Three things

There are three things we need to know about learning for this generation. The first is that learning needs to be personalised. As I argued in a previous post, learning must be differentiated, because one size does not fit all, and standardised curricula and testing are not fit for purpose in the 21st Century. Personal learning is unique to each learner. The tools and devices students choose, and the pathways they decide to take are in many ways beginning to challenge the synchronised and homogenised approaches we still practice in schools, universities and organisations.

Secondly, learning needs to be social. Much of what we learn comes from contact and communication with others. Increasingly, such contact and communication is mediated through technology, and social media tools are ideal for this purpose. The celebrated Russian psychologist Lev Vygotskii proposed the idea of learning being extended when children are mentored by a knowledgeable other person. His Zone of Proximal Development theory has been central to our understanding of how we learn in social contexts. Yet in recent years, with the proliferation and equalisation of knowledge and the strengthening of social connections through digital media, new theories such as connectivism and paragogy have emerged to challenge the central place of ZPD in contemporary pedagogical theory. We need to ask whether we now need knowledgeable others such as subject experts to help us extend our learning when we have all knowledge at our fingertips. Now many learners are exploiting the power of social media to build and engage with equals in personal learning networks.

Thirdly, learning needs to be globalised. As we develop personal expertise, and begin to practice it in applied contexts, we need to connect with global communities. Students who share their content online can reach a worldwide audience who can act as a peer network to provide constructive feedback. Teachers can crowd-source their ideas and share their content in professional forums and global learning collectives, or harness the power of social media to access thought leaders in their particular field of expertise. Scholars who are not connected into the global community are increasingly isolated and will in time be left behind as the world of education advances ever onward.

Photo by Steve Wheeler


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Theories for the digital age: Paragogy

In previous posts in this series I have explored some of the characteristics of learning in the digital age. One more notable feature of 21^st Century learning is peer learning. Highlighting the fast paced nature of the web, Thomas and Seely-Brown (2011) suggest that peer learning can be both timely and transient. They show that never before has access to information and people been so easy and so widespread, and that we make connections with people who can help us manage, organize, disseminate and make sense of the resources. Such interconnectedness and willingness to share creates a new kind of peer mentoring that operates at multiple levels and many degrees of expertise, supporting learning in all its complexity. The notion of ‘paragogy’ (Corneli and Danoff, 2011) relates to the peer production of learning but as Corneli (2012) warns, such an agenda may be at odds with established educational systems in some respects, and may even be opposed by some. This is due to the challenge that ‘students teaching themselves’ might pose to the privileged knowledge and power structures many formal educational institutions continue to hold in such high regard.

In essence, Corneli and Danoff’s paragogy thesis is premised on the argument that online environments are now sufficiently developed to support peer production of content which can be shared freely and widely, and can promote learning for all within any given community. Again, this echoes the connectionist and heutagogic ideals earlier discussed in previous posts, whilst at the same time presenting a challenge in terms of the quality, reliability and provenance of content. The user generated content currently available on the web has been criticised for its inconsistent quality (Carr, 2010) and its potential to encourage plagiarism, piracy and a host of other nefarious practices (Keen, 2007). User generated content has also attracted criticism over issues of mediocrity, lack of accuracy and superficial scholarship (Brabazon, 2002; 2007). Notwithstanding, many are now turning to web based user generated content to educate themselves and to share their learning. In many ways, the ability to use personal technologies to create, organise, share and repurpose content, in many formats across the global web environment has become a democratising, liberating factor in education. There are now a variety of new ways we can create peer networks, learn from each other and share our ideas. In so doing, we are building what Illich (1971) once termed ‘the learning webs’ that will enable each of us to defines ourselves by both learning, and contributing to the learning of others.     

References

Brabazon, T. (2002) Digital Hemlock: Internet Education and the Poisoning of Teaching. University of South Wales, Australia.

Brabazon, T. (2007) University of Google: Education in the (Post) Information Age. Aldershot, Ashgate Publishing. 

Carr, N. (2010) The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

Corneli, J. and Danoff, C. J. (2011) Paragogy. In: Proceedings of the 6th Open Knowledge Conference, Berlin, Germany.

Corneli, J. (2012) Paragogical Praxis, E-Learning and Digital Media, 9(3), 267-272

Illich, I. (1971) Deschooling Society. London: Calder and Boyers.

Keen, A. (2007) The Cult of the Amateur: How today’s Internet is killing our culture and assaulting our economy. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.    

Thomas, D. and Brown, J. S. (2011) A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change.Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown. 

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What is learning?

