A Manifesto for Community Colleges, Lifelong Learning, and Autodidacts
May 15, 2013 | Filed in: Open Education
by Sean Michael Morris
As some are raised a Catholic or an atheist or a vegetarian, I was raised an academic. The university always had about it a mystique, a cloud of mystery and veneration. Lauded in my household were the values of objectivity, critical thinking, close reading. As early as the fourth grade, my mother took me to her college Shakespeare classes, introduced me to her professors, and indulged me with lunch at the student union. I attended classes with her throughout her undergraduate study; and for years after, I’d walk through campus simply to absorb the essence of the place. Today, I am as much in love with the endeavor of higher education as I am disappointed by its outcomes.
Read More...
As some are raised a Catholic or an atheist or a vegetarian, I was raised an academic. The university always had about it a mystique, a cloud of mystery and veneration. Lauded in my household were the values of objectivity, critical thinking, close reading. As early as the fourth grade, my mother took me to her college Shakespeare classes, introduced me to her professors, and indulged me with lunch at the student union. I attended classes with her throughout her undergraduate study; and for years after, I’d walk through campus simply to absorb the essence of the place. Today, I am as much in love with the endeavor of higher education as I am disappointed by its outcomes.
Read More...Comments
Critical and Digital Pedagogies: a Virtual Unconference
May 14, 2013 | Filed in: Commons
by Valerie Robin
Most of us are not strangers to the concept of the forum. Forums are attached to nearly every type of community building platform that hopes to encourage continuing discussion. But what do we do with forums? If you’re anything like me, you dip your typing fingers in the forum pool about twice a year, but mostly forget they exist. In their recent article “The Discussion Forum is Dead; Long Live the Discussion Forum,” Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel claim “the forum itself does not automatically promote meaningful conversation -- or conversation at all.” In truth, the forum, any forum, is a metaphorically empty room when no one is in it. But it is much more than just a potential place to gather. It is a space with potential: “In the right hands, it can do wonders,” Jesse and Sean remind us.
Read More...
Most of us are not strangers to the concept of the forum. Forums are attached to nearly every type of community building platform that hopes to encourage continuing discussion. But what do we do with forums? If you’re anything like me, you dip your typing fingers in the forum pool about twice a year, but mostly forget they exist. In their recent article “The Discussion Forum is Dead; Long Live the Discussion Forum,” Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel claim “the forum itself does not automatically promote meaningful conversation -- or conversation at all.” In truth, the forum, any forum, is a metaphorically empty room when no one is in it. But it is much more than just a potential place to gather. It is a space with potential: “In the right hands, it can do wonders,” Jesse and Sean remind us.
Read More...The Discussion Forum is Dead; Long Live the Discussion Forum
May 08, 2013 | Filed in: Tools
by Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel
There are better forums for discussion than online discussion forums. The discussion forum is a ubiquitous component of every learning management system and online learning platform from Blackboard to Moodle to Coursera. Forums have become, in many ways, synonymous with discussion in the online class, as though one relatively standardized interface can stand in for the many and varied modes of interaction we might have in a physical classroom. The rhetoric of a physical classroom -- its pedagogical topography -- can certainly dictate how we teach within it: where the seats are, which direction they face, whether they’re bolted down, what kind of writing surfaces are on the walls, how many walls have writing surfaces, whether there are windows, doors that lock, etc. The same is true of the virtual classroom: is it password protected, what kind of landing page do we arrive on when we enter the course, how many pages allow interaction, can students easily upload and share content. Each of these predetermined variables allows (and sometimes demands) a certain pedagogy.
Read More...
There are better forums for discussion than online discussion forums. The discussion forum is a ubiquitous component of every learning management system and online learning platform from Blackboard to Moodle to Coursera. Forums have become, in many ways, synonymous with discussion in the online class, as though one relatively standardized interface can stand in for the many and varied modes of interaction we might have in a physical classroom. The rhetoric of a physical classroom -- its pedagogical topography -- can certainly dictate how we teach within it: where the seats are, which direction they face, whether they’re bolted down, what kind of writing surfaces are on the walls, how many walls have writing surfaces, whether there are windows, doors that lock, etc. The same is true of the virtual classroom: is it password protected, what kind of landing page do we arrive on when we enter the course, how many pages allow interaction, can students easily upload and share content. Each of these predetermined variables allows (and sometimes demands) a certain pedagogy.
Read More...#digped Storify: Expertise, Mutiny, and Peer-to-Peer Learning
May 05, 2013 | Filed in: #digped
by Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel
This #digped chat about peer-to-peer learning, or learning in the collective, was inspired by John Seely Brown and Douglas Thomas' book, A New Culture of Learning. In that book, the authors propose that the nature of and methods for learning have changed with the digital age, and that how learning happens now is not necessarily in the hands of teachers; rather, learners -- and in this case, all learners are lifelong learners -- are beginning to take matters of education into their own hands. They open their book with this "very simple question": “What happens to learning when we move from the stable infrastructure of the twentieth century to the fluid infrastructure of the twenty-first century, where technology is constantly creating and responding to change?” Our discussion on May 3rd focused on ideas presented in the book's fourth chapter, "Learning in the Collective", where the authors looked at peer-to-peer learning, or how learners help one another learn. We wanted to investigate how this happens successfully, what happens to the role of the expert/teacher, and...?
Read More...
This #digped chat about peer-to-peer learning, or learning in the collective, was inspired by John Seely Brown and Douglas Thomas' book, A New Culture of Learning. In that book, the authors propose that the nature of and methods for learning have changed with the digital age, and that how learning happens now is not necessarily in the hands of teachers; rather, learners -- and in this case, all learners are lifelong learners -- are beginning to take matters of education into their own hands. They open their book with this "very simple question": “What happens to learning when we move from the stable infrastructure of the twentieth century to the fluid infrastructure of the twenty-first century, where technology is constantly creating and responding to change?” Our discussion on May 3rd focused on ideas presented in the book's fourth chapter, "Learning in the Collective", where the authors looked at peer-to-peer learning, or how learners help one another learn. We wanted to investigate how this happens successfully, what happens to the role of the expert/teacher, and...?
Read More...Multiple Personality Pedagogy: Varying Voice in the Classroom
April 30, 2013 | Filed in: Literacies
by Mark Spitzer
As teachers, we sometimes get tired of hearing our own voices. That’s why we show movies, bring in guest speakers, and encourage discussion. Plus, we want to bring in other views in order to provide alternative perspectives. Otherwise, we’re just recreating ourselves in our students. Worse than that, a lack of diverse voices in the classroom can lead to boredom and indifference―so let’s have some fun, and maybe even some inspiration.
