Networked learning

Networked learning is a process of developing and maintaining connections with people and information, and communicating in such a way so as to support one another's learning.

The central term in this definition is connections. It takes a relational stance in which learning takes place both in relation to others and in relation to learning resources. Salmon (2001) writes "learning is built around learning communities & interaction, extending access beyond the bounds of time and space, but offering the promise of efficiency and widening access. Think of individuals as nodes on a network!"

CSALT, a research group at Lancaster University, UK, defines networked learning as "learning in which information and communication technology is used to promote connections: between one learner and other learners, between learners and tutors; between a learning community and its learning resources."

History

In 1971, Ivan Illich envisioned 'learning webs' as a model for people to network the learning they needed:

I will use the words "opportunity web" for "network" to designate specific ways to provide access to each of four sets of resources. "Network" is often used, unfortunately, to designate the channels reserved to material selected by others for indoctrination, instruction, and entertainment. But it can also be used for the telephone or the postal service, which are primarily accessible to individuals who want to send messages to one another. I wish we had another word to designate such reticular structures for mutual access, a word less evocative of entrapment, less degraded by current usage and more suggestive of the fact that any such arrangement includes legal, organizational, and technical aspects. Not having found such a term, I will try to redeem the one which is available, using it as a synonym of "educational web." Ivan Illich, 1971

In 1977 Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King and Shlomo Angel wrote and published A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. In this seminal text, mostly referred to by architects, lists a "Network of Learning" as the 18th pattern ( p99) and cites Illich's earlier book as "the most penetrating analysis and proposal for an alternative framework for education.." Alexander et al go on to advise builders and town planners interested in establishing learning networks with:

"...work in piecemeal ways to decentralize the process of learning and enrich it through contact with many places and people all over the city: workshops, teachers at home or walking through the city, professionals willing to take on the young as helpers, older children teaching younger children, museums, youth groups travelling, scholarly seminars, industrial workshops, old people, and so on. Conceive of all these situations as forming the backbone of the learning process; survey all these situations, describe them, and publish them as the city's "curriculum"; then let students, children, their families and neighborhoods weave together for themselves the situations that comprise their "school" paying as they go with standard vouchers, raised by community tax. Build new educational facilities in a way which extends and enriches this network."

In the 1970's, The Institute For The Future at Menlo Park in California experimented with networked learning practices based on the Internet and computer conferencing. . Soon after their reports were published two educational pioneers in the use of Internet technologies, Hiltz and Turoff, linked education directly with this pioneering work

In the late 1980’s on the East Coast of the United States, Dr. Charles A. Findley headed the Collaborative Networked Learning project at Digital Equipment Corporation. As project manager Dr. Findley conducted trend analysis and developed prototypes of collaborative learning environments, which became the basis for research, development and implementation of Collaborative Networked Learning (CNL), and Collaborative Learning-Work(CLW)prototypes, which used windows based multimedia, desktop computers for computer mediated communication (CMC)support systems. The two key concepts were refined and demonstration projects implemented. "Collaborative Networked Learning (CNL)" can be viewed as a type of Networked Learning involving collaborative processes to explain and guide the learning which occurs via electronic dialogue between self-directed co-learners and learners and experts. Learners share a common purpose, depend upon each other and are accountable to each other for their success. CNL occurs in interactive groups in which participants actively communicate and negotiation meaning with one another within a contextual framework which may be facilitated by an online coach, mentor or group leader. "Collaborative Learning-Work (CLW)" refers to processes, methodologies and environments in which professionals engage in a common task, in which individuals depend on and are accountable to each other. Many facets of learning-work dialogue are augmented or conducted exclusively in a virtual, computer-supported mediated environment.

In 1991, Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger published Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, in which they cited numerous examples of networked learning within informal learning situations and communities of practice.

The idea that the Internet would enhance opportunities for networked approaches to learning was sketched out by several authors in the late 1980s and early 1990s. For example Harasim et al. (1995) wrote in terms of Network Learning and suggested that:

"Network learners of the future will have access to formal and informal education of their choice, wherever they are located, whenever they are able to participate … The network learner will be an active participant … learning with and from experts and peers wherever they are located" ( p273)

Since the development of the Internet as a significant medium for access to information and communication, the practice of networked learning has tended to focus on its use. In the first phase of the Internet its use for networked learning was restricted by low bandwidth and the emphasis was largely on written and text based interactions between people and the text based resources they referred to. This textual form of interaction was a familiar academic medium, even though there was discussion about the newly emergent forms of online written text which seemed to have the flavour of informal speech rather than academic writing. The ideas that later became systematised into the characterization of networked learning.

In the later half of the 1990s, open, interactive, situated and networked views of learning were marginalised by educational institutions as they tended to develop or deploy content and practice through proprietary learning management systems (e.g. Blackboard Inc, WebCT), and collaborative work tools such as IBM Lotus Notes/Learning Space and Quick Place), generally following concepts around "e-learning". These systems enabled the restriction of access to online learning environments, and the more efficient management of the administrative concerns of educational institutions.

