A new paper on Emergent Learning in IRRODL

The next issue of IRRODL (International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol 13, No 4, 2012) has been published. This issue includes a paper written by Roy Williams, Simone Gumtau and me –  Footprints of Emergence.

In this paper we continue to explore the ideas around emergent learning which we first discussed in a paper published (also in IRRODL) in 2011 – Emergent Learning and Learning Ecologies in Web 2.0

In that paper we focused on developing our understanding of emergent and prescribed learning in relation to ways of working on the Web.

In the Footprints paper just published, we have explored how we might recognise a curriculum that promotes emergent or prescribed learning and suggested a framework for doing this. We are hoping that through this work we will be able to work collaboratively with others to examine a variety of curricula and learning environments (from curricula in more formal settings such as schools and Higher Education, to more informal settings such as MOOCs), and so further develop our understanding of the factors that lead to different degrees of emergent or prescribed learning.

In addition, we are beginning to see possible links between these ideas and those we have developed in a second paper – Synaesthesia and Embodied Learning which we have submitted to the Leonardo Journal

We have already presented some of the ideas associated with the Footprints framework at a conference at Stirling University in June of this year. (See also blog post – Learn by unlearning; see by unseeing)

Further presentations related to the paper will be to:

• CPsquare community –  – in the week of November 19^th as one of their Research and Development series of events. For this we hope to use the Footprints framework to discuss learning in CPsquare  with community members.

• Lancaster University on Tuesday 12^th February 2012 for their CPD (continuing professional development ) series

• An Abstract has been submitted to the SEAD Working Group on White Papers –   and we are currently in the process of writing the paper for submission on   November 15^th  
  (see also blog post –  SEAD: Describing Changing Curricula)

•  We are also in the process of seeking funding to develop the  Footprints framework further.

What I particularly like about this work (apart from the pleasure of working with Roy and Simone) is that it is continually in progress. It has not been a ‘one off’. In fact  whilst the publication process has actually been quite fast (about 6 months), it has felt slow, since out conversations around this work have been ongoing and our thinking is continually developing and evolving.

So it’s great to see the paper published.

This looks to be an interesting issue of IRRODL with contributions from some authors I recognise and follow – so I am looking forward to reading the papers.

IRRODL – A new edition has been published

The first edition of IRRODL for 2012 is now out, and one of the 15 articles is the one I spent a lot of last year working on with Carmen Tschofen

Tschofen, C. & Mackness, J. (2011) Connectivism and Dimensions of Individual Experience. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl

Having both been participants of the first MOOC (CCK08), we have observed and reflected on developments over the past four years. This paper is a result of those observations, discussions, reflections – namely around our perceptions of

a growing tension between the elements of connectivity believed to be necessary for effective learning and the variety of individual perspectives both revealed and concealed during interactions with these elements.

The Research Process

We didn’t start with the intention of writing a paper and our original discussions, which also included Matthias Melcher, were all related to learner autonomy. In fact I signed up for CCK11 with the specific intention of focusing on gaining a better understanding of the meaning of learner autonomy and set up a wiki to gather my thoughts and then invited Matthias and Carmen to join me. Discussions were deep and intense, often highly convoluted and we produced pages and pages of wiki script, so much so that ultimately when we did decide to write a paper, it was difficult to see the wood for the trees.

Our first submission to IRRODL was not accepted. It wasn’t rejected as such – we were told that it wouldn’t fit with the special issue we submitted it for (and to be honest we had tried to ‘make it fit’) and were invited to rewrite it and resubmit. But by this time the conversations in the blogosphere had moved on and so had our thinking, so we ended up submitting a completely new paper, although it does still include reference to learner autonomy.

The Peer Review Process

Our paper was reviewed by three people – I assume blind reviewed.   The outcome was a bit bizarre. Reviewer A’s feedback included many ‘Excellents’ and ‘Satisfactorys’, Reviewer B thought the paper ‘Unsatisfactory’ and needing major rewriting and gave us very comprehensive feedback as to why. Reviewer C’s feedback included many ‘Satisfactorys’ . We didn’t receive any guidance from the Editor as to which Reviewer to believe.  So we didn’t do a major rewrite :-), but we did make quite a number of more manageable changes.

Reviewer B strongly objected to our use of blog posts as sources of information, and I have to say that we rather strongly objected to his/her objection.  There were at least two reasons why we thought reference to blog posts was legitimate for this paper.

First, most of the conversations about connectivism and MOOCs happen in blogs – published research is as yet quite limited. We do not believe, as Reviewer B appears to, that all blog posts are inferior to published journal articles, nor that a writer can only be quoted from a peer-reviewed publication.