Read More...
As teachers, we sometimes get tired of hearing our own voices. That’s why we show movies, bring in guest speakers, and encourage discussion. Plus, we want to bring in other views in order to provide alternative perspectives. Otherwise, we’re just recreating ourselves in our students. Worse than that, a lack of diverse voices in the classroom can lead to boredom and indifference―so let’s have some fun, and maybe even some inspiration.
Read More...Peer-to-Peer Learning in the Collective: a #digped Discussion
April 29, 2013 | Filed in: #digped
by Sean Michael Morris
Pedagogically, the collective both poses certain dilemmas -- such as the evolving role of the instructor, the ambiguous nature of assessment, the difficulty of maintaining the course as container -- and offers certain benefits -- the introduction of non-competitive research and writing, the opening of democratic communities of learning, and a fuller participation and ownership from students in their own educations. For many teachers, the question of how to modify our pedagogical approach can create anxiety, uncertainty, and even resentment toward a shift in the culture of learning that we’ve had little control over, that’s come at us from outside our own domain; for others, this new landscape appears inviting, exciting, and full of possibility.
Read More...
Pedagogically, the collective both poses certain dilemmas -- such as the evolving role of the instructor, the ambiguous nature of assessment, the difficulty of maintaining the course as container -- and offers certain benefits -- the introduction of non-competitive research and writing, the opening of democratic communities of learning, and a fuller participation and ownership from students in their own educations. For many teachers, the question of how to modify our pedagogical approach can create anxiety, uncertainty, and even resentment toward a shift in the culture of learning that we’ve had little control over, that’s come at us from outside our own domain; for others, this new landscape appears inviting, exciting, and full of possibility.
Read More...Of Machine Guns and MOOCs: 21st Century Engineering Disasters
April 24, 2013 | Filed in: Open Education
by Pat Lockley
Victorian hubris opined, “All that can be invented has been invented,” and so we entered the 20th century emboldened with a Titanic which was unsinkable, and a hydrogen-packed Hindenburg. The invention eureka moment is chance, perseverance, sweat -- but also danger. Gone is the slow iteration of change; upon us, the sudden rupture-rapture of the new. No one expects thousands will die in the North Atlantic; no one expects academics to throw themselves on gangways as luddite voices of restraint. If teaching is what we do, do we not owe those seeking to learn a reassurance they are at least on a seaworthy ship? How much of the good ship MOOC is built on the same blueprints as many noble vessels whose buoyancy has long since proved questionable? Somewhere Leonardo di Caprio stands on the bow of Google Reader.
Read More...
Victorian hubris opined, “All that can be invented has been invented,” and so we entered the 20th century emboldened with a Titanic which was unsinkable, and a hydrogen-packed Hindenburg. The invention eureka moment is chance, perseverance, sweat -- but also danger. Gone is the slow iteration of change; upon us, the sudden rupture-rapture of the new. No one expects thousands will die in the North Atlantic; no one expects academics to throw themselves on gangways as luddite voices of restraint. If teaching is what we do, do we not owe those seeking to learn a reassurance they are at least on a seaworthy ship? How much of the good ship MOOC is built on the same blueprints as many noble vessels whose buoyancy has long since proved questionable? Somewhere Leonardo di Caprio stands on the bow of Google Reader.
Read More...Learning Beyond Limits: Open Source Collaboration in the Classroom
April 22, 2013 | Filed in: Open Education
by Adam Heidebrink
What happens to a student paper or project after the individual turns it in or presents it in class? Where does it go? What, ultimately, is at stake for the student when s/he sits down to apply his or her thoughts to paper? What mediums do these thoughts and ideas travel through and whom they reach? What impact does their effort make beyond the classroom? These are questions of vital importance to every educator and pedagogue practicing today. Yet, in many cases, the answers to these questions are not particularly noteworthy. Students’ efforts in the classroom ultimately solidify into one definitive mark or grade, which too often denotes the end of the assignment’s life. There is, of course, a small percentage of student projects and papers that make their way into a conference or journal; but more often than not, they will end up archived on a hard-drive, somewhere, for a little while, and then deleted.
Read More...
What happens to a student paper or project after the individual turns it in or presents it in class? Where does it go? What, ultimately, is at stake for the student when s/he sits down to apply his or her thoughts to paper? What mediums do these thoughts and ideas travel through and whom they reach? What impact does their effort make beyond the classroom? These are questions of vital importance to every educator and pedagogue practicing today. Yet, in many cases, the answers to these questions are not particularly noteworthy. Students’ efforts in the classroom ultimately solidify into one definitive mark or grade, which too often denotes the end of the assignment’s life. There is, of course, a small percentage of student projects and papers that make their way into a conference or journal; but more often than not, they will end up archived on a hard-drive, somewhere, for a little while, and then deleted.
Read More...Learning in the Collective
April 17, 2013 | Filed in: Open Education
by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown
In the new culture of learning, people learn through their interaction and participation with one another in fluid relationships that are the result of shared interests and opportunity. In this environment, the participants all stand on equal ground -- no one is assigned to the traditional role of teacher or student. Instead, anyone who has particular knowledge of, or experience with, a given subject may take on the role of mentor at any time. Mentors provide a sense of structure to guide learning, which they may do by listening empathically and by reinforcing intrinsic motivation to help the student discover a voice, a calling, or a passion. Once a particular passion or interest is unleashed, constant interaction among group members, with their varying skills and talents, functions as a kind of peer amplifier, providing numerous outlets, resources, and aids to further an individual’s learning.
Read More...
In the new culture of learning, people learn through their interaction and participation with one another in fluid relationships that are the result of shared interests and opportunity. In this environment, the participants all stand on equal ground -- no one is assigned to the traditional role of teacher or student. Instead, anyone who has particular knowledge of, or experience with, a given subject may take on the role of mentor at any time. Mentors provide a sense of structure to guide learning, which they may do by listening empathically and by reinforcing intrinsic motivation to help the student discover a voice, a calling, or a passion. Once a particular passion or interest is unleashed, constant interaction among group members, with their varying skills and talents, functions as a kind of peer amplifier, providing numerous outlets, resources, and aids to further an individual’s learning.
