Category: social learning

Donna Murdoch, Higher Ed, New Pedagogies, social learning

Neophobia fear of the new – not new but it’s….annoying

 

Why do people fear the new?  Is it a product of superficial reaction about cognition that doesn’t allow the mind and human nature to be malleable and adjust to new thinking?  This article by Donald Clark addresses neophobia.  He reminds us of the famous Douglas Adams’ thoughts – 1) Everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal  2)  Anything that gets invented before then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career of it  3)  Anything that gets invented after your thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it until it has been around for ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright….

I agree with his post, however this is about adults, and how they learn, and how they change.  The are additional dynamics that are introduced when a new process or technology is introduced into the “normalcy” that someone experiences everyday.  Every day tasks become about the technology, and not about the process or goal we are trying to achieve.  It gets in the way, it is like training a new employee (except we are training ourselves.)  It is an investment of time we hope will pay off.

Good food for thought from Donald Clark.

Thomas Kuhn and the evolutionist Wilson, saw neophobia as a brake on human thinking and progress, as individuals and institutions tend to work within paradigms, encouraging ‘groupthink’ which makes people irrationally defensive and unsupportive of new ideas and technologies.

via Donald Clark Plan B: Neophobia fear of the new – not new but it’s damn annoying.

Donna Murdoch, social learning

Networked Knowing

 

 

 

Networks are beginning to replace hierarchies as an organizational model.  In this knowledge economy, we don’t know what the future holds.  We only know it will be more complex, and that our personal networks and nodes are more and more important.  Harold Jarche, thoughtful as always, shares his vision of the 21st century workplace:

“One major difference between the 21st century and the work shift of the last century is that there are no jobs waiting for displaced workers today. One hundred years ago farm hands could move to the city and get a job. Today, the future of work is not in the form of a job. This may be a shock to those already in the workforce but it is an accepted reality amongst many younger people.”

via Networked Knowing.

Donna Murdoch, educational technology, MOOC, New Pedagogies, online learning, Open Resources, social learning

From Courses to Communities

The long tail of open learning – free online courses of any type, cMOOCs, xMOOCs – is the community that forms around each one.  This has been my personal experience, and one we don’t usually hear discussed.  The course may not ever be completed, but the people we virtually bump into often share common interests and become a part of our PLNs.  In some cases we already know them from other virtual learning environments.  Interests intersect, and we bump into others – nodes in our networks.  This has been so valuable.  This article is from DML Central.

“When I started collaborating with Mitchel Resnick and Natalie Rusk at the MIT Media Lab we set out to design and offer a somewhat different online course. It would be easy to say now that creating an online learning community was our intention from the start, but the truth is, we were a little surprised ourselves, surprised and excited. Learning Creative Learning, the online course we created, became a springboard for learning with family, friends, and colleagues and turned into an ongoing community.”

via From Courses to Communities | DMLcentral.

Donna Murdoch, entrepreneurs, Higher Ed, social learning

Start Up, Slow Down – Entrepreneurial Research in Higher Ed

Entrepreneurship is encouraged and supported in academia, at every level of study.  At MIT, doctoral students now weigh the pros and cons of pausing their academic pursuits (or dropping out) to develop their work commercially against completing their doctorate.  Do they let licenses run out, developed inside of the University?  Or do they stay in school?  It is hard to run a company and do the work required for graduation, but where is their obligation?  This article in The Chronicle describes some examples.    “The public has invested in university research and will now reap the benefits. At the bottom of these initiatives, though, are students like Ms. Brikner, who now must balance two obligations to MIT: as student and licensee.”

via Start Up, Slow Down – Research – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Donna Murdoch, educational technology, New Pedagogies, social learning

Our Education System Conflicts With the Science of Learning

 

Our brains are not designed to learn in what we consider a typical setting.  Classrooms and lectures are recent constructs, and in fact the brain is a “forager” well equipped to collect information informally, on the go.  Benedict Carey shares his theory on Big Think, where he explains there no one-size-fits all tactic for learning…

“He explains the importance of sleep, as it’s the brain’s method of consolidating a day’s lessons. He defends the act of forgetting, as it allows for stronger retention after re-learning like the building of a memory muscle. Daydreaming and distraction, in certain contexts, can actually boost your learning ability.”

via Our Education System Conflicts With the Science of Learning | Big Think | IdeaFeed.

