Howard Rheingold, Peeragogy Handbook

Te Peeiagogy Handbook
with contributions from

Biyan Alexandei, Paul Allison, Rgis Baiondeau,
Doug Bieitbait, Suz Buiioughs, Joseph Coineli,
Jay Cioss, Chailes Jeiey Dano, Julian Elve,
Maiia Feinanda, James Folkestad, Kathy Gill,
Gigi Johnson, Anna Keune, Roland Legiand,
Amanda Lyons, Chiistophei Neal, Ted Newcomb,
Stephanie Paikei, Chailoue Pieice, David Pieston,
Howaid Rheingold, Paola Ricauite, Stephanie Schippei,
Fabiizio Teizi, and Geo Walkei
Tuesday 1
st
Januaiy, 2013 (veision 1.0)
All content heie is Public Domain unless noted.
Text in sii cvs coiiesponds to links in the
online veision of the book, which is at
http://peeragogy.org.
CONTENTS
l lN1vouuc1ioN 1
1 Wiicoi' 3
2 Hov 1o usi 1uis uNunoox 5
ll Piiv LivNiNc 7
3 Ovivviiv 9
lll CoNviNiNc A Gvouv 29
4 CoNviNiNc 31
K12 Piivcocv 39
RisivcuiNc Piivcocv 47
lV OvcNiziNc LivNiNc CoN1ix1 51
OvcNiziNc CoLivNiNc 53
8 AuuiNc s1vuc1uvi 63
9 Tui s1uuiN1 u1uoviu sviinus 69
10 Hov 1o OvcNizi MOOC 77
11 Pv1iciv1ioN 85
12 Tui Wovxscvi 89
V CoFciii11ioN Nu CoWovxiNc 93
ii CONTENTS
13 Coiciii11ioN 95
14 DisicNs iov covovxiNc 101
1 Pi1iov uisicN 107
Vl AssissiN1 113
1 Piivcocici AssissiN1 115
1 FoiioviNc 1ui oNiv 123
Vll P11ivNs, Usi Csis, Nu Exviis 125
18 TuiNxiNc nou1 v11ivNs 127
19 P11ivNs Nu Hiuvis1ics 131
20 P11ivNs 133
21 AN1iv11ivNs 141
22 Usi Csis 149
Vlll TicuNoiociis, Sivvicis, Nu Pi1iovs 171
23 Piivcocv TicuNoiocv 173
24 Wixi 187
2 Rii1ii Mii1iNcs 195
lX Risouvcis 201
2 Hov 1o ci1 iNvoiviu 203
2 Piivcocv iN Ac1ioN 211
28 S1vii Guiui 219
29 Mii1 1ui Au1uovs 223
Part I
Introduction
cuv1iv 1
WELCOME TO THE PEERAGOGY HANDBOOK, A
RESOURCE FOR SELF-ORGANlZlNG
SELF-LEARNERS
Welcome to the Peeragogy Handbook!

Tis book, and accompanying website, is a iesouice foi self-
oiganizing self-leaineis.
With YouTube, Wikipedia, seaich engines, fiee chatiooms,
blogs, wikis, and video communication, todays siiiiivNivs
have powei nevei dieamed-of befoie. What does any gioup
of self-leaineis need to know in oidei to self-oiganize leain-
ing about any topic` Te Peeiagogy Handbook is a volunteei-
cieated and maintained iesouice foi bootstiapping peei leain-
ing.
Tis pioject seeks to empowei the woildwide population of
self-motivated leaineis who use digital media to connect with
each othei, to co-constiuct knowledge of how to co-leain. Co-
leaining is ancient, the capacity foi leaining by imitation and
moie, to teach otheis what we know, is the essence of hu-
man cultuie. We aie human because we leain togethei. Today,
howevei, the advent of digital pioduction media and distiibu-
tion/communication netwoiks has iaised the powei and poten-
tial of co-leaining to a new level.
lf you want to leain how to x a pipe, solve a paitial dif-
feiential equation, wiite sofwaie, you aie seconds away fiom
know-how via YouTube, Wikipedia and seaich engines. Access
to technology and access to knowledge, howevei, isnt enough.
Leaining is a social, active, and ongoing piocess.
What does a motivated group of self-learners need to
know to agree on a subje or skill, nd and qual-
ify the be learning resources about that topic, sele
and use appropriate communication media to co-learn
3
4 CHAPTER 1. WELCOME!
it? In particular, what do they need to know about
peer learning?
Tis handbook is intended to answei these questions, and in
the piocess, build a toolbox foi co-leaining.
Oui expeiience within this pioject has been that auened
hieiaichies do not necessaiily mean decisions go by consen-
sus. Te handbook is in pait a collaboiation` and in pait a
collection of single-authoi woiks. Ofen the lines and voices
aie bluiied. One constant thioughout the book is oui inteiest
in making something useful. To this end, the book comes with
numeious activities, and is available undei non-iestiictive legal
teims (you can ieuse poitions of it howevei you see t it has
been given a CC Zivo 1.0 UNivivsi Puniic DoiN Diuic
1ioN). Foi those who seek moie evidence-based, scholaily scaf-
folding foi leaining piactices, we also maintain a ii1iv1uvi
viviiv of leaining theoiies that peitain to self-oiganized peei
leaining.
Finally, we also include instiuctions on uov 1o JoiN us iN
iuv1uiv uiviioviNc 1uis visouvci.
Sinceiely, Tui Piivcocv Ti
cuv1iv 2
HOW TO USE THlS HANDBOOK
Author Howaid Rheingold
Tis document is a piactical guide to online co-leaining, a
living document that invites comment and invites ieadeis to join
the community of editois, the document does not have to be iead
in lineai oidei fiom beginning to end.
lf you and a gioup of othei people want to use digital media
and netwoiks to co-leain togethei, this handbook is a piacti-
cal tool foi leaining how to self-oiganize peei leaining what
we call peeiagogy. Mateiial about conceptualizing and con-
vening co-leaining the stu about geuing staited is located
towaid the top of the table of contents. Mateiial about assess-
ment, iesouices, use cases is located towaid the bouom of the
TOC. But you dont have to iead it in sequential oidei. Hop
aiound if youd like. We think and some ieseaich seems to
suppoit that undeistanding how co-leaining woiks will help
you do co-leaining moie eectively. So weve included mateiial
about leaining theoiies that suppoit peei leaining oi that ieveal
useful chaiacteiistics of successful peei leaining. Foi those who
want to delve moie deeply into the empiiical ieseaich and schol-
aiship, weve linked to a sistei document a liteiatuie ieview
of leaining theoiy ielated to peeiagogy. Foi those who want to
study moie deeply about the aspects of peei leaining we sum-
maiize in oui aiticles, we piovide a list of links to ielated hand-
book aiticles, and a set of iesouices foi fuithei study. Tink of
oui pages as both places to stait and as jumping o points.
Te shoit videos, most of themundei one minute long, at the
veiy beginning of many aiticles aie meant to convey a sense of
what the aiticle and its suppoiting mateiial is meant to convey.
