Invitation to a world full of raw materials
Considering the education I had received up to high school, teachers taught me knowledge that has been proven for a long time and without much controversy. They confidently taught the students what they had learned and this activity is still ongoing.
The development of ICT(Information, communication and technology) has revolutionized all areas of politics, society, economy, sports, etc., but I do not think that education takes full advantage of new technologies. The representative product of the combination of ICT and education is distance learning (often called e-learning) Anyone can receive education without time and space limitations. But this is not an interactive communication. Teachers can conduct remote lectures to all students around the world, and there is no system for students to express their opinions to all teachers and colleagues. I understand Gardner Campbell’s “digitally mediated networked learning” in that context. In addition, Dough Belshaw’s “working openly on the web” is also understood as a world where two-way communication is possible.
However, networked learning is not simply interactive communication, but “invitation to a world full of raw materials”. It is a state in which the huge and false information, unethical things, etc. In fact, what we call knowledge is a real knowledge through a long process of purification, and we have not made much sense of the process itself. The new educational meaning of networked learning is to accept the whole thing, but to learn the process of discovering real knowledge by establishing and cleansing your own selection process through experience. At first, you might just feel that networked learning is awesome and it is beneficial to everyone when you listen to someone who has benefited from blogging like Seth Godin and Tom Peters. However, it is only one advantage, not all network activities are beneficial.
I sometimes drink beer with my 3 roommates and talk about various topics. The main topic is about movies, and their interpretation is different, which is very interesting because of the variety of blogs for which each person has obtained information. After watching the movie, you may have searched Google for “Avengers Ending Interpretation” for a scene that you don’t understand or miss. Sometimes, however, there are cases where there are interpretations that are opposed to interpretation from a variety of perspectives. Sometimes I see that there are not only diverse interpretations but also opposing interpretations. I think that people who have seen only one opinion can have highly biased opinions. Learning to acquire information should not be learning but learning to obtain balanced information.
Networked learning should include a way of learning to avoid being unintentionally biased. In a world full of raw materials, I think studying the process of looking into the virtual world and discovering the gemstone through your own standards is a real learning.
References:
Gardner Campbell, “Networked Learning as Experiential Learning” (2016)
Doug Belshaw “Working Openly On the Web” (2014)
Tim Hitchcock “Twitter and Blogs are Not Just Add-ons To Academic Research” (2014)