Read More...How NOT to Teach Online: A Story in Two Parts
April 11, 2013 | Filed in: Online Learning
by Bonnie Stewart
Here’s a little secret: when I started teaching people how to teach online, I had no clue what I was doing. It was 1998. I was a graduate student, without extensive computer skills or even teaching experience. I’d been a high school English teacher for a few years, and I’d taught GED classes, but my online facilitation background was limited to helping students figure out how to search song lyrics on Altavista. Then I took a part-time job for my university coordinating a fledgling online M.Ed program. This was new stuff, then, with few best practices available to build on. The college had bought a bright and shiny “online learning platform” and it was my role to facilitate seminars teaching faculty how to use it. Just as soon as I figured it out myself.
Read More...
Here’s a little secret: when I started teaching people how to teach online, I had no clue what I was doing. It was 1998. I was a graduate student, without extensive computer skills or even teaching experience. I’d been a high school English teacher for a few years, and I’d taught GED classes, but my online facilitation background was limited to helping students figure out how to search song lyrics on Altavista. Then I took a part-time job for my university coordinating a fledgling online M.Ed program. This was new stuff, then, with few best practices available to build on. The college had bought a bright and shiny “online learning platform” and it was my role to facilitate seminars teaching faculty how to use it. Just as soon as I figured it out myself.
Read More...The Early Days of Videotaped Lectures
April 10, 2013 | Filed in: Online Learning
by Audrey Watters
“It’s early days for online education,” declared a recent article in the technology blog Techcrunch, with its typical giddiness about the changes that technology is poised to bring to schooling. But the narrative that education and technology have only recently intersected ignores decades of products and practices. It ignores decades of experiences and expertise. And while some things ed-tech might seem quite shiny, it’s worth asking -- with a nod to the past and a good deal of skepticism about the promises for the future -- “what’s new?”
Read More...
“It’s early days for online education,” declared a recent article in the technology blog Techcrunch, with its typical giddiness about the changes that technology is poised to bring to schooling. But the narrative that education and technology have only recently intersected ignores decades of products and practices. It ignores decades of experiences and expertise. And while some things ed-tech might seem quite shiny, it’s worth asking -- with a nod to the past and a good deal of skepticism about the promises for the future -- “what’s new?”
Read More...The Failure of an Online Program
April 09, 2013 | Filed in: Online Learning
by Sean Michael Morris
It's evening. An Irish pub in Louisville, Colorado. Fish and chips. Beer. A game of soccer on the TV. I'm sitting down with one of my faculty to revisit the department's Developmental English course (ENG 090). My goal: bring the course fully online, eliminate the text book, and make it a deeper learning and community building experience for all who enroll. The trick is, almost no one enrolls in ENG 090 because they want to. They enroll because they failed a test. How do you take a student from "You failed. Take this class." to "Writing is fun!" And how do you do that online?
Read More...
It's evening. An Irish pub in Louisville, Colorado. Fish and chips. Beer. A game of soccer on the TV. I'm sitting down with one of my faculty to revisit the department's Developmental English course (ENG 090). My goal: bring the course fully online, eliminate the text book, and make it a deeper learning and community building experience for all who enroll. The trick is, almost no one enrolls in ENG 090 because they want to. They enroll because they failed a test. How do you take a student from "You failed. Take this class." to "Writing is fun!" And how do you do that online?
Read More...Why Online Programs Fail, and 5 Things We Can Do About It
April 08, 2013 | Filed in: Online Learning
by Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel
The failure of online education programs is not logistical, nor political, nor economic: it’s cultural, rooted in our perspectives and biases about how learning happens and how the internet works (these things too often seen in opposition). For learning to change drastically -- a trajectory suggested but not yet realized by the rise of MOOCs -- teaching must change drastically. And in order for that to happen, we must conceive of the activity of teaching, as an occupation and preoccupation, in entirely new and unexpected ways. We must unseat ourselves, unnerve ourselves. Online learning is uncomfortable, and so educators must become uncomfortable in their positions as teachers and pedagogues. And the administration of online programs must follow suit.
Read More...
The failure of online education programs is not logistical, nor political, nor economic: it’s cultural, rooted in our perspectives and biases about how learning happens and how the internet works (these things too often seen in opposition). For learning to change drastically -- a trajectory suggested but not yet realized by the rise of MOOCs -- teaching must change drastically. And in order for that to happen, we must conceive of the activity of teaching, as an occupation and preoccupation, in entirely new and unexpected ways. We must unseat ourselves, unnerve ourselves. Online learning is uncomfortable, and so educators must become uncomfortable in their positions as teachers and pedagogues. And the administration of online programs must follow suit.
Read More...#digped Storify: Questioning Writing MOOCs
April 07, 2013 | Filed in: #digped
by Sean Michael Morris
The idea of teaching a subject as highly individualized as composition strikes many dedicated instructors as problematic at least. While technologists support the idea of "robo-grading", most writing instructors understand intuitively how technology will always fail to mimic the nuance present in human reading and evaluation. Our conversation developed primarily around three important matters: the role of students in their own assessment (peer-review), the role of the instructor in collective learning environments, and the matter of how we go forward as pedagogues upon whose innovation and knowledge the effectiveness of massive learning will depend.
Read More...
The idea of teaching a subject as highly individualized as composition strikes many dedicated instructors as problematic at least. While technologists support the idea of "robo-grading", most writing instructors understand intuitively how technology will always fail to mimic the nuance present in human reading and evaluation. Our conversation developed primarily around three important matters: the role of students in their own assessment (peer-review), the role of the instructor in collective learning environments, and the matter of how we go forward as pedagogues upon whose innovation and knowledge the effectiveness of massive learning will depend.
Read More...Making Composition Massive: a #digped Discussion
April 02, 2013 | Filed in: #digped
by Sean Michael Morris
Always when we talk about massively-scaled learning, we must first face the gargoyle of our resistance. Despite their inexorable march, and subsequently proliferating PR, MOOCs have not been embraced by the majority of educators. In fact, MOOCs are seen as an experiment rife with poorly executed pedagogies, troubling colonial overtures, and corporate origins that threaten to prey upon traditional higher education. And yet, MOOCs are upon us and resistance may well prove futile. Perhaps instead of erecting an ed-tech Berlin Wall, with MOOC adopters on one side and holdouts against this massive technology on the other, we should consider ways of making these MOOCs work for us, not against us.
Read More...