Tis is a living document. lf you want to join oui community
of editois, contact howaidiheingold.com (lf you want to see
how we go about cieating a handbook entiy, see oui guide foi
newcomeis.) lf you dont want to go as fai as joining the com-
CHAPTER 2. HOW TO USE THIS HANDBOOK

munity of editois, please feel fiee to use the comment thiead
auached to each page to suggest changes and/oi additions.
See also
Guiui 1o ci11iNc s1v1iu
Tui Tnii oi CoN1iN1s
Ouv iis1 oi visouvcis
Ouv ii1iv1uvi viviiv
Part II
Peer Learning
cuv1iv 3
OVERVlEW
Tis pait of the book oeis oui most impoitant insights into
peei leaining. A numbei of eailiei theoiies and expeiiments
have focused on vaiious aspects of collaboiative, connective,
and shaied, non-didactic leaining systems. Teies a iumbling
among seveial well-known thinkeis that when combined with
new technologies, peei leaining stiategies could have a big im-
pact on the way educational institutions woik in the futuie. Oui
aim heie is just to make the basic ideas concietely undeistand-
able and immediately applicable. Te best couise is to tiy it out
and see how it woiks foi you.
Peeiagogy is about peeis leaining togethei and helping each
othei leain. Te idea is that each peison contiibutes to the gioup
in theii own way. Te contiibution of each peeiagogue depends
on a healthy sense of self-awaieness. You ask youiself, What
do l have to oei` and What do l get out of it` We think
youll come up with some exciting answeis to those questions'
Oui ist stiategy foi peei leaining invites you to engage in a
self-assessment of youi motivations. Heie you take into account
things like the leaining context, timing and sequence of leaining
activities, social ieinfoicements, and visible iewaid. Oui view
is that leaining is most eective when it contains some foim of
9
10 CHAPTER 3. OVERVIEW
enjoyment oi satisfaction, oi when it leads to a conciete accom-
plishment.
lndeed, this is the kind of leaining that you choose to do,
whethei youie being tiained oi not. Youie in chaige' Fui-
theimoie, this kind of leaining is usually fun. lndeed, as well
desciibe below, theie aie deep links between play and leain-
ing. We believe we can impiove the co-leaining expeiience by
adopting a playful mindset. Ceitainly some of oui best leain-
ing moments in the Peeiagogy pioject have been peppeied with
humoi and bantei.
Apait fiom self-assessment and playfulness, heie aie two
key factois to keep in mind
Personal supports peer: We can consciously cultivate
living, giowing, iesponsive webs of infoimation, suppoit, and
inspiiation that help us be moie eective leaineis. Tis is a pei-
sonal leaining netwoik. Well oei tips on how to build these
netwoiks and well also explain how stiong peisonal leaining
netwoiks can evolve into even stiongei peer leaining netwoiks.
Peer supports personal: As we woik togethei to de-
velop shaied plans oi ioadmaps foi oui collective eoits in
gioup piojects, we usually can nd places wheie we have some-
thing to oei, and places wheie we have something to leain.
Fuitheimoie, if we aie willing to ask foi some help and oei oui
help to otheis, then we can ieally leain a lot' Tis is why build-
ing eective interpeisonal leaining stiategies should be pait of
youi peisonal leaining plan.
ln the following sections, you can iead some moie about
these stiategies, oi you can skip ahead to Pv1 lll to stait look-
ing at techniques you can use to build youi own peei leaining
gioup.
Peer learning through the ages
Te new teim, peeiagogy, that we use in this book is a ii
on the woid pedagogy the ait, science, oi piofession of teach-
ing. Pedagogy has a somewhat pioblematic stoiy of oiigin it
comes fiom the ancient Gieek tiadition of having a child (pai-
dos) be supeivised (agogos) by a slave. Gieek philosopheis dis-
11
agieed with each othei as to the best way foi individuals to gain
knowledge (and even moie so, wisdom). Sociates, who insisted
that he was not wise, also insisted that his inteilocutois join
him in investigating tiuth claims, as peeis. Te most famous
of these inteilocutois, Plato, on a moie pedagogical bent, spoke
of an enlightened few, whose iesponsibility it was to show oth-
eis the light of knowledge (illustiated by his famous allegoiy of
Te Cave).
ln moie iecent centuiies, vaiious education theoiists and ie-
foimeis have challenged the eectiveness of what had become
the tiaditional teachei-led model. Most famous of the eaily edu-
cation iefoimeis in the United States was John Dewey, who ad-
vocated new expeiiential leaining techniques. ln his 191 book,
Democracy and Education[1], Dewey wiote, Education is not
an aaii of telling and being told, but an active and constiuc-
tive piocess. Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who developed
the concept of the Zone of Pioximal Development, was anothei
pioponent of constiuctivist leaining. His book, ought and
Language, also gives evidence to suppoit collaboiative, socially
meaningful, pioblem-solving activities ovei solo exeicises [2].
Within the last few decades, things have begun to change
veiy iapidly. ln Conneivism: A Learning eory for the Digital
Age, Geoige Siemens aigues that technology has changed the
way we leain, explaining how it tends to complicate oi expose
the limitations of the leaining theoiies of the past [3]. Te ciu-
cial point of connectivism is that the connections that make it
possible foi us to leain in the futuie aie moie ielevant than the
sets of knowledge we know individually, in the piesent. Fui-
theimoie, technology can to some degiee and in ceitain con-
texts, ieplace know-how with know-wheie-to-look.
lf you want moie details on the histoiy, theoiies, and iecent
expeiiments ielated to peei leaining, we have a moie exten-
sive ii1iv1uvi viviiv available. Weve also adapted it into
Wixiviui vci, which you can edit as well as iead.
Figuie 3.1 Pi1oN Cvi SNviu (104). By Jan Saeniedam
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
What makes learning fun? (Or boring, as the
case may be!)
lndividuals leain by doing in a continuous piocess. Tis is
most eective when it contains some foim of enjoyment, satis-
faction, oi accomplishment. So foi each peei-leaining paitici-
pant, theies a simple question What makes leaining fun foi
me`
Two learning stories
1. A study gioup foi a tough class in neuiopsychology con-
venes at at the libiaiy late one night, iesolving to do
well on the next days exam. Te students manage to de-
ect theii puipose foi a while by gossiping about college
hook-ups and paities, studying foi othei classes, and shai-
ing photos. Ten, ist one membei, then anothei, takes
the initiative and as a gioup, the students eventually pull
13
theii auention back to the task at hand. Tey enduie the
monotony of studying foi seveial houis, and the next day,
the exam is theiis.
2. A young skateboaidei spends houis tweaking the me-
chanics of how to make a skateboaid oat in the aii foi
a split second, enduiing physical pain of iepeated wipe-
outs. With iepetition and success comes a deep undei-
standing of the physics of the tiick. Tat same student
cannot stiing togethei moie than ve minutes of continu-
ous auention duiing chemistiy class and spends even less
time on homewoik foi the class befoie giving up.
Which is more fun, skateboarding or
chemistry?
Peei-leaining paiticipants succeed when they aie motivated
to leain. Skateboaiding is piimaiily intiinsically motivated,
with some extiinsic motivation coming fiom the iespect that
kids ieceive fiom peeis when they mastei a tiick. ln most cases,
the piimaiy motivation foi leaining chemistiy is extiinsic, com-
ing fiom paients and societys expectations that the student ex-
cel and assuie his oi hei futuie by geuing into a top college.
