This article is an attempt to address a possible gap in Connectivist thinking, and its expression in cMOOCs. It’s to do with the experience of technology novices, and unconfident learners in cMOOC environments. It comes from a phenomenon, and experience I identified in a recent MOOC I participated in and the experience is best described like this:
To learn in a cMOOC you need to connect.
To connect in a cMOOC you need to learn.
Via Peter B. Sloep
Central in the article's thesis is Alfred Bandura's notion of self-efficacy. This is not the place to discuss what self-efficacy entails, but suffice it to say that it refers to learner agency, to the ability of learners to take charge of their own learning. The kinds of skills that you need to be able to do so have sometimes been referred to as meta-cognitive. Elements of it are being sufficiently motivated and stay motivated, being able to plot your own learning route, being able to overcome set-backs. Another important aspect is having the frame of reference in place to make sense of what you learn. Keith Brennan argues that it is the task of educators to help learners cope with these kinds of situations. You can't make them learn, but you can certainly make it easier for them to learn. This you do, according to Brennan, by nurturing the sense of a competent self and he discusses various ways in which this can be done. Importantly, in Connectivist learning these mechanisms don't work or at least do not work satisfactorily.
Brennan's objection is to be taken seriously. A couple of years ago, I myself wondered about this issue, which I dubbed the paradox of instrucion. Brennan seems to conclude that you need teachers one way or the other. This is too hasty a conclusion to my taste. I have formulated my solution in two blogposts. In short, I believe that we need design principles to help learners in cMOOCs, to whom I refer as non-formal learning in networked learning environments (http://tiny.cc/vwbz0w). At the time I did not have a clear understanding of what those principles are, only that they are different than instructional design principles, which always assume the directing role of a teacher. However, meanwhile and thanks to hard work by several PhDs I do have the beginnings of an understanding. Peer support plays a key role, learners helping learners. However, it doesn't suffice to let them figure out themselves how to do that, nor does it do just to set up a forum as is done in many xMOOCs. In my view, the peer support should be sophisticated and enhanced by all kinds of technologies. This argument is elaborated in an article, with examples of such technologies: Sloep, P. B. (2014). Networked professional learning. In A. Littlejohn & A. Margaryan (Eds.), Technology-enhanced Professional Learning: Processes, Practices and Tools (97-108). London: Routledge.(@pbsloep)
following a MOOCs can get really hard!
Comparato lo que dice Keith Brennan
" Al igual que muchos educadores, yo soy un pragmático. Coqueteo descaradamente con toda teoría que me atrae. Soy ideológicamente promiscuo. Voy con lo que funciona y soy implacable en eliminar a lo que no funciona. Hago esto porque no existe una teoría de " talla única ". Debido a que no existe una "talla única " de estudiantes. Esto es así, debido a que los estudiantes, los participantes y los aprendices son la métrica final que mide cualquier teoría y la experiencia es el campo de pruebas de las teorías. La fe en una teoría, la monogamia ideológica, se interpone en el camino de la evidencia."
Recomiendo este post del portal Hybrid Pedagogy de Keith Brenann sobre las cosas que hay que considerar para proteger, asegurar y promover la motivación y la autoconfianza de los estudiantes en aulas y cursos. Vale para cualquier entorno de aprendizaje que se quiera considerar.