Alec Couros & participatory learning

This week, Mike Nantais delivered a phenom of a guest speaker (via adobeConnect this time) in the form of Alec Couros. Alec spoke at length about the prevalence of technology today, shared several web-based resources with us, and discussed the concept of participatory learning.

Not without its hiccups, adobeConnect suffered several audio-crashes throughout the lecture. Thankfully a number a I4Ed students were able to notify Alec via chat whenever things got garbled, but it added to a level of discontinuity that wasn't present with the presentation via Skype last week. There is something about the pace of a lecture and interruptions that is harmful to the message being delivered. I think that Alec felt the same way:

For a second there I thought that Adobe Connect didn't suck anymore. Then I tried to use my webcam and it crashed my browser.
—Alec Couros (@courosa) January 22, 2013

 Without a doubt, the prevalence of technology in our lives today is astounding. I was researching articles for a methods class this afternoon on the laptop when my iPhone buzzed: momentarily distracted, I noticed my girlfriend on the couch beside me shift her gaze from the adorable pets on her Pintrest iPad app to her mobile. As HIMYM played out on our wifi-enabled Netflix-supporting television, the alarm on my Nike GPS watch went off a moment later. Alec stated that kids are on the internet now by the age of eleven.

So with all of this technology and information, websites like hootsuite.com and about.me have popped up just to consolidate and manage all of the different information streaming at us at all times. Which brings us to participatory learning: at the heart of all this data is our own participation in what is going on around us. Of course it is possible to be passive, but Alec pushed that 21st century literacy is about understanding how these services work and how they network with those around them.

It is not enough to read a wiki and follow the citations to the source material; we need to get involved in developing the resources out there, we have to become part of the discussion. The popularity of massive open online courses (MOOCs) is a testament to this shifting paradigm where educators and students no longer just view the internet and technology passively, but participate in a bidirectional manner.

Alec referred to twitters hashtag (#) as being the soul the internet at the beginning of class. I think I disagree that the soul is that tangible. I believe that if an internet-soul exists, it is embodied by a need to learn and expand our minds, that is represented by a group of people who have come together for no other reason than for a primal need to know. Sharing was what was at the heart of ARPAnet, of wikipedia, of countless chatrooms, message boards, file-sharing programs and the controversy of 'free' education. So that people need not be limited by what they know, and only by their own ability to do something with it.

In conclusion I thought a quote from Tony Wagner that Alec put up was so fitting:

“Today knowledge is ubiquitous, constantly changing, growing exponentially… Today knowledge is free. It’s like air, it’s like water. It’s become a commodity… There’s no competitive advantage today in knowing more than the person next to you. The world doesn’t care what you know. What the world cares about is what you can do with what you know.”