task1

Welcome to week 4 of #Change11.

The aim of this week is to introduce collective learning. What is collective learning? Does it signal a new learning paradigm? Are we already engaging in collective learning or is it too complex or unstructured to be useful for leaning? During the week we will explore what is ‘the individual’ what is ‘the collective’ and examine how technology helps us redefine relationships between the two.

Thanks to those of you who filled in the online poll to help plan the week. Each day we’ll think about a different aspect of connected learning through a series of tasks. We will think about some of the issues surrounding collective learning, and hope to draw on your views, as course participants, to enhance our understanding through collective learning.

We will start by collating examples of collective learning (task 1). Then we’ll identify and discuss opportunities and challenges of collective learning, including:

• How learners navigate and make sense of the collective knowledge while they are learning. What are their sensemaking processes? What factors bind individuals and knowledge fragments together? Is the collective knowledge space too large and unstructured for learners to make use of the collective knowledge space? What are the knowledge resources within an open participatory learning ecosystem? Do learners have the competencies (and mindsets!) to make sense of it? (task 2);

• How people use collective knowledge to learn. We’ll focus on how knowledge workers go about their own professional learning in the workplace and we’ll start by thinking about how you learn. We’ll consider are people prepared to self-regulate their own learning? Do they have the confidence and mindsets to structure their own learning? (task 3);

• We will then consider the practices and literacies learners require for collective learning. How do they interact with literacies to structure these for learning? (task 4);

• Finally we will examine toolsets needed for collective learning, the tools currently available and analyse the gap between these (task 5)

Tasks will be sent out every day via the Daily and you can choose to join in these tasks through your tweets, blogposts, etc. – by using #change11 and #collective.

There will be a live session at 17.00 (UK time) on Tuesday and a live plenary at 17.00 (UK time) on Friday when we’ll highlight trends and issues arising during the week. Some of my research collaborators will be joining in – here’s our base in the Caledonian Academy at Glasgow Caledonan University in the UK.

So, there will be lots of opportunity throughout the week to share and build ideas around collective learning together. In a sense we are building ideas through being immersed in a collective learning experience.

The week 4 position paper sets out the background as to why collective learning has currency. I hope you will read and critique it. We’ve recorded discussions of some of the key concepts we will consider this week http://littlebylittlejohn.com/interviews/. There’s also a presentation of some of the ideas around collective learning http://littlebylittlejohn.com/connected-knowledge-collective-learning/

I’m looking forward to exploring, sharing and developing ideas with you.

Let’s start by sharing some examples of collective learning.

The idea of ’collective learning’ is not new – it has been widely used in business and organisational learning. But social media affords new possibilities for collective learning, so its timely to reconsider why and how each individual learner should and could capitalise on the collective.

‘Collective learning’ is learning through sourcing, using and making sense of the collective knowledge – the knowledge stored in people, resources, computers, networks etc. While carrying out collective learning, learners draw from and, at the same time, contributes to collective knowledge. Collective learning differs in some ways from different from ‘collaborative learning’ in that people can learn collaboratively in different configurations (such as groups, networks, etc) or can learn through direct interaction with ‘the collective’.

According to Capello, a key difference between definitions of ’learning’ and ‘collective learning’ is the way we think about the “social” and how the “milieu” may be interpreted as a result of a cooperative behaviour of local agents (ie learners). If you’re interested in these ideas you can read Capello’s paper at http://www-sre.wu-wien.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa98/papers/359.pdf)

Task 1 – examples of collective learning

Our starting point is to share some examples of collective learning. With a little help from my friends (Anoush Margaryan, Colin Milligan, Lou McGill) I have put together some examples of Collective Learning. We want to add examples you know of.

Use your blog or twitter (or any other tool) to let me know about examples of collective learning (for learning and for knowledge creation) which you have encountered or participated in. Use the tags #change11 and #collective to share your ideas.

Further reading:

Dron, J., & Anderson, T. (2009). How the Crowd Can Teach. Handbook of Research on Social Software and Developing OntologiesLondonIGI Global(Vol. Handbook o, pp. 1-17). IGI Global. Retrieved from http://www.igi-global.com/viewtitlesample.aspx?id=48657