Teaching in Higher Ed

It's not as separate as it sounds: The power of networks #CCK11

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Chris_and_lisa-sm

We’ve probably all gotten a chuckle or two out of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon jokes. Well, at least those of us old enough to start humming the song Footloose when we see his name get some laughs… The organization Six Degrees has even put this humor to good use in raising money for causes using Kevin Bacon’s connective abilities.

I’m taking this class on connectivism, which is an emerging learning theory. Advocates describe that, “At its heart, connectivism is the thesis that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse these networks” (http://cck11.mooc.ca/week1.htm).

Networks are a crucial aspect of connectivism and the focus of this week’s content. We can measure and visualize these interconnected relationships through a process called social network analysis.  This process helps us “to discover how A, who is in touch with B and C, is affected by the relation between B and C” (John Barnes). When we create a picture of networks and the people in them, we can see which of the participants are connecting others, who is at the center of the network, and who is more on the outside edge. Mathematically, we can also quantify the closeness of the participants in a given network.

WNYC’s NPR station produces a fabulous podcast called Radio Lab. In one episode, they told the story of Paul Erdos, a famous mathematician, who has a degrees of separation network that makes Kevin Bacon’s seem to pale in comparison. His collaborative work has been so powerful that math gurus proudly profess the smallness of their Erdos number, or just how many steps you have to take between researchers until they connect directly with this scholar. The Erdos Number Project has been established to study the research collaboration that takes place among mathematicians.

While most of us will likely always have a gigantic Erdos number (meaning it takes a lot of steps between researchers to get from any of us to this math guru), it is still staggering to think about the connections we have each made. In some ways, my undergraduate students seem to intuitively get the idea behind the power of networks. As the semester starts, they post updates on their Facebook wall indicating that they’re taking a particular class and asking who might be willing to lend them to the textbooks. I’ve observed a number of them saying that they are bored on a Friday night and asking who wants to go see the latest blockbuster movie, only to have a group of five or six ready to go in a couple of hours. However, I suspect that their requests are more indicative of being part of the me generation and perhaps not that they fully realize just how interconnected we all are.

When it comes to using tools like LinkedIn, they tend to not comprehend how the relationships they’ve created might help or hinder their job-searching efforts. I sense their frustration as they thoughtlessly pile on reference requests to every one of their connections, only to wind up without responses (not surprisingly)… Until they are in a class where social networking outside of Facebook is discussed, they don’t seem to have any idea what they might do to find and foster connections beyond those that were established for them (such as the case of who happened to be their professor, or who happened to be in their same class).

I’m looking forward to discovering even more ways that I might help students develop and then leverage their learning networks through the CCK11 class, as I no doubt find ways to do the same for myself.

Connectivism: Why faculty don’t have to be quite so concerned about Wikipedia #CCK11

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Question

Some of us celebrated, while others mourned the tenth anniversary of Wikipedia this past week. Those who were cheering likely reveled in the revolution of knowledge acquisition models and crowd-sourced quality control. Those who have been critical of Wikipedia, expressed their concerns over the lack of control over the information and presumed risk of outdated or inaccurate data.

As I begin a class on a learning theory referred to as Connectivism, I consider how greatly our collective abilities to access to information have transformed in recent years, while our teaching methods in the university environment have barely changed at all. I ponder how much more advanced our abilities are to locate and share information, while our educational methods in the university setting have barely progressed beyond the overhead projector.

Steven Downes, one of two instructors for the Connectivism course, asserts: “knowledge is distributed across connections.” Instead of relying on a single travel agent to re-arrange their flights due to the massive delays caused by snow recently, some people took to simply posting about their woes in 140 character tweets. The airlines took notice and began addressing the complaints and helping some customers find their baggage and get booked on alternative flights. Learning, in this case, wasn’t about reading online about the process of how to change your ticket, but rather capitalizing on the connections available in the “twitterverse.”

Instead of learning being about knowledge we attempt to pack away in the “empty hard drive space in our minds,” connectivism suggests another definition for learning. Downes tells us that learning is: “ the capacity to construct connections and the capacity to traverse these connections.”

There are two goals supported in the connectivism learning theory, according to Downes:

  1.  The ability to grow and foster a network of connections.
  2.  The ability to develop a successful, robust, trustworthy network.

