Networked Learning

While tools such as Sakai offer convenient and isolated structures for providing networked learning opportunities, there are a number other of platforms and social networks beyond traditional course management  systems that can be meaningfully incorporated into online and hybrid course design. We’ll look at both individual assignments and full course redesign opportunities taking advantage of networked space, providing:

• The inspiration to build communication skills in public spaces. While the traditional essay as a pedagogical construct is still very informed by the age of print, new media writing and content production requires students and professionals to adapt to new structures and forms, including blogging, Twitter, YouTube and more. These spaces also bring a potential immediacy to a connection to an audience, and offer opportunities to address writing and communicating to a clearly defined potential reader beyond the constructs of the classroom.
• The reinforcement of digital literacy skills and mastery of a variety of platforms. Just as we as professionals benefit from understanding content management systems like WordPress and Joomla, our students need to be prepared to quickly adapt to new interfaces and networks as part of their future careers. We’ll examine a number of examples of student assignments requiring use of a variety of platforms, along with rubrics for assessing these skills across disciplines.
• New opportunities for playful and collaborative pedagogy. We’ll focus on the BuddyPress system, a social network built on top of WordPress, and its opportunities for extension without any programming knowledge required. These systems enable such constructs as gamification, team spaces for blogging and messaging, public-facing courses and more. We’ll look at examples of these ideas in action, from the experimental “Massively Open Online Courses” to small class-based systems for online and hybrid learning