Saturday 17 March 2012

network learning

As part of any teaching/learning strategy I start with googling the topic. In general a wiki page comes up. And this afternoon, I found myself browing through a wiki on flexible learning.

One of the topics that arose was network learning. This would fit perfectly with the students I referred to in my last post, where the students and the lecturer would learn together through a relational stance. Relational capacity is a term used in nursing to mean that the nurse engages with their client at a relational level to identify and work with the client's strengths (Hartrick, 1997). I use this as a dictum for my nursing practice. Equally, I also use it in my student contact, i.e. I try to develop a relationship of trust with them, in order to be able to identify their strengths.


Wkipeadia says that network learning is

"Networked learning is a process of developing and maintaining connections with people and information, and communicating in such a way so as to support one another's learning.
The central term in this definition is connections. It takes a relational stance in which learning takes place both in relation to others and in relation to learning resources.
CSALT, a research group at Lancaster University, UK, associated with the Networked Learning Conference series and several edited collections, has defined networked learning as "learning in which information and communication technology is used to promote connections: between one learner and other learners, between learners and tutors; between a learning community and its learning resources."
Salmon (2001) wrote "learning is built around learning communities & interaction, extending access beyond the bounds of time and space, but offering the promise of efficiency and widening access. Think of individuals as nodes on a network!"
Networked learning can be practised in both informal and formal educational settings. In formal settings the learning achieved through networked communication is formally facilitated, assessed and/or recognised by an educational organisation. In an informal setting, individuals maintain a learning network for their own interests, for learning "on-the-job", or for research purposes.
It has been suggested that networked learning offers educational institutions more functional efficiency, in that the curriculum can be more tightly managed centrally, or in the case of vocational learning, it can reduce costs to employers and tax payers. However, it is also argued that networked learning is too often considered within the presumption of institutionalised or educationalised learning, thereby omitting awareness of the benefits that networked learning has to informal or situated learning"


reference
Hartrick, G. (1997).   Relational capacity:The foundation ofor interpersonal nursing practice.  Journal of Advanced Nursing.
26,  523-528

wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Networked_learning

2 comments:

  1. Hi Laurie, I too am very interested in networked learning and wonder how you would be able to utilise this model of learning within the constraints of the courses you work in? FYI: here is a great video that illustrates networked learning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwM4ieFOotA

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  2. Relational capacity and networked learning would fit together very well as you have explained. This is a thoughtful and informative post and you make an excellent point about informal learning.

    The question is how can you as the teacher use networked learning to help students bridge the formal and informal spheres of learning? Perhaps this link between the two concepts that you describe can provide a springboard for your flexible learning plan - relational capacity and networked learning can provide the theoretical basis for your teaching approach, and networked learning methods can underpin the flexible learning strategies that you use in the practice of teaching and learning.

    Blogs are a good beginning in this model. What other approaches could you use?

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