ETC655: Lesson 3 Instructor’s Notes

In this Instructor's Notes, I share the common feedback for the Assignment 2: Analysis of Pedagogy InfoDoc and Lesson 2 discussions to advance your learning. Read them carefully. I will continue to post the "Instructor's Notes" regularly to guide you throughout the class. I have higher expectations on your learning performances than in ETC645 since this is the most advanced course in the ETC curriculum. I know you can accomplish it.

 

Assignment 2: Analysis of Pedagogy InfoDoc

Take a close look at the template. Start gathering your ideas, and resources. It is a labor-intensive assignment.

 

Assignment 3: Open Network Technology Training

Prepare ahead for the training session. It is a "real-time" PD. Planning, and executing are crucial. Watch previous students' sessions to gather ideas. For those of you who have partners, seamless collaboration is needed.

 

Lesson 2 Discussions

The quality of the postings and the interactivity were not as outstanding as in ETC645. I am looking forward to your improvements. Quality postings come from the thorough understanding of readings while fully digesting the information. Connectivism and ONLE are not easy theory and pedagogy to comprehend, particularly the key principles of Connectivism.

Principles of connectivism:

·         Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.

·         Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.

·         Learning may reside in non-human appliances.

·         Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known

·         Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.

·         Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.

·         Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.

·         Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.

 

Improving Interconnectivity

Post early: Research indicated that early postings have a benefic influence on learning outcomes.

Respond to the questions raised by others: Carefully screening whether any questions raised on your postings. Applying visual to see whether you received any reply is not reliable. In ETC655, I facilitate the strategy of one-many or many-many which one posting addresses multiple people. See Lesson 2 discussion for the example. Not replying to them would result in less satisfactory scores in SNA.

Follow-Up Questions: I post the follow-up questions to deepen our knowledge in the topics.  Give them a try!

Review SNA or social roles carefully: To advance ourselves to become proficient community learners, I shared additional scores for your social roles, Transmitter (Closeness centrality), Prominent (Eigenvector centrality), and Prestigious (PageRank). What do they mean? Are you a proficient or competent community learner? I hope you are.

Socio-Cognitive Learning: Focus on Prominent Role (Eigenvector Centrality) and Prestigious Role (PageRank), particularly prestigious roles reflecting your cognitive learning performances. Quality of whom you interact with and quality of your posting matter.

Ironical not practicing "Interconnectivity" while studying Connectivism: Interconnectivity means "interaction" and "connection."

 

How to conduct quality posting?

Integrate the Practical Inquiry Model (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) to compose your postings.

Articulate your own opinions: Significant amount of materials copied from course materials or outside sources without condensing them through analysis or synthesis would not be considered quality posting by our community.  Integrate multiple views and show values as a seed for reflection by including other participants' views. Includes analysis or synthesis of course materials, your own experience, and/or classmates' postings. This would improve your PageRank score.

Asking "meaningful" questions: This is a great way to engage in network interaction. Asking mediocre questions would negatively impact your SNA scores, such as Eigenvector, PageRank, and Reciprocated Vertex Pair Ratio etc. In fact, posting mediocre questions show deficient understanding of the topic.