Open And Social Technologies For Networked Learning

This volume constitutes the refereed post-proceedings of the IFIP WG 3.4 International Conference on Open and Social Technologies for Networked Learning, OST 2012, held in Tallinn, Estonia, in July/August 2012. The 16 full papers presented together with 3 short papers and 5 doctoral student papers were thoroughly reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers cover a wide range of topics such as mobile learning, social networks, analytics and recommendations, workplace learning, learning analytics in higher education, collaborative learning in higher education, and managing open and social education.

The Design, Experience and Practice of Networked Learning Edited by: Vivien Hodgson, Maarten de Laat, David McConnell and Thomas Ryberg This book brings together a wealth of new research that opens up the meaning of connectivity as embodied and promised in the term ‘networked learning’. Chapters explore how contexts, groups and environments can be connected rather than just learners; how messy, unexpected and emergent connections can be made rather than structured and predefined ones; and how technology connects us to learning and each other, but also shapes our identity. These exciting new perspectives ask us to look again at what we are connecting and to revel in new and emergent possibilities arising from the interplay of social actors, contexts, technologies, and learning. Caroline Haythornthwaite, University of British Columbia Despite creating fundamentally new educational economics and greatly increasing access - teaching and learning in networks is a tricky business. These chapters illuminate the complex interactions amongst tools, pedagogy, educational institutions and personal net presences – helping us design and redesign our own networks. In the process, they take (or extract) network theory from the practice of real teaching and learning contexts, making this collection an important contribution to Networked Learning. Terry Anderson, Athabasca University What kinds of learning can social networking platforms really enable? Digging well beneath the hype, this book provides a timely, incisive analysis of why and how learning emerges (or fails to) in networked spaces. The editors do a fine job in guiding the reader through the rich array of theories and methods for tackling this question, and the diverse contexts in which networked learning is now being studied. This is a book for reflective practitioners as well as academics: the book's close attention to the political, pedagogical and organisational complexity of effective practice, and the lived experience of educators and learners, helps explain why networked learning has such disruptive potential — but equally, why it draws resistance from the establishment. Simon Buckingham Shum, The Open University The networked learning conference, a biannual institution since 1998, celebrates its 14th year in this volume. Here a range of studies, reflecting networked learning experiments across Europe and other global contexts , show important shifts away from a conservative tradition of Œe-learning1 research and unpeel dilemmas of promoting learning as an elusive practice in virtual environments. The authors point towards important futures in online learning research, where notions of knowledge, connectivity and Œcommunity1 become increasingly elastic, and engagements slide across material and virtual domains in new practices whose emergence is increasingly difficult to apprehend. “p>Tara Fenwick – University of Stirling. The chapters in this volume explore new and innovative ways of thinking about the nature of networked learning and its pedagogical values and beliefs. They pose a challenge to us to reflect on what we thought networked learning was 15 year ago, where it is today and where it is likely to be headed. Each chapter brings a particular perspective to the themes of design, experience and practice of networked learning, the chosen focus of the book. The chapters in the book embrace a wide field of educational areas including those of higher education, informal learning, work-based learning, continuing professional development, academic staff development, and management learning. The Design, Experience and Practice of Networked Learning will prove indispensable reading for researchers, teachers, consultants, and instructional designers in higher and continuing education; for those involved in staff and educational development, and for those studying post graduate qualifications in learning and teaching. This, the second volume in the Springer Book Series on Researching Networked Learning, is based on a selection of papers presented at the 2012 Networked Learning Conference held in Maastricht, The Netherlands.

This book posits the idea that networked learning is the one new paradigm in learning theory that has resulted from the introduction of digital and networked technologies. It sets out, in a single volume, a critical review of the main ideas and then articulates the case for adopting a networked learning perspective in a variety of educational settings. This book fills a gap in the literature on networked learning. Although there are several edited volumes in the field there is no other monograph makes the academic case and provides the academic context for networked learning. This volume accomplishes three main goals. First, it assists researchers and practitioners in acquainting themselves with the field. Second, it provides resources for reference and guidance to those not well acquainted with the field. Finally and most powerfully, it also allows for the consolidation of a field that is truly multidisciplinary in a way that maintains coherence and consistency.

This ambitious multidisciplinary volume assembles diverse critical-theory approaches to the current and future states of networked learning. Expert contributors expand upon the existing literature by analyzing the ethical aspects of networked learning and the ongoing need for more open, inclusive, and socially engaged educational practice. Chapters explore in depth evolving concepts of real and virtual, the processes of learning in, against, and beyond the internet, and the role of critical pedagogy in improving social conditions. In all, coverage is both realistic and positive about the potential of digital technologies in higher education as well as social and academic challenges on the horizon. Included among the topics: Counting on use of technology to enhance learning. Decentralized networked learning through online pre-publication. The reality of the online teacher. Moving from urban to virtual spaces and back. The project of a virtual emancipatory pedagogy. Using information technologies in the service of humanity. It is no longer a question of "Can technology enhance learning" it's a given that it does. Critical Learning in Digital Networks offers education researchers, teacher educators, instructional technologists, and instructional designers tools and methods for strengthening this increasingly vital interconnection.

Based on a selection of the most relevant and high quality research papers from the 2010 Networked Learning Conference, this book is an indispensible resource for all researchers, instructional designers, program managers, and learning technologists interested in the area of Technology Enhanced Learning. The book was an important catalyst for the Springer “Research in Networked Learning” Book Series edited by Vivien Hodgson and David McConnell. Details of the “Research in Networked Learning” Book Series and current titles can be found at http://www.springer.com/series/11810 This volume provides information on current trends and advances in research on networked learning, technology enhanced learning, and e-learning. Specifically, it provides cutting edge information in the areas of: Designing and Facilitating Learning in a Networked World Methodologies for Research in Networked Learning Learning in Social Networks Embedding Networked Learning in Public and Private Organizations Problem based Networked Learning Globalization and Multiculturalism in Networked Learning Networked Learning and International Development Participation and Alienation in Networked Learning

Here, the authors' unique focus is on the key issues of networked learning. These include: policy issues, the costs of networked learning, staff development issues, and the student experience. With contributions from authors based in Europe and the US and Australia, it offers a global perspective which is designed to inform professional practice and its administration. It will be essential reading for practitioners and researchers in higher education and learning technology and will be of interest to policy-makers and managers in HE academic administration. It will also be relevant to learning technologists, support staff, as well as students and researchers in education and social science.