Source: hhttp://mediasmarts.ca/sites/default/files/pdfs/FactSheet_YCWW_LifeOnline.pdf

Today, 99 per cent of students have access to the internet outside of school and 39 per cent of students sleep with their phones so as to not miss a text.

These two stats put today's learning environment in context for me...

Many students function in an always-on environment

'Digital natives' has lost much of its cache since Mark Prensky first coined the term.

Researchers such as danah boyd argue that 'digital natives' is a misnomer, and points to the need for better and ongoing digital literacy

This is really important to keep in mind as we're talking about online learning:

not everyone has the same comfort level with the tools and platforms that are being used.

we need to be aware that showing the productive and academic potential of online tools is important for those who only use the internet entertainment

Source: hhttp://mediasmarts.ca/sites/default/files/pdfs/FactSheet_YCWW_LifeOnline.pdf

Source: hhttp://mediasmarts.ca/sites/default/files/pdfs/FactSheet_YCWW_LifeOnline.pdf

Source: hhttp://mediasmarts.ca/sites/default/files/pdfs/FactSheet_YCWW_LifeOnline.pdf

Now I'll discuss three strategies that I think are important in designing effective pedagogy.

First, don't spend time reinventing the wheel. "Open Educational Resources or OERs are teaching, learning, and research resources ... in the public domain [that] have been released under an intellectual property licence that permits their free use or re-purposing by others." 1 By drawing on Open Education Resources, like the SPARK project I worked on at York University, you can spend more time developing other types of coursework and on interacting with your students. In case you're not familiar with it, SPARK is a learning management system that covers off the basics in essay research and writing.

Second, I'm a big proponant of what Rafi Santo has termed "hacker literacies." These are practices that are both participatory and critical in nature, and that aim to "resist, reconfigure, and/or reformulate" digital spaces and tools. (p. 2; 2012)

Hacker literacies are a more holistic, hands-on approach to investigating digital spaces; to understanding how design shapes behaviour. It implies the ability to reshape an environment, not just learn how to react to it. I think bringing this kind of awareness to online learning will help foster a deeper understanding of the digital world. 2

And finally, it's crucial to incorporate learning experience design from the ground up. LDX pulls from the fields of user experience and instructional design, and stresses a learner-driven process - and while there is a lot of literature explaining instructional design, what I mean by LDX is focusing on the design and experience of the online instruction. 3 Most digital education initiatives emphasize the quality of the digital experience, but improvements come about by engaging in ongoing dialogue with learners. Part of this is being flexible in the platform choice so that suggestions can be implemented, which can often be difficult for large institutions who are bound to certain software and IT tools by contractual obligations.


1: http://contactnorth.ca/trends-directions/key-concepts-online-learning/open-...

2: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/IJLM_a_00075?journalCode=ij...

3: http://boxesandarrows.com/elements-of-learning-experience-design/

Moving from strategies to more concrete examples, the first practice I will talk about is connected learning.

As Mimi Ito and Crystle Martin note in a 2013 article: "Connected learning is ... a form of learning .. [and] an agenda for educational design, reform, and social change that leverages the affordances of new media to broaden access to educational opportunities." (p. 30)

As you can see in the diagram, Connected learning happens at the intersection three types of learning: "interest-driven learning, learning with peers, and academic learning in schools" (p.30) So now for some examples of this... 1

1: Martin, C. & Ito, M. (2013). Connected learning and the future of libraries. Young Adult Library Services, 12(1), 29-32.

Image source: http://connectedlearning.tv/sites/connectedlearning.tv/files/cl%20spheres.p...

Ito and Martin (2013) note that connected learning works best when it involves activities that have a shared purpose, that incorporate production, and when they involve open network infrastructures.

With this in mind, I've listed some practices here that I would employ to create a connected learning experience.

First, getting students to build a course blog- either individually or in groups - and then posting regularly to create online writing examples for portfolio pieces is a way of involving production and shared purpose in the instruction.

