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

A mexican present for BaW10

noreply@blogger.com (Maru) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:52:30 PST

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 is loves eating as Attilio. LOL!

Enjoy it!!

Isn't the indian lovely?
Besos.

¿Qué es Conectivismo?

noreply@blogger.com (Maru) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 17:26:27 PST

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) — Mon, 25 May 2009 12:48:11 PDT

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) — Mon, 25 May 2009 12:57:15 PDT

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) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:25:07 PST

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) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:44:38 PST

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) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 11:04:02 PST

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) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:26:02 PST

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) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:22:25 PST

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) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:26:32 PST

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) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:08:38 PST

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) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:32:11 PST

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) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:52:36 PST

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) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:25:10 PST

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) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:53:56 PST

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) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 01:59:50 PST

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) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:31:01 PST

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) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:07:02 PDT

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) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:01:11 PDT

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?

My comments to paper 1 feedback

noreply@blogger.com (Maru) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:55:33 PDT

I am sharing the comments and mark given by G. Siemens as some other participants have done. If you want to read the file sent to me an hour ago please feel free to do so here.

The comments I sent by email are the following:

Hi George and Steven!

I just received your email with your mark and comments on my first paper, thanks.

To answer your comments I will quote you first to address them later.

“Some statements – such as “engage or enrage” aren’t cited or supported. I believe it’s a Prensky quote, but I don’t understand what it means.”

I thought that by posting in my paper the video itself, that would do as citation for the phrase "I strive to engage my students, not to enrage them." You are right, it’s from Prensky. Here is the citation and link to the video: "Prensky, M. (2004) What Can You Learn From A Cell Phone?". With all due respect, to get the meaning please watch the video. As your connectivist model states, I could go on with a series of explanations but if you don’t recognize the pattern it would be of little use.

“The focus of this paper was for you to state your position on connectivism – strengths/weaknesses, etc. You provide a series of personal reflections rather than stating clearly your view of connectivism. If you provided the latter, then you can use your reflections to strengthen your overall argument.”

In my paper I stated that my position was ambivalent, it was too early for me to view the strengths/weaknesses, etc. Even now, it’s difficult to explain clearly with words my views about something that cannot be defined but rather lived to grasp it.

If you read my blog and follow the links to my activities you will see that online and offline I work and relate to others in a “connectivist” way. I experienced connectivism before I met the term, it’s a way of living and working that I started since 1993. I had to leave teaching institutions to accomplish that, formal education is still traditional and curriculum centred.

Online I experienced it with the EVO sessions. The difference between your course and those workshops is the frequent feedback, encouragement and warm, free atmosphere. In a sense, I'm immersed in connectivism; my actions define my position. Sorry if I cannot clarify it more that this.

Design. Following my heart.

noreply@blogger.com (Maru) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 21:53:47 PDT

I understand that many people don’t agree with the way I do things, online and offline. I learn by doing. I saw a learning opportunity that could be shared and beneficial... I followed my heart. In this post I will describe the background story behind the creation of BaeL project and the instructional design issues that, with my interactions on the CCK08 course, I see now.

My contact with Andy Pincon from Digital Workforce Education Society or Digibridge was triggered by a final comment I posted at BaW07. He contacted me by email, I told him that it was an incredible coincidence that he saw me because I had been learning with Mercedes (the voice in the video) about his long distance Chicago project with immigrants . As part of Mercedes’ workshop I trained for free a digitally illiterate adult to learn basic computer skills like turning on the PC, use of mouse, use of keyboard, etc., using Alado as virtual classroom. The student was in another place of town with a moderator by his side listening to me and following tutorials. By the way, the Mexican organization linked to Digibridge is Innovative Soft.

The following year, at BaW08, I mentioned in the mailing list that I wanted to practice what I had learned, I did not want to spend another year away from online teaching and that I would get a group of students to do so. Sharon Betts suggested me to connect my students to hers at TLG, Andy Pincon suggested me to contact Unete and to consider LearnFree programs. Bernice La Lucerne, Jose Antonio Da Silva, Ronaldo Lima, Nergiz Kern and Dennis Oliver’s generous ideas and questions about the issues I was considering, helped me to decide how to go about it.

