The Many Models of Online Education

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Pratt on August 1, 2008 at 9:40am

Hi Everyone! So exciting to be here with all of you!! I am just beginning our "official walk" towards online learning in our district here in Cave Creek, Arizona. I have been learning and growing with MoodleRooms, facilitating and becoming a MoodleRooms Certified Trainer. But in my district we have just dabbled. Yesterday, our technologist just passed the baton to me as he has set up the Moodle Server for us. I now have free reign to create the look and feel, set up the categories, begin the classes, etc. I am right now thinking about the best way to set things up.

Our ultimate plan is to move some of our classes to full online classes. But I feel like I can definitely start with Professional Development Classes. And that is how I will hook some of our educators.

Anyway, it is all so exciting to me!!!!!! :) Looking forward to our network!

Permalink Reply by Stony River on August 24, 2008 at 12:25am

HEUTAGOGY -

is often defined as self-determined learning - or the what, how, and when of any person's decision to learn. The dictionary definition derives from Heuristic - http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/heuristic - and the etymology of heuristic gives - http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=heuristic&searchmode... - these all widen the concept considerably along with the research engines of http://www.ask.com/web?q=Heutagogy&qsrc=0&o=0&l=dir&... and http://www.metacrawler.com/metacrawler/ws/results/Web/Heutagogy/1/4... and most recently http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=Heutagogy&btnG=Goog... - Wikipedia has yet to list this new term and concept.

HEUTAGOGY encapsulates and evolves from previous learning models and puts computer literacy, personal computers and the Internet to good use.

PEDAGOGY is the most Ancient teaching model. It is the knowledge transfer within a generation to its youth. (Amazingly children learn language on their own). This transfer occurs in all Cultures and may be seen in the concept of Encyclopaedia where what is achieved in a generation (cycle) is given to its children - where 'pedia ' is referring to education of youth or child rearing. Of course the class sizes of today far exceed any normal family size of the past (or present) - is there a teacher shortage looming?

ANDRAGOGY is taken to be the teaching of Adults, but is slightly sexist as literally it is the teaching of Male adults. This method was an obvious outcome due to the urgent needs of Instructional Design (ID) for the rapidly increasing technological advances during WW2, where for instance preparing bombs and dropping them from newly designed planes was a requirement. The need for adults to learn was realised.

To avoid a circular argument and respect not only the massive involvement of Women in Education and continual advances of Internet Technology, are we not all on a discovery voyage of Heuristic Learning? Who is not a student in this new Millennium? Are we not now all sharing knowledge as teachers and learners as required in cyberspace? Knowledge is now at our fingertips and other senses, regardless of age, gender, culture or abilities. Perhaps the greatest single item of the year 2000 was the acceptance of the word and concept of Internet, internationally. (The instigators of the greatest scam - Y2K - have yet to face a tribunal!)

Is Knowledge, or the Truth, always with its thesis and anti-thesis? Is Epistemology Evolving and unfolding as its boundaries approach Infinity? Is this the new E-Renaissance - a revival of Learning as it was in the Ancient first Academy of the Hellenic Renaissance of Philosophy where dialogues, discourses and categories were prolific; or the later Italian Renaissance, which gave birth to the modern era from the previous medieval, with its multitudes of new books, short stories, plays, poems and other published media. Is our species now developing into another of - Humans Internetus - with E-Learning, Blogs, Wikis, Skype, Digi-Cams and Twitterings? This new E-Renaissance may well have been started by Alan Turing, or was it Gottfried Leibnitz?. (I have yet to discover the reason for enormously increased nudity in these three times of Renaissance).

We have indeed arrived at a new peaceful place for Learning (our own home).
Heutagogy may describe it best until the next level for this Human instinct and craving for learning development is created and named, perhaps by Web 3.0? What do You think?

Permalink Reply by Beth Still on August 24, 2008 at 8:58am

The first time I ever heard the word heutagogy was at the Knowledge Bank online conference earlier this summer. When the person who used it defined it I immediately thought that it sounded a lot like constructivism.

In the United States it seems like the majority of classrooms are teacher-centered. Many teachers are determined to be the sage on the stage instead of the guide on the side. Until colleges place an emphasis on educating preservice teachers about how to use technology in their classrooms. How can teachers promote using what you call Humans Internetus when they have no idea how to create wikis, blogs, or make a call on Skype?

Part of the problem in the United States in NCLB. There is such a strong emphasis placed on standardized testing that many teachers feel they must control the flow of knowledge in the classroom. Most teachers would not dare let their students direct any of their learning. In the US, there is also a sense of urgency to "cover" all of the standards prior to the test. There is never any concern about students ever actually learning anything! All that matters is that they learn enough to pass the test!

Will teachers ever embrace methods that put their students front and center? Only time will tell.

Permalink Reply by Stony River on August 24, 2008 at 1:08pm

Dear Beth,

The Knowledge Bank Conference is found at http://knowledgebankconference2008.globalteacher.org.au/ - which I have investigated and strongly recommend for its recordings of the events. I noticed you and Cory there, in this very fast paced, perhaps overly-intellectual, and very large Elluminate conference in which a few points fell by the wayside - the concept of Heutagogy being one of them, hence my addition to this blog. Other significant issues were also easily neglected or brushed aside in the speed and excitement of this debate. Teaching or Learning of course never did take place in a minute, an hour or a day - it takes years to relate and is in a constant state of flux due to the perfecting or polishing process of continual improvement (CI) which is a highly collaborative benchmarking process.

What you have called teacher centred classrooms gave the medieval image of the priest and the pulpit where the congregation is forever still and silent; from where no doubt the early universities copied the lecturer and the lectern - an archaic hierarchical system (the pyramids are crumbling - flat all inclusive networks are now taking over this planet). Most Web 2.0 Tools are very simple to initiate and have very helpful support services - leave this task to the class - they need to learn how to select, set up and use these tools in forming their group wisdom. They are the managers, organisers and even the teachers of the future; they may even start a business and be friends for life.

In a lecture given by Prof Michael Wesch - http://umanitoba.ca/ist/production/streaming/podcast_wesch.html - and again I strongly recommend viewing (about an hour) - I picked up a quote (among much other learning):

Students (People) Learn -
what they care about
from people they care about
and who, they know care about them

Barbara Harrell Carson

This statement is as important to all teachers as the Hippocratic Oath is to all doctors.

Is this the difference between a good teacher and a not so good teacher given they have the same qualifications and teach the same subjects and levels?

Perhaps this is an invisible factor in teaching where the major factors are Content and Process. The content usually comes from a curriculum. The process is usually left to the teacher. Is this invisible factor blended within the process of delivery? Attitude usually has much to do with everything.

Kindly allow me to leap to a process being a Web 2.0 Tool. This tool of course lacks content and so is like an empty egg shell, the tabla rasa, or the Smart board without any power switched on. Elaborating on a previous addition to this blog - it is critical for teachers to know their students - their likes, dislikes, their families, cultures, dreams, needs and learning styles to name a few questions needing answers from them. Somewhere it has been said that people enjoy talking about themselves - so this vital quest is not difficult, yet so often ignored or neglected. Respect can only be attained by understanding - this is the both ways highway - also called sharing, caring or creating partnerships, relationships or alliances for every individual in the group or team with every other member of the group or class, including the teacher.

The first step is for any class to eliminate the barriers to learning and become friends - no excuses. Here the teacher may be the moderator in group policy making. The teacher can also be the mentor, the coach, the tutor but above all an accessible friend by being a motivator, encourager and unifier. Changing the seating of the class is called job rotation in the workplace. Without this initial effort in quality introductions the group can never succeed

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