respect, the community is grateful to have them; it usually implies less comfort to go and teach sometimes in a hut.  In the cities they are held also with respect, parents try to get along with them for the sake of their kids' well being. The teacher that requires his students to send their homework to his/her email sometimes is viewed as a nuisance; most of the students don't have computers at home and parents have to cope with the expense of paying extra to cyber places.

Being a teacher gives you status, power over your learners, a position in life supported by your credentials and years of experience in the field.  It's not easy to let go of that position, of the privileges perceived and of the underlying assumptions. Stephen Downes talks about this, among other things, in his post about Reusable Media, Social Software and Openness in Education.

Students point of view on education.

On the other hand, most the students regard school and homework as an imposed obligation that they don't enjoy.

Qino cartoon. #895, Mafalda 4 (1968)

Felipe (thinking): "Well, I better go do my homework."...
Felipe (thinking): "Damn!"

They act as Felipe, they wish that something would come along to get them of the hook. I have acted like that myself.  Students come to the cyber place to do their homework and what they do is copy and paste from pages they Google, they don't reflect on what they put together. They try to do it fast to have time to add a picture to their photo blog (MetroFlog is their favourite), chat or visit their Hi5 spaces. If they happen to find a teacher that invites they to learn in an engaging way they respond eagerly but they expect leadership.  If you leave them to choose what to learn and how to go about their learning they freeze.  Talking to teenagers I've found they are confused, they know that even if they do well in their studies that doesn't warranty them a job or a better life in the future.

Matthias has a different point of view on this issues and looks into resistance in a broader way than me. Worth reading.

S. Downs puts forward an answer: "The idea that all of us, acting independently, but ensemble, en masse, can come up with something better than any individual in the group could by themselves. This is not a case of marching toward mediocrity, this is a case of the group simple being able to take into account more factors, more variables, than any given individual. The group being able to absorb more information than any individual. But for this to work, we have to have the open communication and access. We have to have the distributed non-centralized non-hierarchical model".

To teach in a non traditional way means to accept, claim, demonstrate and model that you don't have all the answers, that you are not better or worst than others, that you are only a bit different.  It also means that you are open to share what you know and have, that you are open to persuasion.

I don't have a practical path to bring this change about.  All I see is that maybe if we take responsibility of our own learning, model the behaviour we expect, provide examples, establish outcomes, set the table with what we see as goodies and invite others to share the meal we may shift the status quo a bit.

I found the following video at Tom White's blog. We are against inertia.

Despite the fact that this short article is a free roaming thought piece, I find myself with an acute feeling of the responsibility for what I write.  It's hard to explain.  This doesn't mean that I didn't feel responsible before, it means that I'm more aware of that  responsibility as a part of a learning community. I see this as a beneficial outcome.  I blame this to all the readings, interactions, talks and wonderful people I have met during the CCK08 course. Thanks to all of you.

The Official Quino Home Page can be found at http://www.clubcultura.com/clubhumor/quinoweb/

What's the role of a connectivist teacher?

My answer to this questions can be found in this CCK08 Moodle thread, I'll post it here:

"As far as I see and as far as I have understood the connectivism model the role of the "teacher" is to sit back and let the students take control. 

I mean sit back not with a bad connotation, of course SD and GS are not scratching their bellies!  They are very busy keeping this three or four ring "circus" going.  They invested many hours beforehand setting up the design, the layout, the Daily, pageflakes, Wiki, Elluminate, syllabus, inviting guest speakers, getting Dave to moderate, etc.

The most difficult part of online and offline teaching, is to get the learners flying on their own.   Connectivism strives towards learners independence, to decentralize the learning process, to avoid hierarchies. To get that going you need to kind of disappear at the background. If you jump in, the learners will tend to ask YOU to take the lead. Because they recognize you as an authority figure, you'll mark and evaluate them.

I think a connectivism course doesn't have to be "cold" or "detached" to avoid learners dependency.  Webheads, for example,  don't promote dependency and their sessions are full of generosity and kind encouraging comments.  They set tutorial's mechanisms at the side and point learners to go, click away, find out and sort things for themselves.  They also, as a rule, set aside a week for informal networking along with a Nettiquete code. That time is used to make sure that all participants know how to handle their email accounts to avoid the overload feeling, to free participants from the technology issues to be able to focus in the content."