Te student veiy well could be intiinsically motivated to
have a glowing iepoit caid, but not foi the joy of leaining chem-
istiy, but because of the motivaton to eain a high giade as pait
of hei oveiall poitfolio. Taken a dieient way, what is it about
chemistiy thats fun foi a student who does love the science`
Peihaps she anitcipates the iespect, powei and piestige that
comes fiom announcing a new bieakthiough, oi Oi, she may
feel hei woik is impoitant foi the gieatei good, oi piospeiity,
of humanity, oi she may simply thiill to see atoms bonding to
foim new compounds.
Leaining situations fiequently boie the leainei when extiin-
sic motivation is involved. Whethei by paients oi society, be-
ing foiced to do something, as opposed to choosing to, ends up
making the individual less likely to succeed. ln some cases its
cleai, but tiying to guie out what makes leaining fun foi a a
Figuie 3.2 Photo of Dmitii Mendeleev (1834-190). Found on
Te Guaidians No1is c Tuioviis nioc. Public domain.
gioup of individual humans can be veiy dicult. Ofen theie is
no cleai-cut answei that can be diiectly applied in the leaining
enviionment. Eithei way, identifying the factois that can make
leaining boiing oi fun is a good stait. Peihaps leaining ceitain
skills oi topics is intiinsically boiing, no mauei what, and we
have to accept that.
Learning paerns
One way to think about fun leaining is that its fun to leain
new paueins. Juigen Schmidhubei wiote A sepaiate iein-
foicement leainei maximizes expected fun by nding oi cieat-
ing data that is beuei compiessible in some yet unknown but
leainable way, such as jokes, songs, paintings, oi scientic ob-
seivations obeying novel, unpublished laws [4]. So the skate-
boaidei enjoyed coming acioss new paueins (novel tiicks) that
he was able to leain, tiicks that challenged his cuiient skill level.
Learner, know thyself: A self-evaluation
technique
When joining the Peeiagogy pioject, l did a biief self-
evaluation about what makes me tuin on to leaining
1
Context. l iesist being gioomed foi some unfoiseeable fu-
tuie iathei than foi a puipose.
Timing and sequence.l nd leaining fun when lmstudying
something as a way to piociastinate on anothei piessing
assignment.
Social reinforcement.Geuing tips fiom peeis on how to
navigate a snowboaid aiound moguls was moie fun foi
me than my Dad showing me the piopei way to bu the
cais leathei seats on choie day.
Visible reward. ln high school, it was not fun in the mo-
ment to sit and compose a 30-page ieading jouinal foi
Fiankenstein. But owing in pait to those types of piioi
expeiiences, wiiting is nowfun and its a pleasuie to leain
how to wiite beuei.
The role of metacognition in peer learning
Te piole of each individual paiticipant, both fiom the pei-
spective of self-awaieness, as well as fiom the peispective of
maximal value of contiibution to the gioup endeavoi, becomes
a metacognitive inquiiy into each peeiagogues skills, talents,
subject mauei expeitise, socialization and suitability foi the ai-
iay of ioles and positions iequiied to achieve a communally de-
ned and fiamed goal oi output. Metacognitive means that the
peeiagogue is piacticing awaieness of how he oi she is think-
ing and auending. Te shoit foim is Deliberate self-awareness
of ones thinking processes.
Since in piinciple theie is no authoiity guie oi leadei to
exeicise judgment oi discietion iegaiding the above, it becomes
a necessaiy self-evaluative examination and declaiation in ie-
gaid to the gioup, enabling paiticipating individuals to maxi-
mize theii engagement and contiibution to the undeitaking.
Possible Roles
Leadei, Managei, Team Membei, Woikei
Content Cieatoi, Authoi, Content Piocessoi, Reviewei,
Editoi
Piesentation Cieatoi, Designei, Giaphics, Applications
Plannei, Pioject Managei, Cooidinatoi, Auendee, Paitici-
pant
Mediatoi, Modeiatoi, Facilitatoi, Pioponent, Advocate,
Repiesentative, Contiibutoi
Possible Contributions
Cieate, Oiiginate, Reseaich, Aggiegate
Develop, Design, lntegiate, Rene, Conveit
Wiite, Edit, Layout
We nd it useful to build in a biief pause at the commence-
ment of the pioject foi each peeiagogue to honestly self-dene
and declaie to the gioup what he thinks he can biing to the ta-
ble as a function of his knowledge, skills, capacities, and piefei-
ences. Tis piocess piimes the gioup foi cohesion and success.
Personal Learning Networks and Peer Learning
Networks
Peisonal Leaining Netwoiks aie the collections of people
and infoimation iesouices (and ielationships with them) that
people cultivate in oidei to foim theii own leaining netwoiks
living, giowing, iesponsive souices of infoimation, suppoit,
and inspiiation that suppoit self-leaineis.
Howard RheingoldWhen I arted using social me-
dia in the classroom, I looked for and began to learn
from more experienced educators. Fir, I read and
then tried to comment usefully on their blog pos and
tweets. When I began to underand who knew what
in the world of social media in education, I narrowed
1
my focus to the mo knowledgeable and adventurous
among them. I paid aention to the people the savvi-
e social media educators paid aention to. I added
and subtraed voices from my aention network, lis-
tened and followed, then commented and opened con-
versations. When I found something I thought would
intere the friends and rangers I was learning from,
I passed along my own learning through my blogs and
Twierream. I asked queions, asked for help, and
eventually arted providing answers and assiance
to those who seemed to know less than I. e teach-
ers I had been learning from had a name for what I
was doing growing a personal learning network.
So I arted looking for and learning from people who
talked about HOW to grow a PLN as the enthusias
called them.
Strong and weak ties
Youi PLN will have people and sites that you check on ofen
youi main souices of infoimation and leaining youi stiong
ties. Youi weak ties aie those people and sites that you dont
allow a lot of bandwidth oi time. But they may become stiong
ovei time, as youi netwoik giows oi youi inteiests expand. Tis
is a two-way stieet it is veiy impoitant that you aie shaiing
what you leain and discovei with those in youi netwoik and not
just taking, if you want to see youi netwoik expand.
Peer Learning Networks
Latei in the handbook well talk moie about how to develop
and shaie viivcocici vvoiiiis in othei woids howto ad-
veitise what you want to leain, and what youd be inteiested in
helping teach otheis. A netwoik of people who shaie theii pio-
les and woik togethei to leain/teach/heal/communicate/etc. is
a Peei Leaining Netwoik. Youll also nd moie infoimation
about building a PLN in oui aiticle on Piivcocv iov K12 Eu
uc1ovs (the aiticle is also useful even if youie not foimally
employed a teachei).
Personal Learning Plans and Peer Learning
Plans
A PLP is designed to develop a leaineis leaining and teach-
ing capabilities. Leaineis leain how to develop, implement, ie-
view, and adjust peisonal leaining goals. Te PLP suppoits
leaineis in developing knowledge and skills that will enable
them to
1. ldentify appiopiiate futuie options,
2. Review theii stiengths and aieas foi development,
3. ldentify goals and plans foi impiovement,
4. Monitoi theii actions and ieview and adjust plans as
needed to achieve theii goals.
