Tradition and Emergence:Finding new points of balance in the

educational use of technology

COHERE Blended Learning Conference

George SiemensOctober 3, 2008

Tiers of change pressures

Tier 1: Global

Tier 2: Technological/Societal

Tier 3: Educational

Global

Economic

Global Warming

Population growth

...relocation

1800: 3% of population in large cities

2050: 75%

http://www.192021.org/

Healthcare...epidemics

Technological/Societal

Need for advanced learning

2 of every 3 new/replacement jobs require post secondary education

Canadian Council of Learning (2006)

Networked Workers

• 93% own a cell phone, compared with 78% of all American adults.

• 85% own a desktop computer, compared with 65% of all adults.

• 61% own a laptop computer, compared with 39% of all adults.

• 27% own a Blackberry, Palm or other personal digital assistant, compared with 13% of all adults.

Pew Internet

Access

70+% level in many countries (Net)

Mobile/PDA (21%) web access – doubled in 2003-2005-2007

88% have mobile

Steep decline after age 55

Oxford Internet Institute

3.3 Billion Mobile accounts

Informa, 2007

Our relationship to content/information...

We’ve pulled it apart…

Fragmentation

Educational

Bigger shift that that from a Ptolmeic to Copernican view of the solar system…

Self-organization is the way the relevant sciences are heading.

Carl Bereiter (2002)

“Tectonic shift that will transform the map of higher education worldwide—the growth of universities in the developing world”

Daniel, Kanwar, Uvalic-Trumbic (2006)

Education’s future will be shaped in developing

countries

China: HE enrolment doubled, 2000 – 2003 16 million. Exceeds US

India: by 2010, 40% of all

HE education will be distance

Carnegie Foundation (2006)

China: 800 new institutions in higher education since late 90’s

China: doubled scientific article output between 1997-2004 (rest of world declined %)

Threats to university

Borderless education

Private for-profit

Corporate universitiesPeter Scott, 2002

Response: Triple-helix Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 1999

Trends in Online Education

• 2/3 plus of all Higher Education institutions offer online learning

• 3.5 million students taking online course (in fall 2006)

• 20%+ percent annual growth rate since 2003

Online Nation (Allen & Seaman, 2007)

Online Nation (Allen & Seaman, 2007)

Participatory Pedagogies(Collis & Moonen, 2008)

(Askins, 2008)

(Harvard Law School, 2008)

Open Educational Resources

Open Teaching

Alec Couros Stephen DownesLeigh BlackallDavid Wiley

Three tiers of change generate tension points...

Emerging tension points

1. Education/business

3. Accreditation/reputation

5. Transformation/utility

7. Research/responding

9. Formal/informal

Emerging tension points

1. Open/Closed

3. Expert/Amateur

5. Hierarchy/Network…Command/Foster

7. Pace/Depth

9. Epistemology/Ontology

Given the changes in how we interact with content and each other, how should we change the educational process?

Skills learners and educators need...

Digital literacy

Information literacy

21st century skills

Harvard curriculum

Play, performance, networking,

distributed cognition (Jenkins)

Learning design?

Thin walls

Where is the strategy in the change?

Websites and Newsletters

www.elearnspace.orgwww.knowingknowledge.com

www.connectivism.cahttp://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wordpress/

gsiemens AT elearnspace DOT org