Shift Happens (Module 2, Irish)

The Shift Happens folks have been producing thought provoking videos since 2007, they currently have produced five versions on the same theme.  The theme is the globalization and shifts in society.  The question I always come back to when watching these is how do we as educators answer to these shifts?  Below is the fourth version of their video, published in fall of 2009.

One of the key points that Shift Happens continues to hit upon is that "individuals have more control, more capacity to create and to connect than in any era in history" (Siemens, 2006, p. 72).  With the vast amount of information available to humans at their fingertips, learning at this point in history is radically changing.  Siemens outlined in the video Future of Distance Education that one of the hallmark characteristics of the identity of distance education is collaborative interactions.  With the increased possibilities to connect with other people the potential for collaborative works are at an all time high.

The Internet is the main engine that has expanded the possibilities to collaborate.  Prior to the Internet connecting with others was limited by the network of people that you worked with, or knew.  Today, collaboration is limitless.  So the potential for collaboration has evolved from the network of people you knew within your own physical space, to the never ending reaches of the Internet.  There are social networks where a person can connect with people who share their same interestes.  There are countless blogs, forums, and websites dedicated to the most obscure topics.  From these blogs, forums, websites, and social networking sites come the potential for collaboration.

Once the connections have been made via the Internet to collaborate, the people do not ever actually need to meet in person to accomplish their work.  Through the use of video conferencing tools such as Skype, or online chat programs such as AOL Instant Messanger, and online collaborative word processing software such as Google Docs a collaborative project can be completed without ever having to meet in person.  Prior to the advances of the Internet these collaborative projects would either have to be emailed back and forth through attached documents, or mailed through the postal system.  With the advances of the Internet collaboration is literally at a persons fingertips and only limited by the imaginations of the people working together.

How Good Is Your Plumbing?

Does learning take place inside a brick building with students sitting in neat lines of desk?  Does learning take place by a stream bed classifying organisms?  Does learning take place in a public library reading room?  Does learning take place in the car on a trip across country?  Does learning take place on a Internet website?  The answer to all of these questions could be yes!

Siemens (2004) stated "the pipe is more important than the content within the pipe".  The pipe that he was referring to is a persons ability to learn, and the content of the pipe is knowledge.  Siemens was predicting that future learning theory needs to take into account that with a rapidly changing world with exponentially growing amounts of knowledge, a person needs to know how to find the information that they need more often then have the information memorized.  Shift Happens is a group that has been producing short videos on the rapidly changing world that we live in, and the career and educational challenges that our students face.



From the Ebbinghaus, to Thorndike, to Pavlov, and Gestalt the way that humans learn how been theorized and hypothesized.  The difficulty with these learning theorists is that they did not create their learning theories with the 21st century challenges in mind.  Siemens (2004) even suggests that with the current technology trends the way that humans learn could be changing.  In today's 21st century with schools quickly adapting a larger variety of educational technology it is critical to look towards the suggested skills listed for the 21st century.  21st Century Schools is a website that clearly outlines what these skills are, and the differences between today's traditional schools and those that encompass 21st century skills.  

People learn best once they have spent time learning in a variety of ways.  Gardner, and other psychologists, have outlined in his multiple intelligences theory people all learning through their own unique combination of effective means.  Once a person has spent time learning through a variety of styles they are able to determine which style is best for them.  If a person is only exposed to a limited variety of ways to learn, then they may not have the chance to find their best learning style.

Learning theory is critical to education.  Through learning theory controlled scientific experiments have proven a variety of elements crucial to providing the best learning environment for learners.  Learning theory and educational technology are important with the rapidly changing world that we need to prepare our students for.  Through the 21st century skills and what we already know about learning theory from Gardner, Thorndike, Pavlov, and Gestalt we can create a learning environment where the needs of the students and their learning needs meet.  In this environment both the students pipe and plumbing will be fostered.