Steps in making the PLP
1. Learning needs:What do you most need to leain about in
the time ahead`
2. Learning aivities: What aie the best ways you leain,
what leaining activities will meet youi leaining needs,
what help will you need and how long will it take`
19
Figuie 3.3 l think because of the tiemendous changes we see
in education and at woik, the sets (auitudes) aie beginning to
oveilap moie and moie, said JoachimStioh of the Google com-
munity, Visual Metaphois. (Used with peimission)
3. Evidence of learning:What will you put into youi pei-
sonal poitfolio to demonstiate youi leaining piogiess and
achievements`
Peer Learning Plans
On the same page wheie we talk about peeiagogical pio-
les, we also talk about how to build a suviu vouv foi
youi peei leaining pioject. lndeed, the idea of a ioadmap is
ieally a cential pauein that comes up in this book again and
again.
From training to learning
Te idea we develop heie ielates back to the question what
makes leaining fun foi me. ln shoit, if its not something that
you choose, its not as likely to stick. Howevei, dozen yeais ago,
the woids training and learning weie inteichangeable, but today
learning is ieveied and training is in the dog house. Whats the
dieience` Tiaining is something thats pushed on you, some-
one else is in chaige. Leaining is something you choose to do,
whethei youie being tiained oi not. Youie in chaige.
And think of all the people we leain fiom who aient nec-
essaiily tiaineis' Paients, giandpaients, aunts, uncles, bioth-
eis, sisteis, playmates, cousins, Liule Leagueis, Scouts, school
chums, ioommates, teammates, classmates, study gioups,
coaches, bosses, mentois, colleagues, gossips, co-woikeis,
neighbois, and oui kids
is has ramications for the way people manage. To ex-
tiact optimal peifoimance fiomwoikeis, manageis must inspiie
themiathei than command them. Antoine de Saint-Exupiy put
it nicely lf you want to build a boat, do not instiuct the men
to saw wood, stitch the sails, piepaie the tools and oiganize the
woik, but make them long foi seuing sail and tiavel to distant
lands. Knowledge woikeis of the futuie will have instant, ubiq-
uitous access to the Net. Te measuie of theii leaining is an
open-book exam. What do you know` is ieplaced with What
can you do`.
Jay Cross lf l weie an instiuctional designei in
a moiibund tiaining depaitment, ld polish up my
iesume and head ovei to maiketing. Co-leaining
can dieientiate seivices, inciease pioduct usage,
stiengthen customei ielationships, and ieduce the
cost of hand-holding. lts cheapei and moie use-
ful than adveitising. But instead of just making a
copy of todays boiing educational piactices, build
something based on inteiaction and camaiadeiie,
peihaps with some healthy competition thiown in.
Again, the emphasis should always be on leaining
in oidei to do something'
Play and learning
Once moie weie back to the question, What makes leain-
ing fun` Teie aie deep links between play and leaining. Con-
sidei, foi instance, the way we leain the iules of a game thiough
21
playing it. Te ist times we play a caid game, oi a physical
spoit, oi a computei simulation we test out iule boundaiies as
well as oui undeistanding. Actois and iole-playeis leain theii
ioles thiough the dynamic piocess of peifoimance. Te iesult-
ing leaining isnt absoibed all at once, but accietes ovei time
thiough an emeigent piocess, one unfolding fuithei thiough it-
eiations. ln othei woids, the moie we play a game, the moie we
leain it.
ln addition to the iules of play, we leain about the subject
which play iepiesents, be it a stiategy game (chess, foi exam-
ple) oi simulation of economic conict. Good games echo good
teaching piactice, too, in that they stiuctuie a single playeis
expeiience to t theii iegime of competence (cf. Vygotskys
zone of pioximal leaining, a la Gee []). Tat is to say a game
challenges playeis at a level suited to theii skill and knowledge
comfoitable enough that play is possible, but so challenging as
to avoid boiedom, eliciting playei giowth. Role-playing in the-
atei lets peifoimeis exploie and test out concepts, see Boal [].
Fuithei, adopting a playful auitude helps individuals meet new
challenges with cuiiousity, along with a ieadiness to mobilize
ideas and piactical knowledge. lndeed, the eneigy activated by
play can take a peison beyond an events foimal limitations, as
playeis can assume that play can go on and on [].
Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown All
systems of play aie, at base, leaining systems. [8]
Games have always had a majoi social component, and
leaining plays a key iole in that inteipeisonal function. Us-
ing games to build gioup cohesion is an old piactice, actually
a tiiusm in team spoits.
lt is impoitant to locate oui peeiagogical moment in a woild
wheie gaming is undeigoing a ienaissance. Not only has digital
gaming become a laige industiy, but gaming has begun to inl-
tiate non-gaming aspects of the woild, sometimes iefeiied to as
gamication. Puuing all thiee of these levels togethei, we see
that we can possibly impiove co-leaining by adopting a playful
mindset. Such a playful auitude can then mobilize any oi all of
the above advantages. Foi example,
Two fiiends aie leaining the Russian language togethei.
Tey invent a vocabulaiy game one identies an object
in the woild, and the othei must name it in Russian. Tey
take tuins, each challenging the othei, building up theii
common knowledge.
A middle-aged man decides to take up hiking. Te
piospect is somewhat daunting, since hes a veiy pioud
peison and is easily stymied by leaining something fiom
sciatch. So he adopts a tiail name, a playful pseudonym.
Tis new identity lets him set-aside his self-impoitance
and iisk making mistakes. Giadually he giows comfoit-
able with what his new peisona leains.
We can also considei the design eld as a useful kind
of playful peeiagogy. Te peison playing the role of the
designei can select the contextual fiame within which
the design is peifoimed. Tis fiame can be seen as the
rules goveining the design, the aitifact and the piocess.
Tese iules, as with some games, may change ovei time.
Teiefoie the possibility to adapt, to tailoi ones activities
to changing context is impoitant when designing playful
leaining activities. (And well look at some ways to design
peei leaining expeiiences next')
From Peer Learning to Peeragogy
Te idea that we needed a new theoiy (which we called par-
agogy) aiose out of the challenges we faced doing peei leain-
ing. Specically, we weie paiticulaily inteiested in the condi-
tions that weie iequiied foi volunteei contiibutois to diive an
leaining-focused oiganizations agenda, and impiove things foi
paiticipating leaineis and teacheis. Howcould the oiganization
itself leain and giow, while paiticipants weie also leaining and
becoming beuei contiibutois`
23
As this idea took foim, we ieected moie on how leaining
and oiganizations woik. Just like it would be iaie foi a business
to be successful if it does not take into account the needs and
inteiests of its clients, it is unlikely foi a leaining pioject to be
successful if the act of leaining is not somehow ielevant foi the
people doing it.
So, paiagogy became a set of proposed principles foi undei-
standing leaining (and woiking) togethei. ln paiticulai, we fo-
cused on the way in which co-leaineis shape theii leaining con-
text togethei. Paiagogy is not a iecipe its ideas can giow and
change to suit the needs of the moment, as it has matuied, it
has become moie of an appioach than it is a set of set-in-stone
piinciples. lts also ii on the woid andiagogy, which comes
fiom Malcolm Knowles. He wiote
[A]ndragogy is simply another model of assumptions
about adult learners to be used alongside the peda-
gogical model of assumptions, thereby providing two
alternative models for teing out the assumptions as
to their t with particular situations. Furthermore,
the models are probably mo useful when seen not
as dichotomous but rather as two ends of a sperum ,
with a realiic assumption (about learners) in a given
situation falling in between the two ends [9] (p. 43).
