Components of 21st Century Learning as a tanka poem

Now, there it finally is: Four Components of 21st Century Learning (pdf). Done and sent!

Here's the complete study, crystallized in a tanka poem:

Nature of edtech 

has components like seasons: 

technical, social, 

epistemological, 

and cognitive. Use em all!

Here's a longer version, shortened from the Abstract:

As the Learning Solutions team that I work in was to arrange a new course called "Edutech bootcamp" for teacher trainees at the time of finding a research subject for this study, I felt it fitting to apply a pedagogical model and to evaluate how it would help us in planning and analysing the course. 

I ended up using the pedagogical infrastructure framework developed by Minna Lakkala in her dissertation. I decided to study the framework itself: How practical and comprehensive would this model be in planning the course? What is my opinion of Lakkala's model compared to other similar models like TPACK and Learning by Design? 

The pedagogical infrastructure framework is a useful all-around tool that pays attention to all the essential spheres of a socio-constructionist learning process. It is particularly useful in pinpointing the areas in need of improvement, like the cognitive component in this case of Edutech bootcamp. 

All in all, the teacher's experience and didactic competence are more essential factors for a successful course than choosing the right model or framework.

Future of education right here, right now

I'm reading this a forum discussion about the future of education while watching presentations by groups of teacher trainees on a course on special education & multi-cultural issues in the Uni of Helsinki.

E.g. this presenting group played a difficult situation at school but finding the solution was left for the audience (other students) by making them to choose a solution from a matrix of nine approaches. Audience votes were added to Excel and the pie diagramm showed the popularity of solution alternatives immediately. That was completed with further discussion.

And now, the next presentation is an entertaining video juxtaposing Indiana Jones and ordinary teachers that the students have interviewed. (great editing!) Question is, are teachers the heros who have to solve the problems alone? 

A very student-centric way, and a most suitable way to organize a mass course on a topic that requires personal involvement. So, right now I feel that this is the future of higher education happening today. What surprises me most, is that we're studying in this old-fashioned learning environment.

Four Components of 21st Century Learning

Now, I've written and revised it. Phew! Must take a break now and place it far off for a few days before the final round.

Here's a link if you are eager to read it now when your comments might make a change:

Four Components of 21st Century Learning: Applying 'Pedagogical Infrastructure Framework' on a Course on Educational Technology (pdf in my Dropbox via bitly, updated 16th Oct)

It's about the Edutech bootcamp that I wrote about three weeks ago.

"Who needs a university when we have Google?"

 "Who needs a university when we have Google? All the world's digital knowledge is available at a search."

Jeff Jarvis wrote a few years ago an interesting book What Would Google Do? Among other spheres he googlefies education.

"We can connect those who want to know with those who know. We can find experts on any topic."

This is easy, to shoot down Jeff's ideas. It's sufficient to say that not everyone has a trustworthy friend who's a pro in the field that one wants to learn. And finding some other expert... well, the web is packed with experts of everything...

And yet, as Jeff continues painting a picture on new educational ecology

"where students may take courses from anywhere and instructors may select any students, where courses are collaborative and public, where creativity is nurtured as Google nurtures it (...) where universities teach an abundance of knowledge to those who want it rather than manage a scarcity of seats in a class."

I feel at home on this MOOC on current/future higher education. I bet that there will be opportunities to return to Jeff's thoughts along the course.

Higher education and radical equality

The MOOC on current/future state of higher education started with presenting two current trends that were said to be opposing: there's a need for bigger and better universities but for smaller costs.

Without profound changes they are of course incompatible. It's like Encyclopedia Britannica would have wanted to double its volume (or amount of sold books) without adding costs. We know how the story wound up.

There are several thousand classmates attending this CFHE12 course. Input-wise: so far so good. How about quality of learning? How about dropouts? If there are enough (and free) raw materials to be spared, does it matter in the end of the production line?

The fundamentals of higher education lay on hierarchies. Now, the model of crowd-sourcing knowledge like Wikipedia did is a very different one.

What would a university be like, if it was not based on line organization but on something else, like matrix organization or perhaps a neural network? Would that change the way you defined "higher" education?

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PS. Radical equality in the title refers to Juha Suoranta's and Tere Vadén's article in Learning the Virtual Life: Public Pedagogy in a Digital World.