Maru's blog as e-Learner. Insights and ideas.

El aprendizaje ubicuo: una nueva forma de aprender

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Mon, 6 Jul 2020 04:57:00 -0500

Here am I with my recent production. It is a virtual learning object, called OVA on CRESUR lingo, created using Genially App
Its purpose is to show evidence of my module one learning wich was hindered by my tendency to get lost in places. Clasroom is no different. I keep thinking about how I miss a wiki to guide me to where I go.
Without further introduction...

Voila!
It was FUN

PS. It seems that what I learned in 2008 as Connectivism it is called u-learning now. Same cat with a nice coat of paint for my liking, more facilities to reach students with tablets, cell phones and laps running around everyone though.

Webhead's ripples of water

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 00:57:00 -0500

Hi everyone!

Here I go again, immersed as student in an online diploma course for credit called Ecology of e-learning: innovative approaches to teaching and learning in the digital age. This time I am learning with CRESUR (Centro Regional de Formación Docente e Investigación Educativa)
I am proud to say that CRESUR is a Mexican Regional Center focused on teaching educators and conducting educational research located at Copalar, Chiapas State at the south of my beloved country.
One of my teachers on this great adventure is Luis Antonio Dominguez Coutiño who kindly created a tutorial for us to join Google Classroom.

YES, you read correctly. One of my 2020 dreams has come true, I am a Clasroom user and I’ve got a dot edu account! I cannot believe it! I am so excited. As a freelancer I thought I would never get such privileges.

Now the juicy part.

When I saw CarlaArena’s GSuite presentation given at our Webheads revival Zoom meeting hosted by Vance Stevens I fell in love with the project. If you want to see an example of educators reaching out to help the world, Carla's presentation is a MUST. Webheads in Action seed is blooming around the world.

It came as a wonderful surprise to find out Mexican Ministry of Education adopted Carla Arena's SIMPLIFICA GSuite proyect as the New Mexican Online Education System to teach and learn during this year's COVID 19 pandemic. Mexican kids are learnig with a Webhead's flavor.

You can watch the Mexican National presentation of the project here.
On June 2nd. I happened to come across a webinar presented to State of Mexico Educators Community to evaluate realities and challenges faced by Latin American Educators.

Before jumping to do a credit diploma course I finished sucessfully, on current institution, a 30 hours course called 'Formación de Formadores en Educación a Distancia', a 40 hours mini MOOC course on 'Educational Inclusion and Digital Era' and attended 'First Iberoamerican Forum on Technology and Distant Learning'. Not a bad comeback to my eyes after Stephen Downes first MOOC ever on Connectivism and Connective Knowledge. #CCk08
See you around! Besitos.

I won't go if you keep me in your heart

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:19:00 -0600

Here we are. There you are.
I could fullfill my promise to you. I got to read your poem aloud and left the picture (where you wrote it on the back) with your ashes.

Keeping my promise.

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Tue, 3 Jan 2017 01:08:00 -0600

A year ago, the first of January 2016, my dad passed away on his sleep; he was bed ridden for three years.
The 29th of October 2011 he, Miguel del Campo Hernández, handed me this picture of himself resently taken with a poem written on the back.

He made me promise then to read it aloud at his funeral or burial, I didn't have a chance todo so because there wasn´t any. His ashes are, today, at our family house in San Luis Potosí, S:L:P, México. We will take them to rest at San Francisco's Church next Saturday (7) at 13:00 hs. where I expect to be allowed to read it.
I read the second lecture at the mass held in his honour with his asshes present, as I was reading I remenbered one advice he used to give me: "¡No quites el dedo del renglón!". He meant "Focus!". That night at the podium I saw that by keeping a finger on the line I was reading, following word by word, I could manage to go on despite my confussing feelings until the end. Just then I fully understood the sentence "Keep your finger on the line".

I'm keeping my promise dad.

MARUS:- Con este poema, te dedico la foto a mis 77 años: Te quiero mucho. Tu papá. Miguel

Se nos ha ido la tarde
en cantar una canción,
en perseguir a una nube
y en deshojar una flor.

Y se nos ha ido la noche
en decir una oración,
y en hablar con una estrella
y en morir con una flor.

Y se nos irá la aurora
en volver a esa canción,
en perseguir esa nube
y en deshojar esa flor.

Y se nos irá la vida

sin sentir otro rumor,

que el del agua de las horas

que se lleva el corazón.

No hay fecha que no se llegue ni plazo que no se cumpla.

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Sun, 1 Jan 2017 20:06:00 -0600

Cada uno de los 365 días del 2016 he estado definiendo lo que finalmente me toca concretar hoy. El cabo de año de mi padre.

Quiero subirlo al blog, estoy indecisa entre redactar en español ó en inglés. Definitivamente los recuerdos, sensaciones, experiencias vividas y los cuentos que me cuento son los mismos independientemente del idioma que use. El mapa no es el territorio, el idioma es un vehículo.

Desde siempre me ha gustado leer, de adolescente adquirí el gusto por escribir, al hacer la tésis de licenciatura tuve que prestar más atención a la redacción, al hacer la tésis de maestría aprendí a escribir y redactar en inglés creo que decentemente y para recordármelo tengo el mejor reconocimiento que pude haber recibido de la Universidad de Mánchester. ¡Una carta de mi asesor de tésis!

Con el correr de los años me di cuenta de que puedo jugar con las palabras en ambos idiomas; sin embargo, me siento menos consciente de mi misma cuando redacto en inglés, al redactar en español me siento observada. De alguna manera, al auditorio imaginado al compartir en español lo percibo duro mientras que al auditorio con quién comparto en inglés lo percibo aceptante. De cualquier modo, este blog fue creado en inglés; y de los pocos o muchos lectores que tiene, la mayoría domina ese idioma, o bien sabe usar traductor.

Ergo, escribiré en el idioma que me nazca. La cosa es retomar.

A Connectivist Disconnected?

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 20:29:00 -0500

Gladys Gahona’s message got me to LinkedIn today. Once there I found several invitations to join networks. I feel honoured to join you, thanks.

If the post title sounds as unbelievable or incongruent as a cat barking, the fact that Stephen Downes requested me on May 15th to join his network seemed equally unbelievable.

However, it only shows that the map is not the territory.

Out of the web I’m connected.
Inside the web, I’m disconnected.

Do the above phrases reflect the map or the territory?
Who knows? I guess it depends on the place where you’re standing.

Anyway, I came to post what is an unbelievable event from where I seem to stand now.

A mexican present for BaW10

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:56:00 -0600

Dear Bawers,

C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S !!!

I decided to make Sue Annan’s recipe as a present for all of you. It was fun!

The picture on the left shows how my kitchen table looked after I finished making the dough for the Jersey Wonders, not too bad!
I waited the two hours indicated by the recipe.

Well, after I fried them, I left them in a tray at the dining table.
While I cleaned the kitchen, persuaded a native to leave his pencil holder job to act as present deliverer and placed the most beautiful flower I found in his front tray, something unexpected happened...

To my surprise, when I finally went to the dining room to arrange the table to take a picture... there were just a few wonders left!

Either it took me a long time to gather the elements to frame the present or my husband loves eating like Attilio does. LOL!

Enjoy it!!

Isn't the indian lovely?
Besos.

¿Qué es Conectivismo?

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:07:00 -0500

Traduje “What is Connectivism? A Quick introduction to the topic of Connectivism” y lo presento aquí para los que están cursando CCK09 este año.

La transcripción y edición del audio fueron realizadas por Matthias Melcher que, junto con su sobrina Silke, está haciéndo una gran labor para llevar el Conectivismo al idioma Alemán. ¡Gracias Matthias! ¡Mucho éxito para todos en el curso!

¿Qué es Conectivismo?

MMV's podcast

Hola y bienvenidos al Curso de Conectivismo y Conocimiento Conectivo que es ofrecido por George Siemens y Stephen Downs. Soy Stephen Downes.

Estamos aquí para darles la bienvenida hoy con una introducción a lo que creemos que es Conectivismo en sí.
El Conectivismo es una especie de teoría que habla de acerca de tecnología y aprendizaje…que habla acerca de nuevos tipos de aprendizaje y ustedes se pueden preguntar, bueno, ¿porqué necesitamos más teorías de aprendizaje cuando ya tenemos muchas teorías?

Una de las cosas que encontraremos conforme avancemos en este curso es que el Conectivismo reta muchos de las concepciones involucradas en lo que Paul Churchland llama Psicología Popular. Concepciones como:

• Tener una idea,
• Mantener una creencia,
• Aprender una verdad.

