New Chapter: The Sound Spaces of Online Learners from Place-Based Spaces for Networked Learning

Sian Bayne, James Lamb, and I have a chapter in the new book Place-based Spaces for Networked Learning edited by Lucila Carvalho, Peter Goodyear and Maarten de Laat. The chapter is on the sound spaces of online, distance learners drawing on data from the University of Edinburgh’s research project “New Geographies of Learning: distance education and being ‘at’ […]
Online (learning) can be (and is) the privileged mode: Thoughts on the manifesto for teaching online
As a proud graduate of the University of Edinburgh’s MSc in Elearning program, I have been enriched and invested myself in the process of learning with this dynamic community. I consider it time and resources well invested as I have had the doors blown out on my perceptions of what it means to learn online […]
Response to “Pointillist, cyclical, and overlapping: Multidimensional facets of time in online education”.
I was recently reading the most recent issue of the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL), only partially because an article I co-authored is in it, and was intrigued by the following. To see the article on IRRODL, click the title. Otherwise, I have included it below in this post. Ihanainen, […]
In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores. Aka tech apparently not living up to promise (ie higher test scores)
First of all, I am glad that the New York Times is taking such a vested interest in writing about the state of American education and the ills and occasional triumphs that it experiences. They have a good track record in this department at a time when generally the America media is vilifying the practitioners […]
Posthuman as series of components; Construction and alteration as learning constant
“The posthuman subject is an amalgam, a collection of heterogeneous components, a material-informational entity whose boundaries undergo continuous construction and reconstruction.” (Hayles 1999, 3) A collection of heterogeneous components of material-informational entity undergoing continuous construction and reconstruction. Sound like life to me, post-human or otherwise. I think we have recognized the necessity of deconstruction and construction; […]
Teaching and Learning in Decentralized Spaces
I enjoyed this presentation from George Siemens, Athabasca University, on teaching and learning in decentralized spaces. I have heard similar arguments before and concur generally. There seems to be a juxtaposition between how students learn online in social, disaggregated spaces, and how institutions provide environments for learnings (Blackboard, WebCT) that do not always mirror this […]
Tools for Teachers: Using Primary Sources as Instructional Tool
The Library of Congress is making good inroads into the realm of primary sources as instructional tools. This is a real opportunity area for institutions that have large collections of primary sources to illustrate their utility. In this context, at least for the purposes of my limited discussion here, a primary source will refer to […]