I was in a meeting with a prospective PhD candidate today and the conversation inevitably led to learning. He pointed out that in his lterature reviews he had uncovered a bewildering number of different, and often opposing learning theories. He was clearly impressed if not a little phased by the huge array of concepts and ideas that theorists had developed to try to explain what it means when we learn something. My response was that this was to be expected, because asking someone how they learn is similar to asking them what their favourite food is. But learning theories are variable in their significance, scope and validity. Some of the more revered theories such as social constructivism and cognitivism seem to enjoy a longevity which is evidenced in a large number of existing educational practices, including course design, learning activities, resource development, assessment and design of learning spaces. Yet in the digital age, it is probably in the area of tools selection and application that learning theories are at their most potent. Consider why the iPad and other touch screen tablet computers are becoming so popular in schools. Is this down solely to the intuitive nature of the tablet design, or do teachers see other more tacit pedagogical uses that are supported by the affordances of the tablet?

Our conceptions of learning are as individualised as our fingerprints. During a conference in Barcelona last week, I was asked what I did to make learning fun for my students. I responded by saying that I didn't always make learning fun, because sometimes learning needs to be painful. This response was met by frowns and smiles in equal distribution. Over 70 years ago, John Dewey argued that the 'educative process' consisted of 'severe discipline' to aid intellectual and moral development (Dewey, 1938). We may not be able to agree on a single definition of learning (a good thing) but we can probably all agree that learning can be as painful as it can be enjoyable, depending on the context.

A number of new 'theories' and emerging in the digital age, as people attempt to provide explanations for what is happening with learning. Some argue that learning is changing as a direct result of technology. Learners are indeed consuming, creating, organising and sharing a lot more content than they ever previously did. The exponential rise in user generated content on social media sites bears testament to this, and when these kind of activities spill over into the formal learning domain, previously well established learning theories are challenged. We now see the emergence of a number of new theories that attempt to explain learning in the 21st Century. These include heutagogy, paragogy, connectivism and rhizomatic learning. One of the characteristics of learning through digital media is the ability to crowd source content, ideas and artefacts, and to promote and participate in global discussions. That's why I want to ask the questions: What is learning? Does it differ from learning prior to the advent of global communications technology? Does learning now require new explanatory frameworks? Your comments on this blog are welcomed and discussion encouraged.

Reference

Dewey, J. (1938) Experience and education. New York: Kappa Delta Pi.

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Digital age learning

In my Learning is learning post yesterday, I started a debate about andragogy and pedagogy. I held the position that the theory of andragogy (Malcolm Knowles) adds very little to our understanding of learning. In some ways, I argued, andragogy theory seems outmoded in the light of recent rapid developments in new teaching methods, learning resources and digital media. Building on this position, I would like to examine two further concepts - namely heutagogy (Stewart Hase) and paragogy (Corneli and Danoff) - which may offer more appropriate ways of framing learning in the digital age. I would like to acknowledge Martin King, who set my thought processes going down this road when he commented on the 'Learning is learning' post. Although the two terms may be unfamiliar to some, most teachers will recognise how they actually work in authentic learning contexts. Heutagogy is a grand way of saying 'self directed or self determined learning'. Paragogy is another way of describing peer to peer learning, where students support each other's learning on an equal basis. Both are highly applicable when we consider the advance of learning technologies and the deep pervasion of social media into many learning spaces, formal and informal.

For me, paragogy is an extension of the concept of scaffolding (proposed by Jerome Bruner), where knowledgeable others (teachers or peers) can create optimal learning environments in which students can learn more than they would if they were studying on their own. Paragogy takes scaffolding farther though, because peers are in an equal relationship. The exchange conditions are duplex - that is, they work both ways and reciprocal learning is achieved as learners connect with each other, share their content and ideas, and engage in dialogue. If this sounds familiar, it is exactly what happens informally day in, day out on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. Paragogy may also find more synergy than andragogy with emerging explanatory frameworks of digital age learning such as connectivism (Downes and Siemens).

Heutagogy by contrast - and in its loosest interpretation - might be conceived of as a form of flâneurism - the act of wandering described by Charles Baudelaire as a means to more fully experience the landscape or environment one finds oneself in. Many of us assume flâneur-like trajectories when we traverse our way across cyberspace, clicking through hyperlinks, sometimes happening by chance upon pages that interest us, and where serendipitous learning ultimately occurs. Heutagogic learning is essentially self directed and autodidactic, and at its most informal, may involve sense-making of the digital landscape by wandering seemingly aimlessly around it. But there is still a self-determined purpose underlying the actions of the learner. Scholars such as Hase and Kenyon have argued that a shift of emphasis from andragogy to self-determined learning would be beneficial because just like pedagogy, andragogy still holds connotations of teacher control (but see Donald Clark - USA - for an alternative perspective on this).

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