Most of the pedagogy used in higher education today stresses a one-way network of connections. We assess our students’ ability to take in information from one connection (the professor) and then regurgitate it at some later date via an exam or a paper. Some of us grow fearful of entities like Wikipedia, since we lack control over the credibility and accuracy of the content.

When we rely on last year’s lecture notes (or more terribly, those from the last decade), we negate most of the benefits of having a subject matter expert as a professor. Knowledge does not last as long as it used to, due to something called its “half-life,” or the time between when the knowledge is passed on and when it is no longer accurate. Geoge Siemens, the second instructor of the Connectivism class, describes the challenge as he writes, “In many fields the life of knowledge is now measured in months and years.” That makes what Siemens calls the “know-where” knowledge (“the understanding of where to find [needed] knowledge”)  much more important than “know-how” and “know-what.”

Instead of being concerned that a Wikipedia entry may be inaccurate, we recognize that relying on our own knowledge and recollection in the moment is far less reliable than the knowledge of many. Instead of worrying that the experts aren’t controlling the flow of information, we can appreciate the values that have been guiding sites like Wikipedia and trust that the way the system is evolving over time, those principles will be adhered to far more than when resting on one person’s strength.

There is the valid concern of having Wikipedia being the first and only source our students go to in order to locate knowledge. Instead of fighting against their tendency, perhaps it is time for us to begin contributing to Wikipedia and adding links to those sources we wish our students would also visit in a quest to solve problems and expand their learning.

 

-Bonni Stachowiak

 

REFERENCES:

VIDEO: What is connectivism? (Steven Downes)

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/688902

 

ARTICLE: Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age (George Siemens)

http://www.itdl.org/journal/jan_05/article01.htm

 

#CCK11

Connectivism: Why faculty don't have to be quite so concerned about Wikipedia #CCK11

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Question

Some of us celebrated, while others mourned the tenth anniversary of Wikipedia this past week. Those who were cheering likely reveled in the revolution of knowledge acquisition models and crowd-sourced quality control. Those who have been critical of Wikipedia, expressed their concerns over the lack of control over the information and presumed risk of outdated or inaccurate data.

As I begin a class on a learning theory referred to as Connectivism, I consider how greatly our collective abilities to access to information have transformed in recent years, while our teaching methods in the university environment have barely changed at all. I ponder how much more advanced our abilities are to locate and share information, while our educational methods in the university setting have barely progressed beyond the overhead projector.

Steven Downes, one of two instructors for the Connectivism course, asserts: “knowledge is distributed across connections.” Instead of relying on a single travel agent to re-arrange their flights due to the massive delays caused by snow recently, some people took to simply posting about their woes in 140 character tweets. The airlines took notice and began addressing the complaints and helping some customers find their baggage and get booked on alternative flights. Learning, in this case, wasn’t about reading online about the process of how to change your ticket, but rather capitalizing on the connections available in the “twitterverse.”

Instead of learning being about knowledge we attempt to pack away in the “empty hard drive space in our minds,” connectivism suggests another definition for learning. Downes tells us that learning is: “ the capacity to construct connections and the capacity to traverse these connections.”

There are two goals supported in the connectivism learning theory, according to Downes:

  1.  The ability to grow and foster a network of connections.
  2.  The ability to develop a successful, robust, trustworthy network.

Most of the pedagogy used in higher education today stresses a one-way network of connections. We assess our students’ ability to take in information from one connection (the professor) and then regurgitate it at some later date via an exam or a paper. Some of us grow fearful of entities like Wikipedia, since we lack control over the credibility and accuracy of the content.

When we rely on last year’s lecture notes (or more terribly, those from the last decade), we negate most of the benefits of having a subject matter expert as a professor. Knowledge does not last as long as it used to, due to something called its “half-life,” or the time between when the knowledge is passed on and when it is no longer accurate. Geoge Siemens, the second instructor of the Connectivism class, describes the challenge as he writes, “In many fields the life of knowledge is now measured in months and years.” That makes what Siemens calls the “know-where” knowledge (“the understanding of where to find [needed] knowledge”)  much more important than “know-how” and “know-what.”

