Educational Science

Past-Action-Update part 2 – Publications in the Context of the LTEC 2015 in Maribor and preview on 2016

StructureMindMapSome of you will remember that last summer I participated at the LTEC Conference in Chile, where from I still enjoy so many perspectives, ideas and great people.

This year the 10th KMO and the LTEC were hosted in Maribor. This time I had two publications, one of them following up my last years paper and presenting important parts of my M.A. Thesis and basics for my doctoral-theseis/phd project, the second one presenting a project that I orginized as part of my job at the Distance University in Hagen: The conception and launch of a writing lab, starting with Citavi Tutorials in Moodle and the AdobeConnects Virtual classroom.

Both papers are meanwhile publicized by Springers serie Communications in Computer and Information Science. Unfortunately the CopyRights do not allow to publish it as open resource here, but you can read the abstracts and get the literature data.

And last but not least: Next years KMO and LTEC is hosted in Germany at the Distance University in Hagen! I will be part of the organisation team and you can contact me for details or questions at any time. It would be great if many of you take part of it – for example by writing a paper – here you find information and the call for papers.

And here what I am and have been working on:

Learning, Knowledge and Competence in Global Online-Universities: How Terminology shapes Thinking

A Theoretical Approach to Innovation and Change in Academic Distance Education

Sabine Siemsen

Fernuniversität in Hagen, Universitätsstraße 33c, 58084 Hagen, Germany

Abstract. Learning, Knowledge and Competence are popular terms in scientific discourses on the conception and evaluation of academic education. With increasing frequency, those take place in online-settings. This leads to an increasing heterogeneity not only in age and educational background, but also in social-cultural aspects and roles. The traditional way of seeing heterogeneity as challenge to be overcome, has to be changed into recognizing its enormous potential for networked learning processes. To foster such a new learning culture, it is necessary to scrutinize the hidden influence and unconscious patterns behind terminology. To enable global learning communities to successful networked learning, we need to define a holistic key-competence, a tool to enable enhancement in heterogeneous contexts, and a change in methods and criteria to conceptualize and evaluate such learning-scenarios. This paper aims to gain epistemological perspectives for practical use in global online-courses through a fusion of the terms learning, knowledge and competence.

Keywords: Learning, Online-Learning, Knowledge, Competence, Online-University, New Learning Culture, Meta-Communication, Connectivism, Interactionism, Interaction, Learning Networks, Learning Theory, Paradigm Shift, Disruptive Innovation, Heterogeneity

Slides:

 

Knowledge-Management by »Social Writing«

The Launch and Establishment of an Online-Writing Lab Using the Example of Citavi-Online-Tutorials at the Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences of the Distance-University in Hagen Germany

Sabine Siemsen

Fernuniversität in Hagen, Universitätsstraße 33c, 58084 Hagen, Germany

Abstract. This paper presents the conception and first evaluations of an Online-Writing Lab at the Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences of the Distance-University in Hagen. Academic Writing includes being able to find resources, to do research on the state of art and to critically reflect on recent discourses. Research tools that make this part of academic work easier exist, but require additional (media)competences. These competencies are more or less taken as granted; enabling students to gain them is not really an integral part of study-modules. At the same time the student’s heterogeneity not only in regard to previous knowledge and prerequisites rises, and collaborative and cooperative learning and the necessity to communicate on it becomes an important factor for success and motivation in learning-processes. The conception of the Writing-Lab is an approach to provide students with tools for collaborative learning processes that enable them to gain those competencies.

Keywords: Social Writing, Academic Writing, Collaborative Learning, Cooperative Learning, Research Tools, Citavi, Propaedeutic Courses, Communication, Heterogeneity, Adobe Connect, Virtual Classroom, Moodle

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