George Siemen’s asks CCK09 participants: ‘Do you think there is something different about ‘Abundance’ that influences pedagogical practice?’

My response:

Yes, course design needs to address with great clarity the presence of abundance. I feel there are definitely enough e-learning tools available but course design may require further consideration. The central issue concerns the focus or emphasis that is given to aspects of abundance. I have participated in two similar e-learning courses this year, one of these was delivered within a formal institution, a university, and I am doing CCK09 as an open-on-line course. I’ve really wanted to understand e-learning processes. I note that currently there may be a relatively high rate of attrition from some e-learning courses.

I would advocate the use of aggregators such as ‘Pageflakes’ and/or ‘Netvibes’ early within a course. In this regard, students/participants/learners can be guided and supported to quickly find a myriad of e-learning theories through subscriptions and by exploring the Interent for themselves and then assemble both theories and tools in an organized way in an aggregator. One of the strong features of CCK09 in my experience and opinion is a focus upon the notions of Personal Learning Environment and Personal Learning Network. Secondly, CCK09 has provided guidance to participants in presenting the theory of Connectivism and Connective Knowledge in a well prepared and organised way.

From an economic perspective, the question arises ‘What is the lecturer/facilitator and student/learner/participant contract? In the past students paid for their course. There was a contract. The lecturers provided a service to the students and the students paid for this service. Is it sufficient that an educational organisation in Canada should bear the cost for an international course in which the student’s behave in line with their preferences and do not always necessarily participate or perhaps they may engage in niche groups or forums using resources provided? In this regard, emphasis on aggregation and guidance rather than content development may be sufficient for the needs of an open university structure? In line with this approach, the benefits to the provider university may include research opportunities, promotion of paid online courses and also quality e-learning pedagogy development.

Other considerations include the need for Openness. In particular, this year we have seen the ongoing explosion of technologies such as ‘twitter’. I feel that e-Learners may benefit from focusing our observations upon the twitter phenomena at this time and also other developments in Social Media as they unfold.