Always when we talk about massively-scaled learning, we must first face the gargoyle of our resistance. Despite their inexorable march, and subsequently proliferating PR, MOOCs have not been embraced by the majority of educators. In fact, MOOCs are seen as an experiment rife with poorly executed pedagogies, troubling colonial overtures, and corporate origins that threaten to prey upon traditional higher education. And yet, MOOCs are upon us and resistance may well prove futile. Perhaps instead of erecting an ed-tech Berlin Wall, with MOOC adopters on one side and holdouts against this massive technology on the other, we should consider ways of making these MOOCs work for us, not against us.
Read More...A Scholarship of Resistance: Bravery, Contingency, and Higher Education
April 01, 2013 | Filed in: Profession
by Lee Skallerup Bessette and Jesse StommelDigital pedagogy, or any experimental critical pedagogy, is necessarily dangerous, often with real risks for both instructors and students, much of which can be valuable for learning. But when we experiment with our pedagogies, we confront an establishment that can be hostile to anything new -- an establishment that often punishes rather than rewards innovation -- that increasingly enforces the standardization of curriculums and classroom practice. With approximately three-quarters of all classes being taught by contingent faculty, any deviation can trigger a non-renewal, leaving the critical pedagogue on the outside looking in. Read More...
Vlogging Composition: Making Content Dynamic
March 28, 2013 | Filed in: Literacies
by Susan Gail Taylor
With technological innovations come opportunities for students to compose, communicate, share, collaborate, and express themselves in contemporary ways as well as opportunities for teachers to harness potential academic possibilities. Vlogging, or video blogging, is one way to introduce dynamic content and technologically enhanced pedagogical techniques to students in a variety of disciplines, specifically composition. From student-created vlogs that focus on reflection, collaboration, and community building to teacher-created vlogs that focus on interactive lessons and that introduce a spirit of play to the classroom, vlogs can be significant and practical learning tools; specifically in the composition classroom, vlogs can teach students the power of visual text and can allow them an informal way of exploring the composing process.
Read More...
With technological innovations come opportunities for students to compose, communicate, share, collaborate, and express themselves in contemporary ways as well as opportunities for teachers to harness potential academic possibilities. Vlogging, or video blogging, is one way to introduce dynamic content and technologically enhanced pedagogical techniques to students in a variety of disciplines, specifically composition. From student-created vlogs that focus on reflection, collaboration, and community building to teacher-created vlogs that focus on interactive lessons and that introduce a spirit of play to the classroom, vlogs can be significant and practical learning tools; specifically in the composition classroom, vlogs can teach students the power of visual text and can allow them an informal way of exploring the composing process.
Read More...Will MOOCs Work for Writing?
March 27, 2013 | Filed in: Literacies
by Chris Friend
When faced with a complex, fluid, and potentially uncontrollable situation, I’ve often heard people say, “It’s like herding cats.” I can think of no more complex, variable, and fluid task than writing. Its nuances and complexities seem to defy consistency; what works as “good writing” in one circumstance can be disastrous in another. Indeed, the push toward multimodality in student writing means even the products can vary: essays one minute, blogs the next, videos after that. We also strive to develop stylistic variation: the strongest students develop a personal voice that makes their work distinctive. Everything about writing activities makes them seem like one-offs: what works in each instance is different than the next solution. The complex challenges of teaching students to work within that degree of variability makes me despair.
Read More...
When faced with a complex, fluid, and potentially uncontrollable situation, I’ve often heard people say, “It’s like herding cats.” I can think of no more complex, variable, and fluid task than writing. Its nuances and complexities seem to defy consistency; what works as “good writing” in one circumstance can be disastrous in another. Indeed, the push toward multimodality in student writing means even the products can vary: essays one minute, blogs the next, videos after that. We also strive to develop stylistic variation: the strongest students develop a personal voice that makes their work distinctive. Everything about writing activities makes them seem like one-offs: what works in each instance is different than the next solution. The complex challenges of teaching students to work within that degree of variability makes me despair.
Read More...It’s Time to Play: Games, Gamification, and Active Learning
March 25, 2013 | Filed in: Critical Pedagogy
by Lee Skallerup Bessette
Play is making a comeback. There have been TED Talks, peer-reviewed articles in pediatrics journals, pieces in The Atlantic, and an entire industry now devoted to the “right” kind of play for our kids’ development. So why devote another 2000+ words to play and pedagogy, especially because it has already been done well by the creators of this very site? I’ve learned a great deal from watching my two kids, currently aged just four and almost six. I’ve watched them perform free imaginative play, interactive narrative play, and rules-driven play. Currently the conflict in my household is between the elder sister, who is obsessed with making sure everyone follows the rules, and her younger brother, who is still more interested in exploring and experimenting, happily making it up as he goes along.
Read More...
Play is making a comeback. There have been TED Talks, peer-reviewed articles in pediatrics journals, pieces in The Atlantic, and an entire industry now devoted to the “right” kind of play for our kids’ development. So why devote another 2000+ words to play and pedagogy, especially because it has already been done well by the creators of this very site? I’ve learned a great deal from watching my two kids, currently aged just four and almost six. I’ve watched them perform free imaginative play, interactive narrative play, and rules-driven play. Currently the conflict in my household is between the elder sister, who is obsessed with making sure everyone follows the rules, and her younger brother, who is still more interested in exploring and experimenting, happily making it up as he goes along.
Read More...Failure, Part of the Creative Process: Anya Kamenetz Twinterview
March 18, 2013 | Filed in: Open Education
by Pete Rorabaugh
On Friday, March 8, I interviewed Anya Kamenetz, author of DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Change in Higher Education (2010). Kamenetz's writing investigates systemic problems associated with funding, institutional inflexibility, and explores homegrown alternatives. DIY U was one of the first books published in the U.S. to discuss the incipient cMOOC community and also touches on the work of Jim Groom at the University of Mary Washington. In the wake of a year's worth of media-MOOC-craziness, I asked about Kamenetz's reflections since the publication of DIY U, specifically related to innovations within and alternatives to the structure of higher education.
Read More...
On Friday, March 8, I interviewed Anya Kamenetz, author of DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Change in Higher Education (2010). Kamenetz's writing investigates systemic problems associated with funding, institutional inflexibility, and explores homegrown alternatives. DIY U was one of the first books published in the U.S. to discuss the incipient cMOOC community and also touches on the work of Jim Groom at the University of Mary Washington. In the wake of a year's worth of media-MOOC-craziness, I asked about Kamenetz's reflections since the publication of DIY U, specifically related to innovations within and alternatives to the structure of higher education.
