critical pedagogy
Learning Technologies eXchanges 2013
This is the second year that Learning Technologies and Learning and Skills are hosting an official eXchange to give the learning and development community a chance to meet, network and collaborate at the event. eXchanges will provide a unique opportunity to get up close and personal with speakers from the conference.
The eXchange provides an opportunity for L&D practitioners who are visiting the show to directly meet the conference speakers to exchange practical ideas and experiences around themes being discussed in the conference.
A chance to get up close and personal with conference speakers!
The feedback that we received last year was unanimous: What a great idea! Like all great ideas, it's simple and straight forward, but incredibly effective. Each eXchanges will take the form of an informal, face-to-face group conversation looking at answers to practical questions that will stimulate innovation and creativity in learning and development. The eXchanges will last over an hour and their USP is that each one will be lead by an industry-leading expert who is speaking at the conference.
Every eXchange will give you unprecendented access to much respected industry leaders and conference speakers. Here's your moment to air your questions, problems and even solutions to your e-learning colleagues.
CELDA 2012 - Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age 2012
The IADIS CELDA 2012 conference aims to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age.
here have been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a fast pace and affecting academia and professional practice in many ways. Paradigms such as just-in-time learning, constructivism, student-centered learning and collaborative approaches have emerged and are being supported by technological advancements such as simulations, virtual reality and multi-agents systems.
These developments have created both opportunities and areas of serious concerns. This conference aims to cover both technological as well as pedagogical issues related to these developments. Main tracks have been identified. However innovative contributions that do not easily fit into these areas will also be considered as long as they are directly related to the overall theme of the conference – cognition and exploratory learning in the digital age.
IWEP 2012 : International Workshop on Educational Patterns
Many pedagogical patterns are documented and there are case studies describing their successful application. However, there are still some open questions which might be the reason why these patterns did not get the broad attention they deserve. The main goal of the workshop is to gain a deeper and more grounded understanding of the applicability of the ideas of Christopher Alexander in the field of education.
In his latest work Christopher Alexander describes 15 fundamental properties that make structures more alive and whole. These properties are already described for being applicable in many different domains including education. However, many of these applications seem to be highly speculative and therefore not reliable.
Topics
The workshop addresses three main topics.
Topic 1: The meaning of Christopher Alexander's 15 properties for education.
This topic aims at examining the meaning of the 15 properties described by Alexander in The Nature of Order for educational purposes with the focus on one property or a small subset of them. It is hereby important to make this applicability more specific and well-grounded in order to show that indeed the properties are – or are not – applicable. Possible questions to be addressed are:
- Can specific properties be used for designing educational actions and how can this applicability be supported?
- What do the properties mean in the field of education?
- Can we find examples of the properties in successful educational scenarios?
- Does this application still match with the original ideas of Alexander?
Topic 2: The specific volatile structures of educational situations.
A characteristic of patterns in the domain of education is their volatility, because the structures of a pattern instance which evolve based on social interactions are flexible and short-living. It is therefore difficult to document or measure them in a consistent way. Furthermore, the context of educational situations, ranging from short interactions to curriculum design, is always different, which makes the application of patterns less predictable. Possible questions to be addressed are:
- How can educational patterns be documented in a way which takes their volatility into account?
- What consequences does the volatility has for the conscious application of educational patterns?
- Can we generalize these volatile structures in the pattern format at all?
Topic 3: The empirical ground for educational patterns.
Educational situations are generally hard to generalize. Much empirical research in education are case studies which contain (too) many details and are therefore hard to generalize with respect to different educational situations. Other studies mainly contain general pedagogical principles and offer not much help in concrete situations. Patterns can connect these two views, but there still are open questions such as:
- How can educational patterns be empirically justified?
- Which pattern mining methods are appropriate for research in this field?
- As educational situations are highly dependent on their context, how can they be reliably generalized?
OER13: Creating a Virtuous Circle
Building on the strengths of OER10, OER11 and Cambridge 2012 (where OER12 and OCWC12 conferences combined), OER13 will take place at the University of Nottingham, renowned for its Open Nottingham programme which has strategically embraced the agenda of open access to teaching.
The Conference programme will consist of an engaging mix of refereed papers, workshops, symposia, posters and demonstrations exploring the impact of OER on HE within the conference themes.
Creating a virtuous circle
Are we ready to build on the last ten years of investment in open educational resources and move to the creation of a virtuous circle of open educational practice? This shift requires creativity by educators, developers, managers and policy makers with critical examination of past practice to set out practical and achievable plans for the future. How can we avoid open education becoming a vicious circle?
