WEEK 8-BLOG 4

This week’s discussion was based on Curtis J. Bonk’s book, The World Is Open, covering ten trends that make up “WE-ALL-LEARN” for understanding technology and the impact on learning.  Instead of a structured asynchronous discussion, our class was divided into two groups for a live chat discussion based on three macro trends that provide the superstructure for the ten educational openers (Bonk, 2009).  First, our group defined what the three macro trends are and gave examples of each.  The first macro trend is the availability of tools and infrastructure for learning, or the pipes (Bonk, 2009).  The “pipes” are the online infrastructure, such as Internet access and bandwidth, and “provide the infrastructure for the management, supply, and distribution of free and open educational content” (Bonk, 2009, p.53).  Bonk states the first, seventh, and ninth openers relate to infrastructure issues: web searching in the world of e-books; electronic collaboration; and real-time mobility and portability (Bonk, 2009).  An example of the “pipes” is the convergence of bandwidth, storage, and processing speed, which has “fueled the uploading and indexing of books, articles, videos, audio recordings, and other content online” (Bonk, 2009, p.56).  Google Book Search is an example of the enormous effort for people to access the world of books with just the click of the mouse.  Another project, Open Library, allows one to comment or review books, and the thing that I like about Open Library is there are no links to publishers or advertisements to try to get you to buy the book; it is either available to read or not there at all.

The second macro trend is the availability of free and open educational content and resources, or the “pages” (Bonk, 2009).  Bonk (2009) states “although piping is important, online educational resources must be available, useful, and needed” (Bonk, 2009, p.23).  The second macro trend aligns most closely with the fourth and fifth openers: leveraged resources and open courseware, and learning object repositories and portals (Bonk, 2009).  A good example of open courseware (OCW) is the availability of MIT’s course content and resources online, for free.  By early 2009, MIT had 1,890 classes online, with over 35 million people around the world accessing the content, and 750,000 translated courses (Bonk, 2009).  What a terrific way to provide free, quality educational materials to people all over the world with access to the Internet.  Even if you do not have access, you could find someone to upload the material to CD or print the material and send it to you.  I think this is a wonderful program providing education to people all around the world, where they may not have the opportunity or the access to quality education, or perhaps they are unable to go to school because they have to work, this way they can learn on their own time at their own speed.

The third macro trend is a movement toward a culture of open access to information, international collaboration, and global sharing (Bonk, 2009).  Bonk (2009, p.53) states the third macro trend “is the creation of a culture that collaboratively builds, negotiates, and shares such knowledge and information: a participatory learning culture.”  The sixth, eighth, and tenth openers relate to this trend the most: learner participation in open information communities, alternate reality learning, and networks of personalized learning (Bonk, 2009).  An example of the third macro trend is YouTube.  Bonk (2009, p.208) states “YouTube demonstrates the need for tools that allow individuals to generate content rather than simply passively browse content online.”  Although YouTube is usually thought of for entertainment videos, there is a significant amount of educational and informational videos that are posted to the site.  For example, last semester, I have to present a narrated PowerPoint that included video and interactive quizzes.  I had not a clue how to put this together, and most of the information I found was for a PC, in which I own a MAC.  So, I went to YouTube and found several videos people had posted of them instructing how to add a video to PowerPoint via MAC.  It was great because they went through step by step with the camera pointed at their computer screen.  I could pause and write down the instructions or watch the video several times.  It was helpful that the videos were rated and had comments/reviews so I could quickly decide if they were worth watching or not.  YouTube was an extremely helpful tool and was instrumental in the completion and success of my project.  After I presented the PowerPoint to my class, I had several comments and questions as to how I integrated the video and interactive quizzes into my PowerPoint, so I provided the links to the videos, thus sharing information and building knowledge of the community.

During the chat session, our group also discussed Activity Theory quite extensively, selecting it as the philosophical perspective that aligns the most with the three macro trends.  Farres and MacDonald (2006, p.166) state “activity theory is concerned with the relationship between consciousness and activity and is composed of subject, object, and community and the elements that mediate these interactions (i.e., tools, rules, and roles).”  Activity Theory indicates that context relates directly to the activity and that people are the driving force of the system (Farres & MacDonald, 2006).  There are four main assumptions of Activity Theory: 1) consciousness and activity are interdependent, 2) all actions and behaviors are intentional or goal directed, 3) higher cognitive functioning within an activity system is mediated by tools and signs, and 4) activities evolve over time within a culture, and attention needs to be paid to the evolution of the activities over time (Farres & MacDonald, 2006).  The central component of the framework is the activity that is composed of a subject, an object, actions, and operations (Farres & MacDonald, 2006).  The subject is the individual or group in the system; objects are the physical or mental products being sought (which is being acted on by the subject); and the operations relate to how the actions are carried out (Farres & MacDonald, 2006). 

Finally, our group chatted about how to validate knowledge from open sources. We agreed that a person should check the credentials of the author/owner of the website, cross-check references, identify the source of funding for the site (determine if there is bias), check the date of the information to make sure it is current, and check to make sure the information has a complete list of works cited.

I enjoyed the chat session; it was something different and new.  The only downside was as I was typing a thought, the conversion often veered onto another subject and I missed an opportunity to make a comment or the comment was too late.  Overall, I thought it was a good experience and I still learned a great deal. 

This has been a difficult week for me; we had to put our dog of 12 years asleep (Bailey) due to complications from pancreatic cancer.  Our hearts are truly broken, but I believe he is in a better place.  It was difficult to sit down and concentrate on course work, but in a way it took my mind off of the loss of our dog.  This week’s reading was very engaging and I have explored many of the sites the book has mentioned, adding them to my bookmarks.  So, I’m thankful Spring Break is here...I can take a little break to catch my breath and heal my heart.

References

Bonk, C.J. (2009). The world is open: How web technology is revolutionizing education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Farres, L.G., & MacDonald, C.J. (2006). Activity theory and context: An understanding of the development of constructivist instructional design models. In A. Dias de Figueiredo & A. Paula Afonso (Eds.), Managing learning in virtual settings: The role of context (pp.164-179).