Read More...Decoding Digital Pedagogy, pt. 2: (Un)Mapping the Terrain
March 05, 2013 | Filed in: Digital Pedagogy
by Jesse Stommel
Digital pedagogy is not a dancing monkey. It won’t do tricks on command. It won’t come obediently when called. Nobody can show us how to do it or make it happen like magic on our computer screens. There isn’t a 90-minute how-to webinar, and we can’t outsource it. We become experts in digital pedagogy in the same way we become American literature scholars, medievalists, or doctors of sociology. We become digital pedagogues by spending many years devoting our life to researching, practicing, writing about, presenting on, and teaching digital pedagogies. In other words, we live, work, and build networks within the field. But digital pedagogy is less a field and more an active present participle, a way of engaging the world, not a world to itself, a way of approaching the not-at-all-discrete acts of teaching and learning. To become an expert in digital pedagogy, then, we need both experience and openness to each new learning activity, technology, or collaboration. Digital pedagogy is a discipline, but only in the most porous, dynamic, and playful senses of the word.
Read More...
Digital pedagogy is not a dancing monkey. It won’t do tricks on command. It won’t come obediently when called. Nobody can show us how to do it or make it happen like magic on our computer screens. There isn’t a 90-minute how-to webinar, and we can’t outsource it. We become experts in digital pedagogy in the same way we become American literature scholars, medievalists, or doctors of sociology. We become digital pedagogues by spending many years devoting our life to researching, practicing, writing about, presenting on, and teaching digital pedagogies. In other words, we live, work, and build networks within the field. But digital pedagogy is less a field and more an active present participle, a way of engaging the world, not a world to itself, a way of approaching the not-at-all-discrete acts of teaching and learning. To become an expert in digital pedagogy, then, we need both experience and openness to each new learning activity, technology, or collaboration. Digital pedagogy is a discipline, but only in the most porous, dynamic, and playful senses of the word.
Read More...Decoding Digital Pedagogy, pt. 1: Beyond the LMS
March 05, 2013 | Filed in: Digital Pedagogy
by Sean Michael Morris
We are not ready to teach online. In a recent conversation with a friend, I found myself puzzled, and a bit troubled, when he expressed confusion about digital pedagogy. He said something to the extent of, "What's the difference between digital pedagogy and teaching online? Aren't all online teachers digital pedagogues?" Being a contemplative guy, I didn't just tip over his drink and walk away. Instead, I pondered the source of his question. Digital pedagogy is largely misunderstood in higher education. The advent of online learning and instructional design brought the classroom onto the web, and with it all manner of teaching: good and bad, coherent and incoherent, networked and disconnected. Whatever pedagogy any given teacher employed in his classroom became digitized. If I teach history by reading from my twenty-year-old notes, or if I lead workshops in creative writing, or if I teach literature through movies, I bring that online and -- boom! -- I'm a digital pedagogue. Right?
Read More...
We are not ready to teach online. In a recent conversation with a friend, I found myself puzzled, and a bit troubled, when he expressed confusion about digital pedagogy. He said something to the extent of, "What's the difference between digital pedagogy and teaching online? Aren't all online teachers digital pedagogues?" Being a contemplative guy, I didn't just tip over his drink and walk away. Instead, I pondered the source of his question. Digital pedagogy is largely misunderstood in higher education. The advent of online learning and instructional design brought the classroom onto the web, and with it all manner of teaching: good and bad, coherent and incoherent, networked and disconnected. Whatever pedagogy any given teacher employed in his classroom became digitized. If I teach history by reading from my twenty-year-old notes, or if I lead workshops in creative writing, or if I teach literature through movies, I bring that online and -- boom! -- I'm a digital pedagogue. Right?
Read More...#digped Storify: Plagiarism Undone
March 04, 2013 | Filed in: #digped
by Jesse Stommel
In the original prompt for this discussion, Sean Michael Morris writes, "Issues of ownership, intellectual property, and plagiarism are as old as the academy itself. But new media, and the permeability of text and image within them, create dilemmas not previously faced in our classrooms, research, and professional disciplines." This isn't to say that there haven't been other dilemmas, or even other similar dilemmas, but the nature of our work and the modes of its dissemination is changing at an incredible rate. And our discussions of the ethical and legal implications do not always keep pace. In this discussion, we considered specifically the ways that our notions of plagiarism have changed (and must continuously change) to accommodate new forms of scholarly and creative production.
Read More...
In the original prompt for this discussion, Sean Michael Morris writes, "Issues of ownership, intellectual property, and plagiarism are as old as the academy itself. But new media, and the permeability of text and image within them, create dilemmas not previously faced in our classrooms, research, and professional disciplines." This isn't to say that there haven't been other dilemmas, or even other similar dilemmas, but the nature of our work and the modes of its dissemination is changing at an incredible rate. And our discussions of the ethical and legal implications do not always keep pace. In this discussion, we considered specifically the ways that our notions of plagiarism have changed (and must continuously change) to accommodate new forms of scholarly and creative production.
Read More...Remixing Plagiarism: a #digped Discussion
February 26, 2013 | Filed in: #digped
by Sean Michael Morris
Issues of ownership, intellectual property, and plagiarism are as old as the academy itself. But new media, and the permeability of text and image within them, create dilemmas not previously faced in our classrooms, research, and professional disciplines. Today, reuse, repurposing, even outright copying can serve artistic and creative purposes; but how these practices affect the original creators of content, how they can or should be viewed by the law, and how we -- as producers and consumers of content -- make determinations of ethical behavior are active questions in intellectual and pedagogical arenas.
Read More...
Issues of ownership, intellectual property, and plagiarism are as old as the academy itself. But new media, and the permeability of text and image within them, create dilemmas not previously faced in our classrooms, research, and professional disciplines. Today, reuse, repurposing, even outright copying can serve artistic and creative purposes; but how these practices affect the original creators of content, how they can or should be viewed by the law, and how we -- as producers and consumers of content -- make determinations of ethical behavior are active questions in intellectual and pedagogical arenas.
