Discussions started by Roy Williams

Researching 'learning in the open' or 'learning in social networks' or 'emergent learning' is an interesting and difficult business. 

Particularly because it has to address learning which is a mashup of epistemology, ontology, affect, community, serendipity and much more besides. 

So ... we are trying to find new languauge (or reconfigure old language?) to meet this emergent kind of learning (not entirely new, but taken quite a few 'new' steps forward by social media).

In Jaap's blog post (and some responses), here, questions are raised about the role of subjectivity, judgement, reflection and description. 

Any thoughts on how to take these issues forward (either with footprints or beyond)? 

The Footprints of Emergence provides a method, and a toolkit, to describe and communicate the complexity of learner experience in the new 'open-courses'. 

It's not a simple matter, particularly if we want to track the dynamics of changes in learner experience over time.  

So, here is one way to describe the four 'clusters' or 'quadrants' that form the basis for the way we make sense of the 25 emergent factors.  This might make it easier to get a sense of what the footprints are all about ... 

 

Open/Courses

What is the balance between Openness and Structure?

 

 

Interaction

How are you able to interact with/ in the learning space?

 

Independent Initiative

Do you develop your own capacity for action, or just compliance with fixed roles?

 

 

Presence

What traces (and connections) do you make and leave behind  you?

 

 The five or six 'factors' for each quadrant are, then, the next layer of description of the details of what is critical for emergence and emergent learning. 

 

 

 

Researching 'learning in the open' or 'learning in social networks' or 'emergent learning' is an interesting and difficult business. 

Particularly because it has to address learning which is a mashup of epistemology, ontology, affect, community, serendipity and much more besides. 

So ... we are trying to find new languauge (or reconfigure old language?) to meet this emergent kind of learning (not entirely new, but taken quite a few 'new' steps forward by social media).

In Jaap's blog post (and some responses), here, questions are raised about the role of subjectivity, judgement, reflection and description. 

Any thoughts on how to take these issues forward (either with footprints or beyond)?