Comunità di apprendimento?

Ostwald (1996) defined a community of practice as
“A group of practitioners involved in a common activity, albeit performing different
roles. Essential characteristics of communities of practice are: 1) they are not defined by
organizational mandate (e.g., the “org chart”), but rather by the ways people actually
work together, 2) they involve many different roles, as opposed to a flat structure, and 3)
they experience an ongoing flux of community members, who enter the community from
the periphery and gain status as knowledgeable members through participation in the
community of practice.”
Koohang & Harman
541
Members of a community of practice have 1) the freedom to participate, 2) the freedom to join or
to leave the group, and 3) they have an interest in the creation or sharing of knowledge (Baily &
Hendrickson, 2004; Davenport & Prusak, 1998)

MindMeister (2)

Mappa mentale su possibili attività didattiche collaborative online: 

MindMeister

MindMeister è un altro strumento per creare mappe mentali online. Specifico mentali e non concettuali, in quanto rispetto a mappio.com, lo strumento permette di partire da un concetto centrale, da cui si irraggiano i concetti e sottoconcetti. Quindi è meno basato sullo sviluppo di un ragionamento, e più sull’imediatezza, anche iconica, delle mappe mentali.
Questo è apparentemente un limite.
Rispetto a mappio.com, però MindMeister ha vari pregi:
a. intanto il nome echeggia il tedesco (scusate se difendo la mia materia), Meister ricorda Wilhelm Meister di Goethe….
b. le mappe create si possono condividere con altre persone invitandole come visitatori o come collaboratori, come si fa in googledocs
c. la mappa create permette, tramite tre semplici iconcine che si trovano in fondo alla barra laterale sulla destra, di ravanare (sì RAVANARE) in google, wikipedia o delicious partendo dal concetto centrale della mappa…. WUNDERBAR!
d. la mappa inserita in un blog risulta scalabile in dimensione dal blog stesso…
insomma, MindMeister mi piace.
Ecco due esempi di mappe sviluppate in poco tempo (5 minuti l’una)
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Opened, week 7

Preamble: (skip it if you don’t have much time or don’t want to read something not closely related to the course)

Well, a long time ago (three years ago more or less) I decided to jump in the great adventure of technologies for didactic purposes, thus I begun to search the internet and more to find out the instruments (yeah, instruments) that could help me in making my teaching methods improve in quality considering the main aim: to make lessons and school projects where students are more effectively involved, where they really create – where they do instead of only listening and repeating (in whatever way you may mean this).

Thus I decided to buy some server & database space paying it by myself.
I considered it a sort of professional engagement and development.
What I thought, and still think, is that whatever the “free” or “open” platform is, it might always happen that, some day, sooner or later, it won’t be anymore totally free, that the owners’ might charge me with some costs. Or, and this would be even worse, that the platform is considered as no more useful by the owner, and closed.
Imagine all the problems with the file/data transfer, and all the consequences…

The course, the questions:

Then, a lot after the preamble, came the course on openeducation and the OER and OCW and so on…
And then, week 7, the questions, the problems…
Well, I acknowledge that the first reaction was “yet another week of technicalities” about copy-right-left-something else.
So far so good, I begun to read and view – I also added some videos in italian language to the syllabus, so to help the italians’ group… and myself.
But couldn’t yet grasp the problem behind the questions given for the week.
Now, thanks to the rss feeder, I found that someone else (STIAN:
http://reganmian.net/blog/2007/10/08/opened-week-7/) had already “done the homeworks”.
His article was really interesting to me, helped me to re-read some passages. Peculiarly I focussed my attention

“As far as I understand, the reason to use CC NC is not primarily to prevent people from making money off material, but rather to avoid that open material is “re-appropriated” by commercial entities. In this case, I believe SA does provide sufficient “protection” by making sure that all “value added” is returned to the community.”

My dog and I
After all, I went out with my dog for a walk in the countryside (you know Tuscany is gorgeous in this season…).
Walking along a river, we arrived at a point where another small one departed, thus I decided to follow it, my dog preceding me.
We were in the full of a wonderful country-field, in the coming sunset, walking all quiet and away from computers, ©, CC and so on…
Then, in the distance, I saw that the path was leading directly into one house’s property. My dog and I decided to go on, and after a few meters we were in the middle of a private backyard, which wasn’t divided from the countryside from… NOTHING.
No signs that we were entering a private backyard, except for some human voices and an old garage.
I said “hello” to the men in the garage and went straight on to the opposite side of the property, exiting it.

The trespassing
While my dog and I were trespassing the chain at the opposite side and gained a public road, I wondered:
– Well, they would have been in their full rights, they could have told me to go back, or even… shot me in the worst case.
But they let me go through and beyond.
After all, I didn’t diminish their property by passing by.
And I could enjoy my walk in the warm sunset.

