Connectivism Thoughts

I have recently begun the CCK09 course offered by George Siemens. The question of the week is as follows:

"Does Connectivism resonate with you? Why or why not? Are you learning through different methods than you did 5-10 years ago?"

Connectvisim really does resonate with me; probably because I love social media and have a deep interest in how students can learn from the resources that they have available to them. Teaching students how to "fish" for information is the one skill that should be emphasized over others, in my opinion, because it will allow the student to thrive in whatever setting they find themselves in. The art of learning should really be about the ways in which information can be applied and adapted to other situations...that is the concept behind things like general education curriculum.

The interesting thing for me is that 5-10 years ago, I was in middle school. From what I rememeber about the learning processes there it was very much rote memorization and an established set of standards that needed to be met. If it wasn't on the state-mandated test, we certainly were not going to spend valuable class time learning it. I was lucky enough to take part in a gifted and talented program that did emphasize, however, thinking critically and understanding how things were interconnected. I wish for my future children (and really for all children!) that they too will get to experience the stretching of their minds rather than the stretching of their time to learn state-mandated information. I think that the concept of connectivism will slowly creep into our classrooms and hopefully standards will move towards this critical thinking viewpoint.

E-Portfolios &/or Blogging with First Year Undecided Students

As I am preparing for another semester of UB 101 (First Year Experience Course), I have spent some time reviewing my syllabus. One of the assignments I am considering for the course is the creation of an E Portfolio which is designed to be maintained throughout the undergraduate experience.

Is anyone else using blogging/e-portfolios with their students? How about incorporating them into FYE courses?

Here is the tentative assignment. Any feedback appreciated.

Assignment #1
Create an E-Portfolio

Note: "E-portfolio" and "blog" will be used interchangeably throughout this piece (and the semester). They are referring to the same thing.

The most important question first:

Why:

• Will increase your visibility on the Internet and connect you with topics you care about. This in turn can lead to OPPORTUNITIES!
• Employers love them!
  
• You will graduate with something tangible; can continue to use after you leave
• Allow for collaboration; where opportunities are born and learning takes place
• Opportunity to help others interested in your field
• Can utilize any media you choose; suits all learning styles...if you don't like to write, post video!
  
• Free & required

Who:

• You as the author
• Classmates & the public as the audience & collaborators

OK time for specifics...

What:

• Watch this video
• Create your E-portfolio via Blogger (If you already have a blog, start a fresh one just for your E-portfolio)
• Be sure to make your blog URL something identifiable to you (e.g., jillianreading.blogspot.com) so that employers can find it easily. If you are uncomfortable with this at least use something professional/creative (e.g., johneportfolio.blogspot.com). Let me know if there are questions on what is appropriate for our purposes. I MUST BE ABLE TO DISCERN WHO THE AUTHOR OF THE E-PORTFOLIO IS!
  
• Watch some additional videos on e-portfolios & blogging
• Uploading a Video with Blogger
• Adding a gadget to your blog
• Creating a blog list
• E Portfolios for Starters
• E Portfolio Rationale
• When contributing to your E-portfolio be sure to spell check, use proper grammar and adhere to a professional writing standard.
  
• Write or create a video post which answers the following 2 questions as your first entry
• What do you hope to learn while studying at the University at Buffalo? This needs to go beyond one or two sentences. Really consider what your educational goals are and where you want to be at the end of your undergraduate career.
  
• Describe your dream career. What would the typical day consist of? What would your office look like? Who are your clients? Do you work alone or in a group?Give as much detail as possible
  
• Email me the URL of your blog & your name by __________
  

When:

• Ideally you will update your e-portfolio whenever you have a piece of finished work (e.g., research paper, presentation, project)
• You should at minimum update it at least once per month
  
• For this course, you will receive a few portfolio assignments but you are welcome to add anything additional that you feel is a good representation of your work
  

Global Cooperation in Academic Advising: Is the World Flat?

 We have been hearing for years that "the world is flat" and that global collaboration will be the key to the 21st century's success. Does this trend bleed over to higher education? Academic advising? I started out exploring these questions and was surprised at how little I found. 

Here are 2 quick reviews of 2 of the resources I found:

Collaboration Center: Center for Interactive Learning & Collaboration

At first I thought that this was going to be the most promising resource to use for fostering collaboration among students and/or academic advisors. However, it really turned out to be more of a collection of ads for vendors which offer software to facilitate collaboration. The official sounding title is somewhat deceiving....

Taking IT Global: Inspire. Inform. Involve. 

This site gives a a voice to students who want to speak out on issues affecting the globe. Most anything one can think of is covered within these pages; global warming to access to health care. Of particular interest, to me of course, was the educational technology page. Students from all over the world are joining together in efforts to bring forth new educational technologies and sharing ideas about what their partciular schools are doing in the present. 

Neither of these websites directly address the question of how global communication could impact academic advising...My first thought was that NACADA already hosts some type of international conference, but I don't know very much about it. Perhaps a future post will detail more about this and what types of innovations are taking place. 