 

I was very impressed by the way Dave Cormier handled the  evaluation of the CCK08 in his Elluminate session: with honesty. The picture is a screen shot of that session.

As Dave Cormier mentions, Webheads are kings on teaching online a knowledge moving target without losing people along the way.

I found some of Stephen Downes comments evaluating somehow the CCK08 course at one of Graham Attwell's  posts.

I also found Cristina Costa's reflections about a course she gave, she is on of my admired Webheads, I don't know if her course had a connectivist approach but I definitely like the way they encouraged and aided the learners to participate; from backstage.

Preparing this post I ran across an open eye slide presentation that touches responsibility, enabling and community creation in an open source platform.  By David Eaves.

Community Management Presentation

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: 2007 fsoss)

My learning journey with EVO and CCK08

This is not the third paper.  I want to place my thoughts here to let them go, to reflect on them and leave my morning's non practical thoughts behind.

When I signed up for the CCK08 course I knew it was beyond my league, now I see that to participate in an online course feeling so detached from the "teachers" or moderators and participants doesn't work well for me.  I had fun as Sia Vogel mentions,  but not during the entire journey as I'm used to have at the EVO sessions.

As participant, the Webheads provided me with readings that helped me to understand my role as participant and to succeed in online courses.  Issues like "Personal Learning Environments" (PLE), Online Courses Design, Learning Theories from the Online point of view, Properties of Networks, Instructional Design, Complexity and Chaos, Power and Control, Epistemology, History of Networked Learning, Collectives, Roles of the Teacher, Openness, etc.  were all new concepts to me.  Unfortunately, before this course I have never heard of Stephen Downs, George Siemens and connectivism.

The fact that I plunged into a totally new conceptual environment did not help me either to have fun, the people I'm learning from/with are more savvy, experienced and  better conceptually placed than me.  Most of them are recognized figures in their fields, busy people, with little time and low inclination to waste time explaining the obvious to me. This is not a complain, it's a description of a fact, I understand their position.

When I opened my own online course, BaeL,  I did not have access to all the readings I have given access now that I'm part of the moderators EVO team.  I have access now to tutorials to set up groups, readings to help me select which venue suits best my courses targeted outcomes, readings about online learning, emails with information about the "back stage", the set up, the management of the courses, the facilitation role, etc. I set BaeL course on my own, selected the venues and tools with my instincts as guide and once armed I invited the Webheads to join.  Of course I asked thousand of questions, some were answered and some were not.

Some Webheads joined and have not interacted, some were active during the online course and then backed away, some are still participating with me in that learning journey.  I'm thankful to all.  The remaining Webheads at BaeL are having fun while learning, we are learning all sorts of things, we became a caring tight knitted group with no teacher appointed, we learn from each other, we encourage each other, we learn practicing together and sharing experiences, we are open to our feelings and respect our cultural differences.

When I joined FaceBook,  I had so many friends already there that I started feeling concerned by my slow answer rate.  Rita Zeinsteger, one of my most admired Webheads, told me then: "If it's not fun, it's not worth".  It's one of the best advice I have received.

To work online you need discipline, to set times to be in front of the computer and respect them, otherwise the overload may threat your life and well being. The new term I learned is: Burn out.   Today at Ustream, in our weekly live session, Stephen Downes shared that "We have to focus, to know what we are looking for"  If we surf the net with something in particular in mind we can handle overload better by narrowing our choices.

How do you handle the feeling of overload?, How do you manage your weak ties?, Do you feel comfortable in an environment where most of your ties are weak?  This network environment is kind of new for me, your insights will be welcomed and very helpful.

What's the role of the teacher?

The term I used to name de new role of the teacher, lurer, has a negative connotation in English; maybe in another languages too.  To  let me know about it Ariel, very gently, sent me the following twitts.

Kristina Hoeppner went farther, looked up the term and shared in the comment area: "A lot of times, at least in my understanding of the term, luring is used to make people do something they would never do on their own. I don't have a great idea for a possibly better word to use. All seem to have a somewhat negative implication attached to them."

About the teacher's role she says:  "I think we do not only have one role but many, maybe sometimes packaged all together, sometimes only one or a dominant one."

Nancy White, with her bright mind and warm spirit came by to share that "In the facilitation world, an alternative term is "invitation." It has been long recognized in that domain that it is often more successful to invite people in rather than to require them. And that the quality of the invitation matters -- how do we make it irresistible?"

