Embracing Uncertainty: Collaboration as learning

Dave Cormier

http://xkcd.com/1021/

4 Kinds of Uncertainty

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tojosan/176759844

Simple Challenges

(Audience response eg.)1.How do I get a study permit? - one page

reply and attach the document2.Where to find work on campus? 3.Students not checking their email4.How many courses am I allowed to take?

Bad Good

Email Google docs

Invent new ways of doing things every time

Establish best practices

Collaborate with no one

Collaborate across campus

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gautamdogra/6024700408

Complicated

(Audience response)1. Email2. Working with parents and

guardians3. Collaborate on university wide

initiatives4. Financials

Bad Good

Consultant’s report Project plan

Do what another university did

Follow good research practices

Make it a student project

Collaborate with experts

Chaotic

(Audience response)1. Disgruntled student/parent 2. Flu outbreak3. Violent crime

Bad Good

Wait Act

Ignore the results Follow up with another response

Do this often Use it as a last resort

Complex

(Audience response)1. Social media and student services2. Special Needs students3. Organizational culture

Bad Good

Look for ‘the answer’ Experiment

Try only one thing Iterate

Follow an expert Collaborate with peers.

3 key trends

Massive Open Online Courses

Internationalization

• Last year in the Atlantic provinces… International students – 9,692 (+1,204)

• Vietnamese Students Earn Online High School Diplomas Through The University of Texas at Austin

• Racial Politics

• EAL (English as an additional language)

India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Indian_Railways_Network_Connectivity_Map_with_cities_and_population_density.png

Analytics

http://www.slideshare.net/sbs/learning-analytics-dream-nightmare-or-fairydust

Albany Technical College: The Student Tracking and Retention Services (STARS) Program is designed to serve high‐risk students by personally connecting them with counselors… The STARS program has increased the retention rate to 87% compared with rates prior to this intervention (68.3%), and STARS has also increased Academic Affairs and Student Affairs collaboration while generating new ideas and ways of helping students. http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/NGLC003.pdf

Ok Dave… so what?

Community as curriculum

Rhizomatic learning:Learning the things you can’t be told

”Successful health services in the 21st century must aim not merely for change, improvement, and response, but for changeability, improvability, and responsiveness.”Coping with complexity: educating for capabilitySarah W Fraser, Trisha Greenhalgh. 2001

“When you finally come to grips you can't solve today's problems using present methods, you take the lead to venture to the Complex Domain. As leader, you initiate a search and rally followers to find a new solution that will change the paradigm.”Change Management or Change Leadership?Gary Wong, Cognitive Edge Network 2010

2 CommunitiesOne that didn’t work and one that did

Emerge project – a support program designed to help people collaborate

Prize oriented – “the problem was, after the money was awarded we had the community, we had the place, but they had no reason to communicate.”Lawrie Phipps - interview

“the culture rewards individual work”Lawrie Phipps - interview

Edtechtalk: Collection of weekly webcasts from educators. For educators.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcobellucci/3534516458/

So how do we do it well?

Make the right kind of decision

Be responsible for your own learning

Share

1 Final Point

When the community is your curriculum, you become the expert

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@davecormier

Embrace uncertainty