As part of updating the wiki on agile learning, I’ve been reading up on Emergent Learning. As long ago as 2004, Michael Feldstein was arguing that “Emergent Learning” is an oxymoron. In brief, his argument was that the term was being used very loosely to describe any circumstance where learning emerges as a by-product of […]
Teaching
Unplugged! The Agile Learning newspaper
Here are the copies of the Agile Learning newspaper, of which I took delivery this afternoon. You can read the full text at the foot of this post, after the links which augment the physical version of the newsletter, including the unabridged versions of the interviews. If you’d like to keep in touch and find […]
Tony Hall on teaching by not teaching
This is one of a series of interviews I’m doing on the theme of Agile Learning. See also interviews on agile learning and agile technology, hands-on alternatives to factory learning, learner-generated contexts, home schooling, peer-to-peer learning in the enterprise and creating the School of Everything. Tony Hall takes photographs and makes photomovies. At the same […]
Progressive austerity and self-organised learning
A month or so ago, my friend Guy, whose children are educated at home, treated me to one his occasional rants. “People know there’s an Arms Lobby,” he said, “so they’re very wary about calls for more spending on Defence and question whose interests these serve. But there’s an Education Lobby too, and it always […]
Looking for examples of social networking for professional development
I’m copying here something I’ve just added to the OpenRSA blog, relating to some work I’m doing in collaboration with Seb Schmoller: I’m looking for examples of organisations (or looser affiliations of individuals) who are using social software for professional development. Does anyone have any suggestions that I could follow up? By social software I […]
Games and learning design
Like many people, I often accumulate knowledge by seizing on ‘facts’ that reinforce my intuitions and prejudices. So, given my feelings about use of games in e-learning, my radar jumped on the ESRC press release that says, “young people’s experience of playing games (76% at least weekly in 2003) had a negative effect when they […]
Evaluation of Learning Activity Management Systems
I’ve finally finished the rigorous evaluation report of Learning Activity Management Systems (LAMS). Seb Schmoller has an overview of the report and commentary on the small number of actual LAMS implementation cases. One strand of the report jumped out at me. It observes that “it is less easy to adapt [a] lesson ‘on the fly’ […]
Teaching as performance
Doug Brent has written an interesting paper in last month’s First Monday on how historical trends are being played out in online education. He draws a distinction between “knowledge [or, more strictly, teaching] as performance and knowledge as thing” (emphasis in the original). Loosely speaking you could map this onto my process-versus-product distinction in e-learning. […]
Update on Learning Activity Management Systems
Seb Schmoller’s fortnightly mailing provides the latest news on Learning Activity Management Systems (LAMS), which I touched on last year. The LAMS concept, developed in Australia, now has a web site, from where you view a four-minute Flash demonstration of LAMS in action and download the open source LAMS software. Seb has more details on […]
Implementing the BS 8426 British Standard for supporting online learners
The seminar on ‘Supporting e-learners’, at which Seb Schmoller and I were due to present, didn’t happen in January and we’ve been told recently that it’s postponed indefinitely. We had already prepared a eight-page handout for our presentation [PDF, 156KB], which we’ve been given permission to publish.