Open Source and the Future of Education

Open Source and Open Information is something I have been passionate about for a very long time. It started as a way to free computers from the proprietary systems distributed by computer manufacturers. The GNU not Unix movement helped to get this started. From the beginning the concept of "Free as in freedom of speech versus Free as in Free Beer" has been the balancing act of the Open movements.
Open Education, like Open Source comes down to a question of Freedom and access versus low cost (Stallman). Freedom is never free, as it always comes with a cost. It means that the responsibility for its use falls on the user. After all, if you exercise your freedom of speech you must be prepared for a reaction. Likewise if you use Open Source/Information you become a steward for the product or information. You become responsible for its use and abuse. If there is a security breach or the information is incorrect there is no one else who is responsible. That lies with you.

However the possibilities are endless. As great minds share those minds we all gain. If you can add your own mindshare to this, the world can become a better place. This opens access to those who may not be able to get information or software due to georgraphic or economic conditions. There is potential for crossing the digital divide as we democratize the electronic media. This is what Freedom is about.

An interesting side effect of the Open Source movement as a socialist concept... it allows the capitalist concept of Adam Smith's Invisible Hand of market forces work more efficiently (Smith, 1776). It levels the playing field a bit, as the cost of entry into new markets gets cheaper for businesses of all sizes.

Free the Software

Fenster - The Free Software Song - Click here for more free videos

References
Fenster, Free The Software. Retrieved from http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/yt-yK9MNPlwr2k/fenster_the_free_software_song.swf

Smith,A (1776) The Wealth of Nations. Retrieved from:http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/smith-adam/works/wealth-of-nations/index.htm

Stallman, R. Why Software Should Not Have Owners. retrieved from http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-free.html

Static and Dynamic Technology

The Static to Dynamic continuum is an interesting topic of discussion and is truly mapping our progression into the future of learning. Static means not changing and indicates where technology has come from, and Dynamic basically means changing, or not static.
In information systems we talk about Dynamic services or content as coming from databases or real-time feeds of data. This means that as systems change, the information shared between the users of the data changes as well.

This is pertinent in modern learning systems, because a pdf generated from a word document today may not be relevant tomorrow. Text books stating Pluto is a planet became outdated as soon as the decision to make it a dwarf planet was reached. However eTexts that are fed from databases could all be changed at one time with a single change in a classification field.

Real time simulations and multi player game environments are good examples of dynamic environments in which both teacher and learners can become part of the same environment and explore context driven information. An interesting blog for Sloodle, a way to assess learning in Second Life within the Moodle open source learning environment, indicates the trend for bringing information and wayfinding together for relevant information.

We have a brave new world ahead of us and I am beginning to emerge from one who fixes and scales technology to one who develops learning and relevance. I often find myself developing mostly static content, however I am always drawn to dynamic collaborative learning. We live in exciting times.

Britt, R. (2006). Scientists decide Pluto’s no longer a planet. MSNBC. Retrieved from:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14489259/

Bloomfield, P.(2010).quizHUD cited in WCC2010. retrieved from:https://www.sloodle.org/blog/?p=213

Tools, Techniques, and Technology

As the world shifts to networked knowledge and learning (Siemens,2008)Education Technologists have some of the coolest tools of the trade. We get the privilege of bringing everything from hardware to cloud computing into the learning equation. The best application of technology are in the areas of collaboration, communication, and content.

Collaboration tools are particularly valuable in applying social-constructivist methods. Using tools such as wikispaces, google sites, and zotero allow students to compare thoughts and ideas on the same document in order to solve problems and come to shared solutions. Collaboration is a building process rather than a cooperative effort. This will require the group to rely on each other. Some requirements for the group effort would require collective mind-mapping, and shared decision making in a positive environment (Pitler et. al., 2007).

Communication tools such as Skype, Google Voice, email and Elluminate allow for swapping of ideas, during the creation of content. In combination with collaborative tools, the communication tools allows for more effective decision making and transferrence of ideas. These ideas can then be posted to the collaboration space for integration into the shared knowledgebase (Pitler et. al., 2007).

Content tools such as blogs, LMS such as moodle, and websites are great for providing elements of reciprocal teaching (Pitler et. al., 2007). This particular blog post is a great example. I am providing my own summary of information regarding tools, and with any luck you will feel inclined to provide feedback.


