If you created a Hunch account (week 1 activities: http://learninganalytics.net/syllabus.html#Week_1 , share your reactions with others - were the Hunch recommendations accurate? What are the educational uses of a Hunch-like tool for learning?
George Siemens
Discussions started by George Siemens
Now that week 1 is out of the way, let's start connecting with each other outside of Moodle. Where are you online? i.e. share you twitter, blog, or other accounts with others in this discussion thread.
I'm one of the facilitators of this course. I'm looking forward to some great idea exchanges over the next six weeks.
I'm located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (a recent transplant from equally cold Winnipeg, Manitoba). I'm with the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute (TEKRI) at Athabasca University. My research interests: social learning, learning networks, analytics, and institutional change.
I'm the conference co-chair for the learning and knowledge analytics conference in Banff in a few months (Phil Long is also co-chair): https://tekri.athabascau.ca/analytics/
I've been interested in analytics for several years (most bloggers likely use some type of analytics for tracking activity on their sites...or ego-surfing to see discussions with google alerts, twitter search, etc). When applied to formal learning, analytics offer sometimes surprising insight into why learners succeed/fail. Institutions are awash in data...but do a very poor job utilizing that data for decision making. Before we can effectively suggest change to educational systems, we need to better understand what's happening. For educators, administrators, and students, the education system is a black box. We need to open it, see what's inside, and then begin to make decisions based on data, not hype.
Unfortunately, the distance between data-driven and "it must be this way" is very short. I'm concerned that analytics will be used to do more than they are capable of doing...i.e. standardized testing, profiling learners rather than helping them, etc. In my idealistic notion, learning analytics should be applied to amplify the joy (magic?) of learning, not to quash it and reduce it to a statistical mechanical process.
For this course to be successful, I'd like to see a high level of dialogue and debate to explore what learning analytics are, their role in education, and ethical concerns relating to their use. In particular, since I'm inclined to support learning analytics, I'm eager to hear effective critiques.
This is the fifth open course I've taught over the last few years. These courses are sometimes a bit hectic, but always an interesting learning/knowledge growth experience. I've taught three courses with Dave Cormier. I'm excited to facilitate LAK11 with my colleague at TEKRI, Jon Dron, as well as Sylvia Currie and Tanya Elias.
George
I'm located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (a recent transplant from equally cold Winnipeg, Manitoba). I'm with the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute (TEKRI) at Athabasca University. My research interests: social learning, learning networks, analytics, and institutional change.
I'm the conference co-chair for the learning and knowledge analytics conference in Banff in a few months (Phil Long is also co-chair): https://tekri.athabascau.ca/analytics/
I've been interested in analytics for several years (most bloggers likely use some type of analytics for tracking activity on their sites...or ego-surfing to see discussions with google alerts, twitter search, etc). When applied to formal learning, analytics offer sometimes surprising insight into why learners succeed/fail. Institutions are awash in data...but do a very poor job utilizing that data for decision making. Before we can effectively suggest change to educational systems, we need to better understand what's happening. For educators, administrators, and students, the education system is a black box. We need to open it, see what's inside, and then begin to make decisions based on data, not hype.
Unfortunately, the distance between data-driven and "it must be this way" is very short. I'm concerned that analytics will be used to do more than they are capable of doing...i.e. standardized testing, profiling learners rather than helping them, etc. In my idealistic notion, learning analytics should be applied to amplify the joy (magic?) of learning, not to quash it and reduce it to a statistical mechanical process.
For this course to be successful, I'd like to see a high level of dialogue and debate to explore what learning analytics are, their role in education, and ethical concerns relating to their use. In particular, since I'm inclined to support learning analytics, I'm eager to hear effective critiques.
This is the fifth open course I've taught over the last few years. These courses are sometimes a bit hectic, but always an interesting learning/knowledge growth experience. I've taught three courses with Dave Cormier. I'm excited to facilitate LAK11 with my colleague at TEKRI, Jon Dron, as well as Sylvia Currie and Tanya Elias.
George
I received this email/twitter message on a bbc quiz for old computers: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7671677.stm
Ah, it's like my parents going through a horse & buggy museum :).
Ah, it's like my parents going through a horse & buggy museum :).
It's great when you start a project like this and discover that others have attempted similar things in the past. I received an email today from Craig Montgomerie about a project at U of Alberta from several years ago: Technology in Education.
What other resources or initiatives in documenting edtech history exist that can inform our project here? Why not use the network to inform our efforts here? These days, it's rare that we need to do something entirely from ground up :).
George
What other resources or initiatives in documenting edtech history exist that can inform our project here? Why not use the network to inform our efforts here? These days, it's rare that we need to do something entirely from ground up :).
George