OER13 calls for papers which will open eyes and minds within the three key themes of:
The conference planning committee invites session proposals to bring to each of these themes: lessons learned to inform the feedback loop, stories of current activity to share good practice, and creative solutions to achieving greater emphasis on openness in education.
Evidence:
The theme of Evidence explores what information we have already about open resources and open practices. What have we learned, and how do we use this feedback to adapt our learning? How do we best share and research openly together in the future? How do we demonstrate impact from the evidence gathered? What else do we need to do to adopt a critical approach?
Experience:
Sharing stories from Experience invites participants to look at what works in open practice and how to foster openness within established systems. What can we learn from the on-going activity of individuals, departments, discipline communities and institutions? How can we best understand and facilitate the spread of open practice, bringing to all learners and educators the experience of exciting new pedagogies?
Expectation:
We are driven by Expectation about the opportunities of openness whilst recognising the need to promote and establish new business models and policies that will realise rather than restrict this potential. This theme focuses on future gazing, and how we plan to deliver this future, given the emergent trends in OER and openness more widely. This theme needs thought-provoking submissions to help us envisage how aligned open practices (such as journals and data) will influence the future. How can we realise the transformative potential of open education, and broaden open practice through a policy and advocacy agenda? How will policy and funding changes affect open practice?
2012 Learning 2.0 Virtual Conference
The Learning 2.0 Conference is a unique chance to participate in a global conversation on rethinking teaching and learning in the age of the Internet. Subject strands include changes in the classroom (social media, 1:1 computing, "flipped classrooms," digital literacy, maker spaces, gaming, open educational resources, digital textbooks), in student learning (individualized learning, student-directed learning, "hacking" education, personal success plans, ePortfolios, and building a digital presence), in teacher personal and professional growth (lead learning, personal learning networks, peer / open / self-directed PD), in schools (virtual and online schooling, mobile learning, blended learning, MOOCs, immersive environments, learning spaces, entrepreneurship, school leadership, big data, assessment models), and in pedagogy (from teaching to learning, social learning, social / educational networking, passion-based learning, learning how to learn, brain-based learning).
Strand 1: Classroom 2.0 - The Changing Nature of the Classroom
Strand Tag: "classroom 2.0"
Example Topics:
- Social media in classroom
- 1:1 / BYOD programs
- Flipped Classrooms
- Digital Writing
- Digital Literacies / Search Literacies
- Makerspaces
- Gaming in Education
- Open Educational Resources (OER)
- Digital Textbooks
- Changes to teaching specific subjects: e.g., Math 2.0
Strand 2: Student 2.0 - Changes to Student Learning
Strand Tag: "student 2.0"
Example Topics:
- Individualized / personalized learning
- The learner as agent
- Student-directed learning
- Hacking education
- Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) for Students
- Personal learning or success plans
- ePortfolios
- Resume 2.0
- Personal websites and "branding"
- Building a digital presence
Strand 3: Teacher 2.0 - Personal and Professional Development
Strand Tag: "teacher 2.0"
Example Topics:
- The teacher as lead learner
- Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) and Personal Learning Communities (PLCs)
- Peer Professional Development (PD)
- Open PD
- Self-directed PD
- Passion-based teaching
- Schools of Education 2.0
Strand 4: School 2.0 - The Where, When, and How of Formal Learning
Strand Tag: "school 2.0"
Example Topics:
- Virtual and online schooling
- Blended learning
- Mobile learning
- Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
- Immersive environments
- Alternative Education Models (homeschooling, unschooling, Democratic schooling)
- School leadership
- Schools as community hubs
- Education reform
- Disruptive innovation
- Solving digital divides
- Architecture and learning Spaces
- Educational entrepreneurship
- Big data and data analytics
- Assessment models
Strand 5: Pedagogy - Re-evaluating Teaching and Learning Methods
Strand Tag: "pedagogy"
Example Topics:
- From teaching to learning
- Social Learning
- Social / educational networking
- Passion-based learning
- Technology and pedagogy
- Learning how to learn
- Brain-based (cognitive) learning
El estudiante internacional y los retos del aprendizaje permanente
Si bien prácticamente nadie está en contra de la idea de que el aprendizaje permanente debe ser una experiencia positiva, es necesario tener en cuenta que las personas mayores que estudian requieren el uso de herramientas y habilidades adicionales por parte de los formadores que imparten sus cursos en línea.