References:
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Siemens, G. (2008, January). Learning and knowing in networks: Changing roles for educators and designers. ITForum

Assessment of Learning Communities

What is an Online Learning Community? The commonly used explanation is a group of people who come together to learn particular topics, using the power of social structure, a la Vygotsky to create greater meaning through that social experience. However there is more. but how do we measure this advantage?

The internet creates an amazing way to develop community at great distance and a function that allows us to share ourselves as more than the written word, while allowing us to share thoughts at almost the speed of those thoughts. Our students, in the course of building communities in this medium, will bring a wide array of skills and knowledge to their communities. How do we measure relative learning and synthesis in collaborative space?

In a post from Jonathans Blog, an educator and blogger from the UK, it is necessary for each member of a community to personalize a space of their own in order to become an individual within that community. This is echoed by Pallof and Pratt (2008). However the individual is part of a group, and groups judge themselves for effectiveness as well as the teacher.

According to Siemens (Laureate Education, 2008) one of the main roles of the community is peer review. Instructors must develop a structured approach to community building for the students to follow in order to build context for review. The community must know the criteria in which to review their fellow students. Rubrics can be powerful tools in such a situation (Edwards and Edelstein, 2002). In this way, both students and teachers have fair and equitable measures by which to grade and assess the learning activities of the community.

There are questions regarding whether students should be required to work in a group. If the course is designed using socio-constructivist principles I would definitely require it of all students.

However this poses Siemen's biggest questions: How do we measure students as a group, when they have disparate skills? Can we change our academic position of grading individuals to grading their relative contribution to their learning communities?


References:

Edelstein, S.,Edwards J. (2002).If You Build It, They Will Come: Building Learning Communities Through Threaded Discussions. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, Volume V, Number I, Spring 2002. Retrieved from: http://distance.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring51/edelstein51.html

Furness, J.(2008).Online Learning Communities for pupils, parents and teachers.Jonathan's Blog. Retrieved from:http://www.jonathansblog.net/online_learning_community_software_schools_vle_facebook_solution

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Principles of distance education: Assessment of collaborative learning featuring George Siemens [DVD]. United States: Walden University.

Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online learning communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Story Board - Jono Bacon Community Builder

The topic for the video presentation is Open Source and Open Education. This has always been a passion, and so is a wonderful opportunity to bring all of my interests together. The speaker to be introduced is Jono Bacon, a leader in the Open Source software community. He is well known for building the community of developers at the Apache Foundation and writing the book Art of Community which is available for download as pdf under the Creative Commons license.

I could not get my storyboard to format properly within this blog so I have posted it on my wikspace of the same name. You can find it here: http://incitefultechnology.wikispaces.com/
The video will be created with almost all open source tools. The only non-open source tool will be Window 7 which is on the laptop.

The Storyboard was created in OpenOffice Write, sound will be captured using Audacity, video will be captured using my iPhone. I haven't chosen a video editor as yet, however it will be open source as well.

If you have any questions on using these resources for your own work, please let me know. You can contact me via:
email: thomas.jacobs@waldenu.edu

I look forward to your suggestions and responses.

Tom

Collaboration in Distance Learning - Sharing is Caring

Humans make their special mark in the food chain through working together with tools to solve problems. It's what we do as a species. A major mode of human learning is through collaboration.

The world of collaborative learning takes on a new meaning when it comes to Distance Education. A blogger named Linda does a great job discussing this in her blog analyzing Kenneth Bruffee's ideas in this space. We become the world of our problems and our solutions, as any student of Vygotsky, Piaget or A. A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh) can attest.

In order to work together across time zones and with little real time interaction takes special skills and tools. These tools have been developing over time from letters, to morse code, telephones, video teleconference, and now online tools such as wikis, document sharing, web sites, and blogs. As we develop our need to communicate, we develop better and better tools.

Collaborative online methods have shown to improve learning and retention across disciplines(West, Sample, and West, 2007). According to blogger David Hopkins(2010) these are as varied as improved race relations, lower anxiety, and creating an active environment. This suddenly makes our online teaching tools much more important. It also provides more opportunities for these problem solving great apes to make better tools.

These tools are getting sexier all the time.

In the Google world, Google Sites encourages teams to create their own web pages and knowledge bases all using their google accounts. This combines with Gmail, Google Docs, Google Groups, Google Voice and Blogspot. All with one login, for free. (Free as in no cost, we are still subjected to advertisements, but a company has to make money right?)