Estas cosas, estas creencias y otros estados psicológicos se han encontrado en la Psicología a través de milenios pero las teorías que nos informan hoy acerca del conocimiento, el aprendizaje y la tecnología son nuevas. Están basadas en conocimiento reciente, y tal vez encontraremos en el transcurso del curso que estas entidades psicológicas populares no son apropiadas y no son suficientes para informar nuestra discusión acerca del conocimiento y aprendizaje.

Entonces, ¿Qué es Conectivismo específicamente? Conectivismo es específicamente la tesis de que el conocimiento es literalmente distribuido a través de conexiones, el lo que sea que es creado cuando la información es enviada de una conexión, una entidad, a otra entidad. Dos entidades están conectadas si, una señal enviada por una entidad puede cambiar el estado de otra entidad.

El Aprendizaje es, por lo tanto, la capacidad de construir estas conexiones y la capacidad de viajar usando estas conexiones para enviar información a través de éstas conexiones. El Conocimiento, por lo tanto, en esta teoría no es algo que se adquiere, no es algo que sea un objeto, sino más bien es el crecimiento o desarrollo de esas conexiones, tanto el crecimiento como el desarrollo de esas conexiones en la mente, y el crecimiento y desarrollo de esas conexiones en la sociedad.

Si consideramos el conocimiento como un juego de conexiones entonces cualquier cosa que consista de un juego de conexiones puede considerarse como un objeto de aprendizaje. Entonces, la mente puede ser un objeto de aprendizaje, una computadora puede ser un objeto de aprendizaje, una sociedad puede ser un objeto de aprendizaje. Y vemos evidencia de este aprendizaje tanto en la sociedad como en las personas.

Otro aspecto importante del Conectivismo es que el conocimiento no es propositivo. Lo que significa es que el conocimiento no está compuesto de oraciones. Está, como acabo de decir, compuesto por conexiones, compuesto por interacciones entre entidades. Como dije anteriormente, el conocimiento es literalmente las conexiones entre esas entidades. No es alguna oración descrita como conexión en esas entidades o algo parecido.

Podemos pensar en diferentes sentidos cuando hablamos de Conectivismo. Podemos pensar en un sentido fuerte de Conectivismo en el cual, si tenemos dos juegos de conexiones que son idénticas, entonces éstas tienen el mismo conocimiento. Y esto es cierto hasta cierto punto, pero el juego de conexiones que encontramos en una red, el conocimiento que expresa, emerge de ese juego de conexiones, no está contenido en él. De la misma manera que una imagen de Nixon no está contenida en los pixeles que componen una pantalla de televisión, sino que, cuando vemos estos pixeles ordenados de cierta manera nosotros reconocemos esa imagen como la de Richard Nixon.

El conocimiento es algo que es reconocido, el conocimiento requiere de alguien que lo perciba, de un conocedor. Algo es conocido únicamente si es reconocido. Entonces, cuando las personas me preguntan que es el conocimiento algunas veces les digo: El conocimiento es como encontrar a Waldo en “Donde está Waldo”. Y es una discapacidad para ver algo de alguna otra manera. Una vez que has encontrado a Waldo no puedes desencontrar a Waldo. Eso es a lo que nos referimos como conocimiento.

Lo que esto quiere decir es que, si tenemos un juego de conexiones y la percepción de dos personas diferentes, dos personas mirando esto, pueden ver cosas diferentes. Hay diferente conocimiento en el mismo juego de conexiones porque los que lo perciben pueden tener diferente conocimiento base, pueden tener diferentes suposiciones, pueden tener diferente lo que George Lakoff llama marcos de referencia.

Entonces, en esta teoría, la formación de conocimiento es el desarrollo de esas conexiones, como se he dicho, y esas conexiones se desarrollan a través de un proceso que es llamado asociación. La asociación es el mecanismo que describe cómo es que se forman las conexiones entre las neuronas. Hablaremos mas tarde en este curso acerca de los principios específicos de las asociaciones, las reglas específicas que gobiernan el proceso de formación de conexiones entre dos entidades separadas.

Una vez más, la idea aquí, de asociación es que el conocimiento es cultivado, se desarrolla entre esas dos conexiones. Y no es edificado o construido. No se edifican o construyen redes. Ustedes las cultivan, o las nutren, o las ejercitan, o las desarrollan. Es una capacidad o una habilidad, en lugar de un edificio o un constructo.

De manera similar, en Conectivismo, como dice el dicho, no se crea significado. El significado es una propiedad de las oraciones. El significado es una propiedad del lenguaje. No es una propiedad de las conexiones. Y así, consecuentemente, no hablamos del significado de las conexiones del modo en que hablaríamos del significado de una oración. No estamos, por lo tanto, obligados a desarrollar teorías de representación, o teorías de referencia como se requiere en el lenguaje. Y una vez más, esto es una clase de cosas de las que hablaremos conforme avancemos en el curso; que es de lo que estamos hablando, que es lo que estamos pensando cuando pensamos acerca de las cosas de manera conectivista.

De manera similar, en Conectivismo decimos que el conocimiento no es transferido. Una vez más, esta es la idea de que el conocimiento no es un objeto, no es una cosa. El conocimiento no es algo que se carga de un lado a otro. Por lo tanto, una teoría de aprendizaje no es una teoría de transferencia de aprendizaje. Ni siquiera es una teoría de aprendizaje transaccional donde hay un intercambio o nada por el estilo. Otra vez, lo que sucede cuando aprendemos es un proceso de crecimiento y desarrollo.

El Connectivismo, por lo tanto es una teoría que básicamente tiene dos objetivos principales:

Primero que nada, habla acerca de cómo se cultivan las redes o como se desarrollan. Cuáles son los procesos, cuales son las cosas que se pueden hacer en orden de fomentar el desarrollo de una red en ustedes mismos o en otros, o en la sociedad como un todo.

Y entonces en segundo lugar, el Conectivismo es una teoría que describe redes exitosas. Que redes funcionan en si. Que redes son confiables. Cuando vemos una red y decimos: Ah si, esto es..., reconozco algo en esa red. ¿Podemos confiar? ¿Cómo podemos confiar en esa red? Algunas redes no son confiables, algunas redes son caracteristicas de cosas como la psicología de las turbas o lo que sea. Así que nos gustaría ser capaces de describir las redes que de manera más confiable, más efectiva nos proporcionen información sobre la que podamos actuar. Y hablaremos acerca de esas condiciones con algún detalle.
Así que esto es un rápido esbozo del Conectivismo, y hablaremos más acerca de todo lo que significan estos conceptos conforme progresa este curso. Así que gracias por su tiempo, y espero realmente que disfruten del curso tanto como nosotros disfrutaremos presentándolo.

La transcirpción en Español está aquí

La transcirpción en Inglés está aquí. Gracias Silke!

BaeL at Webheads in Action Convergence 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Sat, 23 May 2009 22:27:00 -0500

After months I'm back in this blog. I had to embed my first public presentation here!

Electronic Village Online sessions went very well indeed, it was a fabulous experience to be a moderator of BaW09 and Enhancing Lessons. Both moderator teams rock!
I was kept away mainly due to PC troubles.
Unfortunatelly, most of the files and pictures I created during my moderating experience were lost or are still misplaced.

Beware if you have Windows Live OneCare, it clashes with Internet Explorer and the backups created by OneCare end up as a troublesome and painful task. Endless hours to recover the files.

In this WIAOC09 presentation I talk about how BaeL project started, which venues and tools were used and the resuts I got. The online course started the 24Th of March 2008 and ended with 43 participants the 24Th of April 2008. Now we have 81 participants and the weekly sessions we currently have are called BaeLMods09 Training.

What made my presentation rich were the contributions of those great educators that joined me there. Of course, I couldn't have done this without the extraordinary support and guidance of Moira, it's an honor for me to have her as mentor.

Moderator: Moira Hunter
Participants: Gonzalo, Mary, Mbarek, Dennis, Vero... (collage of pictures coming soon)

I hope you enjoy watching it.

This recording is hosted at Webheads Video Clips
Creating Bridges: a report on an online experience to overcome Digital Divide.
Presenter: Maru del Campo
Recorded live on Ustream 05/23/2009 03:56 pm PST

Final CCK08 Project

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:21:00 -0600

Finally. After weeks of hard work, coordination, joint efforts, difficult time schedules, detailed work at our wiki, several live meetings, technical problems and many emails the final CCK08 video project can see the light.

