E-learning and digital cultures 2: our future with tech #EDCMOOC

In the debate on teaching and learning in the digital age two dominating views tend to emerge: one utopian, one dystopian. The video New Media is an expression of the latter: immersive technology makes us blind and deaf for the destruction of interpersonal communication, environmental pollution and societal collapse in general. A day made of glass is an advertisement video and depicts the opposite view: a future in which digital technique makes our work and school experiences easier, profounder and more enjoyable. Which video reflects my take on our future with tech?

My interest in e-learning was first aroused  in the early 2000s, when I was  teaching at universities in the Netherlands and Taiwan. Learning management systems had just been developed and were introduced in industrialized countries to facilitate online learning in higher education. I went back to school to study Digital Communication and Media/Multimedia. Using web creation tools I became fascinated by the many ways digital creativity and interaction can be used to enhance learning. In 2011 I started working for a Swiss medical NGO, developing e-learning and blended training courses for health care professionals in low- and middle-income countries. It became my personal mission to optimize instructional design and educational technologies for the promotion of sexual and reproductive health while offering learners a stimulating online learning environment that enhanced continuous learning.

So yes, digitization of learning and development definitely had a positive impact in my education and work. But not everyone is that fortunate. Many of my learners in developing countries for instance: their computers don’t meet the technical requirements for state-or-the-art online courses or they lack bandwidth. In  industrialized countries a increasing proportion of children has serious back problem because of excessive use of games, tables and smartphones that are increasingly used for teaching in schools. On a personal level I find I can be so occupied with online communication that I neglect my partner and friends in real life – something Sirley Turtle discusses at length in her TED talk ‘Connected, but alone?’.

Of course it’s not technology that’s to blame for  inequality in  digital access and knowledge, back pain, and the deterioration of real-life communication: what’s at fault is the way we relate to technology. And that’s all but a black-and-white matter. The videos I mentioned show the limitations of a dichotomizing view on our future with tech: New Media could not have been created without the advances in technology and A day made of glass is stuffed with 1950s-style gender stereotypes. We need cautious technical and digital progress: making sure all who want can join the developments, and reflecting on what is lost during the time we spend online.

E-learning and digital cultures 1: how to prevent overdosing #EDCMOOC

Interested in teaching and learning in the digital age? You should definitely try the University of Edinburgh’s introductory massive open online course (MOOC) on e-learning and digital cultures. While you’re at it, sign up for the excellent course on video games and learning, offered by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, that not only teaches you how game experiences get to be designed for education purposes but lets you participate actively in research on the topic. The New Teacher Center’s latest course on blended learning is, of course, a must for everyone interested in latest didactical models for personalization of education. And did you know Columbia University offers a course on big data in education? Indispensable if you want to know more about knowledge inference in online learning. Signing up for these courses is free and all they require is active participation in online forums, twitter, blogging weekly (though higher frequency is allowed) and, to earn a certificate, assignments and quizzes.

E-learning is happening right now. It’s not difficult to start your engagement with it – but it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sophisticated discourses that takes place at such a high speed on so many different  platforms. How to prevent overdosing on e-learning and, eventually, opting out altogether? I’ve been learning on and working in the domain of e-learning for years and I’ll give you the key to my success: immerse yourself,  then carefully select what’s on offer and learn effectively by applying online subject matter to real life opportunities.

Luctor et emergo is the official motto of the Dutch province where I was born and means to say: I wrestle with the sea, and I emerge. And it totally applies to e-learning: plunge into it and trust you’ll make it out more informed and better equipped for learning an teaching in the 21^st century. Sign up for all open e-learning courses that appeal to you, check out their resources, look for related twitter debates using appropriate hashtags, start following relevant people, and see who they follow. Sign up for e-learning alliances and online networks.

Onto the next part: delete. You’ll find  some courses more appealing then others – depending on content (from healthcare to maths, e-learning design, use for adults versus children, user data analysis) but also on didactical models and teaching styles. Don’t be afraid to un-enroll from courses you don’t like, download specialist lectures for later, ignore assignments if they don’t appeal to you and only go for certification or tenure tracks if you really feel that might actually make sense for your professional or personal development. You’ll soon appreciate certain people on twitter – they respond to your questions and offer additional information in blogs – and unfollow others. Read the mails you receive from networks for a while (this will require some patience) and see which ones are the more active and offer groups to your liking. Within a few weeks you’ll have a manageable and nice variety of e-learning sources that cater to your needs and topics of interest and, just as important, cut down on the time you spend on e-learning.

Remember how you used to learn in school? Memorization, passing a test, then clearing your mind of subject matter to stuff in other material. Adult learning and, increasingly, learning for children is not like that anymore: it’s about problem solving. You need to become conscious not just of the kind of learner you are and the content of subject matter, but also the context in which you’ll apply your acquired knowledge. Not because this adheres to some nice new didactical theories, but simply because you remember subject much better if you apply it to the context that’s relevant for you. Turn the assignments of your e-learning courses into blogs. Make summaries of the resources you use and write about the way you could apply them to your professional or personal projects. Look on course forums for active peers that are interested in the same topics and ask them to comment on your blogs. Do the same with people in e-learning networks. Use their feedback. Don’t mindlessly retweet for quantity but rather read up on subject matter behind it and tweet for quality: how it contributed to your knowledge, and a link.

E-learning is addictive, no doubt about it. The speed of technological changes in learning and teaching as well as their nature is dazzling. Many of the people engaged in them are fascinating creatures to befriend and their communities stimulating. Knowledge on e-learning can be to your professional and personal advantage. Yet in the end e-learning is like any other addictive substance: enjoy, and use it wisely.

About MOOC Completion Rates: The Importance of Student Investment

The high dropout rates of online courses receive a lot of attention. But how big of a deal is it really? Excellent article by Tucker Balch based on data from the 2013 MOOC on Computationel Investing.

the augmented trader

I just finished teaching a Massive Online Open Class (MOOC) titled “Computational Investing, Part I” via coursera.org. 53,000 people “enrolled,” which is to say they clicked a “sign up” button. How many finished?

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When is gaming good for you?

It is well established that action video games, when played wisely, can improve visual and cognitive abilities. The Wall Street Journal recently published this helpful overview of this and other advantages of gaming. The list is not even complete: it has also been shown that the gaming community  offers leadership opportunities based on skills rather then looks, social class and race – another important advantage.

Video Game Industry Statistics [INFOGRAPHIC]

The average age of people who play video games is… 34. Those are my colleagues whom I have to support in research and education. Hm… Video games and learning course, I owe you big time for landing me in the 21st century.

Infographic List

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