En este breve artículo presentamos dos casos de retos experimentados por estudiantes internacionales que plantearon algunos problemas en el entorno de aprendizaje como consecuencia no solo de la edad de los estudiantes en cuestión sino también del contexto geográfico en el que estudiaban. Los nombres de dichos estudiantes se han cambiado.
eLearning Papers 28 on Cyber Security and Education published!
Addressing Cyber Security in schools should foster critical digital literacy, such that children can become empowered to make informed decisions about how they choose to use and share information online. eLearning Papers Nº 28 gives answers to questions such as: What constitutes risk when working with digital media? Or where does the potential reside to engage young people in safe Internet use?
The rapidity with which children and young people are gaining access to online, convergent, mobile and networked media is unprecedented in the history of technological innovation. There are two main foci for e–security research that associated with protecting information both strategic and economic and that protecting people particularly the young. While these are overlapping concerns it is the latter that this special issue addresses.
eLearning Papers 28 presents 8 articles arranged in the two sections, In-depth and From the field. The four In-depth articles give a view of the present discussions surrounding how students can be encouraged to engage in safe Internet use. The fourth From the field articles present examples of best practice scenarios.
Click here to read the whole editorial and the 8 articles.
Diseño de actividades de aprendizaje colaborativo en sistemas de información seguros
El campo de la investigación en aplicaciones de las tecnologías de la información al diseño de actividades de aprendizaje colaborativo asistido por ordenador (Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, CSCL) genera situaciones muy complejas que deben estudiarse con diferentes enfoques. Uno de ellos consiste en analizar la seguridad de la información, aunque no solo desde el punto de vista tecnológico.
En este artículo sostenemos que los actuales sistemas de e-learning de apoyo al aprendizaje colaborativo en línea no cumplen de manera suficiente los requisitos esenciales de seguridad, y que esta limitación puede ser determinante en los procesos de aprendizaje colaborativo. A fin de paliar estos problemas, hemos propuesto un enfoque basado en modelos de infraestructura de clave pública (Public Key Infrastructure, PKI) que ofrecen propiedades y servicios de seguridad esenciales en el aprendizaje colaborativo en línea, como disponibilidad, integridad, identificación y autenticación, control de acceso, confidencialidad, no repudio, consignación de fecha y hora, servicio de auditoría y control de averías.
Apoyar a los inmigrantes digitales. Cursos en línea para profesores sobre seguridad en Internet en Austria
La educación en medios es una asignatura intercurricular en los colegios de Austria. No obstante, no forma parte de la educación formal de los profesores. Los profesores con buenas competencias digitales están mucho más dispuestos a hablar sobre cuestiones de seguridad en Internet con sus alumnos en clase. Por consiguiente, potenciar dichas habilidades entre los profesores contribuirá en última instancia a incorporar estos temas a la educación formal. Se han introducido varias herramientas potentes de e-learning para ayudar a los profesores a familiarizarse con los conceptos básicos de la seguridad en Internet e integrar este tema en sus clases
Hemos descubierto que aproximarnos a los educadores con contenidos de e-learning de calidad sobre seguridad en Internet funciona mejor si se hace en colaboración con proveedores acreditados de formaciones para profesores o páginas web que los profesores visitan. Ello garantiza que los recursos se adapten a sus necesidades y asegura la sostenibilidad de la base de conocimientos. Estas conclusiones fueron formuladas por Saferinternet.at, la iniciativa austríaca financiada por la UE del programa Safer Internet para la seguridad en línea, que, entre otras actividades, proporciona formaciones para profesores en este tema.
Descubrir el mundo digital juntos, con espíritu crítico y de manera segura
En el marco del programa Safer Internet, Letonia organizó un Día de Internet Seguro con el propósito de reunir a padres, profesores y jóvenes para descubrir el mundo digital de manera segura. Según hallazgos recientes, “de manera segura” significa con espíritu crítico, puesto que las habilidades de alfabetismo digital están fuertemente vinculadas a la capacidad de efectuar una evaluación crítica de los contenidos en línea, lo que se relaciona automáticamente con la seguridad personal en Internet.
Un estudio realizado por EU Kids Online en 2010 mostró que solo el 54% de los niños y jóvenes afirman que son capaces de comparar –y comparan efectivamente– información de distintas fuentes en línea antes de aceptarla como cierta y confiable. Para comprobar esta suposición, el centro Safer Internet de Letonia, en colaboración con la red social letona Draugiem.lv, organizó un experimento para poner a prueba la precaución de los jóvenes al facilitar datos personales. Las conclusiones apuntan a la necesidad de más medidas que aborden y potencien el alfabetismo digital crítico de los jóvenes.