Emergent Education: The Power of Learning in a Networked World

John Connell » Blog Archive » Emergent Education: The Power of Learning in a Networked World: "Emergent Education: The Power of Learning in a Networked World Nov 3rd, 2007 by John Connell"

Yet another of my 'this could be useful' articles! Some great writing on interconnectedness and education and might induce a brain splurge at a later date - worth returning to.

From the information age to the connected age

One of those 'useful to stash for later' type articles...

elearnspace: From the information age to the connected age: "From the information age to the connected age From the information age to the connected age: 'The Information Age is the age of the knowledge worker. The Connected Age is the age of the web worker. Knowledge workers create and manage information, massaging it into intangible knowledge goods. Web workers create and manage relationships across knowledge goods, hardware, and people.' I think this is an important distinction - i.e. the importance of networking and connecting as key activities of learners today. Much like Richard Feynman proclaimed the most important point for budding scientists to understand is that 'everything is made of atoms', we need to focus on all learning and knowledge starts with connections. The question naturally arises as to how knowledge is formed through connections...or how understanding is achieved. A simple connection does not necessarily equal deep understanding. But, it is a start. Without the connection (between concepts, ideas, people, information sources (I'm not focusing on the neural level here)), nothing can emerge. It seems rather obvious to state, but I find most discussions of learning and knowledge have a tendency to wash over the primacy of the connection and the network."

Many Eyes

Yet another 'must look at that again later' article... which I haven't much to say about at the moment, but I'm sure it'll come in handy at a later date, not least because it looks at connectedness, learning theories and lots of other H806 related goodness, all in a handy dandy single paragraph!

elearnspace: Many Eyes: "Many Eyes I'm a huge fan of visualization tools (simply because I see them as instrumental in our ability to manage overwhelming amounts of information...and complex, interconnected relationships). One of my favorite sites is IBM's Many Eyes. Data sets can be uploaded (including free text) and visualized and compared in numerous ways. They recently added a word tree visualization. So I uploaded a few articles...my original article on connectivism (see the visualization of keywords 'learning theories', or type your own in the text box to see how concepts in the article relate. The article is also available as a tag cloud of words. I then grabbed Stephen Downes' article on Connective Knowledge and uploaded it as a data set - see the visualization of network in the article. You can explore different concepts by clicking on linked words (which expand the map view). Or have a look at the tag cloud. Kinda neat."

Web 2.0 What Went Wrong?

Web 2.0 What Went Wrong? - Trebor Scholz 'journalisms' - Collectivate.net: "Today, is it feasible to live ethical, meaningful lives in the context of the Social Web?"

A course on how connectedness doesn't work? Or is it just questioning it?

Some interesting resources though and worth a sniff when you've a mo.

Connectivism Blog

Connectivism Blog: "Networks, Ecologies, and Curatorial Teaching"

Another entry on this blog which I'm sure I'll find helpful to refer to at some point. It's quite a nice 'state of play' sorta piece and Siemens summarizes our connectivity explosion succinctly.

In other words... read this properly later, Sarah!

Communications: MySpace Best & Worst Practices for Higher Education

DIOSA | Communications: MySpace Best & Worst Practices for Higher Education: "Through a process of trial and elimination, DIOSA | Comunications has learned what works and what doesn’t work when communicating through MySpace to higher education target audiences. Like most online marketing, there is an etiquette involved and if you’re not careful, you can detour the very audiences you are trying to attract."

A model for best practice in establishing connectedness in HE using social networking? Or another 'top tips' list which is based on hot air and fingers in the wind?

Will be interesting to revisit...

Privacy and Personalization

Privacy and Personalization: From Clickstream to Targeted Advertising: "To personalize pages companies need to know things about us - what we like, what we've seen, what we read and what we purchased. Online retailers are in the business of capturing our information to give them a competitive advantage over their competitors. On the other hand with the rise of social web we have begun voluntarily putting our private information online. We blog our corporate strategies, share our family photos, and make lists of our interests. Yet most people are still concerned about privacy. They may not know exactly what it is that makes them so concerned, but they are concerned. In this post I will look at privacy in the context of personalization from user concerns to target advertising and ownership of clickstreams."

Another good article. The risks of being 'too' connected maybe? All that information that you've released about yourself is generous... to a fault, perhaps? What really happens to it all? Why this feeling of slight disquiet? Who knows what about you? And what are they going to do about it?

Comfortably connected yet?

Top-Ten Teaching and Learning Issues

EDUCAUSE Quarterly | Volume 30 Number 3 2007: "Top-Ten Teaching and Learning Issues, 2007"

Possibly useful for reference later... (i.e. I haven't had chance to read it properly yet but wanted to make a note that at sometime in the unspecified future... I want to)

Strong of will to research, weak of effort...

elearnspace: World Almanac of Educational Technologies

elearnspace: World Almanac of Educational Technologies: "World Almanac of Educational Technologies"

... that'd be 'world' in the sense of a handful of countries and no mention of the UK then...

Ah, the world is a small place... and growing dramatically smaller all the time. Gotta love our connected world, huh?

Homo Contextus!

Homo Contextus! « Learn Online: "one of the best presentations about connected knowledge I have seen in a long time.
Serendipity 2.0: Missing Third Places of Learning - Teemu Arina"

Possibly worth a look at in terms of defining connectivity in education. One to snaffle away in any case!