Drawing on the idea of open networks, Twitter could be used as a 'back channel' during lectures, for instance in a flipped classroom environment or simply to engage with subject matter
experts outside of the course (Rheingold, 2014)1

Because connected learning is about broadening the learning experience, I've included streaming video as a practice here. Although these platforms for require broadband, they can extend face to face instruction time beyond classroom walls and are important, I think, in creating a more meaningful experience. By breaking a class into groups and having them connect via video, the traditional tutorial experience becomes digital.

1: http://dmlcentral.net/blog/howard-rheingold/theory-knowledge-social-media-a...

Gamifiying learning is big buzzword, to be sure. But I believe that an element of fun and competition does make some of the drier subject more engaging.

Research by Jean Paul Gee (2008) into the use of video games and learning suggests that games and play can make the learning experience more valuable and active

So with this in minds, I offer a few gamified learning practices.

Connecting academic coursework with an open badge system such as Mozilla's would allow students to showcase their skills beyond the virtual classroom.

I mentioned before that mobiles are pervasive: there are opportunities for students to use their devices for gamified experiential learning.

For instance, let's say that it was a media studies course, and the lesson was on privacy and surveillance. Using their mobile phones, students could use the SurveillanceRights app, which tracks CCTV cameras installations around the world and records them on a GoogleMap.

Working in their various locations, students could compete to capture as many images of CCTV cameras as they can find using the app and then discuss the experience later as a group.

By also completing some additional assignments, they could then qualify for the Moz badge and a course credit

This adds an element of fun competition to the somewhat daunting topic of surveillance.

So just to wrap up: I've tried to incorporate elements of my three strategies - open education resources, hacker literacies, and LDX - in my two practice examples: connected learning and gamified learning.

The common themes here are active, engaged, production-oriented pedagogy that takes a "sage on the side" approach and listens to students.

I think this approach is embodied in a quote by Joan Fry Williams, which David Lankes expands on in his 2012 book. He says:

"..libraries must move from grocery stores to kitchens. A grocery store is where you go to consume, to buy ingredients for your meals. A kitchen ... is where you go to combine these ingredients with your own skills and talents to make a meal. ... Libraries need to be kitchens—active social places where you mix a rich set of ingredients [such as] (information, resources, talents) into an exciting new concoction that can then be shared." --David Lankes, quoting Joan Fry Williams1

1: https://medium.com/new-librarianship/expect-more-c9efcfa6bd24

boyd, d. (2014). It’s complicated : the social lives of networked teens. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Gee, J. P. (2008). Cats and Portals | American Journal of Play. American Journal of Play. Retrieved from http://www.journalofplay.org/issues/26/50-cats-and-portals

Lankes, D. (2012, February 18). Expect More: Demanding Better Libraries for Today’s Complex World. Medium. Retrieved June 25, 2014, from https://medium.com/new-librarianship/expect-more-c9efcfa6bd24

Martin, C. & Ito, M. (2013). Connected learning and the future of libraries. Young Adult Library Services, 12(1), 29-32.

MediaSmarts. (2013). Young Canadians in a Wired World Phase III : Life Online Fact Sheet.

Open Education Resources (OER) | Contact North. (n.d.). Retrieved June 25, 2014, from http://contactnorth.ca/trends-directions/key-concepts-online-learning/open-...

Plaut, A. (2014). Elements of Learning Experience Design. Boxes and Arrows. Retrieved June 25, 2014, from http://boxesandarrows.com/elements-of-learning-experience-design/

Rheingold, H. (2014, March 24). Theory of Knowledge, Social Media and Connected Learning in High School. dmlcentral. Retrieved from http://dmlcentral.net/blog/howard-rheingold/theory-knowledge-social-media-a...

Santo, R. (2011). Hacker Literacies: Synthesizing Critical and Participatory Media Literacy Frameworks. International Journal of Learning and Media, 3(3), 1–5. doi:10.1162/IJLM_a_00075