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.
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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.
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#digped Storify: Community Values, Open Scholarship, #twittergate
October 18, 2012 | Filed in: #digped
by Valerie Robin
The most recent #digped conversation covered questions of the value of publishing in a new media environment. At times, participants challenged the very definition of 'to publish' and explored questions about the future of academic publishing and classroom practices. Introduced by the #digped announcement, After #twittergate, the conversation began with a question about thoughts and perceptions regarding the dangers of using social media. We closed by asking participants to chime in regarding what it will take to make "new media more legitimate?" The collective offered some great suggestions and the twists and turns of the conversation suggest we need to work harder to rid parties of the anxiety presented by scholars operating in the new media environment.
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The most recent #digped conversation covered questions of the value of publishing in a new media environment. At times, participants challenged the very definition of 'to publish' and explored questions about the future of academic publishing and classroom practices. Introduced by the #digped announcement, After #twittergate, the conversation began with a question about thoughts and perceptions regarding the dangers of using social media. We closed by asking participants to chime in regarding what it will take to make "new media more legitimate?" The collective offered some great suggestions and the twists and turns of the conversation suggest we need to work harder to rid parties of the anxiety presented by scholars operating in the new media environment.
Read More...The Threat of Scholarly Openness: Twitter and Its Discontents
October 03, 2012 | Filed in: Profession
by Pete Rorabaugh
I was roused from my teaching this week by the cacophony of tweets and blog posts on the merits and pitfalls of tweeting another scholar’s ideas (the most cited ones authored or collected by Roopika Risam, Tressie McMillan Cottom, Kathleen Fitzpatrick and Adeline Koh), culminating in “The Academic Twitterazzi” on Inside Higher Ed. The conversation is rushing through multiple channels, expressed with frustration in Mark Sample’s response to being quoted, also by Inside Higher Ed., when he was actually citing Risam’s original blog post. “Imagine the chilling effect upon graduate students,” Sample writes in the comments, “when their first forays into academic blogging are also their first experiences with having their ideas stolen from them.” The discussion convinced me that it’s time to contextualize a personal story of mine within the larger debate of digital ethics, transparency, and inter-institutional academic collaboration.
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I was roused from my teaching this week by the cacophony of tweets and blog posts on the merits and pitfalls of tweeting another scholar’s ideas (the most cited ones authored or collected by Roopika Risam, Tressie McMillan Cottom, Kathleen Fitzpatrick and Adeline Koh), culminating in “The Academic Twitterazzi” on Inside Higher Ed. The conversation is rushing through multiple channels, expressed with frustration in Mark Sample’s response to being quoted, also by Inside Higher Ed., when he was actually citing Risam’s original blog post. “Imagine the chilling effect upon graduate students,” Sample writes in the comments, “when their first forays into academic blogging are also their first experiences with having their ideas stolen from them.” The discussion convinced me that it’s time to contextualize a personal story of mine within the larger debate of digital ethics, transparency, and inter-institutional academic collaboration.
Read More...#digped Storify: Outlining the "Open" in Open Access and Open Source
September 28, 2012 | Filed in: #digped
by Valerie Robin and Robin Wharton
This #digped conversation began with a question on Open Access v. Open Source. From there, it moved outward to consider the risks and rewards of "openness" more generally in our scholarship and pedagogy. As a number of participants observed, the distinctions between open access and open source approaches to intellectual property sharing stem from how we define "open," and the discussion quickly turned to existing and potential paradigms of "openness."
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This #digped conversation began with a question on Open Access v. Open Source. From there, it moved outward to consider the risks and rewards of "openness" more generally in our scholarship and pedagogy. As a number of participants observed, the distinctions between open access and open source approaches to intellectual property sharing stem from how we define "open," and the discussion quickly turned to existing and potential paradigms of "openness."
Read More...Blurring Lines, Breaking Rules: a #digped Discussion
September 11, 2012 | Filed in: #digped
by Robin Wharton
This Friday, September 14 from 1:00 - 2:00pm Eastern (10:00 - 11:00am Pacific), Hybrid Pedagogy will host a Twitter discussion under the hashtag #digped to consider the promises and pitfalls of open source and open access learning resources. The work of students and pedagogues alike depends upon our ability to access, use, remix, and transform the texts and technologies we study. In her recent post, “Doing DH versus Doing Digital,” Lee Bessette writes, “I might not know much about coding (and only slightly more about encoding and mark-up languages) but I am getting tired of being at the mercy of the software that I use (she says while typing this in her least-favorite program ever, Word).” Bessette continues by observing how she is drawn to Digital Humanities as a discipline because it offers us “the possibility we might create interfaces and software that give us environments that critically engage with and produce what we want, rather than limit ourselves to what we’re told we can do.”