For me the process described above shows that, as George Siemens mentions again in this Instructional Design week, all learning starts with a connection and that attributes of connections influence knowledge. By talking, visiting sites, exploring web 2.0 platforms, asking questions, interacting with them and their experiences I decided to leave BaeL at 21^st Classes inactive, to create BaeL at Ning as virtual support community and designed a short four weeks online workshop using AprendeLibre computer tutorials as content material, Yahoo Messenger as live sessions site and BaeL-PC Yahoo Group as forum and mailing list. The workshop was launched the 24th of March 2008.

According to Renata Phelps’ paper, I designed a complex non linear learning environment. If I had read George’s Learning Development Cycle or watched his presentation on Instructional Design and Connectivism maybe I would have done things differently. I say “maybe” because the Context, Readiness, Tools, Equipment Available and Resources were the Impacting Factors to plan the design of the workshop.

It was a free activity, not related to school in any way. My students and I were working from Cyber Places which created difficulties due to the “strange” sites I required access to. The target group age range was 14 to 18 years old, some of them worked and studied, some went to school in the morning while others went in the afternoon, non of them spoke English, the older ones used the computer to chat, the e-mail to send PPP presentations and had Metroflogs to post images. Some of us did not know how to use a computer properly. The sites are still active, the last member is a young single mum who wants to learn to use computer programs to get a job as a secretary or receptionist. I am glad to help and continue learning with her participation.

The trip to my hometown was… different! I lost the 10 AM bus, took the next at 2:00 PM, trying to fix SLExperiments wiki. The movie I saw on the bus was “The Count of Montecristo” I ate my lunch and drank my soda… different. The last scene of the movie shows the hero’s core network; in my mind I saw a picture of my core network and started crying softly. This course is having deep emotional impact on me. But that’s another story.

Peace During Chaos Week?

noreply@blogger.com (Maru) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 08:26:47 PDT

I commented in Jenny's post about Complexity-Chaos:

"as soon as I placed my wall out there in my week 5 post it became real and I could start tearing it down. I expected more uncertainty this week just from the subject “Chaos and Complexity” and I found instead, to my surprise, peace".

"In this experiment we were plunged in to chaos in order to live connectivism , there is no other way to understand it, we have to live it."

I won't try to explain how I got from chaos to peace. I saw so many patterns this week that it would be messy.

My post was featured in the Daily in a very clever way. That fact itself triggered something that took me back to my reaction to the first of Jenny's posts I read. The comments left in my blog opened doors, the October 15th morning live session had a deep impact on me, I kept listening and typing my ideas. I copied the entire chat and spend hours in a notepad file I called "provoking comments" (copy/paste), making more sense moving reactions along until I saw a distinct pattern. Then, if I remember well, I left comments in Iamar's post and Gina's post among others that right now I don't recall but with each visit the wall started to crumble. My reactions flowed easily in the comments area.

It became clear for me that my reaction to finding Jenny as a person that I resonate with was crucial. In my first comment to her I told her: "When I joined the course I wanted to learn about Connectivism, it seems that I am living it, that’s what this experiment is about."

Then I saw that indeed, there is a vicarious reinforcement pattern in the lack of comments and that somehow Gina was perceiving it too, she touched the same feeling of being ushered to behave in certain ways in order to have access to information and she called that "FILTERS". I also realized that there is nothing wrong with that. On Friday's live Ustream session almost everything fell into place. As Stephen mentioned

"TRY TO FIND PATTERNS AND RECOGNIZE THEM, IF IT'S NOT RECOGNIZED YOU REACT IN A KIND OF AUTISTIC WAY." "LEARNING AND KNOWING IS PATTERN RECOGNITION, YOU CANNOT TELL PEOPLE, THEY HAVE TO LIVE IT, EITHER THEY RECOGNIZE IT OR NOT".

I saw clearly how clever both are designing an experiment that would lead you to live connectivism. You live it in such a way that the concept cannot be described with words.

Moreover, today at our SLExperiments Weekly meeting an non expected of event happened. I had two new members lost in-world, one contacting me on Twhirl and we did not know her SL name and another one with SL IMs who missed the teleports sent.

