Daily Archives: October 16, 2011

#Change11 The Internet of Things

This week’s topic is Managing Technology to Transform Teaching.  How about Internet of Things for Teaching?

What is Internet of Things (IoT)? It is a world-wide network of uniquely addressable interconnected objects, based on standard communication protocols.

Here are a few videos that I am interested in:

On Internet of Things, and the research that would be carried out by Pew Internet – relating to Internet and technology – on organization, users of internet, higher education (universities), and future technology.

Sea of data, just drowning…

Connection of objects.  Are we becoming smarter societies, communities, people?

In this Internet of Things:

“The vision of an Internet of Things built from smart objects raises several important questions in terms of system architecture, design and development, and human involvement.”

So Internet of Things is still a relative new and emerging concept.  Would it transform the way we live, educate and learn?  Sure, this would be exciting!

Anyone who is conducting current research in your institution?  What are your findings relating to education and learning?

How does it impact on Higher Education – teaching and learning in particular?

Would learning analytics be based on Internet of Things?

#Change11 MOOC in a Video

I have been thinking hard and long on what Changes mean in a MOOC, based on Connectivism.  There must be some changes in concept: Simplicity (in pattern, knowledge, and learning) that would emerge out of complexity and chaos, based on self-organizing networks, and most important of all, that could be based on creative, emergent and cooperative or collaborative principles, and are people oriented.

This video sets off the first concept: To thrive on MOOC, think differently, but achieve something Way beyond each could accomplish.

How?  Here it is based on the 4 Cs Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity.

“In an increasingly complex, demanding and competitive 21st century, students need to learn more than the 3R’s they are tested on in school. It’s time to help them go “above & beyond”, by embracing the 4Cs –communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity.

Where does creativity come from? Curiosity as shared by Feynman. Curiosity was most frequently used in curricular such as nutrition education.

In this paper on Towards a Theory of Intrinsically Motivating Instruction (Malone, 1981), such Theory is based on three categories: challenge, fantasy, and curiosity.

Curiosity is separated into sensory and cognitive components, and it is suggested that cognitive curiosity can be aroused by making learners believe their knowledge structures are incomplete, inconsistent, or unparsimonious.

That sounds to me quite an AHA moment, when I reflected on how intriguing it is when navigating over various social and learning networks.  The curiosity to know sounds more like in search for Waldo.

Or is Waldo the knowledge source on the internet?

Or in search of the mob culture, via sharing and enjoying learning together.

Such changes in way of education and learning would surely provide a more creative and curious learning space for learners to navigate.

How does it sound in MOOC?  Here a global network of educators and learners are all “dancing” with their cultures, sharing the knowledge through different discourses, and creating and distributing knowledge via networks.