The document is a presentation from the Networked Learning Conference 2014 that discusses networked learning and identity development in open online spaces. It explores how networked technologies and open online spaces influence how learners develop their identities. It references several scholars and their work around networked learning, online identities, and the intersection between formal and informal learning environments and spaces. The presentation examines how networked technologies impact educators and students, and the potential of open online spaces to support learners' negotiation of identities and experimentation across different social contexts.
Networked Learning & Identity Development in Open Online Spaces
1. Public Domain image: Bergen Public Library
Networked Learning and Identity Development
in Open Online Spaces
Networked Learning Conference
Catherine Cronin • @catherinecronin • #nlc2014 • 07/04/14
2. Paper presented at Networked Learning 2014
as part of symposium titled:
“Perspectives on Identity within Networked Learning”
with Jane Davis and Joyce Seitzinger
All full conference papers at
http://nlc2014.sched.org/
3. “I don’t think
education is about
centralized instruction
anymore; rather, it is
the process [of]
establishing oneself
as a node in a broad
network of distributed
creativity.”
– Joi Ito @joi
Quote: Joi Ito Image: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 yo
4. Flickr CC images: cdessums, infidelic, sholeh!
Space prepares you
to receive or to respond.
“Sensing Spaces”
Royal Academy of Arts
(via Jenny Mackness)
13. As studies become more contextualised it
seems that the real lesson of online identity is
not that it transforms identity but that it makes
us more aware that offline identity was already
more multiple, culturally contingent and
contextual than we had appreciated.
Danny Miller (2013)
Photo by George Miller
(used with permission)
“
16. We proposed the idea of a Third Space where
teacher and student scripts – the formal and
informal, the official and unofficial spaces of the
learning environment – intersect, creating the
potential for authentic interaction and a shift in
the social organization of learning and what
counts as knowledge.
University of Colorado, Boulder
Kris Gutiérrez (2008)
“
17. People live their lives and learn across multiple
settings, and this holds true not only across the
span of our lives but also across and within the
institutions and communities they inhabit...
I take an approach that urges me to consider the
significant overlap across these boundaries as
people, tools, and practices travel through
different and even contradictory contexts and
activities .
Gutiérrez (2008)
“
18. If institutions of learning are going to help
learners with the real challenges they face...
[they] will have to shift their focus from
imparting curriculum to supporting the
negotiation of productive identities
through landscapes of practices.
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
choconancy1
Etienne Wenger (2010)
“
19. Learners need to practice and experiment with
different ways of enacting their identities, and adopt
subject positions through different social
technologies and media.
These opportunities can only be supported by
academic staff who are themselves engaged in
digital practices and questioning their own
relationship with knowledge.
- Keri Facer & Neil Selwyn (2010)
21. References
boyd, dana (2010). Social network sites as networked publics:
Affordances, dynamics, and implications. In Z. Papacharissi (Ed.), Self: Identity, Community, and
Culture on Social Network Sites. (pp. 39-58).
boyd, dana (2010). Making sense of privacy and publicity. SXSW 2010 keynote.
Facer, Keri & Selwyn, Neil (2010). Social networking: Key messages from the research. In R. Sharpe,
H. Beetham & S. de Freitas (Eds.) Rethinking Learning For A Digital Age.
Gutiérrez, Kris D. (2008). Developing a sociocritical literacy in the Third Space. Reading Research
Quarterly, 43(2), 148-164.
Ito, J. (2011, December 5). In an open-source society, innovating by the seat of our pants. The New
York Times.
Miller, Danny (2013). Future Identities report. Foresight Project, DR2.
Rainie, Lee & Wellman, Barry (2012). Networked: The new social operating system. MIT Press.
Wenger, Etienne (2010). Knowledgeability in Landscapes of Practice SRHE Conference 2010. In
deFreitas & Jameson, Eds. (2012) The e-Learning Reader
Williams, Bronwyn T. (2013). Control and the classroom in the digital university: The effect of the CMS
on pedagogy. In Goodfellow & Lea (Eds.) Literacy in the Digital University.