My deepest thanks Stephen Downes and George Siemens for providing a great platform for Conncetivism and Connective Knlowledge and to all the participants that shared their experiences and made my jouney a memorable one.

Speciat Note: I had the honor of working with Vivpav Baxi (India) and Carlos Casares (Spaniard in Germany), thanks to both for their ideas, efforts, patience, creativity, support and trust. It was a wonderful experience!

You'll see evidence of openess, autonomy, diversity, connectedness and equity. We all pulled our share of work and got a high level of trust among us. It was amazing!

I invite you to see our process, please visit our wiki. It was an enriching experience to work in a team with Carlos and Viplav, although we are so different we came to respect our differences. I learned a lot during this last weeks from them and with them. This week was excruciatingly long; we were tied up with technical difficulties with SplashCast (btw, support has not answered), each of us displaying our skills with unsuccessful results until Viplav managed to convert it to a YouTube video.

Although our answers to the final questions are placed here, I'll post mine here to leave a complete account of my learning.

1. What is the quality of my learning networks: diversity, depth, how connected am I?
My learning networks are more deep and diverse now. Most of them are focused on online learning and have different subjects of study.
My earlier networks, all in English, have become stronger, diverse and deeper, it seems that placing myself in different forums and live events has also enriched them. I see the latter as proof that everything goes back to the network, the knowledge travels, gets modified and it's placed back for further additions, modifications, challenges, etc. The new contacts I made formed a new network that holds deep conversations, I have a few valuable connections there and I hope to acquire more with time. Although I gained a lot of knowledge, by reading the articles suggested, the threads at Moodle and the individual blogs, I perceive that network too advanced for me to contribute in a useful way. I need to keep learning to interact with more confidence there. Lack or confidence also kept me from posting more in Moodle.
Besides my family and friends I didn't have Hispanic nodes in my network before the course. My recent Spanish network needs further nutriment, lack of time during the course, to my regret, prevented me from interacting more with the Spanish community. After the final project is handed over I will pursue those connections.

2. How has this course influence my view of the process of learning (assuming, of course, that it has)?
Of course this course influenced my point of view about learning! The information I found was new for me in every sense. I must admit I had not heard about connectivism before and I had not given serious thought to online learning. To think that knowledge is on the network and that learning is the ability to navigate through the connections made no sense at all at the beginning. Now, after this connective experience, it all makes sense. The last live session added the cherry to my pie, thanks for answering my question, even if a George mentioned, it was off topic. I know, because I've tried, that to explain my experience with words leads me to terrible misunderstandings and endless discussions. You have to live it to understand it.
If I ever have the opportunity to give another online course I will plan it completely different.

3. What types of questions are still outstanding?
An issue is evaluation or assessment (which from my point of view it's always subjective), a valid evaluation would have to be reached by each adult participant or parent in case of youngsters. Would a course survey taken before and after a connectivist course help the learner to assess his performance? Something like this image maybe?

I see learner's dependency as a main drawback to a connectivist course, Would it be valid to run a course to foster autonomy prior to a connectivist course?

4. How can you incorporate connectivist principles in your design and delivery of learning?
I may be wrong but I perceive myself as acting in a connectivist way online and offline.
Offline, I work with nodes from different disciplines, mainly Psychiatrists, Neurologists, Language Therapists, Psychologists, Social Workers and Nurses. We are all emergent, depending on the context and the kind of issue we gather to reach a therapeutic path and a solution; in the end it's the patients' (family or individual) actions which tell us if the intervention was successful or not.
Online, I work with basic computer programs offered by LearnFree which let the learner's evaluate themselves, I created a Ning site that is chaotic per se to foster connections with other learners and widen their network and we have a Yahoo Group as mailing list. Every member has his/her own learning objectives, we add resources or comments when we invited to do so and every learner decides when and how ofter to engage in the discussion. I would like to design with more vision the framework of my courses in the future and invest time on modeling or teaching autonomy.

This is just the start of Connectivism

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:58:00 -0600

Today was the last Friday of our CCK08 course, I went to the live session at Ustream to find a link to an Elluminate session where people were gathered. For the first time I had something interesting to share with voice. What is it?

Smak posted in the chat: "@Stephen, George and others: Like to learn from you how decisions (say to connect and interact) are made". (Dec 1sr edit:John or Smak came by to let me know that Smak is his ID at Elluminate, thanks John!).p>

His question got me thinking because I belong, as far as I know, to the only group formed to make the final project. The team had set earlier an Elluminate session using the Webheads vRoom to decide what to add, change, agree on, etc. We are four members: Dolores from Spain, Carlos in Germany, Viplav in India and me from Mexico. Only Carlos and I managed to get there. It was very interesting to watch our struggles to get to decisions in a connective way, we had lots of fun! We are so diverse that it was not an easy task. I kept Smak question in mind and when Dave asked for speakers I raised my hand and at the appropriate time I got the mic, voiced his question and told them about our reaching decisions adventure.

Here are some of the questions and comments posted in the chat:

smak: I think this is the most important question in connectivism
Wendy Drexler: Does decision making equal control?
Lisa M Lane: and yet, decisions must be made
ctscho: Decisions are local, perhaps?
smak: @George: How about learning decision, individually, the network
Wendy Drexler: With all of this connectivist content created as a result of this course, I'm already thinking about how I can organize it...bring it all together.
Me: To have groups at the end is a very interesting journey, thanks!
Jo Ann Hammond-Meiers: What is consensus versus honing in on a focused point
Lisa M Lane: see, I knew it would come back to individualism (I didn't create any of the wikis I was promoting. LOL)
Me:@ Viplav you're here too! How have you find our decision making process?
ViplavBaxi: @Maru: I think along the lines Stephen is talking right now
- in a very individual manner, yet connected and evolving
ViplavBaxi: @Jo: many other factors also enable - eg. common language, protocol
Stian: @ViplavBaxi: Good point, would be very interested in exploring the role of language further.
Stephen Downes: The way we create mechanisms to connect ... matters.
Stephen Downes: deaf networks, that all the nodes become the same (audio comment)
Moderator (George Siemens): @maru - connectivism or cck08 attributes from the stance of the education field (To continue tagging)

This is just the start! I would like to know about the research that surely will be conducted, keep me posted! LOL No one will post me, RSS will!

Playing with SplashCast to create a demo and a collaborative site for the team to work independently but collaboratively, I came up with this slide show. I hope you have as much fun as I had while creating it! (Only the first slide is in Spanish)

Wendy's exquisite video came to the table. Enjoy!

This video came to put in place more pieces of the puzzle. I've been thinking for a while that I need to define my needs and focus to get them covered. Obviously I don't have the right connections or I'm looking in the wrong directions or I'm not looking at all. I know about events serendipitously and many times I don't join the adventures I would like to participate in because I learn about them too late. So I need to observe myself, think and find out what I'm doing wrong. Else, I go to Hubs where owners start sending daily emails advertising things, pissing me off with "sales", "unique opportunities to make money" and stuff just like in FaceBook.

If they knew! LOL Money is not my engine at the moment... has it been in any given period of my life? Yes, when I was homeless in Manchester while writing my Master thesis; my solution was to get a bicycle to save the bus fare for lunch, spend the night at the Maths building punching cards to get the SSPSx program running on ROSCOW and to sleep during the day in parks or in the living room of a charitable friend for a few days.

I'm looking for collaborators for my on my BaeL crusade, people that gets no harm speaking and writing in Spanish, bilingual people interested on Digital Literacy and web 2.0 tools but... what do I have to offer in return? Well... learners of Spanish, English, Basic Microsoft programs, e-tools and... plenty of data to do research. Ning provides plenty of data, that I don't know how to obtain yet but it's there for the taking. Yahoo Groups also provides data but not in the same handy way. I want to learn how to take advantage of the stats feature in Ning, the doors at Manchester University are open for me and a PhD sounds attractive but... that will take time.

Several "connections" have questioned the way I see my computer literacy or my illiteracies. They interpret that as lack of self esteem but I see that as a reality. I don't have a natural inclination to electronic devices or cables or plugs or computer tools; I'm clumsy, I take hours to do what Stephen suggest to do in ten minutes. It's the same with cooking, I'm not a natural chef; I spend hours cooking what my sister cooks in half an hour. In both areas I'm satisfied with my end products, the sites work, the tools do what they're supposed to do and the food tastes quite nice. Sometimes I receive compliments from both areas. The difference lies in that I have F.U.N. with the computer and I hate the kitchen. I rather spend my time having F.U.N.!