Instead of being concerned that a Wikipedia entry may be inaccurate, we recognize that relying on our own knowledge and recollection in the moment is far less reliable than the knowledge of many. Instead of worrying that the experts aren’t controlling the flow of information, we can appreciate the values that have been guiding sites like Wikipedia and trust that the way the system is evolving over time, those principles will be adhered to far more than when resting on one person’s strength.

There is the valid concern of having Wikipedia being the first and only source our students go to in order to locate knowledge. Instead of fighting against their tendency, perhaps it is time for us to begin contributing to Wikipedia and adding links to those sources we wish our students would also visit in a quest to solve problems and expand their learning.

 

-Bonni Stachowiak

 

REFERENCES:

VIDEO: What is connectivism? (Steven Downes)

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/688902

 

ARTICLE: Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age (George Siemens)

http://www.itdl.org/journal/jan_05/article01.htm

 

#CCK11

Free program that reminds you to take stretch breaks from your lengthy computer work

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I’ve met a number of faculty who suffer from some type of health issues related to the too many years they have spent working long days at computers. The role of a faculty member at a teaching-oriented institution can mean a little less time in front of a monitor than in our corporate days, but there still remains the necessary work on a computer to be done.

I found a little program called Workrave that reminds you to take little breaks and even suggests some stretches you might do during your mini breaks.

http://www.workrave.org/

From their website: “Workrave is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). The program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts you to your daily limit.”

You can customize how often you’re prompted to take what they call micro-pauses and longer rest breaks. You determine how long these breaks should be and can always skip them if they wind up arriving on your screen at an inopportune time.

Image001

Workrave has worked well for me, though I did find two issues with the program:

1.       When running iTunes, it would sometimes cause the music to distort when Workrave was running in the background.

2.       I did find that I got in the habit of dismissing the break reminders, somewhat negating the benefits of the program. This was my own lack of discipline, however, and nothing to do with any limitations in the application.

Overall, I highly recommend Workrave as a great way to keep healthy while working in a position that requires computer work.

Five steps to staying productive during academic year preparations

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School

This seems the time of the year when the temptations to do anything except finish syllabi and other course preparation action items are at their highest. To that end, I offer the following five steps to staying focused and productive.

Turn off email

Once you’ve addressed the emails that are urgent, it is time to unplug and exit your email program. Otherwise, the emails that come in get treated with the same importance as everything else we have on our plates. Most of us think we can multi-task – but what we’re really doing is called switch-tasking, which slows us down considerably and also can increase errors in the work we’re doing.

Keep your social media in check

Many of us faculty enjoy seeing what friends are up to on Facebook, or looking at the latest articles and tools talked about via Twitter. However, this habit can turn into a serious time drain, if we’re not careful. Consider having a social media fix as a reward for accomplishing today’s goals, or at least as an incentive for getting the next big task done. At the very least, set a timer before you login, so you limit yourself to the amount of time you want to invest in these activities.

Plan for the low energy points of the day

For me, when it hits 2:00 pm, I have a hard time fighting off the urge for a nap. Some days, I let myself have this luxury and don’t worry about it. It is, after all, summertime… and we deserve some perks. Other times, I have too much on my plate that needs accomplishing and I need to stay at work, despite the low energy point. I find the following steps work well:

  • Go for a ten-minute walk
  • Drink a glass of water and eat a small snack (a handful of nuts works well)
  • Do something mindless to give my brain a break
  • Put on some energizing music

Look at the big picture

There’s a reason we do all the unrewarding stuff. Most of us feel a special call to teach and have an impact on our students’ lives. Try reading a few encouraging letters and emails to give yourself the motivation to get through the less fun aspects of class preparation.

Get a perspective on priorities

Start each day with your master to do list in front of you. Decide what is most important to get done today and figure out how to schedule things to accomplish it. If you think about other actions you need to take before the school year starts, be sure to capture those tasks while they’re on your mind. Otherwise, you’re wasting precious mental capacity trying to keep all that in mind at the same time you’re trying to be creative with class ideas. An earlier post talks more about getting things done (GTD) as a professor:

https://teachinginhighered.com/gtd-tools-for-faculty

I hope you’ll be able to put some of these into practice. Let us know what else you’re doing to stay focused and productive during this time of the year in the comments.