Critical Technology: Learning in the Open

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Learning in the Open

Learning in the open; Koh Lanta, Thailand.

People who follow this blog know I am a strong believer in open education, self-directed life-long learning, and the creation of open educational resources. I also believe this can be successfully done outside of traditional learning approaches and institutions. I also believe a familiarity and understanding of your metacognitive abilities combined with agility and pragmatism you can successfully learn all you need out in the open with only attending an online course or traditional institution when it best suits your learning needs. I believe this so much that I dedicate this blog to the subject of self-directed life-long learning. I am also in the process of writing a book on Agile Learner Design, a book about understanding your metacognitive abilities and how to create your own personalized curriculum and courses. All in support of your own learning.

One area of learning and OER development I am currently involved is with the Mozilla Ignite Challenge. With this project I leverage my 25 years in technology and software architecture, combined it with my teaching, instructional design, and open education experience and create some OER to assist Mozilla Ignite candidates learn about some of the technologies available in (and supported by) this challenge.

What is Learning in the Open?
Learning in the open is based on four principles and one model;

Progressive Inquiry

the principle of open learning - the learner is self-directed, independent, and self-guided.
the principle of metacognition - the learner is aware of their own learning style, and how to best develop their own skills and knowledge.
the principle of open - where everything they do while learning is done in the open, with transparency, reflection and frequent publishing of their knowledge gathering.
the principle of collaboration - engage your peers and learning cohort with frequency and without hesitancy.
progressive inquiry - provides the discipline and model to follow when working towards discovery and understanding.

How does this apply to the Mozilla Ignite Challenge?
By learning in the open, engaging others in my learning and publishing the artifacts of my leaning, I create a road-map for others to follow who want to learn the same. Over the next five weeks I will gather information in a variety of ways, publish frequently and coalesce the information into a single rich media artifact for peoples learning consumption. I will start with WebGL and finish with WebRTC. Feel free to follow along;