After Elluminate I went to my SLexperiments weekly meeting, were I felt like in the Chilbo SL Cohort. SL continues to behave very badly, voice was down and we had to text chat... what a waste! Besides, I'm tired, very very tired of typing. You'll find the summary here.

(Btw: I don't know who Smak and Stian are. If someone knows their blogs, please share them to add the proper links here. Thanks).

An Illiterate in the CCK08 course

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:44:00 -0600

Tonight, after the last Elluminate CCK08 session, I went to Dave Cormier's blog and found his post about Literacy. It was like if a veil was taken from my eyes, many of my discomforts found its place.

My reply there was:

Hi Dave!

Thanks for giving a name to how I felt during the CCk08 course, the word “inadequate” didn’t quite explain things for me. Illiterate is the perfect fit. In many aspects I was illiterate, in many others I remain so. I have a looong road ahead but now I see some paths.

I’m glad you explained to me some subtleties in the Korean language and culture, one of my best friends is Korean and I understand him a bit more now.

Thanks also for moderating the live online sessions. It’s been a pleasure hearing you.

Maru :X

Then I went to the Intro Emerging Tech 09 course wiki and found this video. What caught my attention was that I had seen it before, finding little sense; today, I found more sense. Maybe, if I watch it again in the future I will see more patterns.

This morning's events are also clearer now after reading Dave's post. I went to the International Forum on Digital Contents (Ficod08 for his Spanish initials) in Second Spain. Although it was in Spanish, it was about social networks and how are they used for business, I didn't understood some of the terms. I saw that I had learned the technical words in English during the CCK08 course and I did not have the words in Spanish. A side of my illiteracy showed up.

An hour later we had our weekly SLexperiments meeting in Spanish, Dolores and I agreed on solving two things: my urgent problem to get rid of my cat paws and her required visit to Muvenation site. Steve joined us and he helped me to select a new avatar, his Spanish is very good. The first new avatar remained with paws and I had to strip to sort out the problem, Steve's avatar respectfully turned his back to give my avatar some kind of privacy. I was so embarrassed!

With my new avatar we went to Muvenation and met Daf there. Daf took us to where Dolores could join the Muvenation student's group that suited her needs and then we tested Daf's orientation site:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/MUVEnation/212/194/100

Having satisfied our needs we rested by the fire. It was a wonderful afternoon!

With my deepest gratitude to Dave, Stephen, George, Dolores, Steve and Daf.

CCK08 Final Mind Map

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:04:00 -0600

I'm placing here the concepts I found more relevant and how I see them relating and influencing one another. The map itself has changed little, what has changed is how I understand it now. For example, over the past two weeks the issue of Openness has gained more weight.

The red lines show a one way influence or impact; I may be wrong, maybe there aren't one way impact relationships with the concepts I mention. The rest of the colours show the impact of one item; for example, the purple lines show the interaction of the concepts with our "Mind", the blue lines show the interactions with the "Context" and so on.

I understand better now what has happened to me and my connections this year (2008). My offline connections have a new topic to talk about, besides that, the changes have been those brought about by life itself. My online connections have widened, I got now a lot of new weak connections and a few stronger new connections. With Becoming a Webhead (BaW08), Becoming an e-Learner project (BaeL), Connectivism and Connective Knowledge (CCK08), Connecting Online(CO09), Electronic Village Online moderator training (EVOMods09) and Corporate Learning Trends and Innovations (CLTI08) I have learned a lot this year. My mind view things in a different way.

I see clearly that to have people hanging around with me they have to gain something valuable. I understand now why when I had worked and pulled my share of work with some people who asked me to participate in their projects I got little or nothing in return when I asked for participation in mine. They considered me some sort of an asset during their projects, what I did provided something valuable them and I was learning. Once the project was ended if my project didn't go with their line of work they didn't participate, they wouldn't gain anything of value. Reciprocity does not have anything to do with it, it's just the way a network works. It's a description of a fact, not a complain.

I understand that Openness is a delicate issue for people and organizations. Some people and institutions say they are open to new ideas, that they want collaboration but in the practical sense they want you to do things in a certain way and don't accept changes. It's their organization, their project, their wiki, their site and they have the right to have it as they want it. It's very difficult to let go of power and control, to set a common goal, elicit participation and receive it as such. I don't see that happening soon. I didn't see evidence in Stephen's predictions on the future but what a wonderful piece to read.

His words: "To learn is not to acquire or to accumulate, but rather, to develop or to grow. The process of learning is a process of becoming, a process of developing one’s own self".

I wonder how could I use iCall? Stephen mentions that this allows events and syndicated contents to circulate within the same network, creating an association between time and content that is dynamic, fluid, and distributed.

How could I enable my communities? "At most, the educator needs to ensure that the tools are there for students to use, and that the channels of communication, from student to student, from community to community, are open".

I'm puzzled. Why didn't Stephen mention "Equity" in his recent SL Conference as a feature of Reliable Networks? Is that so unreachable?

Nancy at Learning Trends and Innovations 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:26:00 -0600

Learn Trends Digital Habitats

From: Nancy White.

Nancy is one of the Jewells I found in CCK08. She shared this slide show with us this at her Learning Trends Elluminate session. I find it inspiring to say the least.

Learn Trends Digital Habitats

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: learning groups)

The slides I'm using in a webgathering on November 19th at the online LearnTrends 2008

SlideShare Link

Account of Stephen Downs visit to Second Spain

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:06:00 -0600

Stephen Downes very kindly agreed to guest a conference about Networks within organizations in Second Spain. The SIM was unstable, the participants that arrived on time had no problems with sound but some of the latecomers could not hear him or my translation. His talk ended and the round of questions was held on the text chat expecting to reach everyone in the room. People were eager to ask and get answers so they put up with the unexpected heavy text chat while Stephen very patiently waited until I typed the translation to continue.

The content of his conference is available in the following videos that he gently provided before hand.

Talking to educators, he told them he wasn't going to talk about how to teach their students, he would rather talk about how could they manage their own learning because that was the important point.

His views of a Networked organization sound like a dream from the point of view of the members of an organization, to be able to choose which product to sell by pursuing your interests and talents would be fantastic. Can you imagine?

From the point of view of the organization itself, this view requires them to let go, to leave their mission behind, to foster openness, diversity, autonomy and connectedness. I guess the feeling there would be fear, you'll have to trust others, to believe they'll do their best in their field. Stephen mentioned that to manage a company in a traditional way is not efficient, people work for their own interest not for the interest of the company owners.

If we own an organization, what we have to think about is how to set activities that mean, quoting Stephen, "A mutually beneficial exchange of value". As Jorge Cuevas says: "Give others the chance to win too", this is, make others gain something valuable working with you, while you get something valuable also for yourself.

It was a pity that the SIM behaved so badly. There were people who could not hear a word of all that was said, the richness of Stephen's voice was lost for them; it's certainly not easy to translate to and from a text chat but it was a different experience. I had never translated online with no body language clues!

Stephen Downes in Second Spain today

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:31:00 -0600

Today at 21:00 GMT, Stephen Downes will be at Connectivitas in Second Spain guesting a round of questions about Network Learning within Organization. Check your local time here.

This event comes about thanks to the diligent work of Esperanza Román and Dolores Capdet who are doing wonders in Second Spain.

Esperanza kindly placed the two videos send by Stephen Downes in her blog, please feel free to visit.

The SLURL for UniHispana Auditorium is:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/UniHispana/208/1/77

In case that you have difficulties to enter, this is an alternate SLURL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Faro%20de%20UniHispana/52/5/77

I hope to see you there.

Why is so difficult to change the practice of Education? Third CCK08 paper.

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:22:00 -0600

I think that the main reason lies on the self image that the teachers held about themselves and in the way in which the students perceive education. I wish I knew about a practical way to shift those positions.

The teacher's traditional position.

In a traditional way a teacher stands out of the crowd, in a way that medical practitioners did some years back as pictured by Quino in his famous cartoon (Quino cartoon, page 5, Mafalda, book 9;1977). In that view teachers are considered vessels of knowledge, leaders of the future generations. In rural places they are treated with awe and respect, the community is grateful to have them; it usually implies less comfort to go and teach sometimes in a hut. In the cities they are held also with respect, parents try to get along with them for the sake of their kids' well being. The teacher that requires his students to send their homework to his/her email sometimes is viewed as a nuisance; most of the students don't have computers at home and parents have to cope with the expense of paying extra to cyber places.

