elearnspace

Open online courses really mess things up. The force educators/funders/learners to question the value point of traditional education. Over the past four years, many different open online courses have been offered – some through formal universities (U of Manitoba – Stephen Downes and I, BYU – David Wiley, U of Regina – Alec Couros, Stanford – Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig, U of Illinois -Ray Schroeder).

I have a long running question that influences my vision of education: If we were to design education today, without the legacy baggage of the existing system, what would it look like? I don’t have a clear answer, but I think it would look similar to open online courses: distributed, leveraging network effects, participative, peer/social pedagogy, large scale sensemaking, artifact creation and sharing, knowledge growth and domain expansion, etc. There is substance to massive open online courses (MOOCs) that goes well beyond the current buzz and hype. This substance, I believe, is about aligning teaching and learning with the way in which information is created, negotiated, and shared through digital and social networks. It is in direct contrast with the value proposition of the current university system.

I was still a bit surprised by this article today – Udacity and the future of universities. Sebastian Thrun, one of the facilitators of the open online course on Artificial Intelligence at Stanford (with over 130,000 students) has left the university, bailing on his tenure appointment to run a startup Udacity. Udacity will build on the open course models of teaching and learning.

Perhaps Thrun’s move shouldn’t be surprising. I’ve interacted with many learners in the open courses we’ve done, and I frequently hear the experience described as “transformative” or “life changing”. When the education system is synchronized with the interests and passions of learners, the process is invigorating and tremendously motivating. However, when learners and educators have to fight the existing education system in order to learn and teach, it’s time for dramatic change. Thrun has recognized that tomorrow’s education system will be a function of large-scale teaching and personalized, social, participative learning. Even then, it’s still surprising to hear him state that “I can’t teach at Stanford again.”

2012 is shaping up to be a good year for open online learning experiences (Sanford is actively promoting open courses, David Wiley is running an openness in education course, Alec Couros will likely be doing his EC&I831 again, etc.).

I’m involved in several open online learning projects this year:

1. Ongoing from 2011: Change MOOC
2. Learning Analytics Open Course (sign up here) – Starts January 23.
3. Stephen Downes and I will be offering Connectivism and Connective Knowledge 2012 starting January 23. More info soon on sign up
4. I’m helping to organize an online conference – Follow the Sun – a multi-day, 24 hour per day, online conference with keynotes addressing various aspects of how technology is influencing various knowledge domains.

I just listened to a great video discussion – Khan Academy and Stanford AI Class: Reinventing Education – with Peter Norvig, Sebastian Thrun, and Sal Khan. It’s a candid discussion of what each of these educators wanted to achieve with opening up their courses and content and some of the challenges they faced in the process. Most importantly, they (particularly Sebastian) discuss where they were wrong in their previous assumptions about learning.

I’ve been a bit frustrated in the past (actually, I still am) that the history of open courses has not been fully reflected in conversation about the Stanford AI class. People like David Wiley, Alec Couros, Stephen Downes and others have been running open courses since 2007 (this insidehighered article does touch on the history). Audrey Watters captures my thinking when she states: “What does it mean — culturally, pedagogically, politically, financially — that Stanford garners so much buzz for its free online courses while other MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses) go unheralded?”. However, I’m sure there are educators pre-2007 who are saying “hey, we’re not getting credit for our work with open courses!”.

But that’s a personal ego gripe. It’s encouraging to see educators and trainers exploring the scaling capacity of learning through the use of technology. I enjoyed listening to the reflections of Sal, Sebastian, and Peter. They are excited, as many of us teaching open online courses are, about the capacity for accessible learning opportunities to increase student control and empowerment. Many of their proclamations (decoupling assessment from teaching, the creativity of learners when they don’t face organizational barriers, the power of the online experience) will be familiar to many who have followed our open courses. Interestingly, Thrun stated that online learners did better (by a factor of 2 with those making top grades) than in class learners.

It’s good to have growing diversity in researchers and educators offering alternative course models. As more people experiment with open online course, new tools will be developed and recognition of the value of open learning will also (hopefully) increase.

I just landed in Vancouver after a short trip to Shanghai to present at the IADIS conference hosted by East China Normal University. One of the faculty members (Ren Youqun, I believe) from this university translated Knowing Knowledge into Chinese. This is my second trip in the last three weeks – I was in Guangzhou at the end of November visiting South China Normal University and Sun Yatsen University. So, other than being rather irritable and jet lagged, I have a few quick reactions to share about my experiences in Guangzhou and Shanghai.