As I mentioned in my previous post, the name given to the teacher is the less important part.  What matters is what you do and how you do it, if you engage with learning honestly you'll set an example for your learners.  Your words may be taken away by the wind but your actions remain to drag others along the wonderful learning path.

Jenny explains the above much better in her post called "A Good Teacher".  I totally agree with her: "She (Nancy) is recognised world-wide, but her humility and obvious desire to be one of the learning group and not apart from it, is the mark of a good teacher." Nancy made a deep impression in my soul, she's always present

In another venue, Allison Miller states that "Teachers already have e-moderating skills.  They just need to analyse what you currently do face to face–and then convert it to online".

What do you think?.  According to your views, what's the role of the teacher?.   If you are a good f2f teacher, does that qualify you be be a good online teacher too?.  If not, what else do you need to develop to become one?

Formal CCK08 2nd paper. Shorter version.

The point of emphasis of this Second Paper is that of the Educator. Why? Because I've taught for several years, 20 or more, while I just "designed" my first online Community of Practice site BaeL(1) last March 08. There, as well as in our YH bael-PC group (2), I model what I preach.

The roles of educators are changing as shown by Tom Woodward (3) in the following video.

The changing roles of the educators are many, as evidenced in this conversation (4). Depending on the context, the name and actual activities of the educator varies. Examples:

In ScholMAX (5)the roles are: Educator, Special Education Assistant, Plan Specialist, Reading Tutor and Teacher Aid.

According to SchoolNet (6)the roles of an ICT teacher are:

1.- Learning Mediator. 2.- Interpreter and Designer of Learning Programs and Materials. 3.- Leader.  4.- Scholar, Researcher and Lifelong Learner. 5.- Community, Citizenship and Pastoral Role.         6.- Assessor and 7.- Learning area/subject Specialist. 

The role I put forward, which brings me to my father, is the role of Lurer. In order to lure somebody you need to spare some time first to investigate your targeted person or group. You need to get involved first to find out hopes, desires, expectations, incentives, limitations, needs,  interests, activities, etc.  In sum, all that may be attractive for them. You also have to rely on the resources that you have and on the resources that your learners have access to and be creative to deliver the content you want to share.

The term Lurer also implies a decoy or a foolish way to achieve an outcome, this attitude also goes with me. If I have fun while learning, "my learners" or co-learners will have fun too while learning along with me. I'm usually learning what I'm teaching, the only difference between me and my learners is that maybe I have read a bit more on the subject or I have given a few more clicks to the tool we're using.  When I try to use the tool, I laugh at myself and my clumsiness. Most of all, I give priority to the content I want to deliver regardless the selected tool while I listen to my learners shifting needs.

During Nancy White (7)wonderful session (8), she showed us a shared,  give and take, approach to education. So far, she has been the liveliest presenter in CCK08 course. I really enjoy her remarks to Stephen! Nancy also posted an Online Community Purpose Checklist (9)truly worth reading.

Another proposal comes from Jokay Wollongong (10), she created Jokaydia(11) in SL.

She left a laptop open in SL, when someone asked what game it was she investigated their needs. Then she invited the teacher to visit SL with her and showed, in site, what could be done to teach that subject. The ones hooked were given avatars and a project to bring their students to SL. Clever ha! She's participating in the Learning Technologies 2008 Conference (12)

Depending on the context, the name and actual activities of the educator varies.

We need to evaluate very carefully the context. It's not the same to lure and adult than to lure a kid. With kids, safety comes first. Tom Whyte (13) started an interesting thread (14) asking if connectivism can be used for K-12 classroom. While we wait for responses, let me tell you that I see that the role of the educator in that particular context is as Gate Keeper or Guardian Angel. This role applies also when your learners are complete beginners even if they are adults.

Angeles Berman(15), who is "Teaching the Teachers" at her site "Maestrantes 2008" (16), has a group of teachers who are doing their Master Degree in Pedagogy and Education Practice with her. Some of them did not know how to use the Internet and it's really a joy to see them posting their work at their Community as well as at their Wiki(17).

I invite you to react as I did. While I couldn't shake off my father's authority, as many of you cannot shake your School Board, I lured him! So... start luring people!

