With a little help from Jatinder, a kindred soul in the making of simulators that happen to attract Brandon Hall Awards, I tried to visualize a model of PLEs operating in a connective environment. It started with a reply I made to Janet and Carmen on what I think should be: ...let us contrast the... Continue Reading →
In this post, I would like to propose some new models/directions for Indian Education by addressing some core problem areas that I have been able to identify. I would like to focus on, in particular how some strategic new models could change the way we are addressing the huge scale and diversity in India. The... Continue Reading →
There are doubtless many models put into use to try to analyze the working of the education sector and there is significant interest in this space. Here are my initial thoughts on how we could create a useful analytical model. I consider three dimensions to be vital for this model. Infrastructure This first dimension concerns the... Continue Reading →
I had not heard of games of this genre before, but they are pretty exciting and I must thank Ulises Mejias for my first introduction to this medium. There are many definitions including the one here where ARGs are contrasted with serious games. Apparently, the first such "game" dates back to 1996! Wikipedia defines it as "is... Continue Reading →
In an earlier post, I had visited collaboration techniques and some concepts there that I had encountered and thought about. One conclusion was that: It goes back to us, as individuals, and how we collaborate as subjects, alone or in teams or in networks. If the capability to collaborate in structured ways is learnt and... Continue Reading →
Violence in the classroom. How many of us realize how unsafe our children are in their classrooms and schools? How many of us are still silent spectators to child sexual abuse, corporal punishment and all forms of safety violations for children going to our schools? The recent horrifying stories of corporal punishment (15-year-old girl assaulted by... Continue Reading →
I thought I would take a stab at defining what connectivist metrics could include. Having read in Stephen's post, Connectivist Dynamics in Communities, that connectivist networks produce connective knowledge and that four elements (autonomy, diversity, open-ness and interactivity & connectedness) distinguish a knowledge-generating network from a mere set of connected elements, I thought it would make sense to... Continue Reading →
While researching structured collaboration techniques, I came across some interesting work people are doing. Mindquarry, for example, provides a model of collaboration patterns based on 4 elements - people, productivity software, collaborative software and methods. I had earlier referred to Mindtools, who provide a rich set of structured collaboration techniques, like for example starbusting, which... Continue Reading →
A recent set of conversations with customers and colleagues around communities of practice, networked learning, tools and platforms has provoked a lot of thought. One perspective, that was heavily process oriented & steeped in real life experiences, argued that unless processes and workflows (and related metrics) were established, implementing these tools in the enterprise would... Continue Reading →
This post just had to be written. After hearing about Slumdog Millionaire and (both sides) of the debate surrounding this film, I finally decided to watch it hours before the Oscars ceremony. It is a gut wrenching, sad yet triumphant story for a young boy whose only source of learning was informal, connective, but which... Continue Reading →
Janet Clarey sparked off some serious thinking in my head about, really, what we are measuring in terms of RoI on training initiatives. The post in question was Rob Wilkins' Why do we sacrifice? and you can find our conversation in the comments (and hopefully contribute your thoughts too!). George raises some relevant ideas too in... Continue Reading →
I found this interesting review by Landy M of the book Knowing Knowledge by George Siemens (which I confess I still need to read). I wanted to reproduce some striking comments: If Siemens is correct in asserting that the skills of ‘know where’ and ‘know who’ are now more important than the ‘what’ and ‘how’, we... Continue Reading →
I came across two ideas today that are part of a stream of developments that continue to amaze and intrigue me immensely. Mostly because of their impact on how we will be, perhaps, 10 years or so from now. The first was when my colleagues at work showed me http://www.visualcomplexity.com and the second, a few minutes later in... Continue Reading →
I am investigating the connections between Informal Learning, Communities of Practice, Network of Practice and Connectivism. Found an interesting conversation between Jay Cross, George Siemens, Dave Cormier and (on chat) Stephen Downes on EdTechTalk#23, Nov 3, 2005. Found also Wenger's interview and lecture at a KnowledgeLabs e-portfolio Konference where he talks about learning as meaning/sense making.