Donna Murdoch, educational technology, New Pedagogies, social learning

Digital Media Plus Teaching Equals Support for Freedom

There is ongoing debate about technology in the classroom, erupting again in the past week when Clay Shirky (NYU) wrote an article about his classroom. He is no longer allowing laptops or devices.  This survey of 10,000 high school students asked if technology made them smarter, not as smart, or if they believed the tool was not important – it’s how we use it.  They chose the last view.  From MediaShift/PBS.

“A new survey of more than 10,000 high school students lends support to that last view. Amid an explosion in social and mobile media – their media – high school students are supporting freedom of expression in record numbers, and are even more likely to do so if they also have had a class in the First Amendment.”

via News for High Schools: Digital Media Plus Teaching Equals Support for Freedom | Mediashift | PBS.

Donna Murdoch, eLearning, New Pedagogies, social learning

Informal or “Less Formal” Learning?

In order to assess how people define “informal learning” in the workplace, Jane Hart did a survey for an eLearning Guild report and asked respondents for their definitions. – “The first question asked respondents to select five words or phrases they felt best described the term “informal learning.” The purpose of this question was to see if respondents understood the term informal learning similarly to how experts understand it.”  The chart above shows the responses.

A copy of the report is at the link as well.

via eLearning Guild Research: Informal or “Less Formal” Learning? by Patti Shank : Learning Solutions Magazine.

Donna Murdoch, educational technology, New Pedagogies, Open Resources, social learning

Digital Tools Can’t Magically Create Connections

 

There are a number of digital tools used to make social connections, all with different purposes.  danah boyd’s recent book, “It’s Complicated, The Social Lives of Networked Teens” shares her as-always profound understanding of how networked spaces work.  In this article from DML Central, Nicole Mirra shares a review of one of danah and Harold Jenkins’ recent book talks and suggests ways in which some of the points made in the discussion geared for parents can also be used as catalysts for meaningful conversations between educators and their students.

1. “Tools that can connect us don’t do so automatically — online spaces are often just as segregated as other social spaces.”boyd and Jenkins explained that while it may appear that digital tools automatically inspire connection across boundaries, the reality of how people use them often produces increased isolation socioeconomically and ideologically……”

via Digital Tools Can’t Magically Create Connections | DMLcentral.

Donna Murdoch, educational technology, social learning

Sense-making and sharing

Personal knowledge mastery is about much more than watching relevant feeds on RSS, networked learning, or keeping up with new developments in your field.  Meaning-making, or what Harold Jarche refers to as Sense-making, is necessary to use that knowledge properly.  Sometimes we find things we want everyone on our team to know.  Are they receptive?  How do we know who to share new knowledge with?  It is one of the most difficult parts of being a networked, lifelong learner in a workplace.  People have other things to do, urgent things to take care of.  Harold refers to “too much noise” – how do we avoid becoming noise as opposed to a signal?   “If you only seek new information and knowledge for yourself, without spending time to make it personal, you will not advance your own growth bottom left. If you keep your knowledge to yourself, you will not be viewed as a contributor to any knowledge networks, and will miss out on learning with and from others, especially professional colleagues bottom right. However, if you share indiscriminately, you will be creating too much noise, and others will ignore you top left. The journey to personal knowledge mastery is finding the right balance between seeking, sense-making, and sharing top right. There are many possible practices in this quadrant, but each person must find his or her own way.”

via Sense-making and sharing.

Donna Murdoch, eLearning, Higher Ed, New Pedagogies, social learning

2014 survey shows again that company training/e-learning is the least valued way to learn at work

WorkPlacelearningskillsThis chart shows the types of learning that were valued most in 2014.  Most interesting that Knowledge Shared with Team and Web Search for Resources are at one end of the spectrum (positively) while e-Learning is at the other.  Thanks to Jane Hart for her annual research.  “What does this mean for L&D departments? It suggests the focus of their work should be in the areas that are seen as high value, e.g.supporting knowledge, sharing across the enterprise, developing self-service resources, offering and guiding group learning opportunities, and building the personal and social learning skills that will ensure all employees can thrive in today’s workplace.”

via 2014 survey shows again that company training/e-learning is the least valued way to learn at work | Learning in the Modern Workplace.