CC, SA, BY, bye bye…
I don’t have a clear answer for the questions we have been given this week.
Is this license maybe an answer? : “>http://learn.creativecommons.org/

My perception
The site I talked about in the preamble was based on moodle, which is open source. What’s better than open source?
But even open source can be used as closed software.
Digging in the page of moodle sites, I tried to access as many as possible in order to see what other people (mainly teachers) are doing with their pupils through moodle.
Well, what’s the result? The very most part of sites are “public” in the homepage, but when you try to access a single course, you are required a subscription (usual and maybe correct) and even a password, or you’re not allowed not even to see the material and lessons and so on.
I can understand that a company trying to make money can need to protect some courses – after all they’re living or trying to from it.
But a school? Or a college? To me, it sounds more or like if during my walk with the dog, the men had told us “ok, you can see the path but you need to tell us the password to go through… or go simply back your way home”.

see also the discussion about the topic in LTEver

oltre l’elearning: prima, decisamente prima….

Oltre l’elearning (era il nome del provocatorio, a ragione, blog di Gianni Marconato) mi ha spinto a girare nella rete cercando confronti e stimoli utili per la base della mia professione. Quello che ho trovato oggi (il nesso causale non è diretto, perchè ci sono arrivato dopo mesi di girovagazioni e quindi molto indirettamente) è un articolo di Ewan Mcintosh, che seguo da diverse settimane, ma oggi pubblica un suo riassunto di una conferenza tenuta via skype con docenti da diverse parti del mondo.
Ciò che mi colpisce, e che approfondirò, è la considerazione sui saperi (sarà il termine giusto?) che secondo lui/loro occorrono prima di mettersi a utilizzare, o anche solo discettare, di wiki, blog, podcasting eccetera (prima di usare il web 2.0.
Trovo (non nuovi) ma decisamente interessanti (non riesco a trovare un altro aggettivo mannaggia) i concetti che riprende in questa parte dell’articolo:

It’s easy to assume that all teachers have an equal understanding of educational jargon; we don’t. Blogs, wikis and podcasts might be unsavoury vocabulary for many educators, used as a way to escape having to learn new skills. What about assessment for learning, assessment as learning, inquiry skills, rich tasks, cooperative learning… For many educators these still remain meaningless jargon, but arguably are even more worthy of attention than blogs, wikis and podcasts. At least with the former, the latter begin to make sense.

e la triste considerazione che per gli educatori questi concetti rimangono un gergo senza senso….
mi riprometto di leggere a fondo i link indicati da Ewan, e di tradurre in italiano l’articolo per chi mastica poco l’inglese.

http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2007/10/woman-of-web-20.html

Opened week 6 through a mindmap

(made with mappio.com)

Opened week 6

Understanding the importance and value of the public domain,
1. how much (what percentage) of this value would you estimate is realized when works are licensed with a Creative Commons or GFDL license?
2. To what degree would the open educational resources movement (and therefore the world) be additionally benefited if OERs were simply placed in the public domain? Please explain.

Well, I tried to understand the real reason behind that precise “what percentage”, as I first read the questions and was reading the papers and something more around this week’s topic.

The focus is clearly on the concept of public domain, and it results somehow limited by the CC license and GFDL license.
At the extremities is the © concept, which is opposite of public domain.
That’s the way I feel it after reading this week.
As much as I’ve read about CC and GFDL, I am tempted to say that if the public domain is 100% without ©, and © is 0% public domain, CC is in some degree (depending on the author’s decision) under 50% public domain or, better defined, over 60% ©ed (copyrighted); GFDL is more or less over the edge of 50% public domain, to some extent being it “free”.
An example of it wikipedia itself, which is based upon the GFDL license.
When I try to think about the implications related to question #2, I have different reaction.
a. My first instinct-driven answer is “totally!!!”. I mean: open resources for education, withour any constrain, without any problem or concern like “am I violating anyone’s copyright?”…
b. My second answer is to take the definition of public domain: “Public domain comprises the body of knowledge and innovation (especially creative works such as writing, art, music, and inventions) in relation to which no person or other legal entity can establish or maintain proprietary interests within a particular legal jurisdiction”
and “In contrast to copyright is “public domain.” A work in the public domain is one that can be freely used by anyone for any purpose.”
Well. I find that many “open courses” are not so that publicly at disposal, so open and accessible.
I try to explain what I think with a short story: it was a few years ago, I went to Washington DC and visited the National Museum: it was easy, you go in, you see what you want, and you go out.
No ticket (no cost) no inspection (no password) free and uncontrolled going around.
How many “open sources repositories” or similar (like lms/cms managed courses) are really in the public domain?
Too many sites (school sites, e.g.) are “open” at the surface, I mean public at first glance, and then you are required to get a password, for which you need an email address, get an answer, reply through a specific link…
c. my 3rd answer is: the OER movement would greatly benefit from OER 100% in the public domain, but it’s too far now to be realized.

