I was intrigued by your supposition that the ease at which you can implement networked learning is dependent on your field of study. I completely agree, and I think we are shooting ourselves in the foot by not acknowledging this. In my mind, the fields that are most ‘tech-averse’ are the fields that seem inherently boring or complicated (I’m thinking maths, engineering, etc), as if the instructors consider the problem insurmountable, and have thus resigned themselves to tedious lectures. But of course it is exactly these kind of classes that would most benefit from a technological overhaul!

Hi Qichao, interesting point of view. I agree with your concern about content quality in the digital web. We should be aware, not only as writers but also as users, the reliability of the used sources, is a critical component that although it determinates the validity of the used information, is often ignored in the digital world. Since digital anonymity -and the tensions it brings to the table- is not the only dimension that is often avoided in emerging technological and communication modes, it is important to reflect on how does the reliability of information has been validated in the past and why is it that it is easier to avoid it now.

Some questions that come to my mind are: Is it that the current digital revolution has convinced us that what happens behind scenes when information is digitally produced is not worth of our analysis? Or is it that in an attempt to avoid our own commitment -often exhausting- to seek reliable information we have chosen not to? Seems to me, that as far as citizens’ commitment to seek deeper remain a discretionary choice, our current and future understanding of the world will very often be based in unreliable and biased information.

What an interesting point of view that you bring up. As future faculty members, I think it is important to include both sides of education into our Teaching Philosophy: teaching and learning. I think both are useful to develop a career in a world in which knowledge grows quickly and also the communications technology changes so much so fast! Learning to adapt to the new forms of communications technology will help us avoid a current trend nowadays, where truths are no longer truths. I run into this article that states “The constructive conflict of classroom debate was replaced by safe spaces and trigger warnings, and with it went the courage to confront the mediocrity of second-rate ideas. Ironically, this has left us without the ability to rightly judge fact from fiction. Bloom predicted that there would come a day when many Americans saw the truth as relative. That day is here” (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/americans-now-see-truth-relative-what-comes-next-jeff-degraff). Teaching and learning as a dependent activity can help us avoid the risk that represent having a poll of information available, from which just little bit is reliable.

Your title and your picture definitely caught my attention! I think that time and practice will help you with blogging; after all experiential learning is about experiencing to learn, right? As an architect, we are used to built and develop models to receive public critique, which can be consider as experiential learning: putting your ideas in a model, expression them in a different way than by talking, and receiving feedback about it. Even thought I have this background, writing this blog was also a challenge, having to perform a task with little instructions give us a lot of freedom, which can be challenging

It was also the first time for me to hear the term networked learning. I totally agree that learning and researching share the similar process.

I really appreciate your balanced view on the role of technology in education. Whether a new technology provides benefits on traditional teaching methods is completely context dependent. Just because technology is awesome, it doesn’t mean we can just roll it out and turn our brains off. I suspect it will be a few years of trial and error before we find the specific aspects of networked learning that offer any drastic improvement.

In my opinion learning should happen both inside and outside the classroom. One is not as effective without the other. Students should be given background information about a topic in the classroom and then application takes place outside of the classroom. In some situations I do believe that application can take place first with discussion taking place in the classroom afterward.

I completely echo the sentiment ‘sharing is caring’. It irks me somewhat that many scientific journals are still subscription based. With all the misinformation and propaganda of recent years, who on earth thinks that knowledge should be an exclusive, elitist clique?
When I teach, I constantly strive for collaboration amongst students in the classroom. My objective is not to teach facts, but to teach the students how to learn. It makes me really happy to see my students helping each other out and tackling problems together. As a bonus, it makes my job much easier!

Hahaha. I have to admit this blog title made me laugh. I think that is the fun in blogging though. I’m on the same page as you – it is not my favorite thing, however, being able to laugh a bit while still learning is refreshing. I understand having concerns about freedom in regards to blogging being assigned by professors. I would say that most the professors that I’ve had that have assigned blogging have been fairly lenient about what students can and cannot post. That is what keeps it enjoyable. But I do agree that when a professor assigns a prompt and enforces it strictly, it kind of defeats the purpose.

I also have to second your comment about blogging about breakfast. Ha! I try to incorporate both my research and my personal life into my social media interactions as I typically work with consumers. I want them to recognize that I’m a real human being just as much as I am a scientist too.

Wow… I love your example of pretty much doing homework in the car while traveling. This is right along the lines of Hitchcock’s comment about incorporating research (and in this case school work/our academic interests) into our daily life. When I travel back and forth to my hometown of Raleigh, NC, I often listen to Food Safety Podcast. It is a good way to burn an hour while catching up on current food safety news and listening to the discussions occurring around these often controversial topics. Nowadays we can uptake information at any point in the day at just about any location. My roommate listens to a podcast specific to her studies while she is getting ready and eating breakfast each morning. While I’m having my coffee in the mornings I do a quick run through of the feed I have set up for food safety news coming out through the different media outlets.

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