Second, we were quite often writing our paper in response to the changing conversations that were happening in the blogosphere at the time. In fact we were worried that our paper was going to be out of date before it was even published, and even on the very final submission added a last reference, which we had just come across.

Finally (and very pertinent to us) is the fact that neither of us works for an academic institution, nor do we live within easy access of a university library. By force of circumstance, the Web is our main source of information, papers, articles etc. and there is no convenient catalogue to tell you where to look. I think, in the years to come, there will be more and more people like me who start doing research as self-employed people, or post retirement and who will be looking to the Web for their sources of information.

Frustrations

• We wanted to publish the paper in its submission form (i.e. before peer review) on our blogs. We could see that some MOOC participants were discussing the very issues we were writing about and it would have been great to discuss them with a wider group – but despite three requests to IRRODL for permission to do this, we didn’t receive a response to our request. Even a ‘No’ would have been better than nothing. As it was, we didn’t know whether posting to our blogs would count as pre-publication and therefore jeopardize our chances of having the paper accepted – so we didn’t. Perhaps we should have been braver!

• Despite the fact that IRRODL’s turn around time is fast compared to other journals, it still feels slow in terms of the potential for discussion and how fast everything moves on the Web.  We submitted the paper in October, which is not that long ago in terms of actual days, but it is in terms of my thinking. I doubt that IRRODL could have published any quicker, so I’m not sure how this mismatch between author and publisher could be resolved.  One of our purposes in writing the paper was to generate discussion, but things have moved on.

The pleasures

A while back I wrote a post with the title Pas de Deux Online Partnerships ; I feel this is exactly what happens for me when working on these papers. I get to work with people who can raise my thinking and understanding to levels that I would not be able to reach alone. The discussions we have on the wiki are highly stimulating and ‘out of the glare’ of public blogs, we can really dig deep, reflect, get to know each other and challenge each other.

We have discussed whether we need to publish. Could we just publish on our blogs and leave it at that? Matthias and I tried this (See https://jennymackness.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/the-riddle-of-online-resonance/), and I now feel that our work is more likely to be read if it is published in a journal, especially an open journal. I also feel that after spending almost a year intensely working, reading, thinking, discussing, disagreeing, challenging, compromising and finally agreeing, it feels right to publish and celebrate ‘the fruits of our labour.

A big thank you Carmen – and also thanks to Matthias for your valuable contributions in the early stages.

IRRODL Special Issue: Emergent Learning, Connections, Design for Learning

A special issue of IRRODL – The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning -has just been published.

Vol 12, No 7 (2011): Special Issue – Emergent Learning, Connections, Design for Learning

This is a refereed open e-journal which you can access here: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/index

It is great to see recognised names amongst the contributing authors and particularly of Sui Fai John Mak – who I have worked with on research in the past – http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1041

Congratulations John, Rita and Helene. I’m looking forward to reading your paper and all the others; emergent learning is a topic that really interests me.

IRRODL special issue on connectivism

Our paper…….

Emergent Learning and Learning Ecologies in Web 2.0

Roy Williams, Regina Karousou, Jenny Mackness

…. has finally been published in the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. We ran a webinar about this paper in February (with permission of IRRODL) in the ELESIG community (see https://jennymackness.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/emergent-learning-webinar-recording/) and have been waiting for the paper to be published ever since.

It is great to see familiar names of other authors in the issue of the journal and I’m looking forward to reading their papers and gaining further insights into connectivism.

I’m also hoping that we will receive feedback on our paper which was very enjoyable to work on – thanks to Roy and Regina 🙂

Emergent Learning Webinar

Please note that this webinar will now start half an hour earlier at 12.30 pm GMT

On Tuesday 15th February (1.00 pm – 2.30 pm GMT) I will be joining Roy Williams and Regina Karousou to run a lunchtime webinar for the ELESIG community about our paper ‘Emergent Learning and Learning Ecologies in Web 2.0’ which is due to be published in the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning online journal within the next month or so.

The paper will be included in a special issue on connectivism.

Yesterday Roy, Regina and I had a Skype call to plan the webinar. In our paper we have explored ‘the nature of emergence and emergent learning, and the conditions that enable emergent, self-organised learning to occur and to flourish’. It was therefore interesting to consider what a webinar that would encourage emergent learning might look like. We are hoping that the webinar will be very interactive and also that participants will feel that they have the opportunity to follow their own lines of enquiry. It is actually quite hard to plan for both structure and openness 🙂 This is one of the problems that we discussed in our paper.

Our planning meeting yesterday brought home even more strongly that a commitment to encouraging emergent learning will necessarily impact on curriculum design. There is still plenty to think about in relation to emergent learning and we are hoping that between us at the webinar we can consider alternative perspectives and dig a bit deeper into the meaning of emergent learning.

If this interests you, do join us on Feb 15th.