As soon as I told the group I saw a fantastic display of resources from all the members, email, twitter, SIM, wikipages, IMs, Google Groups, etc. As Dave White explains in his video about Multivisual Environments for Online Distance learning (Second Life for example), Aspects of Community. There were some shades of Confusion, Performance, Drama, Frustration and Celebration. We thought each other, there was a feeling of belonging, the lost members felt cared for, there was a natural engagement, high level of trust and persistence to complete the task at hand.
That is a true learning community, I am very proud to belong to it and I celebrate myself for having started those meetings. I wonder if we will celebrate 10 years as Webheads did.

Reading Collectives, Networks and Groups in Social Software for E-Learning I saw that what I have done so far at Becoming an e-Learner site, considering my lack of experience, it's not so bad, with time practice and connective participation it will become better. It's plain chaos.

The rigid but reliable BaeL Yahoo Group appealed to teachers but not to the teenagers. Also, they are used to MSN chat, the moving icons tug at them in a fantastic way but as I had seen that that environment does not hold more than 70 people using voice and I wanted them to speak I choose YH Messenger: Huge mistake. After exploring several venues, mainly opening sites and showing them to the kids of the block I chose Ning. It appealed to them, so I started my long boring still unfinished task of translating the platform which is still in Spanglish. Well, it is bilingual! LOL

In conclusion, I have found that human contact, affection and caring are very important to develop a learning network. I am eager to know how these guys sort out the point of assessment, evaluation or whatever you wan to call it.

By the way, I have not seen, received and email, a tweet or something to tell me about the grading of my first paper.

Never mind, maybe in Connectivism the responsibility to hand out grades doesn't fall on the "teacher's" shoulders. Who knows? Maybe it will arrive by regular email like my subscription. Surely I will know any time in 2009.

Well, off to SLP. I miss the place dearly. Long walks on broad clean sidewalks looking at grandiose colonial houses, endless pedestrian narrow streets leading every two blocks to a plaza with a church, fountains and gardens. No rain!! Warm weather, warm people, f2f kisses, hugs and laughter. Great celebration among a blood group... FAMILY!! :-)

Connected without modem?

noreply@blogger.com (Maru) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:10:54 PDT

Before going any further let me tell you that I just installed Snap Shots. I have found it handy in other blogs. Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

Yesterday I got my modem back. It burned last Monday morning so most of week 5 I was off line, I joined two live sessions and missed my weekly meetings. However, I was not disconnected, I kept thinking about the course, tried to link more concepts and explored my wall. This is a late post, I will address here the specific questions required for this week: Have you begun to see the rudiments of a learning network forming?, Has some of the conceptual uncertainty settled?

While Lisa does not recall conceptual uncertainty she mentions the grading system. I was only aware of the 40% assigned to the papers and learned the rest from her post. You know? I am not concerned with the grades, I joined to learn, have feedback and to get my efforts documented somehow.

I saw a network forming from the beginning, a huge one with more that 2250 participants. Following Stephen's ideas on Groups vs Networks: The Class Struggle Continues,which for me are kind of rigid or don't leave much room, I could say that we have somewhat a learning network. It has the following attributes: diversity, openness, distribution, interaction, it changes and the topics are emergent. What I see in conflict is the autonomy attribute as described, we are not autonomous, we have guidelines, tasks and readings assigned, live meetings to attend and formal leaders. In fact, part of this post is "homework".

On the other hand, looking at George's Groups and Networks presentation which I find flexible and gives more room I could say that what we have is a learning network with a high level of autonomy. It is important to note that he considers, as stated in the first slide that:

"groups and networks cannot be compared, groups are a type of network, they are not something altogether different from networks so, in a sense, it's almost impossible to compare the two because they are the same".

So, taking into account the three critical elements he mentions: Agent Autonomy, Complexity and Task Specialization, the picture changes. I could say that the type of network that we have in the "course" is one that has a high level of autonomy (we have to archive a focused outcome but we can organize ourselves to do so), a high level of complexity is not required (the task can be managed loosely, they are not concerned about what the final outcome could be) and the task at hand does not require high levels of specialization (no one will be killed if we get it wrong).