Perhaps we (or NACADA) could create some kinda of forum that would enable academic advisors from around the globe to communicate more seamlessly. Services which assist with the creation of podcasts (e.g., gabcast, podomatic) or even synchronous tools such as Skype might enable us to conduct this conversation. In the past, speaking at length with those in our field who are continents away would be next to impossible to achieve without running up an extensive travel bill. We need to embrace this technology and make it do everything that it can. The most difficult part is taking the tool and finding a way to apply it to our everyday lives or careers. 

Does anyone have any resources on academic advising on a global scale? How about in regard to higher education in general?

Tweet Tweet!!: Are You Twittering?

Basics of Twitter

If you are unfamiliar with Twitter, watch this video to get a basic explanation:

A Primer on How to Register and Set-up Your Account

Basic Resources to Get You Started

10 Easy Steps for Twitter Beginners

The How and Why of Twitter

A Minimalist's Guide to Twitter

I'll admit...I wasn't (and still am not) convinced that Twitter is the next big thing. This sentiment has recently been increased due to the creation of a Facebook API which has the functionality to do what Twitter does but better and on a platform that everyone already uses. 

How Can Advisors Use Twitter?

Twitter could assist us in getting messages out to our students in an age where they are receiving most of their information from their cellular phones/smart phones rather than traditional email. It only allows 140 character messages so it requires that we are succinct with our information.  We could alert them to registration deadlines, new classes being offered, reminders about materials that need to be submitted...the possibilities are endless. 

The issue, however, is that students don't seem to be flocking to twitter as fast as IT professionals are. There is a bit of a learning curve for its use and many just can't understand it. It may be awhile before we see students truly embracing this technology (if they ever do). 

Twiter may be a better tool for advisors as professionals rather than for us with our students. You can "follow" other advisors and receive messages from them, what they are working on, problems that they are having etc. This fosters great collaboration and makes it much easier to stay in touch with those we meet at conferences etc. 

Follow me on Twitter!

Advising Centers/Professionals On Twitter

These are just a few examples of how our profession is beginning to use Twitter.

University of Texas at Dallas- Use by a Center

Columbia University- Use by a Center

Eric Stoller, University of Oregon - Academic Advisor Use

NACADA- Use by our professional organization

You can see that some of these centers are trying to target their student populations. Columbia seems to be doing the best job of this so far that I have found. They have approximately 200 people following them via Twitter, but its impossible to know how many of those are actually students.  Even at 200 student follows, that is a very small percentage of the general student population. 

If the Twitter Bug has bitten you, I recommend the article How To Live Inside Twitter and Still Be Productive! It's very information and gets into the nitty-gritty on things that Twitter is capable of. 

Do You Ning?

Technology and Academic Advising on Ning

Ning is home to a group called Technology and Academic Advising where advisors who have interest in technology can gather. This particular group looks like it has gone stagnant since there hasn't been much new activity since April 2008.

There has been much talk about Ning replacing Facebook as the social network of choice for those of us in the higher education realm. It is supposedly more secure than Facebook and allows you to customize more then the Facebook interface.

My personal take on Ning is that it isn't going to catch on. It doesn't serve any new purpose and Facebook is now able to integrate with Schools on Facebook to provide the secure access that institutions are looking for. This group would be useful if there was more collaboration going on. There are not any other academic advising Ning sites out there aimed at professional advisors.

I had also thought about starting a Ning site for my students, but again I don't know how useful it would be. Are any other advisors using Ning with their advisee's? Hopefully this topic will be addressed at the technology seminar.

The Network is the Learning (Siemen's Theory of Connectivism)

Reading and viewing the work of George Siemens has long been on my to-do list. After having it bookmarked on my delicious account for so long, the opportunity finally presented itself to get it done. I would highly recommend that anyone interested in higher education, academic advising and technology take just 10 minutes to watch his Youtube videos. It is well worth your time. 

Brief Synopsis of George Siemens Big Ideas

Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age

• Knowledge is changing at a high rate of speed. What a student learns today may be obsolete by the time they complete their degree. 
• To keep up with these rapid changes, educators need to help students "know-where" to find information rather than simply knowing "how or what". 
• The practice of Connectivism will expose learners to a wide variety of ideas and opinions, assist them in connecting with scholars in the field, and help them to draw connections between areas of study. This is in stark contrast to the traditional notion of learning (i.e., student reads textbook which represents one point-of-view, authority is given to the disseminator of knowledge who may not be a scholar in the field and learning is linear). 
• Siemens states that "the network is the learning" rather than the actual knowledge being presented. 

Today's students are akin to the polymaths of the Renaissance. 

Our students are now expected to be knowledgeable in a wide-variety of disciplines no matter what their field of study. It is our job as advisors (Remember: Advising is teaching!) to assist them in honing their 21st century skills and learning how to find knowledge rather than trying to learn everything in a vacuum. The greatest skill we can teach them is how to locate the knowledge that they need to be successful. We can do this by implementing connectivism into our advising practice whenever possible. Some of us have already started. 

What ways can we implement Siemen's theory of connectivism into our practice?