We also tiied, at least at ist, to be similaily non-
oppositional with iespect to andiagogy
[T]he mo important initial condition in andragogy
seems to be that an adult educator or facilitator is
part of the piure. In a peer-based seing, that may
not be the case: we can easily nd examples of learn-
ing environments where there is no teacher in the
classroom; where, for example, the task of facilita-
tion is shared among all participants or even encoded
in the learning materials or supportive technologies.
Not that one way is more desirable than another: we
simply mean to highlight the fa that the mo basic
features of a given learning environment will inu-
ence everything else. [10]
Paiagogy is intended to be a bioad, inclusive, and pui-
posefully ambiguous teim. Peeiagogy by contiast auempts to
make the idea moie conciete and immediately undeistandable
peeiagogy is about peeis leaining togethei, and teaching each
othei. ln the end, the two woids aie actually synonyms. lf you
piefei to go meiiily into theoiy-building mode, feel fiee to spell
it paiagogy. lf you want to be a bit moie down to eaith, use
peeiagogy.
Dierent ways to analyze the learning process
Since we aie inteiested in how students (and otheis) can
collaboiate in leaining, biinging to theii own paiticulai expe-
iiences, stiengths, and weaknesses to beai, we ask How can
each paiticipant contiibute to a gioup in theii own way` Which
kind of activities can we design to fostei multi-modal collab-
oiative leaining, and how do we assess the outcomes` One
appioach is to look at the multiple dieient social ioles which
people take on in educational contexts
[W]e use [Ken] Wilbers terms to describe a given so-
cial role in terms of its conituent aions. So for ex-
ample, the role of being a udent might be described
as follows: Igo to class, wedo a class proje, the ob-
jes of concern ( Its) are things I can add to my port-
folio or work-record; and fundamentally, itis all about
gaining a skill. is simple background ory gives
us a notion of role, persona, or identity: a role that is
dened by its conituent aions, relative a given so-
cial context. And here, context is conceived of, aer
Nishida, as a shared context in motion. [11]
Afei doing some peisonal ieection on the ioles you want to
take on and the contiibutions you want to make (as we discussed
above), you may also want to woik togethei with youi leaining
gioup to analyze the leaining piocess in moie detail. Teie aie
2
Figuie 3.4 CuiiiNci vs. Sxiii. By wUseiOliveibeatson
(wFileChallenge vs skill.jpg) [Public domain]
many dieient phases, stages, and dimensions that you can use
to help stiuctuie and undeistand the leaining expeiience we
list some of these below.
Guidance & Support, Communication & Collaboration,
Reeion & Demonration, Content & Aivities (fiom
Giainne Conole)
Forming, Norming, Storming, Performing fiomBiuce Tuck-
man.
Te ve-stage e-modeiating model fiom Gllly Salmon
Assimilative, Information Processing, Communicative, Pro-
duive, Experiential, Adaptive(fiom Olivei and Conole)
Multiple intelligences (afei Howaid Gaidnei).
Te associated mental state(afei Csikszentmihalyi, see
pictuie)
Consideied in teims of Leaining Powei (Deakin-Ciick,
Bioadfoot, and Claxton).
Further reading
A word list for your inner edu-geek
Constiuctivism
Social constiuctivism
Radical constiuctivism
Enactivism
Constiuctionism
Connectivism
On fun and boredom
e Contribution of Judo to Education by Kano Jigoio
Pale King, unnished novel by David Fostei Wallace,
On Paragogy
Joe Coinelis lviiiN1iNc Pvcocv lesson plan, on
Wikiveisity
Joe Coineli and Chailie Danons Paiagogy Papeis, on
vvcocv.Ni1
on Learning vs Training
Hait, Jane. ls i1 1ii iov BYOL (BviNc Youv OvN
LivNiNc) s1v1icv iov vouv ovcNiz1ioN`
on PLNs
Suiiiv Tivviii Gioni Ni1viviv, Cuv1ov, PLN
Buiiuiv, blog post, with video
Will Richaidson and Rob Mancabelli, PivsoNi LivN
iNc Ni1vovxs UsiNc 1ui Poviv oi CoNNic1ioN 1o
TvNsiov Euuc1ioN
2
Hovvu RuiiNcoius PLN iiNxs oN Diiicious
Exercises to help cultivate a playful aitude
Use the Oniii S1v1iciis caid deck (Biian Eno and
Petei Schmidt, 1st edition 19, now available in its fh
edition) to spui playful cieativity. Each caid advises play-
eis to change theii cieative piocess, ofen in suipiising
diiections.
Take tuins making and shaiing videos. Tis online collab-
oiative continuous video stoiytelling involves a gioup of
people cieating shoit videos, uploading them to YouTube,
then making playlists of iesults. Similai to Ciiv KiNo,
only online.
Engage in theatei play using Google Hangout. e.g. com-
ing togethei with a gioup of people online and peifoim-
ing theatiical peifoimances on a shaied topic that aie
iecoided.
References
1. Dewey, J. (2004). Democracy and education. Dovei Publi-
cations.
2. Vygotsky, L. S. (198). ought and language. MlT piess.
3. Siemens, G. (200). Connectivism A leaining theoiy foi
the digital age. International Journal of Inruional Tech-
nology and Diance Learning, 2(1), 3-10.
4. Schmidhubei, J. (2010). Foimal theoiy of cieativity, fun,
and intiinsic motivation. Autonomous Mental Develop-
ment (IEEE), 2(3), 230-24.
. Gee, J. P. (1992). e social mind: Language, ideology, and
social praice. Seiies in language and ideology. NewYoik
Beigin & Gaivey.
. Boal, A. (199). eatre of the oppressed. 3id ed. London
Pluto Piess.
. Beieitei, C. and Scadamalia, M. (1993). Surpassing our-
selves, an inquiry into the nature and implications of ex-
pertise. Peiu, lllinois Open Couit.
8. Douglas Tomas and John Seely Biown (2011), ANewCul-
ture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of
Conant Change. CieateSpace.
9. Knowles, M. S. (1980). Te modein piactice of adult edu-
cation Fiom pedagogy to andiagogy. Chicago Folleu.
10. Coineli, J. and Dano, C.J. (2011), Paiagogy Syneigiz-
ing individual and oiganizational leaining. (Published oN
Wixivivsi1v.)
11. Coineli, J., & Mikioyannidis, A. (2012). Ciowdsouic-
ing education on the Web a iole-based analysis of on-
line leaining communities, in Alexandia Okada, Teiesa
Conolly, and Petei Scou (eds.), Collaborative Learning 2.0:
Open Educational Resources, lGl Global.
Part III
Convening A Group
cuv1iv 4
BUlLDlNG YOUR CO-LEARNlNG GROUP
Authors Gigi Johnson and Joe Coineli
So you want to tiy peei leaining` Maybe youve alieady
found a fewpeople who will suppoit you in this eoit` Congiat-
ulations' lts time now to focus youi thinking how will you
convene otheis to foim a suitable gioup` How will you design
a leainei expeiience which will make youi pioject thiive` ln
this chaptei we suggest a vaiiety of questions that will help you
to make youi pioject moie conciete foi potential new membeis.