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This Friday, September 14 from 1:00 - 2:00pm Eastern (10:00 - 11:00am Pacific), Hybrid Pedagogy will host a Twitter discussion under the hashtag #digped to consider the promises and pitfalls of open source and open access learning resources. The work of students and pedagogues alike depends upon our ability to access, use, remix, and transform the texts and technologies we study. In her recent post, “Doing DH versus Doing Digital,” Lee Bessette writes, “I might not know much about coding (and only slightly more about encoding and mark-up languages) but I am getting tired of being at the mercy of the software that I use (she says while typing this in her least-favorite program ever, Word).” Bessette continues by observing how she is drawn to Digital Humanities as a discipline because it offers us “the possibility we might create interfaces and software that give us environments that critically engage with and produce what we want, rather than limit ourselves to what we’re told we can do.”
Read More...The Myth of Efficiency: a #digped Discussion
August 28, 2012 | Filed in: #digped
by Sean Michael Morris, Pete Rorabaugh, and Jesse Stommel
This Friday, August 31 from 1:00 - 2:00pm Eastern (10:00 - 11:00am Pacific), Hybrid Pedagogy will host a Twitter discussion under hashtag #digped to explore the changing political economies of higher education. The practicality and future of the university has fallen under scrutiny. “There is talk about the poor educational outcomes apparent in our graduates, the out-of-control tuitions and crippling student loan debt,” Leslie Leigh Scott writes in “How the American University was Killed in Five Easy Steps”. Few who have pursued life in higher education can deny an affection for the college campus. From the quad to the cafeteria, from the library to the biology lab, universities are sites of charm, intellectual industry, and perpetual nostalgia. However, “Attention is finally being paid to the enormous salaries for presidents and sports coaches, and the migrant worker status of the low-wage majority faculty.” The nostalgia is wearing off, and many are proclaiming the end of higher education as we’ve known it.
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This Friday, August 31 from 1:00 - 2:00pm Eastern (10:00 - 11:00am Pacific), Hybrid Pedagogy will host a Twitter discussion under hashtag #digped to explore the changing political economies of higher education. The practicality and future of the university has fallen under scrutiny. “There is talk about the poor educational outcomes apparent in our graduates, the out-of-control tuitions and crippling student loan debt,” Leslie Leigh Scott writes in “How the American University was Killed in Five Easy Steps”. Few who have pursued life in higher education can deny an affection for the college campus. From the quad to the cafeteria, from the library to the biology lab, universities are sites of charm, intellectual industry, and perpetual nostalgia. However, “Attention is finally being paid to the enormous salaries for presidents and sports coaches, and the migrant worker status of the low-wage majority faculty.” The nostalgia is wearing off, and many are proclaiming the end of higher education as we’ve known it.
Read More...#digped Storify Pt. 1: We Interrupt This Broadcast . . .
August 07, 2012 | Filed in: #digped
by Robin Wharton
In his article, "Broadcast Education: A Response to Coursera," Sean asks us to consider, "If online education has made so much progress, why isn’t it more obvious? Why are the good folks at Coursera (who are actually just now catching up to those of us who’ve been doing this for a decade) getting all the attention, while also not putting the best face of online education forward?" He ends the piece with a call for pedagogues "to innovate, to experiment, to play and be played with," and cautions against oversimplification of online learning and MOOCs, of both the forms they take and the issues at stake when we are debating their merits and demerits. In an effort to engage some of the more productive discursive strands weaving in and out of the recent media "MOOCopalypse", we decided to focus last week's #digped discussion on the broader question of broadcast learning, which is the model (as Sean points out, sometimes erroneously) most frequently associated with MOOCs and other, more traditional (did I just write that?) online courses.
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In his article, "Broadcast Education: A Response to Coursera," Sean asks us to consider, "If online education has made so much progress, why isn’t it more obvious? Why are the good folks at Coursera (who are actually just now catching up to those of us who’ve been doing this for a decade) getting all the attention, while also not putting the best face of online education forward?" He ends the piece with a call for pedagogues "to innovate, to experiment, to play and be played with," and cautions against oversimplification of online learning and MOOCs, of both the forms they take and the issues at stake when we are debating their merits and demerits. In an effort to engage some of the more productive discursive strands weaving in and out of the recent media "MOOCopalypse", we decided to focus last week's #digped discussion on the broader question of broadcast learning, which is the model (as Sean points out, sometimes erroneously) most frequently associated with MOOCs and other, more traditional (did I just write that?) online courses.