We come back again to the importance of context. Being aware of the two points of view I can say that I see a learning network forming, not only the rudiments. There is huge amount of work to get this going and a lot of effort to plan this "course", design the network and set it flying. I am not overlooking that. What comes clear, from the educational point of view, is that depending on the objectives of your course you need to decide which type of environment is more suitable, a traditional group where you have more control or a network when you can afford low control.

To give a course using this learning model sounds attractive to you?, Are we willing to pay the price?, Is your student's criteria solid enough to achieve something in a network?, Is the subject fit to be learned connectivelly? Is your school or organization willing to support you on a learning network adventure?, Is your country technically equipped to use web 2.0 tools?, Are your students digitally literate to cope? There are many factors to consider.

Regarding the second question. I have had my share of conceptual uncertainty, I cannot say that the uncertainty has gone because I find more with every new subject. This is not a bad thing, I am enjoying expanding my contacts, I am learning to get ready to launch my BaeL digital literacy project as shown in this video but we need to get on board a charity organization to do so. We started in March so it has been a long road.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I have been thinking about my wall. I still laugh when I remember the image "You are not longer subscribed to anything" at Stephen's blog. Well, my wall is related to trust. George's presentation touches a bit this point.
I do not know how to relate to someone that I hardly know, to someone who interacts very little with me, I tend to doubt when facing closed people with no chance to talk to them. It may be silly but if don't place the wall out it will be harder to tear it down. I know we are not supposed to get validation or recognition, that's what my head says.
However, my emotion reacts, I am human. I have seen some behaviourism taking place in the feedback or lack of feedback given, I perceive some kind of light coercion going on, not in a direct way. It is in a vicarious way, I ignore your behavior and acknowledge the behaviour that I consider right for you to imitate.
Let me explain myself, I feel kind of forced to post in a certain way in order to receive feedback, no one has sent an email or left a comment here saying something like "your posts lack focus" or "your map is not linked" or something of the sort. I observe a distinct pattern in the posts that do receive feedback so it's kind of a behavioural pattern. Well, the wall is out. I hope this helps.

My concept map is still very similar to the first I posted, I have the elements, the concepts, disconnected except in some parts. As soon as I see some sense in it I will post it. The YH Group for credit learners is picking up slowly, not all the credit learners have joined. The survey to get information to plan live meetings has even fewer quorum. We are all fighting to get time to do things, I know that people with very limited time prefer to hang at Moodle and be visible there.

As I luckily can manage my time, I can afford to have live meetings several times in the week. Today I was at the SL CCK08 group for the first time, the meeting ended quickly and I stayed around with Louise for a nice cosy chat. It's a pity that they do not use voice in order to document the meetings; I find it sad, like a waste of resources, I connect better with voice and get tired of typing :-)

Talking to her I saw that I have now a network at Twitter, before I followed just my friends and now I am following people I hardly know.

Later on I invited Dolores to my launchroom. We were talking about the course, our questions and the way we are engaging, I will meet her again at Conenctivitas tomorrow at 13:00 SLT 20:00 GMT.

I am glad my modem is back!

Diving board and an empty pool. Week 5.

noreply@blogger.com (Maru) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:43:19 PDT

I thought I had started the week on the right foot. I did the readings and audio files for the week on Sunday, I also prepared the images and links for this posts which was planned to be released on Monday afternoon. I printed “That Group Feeling”, read some blogs, left comments, started answering at Moodle and WOA! The no break started making unusual fast beeps in the middle of a message to Carlos! I had barely time to post my answer to him, sorry Carlos I did not say goodbye, and turn off the PC. Unfortunately, the modem ended up fried due to the high variations on voltage and the telephone company promised to come to check it today or tomorrow.

Nevertheless, I am posting my diving board for week 5 at a cyber place and hope to use it from here because the Internet pool at home is empty. I decided not to reply to comments in my blog, I will go the owner of the comment's mblog and reply there, in that way I will learn more and probably connect better. I may be able to come on Friday for the live session. I will reflect on dry land :-)

To leave a comment at Stephen’s post “Groups vs Networks: The class struggle continues.” I was prompted to subscribe, which I did. The following image showed up and I started laughing. I though this was Stephen’s doing, a way to say that there are not walls at his site, but later I understood that probably I had done something wrong.