Wikispaces allow groups to create wikis, which allow teams to develop editable wikis. This allows
teams to create knowledge entries that are editable by the team and tracks the history of the changes.

Evernote and Zotero are also a great tools for sharing ideas, notes, citations, and documents about a subject.

This subject makes me almost giddy. Online collaborative learning is the new hotbed of growth in distance learning. I can't wait for the time when we are capable of collaborating real time at almost the speed of thought across the solar system.

Hopkins, D. Benefits of Collaborative Learning. eLearning Blog Don't Waste Your Time. Retrieved from:http://www.dontwasteyourtime.co.uk/eresources/benefits-of-collaborative-learning-elearning/

Linda.(2005) Linda's Blog Retrieved from:http://blog.lib.umn.edu/gust0124/blog/018079.html

West,J.,Sample,S.,West M.,(2007).Online Collaboration Tools in Instructional Design. Retrieved from:
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/Resource_library/proceedings/07_5065.pdf

eLearning - Instructional Design for the Next Generation

Instructional Design in the 21st century is a hot topic. There are ever increasing pressures for corporations and institutions to place more of their training online. Online learning has been available for twenty years, yet the Quality of the instruction ranges from excellent to horrible. Instructional Design Quality for online programs must improve if we are to meet the demands of our learners in the next few decades. The reasons for this demand explosion are many:

• rapidly changing environments
  
• new instructional needs
  
• equivalence and access
  

Technology has evolved explosively. Moore's Law though initially intended for processor speeds is commonly used to state that technology and computing power doubles every two years is often considered too slow in some fields. This has very special implications for Instructional Design in that the medium is continually shifting. Internet bandwidth worldwide ranges from dialup speeds (56kbps) to Gigabit speeds. This means that Instructional Designers must constantly be checking the needs of the learners as well as the demands of their employers or institutions.

Moller, Foshay, Wesley, Huett and Coleman (2008) discuss the needs of online instructional design in a 3 part series of articles for Tech Trends. Each part discusses three different sectors: training, k-12, and higher education. They discuss the need for a shift in Instructional Design towards a more Iterative Design framework, much like software development is using. Iterative Design uses a rapid prototyping methodology with high user (learner) interaction to develop quality learning models more quickly with better impact on learning and retention. This is especially true in corporate environments but directly influences K12 and Higher Ed as well.

Another vector in all of this as brought forward by Moller et al (2008), is that for web based learners to thrive they must learn to learn collaboratively. The lecture based learning methodology often trains the learner to expect isolated and directed training moments. As we move to improved design we must teach our students to learn on their own and in groups.

Yet another vector is the concept of equivalence (Simonson, 2000). Are all of the avenues of learning specific objectives providing the same level of effectiveness? This concept leads us to look at the effectiveness of all learning objects and their impacts on learners. Will they achieve the same behavioral and conceptual goals? This shows the need for change in approach to learning online. Not that face to face and online must be the same but that they are equivalent in learning.

When we take these aspects as a whole we are faced with the need for a new generation of instructional models based on the needs of learners developed by people with rapid development tools who thrive in flux. These models cannot be created in a vacuum and must involve real learners in the production of new learning objects. We must also consider that learners must know how to learn and develop the self-efficacy required to be self guided learners. This will be a tremendous challenge for us as we pursue a field that is at the edge of an event horizon.


References:

Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Coleman, C. (2008). The Evolution of Distance Education: Implications for Instructional Design on the Potential of the Web. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 52(5), 63-67. doi:10.1007/s11528-008-0199-9.

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The Evolution of Distance Education: Implications for Instructional Design on the Potential of the Web. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 52(4), 66-70. doi:10.1007/s11528-008-0179-0

Moller, L., Forshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The Evolution of Distance Education: Implications for Instructional Design on the Potential of the Web. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 52(3), 70-75. doi:10.1007/s11528-008-0158-5.

Moore, G. (1965). Cramming More Components Onto Integrated Circuits. retrieved from ftp://download.intel.com/museum/Moores_Law/Articles-Press_Releases/Gordon_Moore_1965_Article.pdf

Simonson, M. (2000). Making Decisions: The Use of Electronic Technology in Online Classrooms. New Directions for Teaching & Learning, (84), 29. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

Brand New Blog

Social networking has the incredible potential to incite and ignite the passion of many people. This blog will catalog and share my own inciteful journey into educational technologies.