Read More...Of Icebergs and Ownership: A Common-Sense Approach to Intellectual Property
February 18, 2013 | Filed in: Open Education
by Robin Wharton
Instead of taking decisions out of the hands of students by establishing bright lines about what they may and may not do with their own and others' work, we should instead concentrate on the pedagogical goal of helping them hone their rhetorical awareness. As a general rule, addressing intellectual property issues as part of the rhetorical context within which students are working can help them cultivate a better understanding of discipline-specific attitudes towards ownership, sharing, and attribution. Rather than focusing on regulatory compliance, classroom discussions of copyright and intellectual property should center around ethos and the implicit and explicit obligations professional communities impose upon their members and “outsiders” who wish to communicate effectively within them.
Read More...
Instead of taking decisions out of the hands of students by establishing bright lines about what they may and may not do with their own and others' work, we should instead concentrate on the pedagogical goal of helping them hone their rhetorical awareness. As a general rule, addressing intellectual property issues as part of the rhetorical context within which students are working can help them cultivate a better understanding of discipline-specific attitudes towards ownership, sharing, and attribution. Rather than focusing on regulatory compliance, classroom discussions of copyright and intellectual property should center around ethos and the implicit and explicit obligations professional communities impose upon their members and “outsiders” who wish to communicate effectively within them.
Read More...Pushing Back on Contingency in #HigherEd: Josh Boldt Twinterview
February 13, 2013 | Filed in: Profession
by Pete Rorabaugh
On Tuesday, February 5, 2013, Josh Boldt joined me on Twitter for an hour-long discussion of his work. Boldt, a lecturer in English at the University of Georgia and founder of the Adjunct Project, has made quite a name for himself in the last year. From attending the New Faculty Majority Summit in January 2012 to being an invited speaker at MLA's Presidential Forum "Avenues of Access: Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Members and American Higher Education" in Boston last month, Boldt spent 2012 at the nexus of a central problem in higher education -- reliance on and conditions for adjunct faculty.
Read More...
On Tuesday, February 5, 2013, Josh Boldt joined me on Twitter for an hour-long discussion of his work. Boldt, a lecturer in English at the University of Georgia and founder of the Adjunct Project, has made quite a name for himself in the last year. From attending the New Faculty Majority Summit in January 2012 to being an invited speaker at MLA's Presidential Forum "Avenues of Access: Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Members and American Higher Education" in Boston last month, Boldt spent 2012 at the nexus of a central problem in higher education -- reliance on and conditions for adjunct faculty.
Read More...Editorial Pedagogy, pt. 3: Developing Editors and Designers
February 11, 2013 | Filed in: Literacies
by Cheryl Ball
It may seem tautological to say that an editorial pedagogy works well in editing and publishing classes. But, as I defined this pedagogy through an example of a writing-based classroom, in which I mentor students, students mentor each other, and students mentor me through writing for publication, in this installment, I want to clarify how an editorial pedagogy works equally well when working with students (or journal staff members, or publishers, or technical writers, or...) whose “jobs” are to make texts as perfect as possible in a given situation.
Read More...
It may seem tautological to say that an editorial pedagogy works well in editing and publishing classes. But, as I defined this pedagogy through an example of a writing-based classroom, in which I mentor students, students mentor each other, and students mentor me through writing for publication, in this installment, I want to clarify how an editorial pedagogy works equally well when working with students (or journal staff members, or publishers, or technical writers, or...) whose “jobs” are to make texts as perfect as possible in a given situation.
Read More...Co-intentional Education: a #digped Discussion
January 30, 2013 | Filed in: #digped
by Sean Michael Morris and Jesse StommelThis Friday, February 1 from 1:00 - 2:00pm Eastern (10:00 - 11:00am Pacific), Hybrid Pedagogy will host a Twitter discussion under the hashtag #digped to discuss student involvement in teaching, learning, and pedagogy. If you’re an educator, please invite your students to participate. The Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age was published on January 22, 2013. The document, a collaboration between twelve educators, proposes on its surface 9 rights and 10 principles that affect students and their work in any learning environment, with an eye toward those which are hybrid or online. The document has generated a great deal of discussion about its context, but little about its implication: namely, students are so integral to the process of education that how we conceive the institution and the practice must evolve. As educators, our work is not to better understand and defend our own positions, but to abdicate those positions in meaningful, thoughtful ways. Read More...
A Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age
January 22, 2013 | Filed in: Online Learning
On December 14, 2012, a group of 12 assembled in Palo Alto for a raucous discussion of online education. Hybrid Pedagogy contributors Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel gathered together with folks from a diverse array of disciplines and backgrounds, representing STEM fields, the humanities, schools of education, corporations, non-profits, ivies, community colleges, and small liberal arts colleges. Among us were adjuncts, CEOs, a graduate student, several digital humanists, and two outspoken educational technology journalists. As a group, we’d chaired online programs, designed MOOCs, dropped out of MOOCs, and the term "MOOC" was even coined in one of our living rooms. The goal of the summit was to open a broader conversation about online learning and the future of higher education. This co-authored document, which calls for hacking and open discussion, was the result. Read More...Somewhere Between a Course and a Community: Alec Couros Twinterview
January 17, 2013 | Filed in: Open Education
by Pete Rorabaugh
Last Friday, January 11, 2013, I asked Alec Couros to join me for an hour-long Twinterview. It was the weekend before the launch of #ETMOOC, his brainchild, and I wanted to get some context and history for his digital work before he began another connectivist adventure. Our conversation roamed from his first experiences in the cMOOC (even pre-MOOC) community, academic influences on his "open thinking" philosophy, reflections on publication and tenure, and his motivation to organize #ETMOOC.
Read More...
Last Friday, January 11, 2013, I asked Alec Couros to join me for an hour-long Twinterview. It was the weekend before the launch of #ETMOOC, his brainchild, and I wanted to get some context and history for his digital work before he began another connectivist adventure. Our conversation roamed from his first experiences in the cMOOC (even pre-MOOC) community, academic influences on his "open thinking" philosophy, reflections on publication and tenure, and his motivation to organize #ETMOOC.
Read More...Learn Like an Arachnid: Why I’m MOOCifying
January 15, 2013 | Filed in: Open Education
by Janine DeBaise
Every fall when I ask my first year students, “Why did you choose the College of Environmental Science and Forestry?” at least one will answer, “I want to save the world.” By the time they are sophomores, my students have taken rigorous science courses that focus on environmental issues. When they do group projects in the research/composition course I teach, I’m impressed with their topics, the depth of their knowledge, and their passion. What seems wrong is that their presentations are only to each other. Sure, they invite their friends, but at a small college where everyone takes a whole bunch of the same courses, that’s not a very satisfying audience. The students teach me and have changed me -- dramatically -- but I shouldn’t be the only person to benefit from their knowledge and fresh ideas.
