connectivism

Directory

E2BN - East of England Broadband Network

12 January 2012

E2BN seeks to raise educational standards across the whole community by providing effective broadband services throughout the East of England. Harnessing the full potential of ICT and broadband connectivity, and drawing on good practice and collective expertise, they will continue to develop, share and deliver high quality educational opportunities and contribute to community and economic development in the region.

educational materials, ICT in schools, connectivism, sharing
Projects

Game Based Learning on Education and Action Training

06 January 2012

The Project GREAT – Game-based Learning Research in Education and Training Action is a project funded by the Leonardo da Vinci Multilateral Projects – Transfer of Innovation with the purpose  to provide a methodology and a way to use Game-Based Learning by Training Companies/Organizations (focusing on SMEs and on the Social Economy) and VET organizations (including Higher Education) trough the knowledge producers and distributors: Trainers and Teachers.

"We talk about creative learning. However, all learning involves some form of destruction, some form of creation and/or particular co-creation...(…) Learn to create, learn how to create disruptions, learning to create innovation, learning to live together to collaborate. But if Learning and Technology, together, can build and host its core in the destructive potential of creativity and, by extension, of the collaboration, the need for meaning in all this is imperative. It is crucial to making sense of all forms of learning: informal, formal, not formal."

Roberto Carneiro in Conference Book Creative Learning & Innovation: 2009.

 

With the purpose  to provide a methodology and a way to use Game-Based Learning by Training Companies/Organizations (focusing on SMEs and on the Social Economy) and VET organizations (including Higher Education) trough the knowledge producers and distributors: Trainers and Teachers.

 

Products and Results will be:

  1. Documented methodologies for developing and implementing game-based learning for training and higher education actors and for the learning community in general.
  2. Needs analysis assessment instruments for developing and implementing game-based learning for training and higher education actors.
  3. Learning content and training methodologies (b-learning) for trainers and teachers developing and implementing game-based learning.
  4. Workshops/seminars for supporting trainers/practitioners/teachers/tutors in developing a predictive and proactive capacity to select games for their use.
  5. Documentation:reports, compendium, proceedings, guidelines.

 

GREAT project will explore the capability to influence, to involve and to bring together in specific moments some experts and recognized European authorities for focus based learning, trough their individual members and partners. Experienced users of different knowledge channels provided to the Commission, like Engage Learning, elearning papers, CEDEFOP and ETF papers, as well as members of DGEAC, DGINFSO, IPTS/JRC, DGEI and those who have access to the European learning platforms like EUCIS LLL and ETDF.

 

APG - Portuguese Association of Human Resources Managers leads the development partnership:

  • FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Sciences, Graz, Austria
  • MERIG - Multidisziplinares Institut fur Europa-Forschung Graz
  • AIF - Associazone Italiana Formatori
  • Gazy University, na Turquia
  • I.Zone Knowledge Systems

 

e-learning, Technology enhanced learning, Game-Based Learning (GBL), connectivism
Events

Positive Futures for higher education; connections, communities and criticality

24 May 2011
Taking a global perspective of higher education, the most fundamental question of the moment has to be 'Higher Education – for what and for whom?' Is the concept of higher education as a universal public good sustainable? Or, is there a more complex but equally powerful set of objectives that would both describe and shape positive futures for higher education and have the potential to be shared universally?
higher education, community, connectivism
Articles

ConnectLearning – an answer for the new challenges?

28 February 2010
The latest reports seem to announce a new world of learning, in which students are connected through technology and internet. The increasing influence of the world wide web has led to fast-paced knowledge cycles and to New Millennium Learners, who are supposed to have different learning styles. However, in this article we don’t approach today’s youth as some kind of alien who learn in a totally different mode: they just incorporate new ways to access information and to socialize, and hence to the learning process.
While we agree that learning scenarios are changing their form and inner organisation through technologies, it is questionable if a new concept of learning is emerging. This article is thus an attempt to analyse whether the undoubtedly new social challenges are stimulating the demand for a new form of learning and if the existing theories are still applicable to today’s learning realities. Therefore, we overview social changes, analyse the concept of eLearning 2.0 and outline how existing theoretical approaches capture the reality of learning. A special emphasis has been put on analysing the nature of new scenarios, such as a special type of networked learning (ConnectLearning), based on Connectivism and Constructivism and situated learning approaches.

