Slides from my keynote presentation at the DesireToLearn Fusion conference in Boston, MA, on July 17, 2013. You can download the .key (Keynote) file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/tzmw3pccuugu7aq/D2L.key ... feel free to reuse/remix under the CC-NC/ATT/SA license. A video of this presentation is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF2Xj48iRhw

1. Identity, Networks, & Connected Learning
Dr. Alec Couros
Desire2Learn Fusion
Boston, Massachusetts
July 17, 2013

2. #d2lfusion

3. me

6. The Blur

7. professional identity

8. open boundary courses

10. ~2000 participants from
~70 countries

12. personal identity

13. Photo-A-Day Project

19. change

20. the way we were ...

24. Gaming

25. Mobile Gaming

26. Multi-Player Gaming

27. Music Piracy

28. System Upgrade

29. Media Personalization

30. Troubleshooting

31. Publishing

32. “The Complete Interactive Multimedia Encyclopedia”

33. our current context ...

35. atoms <---> bits
scarcity <---> abundance
consuming <---> creating
standardization <---> personalization
individuals <---> networks
significant shifts in media

37. Convergence
Ubiquity

38. i. tools

50. http://www.flickr.com/photos/alainbachellier/2572801898/in/photostream/
"To immortalize this moment,
the girl seems to forget
the original pleasure."

52. ii. content

60. Instruction
Practice
Independent Study
Public Performance

61. George Siemens
• “Informal learning is a significant
aspect of our learning
experience. Formal education no
longer comprises the majority of
our learning.”
•
Informal Learning
http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

63. iii. networks

64. NOT WHAT’S
IMPORTANT

65. Six Degrees of Separation
“the idea that everyone is on average six steps away, by way of
introduction, from another person in the world.”

66. Strength of Weak Ties
“There is strength in weak ties. Our acquaintances, not our friends,
are potentially our greatest source of new ideas and
information.” (paraphrased from Gladwell, 2010)

67. Where Good Ideas Come From
“The trick to having good ideas is not to sit around in glorious
isolation and try to think big thoughts. The trick is to get more parts
on the table.” (Steven Johnson, 2010)

68. networks provide ...
1. affordances: enable communication, collaboration & cooperation in
ways that were once impossible with people who were once unreachable.
2. ideas/inspiration: connect us to new ideas & expand our thinking &
potential for innovation.
* ‘us’ meaning those who have access.

69. iv. participatory culture

75. how do we capture the spirit of
open, networked & participatory communities
in our learning environments?

76. Open & Connected Learning

78. 21st Century Learning Networks

82. “To answer your question, I did use Youtube to learn
how to dance. I consider it my ‘main’ teacher.”
“10 years ago, street dance was very exclusive, especially rare
dances like popping (the one I teach and do). You either had to
learn it from a friend that knew it or get VHS tapes which were
hard to get. Now with Youtube, anyone, anywhere in the world
can learn previously ‘exclusive’ dance styles.”

85. What’s your background in video
editing?
I just do it for fun. I’m self-taught.
How long did it take to film and
edit?
I started in November, but then I had
to start from scratch a couple months
afterwards, so I spent months and
months on it.
slide by @gcouros

91. How are you making
your learning visible?

92. How are you contributing
to the learning of others?

93. (Digital) Identity

96. http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/3356252350/

100. Private Public
Closed Open

101. (Joichi Ito)

102. @barrywellman
“The developed world is in the midst
of a paradigm shift both in the ways
in which people and institutions are
connected. It is a shift from being
bound up in homogenous “little
boxes” to surfing life through diffuse,
variegated social networks.” (2002)

104. Making a Difference

107. “Martha shows every facet of great learning: real world change,
making the environment around her better, sharing her thinking
with the world, having a conscious for the world beyond her
immediate horizons, and robustness in the face of incredible
media and social media pressure.” (McIntosh, 2012)
original slide by George Couros

109. conclusion

110. “Some of the comments onYoutube make you
weep for the future of humanity, just for the
spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and
naked hatred.”
(Lev Grossman)@leverus

119. “One of the reasons social media has grown so fast is that it taps into what we, as
human beings, naturally love and need and want to do - create, share, connect, relate.
(Notter & Grant)

120. Are we purposefully preparing students
for the type of world they currently live in,
one that includes the prevalence of
open spaces and networked possibilities?

122. How are you living & learning
in our connected reality?

124. http://couros.ca
couros@gmail.com
@courosa
Don’t limit a child to your own
learning, for he was born in another
time. ~Tagore