Read More...
Every fall when I ask my first year students, “Why did you choose the College of Environmental Science and Forestry?” at least one will answer, “I want to save the world.” By the time they are sophomores, my students have taken rigorous science courses that focus on environmental issues. When they do group projects in the research/composition course I teach, I’m impressed with their topics, the depth of their knowledge, and their passion. What seems wrong is that their presentations are only to each other. Sure, they invite their friends, but at a small college where everyone takes a whole bunch of the same courses, that’s not a very satisfying audience. The students teach me and have changed me -- dramatically -- but I shouldn’t be the only person to benefit from their knowledge and fresh ideas.
Read More...#digped Storify: the Course as Container
January 14, 2013 | Filed in: #digped
by Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel
During our January 11th #digped discussion, we took a close look at what a course is, and what happens when we consider altering -- or entirely abandoning -- this format for learning. Right off the bat, the nature of the "course" came into question. Every definition offered both made sense, and felt vaguely objectionable. The idea of courses as Lego structures that could be dismantled led us into the idea that a course needs to "go" somewhere; that it takes its participants on a kind of road trip, leading toward a predictable outcome or goal.
Read More...
During our January 11th #digped discussion, we took a close look at what a course is, and what happens when we consider altering -- or entirely abandoning -- this format for learning. Right off the bat, the nature of the "course" came into question. Every definition offered both made sense, and felt vaguely objectionable. The idea of courses as Lego structures that could be dismantled led us into the idea that a course needs to "go" somewhere; that it takes its participants on a kind of road trip, leading toward a predictable outcome or goal.
Read More...The Course as Container: a #digped Discussion
January 10, 2013 | Filed in: #digped
by Sean Michael Morris
In his article, Online Learning: a User's Guide to Forking Education, among other arguments, Jesse Stommel foresees a need to break or rebuild the idea of the course. "We need to devise learning activities that take organic (and less arbitrary) shapes in space and time. We need to recognize that the best learning happens not inside courses, but between them." As part of his larger discussion of "forking" education in order to bring learning more effectively into the digital medium, Jesse suggests that the course is only one of a set of components that needs to be taken apart, scrutinized with care and with playfulness, and then rebuilt. The inspection of education and educative methods needs to be so complete that no assumptions are left unexamined.
Read More...
In his article, Online Learning: a User's Guide to Forking Education, among other arguments, Jesse Stommel foresees a need to break or rebuild the idea of the course. "We need to devise learning activities that take organic (and less arbitrary) shapes in space and time. We need to recognize that the best learning happens not inside courses, but between them." As part of his larger discussion of "forking" education in order to bring learning more effectively into the digital medium, Jesse suggests that the course is only one of a set of components that needs to be taken apart, scrutinized with care and with playfulness, and then rebuilt. The inspection of education and educative methods needs to be so complete that no assumptions are left unexamined.
Read More...Online Learning: A User’s Guide to Forking Education
January 08, 2013 | Filed in: Online Learning
by Jesse Stommel
At exactly this moment, online education is poised (and threatening) to replicate the conditions, courses, structures, and hierarchical relations of brick-and-mortar industrial-era education. Cathy N. Davidson argued exactly this at her presentation, “Access Demands a Paradigm Shift,” at the 2013 Modern Language Association conference. The mistake being made, I think, is a simple and even understandable one, but damning and destructive nonetheless. Those of us responsible for education (both its formation and care) are hugging too tightly to what we've helped build, its pillars, policies, economies, and institutions. None of these, though, map promisingly into digital space. If we continue to tread our current path, we'll be left with a Frankenstein's monster of what we now know of education. This is the imminent destruction of our educational system of which so many speak: taking an institution inspired by the efficiency of post-industrial machines and redrawing it inside the machines of the digital age. Education rendered into a dull 2-dimensional carbon copy, scanned, faxed, encoded and then made human-readable, an utter lack of intellectual bravery.
Read More...
At exactly this moment, online education is poised (and threatening) to replicate the conditions, courses, structures, and hierarchical relations of brick-and-mortar industrial-era education. Cathy N. Davidson argued exactly this at her presentation, “Access Demands a Paradigm Shift,” at the 2013 Modern Language Association conference. The mistake being made, I think, is a simple and even understandable one, but damning and destructive nonetheless. Those of us responsible for education (both its formation and care) are hugging too tightly to what we've helped build, its pillars, policies, economies, and institutions. None of these, though, map promisingly into digital space. If we continue to tread our current path, we'll be left with a Frankenstein's monster of what we now know of education. This is the imminent destruction of our educational system of which so many speak: taking an institution inspired by the efficiency of post-industrial machines and redrawing it inside the machines of the digital age. Education rendered into a dull 2-dimensional carbon copy, scanned, faxed, encoded and then made human-readable, an utter lack of intellectual bravery.
Read More...The Hybrid Scholar
January 04, 2013 | Filed in: Profession
by Pete RorabaughOn my campus, and on many others, there are two entirely different units -- the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Education -- suggesting, somehow, that the activities of one are wholly separate from the other. “Learning how to teach” happens in one while “analysis” (or something like it) happens in the other. The problem is that all of those Arts and Sciences grad students have to do something else in addition to the scholarship they are being trained to compose. They have to teach, and, considering the current job market and the landscape of traditional academic publishing, they are probably going to rely much more on their teaching at the start of their career than on their research. Do these carefully groomed grad students ever set foot in the teaching college a block down the street during their four years (or six or eight) years as doctoral students? On my campus, they do not. Read More...
Personal Learning Networks: Knowledge Sharing as Democracy
January 03, 2013 | Filed in: Open Education
by Alison Seaman
Sherry Turkle famously argues technology has begun to overtake our attention and time, which has led to increased physical isolation and shallow online interaction. She contends, in a community-starved world, we need to disconnect from our smartphones and other Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-enabling devices in order to create greater balance: “We think constant connection will make us feel less lonely. The opposite is true ... If we don’t teach our children to be alone, they will know only how to be lonely”. Detractors such as David Banks, Nathan Jurgenson and others counter that Turkle’s assessment of alienation creates a digital dualism. As David Banks at Cyborgology suggests, it may be more appropriate instead to consider our technique—how we use technology.