Being a teacher gives you status, power over your learners, a position in life supported by your credentials and years of experience in the field. It's not easy to let go of that position, of the privileges perceived and of the underlying assumptions. Stephen Downes talks about this, among other things, in his post about Reusable Media, Social Software and Openness in Education.

Students point of view on education.

On the other hand, most the students regard school and homework as an imposed obligation that they don't enjoy.

Qino cartoon. #895, Mafalda 4 (1968)

Felipe (thinking): "Well, I better go do my homework."...
Felipe (thinking): "Damn!"

They act as Felipe, they wish that something would come along to get them of the hook. I have acted like that myself. Students come to the cyber place to do their homework and what they do is copy and paste from pages they Google, they don't reflect on what they put together. They try to do it fast to have time to add a picture to their photo blog (MetroFlog is their favourite), chat or visit their Hi5 spaces. If they happen to find a teacher that invites they to learn in an engaging way they respond eagerly but they expect leadership. If you leave them to choose what to learn and how to go about their learning they freeze. Talking to teenagers I've found they are confused, they know that even if they do well in their studies that doesn't warranty them a job or a better life in the future.

Matthias has a different point of view on this issues and looks into resistance in a broader way than me. Worth reading.

S. Downs puts forward an answer: "The idea that all of us, acting independently, but ensemble, en masse, can come up with something better than any individual in the group could by themselves. This is not a case of marching toward mediocrity, this is a case of the group simple being able to take into account more factors, more variables, than any given individual. The group being able to absorb more information than any individual. But for this to work, we have to have the open communication and access. We have to have the distributed non-centralized non-hierarchical model".

To teach in a non traditional way means to accept, claim, demonstrate and model that you don't have all the answers, that you are not better or worst than others, that you are only a bit different. It also means that you are open to share what you know and have, that you are open to persuasion.

I don't have a practical path to bring this change about. All I see is that maybe if we take responsibility of our own learning, model the behaviour we expect, provide examples, establish outcomes, set the table with what we see as goodies and invite others to share the meal we may shift the status quo a bit.

I found the following video at Tom White's blog. We are against inertia.

Despite the fact that this short article is a free roaming thought piece, I find myself with an acute feeling of the responsibility for what I write. It's hard to explain. This doesn't mean that I didn't feel responsible before, it means that I'm more aware of that responsibility as a part of a learning community. I see this as a beneficial outcome. I blame this to all the readings, interactions, talks and wonderful people I have met during the CCK08 course. Thanks to all of you.

The Official Quino Home Page can be found at http://www.clubcultura.com/clubhumor/quinoweb/

What's the role of a connectivist teacher?

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 11:38:00 -0600

My answer to this questions can be found in this CCK08 Moodle thread, I'll post it here:

"As far as I see and as far as I have understood the connectivism model the role of the "teacher" is to sit back and let the students take control.

I mean sit back not with a bad connotation, of course SD and GS are not scratching their bellies! They are very busy keeping this three or four ring "circus" going. They invested many hours beforehand setting up the design, the layout, the Daily, pageflakes, Wiki, Elluminate, syllabus, inviting guest speakers, getting Dave to moderate, etc.

The most difficult part of online and offline teaching, is to get the learners flying on their own. Connectivism strives towards learners independence, to decentralize the learning process, to avoid hierarchies. To get that going you need to kind of disappear at the background. If you jump in, the learners will tend to ask YOU to take the lead. Because they recognize you as an authority figure, you'll mark and evaluate them.

I think a connectivism course doesn't have to be "cold" or "detached" to avoid learners dependency. Webheads, for example, don't promote dependency and their sessions are full of generosity and kind encouraging comments. They set tutorial's mechanisms at the side and point learners to go, click away, find out and sort things for themselves. They also, as a rule, set aside a week for informal networking along with a Nettiquete code. That time is used to make sure that all participants know how to handle their email accounts to avoid the overload feeling, to free participants from the technology issues to be able to focus in the content."

I was very impressed by the way Dave Cormier handled the evaluation of the CCK08 in his Elluminate session: with honesty. The picture is a screen shot of that session.

As Dave Cormier mentions, Webheads are kings on teaching online a knowledge moving target without losing people along the way.

I found some of Stephen Downes comments evaluating somehow the CCK08 course at one of Graham Attwell's posts.

I also found Cristina Costa's reflections about a course she gave, she is on of my admired Webheads, I don't know if her course had a connectivist approach but I definitely like the way they encouraged and aided the learners to participate; from backstage.

Preparing this post I ran across an open eye slide presentation that touches responsibility, enabling and community creation in an open source platform. By David Eaves.

Community Management Presentation

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: 2007 fsoss)

My learning journey with EVO and CCK08

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:52:00 -0600

This is not the third paper. I want to place my thoughts here to let them go, to reflect on them and leave my morning's non practical thoughts behind.

When I signed up for the CCK08 course I knew it was beyond my league, now I see that to participate in an online course feeling so detached from the "teachers" or moderators and participants doesn't work well for me. I had fun as Sia Vogel mentions, but not during the entire journey as I'm used to have at the EVO sessions.

As participant, the Webheads provided me with readings that helped me to understand my role as participant and to succeed in online courses. Issues like "Personal Learning Environments" (PLE), Online Courses Design, Learning Theories from the Online point of view, Properties of Networks, Instructional Design, Complexity and Chaos, Power and Control, Epistemology, History of Networked Learning, Collectives, Roles of the Teacher, Openness, etc. were all new concepts to me. Unfortunately, before this course I have never heard of Stephen Downs, George Siemens and connectivism.

The fact that I plunged into a totally new conceptual environment did not help me either to have fun, the people I'm learning from/with are more savvy, experienced and better conceptually placed than me. Most of them are recognized figures in their fields, busy people, with little time and low inclination to waste time explaining the obvious to me. This is not a complain, it's a description of a fact, I understand their position.

When I opened my own online course, BaeL, I did not have access to all the readings I have given access now that I'm part of the moderators EVO team. I have access now to tutorials to set up groups, readings to help me select which venue suits best my courses targeted outcomes, readings about online learning, emails with information about the "back stage", the set up, the management of the courses, the facilitation role, etc. I set BaeL course on my own, selected the venues and tools with my instincts as guide and once armed I invited the Webheads to join. Of course I asked thousand of questions, some were answered and some were not.

Some Webheads joined and have not interacted, some were active during the online course and then backed away, some are still participating with me in that learning journey. I'm thankful to all. The remaining Webheads at BaeL are having fun while learning, we are learning all sorts of things, we became a caring tight knitted group with no teacher appointed, we learn from each other, we encourage each other, we learn practicing together and sharing experiences, we are open to our feelings and respect our cultural differences.

When I joined FaceBook, I had so many friends already there that I started feeling concerned by my slow answer rate. Rita Zeinsteger, one of my most admired Webheads, told me then: "If it's not fun, it's not worth". It's one of the best advice I have received.

To work online you need discipline, to set times to be in front of the computer and respect them, otherwise the overload may threat your life and well being. The new term I learned is: Burn out. Today at Ustream, in our weekly live session, Stephen Downes shared that "We have to focus, to know what we are looking for" If we surf the net with something in particular in mind we can handle overload better by narrowing our choices.

How do you handle the feeling of overload?, How do you manage your weak ties?, Do you feel comfortable in an environment where most of your ties are weak? This network environment is kind of new for me, your insights will be welcomed and very helpful.

What's the role of the teacher?

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:37:00 -0600

The term I used to name de new role of the teacher, lurer, has a negative connotation in English; maybe in another languages too. To let me know about it Ariel, very gently, sent me the following twitts.

Kristina Hoeppner went farther, looked up the term and shared in the comment area: "A lot of times, at least in my understanding of the term, luring is used to make people do something they would never do on their own. I don't have a great idea for a possibly better word to use. All seem to have a somewhat negative implication attached to them."

About the teacher's role she says: "I think we do not only have one role but many, maybe sometimes packaged all together, sometimes only one or a dominant one."

Nancy White, with her bright mind and warm spirit came by to share that "In the facilitation world, an alternative term is "invitation." It has been long recognized in that domain that it is often more successful to invite people in rather than to require them. And that the quality of the invitation matters -- how do we make it irresistible?"