I'll leave you with the important questions raised at the Moodle forum thread (18) started by Sui Fai John Mak (19)

References:

1. Maru del Campo, 2008. "Becoming an e-Learner" Learning Community. http://bilingueactivoelear.ning.com "BaeL"
2. Maru del Campo, 2008. "bael-pc YH Group" Mailing List.
3. Tom Woodward, 2006."Education Today and Tomorrow" Henrico Co. YouTube video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnh9q_cQcUE&NR=1
4. I Kant et al, 2008. "Role for Educators" Moodle thread. CCK08 course. http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1073
5. SchoolMAX, 2008. "Additional Educator Roles" https://cpsed.ri.net/webhelp_1_6_1_0/admin/111_-_scheduling/106_-_code_administration/1001_-_additional_educator_roles.htm
6. SchoolNet SA and SCOPE, 2008. "ICT and the Roles of Educators". http://ace.schoolnet.org.za/cd/ukzncore2a/activities/core2a.flow.htm
7. Nancy White, 2008. "Full Circle Associates" http://www.fullcirc.com/wp/
8. Nancy White, November 5th 2008. "Week 9. CCK08 Elluminate Recording" https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback.jnlp?psid=2008-11-05.0706.M.ACEE335354DD13071EB33121158A62.vcr
9. Nancy White, 2008. "Online Community Purpose Checklist"  http://www.fullcirc.com/wp/resources/online-community-toolkit/online-community-purpose-checklist/
10. Jocay Wollogong, 2008 "Virtual Worlds - Community - Second Life Rentals Blog" http://jokaydia.com/
11. Jokay Wollongong, 2008. "Jokaydia Flicker photo's collection" http://flickr.com/groups/jokaydia
12. Learning Technologies Conference, 2008. http://www.learningtechnologies.com.au/index.cfm
13. Tom Whyte, 2008. "Where Old Meets Now"   http://whereoldmeetsnow.edublogs.org
14. Tom Whyte, 2008 "Reality Check" Moodle Thread. CCK08 course. http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1079
15. Angeles Berman, 2007- 2008. "My Learning Zone" http://mylearningzone.motime.com
16. Angeles Berman, 2008. "Maestrantes 2008. Universidad Pedagógica Nacional" Community of Practice.
17. Angeles Berman, 2008. "Institución y Práctica Docente" http://institucionypracticadocente.pbwiki.com/ 
18. Sui Fai John Mak, 2008. "Teaching the Teachers: A key to Student Success" Moodle thread. CCK08 course. http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1074
19. Sui Fai John Mak, 2008. "Suifaijohnmak's Weblog" http://suifaijohnmak.wordpress.com/

What pedo gorgory you?

First of all, let me define my position. Then comes the 2nd paper. As we have seen: Context is very important, visit this interesting thread.

1. I'm writing in an irreverent tone. (Don't tell me!?, I hadn't notice!, he, he, he.)
2. I work for my own Institution at the moment, the founders know me well so I know they'll  laugh too.
3. I don't consider myself a teacher or educator.  I just facilitate learning.  People come to me with a situation they want to solve like: My son doesn't speak. My English is poor.  I'm getting divorced.  I need to give a presentation in English.  I'm depressed, etc.
4. I talked to Stephen, somewhat apologized for the tone of my posts and he said: "Go ahead, I don't care, I have a tough skin".  So... no problem.
5. My dad is a Spanish man born in Mexico.  I'm bringing this to the table because the post title is the question he usually asked me when I was angry with him.
7. His question drove me even madder because I didn't speak English then. 
9. I knew that "pedo" was not an
10. English word but I didn't know that "gorgory" didn't exist as an English word.  I thought he was showing off and evidencing my ignorance.

George was born in Mexico, as far as Wikipedia is concerned, and he will mark this Second Paper so he may understand the meaning of the question. The title is irrelevant anyhow.

The point of emphasis of this Second Paper is that of the Educator.  Why? Because  I've taught for several years, 20 or more,  while I just "designed" my first online Community of Practice site BaeL last March 08. There, as well as in our YH bael-pc group,  I model what I preach.

The roles of educators are changing as shown by Tom Woodward in the following video.

The changing roles of the educators are many, as evidenced in this conversation. Those roles have been documented since the Ancient Greek Era, pity there is no evidence left on cave walls to see which was the role of the teacher in "Hunting Class I".

I won't bore you with a description of those roles.  Depending on the context,  the name and actual activities of the educator varies.  Let's see some examples.

