• how to facilitate in a massive online course, and the implications of trust in large networks;
• the range of identity and boundary from the personal, through communities to networks;
• new and emerging roles and practices;
• the value of “appreciative change”, which is related to the appreciative inquiry championed by Marie Jasinski and Maret Staron in ’07 research. Recognise people’s strengths as a starting point for the learning process.

Ideas came up around the responsibility of adult learners in a course such as this. In small groups teaching adult literacy, for example, we might gradually teach people how to become more responsible for their own learning, through explicit instruction, groupwork activities and reflective discussion.

But here, in a massive course involving educators, there was a suggestion earlier that participants would already have the skills of self-directed learning. Is this true, and would it change the demands on our facilitators? Of course it would .. in this environment you model other ways to cross-connect, eg forums, comments on blogs, using the chat in live sessions etc ..

Here are Nancy’s slides:

Christy Tucker posted her summary of the earlier session;
and so did Diego Leal.

Thanks to all these people for sharing their knowledge ;-]

Related posts:

1. CCK08: Power to force involvement in a course? Link : CCK08: Power and Auto-Subscribe (the connectivism forums, week 08). In week...
2. [cck08] initial connections .. on the map So i’ve listened to some audio/video recordings, i’ve read a couple of articles,...
3. Massive connectivist hook-up Well this is extraordinary. Nearly two thousand people involved in a massive online...
4. A Change of Scene Why would anyone use technology for learning? Do we ask the right questions,...
5. catching up with the connectivist crowd (week1) So it’s week 6 already, halfway through the course, and i must sheepishly...

i’ve been following some of the forum discussions, and some of the connected bloggers, and Stephen’s dailies .. i’ve even made some notes and saved up a few delicious bookmarks.

But i haven’t posted any reflections or readings here on the blog. Oh blimey.

Related posts:

1. Massive connectivist hook-up Well this is extraordinary. Nearly two thousand people involved in a massive online...
2. (cck08) Nancy White on .. appreciative change The fabulous choc-o-Nancy White was speaking about all manner of things today, including:...

Rodd (the Clever Sheep ..from Canada i think) set up a shared map within the google-o-sphere, and created a neat screen cast to show the rest of us how to join in. Yay Rodd. (Yes i did have to watch the video to work out how it is done.)

A few fellow Australians already there, including Howard Errey, Alison Miller .. but strangely enough people who posted at different times appear on different “pages” of the map. So Clint Smith is on page one, but others of us are on page three. Still can’t quite get my head around it ..

But for some reason, wordpress won’t let me embed the map on this page. Such irritating behaviour from a renowned CMS .. i had expected better.

Related posts:

1. (cck08) Nancy White on .. appreciative change The fabulous choc-o-Nancy White was speaking about all manner of things today, including:...
2. Indigenous Australian map.. inspiring & interactive use of google maps Impressive use of google maps over at the ABC web site. Moira and...
3. CCK08: Power to force involvement in a course? Link : CCK08: Power and Auto-Subscribe (the connectivism forums, week 08). In week...
4. catching up with the connectivist crowd (week1) So it’s week 6 already, halfway through the course, and i must sheepishly...

Stephen and George are among my favourite writers, and yes, i’ve missed a couple of courses i wanted to attend this year (eg Leigh on facilitating).. so it’s time to dive in and experience.

Got no idea what connectivism is really .. well it’s somewhere in there with Social Constructivism and Post-Structuralist, De-Constructionism .. Let me see if i can say:

Connectivism is all about the networks. Internal neural networks, and external social networks.

Apparently, we make sense of the world through our frameworks and structures, and knowledge is negotiated through socialising in our distributed networks. Connection creates meaning, the mind is a patterning agent, and all this takes place within increasingly complex spaces involving more and more technology.

(Mind map above links to full version.)

i may have heard someone say that knowledge resides in the network. Provided your network is working properly that is .. how many organisations suffer when key personnel depart?

It’s only day one, and already the goog has over 6000 links to CCK08+Connectivism.
Some of the many course links:

• wiki (week one),
• blog for regular updates,
• pageflakes (collecting all resources),
• getting started presentation,
• twitter for micro updates,
• Stephen’s Daily,
• people introduce themselves in moodle,
• Stephen’s intro on the Ustream TV site.

i wonder how long before i’m completely overwhelmed  ;-]

Yep, already.

image and photo credits: licensed under creative commons at flickr:
Thanks very much: fdecomite

Related posts:

1. (cck08) Nancy White on .. appreciative change The fabulous choc-o-Nancy White was speaking about all manner of things today, including:...
2. catching up with the connectivist crowd (week1) So it’s week 6 already, halfway through the course, and i must sheepishly...
3. Context shapes impact of technology Currently enjoying Mark Warschauer’s “Electronic Literacies”: in chapter one he makes the strong...