Online learning requires a significant shift in pedagogy. For a deeper background and understanding of "Net Pedagogy" check out the just released
Net Pedagogy Portal.
Learn about the new learning and teaching possibilities using
RSS and Syndication services.
A must read book, just released by
George Siemens titled
Knowing Knowledge (available on the net at http://www.elearnspace.org/KnowingKnowledge_LowRes.pdf, gives new insights into how people are learning in our digital age. In a world where many knowledge spaces have become volatile and content itself soft and pliable, shifting, changing, no longer static, how has learning changed in the digital age. What does it mean to know? What is the nature of the act of learning? What types of learning are required in different learning ecologies? What attributes do learners need to develop? How should we teach? Content, Conduit, Conversations, Context, and Control, how do these all fit together? A few quotes to spark your interest:
- Learning has many dimensions. No one model or definition will fit
every situation. Context is central.
- Social tools are emerging which permit rapid exchange of knowledge,
and high levels of dialogue. Communication can now occur collaboratively
(wiki, online meetings), through individual broadcast (blogs, podcasts, video logs), and in shared spaces (social bookmarking). Knowledge, when buffeted by numerous forces and factors, is under constant scrutiny by the masses.
- We are in the early stages of dramatic change—change that will shake
the spaces and structures of our society. Knowledge, the building block
of tomorrow, is riding a tumultuous sea of change. Previously, knowledge
served the aims of the economy—creation, production, and
marketing. Today, knowledge is the economy. What used to be the
means has today become the end.
- To define context is to frame the solution.
Context is not as simple as being in a different space…context includes
elements like our emotions, recent experiences, beliefs, and the surrounding
environment—each element possesses attributes, that when
considered in a certain light, informs what is possible in the discussion.
- A holistic, integral approach to thinking, learning, and knowledge is
required as our society grows in complexity.
If this is the only book you read on learning and teaching in the digital age this year, you will be well served with deeper understanding, provocative thought, and a sense of direction that learning and teaching is taking as we travel deeper into the digital age, living the processes of networked knowledge creation through our online activities.