In ScholMAX the roles are: Educator, Special Education Assistant, Plan Specialist, Reading Tutor and Teacher Aid.

According to SchoolNet the roles of an ICT teacher are seven:

1.- Learning Mediator. 2.- Interpreter and Designer of Learning Programs and Materials. 3.- Leader.  4.- Scholar, Researcher and Lifelong Learner. 5.- Community, Citizenship and Pastoral Role.         6.- Assessor and 7.- Learning area/subject Specialist.

However, Emilia Potenza, who elaborates on  those roles in her paper "The Seven Roles of the Teacher", describes herself as Curriculum Adviser. So, we may have a number eight role.

One of my co-students, the brave and brilliant Lisa Lane, mentions the roles as follows: Lecturer, Facilitator, Accountant, Curator, Master Artist, organic Gardener, Wizard and Insurgent. 

While Lisa's view of the current Educator role empowers the teachers and invites them to change the system from inside out, it has not been explored yet and the consequences may be harmful for the teacher.

The role I put forward, which brings me back to my father, is the role of Lurer.   In order to lure somebody you need to spare some time first to investigate your targeted person or group. You need to get involved first and find out hopes, desires, expectations, incentives, limitations, needs,  interests, activities, etc.  In sum, all that may be attractive for him/her or them. You also have to rely on the resources that you have and on the resources that your learners have access to as Nancy White points out and be creative to deliver the content you want to share.

The term Lurer also implies a decoy or a foolish way to achieve an outcome, this attitude also goes with me. If I have fun while learning, "my learners" or co-learners will have fun too and learn along with me.  That's another key point, I'm usually learning what I'm teaching, the only difference between me and my learners is that maybe I have read a bit more on the subject or I have given a few more clicks to the tool we're using.  When I try to use the tool, I laugh at myself and my clumsiness. Most of all, I give priority to the content I want to deliver regardless the selected tool while I listen to my learners shifting needs.

I think that Nancy White does something wonderful in her Full Circle Associates site.   The picture below was the opening slide at her talk at Elluminate, last Wednesday November 5th.

During her wonderful session,  she showed us a shared,  give and take, approach to education which needs collaboration to succeed. So far, she has been the liveliest presenter in CCK08 course. I really enjoy her remarks to Stephen! I wonder what would have happened if George had ben there.   A recording of her presentation is available along with great notes taken by Christy Tucker. Nancy also posted an Online Community Purpose Checklist truly worth reading.

Another proposal is what Jokay Wollongong did when she created Jokaydia in SL. You can see here pictures of the site.

In her office, she left a laptop open in SL, waited until someone asked what game it was to inquire about that teacher's subject.  Once she knew the subject, she invited the teacher to visit SL with her and showed him/her in site what could be done to teach that subject.  The ones hooked were given avatars and a project to bring their students to SL. Clever ha! She's participating in the Learning Technologies 2008 Conference

Depending on the context,  the name and actual activities of the educator varies.

We need to evaluate very carefully the context.   It's not the same to lure and adult than to lure a kid.  With kids, safety comes first. Tom Whyte started an interesting thread asking if connectivism can be used for K-12 classroom.  While we wait for responses, let me tell you that I see that the role of the educator in that particular context is as Gate Keeper or Guardian Angel.  This role applies also when your learners are complete beginners even if they are adults.

I have a Mexican friend, Angeles Berman,  who is Teaching the Teachers at her site "Maestrantes 2008".  She has there a small group of teachers who are doing their Master Degree in Pedagogy and Education Practice with her. They are studying at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional.  Some of them did not know how to use the Internet and it's really a joy to see them posting their work, pictures, debates, etc. at their Community as well as at their Wiki

I invite you to react as I did.  While I couldn't shake off my father's authority, as many of you cannot shake your School Board, I lured him!  So... start luring people!

