e-chronicle

Week 1

Read:
Seely Brown, J. & Duguid, O. 1999, Learning, Working and playing in the digital age.
Transcript from a conference on Higher Education of the American Association for Higher Education.
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/seelybrown/seelybrown.html

Then read:
Seely Brown, J. & Adler, Richard P. 2008, Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0, Educause Review, January/February
http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/MindsonFireOpenEducationt/45823
You can also download a PDF copy of the article from the above link.

Focus questions:
Nearly 10 years have past since the first article was presented at a conference.
What has changed?
How do you see the issues raised by Seely Brown et al. being adopted?
What might be some of the challenges?
How do these relate to your own context of learning in your workplace?

Week 2

The Horizon Report is an annual initiative co-published by the New Media Consortium and Educause since 2004.
The most recent report was released in Feb 2008 and describes 6 emerging technologies or practices that are expected to influence learning environments over the next 1 to 5 years.

Visit the project wiki:
http://horizon.nmc.org/wiki/Main_Page

Of key interest is not only the findings from the report - but also the development process using a wiki!

Focus questions:
Of the 6 key emerging technologies identified in the 2008 report - which are you familiar with?
Review the significant trends (p.6) - how do these relate to your experiences of technology in learning contexts?

Now read:
The Horizon Report from 2007.
Review your familiarity and current practices against the key emerging technologies highlighted in this report.

Week 3

Catch up on readings and post reflections in weblog; work on and expand the weblog and del.icio.us; and participate in the Ning forums.

Weeks 4 & 5

Read:
Chater 3: Social Psychology of Adult Learning - Saunders

Focus questions:
Reviewing the chapter with our focus of learning communities as a framework - how will the various different theories and perspectives apply to our context?
Some of the frameworks in this chapter can also be useful in the 2nd part of Assignment 1 - when you analyse your community.
Already we have some experience with self-disclosure (look at our Profiles on Ning!)
Review some of our discussion forums for learning conversations…. just for starters.

Read:
Chapter 4: Social Learning - Cornford

What are the significant aspects of social learning theories that relate to learning communities/networks?
Again - aspects of the works in this chapter can be useful framweworks for analysing your community.
You may like to select a framework or focus for analysis - even before you select your community! This will also provide you with some focus when researching further for articles in journals!