What it means to learn in the third millennium - presentation made to the staff of the Open Polytech of NZ, August, 2012

1. What it means to learn in the 3rd millennium

2. FOCUS ON THE LEARNER
• Need to capture the
delight of learning as
seen in our grandchildren
• Such complex learning
takes place in these early
years, who teaches them
this stuff?
• Emphasis on trail and
error, on experience, on
discovery
• We lose these things in
our formal education
approaches

3. TIMES CHANGE
• Remember the intrigue of
listening to the first moon
landing
• In 2012 we could interactively
participate through watching
on UStream

4. How have we embraced
technology…
… in the four decades
so far?

5. THE EIGHTIES
• Computers in the back of the
room
• Emphasis on the stand-alone
device, used in isolation
• Primitive user interfaces
• Emphasis on productivity

6. THE NINETIES
• Computers now networked
and connected
• Birth of the world-wide web
• Emphasis on access to
information, search, storage
and curation.

7. THE NAUGHTIES
• The Web becomes social
• Emphasis on relationships,
contribution, creation

8. THE ‘TEENS’
• The web becomes personal
• Emphasis on personal
management of content,
communities and conversations

9. In the future our learning will be even more
digital, more mobile, and more multimedia
than it is now.
It frequently will be more informal and
definitely will be more self-directed,
individualized, and personalized.
It will be more open and more accessible
and may occur in simulation or video game-
like environments.
It will be more networked and more
interconnected and often will occur online.

10. In the future our learning will be even more
digital, more mobile, and more multimedia
than it is now.
Principle #1
= Ubiquity

11. UBIQUITY
• In the knowledge economy
everything is mobile
• Ubiquity in terms of
• Physical space
• Technology
• Conceptual space
• Social space
• Dispersed over time
• Any place, any pace, any time,
any device…

12. It frequently will be more informal and
definitely will be more self-directed,
individualized, and personalized.
Principles #2
= Agency

13. AGENCY
• “The power to act”
• “Sense of ownership”
• “Executing and controlling
one’s own actions”
• “Self-efficacy”
• “Personalisation”

14. http://tinyurl.com/243zt9c

15. It will be more open and more accessible
and may occur in simulation or video game-
like environments.
It will be more networked and more
interconnected and often will occur online.
Principle #3
Connectedness

16. CONNECTED
• Knowledge, and its application, not raw materials, is
key to the 21st century economy
• Knowledge is dynamic and generative – it exists in the
‘spaces between’ us
• Creating, processing, storing, transmitting and
applying knowledge creates economic vitality
• Each of us is a ‘node’ on the network of learning

17. Organisation of learning at school Organisation of learning at home

18. Welcome to the world of
disintermediation…
…and the rise of the free-agent
learner!

19. FREE AGENT CHARACTERISTICS
• Self directed learning
• Un-tethered to traditional institution
• Expert at personal data aggregation
• Power of connections
• Creating new communities
• Not tethered to physical networks
• Experiential learning
• Content developers
• Process as important as knowledge
gained
http://teachthinktech.learningconnective.org/post/1656186536/free-agent-learners

21. So what does this mean for us –
the educators in the system?

22. We must remember that we are
learners too.

23. What does ubiquity, agency and
connectedness look like in my
life as a learner/teacher?

24. TEACHERS ACTING AS DESIGN SCIENTISTS…
1. keep improving their practice
2. have a principled way of
designing and testing
improvements in practice
3. build on the work of others
4. represent and share their
pedagogic practice, the outcomes
they achieved, and how these
related to the elements of their
design.
http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Design-Science-Pedagogical-
Technology/dp/041580387X

25. CORE’S TEN TRENDS
• Open-ness
• Ubiquitious Learning
• Smart Web
• Data Engagement
• Virtual Learning
• Personalisation
• Citizenship
• Thinking 3D
• Social Learning
• User + Control
http://www.core-ed.org/
thought-leadership/ten-trends

26. KEY TRENDS
• People expect to be able to work, learn, and
study whenever and wherever they want to.
• The technologies we use are increasingly
cloud-based, and our notions of IT support
are decentralized
• The world of work is increasingly
collaborative, driving changes in the way
student projects are structured.
• The abundance of resources and
relationships made easily accessible via the
Internet is increasingly challenging us to
revisit our roles as educators
• Education paradigms are shifting to include
online learning, hybrid learning and
collaborative models.
http://www.nmc.org/publications/
horizon-report-2012-higher-ed- • There is a new emphasis in the classroom on
edition more challenge-based and active learning.

27. • Personal inquiry learning
• Seamless learning
• MOOCs
• Assessment for learning
• New pedagogy for e-books
• Publisher-led short courses
• Badges to accredit learning
• Rebirth of academic
publishing
• Learning analytics
• Rhizomatic learning
http://www.open.ac.uk/personalpages/mike.sharples/Reports/
Innovating_Pedagogy_report_July_2012.pdf

28. You don’t have to do
it alone...

29. Remember this…

30. The real action is in using
ICTs to change the
experience of learning,
not as a delivery
channel.

31. Derek Wenmoth
Email: derek@core-ed.org
Blog: http://blog.core-ed.org/derek
Skype: <dwenmoth>