ECO to host workshop at EDEN
Between the 14th and 17th of June the annual elEarning European Distance and eLearning Network (EDEN) Conference will take place in Budapest.
The context of the EDEN conference for 2016 is described (on the website) as follows: “The powerful combination of the ’information age’ and the consequent disruption caused by these unstable environments provides the impetus to look afresh and identify new models and approaches for education (e.g. OERs, MOOCs, PLEs, Learning Analytics etc.).”
Attend ECO workshop
It is therefore very suitable for ECO to attend this conference and connect with subject matter peers and experts.
ECO will be hosting a workshop “Social environments for Learning” on Wednesday 15th of June, during the afternoon parallel sessions: C7 from 16:15h until 17:45h.
- Convenors: Divina Frau Meigs, Adeline Bossu, Sorbonne Nouvelle, ECO project
- Moderator: Sünne Eicher, SE, ECO Project
In this workshop we propose to discuss the pros and cons of using commercial social networks vs internal contained social network functionalities within a MOOC platform. The use of commercial social networks is relatively controversial for learning environments, beyond issues of privacy and traceability, especially in Europe.
Researchers have found tensions and polarizations that complicate the issue: open vs contained content, formal vs informal settings, structured vs unstructured exchanges, traceable vs untraceable data, personal vs professional status of interactions.
Why attend?
Understanding the dynamics of such participatory tools is crucial to social MOOCs. They are part of the live core of interactive spaces characteristic of sMOOCs and contribute to transforming the relation to learning, if not to the nature of knowledge itself. They enable flux and openness while facilitating communication among various types of participants (teachers, mentors, tutors, learners….). They create an epistemic community with an important impact on the learning events as they are delivered within the spaces of interaction provided by the social networks. This “inside-outside” navigation creates synergies and empowers communities as they can mix and remix the resources available online and produce their own projects and evaluations.
The workshop will examine different ways of using social networks functionalities “inside-outside” a sMOOC platform, based on practices carried out by the sMOOC pilots of the European project ECO and their evolution through several iterations. We will also present how ECO pedagogical teams use commercial and non-commercial social networks in order to reach the goals of the European project (enrolment, motivation, community management, e-teacher projects…). We will also consider some limitations and constraints that may arise, such as the efficiency and/or redundancy of using several social networks. We will also reflect on the logics adopted by various actors as the limits between social conversations and pedagogical conversations get blurred, in spaces that remain partly dominated by the heritage academic framework.
Participants are invited to share, compare, and comment on their own practices and ideas. They are invited to join the conversation around such questions as: how to keep the potential of social networks while building learning and educational competences?
What is the right balance between commercial and non-commercial uses in sMOOC pedagogical design? Are social networks valid tools that contribute to constructivist forms of knowledge? What new learning strategies can emerge from such network effects..?
The full conference programme can be downloaded here.
