Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Bader A. Alsaleh - September 17, Riyadh - Summary Notes

Bader A. Alsaleh (Professor, Instructional Design and Technology, King Saud University) @ba_alsaleh

On 40 minutes, will present a number of ideas.

Why are we interested in social media? What is the importance of talking about it? What is the relation to education? And what are the implications on pedagogy?

Pedagogists have spent the 20th century asking about these questions, but in the 21st century everything has changed. Now social media is playing a major role, with implications to e-learning environments.

Why are we talking of a second generation of pedagogy - Pedagogy 2 - and what are the paradigms of this shift in education?

I have to assign some blame to pedagogists; we are using smart phones, etc., but does this mean the relation between teachers and students have changed? There are complex drivers for a paradigm shift: educational crises, learning reseracg, tech affordances, 21qst century skills.

Crisis - if we were accomplishing everything we wanted, there would be no need for changes.

Research - speaking of a number pf philosophers talking about the type of education people get in the 2q1st century. In the 20th century they received 'inert knowledge' - it was not related to the social developmwent of a country. It does not lead anywhere. Why Don't Students Like Education? (book - weapons of mass instruction).

Characteristic of learners: hope that lectures to follow will focus on that research

What is the purpose of social media? Coolaborative or cooperative learning - they want cooperative or interactive types of media (aka social media). They want a digital bridge. - Speak Up 2009, FETC.

Oblinger & Oblinger - characteristics of students in the digital age. Transformation in the relation between the teacher and the student. Gates: will there be a change - the change will be remarkable. Social media - necessary for the spread of digital knowledge. Students have remarkable expectations.

Two main pedagogical models:
- instruction or acquisition paradigm (transmission, outcome based)
- learning or participatory paradigm (transformative, process-based)

The third type depends on practical application. It is based on innovation. We learn through our life. It is about shaping and reshaping knowledge. It is related to the exploitation of network advantages. Teaching and learning is effected by the new technology.

Bahrain, 2003 - students were prepared to work on a specific type of project. We can ask, why aren't our children similarly able? So we have two objectyives: to improve the ability of students, and to support social interactivity between students.

The lecture may appear to be academic, but this does not mean things have changed much. Electrionic, on whe board, but I am talking to you. But the second level of technology is to bring about the participation of students.

Calling for change in educational environment shgould rsult in a change in technology. Pedagogy 2 is a reaction to the remarkable failure of the provision of funds to education technology. In most parts of the world there is a backwardness in the use of technology. Technology integration today means that tech should be part and parcel of the educational activity. There is an indispensible link between education and tech, without that link wewill still be backward in that field.

Social media is particularly important in the field of teahcing. Education should be part & parcel of our activities; the learner should also be the producer.

Social media lies at the intersectrion of social constructivist, connectivism.

Social constructivism - Vygotsky - Wheeler also mentioned him - the teacher should provide the necessary help that the student needs. This also applies tio the students.

Connectivism - as educators in the Arab world we have nog even reached agreement in such theories. Links to computer science; this could be much more useful than the role played by the teacher. Learning should actually focus on plurality and differences.  The ability to know, to learn, is interdisciplinary. The types of information should be linked together.

Related: collective intelligence and distributed cognition. Wheeler referred to that also. This type of information actually exists in the mind of others. Reynard (2008). Collective intelligence (Rogers, 1997; Bruse, 2012). This could not actually happen in the 20th century.

(Overview of major pedagogic models)
- e-learning 2.0
- connectivism
- communities of enquiry

Key elements of pedagogy: personalization, participation, productivity. These together create Pedagogy 2.0.

The necessity that future programs should be cumulative in the sense that they should help interdisciplinary things. The program must include various items of knowledge, each of which could help the other, and each belonging to a different area of knowledge.

The teacher should contrinbute to an environment of elarning in which the students can work together. And learning should continue outside the learning envirnment. This is called 'meta-learning'.

The necessary skills we should try to create: interaction, participation; self-reliance; making decisions; We should create authentic learning environments and preserve interactive educational environments.

Future e-learning environment is the intersection of pedagogy 2.0, w1st century competencies, and technology affordances. Mishra, Punya, Koehler, 2006: intersection of content, pedagogy, technology.

Cycle of training: pre-activity, initiation (social media), collective knowledge, summation (fine-tuning), reflection (re-evaluation, or assessment).

Denver - importance of information. Florida - video clips. Students try tolisten to the ideas of others, given a chance to reflect about what others have done. If they are given such chances, they will begin to like or love those schools.

PLEs: interoperability, openness, learner-centric. Challenges that face pedagogy 2.0 in the field of instruction. The necessary types of training, not just confined to the educational environment in an institution - these institutions have many routine restructions; there is a need for a gradual transition.

We should learn with technology, not from technology. It's more than having classes full of technology; we should actually be able to use technology.