From around 2004, the idea of networked learning had a resurgence, corresponding with the emergence of social media and concepts of open source.

In 2005, George Siemens published a paper in the International Journal for Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, called Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age in which he argued the need for a new learning theory, one that captured the essence and represented the process of networked knowledge creation and learning. In 2011, the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning published the first peer reviewed collection of scholarly articles on Connectivism. This special issue was edited by George Siemens (Athabasca University and Grainne Conole (Open University, UK).

Since 1998, Networked Learning Conference was held, devoted to research on networked learning, and has since been held biannually. The conference proceedings from all the conferences since 2002 are available via the conference web site.

Uses

Networked learning can be practised in both informal and formal educational settings. In formal settings the learning achieved through networked communication is formally facilitated, assessed and/or recognised by an educational organisation. In an informal setting, individuals maintain a learning network for their own interests, for learning "on-the-job", or for research purposes.

It has been suggested that networked learning offers educational institutions more functional efficiency, in that the curriculum can be more tightly managed centrally, or in the case of vocational learning, it can reduce costs to employers and tax payers. However, it is also argued that networked learning is too often considered within the presumption of institutionalised or educationalised learning, thereby omitting awareness of the benefits that networked learning has to informal or situated learning.

Models

MOOC

Success in a MOOC, by Neal Gillis and Dave Cormier

A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) engages networked learning methods within the typical structure of a course. The first such course so named was Connectivism and Connective Knowledge 2008, hosted by Stephen Downes and George Siemens. More like an online event, MOOCs invite open online participation around a schedule or agenda, facilitated by people with reputation or expertise in the topics, relying on successful formations of learning networks to assist people studying the topics.

Earlier examples of online courses using networked learning methods:

• Introduction to Open Education - 2007 course by David Wiley.
• Composing free and open education resources - Run in 2008 by the The School of Art Education, University of Art and Design Helsinki.
• Facilitating Online - 2008 course established by Leigh Blackall and Bronwyn Hegarty for Otago Polytechnic, and has since run in 2009, 2010, and 2011.
• Connectivism - 2008 course run by George Siemens and Stephen Downes.
• EC&I 831: Social Media & Open Education , 2008, 2009, 2010 By Alec Couros
• CCK09: Connectivism and Connective Knowledge - 2009 by George Siemens and Stephen Downes
• Digital Storytelling - 2010/2011 by Jim Groom, took the MOOC concepts into new dimensions with people creating celebratory media for the course, and the course itself breaking course like structure.

Open and Networked Research

Some researchers have used networked learning methods to collaborate and support each other's research. The Wikiversity page for Doctor of Philosophy is supporting a small group interested in pursuing a PhD title informally. They name their practice OpenPhD or Open and Networked PhD.

Studies

The NLC Programme

In England, the National College of School Leadership (NCSL) ran a program called the Networked Learning Community (NLC) programme. More than 134 schools networks (an average of ten schools per network) were involved from 2002 to 2006. An English study compared the grades of the NLC schools versus the national sample. It concluded that there was large variation in scholarly improvement and that the overall improvement was aligned with the national trend. The study interpreted this result as a caution to the claims of digital networked learning scholarly effectiveness.

To the study's own admission, there was no control group and that other factors, such as varying school socioeconomic status and after-school programs, could have influenced the quantitative results.

The yearly cost for resources in the NLC programme was about £50,000 (approximately US$95,000 in 2008) per school network. After the NLC programme ended in 2006, the school networks had to find other partnerships to continue. There might be school boards that would not be willing to financially invest in the initial implementation and eventual maintenance of a networked learning system.

Situated learning

Many have argued that using formal education as a setting for researching networked learning misses most if not all of the value propositionofn networked learning. Instead, Fox proposes situated learning and Actor-network theory as the better approach for research.

See also

• Actor-network theory
• Connectivism
• Autodidacticism
• Situated learning
• Personal learning environments
• The Wealth of Networks
• Social network
• Invisible College

External links

• Wikieducator entry for Networked Learning
• Networked Learning Conference Series
• National College for School Leadership - Networked Learning Communities (NLC) programme
• Networked Learning in Higher Education project by the Centre for Studies in Advanced Learning Technology
• Centre for the Study of Networked Learning and Knowledge Building
• Connectivism is a pedagogical view or learning theory (depending on who you listen to) on networked learning
• A slide show with audio

Books

• Blackall, L. (Ed.)(2006). The Future of Learning in a Networked World.
• Dirckinck-Holmfeld, L., Jones, C., and Lindström, B. (2009) Analysing Networked Learning Practices in Higher Education and Continuing Professional Development. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, BV. Preview available [3]
• Koper, R. (Ed.)(2009), Learning Network Services for Professional Development. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.
• Downes, S. (2007). Emerging technologies for learning.
• Goodyear, P. Banks, S. Hodgson, V. and McConnell, D. eds (2004) Advances in Research on Networked Learning. London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
• Steeples, C. and Jones, C. eds (2002) Networked Learning: Perspectives and Issues. London: Springer.