As I mentioned in my previous post, the name given to the teacher is the less important part. What matters is what you do and how you do it, if you engage with learning honestly you'll set an example for your learners. Your words may be taken away by the wind but your actions remain to drag others along the wonderful learning path.

Jenny explains the above much better in her post called "A Good Teacher". I totally agree with her: "She (Nancy) is recognised world-wide, but her humility and obvious desire to be one of the learning group and not apart from it, is the mark of a good teacher." Nancy made a deep impression in my soul, she's always present

In another venue, Allison Miller states that "Teachers already have e-moderating skills. They just need to analyse what you currently do face to face–and then convert it to online".

What do you think?. According to your views, what's the role of the teacher?. If you are a good f2f teacher, does that qualify you be be a good online teacher too?. If not, what else do you need to develop to become one?

Formal CCK08 2nd paper. Shorter version.

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Sun, 9 Nov 2008 21:53:00 -0600

The point of emphasis of this Second Paper is that of the Educator. Why? Because I've taught for several years, 20 or more, while I just "designed" my first online Community of Practice site BaeL(1) last March 08. There, as well as in our YH bael-PC group (2), I model what I preach.

The roles of educators are changing as shown by Tom Woodward (3) in the following video.

The changing roles of the educators are many, as evidenced in this conversation (4). Depending on the context, the name and actual activities of the educator varies. Examples:

In ScholMAX (5)the roles are: Educator, Special Education Assistant, Plan Specialist, Reading Tutor and Teacher Aid.

According to SchoolNet (6)the roles of an ICT teacher are:

1.- Learning Mediator. 2.- Interpreter and Designer of Learning Programs and Materials. 3.- Leader. 4.- Scholar, Researcher and Lifelong Learner. 5.- Community, Citizenship and Pastoral Role. 6.- Assessor and 7.- Learning area/subject Specialist.

The role I put forward, which brings me to my father, is the role of Lurer. In order to lure somebody you need to spare some time first to investigate your targeted person or group. You need to get involved first to find out hopes, desires, expectations, incentives, limitations, needs, interests, activities, etc. In sum, all that may be attractive for them. You also have to rely on the resources that you have and on the resources that your learners have access to and be creative to deliver the content you want to share.

The term Lurer also implies a decoy or a foolish way to achieve an outcome, this attitude also goes with me. If I have fun while learning, "my learners" or co-learners will have fun too while learning along with me. I'm usually learning what I'm teaching, the only difference between me and my learners is that maybe I have read a bit more on the subject or I have given a few more clicks to the tool we're using. When I try to use the tool, I laugh at myself and my clumsiness. Most of all, I give priority to the content I want to deliver regardless the selected tool while I listen to my learners shifting needs.

During Nancy White (7)wonderful session (8), she showed us a shared, give and take, approach to education. So far, she has been the liveliest presenter in CCK08 course. I really enjoy her remarks to Stephen! Nancy also posted an Online Community Purpose Checklist (9)truly worth reading.

Another proposal comes from Jokay Wollongong (10), she created Jokaydia(11) in SL.

She left a laptop open in SL, when someone asked what game it was she investigated their needs. Then she invited the teacher to visit SL with her and showed, in site, what could be done to teach that subject. The ones hooked were given avatars and a project to bring their students to SL. Clever ha! She's participating in the Learning Technologies 2008 Conference (12)

Depending on the context, the name and actual activities of the educator varies.

We need to evaluate very carefully the context. It's not the same to lure and adult than to lure a kid. With kids, safety comes first. Tom Whyte (13) started an interesting thread (14) asking if connectivism can be used for K-12 classroom. While we wait for responses, let me tell you that I see that the role of the educator in that particular context is as Gate Keeper or Guardian Angel. This role applies also when your learners are complete beginners even if they are adults.

Angeles Berman(15), who is "Teaching the Teachers" at her site "Maestrantes 2008" (16), has a group of teachers who are doing their Master Degree in Pedagogy and Education Practice with her. Some of them did not know how to use the Internet and it's really a joy to see them posting their work at their Community as well as at their Wiki(17).

I invite you to react as I did. While I couldn't shake off my father's authority, as many of you cannot shake your School Board, I lured him! So... start luring people!

I'll leave you with the important questions raised at the Moodle forum thread (18) started by Sui Fai John Mak (19)

References:

Maru del Campo, 2008. "Becoming an e-Learner" Learning Community. http://bilingueactivoelear.ning.com "BaeL"
Maru del Campo, 2008. "bael-pc YH Group" Mailing List.
Tom Woodward, 2006."Education Today and Tomorrow" Henrico Co. YouTube video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnh9q_cQcUE&NR=1
I Kant et al, 2008. "Role for Educators" Moodle thread. CCK08 course. http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1073
SchoolMAX, 2008. "Additional Educator Roles" https://cpsed.ri.net/webhelp_1_6_1_0/admin/111_-_scheduling/106_-_code_administration/1001_-_additional_educator_roles.htm
SchoolNet SA and SCOPE, 2008. "ICT and the Roles of Educators". http://ace.schoolnet.org.za/cd/ukzncore2a/activities/core2a.flow.htm
Nancy White, 2008. "Full Circle Associates" http://www.fullcirc.com/wp/
Nancy White, November 5th 2008. "Week 9. CCK08 Elluminate Recording" https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback.jnlp?psid=2008-11-05.0706.M.ACEE335354DD13071EB33121158A62.vcr
Nancy White, 2008. "Online Community Purpose Checklist" http://www.fullcirc.com/wp/resources/online-community-toolkit/online-community-purpose-checklist/
Jocay Wollogong, 2008 "Virtual Worlds - Community - Second Life Rentals Blog" http://jokaydia.com/
Jokay Wollongong, 2008. "Jokaydia Flicker photo's collection" http://flickr.com/groups/jokaydia
Learning Technologies Conference, 2008. http://www.learningtechnologies.com.au/index.cfm
Tom Whyte, 2008. "Where Old Meets Now" http://whereoldmeetsnow.edublogs.org
Tom Whyte, 2008 "Reality Check" Moodle Thread. CCK08 course. http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1079
Angeles Berman, 2007- 2008. "My Learning Zone" http://mylearningzone.motime.com
Angeles Berman, 2008. "Maestrantes 2008. Universidad Pedagógica Nacional" Community of Practice.
Angeles Berman, 2008. "Institución y Práctica Docente" http://institucionypracticadocente.pbwiki.com/
Sui Fai John Mak, 2008. "Teaching the Teachers: A key to Student Success" Moodle thread. CCK08 course. http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1074
Sui Fai John Mak, 2008. "Suifaijohnmak's Weblog" http://suifaijohnmak.wordpress.com/

What pedo gorgory you?

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Sun, 9 Nov 2008 03:30:00 -0600

First of all, let me define my position. Then comes the 2nd paper. As we have seen: Context is very important, visit this interesting thread.

I'm writing in an irreverent tone. (Don't tell me!?, I hadn't notice!, he, he, he.)
I work for my own Institution at the moment, the founders know me well so I know they'll laugh too.
I don't consider myself a teacher or educator. I just facilitate learning. People come to me with a situation they want to solve like: My son doesn't speak. My English is poor. I'm getting divorced. I need to give a presentation in English. I'm depressed, etc.
I talked to Stephen, somewhat apologized for the tone of my posts and he said: "Go ahead, I don't care, I have a tough skin". So... no problem.
My dad is a Spanish man born in Mexico. I'm bringing this to the table because the post title is the question he usually asked me when I was angry with him.
His question drove me even madder because I didn't speak English then.
I knew that "pedo" was not an
English word but I didn't know that "gorgory" didn't exist as an English word. I thought he was showing off and evidencing my ignorance.

George was born in Mexico, as far as Wikipedia is concerned, and he will mark this Second Paper so he may understand the meaning of the question. The title is irrelevant anyhow.

The point of emphasis of this Second Paper is that of the Educator. Why? Because I've taught for several years, 20 or more, while I just "designed" my first online Community of Practice site BaeL last March 08. There, as well as in our YH bael-pc group, I model what I preach.

The roles of educators are changing as shown by Tom Woodward in the following video.

The changing roles of the educators are many, as evidenced in this conversation. Those roles have been documented since the Ancient Greek Era, pity there is no evidence left on cave walls to see which was the role of the teacher in "Hunting Class I".

I won't bore you with a description of those roles. Depending on the context, the name and actual activities of the educator varies. Let's see some examples.

In ScholMAX the roles are: Educator, Special Education Assistant, Plan Specialist, Reading Tutor and Teacher Aid.

According to SchoolNet the roles of an ICT teacher are seven:

1.- Learning Mediator. 2.- Interpreter and Designer of Learning Programs and Materials. 3.- Leader. 4.- Scholar, Researcher and Lifelong Learner. 5.- Community, Citizenship and Pastoral Role. 6.- Assessor and 7.- Learning area/subject Specialist.

However, Emilia Potenza, who elaborates on those roles in her paper "The Seven Roles of the Teacher", describes herself as Curriculum Adviser. So, we may have a number eight role.

One of my co-students, the brave and brilliant Lisa Lane, mentions the roles as follows: Lecturer, Facilitator, Accountant, Curator, Master Artist, organic Gardener, Wizard and Insurgent.

While Lisa's view of the current Educator role empowers the teachers and invites them to change the system from inside out, it has not been explored yet and the consequences may be harmful for the teacher.

The role I put forward, which brings me back to my father, is the role of Lurer. In order to lure somebody you need to spare some time first to investigate your targeted person or group. You need to get involved first and find out hopes, desires, expectations, incentives, limitations, needs, interests, activities, etc. In sum, all that may be attractive for him/her or them. You also have to rely on the resources that you have and on the resources that your learners have access to as Nancy White points out and be creative to deliver the content you want to share.

The term Lurer also implies a decoy or a foolish way to achieve an outcome, this attitude also goes with me. If I have fun while learning, "my learners" or co-learners will have fun too and learn along with me. That's another key point, I'm usually learning what I'm teaching, the only difference between me and my learners is that maybe I have read a bit more on the subject or I have given a few more clicks to the tool we're using. When I try to use the tool, I laugh at myself and my clumsiness. Most of all, I give priority to the content I want to deliver regardless the selected tool while I listen to my learners shifting needs.

I think that Nancy White does something wonderful in her Full Circle Associates site. The picture below was the opening slide at her talk at Elluminate, last Wednesday November 5th.

During her wonderful session, she showed us a shared, give and take, approach to education which needs collaboration to succeed. So far, she has been the liveliest presenter in CCK08 course. I really enjoy her remarks to Stephen! I wonder what would have happened if George had ben there. A recording of her presentation is available along with great notes taken by Christy Tucker. Nancy also posted an Online Community Purpose Checklist truly worth reading.

Another proposal is what Jokay Wollongong did when she created Jokaydia in SL. You can see here pictures of the site.

In her office, she left a laptop open in SL, waited until someone asked what game it was to inquire about that teacher's subject. Once she knew the subject, she invited the teacher to visit SL with her and showed him/her in site what could be done to teach that subject. The ones hooked were given avatars and a project to bring their students to SL. Clever ha! She's participating in the Learning Technologies 2008 Conference

Depending on the context, the name and actual activities of the educator varies.

We need to evaluate very carefully the context. It's not the same to lure and adult than to lure a kid. With kids, safety comes first. Tom Whyte started an interesting thread asking if connectivism can be used for K-12 classroom. While we wait for responses, let me tell you that I see that the role of the educator in that particular context is as Gate Keeper or Guardian Angel. This role applies also when your learners are complete beginners even if they are adults.

I have a Mexican friend, Angeles Berman, who is Teaching the Teachers at her site "Maestrantes 2008". She has there a small group of teachers who are doing their Master Degree in Pedagogy and Education Practice with her. They are studying at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional. Some of them did not know how to use the Internet and it's really a joy to see them posting their work, pictures, debates, etc. at their Community as well as at their Wiki

I invite you to react as I did. While I couldn't shake off my father's authority, as many of you cannot shake your School Board, I lured him! So... start luring people!

I'll leave you with the important questions raised at the Moodle forum thread started by Sui Fai John Mak

References:

Sui Fai John Mak, 2008. "Teaching the Teachers: A key to Student Success" Moodle thread. CCK08 course. http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1074
Maru del Campo, 2008. "Becoming an e-Learner" Community of Practice. http://bilingueactivoelear.ning.com
Maru del Campo, 2008. "BaeL PC Group. http://mx.groups.yahoo.com/group/bael-pc/
Tom Woodward, 2006."Education Today and Tomorrow" Henrico Co. YouTube video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnh9q_cQcUE&NR=1
SchoolNet SA and SCOPE, 2008. "ICT and the Roles of Educators". http://ace.schoolnet.org.za/cd/ukzncore2a/activities/core2a.flow.htm
Emilia Potenza, 2008. "The Seven Roles of the Teacher" http://ace.schoolnet.org.za/cd/ukzncore2a/documents/core2a.curriculum-matters.htm
I Kant et al, 2008. "Role for Educators" Moodle thread. CCK08 course. http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1073
Lisa Lane, 2008. "Insurgence for Emergence". http://lisahistory.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/paper-2-insurgence-for-emergence/
Tom Whyte, 2008 "Reality Check" Moodle Thread. CCK08 course. http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1079
Nancy White, 2008. "Full Circle Associates" http://www.fullcirc.com/wp/
Christy Tucker, 2008. "CCK08: Iterative, Appreciative Change" http://christytucker.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/cck08-iterative-appreciative-change/
Nancy White. November 5th, 2008. "Elluminate Recording. https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback.jnlp?psid=2008-11-05.0706.M.ACEE335354DD13071EB33121158A62.vcr
Tom Whyte, 2008. "Where Old Meets Now" http://whereoldmeetsnow.edublogs.org
Jokay Wollongong, 2008. "Jokaydia.com Blog". http://jokaydia.com.
Jokay Wollongong, 2008. "SL Jokaydia site". http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia.
Jokay Wollongong, 2008. "Jokaydia Flicker photo's collection" http://flickr.com/groups/jokaydia
Learning Technologies Conference, 2008. http://www.learningtechnologies.com.au/index.cfm
Angeles Berman, 2007- 2008. "My Learning Zone" http://mylearningzone.motime.com
Angeles Berman, 2008. "Maestrantes 2008. Universidad Pedagógica Nacional" Community of Practice. http://maestrantesupn042.ning.com/
Angeles Berman, 2008. "Institución y Práctica Docente" http://institucionypracticadocente.pbwiki.com/
Universidad Pedagógica Nacional http://www.upn.mx/
Nancy White, 2008. "Online Community Purpose Checklist" http://www.fullcirc.com/wp/resources/online-community-toolkit/online-community-purpose-checklist/

Powerless during Power week

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Tue, 4 Nov 2008 14:26:00 -0600

I shouldn't’t be doing this. I should be writing my paper and making sure to answer the questions. Last week I was off line, I was powerless, with no energy or power to move. I was bed ridden for days with bronchitis. I logged in to last Friday live session to find out that I arrived an hour late so… powerless, unable to connect.
This is my answer to Ken’s lasts posts about success, failure, power, groups and more.

Hi Ken!

I am glad to be back here, I enjoy very much your readings. I came here from today's daily and what attracted my attention was your post title "I made the news".
Congratulations!!! Did you write home about it as you mention? What did they say?
This is a response to your last three posts so if you don't have time now please skip it and keep the “Congrats” part.

This applies to you too kind reader. :-)

Thanks for pointing out that Stephen's readings are difficult, it thought I lacked "proper background" (whatever that is) to understand them. Now I see I'm not alone. I'm stupid in some areas, as many people are, but I thought that understanding "deep philosophical readings" was not one of them until I found Stephen's readings and videos which made me ask myself similar questions than yours. After reading your last three posts I guess they are the exception that confirms the rule, I'm not so stupid in that area.

If I don't get meaning is because they are meaningless to me, I cannot connect with them, I'm a "doer", I didn't find practical application on those readings and I have been living in a "connectivist" way for more than 20 years. Don't misunderstand me, I rather clarify.

I have been, as mankind has done for centuries, connecting with experienced nodes to learn from them or to pay them to exercise their expertise in my benefit.
In my practice I work with multidisciplinary forces or nodes, it's in that sense that I stated that I work in a "connectivist" way. From that point of view I can happily agree with the sanctum sanctorum connectivist phrase: "knowledge is in the network". As I've told you before, that way of learning is not new, I'm not buying the "theory" bit either, time will tell in that sense.

Regarding Stephen's "illusion of power" exercise: It amused me.
Why? Because for the first time he stood up and exercised his power OPENLY. As you mention in this post, he had used his power from the beginning; in a covered and clever way for me. From my point of view, this last move was not clever, it didn't empower the learners.

Rather, he is modeling his "theory":
"The pipe is not important".
He did not think about the havoc he created to some that use their employers’ hardware and software to connect, he has said so several times on the live sessions:
"I don't care if you are learning, I'm learning!".
On the other hand, let me tell you that as a "teacher" in an open non-authoritarian system you have to find ways to push your students towards the content you expect them to learn so to use your power is valid in that context. It's an effective behaviour.

Your question about the success or failure of the experiment is one that voices many participants' concerns, as you have measured with your visitors’ blog counter and comments, the question is lying there and they can easily say and justify that it was a success. Again, time will tell. But as participant you can define if it was a success for you or not. Was it a success for me? Though I cannot tell yet in a broad sense, I'm learning and I've met some valuable people not nodes. That’s for sure. Did I learn what connectivism is? It seems I didn't, I learned a new name to christen what I do.

I joined for the feedback that non-credit participants believe we, the credit ones, are getting. I have not "earned" a direct email, tweet, or comment in my blog from the "teachers". Here is an account of "my feedback".
I have not opened a thread in Moodle; I got two answers from SD in the Importance of Context thread. I got one comment back from GS on all the live sessions I've listened, one of the 10 or so times I have dared to write something "valuable" in the chat box. I got an A, also from GS, for not answering the main question on my first paper. That's all. For me, that's not clear feedback but I have not participated much as you can see, maybe I have not given them a chance (?) What it tells me so far is that in a connectivist view I am a "dependent learner" who has not received clear feedback from the "teacher" who doesn't care in the first place if I learn or not.

Turning to the alternate places where CCK08 network gathers, I just can tell you what I've seen which is not much.
I've gone just to two SL cohort sessions, the first one was on a Sunday, and no one was there. The second was on Tuesday and there was a text chat going with 5 participants including myself; I was told that there was more participation on Tuesdays, that they did not use voice to keep records of their meetings and as none of us had done the readings of the week the meeting was cancelled. To be at SL to use only the chat box did not appeal to me and then I started having problems with my graphic card and then I got sick so... I will go back next Tuesday.
The Connectivitas site in Spanish has very low participation; the Connectivitas SL weekly meeting gathers also 5 or 6 participants using voice, not keeping records and voicing questions, discomforts, positions, RL activities, etc. Some of the members (3) formed a group to do the final project. Guess... Who is one of those 3? Who started those meetings? :-)
I have not seen blogs in Spanish about connectivism; I've seen blogs posts tagged as CCK08 where the conversation is about something else. I wish I had more time to search more blogs.
In Moodle I've seen and then talked live to one participant that chose the forums to promote himself, openly as a marketing strategy to get the teacher's recognition. Admittedly not doing the readings, nor visiting blogs, nor blogging about connectivism. He opens threads and posts his papers in his blog due to lack of time. He has followed SD and GS work for 3 years or so. It's working for him, every one of his threads has SD or GS postings and some have made the Daily news.

As for your assertion that CCK08 is a group and not a network I, again, can only tell you my position. A sense of belonging is one of the main aspects that identify a group, right? If you don't feel you belong then it's not your group or you pay a high price to remain there.
For me, if I don't feel I belong, if I don't get feedback then it's a network not a group. I can abandon and no one will notice. In my groups, if I abandon without giving notice, they ask about me and fortunately they get concerned about my health or my situation. I did that just once many years ago and learned my lesson. When I logged in and found the worried messages in several venues I decided that it was not fair to worry people just because I did not think about it, one member called me home from Korea to ask about my silence, he was going to call my parents first!

Regardless of what Stephen and George learn, or how many papers or thesis or whatever they get out of this experiment; I honestly believe that they deserve it. By putting this experiment together, by keeping it going with one or 2000 survivors, they have placed and keep placing every day great effort. They are modeling and giving an example on online team work; they are very different, have opposite views in some areas and have accommodated their differences publicly. George strives to engage students while Stephen enrages them easily, the bad cop vs. good cop routine. That effort should and will be compensated somehow. Besides, they are putting themselves in the firing line, exposing their work and ideas to a vast audience. If I agree with their views or not that's my business. What they are doing is very brave and I salute them for that. = deep bow.

I did not find the "rabid mob of connectivists" here trying to set you right as before, have they gone too? Where are the non-connectivists cheerleaders?

I have used up today's fuel, I started to feel dizzy again so...
Si tienen tele... ahi se ven! :-)

CCK08 My Cmap

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:18:00 -0600

After many hours, a thousand clicks and lots of fun, I came up with my Cmap.

I uploaded it as an image. I exported it as a Scheme but I could not make sense of it as text, it looks like waves, it must be my tired eyes.
We have covered many concepts, I trimmed it and left the more relevant ones for me.
I did not read my email nor logged in to Twitter to concentrate better, I´m paying the price though, I feel lonely but I have many things to do at the office... I'll send a tweet.

Now I just have to find out how to share it and someone to share it with.
Intriguing how each of us makes sense in a different way. I confirm again that color is clarifying for me.

Tommorrow is connecting day, I'll start at Elluminate with CCK08 participants, then with my mum at Yahoo, later in SL with Dolores to end up at Elluminate. Gonzalo usually laughs when I tell him it's my resting day, I don't see patients on Wednesday mornings. :-)

How do we deal with emotions in a network?

noreply@blogger.com (Maru del Campo) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:16:00 -0600

Ed Webb, Sara Stewart and Francis’s comments in my post “Design. Following my hearth, prompted me to write this post. The tone of my previous post has also influenced my decision, my emotions are somewhat obstructing the way.

Edd comments: “But I was most struck by your personal note at the end, about your 'core network' and the emotional impact of the course. This, too, is learning, and I think we should be open to sharing and discussing our emotional insights and reactions as well as our more cerebral ones. Those are also important elements of connection and something we need to consider as educators as we design connectivity into our teaching and learning. Does your core have hard boundaries, do you think, or is it more a question of degrees of connectedness, of a more fuzzy notion?”

As usual I see an example of the importance of Context. One member of my core network passed away recently, I am still in mourning. He was 85 years old and left me as legacy the custody of his Templars books to share them with others; he left me clear indications about how to do it.

My core network does not have hard boundaries, as Ed mentions is more a question of degrees of connectedness, it’s also emergent. Sometimes I am connected with part of the network depending of the issue at hand and the rest becomes kind of dormant. Sometimes it shifts in a day to day basis and sometimes it takes weeks to shift. There are even times when it shifts several times the same day. I feel I have been blessed with the core network I have, that feeling and my resent loss brought about the tears.

Sara mentions “Thanks you Ed and Maru for starting a thread on the emotional aspects of connectivism. How would you do that with your students, in a way that keeps both you and your student’s safe?”

I believe that if you communicate frequently with your students, deliver prompt feedback and keep a netiquette code in your course, you and your students would be safer than if you leave them wandering around on their own. To do that you will need a bunch of trained moderators. Sometimes it’s not possible because there is no money to pay them but you can have willing connections within your network that will do the job on voluntary basis. It’s easier said than done, you need to have a strong tie with your moderators and be sure that if they need to abandon they will place at least someone to cover their position.

While Sia Vogel writes about her feelings in Being there and suddenly very lonely. I think that if CCK08 course had spared a week for introductions, as again my dear Webheads usually do in their EVO workshops (sorry for being so redundant), we could have acquired a sense of belonging and then move to the content itself with more ease and a sense of recognition. I see clearly that my views regarding online learning and teaching may be biased, I believe that if you set a friendly and warm tone with participants it’s easier to get them focused on the content.

Regarding emotions, as a private email points out and Frances comments: “The emotional aspects are important but can be difficult to discuss 'in public'. I noticed that Stephen D had praised someone sharing their grade as 'living the spirit of connectivism'. What is the place of private discussion in networks? Important to me.”

While I a agree with Ed, on that “we should be open to sharing and discussing our emotional insights”

I am finding that it’s complicated to do it in public as Frances comments, it may also be risky. I would like to find out more about this issue because it may have deep implications, I think that if by sharing your feelings you are bringing something valuable to the network it will be appropriate to do so.

In the case of my last post the valuable thing for me was to bring emotions to the table but… Will others consider it valuable?, Are we willing to discuss our emotions openly?, Does dealing openly with participant’s emotions really promotes learning? The netiquette suggest to deal with flame messages by private email, is this the only way?, If we do it in private how will the rest learn about it? Emotions are important for connections but how and where do we deal with them in a network?. I bet some research been done on this, could any of you share links on the subject?