My comment there was:

Hi Stephen!
It took me a long time to stop laughing after I registered, it took a screenshot of the image, I thought it was your doing but maybe it isn't, I'll post the screenshot in my blog.
Well, I enjoyed your rambling. I believe I understood what you mean, I will see the
presentation as well just to kick the wall. I guess there is a wall that's preventing me from understanding your concepts, I suspect what is it, I want to work it out. While I know very well which are my groups I am not sure which is my network or if I have one. As you mention, the two concepts are fused in my mind, rather, the concept of a network is new for me. I sense I am developing one right now with the connections of CCK08. Some of the people I contacted during the 1st week have a period of more than 15 of without logging in at Moodle, some have posted in their blogs and some appears to have vanished, that network is evolving; few people of my groups have joined the course but we don`t talk about it in our gatherings which comes as a break because I have been spending too many hours engaged in it.
See you around. Love: Maru

I found that placing the items to read and assimilate in my blog helps me a lot, so here it is this week's slideshow

| View | Upload your own

In the following video you can see Stephen in action explaining this chart:

My Position in Connectivism

noreply@blogger.com (Maru) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:02:25 PDT

Week four is coming to an end. After four weeks of being exposed for the first time to Connectivism philosophical concepts as well as to the inherent confusion of the practice as a student, mi position is somewhat ambivalent. From my two standpoints, context is important, I see drawbacks and incongruence while at the same time my innate dreamer nature feels attracted by the holistic, democratic or ideal principles of it.

Before going any further, bear in mind that my views are permeated by pre-conceptions and very limited, knowledge is not yet growing in me in a noticeable way as I mentioned to Jenny in the comment area.

Why am I taking this course? As Stephen and George happily said at the October 3^rd. USTREAM live session (the recording is not available yet), no one has a gun pointed at me to do it and they are willing to give a refund to anyone that asks for it. If we, the students, were not experiencing confusion, this little experiment would not be doing its job. What attracted me was the definition of the "course".

I am not teaching online at the moment, I am acquiring the Digital Literacy required to do so because I view myself doing it in the future. Taking a course on Emerging Technologies for Learning makes perfect sense. I believe that students learn about a subject they are interested in not only from someone they consider versed in the subject but from someone they care about and feel cared by.

I strive to engage my students, not to enrage them. I do not consider myself a vessel of knowledge, I usually mention that in any class or course I give, I am a long-life learner but that does not prevent me from gently pointing my students and patients towards a place where they might find answers or from asking them about something I don’t know. I avoid dependencies as Stephen does, I don’t’ let them cling to me for answers, rather I encourage them to look for them.

However, I make sure they know I care even if I don’t or can't give away the answers. This caring and nurturing is something I have not seen yet in this course, keeping in mind that it is a massive course kind of softens my view but if I ever engage on giving a course with this approach I will make sure to count with a bunch of moderators to help out and to have a help wiki as the Webheads have. Don't misread me, they also do not answer questions but provide a place to find them. Adrian Hill seems to have a similar view, he suggests the use of simpler language and more caring.

What Resonates with me.

Connectivism as a way of being, a way of seeing, a way of understanding, a way of thinking is very appealing. From Stephen as well as from George introduction video presentations the ideas that resonate with my Humanistic approach are:

Center the teaching on the student.
Knowledge is grown, not transferred.
No one has the whole truth.
You are responsible for your own learning.
Believe that your students will come up with the answers.
New and novel connections open new worlds and create knowledge.

Connectivism states that knowledge can be gained through “a set of connections formed by actions and experiences” not language, that “knowledge is distributed across networks, and learning is the skill one gains by travelling through them.”
It theorizes that learning happens by travelling through
our developed networks to human and non-human nodes.

I see that the suitable way to gain knowledge in a connectivist adventure is "networked individualism". To socialize I need to develop strategies and tactics for self-advancement. In the solidarity area I need to foster a sense of being an autonomous individual, loyalty is to myself and the network I am developing while the commitment to network members and nodes is variable, according to the needs.

Stephen Downes on Sep 12th 2008 wrote: "I believe that this is because the theory is neither collectivist nor individualist. It doesn’t argue that people (students, whatever) should subsume themselves under some sort of general will. At the same time, it doesn’t suppose that people live their lives as lone wolves, responsible for and to only themselves. There is a middle ground between these two extremes, a half-way point between joining and not joining, which (we believe) may be found in the network. Oh, b ut to get to this point, which doesn’t come up until week 5!"