Read More...Occupy the Digital: Critical Pedagogy and New Media
August 06, 2012 | Filed in: Critical Pedagogy
by Pete Rorabaugh
Teaching is a moral act. Our choice of course content is a moral decision, but so is the relationship we cultivate with students. Both physical and digital learning spaces require us to practice a politics of teaching, whether we’re conscious of it or not. However, traditional relationships between students and teachers come freighted with a model of interaction that often impedes learning. They are hierarchical. Progressive teaching, informed by a critical attention to pedagogy, resets the variables and insists on the classroom as a site of moral agency.
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Teaching is a moral act. Our choice of course content is a moral decision, but so is the relationship we cultivate with students. Both physical and digital learning spaces require us to practice a politics of teaching, whether we’re conscious of it or not. However, traditional relationships between students and teachers come freighted with a model of interaction that often impedes learning. They are hierarchical. Progressive teaching, informed by a critical attention to pedagogy, resets the variables and insists on the classroom as a site of moral agency.
Read More...Broadcast Learning: A #digped Discussion
August 01, 2012 | Filed in: #digped
by Sean Michael Morris
This Friday, August 3 from 1:00 - 2:00pm Eastern (10:00 - 11:00am Pacific), Hybrid Pedagogy will host a Twitter discussion under hashtag #digped centered on the difference between content-delivery and learning in online education. We’ll use as focal point for the discussion the problems and advantages of, and future potential for, the video lecture as utilized in flipped classrooms, MOOCs, hybrid courses, and more. In “Broadcast Education: A Response to Coursera”, we suggested that video lectures used to create large-scale, “auditorium”-style learning environments may not be the very best application of technology. Our discussion on Friday will inspect how this technology is being used and abused, and how it might be used better.
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This Friday, August 3 from 1:00 - 2:00pm Eastern (10:00 - 11:00am Pacific), Hybrid Pedagogy will host a Twitter discussion under hashtag #digped centered on the difference between content-delivery and learning in online education. We’ll use as focal point for the discussion the problems and advantages of, and future potential for, the video lecture as utilized in flipped classrooms, MOOCs, hybrid courses, and more. In “Broadcast Education: A Response to Coursera”, we suggested that video lectures used to create large-scale, “auditorium”-style learning environments may not be the very best application of technology. Our discussion on Friday will inspect how this technology is being used and abused, and how it might be used better.
Read More...#digped Storify: Participant Pedagogy
May 29, 2012 | Filed in: #digped
by Sean Michael Morris
On Friday, May 25, Hybrid Pedagogy hosted its second pedagogically-focused discussion on Twitter, this time on the subject of participant pedagogy. Inspired by both the notion from Howard Rheingold's book Net Smart (MIT Press) that "participation is power", and by the well-aimed A Letter from a Hybrid Student by Teo Bishop, the discussion worked to uncover ways not only for the student-teacher gap to be bridged, but also what it means for students to become involved in pedagogy. In this Storify, we've brought together some of the most compelling thoughts from the discussion. Join us on June 8th for another Hybrid Pedagogy #digped chat. For questions, suggestions, or more information, e-mail slamteacher@me.com.
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On Friday, May 25, Hybrid Pedagogy hosted its second pedagogically-focused discussion on Twitter, this time on the subject of participant pedagogy. Inspired by both the notion from Howard Rheingold's book Net Smart (MIT Press) that "participation is power", and by the well-aimed A Letter from a Hybrid Student by Teo Bishop, the discussion worked to uncover ways not only for the student-teacher gap to be bridged, but also what it means for students to become involved in pedagogy. In this Storify, we've brought together some of the most compelling thoughts from the discussion. Join us on June 8th for another Hybrid Pedagogy #digped chat. For questions, suggestions, or more information, e-mail slamteacher@me.com.
Read More...Participant Pedagogy: a #digped Discussion
May 20, 2012 | Filed in: #digped
by Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel
Hybrid Pedagogy will host a Twitter discussion group about participant pedagogy this Friday, May 25 from 1:00pm - 2:00pm EST (10:00am-11:00am PST) under the hashtag #digped. While the conversation will be, in part, inspired by our previous #digped discussion about Howard Rheingold’s Net Smart, you don’t need to read the book in order to join the conversation.
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Hybrid Pedagogy will host a Twitter discussion group about participant pedagogy this Friday, May 25 from 1:00pm - 2:00pm EST (10:00am-11:00am PST) under the hashtag #digped. While the conversation will be, in part, inspired by our previous #digped discussion about Howard Rheingold’s Net Smart, you don’t need to read the book in order to join the conversation.
Read More...