We conclude that change has to take place in the learning scenarios, as the required theoretical foundation has been in place and under discussion for the last two decades. Networked learning is not about a new paradigm or a fundamentally new model of learning, it rather describes how a consolidated concept (based on innovative ideas and building blocks of existing learning theories) can help to satisfy the demand for “new” learning scenarios which are self-organised, learner-oriented, situational, emotional, social and communicative.
networks, learning scenarios, eLearning programme, connectivism, constructivism
Articles

Web 2.0 Learning Environment: Concept, Implementation, Evaluation

30 June 2009
This contribution presents and evaluates a new learning environment model based on Web 2.0 applications. We assume that the technological change introduced by Web 2.0 tools has also caused a cultural change in terms of dealing with types of communication, knowledge and learning. The answers given by eLearning scholars who intend to use the creative options offered by Web 2.0 in institutional learning are summarised in the first part of the paper.
In this theoretical overview we introduce the concepts of eLearning 2.0 and Personal Learning Environments, along with their main aspects of autonomy, creativity and networking, and relate them to the didactics of constructivism and connectivism. The requirements and basic functional components for the development of our particular Web 2.0 learning environment are derived from these.

The learning environment we present consists of several components (modules) that are well-known Web 2.0 applications such as wikis, weblogs, social bookmarking services and RSS feeds. The section describing the implementation of the environment in a use case at the Darmstadt University of Applied Science focuses on the specific didactic contribution the particular learning modules render towards the entire learning arrangement. The article explains the didactic potential of the wiki platform in more detail, since it serves as the integrating module (or learning centre) of the learning arrangement.

Our learning environment was tested and evaluated during the “Social Software” seminar held in the information science study course at Darmstadt University of Applied Science in 2007/08. A questionnaire-based survey reveals interesting facts regarding the success of the practical implementation of the Web 2.0 arrangement with respect to the motivation and learning outcome of students. The survey was supplemented with some non-formalized feedback in a concluding discussion. With these results in mind this paper finally provides some remarks on the potential of the learning environment in broader educational contexts.
The full text of this article is available in English and Spanish. The Spanish version is made possible our partner, the Organisation of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI). // El texto integro de este artículo está disponible en inglés y castellano. La versión castellana ha sido posible gracias a nuestro socio, la Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (OEI).
eLearning programme, Personal Learning Environment, Platform, use case, , learning model, Learning Environments, constructivism, connectivism
Articles

Formative Interfaces for Scaffolding Self-Regulated Learning in PLEs

04 July 2008
A Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is a software application (desktop or web-based) which allows students to organise learning resources and publish individual outcomes. Although PLEs are built for bottom-up personal use, they involve communication and increasingly social tools, promoting networked learning scenarios. Knowledge management, syndicating resources, trustworthiness and assessment on the assemblage of resources are actual research issues related to the improvement of PLEs.
Without a pedagogical value-add, PLEs cannot be viewed as educational tools, but perhaps advanced, user-friendly file management tools. Therefore, how can such a user-centric tool influence the study process so that meaningful and constructive activities are committed more often than rudimentary informal learning? In other words, how can self-regulation be scaffolded by a PLE? Based on research that points out the role of scaffolding in activating higher order learning competencies it is theorised in this paper that these competencies can be performed even by young users.

iClass is an integrated project which is partially funded by the 6th Framework Programme for Research and Technology Development of the European Commission. Although it started off to develop a user-centric intelligent tutoring platform, the educational vision of the project was updated during the third year and bringing support for self-regulated personalisation on mainstream virtual learning environments became the objective.

In this paper, formative features of the visual interface of the iClass Web-based RIA will be explained as signifiers of typical regulatory structures. Semiotic principles underlying each signification will be described and the role of visualisation in operant conditioning and empowerment will be discussed.
PLE, learning theories, Self-Evaluation, Visual Interfaces, connectivism, Informal learning, , design, scaffolding, iClass, RIA, Platform