Like many others here, I have been reading and digesting this thread and its various implications.
RE an existing model of collaborative online education, open source communities have been doing this for years.
The line highlighted by Fred rings true here:
> ... education is best experienced within a community of
> learning where
> competent professionals are actively and cooperatively
> involved with
> creating, providing, and improving the instructional
> program;
Part of what drew me into open source development was exactly this type of exchange: competent professionals are actively involved in transferring knowledge and experience.
In transferring this to the conversations about the educational context, I think we need to look at the types of interactions that occur, and what types of interactions nurture learning. Obviously, the medium affects the message (think of text-based emoticons versus the various ways that emotion can be expressed within virtual worlds) but the social/emotional implications (and their relationship to what creates a "compelling" learning environment) transcend the environment.
Along related lines, we recently won a Knight Foundation grant to support some work we are doing to support community development/knowledge sharing among groups working in related fields. One of the uses for our work is within distributing open content, which could be part of the backbone (or would that be exoskeleton?) of a compelling online experience. At the risk of stating the obvious, all of what we develop will be open sourced, and freely available for anyone to take and replicate. Part of our funding includes time for documentation to make this process easier.
Cheers,
Bill
--- On Wed, 3/11/09, Fred Bartels <fred_bartels@rcds.rye.ny.us> wrote:
> From: Fred Bartels <fred_bartels@rcds.rye.ny.us>
> Subject: Re: Independent School Online Courses
> To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
> Date: Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 11:48 AM
> Chris,
>
> Thanks for sharing the links in your previous post and the
> information
> below.
>
> I skimmed through the Theory and Practice of Online
> Learning
> (http://cde.athabascau.ca/online_book/contents.html) today.
> The following
> bullet point in the final chapter (by Nancy Parker) grabbed
> my attention.
>
> ... education is best experienced within a community of
> learning where
> competent professionals are actively and cooperatively
> involved with
> creating, providing, and improving the instructional
> program;
>
> It is essentially the same issue you and Peter have been
> addressing. We
> know how to do this in our bricks and mortar schools but we
> don't yet have
> a model of how to do it collaboratively online. Perhaps
> some sort of
> virtual environment may be a significant part of a
> successful model.
>
> Fred
>
>
>
> >Peter writes...
> >" how do we teach these courses in a way that adds
> to the personal
> >experience, personal grounding, personal perspective,
> personal growth,
> >and personal values of the students?"
> >
> >Wonderful question and gets at the center of what most
> (but there are few
> >in existence) good online programs can do. I along with
> several others at
> >UNT (University of North Texas) are currently exploring
> alternate reality
> >gaming as an effective learning environment (NOT a
> video game). By
> >weaving the learning experiences into a narrative based
> in fantasy and
> >centered on the essential questions of the course (core
> material) with
> >learning experiences focused on the 6 facets of
> understanding (Wiggins),
> >it might be possible to bring in much of what an
> independent school
> >offers in the way of character development, personal
> growth and value
> >development. ARG's incorporate constructivist
> learning through narrative
> >driving environments where students engage
> collaboratively with other
> >students and characters from the story to solve
> problems central to the
> >discipline of study. This might be one way that
> independent schools can
> >add some of the elements that makes them unique
> learning environments for
> >our children.
> >
> >Chris Bigenho
> >Director of Educational Technology
> >Greenhill School
> >4141 Spring Valley Road
> >Addison, TX 75001
> >Ph. 972-628-5479
> >Fx. 972-628-5279
> >bigenhoc@greenhill.org
> >www.greenhill.org
> >
>
>
> [ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
> Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative
> commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
> RSS Feed,
> http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?RSS&L=ISED-L
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
RSS Feed, http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?RSS&L=ISED-L