22. Paper presented at Networked Learning 2014
as part of symposium titled:
“Perspectives on Identity within Networked Learning”
with Jane Davis and Joyce Seitzinger
All full conference papers at
http://nlc2014.sched.org/
Editor's Notes
For those here who are tweeting… here’s my Twitter name, conf hashtag & my slides
This is one of the best definitions I’ve seen of Education… and how open, networked practices are changing, and will change education.Not connected/limited by geography, space, time... but connected by our own ideas, passion, commitment via open practices & social media. QUESTION: How best can I help my students to live & thrive in this world?…this informs my practice (learning, teaching, research)
BUT!!“Tyranny of the Architecture” – History – Tradition Private / Exclusive1 focal point teacherValues… whose knowledge counts? whose voice counts?
Manuel Castells:morphology of contemporary societies is the network. Previous sociological models defined by hierarchies and one-to-many communication patterns are rendered archaic. Being a relevant social actor does not solely depend on economic power, but on social capital [derived from the people you are connected to and how well you maintain those connections] Raine & Wellman: developed concept of Networked IndividualismWe (people & institutions) exist now in Information & Communication Ecologies that are strikingly different from the ones that existed just a generation ago.We live in a different media landscape than the one we lived in and were educated in. (learn anything, anywhere, any time)CONTEXT = 3 Revolutions:SOCIAL NETWORKS – (more than FB!) existed for a long time… fluid changing networks, not groups, sometimes communitiesINTERNET… baked-in ethic of OPENNESS, freedom & innovationMOBILE… affects our sense of Time and Place… Presence… Social Connectedness… “hyperconnectivity”
danahboyd defined NETWORKED PUBLICS… networked, open, online spaces (a new kind of public space)SPACE – created through (not by!) networked techIMAGINED COLLECTIVE – created by us, our practicesGlobal networks, different audiences… data is: PERSISTENT – REPLICABLE – SCALABLE – SEARCHABLEThe audience is unknown… Context Collapse.
Society is networked & open & networked what about HE?We know there is a vision of many educators for the digital universityparticipation, flexibility, networking & multimodality Allowstudents more agency & creativity2006 diagram created by Alec Couros…. (when uptake of SM was much lower & mobile not as widespread).
I consider myself an open educator: Current & fluid & multimodal & personal/work combination
Students read/view & create/share & engage/network with others (social media) & multimodal (not just text!)
So what happens when Networked Educators meet Networked Students?Of course educators & students have their own networks, and create their own spaces (e.g. work by Martin Oliver & Lesley Gourlay)… And we may, of course, engage individually with our students…but where do we meet, interact & learn together for a course, project, event?
3 main spaces where we encounter one another…Physical classroomsBOS = LMS / VLE (e.g. Blackboard, or other members-only communities)OOS = Networked Publics, on the web, using open tools, open source, open access… e.g. social mediaFocus here is not on choices *between* these (many of us use all 3 – this conference is a good example!).Many have explored the particular affordances of each – but I wish to focus on issues of identity and power. Classrooms = safe spaces for learners to develop & to share their work – with teacher, sometimes one another.Group dialogue, collaborationCreate Community (CoP)SynchronousBodily markers
Physical classrooms & BOS are: PRIVATE by default; PUBLIC & OPEN by effort Physical architecture, history, temporal/spatial boundaries, teacher-centric, knowledge transfer model. Online architecture, temporal boundaries, teacher-centric (privileges).Open online spaces are: PUBLIC & OPEN by default; PRIVATE by effort. enable Networked or Connected LearningOrganising principle is the NETWORK (fleeting membership, weak ties) rather than the GROUP (designed, strong ties)Enables Cooperative networked practicesOpen, DiverseFlexible & NonlinearEducators & students can share their networks!
Visualisation of network connections around hashtag #icollab.#icollab = community of practice students & lecturers in 6 HE courses, at 6 different institutions, across 6 countries, who are studying – and creating -- mobile & social media)The tool is TAGS Explorer, created by Martin Hawksey – enables visualisation of network connections.
“Third Spaces” of Learning - Kris Gutiérrez(study of literacy practices in primary school language learning context)Knowledge NOT = CurriculumKnowledge = “a living landscape of communities of practice that contribute in various ways” to our learning and to our identities
Knowledge NOT = CurriculumKnowledge = “a living landscape of communities of practice that contribute in various ways” to our learning and to our identities
Knowledge NOT = CurriculumKnowledge = “a living landscape of communities of practice that contribute in various ways” to our learning and to our identities
Tess has also found that students rarely use SM for Education… Divide between Social/Pleasure and Learning/Pain (Tess, 2013)