Hey there – don´t bring your microbes to my place!

This fall I am joining a pedagogical course on International and Collaborative Environment at the University of Helsinki (https://blogs.helsinki.fi/ya2internationalcollaborative/). The goal of the course is to give us a better understanding of the challenges of internationalization, and diversity in our institutions and our classrooms. We are gonna discuss diverse topics related to this theme through … Continue reading Internationalization of the curriculum

A reflection Within a few short weeks, the Corona pandemic forcibly achieved changes that proponents of online and blended learning have been encouraging for years. Teachers who long resisted the move to online discovered that they do, in fact, have the digital literacy skills to make the transition—and in record time. I do not wishContinue reading “Collaborative Learning in Online Contexts”

It’s 2020, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that technology can be used to enhance learning. But have you ever thought of using memes as a learning tool? That’s right. Memes! Memes are images, videos, or micro texts that are spread rapidly by internet users. They are typically humorous in nature and are oftenContinue reading “The power of memes for learning”

One of the central tenets of the online networked learning approach seems to be that teachers do not drive learning. We do not (and cannot) transmit knowledge into learners’ minds. We can create situations, environments and events where learning can take place. And we can give learners the tools, resources and confidence to learn byContinue reading “Design for online and blended learning – Is the teacher redundant?”

“Learning […] is an active process of creating connections and seeing patterns of information within and between these connections” (Oddone, 2019) Collaborative learning takes place when groups of learner work together to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product (Gerlach 1994). It is contrasted with cooperative group work, in which learners tend toContinue reading “Learning in communities – networked collaborative learning”

Openness is a slippery concept. It has different meanings for different people in different contexts. When it comes to education, openness usually refers to the extent to which knowledge is accessible. When we first started talking about sharing and openness, I immediately thought about Massive Open Online Courses (or MOOCs). MOOCs are online courses thatContinue reading “Open Learning – sharing and openness”