If you want to know what the future looks like in terms of learning, look at your children (or grand-children). Study them how they learn when they want to learn something and when they are motivated. I have a 15 year old Son who is very good at English (unlike me…) and loves to ”go deep into the rabbit hole” in all possible areas that currently interest him. It could be the political situation in North Korea or a planet in space. My daughter learns how to play drums and guitars online and since we live in a village outside a city where she goes to school the formal and informal contacts she have online with classmates is important. After studying my children’s learning for 12 and 15 years, I can draw some conclusions:
Collaboration: They collaborate online via, for example, using discord to discuss everyday things such as organizing a party, talking about school. They build worlds in minecraft with different ambitions and goals. The meetings are often informal but very creative. Collaborating by using other platforms than the university’s for teaching and meetings can be both an emergency solution, due to technical issues, and an opportunity as Ardiyansah et al (2021) write. One of the platforms described was discord were the students were satisfied with the use of in the online learning process. Note to myself: learn more about discord! I just do not get it….
Different sources/formats: They use different sources of information such as Youtube, threads in forums and search engines. Last night my daughter used tic-toc to learn math related to a specific task. I’ve noticed that their habit of comparing/valuing and evaluating the quality of information found online is high.
Curiosity: In the areas they are curious and motivated, they learn quickly. The world of open knowledge combined with curiosity is amazing.
Related to the topic we worked on: The goal should be to build collaborative environments that are driven by curiosity and creativity and use different sources of information / resources is something I take with me from this subject. I learnt allot especially about the importance of informal networks that can support learning and create opportunities for collaboration. I think that’s a major Key for life-long learning and something I will try to create more. I think this is a good summery from Peters & Romero (2019):
“Findings illustrate how students conceive of, as well as how they organize their learning ecologies through a unique configuration of activities, digital resources and networked social support, indicating that academic programmes and teachers have an essential role in empowering student learning ecologies across contexts, recognizing past trajectories and supporting the development of valued disciplinary practices and perspectives across a continuum of learning”.
This week digital “gold nugget”:
It’s about a man learning a new profession on Youtube. I think the headline was funny (freely translated): ”Erik watched YouTube – became a goldsmith.”
This week digital “tips for further reading”:
A interesting article about collaborative learning in my fields of teaching (nursing) by Zhang & Cui, 2018:
Collaborative Learning in Higher Nursing Education: A Systematic Review – ScienceDirect
It describes opportunities and challenges in nursing education with collaborative teaching. One challenge is that the training is both theoretical and clinical where different collaborative methods can be used. It a profession that is based on collaboration between different professions in a complex system. Personal reflection; its often easy to connecting our students to each other in various collaborative forms (for example, nursing students). Logistically and practically, it can be more difficult to link students to other groups that they will work with in their profession.
Ardiyansah, T. Y., Batubara, R. W., & Auliya, P. K. (2021). Using Discord to Facilitate Students in Teaching Learning Process during COVID-19 Outbreak. Journal of English Teaching, Literature, and Applied Linguistics, 5(1), 76-78.
Peters, M., & Romero, M. (2019). Lifelong learning ecologies in online higher education: Students’ engagement in the continuum between formal and informal learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(4), 1729-1743.
Zhang, J., & Cui, Q. (2018). Collaborative learning in higher nursing education: A systematic review. Journal of Professional Nursing, 34(5), 378-388.