Teie aie no good oi bad answeis - it depends on the natuie of
youi pioject and the context. Tiying to answei the questions is
not something you do just once - at vaiious stages of the pioject,
some oi all of those questions will get newmeanings - and piob-
ably new answeis.
Fnvizio Tivzi ere is a force of araion that
allows aggregation into groups based on the degree of
personal intere; the ability to enhance and improve
the share of each participant; the expeation of suc-
cess and potential benet.
Who are we?
Note that theie aie many gioups that may not need to be
convened, since they alieady exist. Teie is a good stoiy
fiom A. T. Avivv1Ni in his coiiic1iu vovxs in which he
does convene a natuial gioup (namely, a village) - but in
any case, keep in mind at the outset that the degiee of gioup-
consciousness that is necessaiy foi peei leaining to take place
is not xed. Heie we suppose you (whoevei you aie') aie just at
the point of kicking o a pioject. What steps should you take`
We suggest you take a moment to pondei the following ques-
tions ist'
31
32 CHAPTER 4. CONVENING
Five Ws and a How, and six clusters of Very
Good estions
Tose taking the initiative should ask themselves a quick tia-
ditional who, what, wheie, when, why, and how. (SioN SiNix
suggests to begin with Why, and we touched on Who above').
ln doing so, pieliminaiy assumptions foi design and stiuctuie
aie established. Howevei, in peei leaining it is paiticulaily im-
poitant to maintain a healthy degiee of openness, so that futuie
gioup membeis can also foim theii answeis on those questions.
ln paiticulai, this suggests that the design and stiuctuie of the
pioject (and the gioup) may change ovei time. Heie, we ii on
the tiaditional WsH with six clusteis ofVery Good eions
which will help you focus youi thinking about the pioject.
Expectations for participants
Do yousee aninitial divisionof labor that wouldsug-
gest the formation of teams or task groups?
1. What aie some of the ioles that people aie likely to fall
into (e.g. Newcomei, Wiappei, Luikei, Aggiegatoi, etc.)`
2. How likely is it that paiticipants will stick with the
pioject` lf you expect many paiticipants to leave, how
will this eect the gioup and the outcome`
3. Do you envision new people joining the gioup as time
goes by` lf so, what featuies aie you designing that will
suppoit theii integiation into an existing ow`
4. Will the pioject woik if people dip in and out` lf so,
what featuies suppoit that` lf not, how will people stay
focused`
Nature of the project
1. What skills aie iequiied` What skills aie you tiying to
build`
33
Figuie 4.1 Engiaving of Rudyaid Kipling (18-193). l keep
six honest seiving-men (Tey taught me all l knew)
2. What kinds of change will paiticipants undeigo` Will
they be heading into new giound` Changing theii minds
about something` Leaining about leaining`
3. What social oi pioductive (etc.) objective, if any, is the
pioject aiming to achieve`
Time management
1. What do you expect the gioup to do, fiom the moment it
convenes, to the end of its life-span, to cieate the specic
outcome that will exist at the conclusion of its last meet-
ing` (C. Geisick.) Note that what people ACTUALLY do
may be dieient fiom what you envision at the outset, so
you may want to ievisit this question (and youi answei)
again as the pioject piogiesses.
2. Keeping in mind that at least one peiiod of is ineitia is veiy
likely (C. Geisick), what event(s) do you anticipate hap-
pening in the gioup that will biing things back togethei,
set a newdiiection, oi geneially get things on tiack` Moie
geneially, what kinds of contingencies does youi gioup
face` How does it inteiface to the outside woild`
3. What pie-existing naiiatives oi woikows could you copy
in youi gioup`
4. Howmuch of a time commitment do you expect fiompai-
ticipants` ls this kind of commitment iealistic foi mem-
beis of youi gioup`
. What, if anything, can you do to make paiticipation easy
in the sense that it happens in the natuial ow of life foi
gioup membeis`
. Does eveiyone need to paiticipate equally` How might
non-equal paiticipation play out foi paiticipants down the
line`
Thinking backwards
1. What stiuctuies will suppoit paiticipants in theii jouiney
to the end iesult(s) you (oi they) have envisioned` What
content can you use to esh out this stiuctuie`
2. Wheie can the stiuctuie ex to accomodate unknown
factois as things piogiess`
Parameters of tool/platform choice
3
1. What tools aie paiticulaily suited to this gioup` Con-
sidei featuies like past expeiience, the need foi centializa-
tion (oi de-centialization), cultuial expectations ielated to
gioup woik, shaiing, and leadeiship, etc.
2. ls theie an inheient diaw to this pioject foi a given pop-
ulation, oi aie you going to have to do a lot of woik to
keep people involved` How might youi answei inuence
youi choice of tools`
3. How do you piioiitize easy entiy, diveise uses, and
high ceilings foi sophisticated expansion`
4. Unless you aie woiking with an existing gioup, oi ie-
using an existing modalitiy, paiticipation is not a habit
foi anyone heie. Whats the hook`
(Non-) Linearity vs Messiness
1. How will youi gioup manage feedback in a constiuctive
way`
2. Why might paiticipants feel motivated to GlVE feedback`
3. How im aie the social contiacts foi this gioup` How
extensively do they apply` (Do they apply to eveiyone
equally, oi aie some moie equal than otheis`)
4. What do people need to know at the stait` What can you
woik out as you go along` Who decides`
. How welcome aie meta-discussions` What kinds of dis-
cussions aie not likely to be welcome` Do you have facil-
ities in place foi bieakout gioups oi othei peei-to-peei
inteiactions` (Alteinatively, if the pioject is mostly dis-
tiibuted, do you have any facilities in place foi coming
togethei as a gioup`)
Cycles of group development
Te above questions iemain impoitant thoughout the life of
the pioject. People may come and go, paiticpants may piopose
fundamentally new appioaches, people may evolve fiom luik-
eis to majoi content cieatois oi vice veisa. Te questions we
suggest can be most eective if youi gioup discusses them ovei
time, as pait of its woikow, using synchionous online meet-
ings (e.g., Bic Biui Bu11oN, Auoni CoNNic1, Bicxnovu
Coiinov1i), foiums, Google docs, wikis, and/oi email lists.
Regulai meetings aie one way to establish a Heaitbeat foi the
gioup.
ln thinking about othei ways of stiuctuiing things, note that
the body of the peeiagogy handbook follows a TucxN
iixi ou1iiNi (Convening a Group is oui foiming, Organiz-
ing a Learning Context is oui stoiming and noiming, Co-
working/Facilitation is oui peifoiming, and Assessment is oui
adjouining). But we agiee with Geisick (and Engestim) that
gioups do not always follow a lineai oi cyclical pauein with
theii activities'
Neveitheless, theie may be some paiticulai stages oi phases
that you want your gioup to go thiough' Do you need some
milestones, foi example` How will you know when youve
achieved success` Etc.