What is making noise.

I will not engage here in explaining why I consider it a model instead of a theory, I did that in an earlier post. This ideas sound very good in paper but, as I stated before, I don't see them applied in a traditional school end even less in Mexico. In addition to have a traditional educational system which focuses in the curriculum rather than in the student, the vast majority of teachers in Mexico at best use email to contact students. A minority uses digital technology in their classrooms as Rocio does but she teaches parents and teachers. Moreover, she teaches in one of the most expensive schools in San Luis Potosí and not even there the students count with a computer for each one.

George Siemens is promoting his views as a Learning Theory for the Digital Era. My questions are: Is Mexico already in the Digital Era?, Do Mexican teachers know and use digital tools? When not all the students have access to computers Do the PC's at the cyber places in Mexico are set to connect with web 2.0 tools? As part of my BaeL adventure I visited several cyber places in Toluca and San Luis Potosí and when I accessed the web 2.0 sites I found that the PC's were not ready, plug inns were missing, programs were not installed, camaras and microphones did not work, etc. Of course that SL is even more out of reach. Sounds unbelievable but I am working to change that.

In his paper George goes on saying: "Learning theories are concerned with the actual process of learning, not with the value of what is being learned". How do you sell that idea to a school?How do you manage a connectivist course and ensure that the subject is known? Are we pursuing a golden nugget? or Are we planting the seeds of knowledge?

While I have my eyes on the Connectivism nugget striving to get knowledge I am making the connections to plant the seeds of knowledge in me and then spread those in my country.

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

A mexican present for BaW10

¿Qué es Conectivismo?

BaeL at Webheads in Action Convergence 2009

Final CCK08 Project

This is just the start of Connectivism

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?

An Illiterate in the CCK08 course

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

CCK08 Final Mind Map

Nancy at Learning Trends and Innovations 2008

Account of Stephen Downs visit to Second Spain

Stephen Downes in Second Spain today

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

What's the role of a connectivist teacher?

My learning journey with EVO and CCK08

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 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.

What's the role of the teacher?

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."

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".

Formal CCK08 2nd paper. Shorter version.

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!

What pedo gorgory you?

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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!

Powerless during Power week

CCK08 My Cmap

How do we deal with emotions in a network?

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.

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 comments to paper 1 feedback

The comments I sent by email are the following:

Design. Following my heart.

Peace During Chaos Week?

It became clear for me that my reaction to finding Jenny as a person that I resonate with was crucial. In my first comment to her I told her: "When I joined the course I wanted to learn about Connectivism, it seems that I am living it, that’s what this experiment is about."

I saw clearly how clever both are designing an experiment that would lead you to live connectivism. You live it in such a way that the concept cannot be described with words.

Reading Collectives, Networks and Groups in Social Software for E-Learning I saw that what I have done so far at Becoming an e-Learner site, considering my lack of experience, it's not so bad, with time practice and connective participation it will become better. It's plain chaos.

In conclusion, I have found that human contact, affection and caring are very important to develop a learning network. I am eager to know how these guys sort out the point of assessment, evaluation or whatever you wan to call it.

By the way, I have not seen, received and email, a tweet or something to tell me about the grading of my first paper.

Never mind, maybe in Connectivism the responsibility to hand out grades doesn't fall on the "teacher's" shoulders. Who knows? Maybe it will arrive by regular email like my subscription. Surely I will know any time in 2009.

Connected without modem?

Diving board and an empty pool. Week 5.

My Position in Connectivism

Before going any further, bear in mind that my views are permeated by pre-conceptions and very limited, knowledge is not yet growing in me in a noticeable way as I mentioned to Jenny in the comment area.

What Resonates with me.

Center the teaching on the student.

Knowledge is grown, not transferred.

No one has the whole truth.

You are responsible for your own learning.

Believe that your students will come up with the answers.

New and novel connections open new worlds and create knowledge.

What is making noise.

While I have my eyes on the Connectivism nugget striving to get knowledge I am making the connections to plant the seeds of knowledge in me and then spread those in my country.