libro 2.0

da una discussione su moodle.org riporto un mio intervento:

credo che le domanda sollevate da Adriano siano terribilmente interessanti.
per la mia esperienza, come docente di scuola media, trovo che strumenti (sottolineo il concetto) come moodle, o altri lms, siano ancora, e a lungo lo saranno, la giusta coniugazione per supportare e rendere giustizia a un insegnamento che sia aperto, da un lato, e che dia garanzie ai genitori, da un altro.
può darsi che questa sia soltanto una mia fisima, ma nella prassi concreta vedo che i genitori ancora non sono così aperti al vasto mondo di internet, forse a ragione, per i molti timori che a livello pubblico può suscitare.
l’idea che il loro bambino o la loro fanciulla svolga delle attività in un ambiente “protetto” in quanto gestito dal docente, li rassicura e non poco.
questo aspetto va sempre considerato, non si può fare apologia del “web 2.0″.
altro discorso credo vada dispiegato per studenti di età maggiore, per non parlare poi di universitari o adulti.
gli strumenti vanno usati commisurandoli alle necessità di chi ne fruisce.

un altro aspetto che secondo me viene sempre valutato poco anche da noi docenti, per quanto appassionati di lsm cms web 2.0 ecc, è che la competizione non corre fra sistemi di apprendimento (moodle atutor docebo ecc) ma fra tutto l’internet e il libro di testo.
in fondo, il libro di testo rimane ancora per moltissimi (docenti, e studenti) lo strumento di studio più sicuro, solido, stabile, te lo puoi portare in spiaggia o ai giardini, non si scarica mai la batteria, lo puoi sottolineare, ci puoi fare sopra i cuoricini con le iniziali di chi ti flirta… sono aspetti da non dimenticare, perchè sono MATERIALI e terribilmente concreti.
Il libro di testo lo puoi anche odiare e, a fine corso di studi, bruciarlo in un rogo come rito liberatorio (confessione di ex alunni). Puoi bruciare un blog in un rito liberatorio?

infine una mia considerazione molto poco ortodossa: credo che i lms (come moodle, che conosco bene, ma penso anche gli altri) sembrino mostrare la corda perchè li usiamo come libri di testo e come lezioni tradizionali, mascherate da altro.
mi spiego: se imposto su moodle un corso di seconda media di tedesco, con diapositive, lezioni, spiegazioni, quiz ecc, cosa ho fatto di diverso rispetto a una lezione tradizionale? ben poco, se non che gli alunni possono ripetersi le lezioni fino a che ne hanno voglia.

ma se invece comincio a dare agli alunni il ruolo di docente nei corsi, in modo che loro possano creare le lezioni, i quiz, i sondaggi ecc?

non è lo strumento che fa la differenza, è l’uso che se ne fa!!!!
anche un coltello da cucina può diventare un’ottima arma del delitto… siamo noi i Grissom della situazione che dobbiamo ricostruire l’adeguata scena del crimine!!!

OpenEd, week 5, question 3

In the context of open education projects, what does “quality” mean?

Quality is not only measurable through quantity: not through the quantity of objects, or modules, or videos, or courses given/offered by an institution or internet platform (whatever you may mean under this definition).
I tried to access the different sites “watching” at them from two different points of view
a) the one of a casual websurfer, without big experience with e-learning, seeking for some personal improvement
b) the one of a teacher who is usually digging the net for ideas and professional self-improvement.
At the end of my Doppelgänger path, I found that a course (or a platform, or a place) where I can’t get in touch with other persons, collegues, peers, in order to get answers to my questions or to help others get their answers, isn’t of big quality to me.
I think that the presented sites differ in their structure, going from a bottom social level to a top social level, as I saw them some don’t even offer fora or social exchange instruments; but even those (like connections or http://openlearn.open.ac.uk) which stress more this aspects, don’t have an intense social exchange.
Quality is, in my opinion, constituted by/through/thanks to social interaction.
Social interaction can run through informal paths, like skype, emails, sms…. or through formal paths. like dedicate fora or mailing lists.
This is – as I consider it – the vital juice of any community.
Another way of making is through the chance of being able to give personal contribution to a project.
It’s more or less like in a traditional classroom: if pupils can’t do each one their own part “play the role”, and are instead pushed into the static role of mere listeners, they will be as soon as possible demotivated and give their attention to something else.
Quality is for me the capacity to attract and keep “magnetised” attention and motivation.
In this regard I can only agree with emanuela’s post:

at the other side of the network must be people who help, facilitate, guide, value and support the learners. Unfortunatly I didn’t find these quality indicators into the viewed courses

At the end, from teacher to teacher, David: why didn’t you put in the list this resource? –> http://www.oercommons.org

OpenEd, week 5, part 1 (questions 1+2)

see the map