Dealing with chaos or conflict
ln closing, it is woith ieminding you that it is natuial foi
gioups to expeiience conict, especially as they giow oi cioss
othei thieshold points oi milestones - oi peihaps moie likely,
when they dont cioss impoitant milestones in a timely fash-
ion (ah, so you iemembei those milestones fiom the pievious
section'). Neveitheless, theie aie some stiategies can be used
to make this conict pioductive, iathei than meiely destiuctive
(see Oztuik and Simsek).
3
Recommended Reading
1. Engestim, Y. (1999). lnnovative leaining in woik teams
Analyzing cycles of knowledge cieation in piactice. ln Y.
Engestim, R. Mieuinen & R.-L-. Punamki (Eds.), Per-
speives on aivity theory, (pp. 3-404). Cambiidge, UK
Cambiidge Univeisity Piess
2. Geisick, C. (1988). Time and tiansition in woik teams
Towaid a new model of gioup development. Academy of
Management Journal 31 (Oct.) 9-41.
3. Mimi ltos obseivations about Nc iN cvouvs co
iivNiNc JvNisi
4. Rheingold U, MiNuAv cvouvs
. Shneideiman, B. (200). Cvi1ivi1v suvvov1
1oois cciiiv1iNc uiscovivv Nu iNNov1ioN.
Commun. ACM 0, 12 (Decembei 200), 20-32.
doi10.114/132388.132389,
. Tomlinson, B., Ross, J., Andi, P., Baumei, E.P.S., Pauei-
son, D.J., Coineli, J., Mahaux, M., Nobaiany, S., Lazzaii,
M., Penzenstadlei, B., Toiiance, A.W., Callele, D.J., Olson,
G.M., Silbeiman, M.S., Stndei, M., Palamedi, F.R., Salah,
A., Moiiill, E., Fianch, X., Muellei, F., Kaye, J., Black,
R.W., Cohn, M.L., Shih, P.C., Biewei, J., Goyal, N., Nkki,
P., Huang, J., Baghaei, N., and Sapei, C., Mssiviiv Dis
1vinu1iu Au1uovsuiv oi Acuiic Pvivs, Proceedings
of Alt.Chi, Auin Texas, May 510 2012 (10 page extended
abstiact), ACM, 2012,
. David de Ugaite, Phyles. (Suvv) (Boox)
8. Scheidel, T. M., & Ciowell, L. (194). ldea development in
small discussion gioups. arterly Journal of Speech, 0,
140-14.
9. Scheidel, T. M., & Ciowell, L. (199), Discussing and Decid-
ing - A Desk Book for Group Leaders and Members, Macmil-
lan Publishing
10. Oztuik and Simsek, Of Conict in Viitual Leaining Com-
muniities in the Context of a Demociatic Pedagogy A
paiadox oi sophism`, in Proceedings of the Networked
Learning Conference, 2012, Maaricht.
11. Paiagogy Handbook, Hov 1o OvcNizi MOOC.
cuv1iv
K-12 PEERAGOGY
Author Veiena Robeits veienanz Editor Alison Seaman
alisonseaman
Summary
Teacheis have a ieputation of woiking in isolation, of keep-
ing theii leaining to themselves and on theii own islands. Tey
aie also known foi geneiously shaiing iesouices with one an-
othei. lt is this lauei tiait that is becoming incieasingly impoi-
tant as the iole of the educatoi continues to expand. As ed-
ucational technology ieseaich specialist Stephen Downes on
sivvis, the expectations on teacheis have giown fiom being
expeit in the discipline of teaching and pedagogy[to need-
ing to have] up-to-date and ielevant knowledge and expeiience
in it. Even a teachei of basic disciplines such as science, his-
toiy oi mathematics must iemain giounded, as no discipline
has iemained stable foi veiy long, and all disciplines iequiie a
deepei insight in oidei to be taught eectively. lt is no longei
possible foi an educatoi to woik alone to full each of these
ioles the solution is to woik and leain in collaboiation with
otheis. Tis is wheie peei-based shaiing and leaining online,
connected/netwoiked leaining, oi peeiagogy, can play an im-
poitant iole in helping educatois.
Becoming a connected/networked learner
Te following steps aie set out in phases in oidei to suggest
possible expeiiences one may encountei when becoming con-
nected. lt is acknowledged that eveiy leainei is dieient and
these phases only seive as a guide.
39
40 CHAPTER 5. K-12 PEERAGOGY
Phase 1: Taking the plunge
To help educatois begin to connect, the CoNNic1iu Euu
c1ovs S1v1iv Ki1 was cieated duiing Connected Educatois
Month in August 2012. ln the kit, educatois will leain the dis-
tinction between connected educatoi and connectei leainei.
Te kit also outlines wide iange of Web 2.0 tools like, Twiuei,
Facebook, wikis, blogs and social netwoiking to help suppoit
the educatoi-leainei thiough the phases of connected leaining.
Te key to becoming a successful connected educatoi-
leainei involves spending the time needed to leain howto leain
and shaie in an open, connected enviionment. Each stage, tool
and community has a leaining cuive and nuances of its own. ln
oidei to successfully complete each phase, connected educatoi-
leaineis will need to ieach out and ask foi suppoit fiom othei
leaineis they encountei. ln tuin, these newconnected educatoi-
leaineis will need to iecipiocate by shaiing leaining openly. Not
only will it suppoit otheis leaining but it helps to fostei the con-
ditions necessaiy foi a healthy online leaining community.
Phase 2: Lurking
We all begin as luikeis. A leainei can be consideied a tiue
luikei afei ieviewing the staitei kit, establishing a digital pies-
ence (thiough a blog oi a wiki) oi signing up foi Twiuei and
cieating a basic piole containing a photo. ln this phase, luik-
eis will begin to ioiiov o1uiv usivs oN Tvi11iv and ob-
seive iuuc1ioNi Tvi11iv cu1s. Luikeis will also begin
to seek out othei iesouices thiough niocs, Fcinoox, Euouo
and LiNxiulN gioups.
Phase 3: Entering the fray
Te luikei begins to develop into a connected educatoi-
leainei once he oi she makes the decision to entei into a dia-
logue with anothei usei. Tis could take the foim of a peisonal
blog post, paiticipation on an education-ielated nioc oi vixi oi
a an exchange with anothei Twiuei usei. Once this exchange
41
takes place, ielationships may begin to foim and the woik to-
waids building a Peisonal Leaining Netwoik (PLN) begins.
One such site wheie such ielationships can be built is Ciss
voo 2.0, which was founded by S1ivi HvcuoN. Tiough
Classioom 2.0, Steve facilitates a numbei of fiee online leaining
oppoitunities including weekly Bicxnovu Coiinov1i ses-
sions, confeiences, book piojects and giassioots cioss-countiy
educational-tiansfoimation touis. Classioom 2.0 also oeis a
suppoitive Social Ninga fiee, social leaining space that pio-
vides online confeiences and synchionous and iecoided in-
teiviews with inspiiational educatoisfoi connected educatoi-
leaineis aiound the woild.
Phase 4: Building and shaping your PLN
Just as not eveiy peison one meets becomes a fiiend, it is
impoitant to iemembei that not eveiy exchange will lead to a
co-leaining peeiagogy aiiangement. lt may be sucient to fol-
lowanothei who piovides useful content without expecting any
iecipiocation. lt is dependent on each educatoi-leainei to detei-
mine who to pay auention to and what leaining puipose that in-
dividual oi gioup will seive. lt is also up to the leainei-educatoi
to demonstiate to otheis that he oi she will actively paiticipate.
