I am in agreement with the ideas behind the initiatives and thus I have signed both. In an ever more globalized world it seems to me to be next step in effective education. Making information freely available will in the long run educate more peolpe around the world and that is the goal right? It sure is, but does these initiatives create more problems than it answers?
Like I said at the begining I am in agreement with the ideas behind these initiatives, but what will be the cost of initiating them? In one of these initiatives they state that they need publishers and corporartions to make their publications freely available. This is a neat idea but will this not mean the end for those publishing houses? Where will the revenue come from to pay the author? Lets face it no one will work for free. The other probhlem is the fact that not all people that this information will be available to will have the academic state of mind and integraty to treat the information as the intelectual property of the author, thus not giving the proper recognition.
The last point that I want to raise is the one of the technological constraints of the initiatives. These initiatives are completely reliant on the availability of appropriate and up to date technology (computers, bandwidth, 3G connections etc). In developed countries this might not be a problem, but in countires like South Africa where less than half the population has an PC in the house much less an connection to the internet, this is a problem. This problem excludes poor / underpriviliged people from the initiatives and these are exactly the people that would benifit most.
These are my initial thoughts after reading week 1 materials. Heres hoping that we can find answers together for these and other issues that might arise during the course.
All the best
Schalk
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Connectivism and Connective Knowledge 2009 Paper 2
Schalk Merwe Louw
Connectivism and Connective Knowledge 2009 Short Paper 2
In this paper I am going to attempt to shed some light on the changing roles of educators at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. I am currently employed at the UFS as an Instructional Designer in the Division E-Learning. My job is to facilitate higher learning in an online environment and in order to do this properly I need to work closely with the lecturers and Teaching and Learning Managers. Therefore I have some insight to the challenges that teachers face.
The traditional method of face-to-face teaching is still used as the default means of teaching, but blended learning is being used more frequently as of late. We are at present in the stage where the early adopters appreciate the value of online learning, understand their role in facilitating online learning and have taken up the charge and are using blended- and online learning. The problem that arises with the early majority of adopters is that they feel that they are becoming obsolete as teachers. When confronted with this question we at the Division try and explain to them that in the connectivist framework, their roles as teachers are even more important than in the face-to-face sessions. In face- to-face sessions, content and information is transmitted from the lecturer to the student. Students are seen as empty vessels that need to be filled by the knowledge from the lecturer. When lecturers hear that learners must form their own connections and networks and learn from that, they feel that they have become obsolete, when in fact their job is even more important than before. In my view the educators main function in a connectivism framework is to steer the students in the right direction, with the advent of Web 2.0 technologies there is such a vast amount of information out there, it is easy to be overwhelmed by it all (especially if the student is new to the information being presented). The educator must therefore guide the student in the right direction and allow then to forge their own knowledge by connecting with different people and networks by means of the different tools available to them. By doing this, educators are empowering deep learning in their students, replacing the old sterile transfer of facts with connections and networks that will last them a lifetime and facilitate lifelong learning.
On a practical level, I found the work of Brennan (2005 p. 5) is very closely related with what we would like lecturers to understand about teaching in a connectivist way. It was found that the most effective practices engaged learners in constructivist approaches which develop cognitive skills through high levels of interactivity between all participants to encourage synthesis and analysis for ‘deep learning’ involving consistent levels of feedback by teachers who are imaginative, flexible, technologically gymnastic, committed, responsible and expert communicators. If our lectures can take this message to heart and implement it, I think we have done our job. Shifting mindsets from what is to what could be.
References:
Brennan, R. 2003, One size doesn’t fit all – Pedagogy in the online environment – Volume 1
http://www.ncver.edu.au/research/proj/nr0F05_1.pdf
Connectivism and Connective Knowledge 2009 Short Paper 2
In this paper I am going to attempt to shed some light on the changing roles of educators at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. I am currently employed at the UFS as an Instructional Designer in the Division E-Learning. My job is to facilitate higher learning in an online environment and in order to do this properly I need to work closely with the lecturers and Teaching and Learning Managers. Therefore I have some insight to the challenges that teachers face.
The traditional method of face-to-face teaching is still used as the default means of teaching, but blended learning is being used more frequently as of late. We are at present in the stage where the early adopters appreciate the value of online learning, understand their role in facilitating online learning and have taken up the charge and are using blended- and online learning. The problem that arises with the early majority of adopters is that they feel that they are becoming obsolete as teachers. When confronted with this question we at the Division try and explain to them that in the connectivist framework, their roles as teachers are even more important than in the face-to-face sessions. In face- to-face sessions, content and information is transmitted from the lecturer to the student. Students are seen as empty vessels that need to be filled by the knowledge from the lecturer. When lecturers hear that learners must form their own connections and networks and learn from that, they feel that they have become obsolete, when in fact their job is even more important than before. In my view the educators main function in a connectivism framework is to steer the students in the right direction, with the advent of Web 2.0 technologies there is such a vast amount of information out there, it is easy to be overwhelmed by it all (especially if the student is new to the information being presented). The educator must therefore guide the student in the right direction and allow then to forge their own knowledge by connecting with different people and networks by means of the different tools available to them. By doing this, educators are empowering deep learning in their students, replacing the old sterile transfer of facts with connections and networks that will last them a lifetime and facilitate lifelong learning.
On a practical level, I found the work of Brennan (2005 p. 5) is very closely related with what we would like lecturers to understand about teaching in a connectivist way. It was found that the most effective practices engaged learners in constructivist approaches which develop cognitive skills through high levels of interactivity between all participants to encourage synthesis and analysis for ‘deep learning’ involving consistent levels of feedback by teachers who are imaginative, flexible, technologically gymnastic, committed, responsible and expert communicators. If our lectures can take this message to heart and implement it, I think we have done our job. Shifting mindsets from what is to what could be.
References:
Brennan, R. 2003, One size doesn’t fit all – Pedagogy in the online environment – Volume 1
http://www.ncver.edu.au/research/proj/nr0F05_1.pdf
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
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