1. I’ve never been in a country with the optimism I found in China – the students I spoke with had a strong sense of China coming into its own. We are entering Chinese century (or several). By 2020, their economy (gdp) is expected to be about $20 trillion annually. This forecast seems to vary a fair bit, depending on how much the speaker or organization is trying to scare listeners with the west to east power shift. The faculty, students, and government officials that I spoke with are well aware that they are entering their destiny as a superpower. I met a few western researchers – who have worked in China for over a decade – and they described how China is becoming more assertive with partnerships and joint ventures. China is not willing to simply have their students poached by higher education systems around the world. China is experiencing rapid growth in the numbers of international students studying for a degree (rather than only spending a year for the “Chinese experience”).

2. My hosts were exceptionally courteous. I spoke at a K-12 conference in Nanhai District (just outside of Guangzhou). The program to kick off the conference included about 1 1/2 hours of greetings from various levels of government. Dinners and lunches included a stream of dishes that I simply couldn’t keep up with. The key, apparently, is to taste, not eat everything. Chinese visitors to other countries must feel like we’re a bunch of slouches – we simply don’t honour our guests the way they do.

3. The construction is astonishing. So is the smog. I’ve seen documentaries and read articles about both, but until you experience it in person, it’s not real. The construction in particular is mind boggling. Roads, buildings, railways, and airports are being built on a scale that I don’t think has ever happened in human history.

4. Social spaces are impressive. In Guangzhou, my hosts took me down to the Pearl River late one evening. The walkway and park areas were packed – people were dancing, performing, singing, or just randomly hanging out. The energy was contagious. I felt the urge to take up Thai Chi. Or singing. Or something artistic and social.

5. The internet in China is unusable. At least for me. Diigo didn’t work. Gmail was hit and miss. Twitter didn’t work. Niether did Facebook (but that’s not a loss for me, I’m rarely there anymore). My daily information habits (google reader, tag in diigo, tweet, etc) simply didn’t work. I do a fair bit of traveling and I’ve never felt as disconnected as I did in China. However, this doesn’t mean that they don’t use twitter-like tools. I came across this presentation – Social Media In China – that provides a good overview of the tools and technologies available. I’m starting to think that China blocks services less for censorship and more for giving their software companies an opportunity to gain traction.

6. I should learn Mandarin. So should my kids.

7. As polite, courteous, and attentive as my hosts were, they work their speakers like rented mules . Their culture is very much one of learning and wanting to glean what they can from others. The passion for learning is something I haven’t experienced as intensely elsewhere as I did in China. The day would start with a breakfast meeting, followed by two hour presentations, working lunch, afternoon sessions, travel to evening presentation, social dinner, presentations until late in the evening. At least this was the pace in Guangzhou. I’m told Shanghai has a less hectic pace. I was disoriented most of the time – English road signs are common – but I really was at the mercy of my hosts. There is very little I could do on my own. In Europe, I can get by with English. In China, I very rapidly discovered I needed translators. I couldn’t order a coffee (tea) or beverage on my own. Even hand gestures were futile. It’s quite a fatiquing process.

Finally, a few quick notes from the IADIS conference, particularly Prof Gao Hong Qing: Dean of Network Center, He Nan Normal University, China. He spoke on the topic of Cloud computing in China Education

Internet Stats in China:
457 million online
34.4% penetration
Over 300 million mobile internet users
73 million new users in last year alone (2009 to 2010)
78% access internet via desktop
66.2% mobile
45.7% laptop (but fastest growing segment (2010)
Time online: 18.3 hours per week (2010). Slight decrease from 2009.
Ages 10-29 largest users of internet

Learning online:
Growing rapidly (no stats given)
Open University of China – largest online university in the world
Modern distance education project in rural primary/secondary schools (all classrooms can connect to the internet).
Currently 2429 university/colleges linked to china education and research network. 64, 797 middle/primary schools.
IT needs to help universities address their “business challenges” of doing more with less, reduced risk, etc.
Cloud computing in China: 660 million yuan ($103 million) has been allocated for cloud computing research

The prominence of US-based tech firms was significant: Microsoft has a huge footprint. As does Cisco. The language of the presentations (especially on cloud computing) was indistinguishable from what I hear at western conferences.

I’m in Rijeka, Croatia. It’s my first visit hear and it’s a beautiful country. The scenery is spectacular. Unfortunately, most of my time has been spent in a hotel room writing and getting caught up on email/work, etc. Wasn’t traveling fun *before* we could take our work with us?!

I’ve uploaded the slides from my presentation this morning: