Module 5 "Educational implications of Wikinomics"

After reading Tapscott (2008) chapter 1: Wikinomics, I consider that some of the educational implications of wikinomics are the followings. Regarding either a general educational context or a specific ELT context, the four principles involving wikinomics (openness, peering, sharing and acting globally) play an important role since the way societies harness knowledge and capability to innovate and create value is changing constantly. This is why new forms of mass collaboration are emerging and in consequence many different sectors are being influenced.

Within the educational sector, especially teachers must be prepared to guide students towards the new society demands. The key concept of wikinomics is collaboration, so educators must understand and promote it to achieve everyone’s expectations.

In my opinion and for my personal experience, I consider that this new ways of mass collaboration is highly influencing ELT contexts. A lot of social learning networks are available online, such as Learncentral which allow anyone to co-interact with authentic material whenever someone is willing to do it and in this way people can improve their language performance at their pace. Besides, teachers and students are constantly surrounded by many different tools to encourage lifelong learning and they are getting involved in the new trends in order to make their life more manageable and be able to create knowledge with anyone around the world. However, there are also some negative implications, most of them related to copyright issues. It is very important to make students aware of the importance of not stealing anyone’s ideas and always try to know the owner of the information.

Modele 4 “Towards an E-pedagogy: Changing Roles”

30 most important factors in managing and moderating
the online learning environment

1. Be prepared, well in advance.

2. Become familiar and proficient at the use of the technology – practice in advance.

3. Be prepared for technology failure – have a backup option (email, fax or telephone).

4. Create a policy on communications.

5. Provide an overview of timetable, procedures, expectations and decision-making norms where appropriate.

6. Create a friendly, social environment.

7. Encourage participants to introduce themselves.

8. Prepare new students in advance and allow them to set the pace.

9. Model appropriate online behaviour.

10. Model online intellectual discourse.

11. Set clear objectives for the session.

12. Build relevancy into the materials.

13. Contribute your own special knowledge in a collaborative fashion – don’t lecture.

14. Value participation.

15. Promote healthy and respectful social interactions.

16. Try different communication styles

17. Be objective.

18. Make sure participants are comfortable with the system – hold practice sessions.

19. Create opportunities to sustain discussions and interactions.

20. Encourage participation through use of questions and probing.

21. Facilitate discussion – present conflicting opinions, or ask open-ended questions.

22. Ask a lot of questions, and review answers or comments providing summary comment.

23. Accept ‘lurkers’, reluctant or timid students – help to draw them comfortably into discussion.

24. Take note of students who don’t participate during the first session and contact them privately to determine why.

25. Don’t rely on offline materials – bring them into the online environment for discussion.

26. Be responsive – remedy issues as they arise, help participants with information overload.

27. Be flexible in schedule to accommodate student direction, need and interest.

28. Maintain a non-authoritarian style.

29. Recognize and deal with appropriate and inappropriate student input.

30. Enable students to experience the moderator role for themselves.

Task 3.2.3 Integrating concepts

Learning in Context by George Siemens

These are some ideas taken from the PPT

• The focus is on how different learning needs require different approaches.
• Learning about, learning to do, learning to be, learning to transform “Know-where” is more important than “know-what” and “know-how”
• Learning approach (Multi-dimensional, Multi-faceted, Multi-contextual)
• Learning is a continual cycle, a process.
• Formal learning is good for initiating learners who are new (foundation building).
• Experience/Game-based Learning is good for real life challenges.
• Mentoring/Apprentice Learning is good for personal, relevant knowledge/learning.
• Performance Support Learning is good for short, focused learning.
• Self-Learning is good for exploring areas of personal interest.
• Community-based Learning is good for dialogue, diversity of perspective.
• Informal Learning is good for continual, ongoing, multifaceted.
• Schools need to transform/be transformed by a particular era/culture.
• Provide learners with knowledge skills to learn for life.
• Consider profile and needs of learners.

2.3.3 Review

Reviewing the knowledge acquired in unit 1 and their respective lessons (information related to the 21st Century curriculum: background concepts and theories, creation of the blog, the wiki and collaborative learning environment participation using bubbl.es) and relating it with the one acquired in unit 2 and its lessons, I conclude that something very useful to share here is Siemens’ video about networks, just to continue extracting interesting details of my lifelong learning process.

What we know today is not as important as our ability to continue to stay current.