I'll leave you with the important questions raised at the Moodle forum thread started by Sui Fai John Mak

References:

• Sui Fai John Mak, 2008. "Teaching the Teachers: A key to Student Success" Moodle thread. CCK08 course. http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1074
• Maru del Campo, 2008. "Becoming an e-Learner"  Community of Practice. http://bilingueactivoelear.ning.com
• Maru del Campo, 2008. "BaeL PC Group. http://mx.groups.yahoo.com/group/bael-pc/
• Tom Woodward, 2006."Education Today and Tomorrow" Henrico Co. YouTube video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnh9q_cQcUE&NR=1
• SchoolNet SA and SCOPE, 2008. "ICT and the Roles of Educators". http://ace.schoolnet.org.za/cd/ukzncore2a/activities/core2a.flow.htm
• Emilia Potenza, 2008. "The Seven Roles of the Teacher" http://ace.schoolnet.org.za/cd/ukzncore2a/documents/core2a.curriculum-matters.htm
• I Kant et al, 2008. "Role for Educators" Moodle thread. CCK08 course. http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1073
• Lisa Lane, 2008. "Insurgence for Emergence". http://lisahistory.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/paper-2-insurgence-for-emergence/
• Tom Whyte, 2008 "Reality Check" Moodle Thread. CCK08 course. http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1079
• Nancy White, 2008. "Full Circle Associates" http://www.fullcirc.com/wp/
• Christy Tucker, 2008. "CCK08: Iterative, Appreciative Change" http://christytucker.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/cck08-iterative-appreciative-change/
• Nancy White. November 5th,  2008. "Elluminate Recording.  https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback.jnlp?psid=2008-11-05.0706.M.ACEE335354DD13071EB33121158A62.vcr
• Tom Whyte, 2008. "Where Old Meets Now"   http://whereoldmeetsnow.edublogs.org
• Jokay Wollongong, 2008. "Jokaydia.com Blog". http://jokaydia.com.
• Jokay Wollongong, 2008. "SL Jokaydia site".  http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia.
• Jokay Wollongong, 2008. "Jokaydia Flicker photo's collection" http://flickr.com/groups/jokaydia
• Learning Technologies Conference, 2008. http://www.learningtechnologies.com.au/index.cfm
• Angeles Berman, 2007- 2008. "My Learning Zone" http://mylearningzone.motime.com
• Angeles Berman, 2008. "Maestrantes 2008. Universidad Pedagógica Nacional" Community of Practice. http://maestrantesupn042.ning.com/
• Angeles Berman, 2008. "Institución y Práctica Docente" http://institucionypracticadocente.pbwiki.com/
• Universidad Pedagógica Nacional http://www.upn.mx/
• Nancy White, 2008. "Online Community Purpose Checklist"  http://www.fullcirc.com/wp/resources/online-community-toolkit/online-community-purpose-checklist/

 

Powerless during Power week

I shouldn't’t be doing this. I should be writing my paper and making sure to answer the questions. Last week I was off line, I was powerless, with no energy or power to move. I was bed ridden for days with bronchitis. I logged in to last Friday live session to find out that I arrived an hour late so… powerless, unable to connect.
This is my answer to Ken’s lasts posts about success, failure, power, groups and more.

Hi Ken!

I am glad to be back here, I enjoy very much your readings. I came here from today's daily and what attracted my attention was your post title "I made the news".
Congratulations!!! Did you write home about it as you mention? What did they say?
This is a response to your last three posts so if you don't have time now please skip it and keep the “Congrats” part.

This applies to you too kind reader. :-)

Thanks for pointing out that Stephen's readings are difficult, it thought I lacked "proper background" (whatever that is) to understand them. Now I see I'm not alone. I'm stupid in some areas, as many people are, but I thought that understanding "deep philosophical readings" was not one of them until I found Stephen's readings and videos which made me ask myself similar questions than yours. After reading your last three posts I guess they are the exception that confirms the rule, I'm not so stupid in that area.

If I don't get meaning is because they are meaningless to me, I cannot connect with them, I'm a "doer", I didn't find practical application on those readings and I have been living in a "connectivist" way for more than 20 years. Don't misunderstand me, I rather clarify.

I have been, as mankind has done for centuries, connecting with experienced nodes to learn from them or to pay them to exercise their expertise in my benefit.
In my practice I work with multidisciplinary forces or nodes, it's in that sense that I stated that I work in a "connectivist" way. From that point of view I can happily agree with the sanctum sanctorum connectivist phrase: "knowledge is in the network". As I've told you before, that way of learning is not new, I'm not buying the "theory" bit either, time will tell in that sense.

Regarding Stephen's "illusion of power" exercise: It amused me.
Why? Because for the first time he stood up and exercised his power OPENLY. As you mention in this post, he had used his power from the beginning; in a covered and clever way for me. From my point of view, this last move was not clever, it didn't empower the learners.

Rather, he is modeling his "theory":

"The pipe is not important".