What inherently constitutes a connectivist learning ecology? What specifically differentiates it from a collaborative, Web 2.0 or informal learning enabled learning environment? Was the CCK08 course representative of the Connectivist learning ecology? Lisa Lane wrote a list of recommendations on the CCK08 experience. Bradley Shoebottom has devised his own structure. I proposed the concept of Network... Continue Reading →
I have an occasion to do a little research on the Montessori method. Named after Dr. Maria Montessori, who, in 1896, was the first woman in Italy to graduate out of medical school, the Montessori method seems to have rich similarities with Connectivism. The basic Montessori concepts are pretty well known by now (Montessori in... Continue Reading →
Is there something like that at all? In a discussion yesterday, an important point was made by a participant - we don't want perfect environments to be created for our learners, even if we could create them. Why is this important to discuss? Everywhere around us there are "frictional" forces that impede or obscure -... Continue Reading →
In a previous post, I tried to identify some of the impacts of connectivist practice on visual design. Primarily, these are: Usability Visual "languages" HCI Design Programmable patterns depicted visually Shared visual patterns Ease of authoring new media and media mashups I was referred to ManyEyes through a blog post (I think it was George's... Continue Reading →
I read a series of contributions by Stephen, George, Pontydysgu, Attwell, and reviewed PLE diagrams and Wiki entries. George makes the point that PLEs are antithetical to existing educational systems, which are really structures of power, accountability and control based in a sociological context, not focussed on learner needs and goals. For this reason, PLEs, which are... Continue Reading →
In the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, I have witnessed in graphic detail the many aspects of socio-political crisis. On one hand, there is the actual terror and consequent military action. On the other is the political shakeout because of mass opinion that reflected in the local elections and change of power positions in... Continue Reading →
This is the final project submission for CCK08. Thanks to George and Stephen for providing an extremely effective ecology for Connectivism and connective knowledge! Thanks also to all the participants who made this an enjoyable and thought provoking experience. Hoping that we will continue this dialogue onwards into the future. YouTube video accompanying this project... Continue Reading →
As part of my ongoing research into personalization, I realized that networked learning depends critically on the process of socialization, as much as perhaps on having the tools for networking. Indeed, the solutions here may be far more difficult to conceptualize or implement than is the case with technology. I am specifically interested in this... Continue Reading →
This started out as an email, but transformed into a blog post (probably for the better), when I found I had very few email addresses 🙂 It’s been a great experience reading through all your posts and being part of the CCK08 experience. I have benefited greatly from the contributions made by the participants and... Continue Reading →
This final paper is less formal and can be seen as a free roaming thought piece. Reflect on the opportunities and resistance found in society and organizations in adopting different approaches to teaching and learning. Why is it so difficult to change the practice of education? What kinds of opportunities can we embrace if we... Continue Reading →
I put together a very abstract 10,000 ft high view of what I have been learning so far in this course. I don't find it very useful to navigate so many inter-relationships in one large map (what a tangled web we weave). (View the full sized image)
The shifting basis of certainty has been a critical focus during week 5-8. Through readings and discussions, we have focused on complexity, chaos theory, instructional design, power and control, and the changing roles for educators. For your second paper, select your point of emphasis as that of the instructional designer or educator. Explore changing roles... Continue Reading →
This is an interesting discussion for me. The few things that stand out for me are: a. We should be, practically speaking, looking at a continuum between networks and groups, connectives and collectives etc. and situate our applications of connectivism in a range within that continuum. Each point or sub-range in that continuum (represent a... Continue Reading →
I would like to propose two new terms - Network Based Training (NBT - an evolution from the WBT which followed from the CBT) and Network Led Training (NLT - an evolution from Instructor Led Training/ILTs). I would like to focus on the network nature of these terms rather than the training connotation in the... Continue Reading →
This post is a summary based on the experiences with and thinking on Connectivism. George Siemen's wonderful presentation provides a coherent introduction to the challenges of learning design for a connective learning environment. This post builds on this presentation's (and in fact the course's) ideas and attempts to draw out impacts on other roles as... Continue Reading →
There has been a lot of discussion around neurons and neuronal networks. I thought I should get together some basic information around these. This is part one of the series where I look at basic anatomy of the human nervous system. The human nervous system, comprising of the brain (control center of the nervous system),... Continue Reading →
There is a great discussion happening over at the Passion vs. Reason forum. I think it is helpful to acknowledge that, as defined, groups and networks provide two opposing and contrasting definitions of a learning "formation". There could be "pure" groups and "pure" networks, but actual formations would lie somewhere in between these kinds of formations,... Continue Reading →
A fairly interesting discussion on this week's Elluminate discussion. Dr Terry Anderson from the University of Athabasca presented on groups, networks and collectives. He defined groups as people getting together to achieve educational goals, confined in terms of time, space, pace & relationship, often with a high degree of overt control from teacher/institution, isolated from the world... Continue Reading →
There were some posts I wrote on my other blog on groups and networks that I think are relevant to this week's discussion. The links are provided below: Groups and Networks: 2.0 Formal methodologies 2.0 Learning Formations More on Learning Formations Connectives and Collectives Communities of Practice, Learning as a social system (Wenger, 1998) The discussion in these posts is... Continue Reading →
This is Paper 1 for CCK08. I must confess that I did feel that this was a topic best left until the very end of the course J. I am going to treat it as a place to pose the questions that I have so far, perhaps expose the gaps in my reasoning and... Continue Reading →
Let us assume for a moment that all I really know in the world is the following: The set of integers The operator + The results of addition of two identical numbers, 2 with 2 any number of times Or, 2+2=4. Now I can use this knowledge to recognize and solve certain similar equations: 2+4=2+2+2=6... Continue Reading →
End of week two of the "course" and I think I have come some way. While Week 1 was about Connectivism and the changing face of the web at an introductory level exposing me to some interesting ideas and getting me acclimatised to a massively online course, Week 2 has been the process of getting my... Continue Reading →
I read through Dave Cormier’s paper on Rhizomatic Education: Community as Curriculum. As I read through it I found I had too many questions and arguments. Enough to make me doubt whether I understood at all what the paper attempts to explain or if I had the slightest sense of adequacy about the strength of... Continue Reading →
What is Theory? A theory can be thought of consisting of an object (phenomenon/empirical observation/belief/fact or property thereof) that is sought to be described/explained/predicated/predicted, the context within which it is situated and a coherent set of ideas (medium/message). A theory provides insights on interpreting an object in a given context through a set of propositions,... Continue Reading →
I also put together, based on the recording, some participation statistics on the first elluminate session. Shows an interesting distribution. I think there were over 90 participants. Would love to hear back!
In a previous article, I had discussed the juxtaposition of Bruce Tuckman's five stages of group formation and evolution on the characteristics of 2.0 learning formations. I think it is relevant, in Week 1, for me to try and assess how we are as a formation in terms of: the stages (forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning),... Continue Reading →
Charles Reigeluth offers a definition of what a learning theory is. He states that learning theories are descriptive, describing how learning occurs. They are descriptive in the sense that they attempt to provide a deeper understanding of the effects that result from phenomena. In contrast, theories that are design oriented are usually prescriptive in nature... Continue Reading →
This is a first post, so I am unsure where to begin. I think, since I am a novice in the area of learning theory, the appropriate question for me to ask would be "what is a learning theory?". Also what is its distinction from an Instructional Design theory?
Rethinking Education 