Read More...
Sherry Turkle famously argues technology has begun to overtake our attention and time, which has led to increased physical isolation and shallow online interaction. She contends, in a community-starved world, we need to disconnect from our smartphones and other Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-enabling devices in order to create greater balance: “We think constant connection will make us feel less lonely. The opposite is true ... If we don’t teach our children to be alone, they will know only how to be lonely”. Detractors such as David Banks, Nathan Jurgenson and others counter that Turkle’s assessment of alienation creates a digital dualism. As David Banks at Cyborgology suggests, it may be more appropriate instead to consider our technique—how we use technology.
Read More...Bring Your Own Disruption: Rhizomatic Learning in the Composition Class
December 30, 2012 | Filed in: Literacies
by Tanya Sasser
Too often, rather than inviting First-Year Composition (FYC) students into the disruptive experience of being a writer, we try to shield them inside the safety of the walled garden of neatly ordered paths that is the traditional, instructor-driven composition classroom. Even while some of us have refocused on the process, rather than products, of writing, we continue to hamstring students with scaffolded compositional tasks and writing “prompts,” assuming that by allowing students to choose between various (artificially-created, instructor-mapped) paths, we are endowing them with an autonomy so empowering that they will arrive at the end of their journey through our garden as self-identified writers.
Read More...
Too often, rather than inviting First-Year Composition (FYC) students into the disruptive experience of being a writer, we try to shield them inside the safety of the walled garden of neatly ordered paths that is the traditional, instructor-driven composition classroom. Even while some of us have refocused on the process, rather than products, of writing, we continue to hamstring students with scaffolded compositional tasks and writing “prompts,” assuming that by allowing students to choose between various (artificially-created, instructor-mapped) paths, we are endowing them with an autonomy so empowering that they will arrive at the end of their journey through our garden as self-identified writers.
Read More...#digped Storify: The State of Higher Education and Its Future
December 10, 2012 | Filed in: #digped
by Jesse Stommel
The announcement for this #digped suggested that “there is a deeper discussion underlying our anxieties (and excitement) about MOOCs -- a discussion about the efficacy of open education, online learning, and digital pedagogies. A discussion about the future of education.” On December 7, we focused our #digped discussion on issues large and small, loud and quiet, the questions we keep circling around and also the harder ones, the ones that unnerve us. Even before the discussion began, an important issue was brought up by Lee Skallerup Bessette in the comments on the original #digped announcement: "I don't think we can talk about what higher educations 'values' until we face how they treat the people who 'deliver' their 'product.'" The Storify of this discussion includes frank observations about the state of higher education and practical tips for how we can work to help it more ethically and productively evolve.
Read More...
The announcement for this #digped suggested that “there is a deeper discussion underlying our anxieties (and excitement) about MOOCs -- a discussion about the efficacy of open education, online learning, and digital pedagogies. A discussion about the future of education.” On December 7, we focused our #digped discussion on issues large and small, loud and quiet, the questions we keep circling around and also the harder ones, the ones that unnerve us. Even before the discussion began, an important issue was brought up by Lee Skallerup Bessette in the comments on the original #digped announcement: "I don't think we can talk about what higher educations 'values' until we face how they treat the people who 'deliver' their 'product.'" The Storify of this discussion includes frank observations about the state of higher education and practical tips for how we can work to help it more ethically and productively evolve.
Read More...The Future of Higher Education: a #digped Discussion
December 05, 2012 | Filed in: #digped
by Sean Michael Morris, Valerie Robin, Pete Rorabaugh, and Jesse Stommel
Over the last twelve months, Hybrid Pedagogy has published 74 articles by 16 authors. It’s no surprise for us to report that the articles we’ve published about MOOCs have been some of our most-read articles of the year. The MOOC is not a bandwagon, though, but something needing careful interrogation with “discernment but not judgment.” Jesse argues in “Online Learning: a Manifesto,” that “to get lost entirely in the stories being told about MOOCs is to miss the forest for the trees, so to speak.” There is a deeper discussion underlying our anxieties (and excitement) about MOOCs -- a discussion about the efficacy of open education, online learning, and digital pedagogies. A discussion about the future of education.
Read More...
Over the last twelve months, Hybrid Pedagogy has published 74 articles by 16 authors. It’s no surprise for us to report that the articles we’ve published about MOOCs have been some of our most-read articles of the year. The MOOC is not a bandwagon, though, but something needing careful interrogation with “discernment but not judgment.” Jesse argues in “Online Learning: a Manifesto,” that “to get lost entirely in the stories being told about MOOCs is to miss the forest for the trees, so to speak.” There is a deeper discussion underlying our anxieties (and excitement) about MOOCs -- a discussion about the efficacy of open education, online learning, and digital pedagogies. A discussion about the future of education.
Read More...Online Learning: a Manifesto
December 03, 2012 | Filed in: Online Learning
by Jesse Stommel
Since I started teaching in 1999, I've frequently encountered an anti-pedagogical bent amongst fellow teachers and faculty, a resistance to thinking critically about our teaching practices and philosophies, especially regarding online learning. What we need is to ignore the hype and misrepresentations (on both sides of the debate) and gather together more people willing to carefully reflect on how, where, and why we learn online. There is no productive place in this conversation for exclusivity or anti-intellectualism. Those of us talking about digital pedagogy and digital humanities need to be engaging thoughtfully in discussions about online learning and open education. Those of us in higher ed. need to be engaging thoughtfully with K-12 teachers and administrators. And it’s especially important that we open our discussions of the future of education to students, who should both participate in and help to build their own learning spaces. Pedagogy needs to be at the center of all these discussions.
Read More...
Since I started teaching in 1999, I've frequently encountered an anti-pedagogical bent amongst fellow teachers and faculty, a resistance to thinking critically about our teaching practices and philosophies, especially regarding online learning. What we need is to ignore the hype and misrepresentations (on both sides of the debate) and gather together more people willing to carefully reflect on how, where, and why we learn online. There is no productive place in this conversation for exclusivity or anti-intellectualism. Those of us talking about digital pedagogy and digital humanities need to be engaging thoughtfully in discussions about online learning and open education. Those of us in higher ed. need to be engaging thoughtfully with K-12 teachers and administrators. And it’s especially important that we open our discussions of the future of education to students, who should both participate in and help to build their own learning spaces. Pedagogy needs to be at the center of all these discussions.
Read More...