He did not think about the havoc he created to some that use their employers’ hardware and software to connect, he has said so several times on the live sessions:

"I don't care if you are learning, I'm learning!".

On the other hand, let me tell you that as a "teacher" in an open non-authoritarian system you have to find ways to push your students towards the content you expect them to learn so to use your power is valid in that context. It's an effective behaviour.

Your question about the success or failure of the experiment is one that voices many participants' concerns, as you have measured with your visitors’ blog counter and comments, the question is lying there and they can easily say and justify that it was a success. Again, time will tell. But as participant you can define if it was a success for you or not. Was it a success for me? Though I cannot tell yet in a broad sense, I'm learning and I've met some valuable people not nodes. That’s for sure. Did I learn what connectivism is? It seems I didn't, I learned a new name to christen what I do.

I joined for the feedback that non-credit participants believe we, the credit ones, are getting. I have not "earned" a direct email, tweet, or comment in my blog from the "teachers". Here is an account of "my feedback".
I have not opened a thread in Moodle; I got two answers from SD in the Importance of Context thread. I got one comment back from GS on all the live sessions I've listened, one of the 10 or so times I have dared to write something "valuable" in the chat box. I got an A, also from GS, for not answering the main question on my first paper. That's all. For me, that's not clear feedback but I have not participated much as you can see, maybe I have not given them a chance (?) What it tells me so far is that in a connectivist view I am a "dependent learner" who has not received clear feedback from the "teacher" who doesn't care in the first place if I learn or not.

Turning to the alternate places where CCK08 network gathers, I just can tell you what I've seen which is not much.
I've gone just to two SL cohort sessions, the first one was on a Sunday, and no one was there. The second was on Tuesday and there was a text chat going with 5 participants including myself; I was told that there was more participation on Tuesdays, that they did not use voice to keep records of their meetings and as none of us had done the readings of the week the meeting was cancelled. To be at SL to use only the chat box did not appeal to me and then I started having problems with my graphic card and then I got sick so... I will go back next Tuesday.
The Connectivitas site in Spanish has very low participation; the Connectivitas SL weekly meeting gathers also 5 or 6 participants using voice, not keeping records and voicing questions, discomforts, positions, RL activities, etc. Some of the members (3) formed a group to do the final project. Guess... Who is one of those 3? Who started those meetings? :-)
I have not seen blogs in Spanish about connectivism; I've seen blogs posts tagged as CCK08 where the conversation is about something else. I wish I had more time to search more blogs.
In Moodle I've seen and then talked live to one participant that chose the forums to promote himself, openly as a marketing strategy to get the teacher's recognition. Admittedly not doing the readings, nor visiting blogs, nor blogging about connectivism. He opens threads and posts his papers in his blog due to lack of time. He has followed SD and GS work for 3 years or so. It's working for him, every one of his threads has SD or GS postings and some have made the Daily news.

As for your assertion that CCK08 is a group and not a network I, again, can only tell you my position. A sense of belonging is one of the main aspects that identify a group, right? If you don't feel you belong then it's not your group or you pay a high price to remain there.
For me, if I don't feel I belong, if I don't get feedback then it's a network not a group. I can abandon and no one will notice. In my groups, if I abandon without giving notice, they ask about me and fortunately they get concerned about my health or my situation. I did that just once many years ago and learned my lesson. When I logged in and found the worried messages in several venues I decided that it was not fair to worry people just because I did not think about it, one member called me home from Korea to ask about my silence, he was going to call my parents first!


Regardless of what Stephen and George learn, or how many papers or thesis or whatever they get out of this experiment; I honestly believe that they deserve it. By putting this experiment together, by keeping it going with one or 2000 survivors, they have placed and keep placing every day great effort. They are modeling and giving an example on online team work; they are very different, have opposite views in some areas and have accommodated their differences publicly. George strives to engage students while Stephen enrages them easily, the bad cop vs. good cop routine. That effort should and will be compensated somehow. Besides, they are putting themselves in the firing line, exposing their work and ideas to a vast audience. If I agree with their views or not that's my business. What they are doing is very brave and I salute them for that. = deep bow.

I did not find the "rabid mob of connectivists" here trying to set you right as before, have they gone too? Where are the non-connectivists cheerleaders?

I have used up today's fuel, I started to feel dizzy again so...
Si tienen tele... ahi se ven! :-)