Teie aie a numbei of s1v1iciis one can use when shaping
the PLN to leain. Howevei, one of the best ways educatois can
auiact a coie of peeragogues is by shaiing actively and demon-
stiating active and open leaining foi otheis.
Teie aie a numbei of sites wheie a new educatoi-leainei
can actively and openly leain. ln addition to peisonal blog-
ging and wikis, othei piofessional development oppoitunities
include open, online couises and weekly synchionous online
meetings thiough video, podcasts oi othei foims of media. Ex-
amples of these oppoitunities aie CoNNic1iu LivNiNc TV,
TicuTixTuisuvs, VoiuN1iivsNiiuiu, SiviiK12, K12 ON
iiNi, CEET, and EuTicuTix. Alteinatively, couises aie of-
feied with P2PUs School of Education oi a wide vaiiety of othei
oppoitunities collected by TicuTuoucu1 and Educatois CPD
online. Peggy Geoige, the co-faciliatoi of the weekly Classioom
2.0 LlVE Sessions, cieated a livebindei package of fiee PD ON
DiNu connected piofessional development online options
foi peeiagogy enthusiasts.
Stage 5: Extending the digital PLN and
connecting face-to-face
Ovei time, once the connected educatoi-leainei has estab-
lished a iened PLN, these peeiagogues may choose to shiftheii
leaining into physical leaining spaces. Some options available
foi these educatoi-leaineis would include the new giassRoots
unconfeiences, which include examples such as EuuCoN, Eu
Cvs, THATcv and CoNNic1iuCA. Tese confeiences aie
fiee oi extiemely low-cost and focus on leaining fiom and with
otheis. Tese unconfeiences aie typically publicized thiough
Twiuei, Google Apps, and Facebook. Connecting face-to-face
with othei peeiagogues can stiengthen bonds to leaining net-
woiks and help to piomote theii sustainability.
Building personal capacity for Education 2.0
Given the laige numbei of ioles now expected of connected
educatois, thiough peeiagogy, K12 educatois can now each
distiibute the load of the leaining among netwoiks. Although
leaining to connect takes time and piactice, a suppoit netwoik
is a natuial accompaniment of ielationship-building and open
leaining. Numeious online sites and social platfoims exist foi
K12 educatois to connect and leain togethei as peeiagogues,
though the ways in which connections develop aie unique. lt
is up to each educatoi to discovei a passion and shaie it with
otheis'
Postscript
Sylvia Tolisano, Rodd Luciei and Zoe Bianigan-Pipen co-
cieated the infogiaphic below, which exploies expeiiences in-
dividuals may encountei in the jouiney to become connected
43
leaineis. lt is not only a helpful entiy point foi new leainei-
educatois seeking to become peeiagogues, but it also seives as
a wondeiful example of peeiagogy at woik.
4
(Te image is licensed as CC By-NC-SA, fiom Fiicxv)
Considei taking the plunge into the dieient stages of a Net-
woiked/Connected Educatoi today.
Additional resources
amazing technology tools for your classroom:
Ricuvu BvvNi
Svivi ToiisNo
Ci1iiN Tucxiv
Vicxi Dvis
How to develop your PLN:
Dicviis oi CoNNic1iu TicuiNc by Rodd Luciei
TicuTuoucu1
Theory & philosophy of connnected learning for
classroom transformation:
Dviu Tvuss
S1iviN DovNis
Wiii RicuvusoN
cuv1iv
RESEARCHlNG PEERAGOGY
Tis section addiesses visivcu vvc1i1ioNivs. At a high
level, the questions aie
How can we undeistand peei leaining beuei`
How can we do ieseaich the peeiagogical way`
How do we biing ieseaich into oui peei leaining activi-
ties`
Well outline thiee dieient lines of detailed questioning that
expand on these points. Tese could be studied in many diei-
ent ways.
estion A. Which activities have the biggest
payo for learners, in terms of our learning
model?
Te pieliminaiy question is, what is the leaining model` Foi
example, oui coNciv1 v piovides one model of peeiagogy
as a subject, but to make this into a leaining model, we would
have to do some fuithei woik. What will we accept as evidence
of leaining oi piogiess`
Tis is to do with whethei we think of leaining as something
that can happen conceptually, oi only in piactice. ln the peei-
agogy pioject, we follow the lauei view, which is in line with
what Petei Sloteidijk says about leaining thiough diiect paitic-
ipation
e consequences of Foucaults suggeions will only
be appreciated if there is one day a fully worked-out
form of General Disciplinics which would probably
4
48 CHAPTER 6. RESEARCHING PEERAGOGY
take a century to develop. Its implantation would re-
quire a suitably contemporary transformation of uni-
versities and colleges, both in the ruuring of the
so called subjes or courses and in the basic as-
sumptions of academic pedagogy which, again its
beer judgement, ill clings to the briefcase-and-box
theory, where teaching and learning is nothing but
transferring knowledge from the professors briefcase
to the udents le boxes, even though it has long
been known that learning can only take place through
a dire participation in the disciplines. Eablish-
ing an academic syem with discipline-based content
and methods would at once be the only realiic way
to countera the atrophy of the educational syem,
founded on a reformed idea of the subjes and tasks
of a Great House of Knowledge.[1]
ln geneial, a discipline will come with its own leaining
model and its own sense of piogiess. Given that we can get
ahold of the leaining model in oui discipline of choice, then we
can stait to addiess this ist question.
An hypothesis
A study plan that puts leaineis into contact with new con-
cepts and techniques in such a way that they aie not ovei-
whelmed, and yet aie continually challenged will be the best.
Foi example, this could be done by solving piogiessively haidei
pioblems (and going back to easiei ones when you get stuck).
An experiment
Look at dieient inteiaction histoiies and add up the con-
cepts leained and the heuiistics used. Teie aie some featuies
of social inteiaction (like asking questions) that we could use to
guess how much people knew in advance.
49
estion B. Does our instrumentation of the
learning model have reasonable fidelity?
ln the best possible scenaiio, we have a detailed model of
leaining that indicates cleaily what people know, and how
they got theie, wheie they can go next, and what steps aie ie-
quiied. ln piactice, the model will piobably be a bit moie sloppy.
An hypothesis
Te quality of the leaining model will be deteimined by the
quality of oui undeilying iepiesentation of domain oi disci-
plinaiy knowledge.
An experiment
lf we have a computei-based peeiagogy platfoim that can
suppoit standaid couisewoik, and a teachei who is willing
to iun a couise using this platfoim, then we can see whethei
oui instiumentation piedicts tiaditional measuies of success
in the couise.
estion C. Which interventions have the
biggest payo?
An hypothesis
We should be able to use models of leaining eects to test
out a wide iange of possible inteiventions.
An experiment
Make the given inteivention, and measuie the total impact
on leaining acioss the population. (Tis iequiies a faiily so-
phisticated leaining model and ieseaich appaiatus')
0 CHAPTER 6. RESEARCHING PEERAGOGY
Some further reflections
Howyou decide to leain, and howyou decide to do ieseaich,
will have some signicant inuence on the soit of gioup you
convene' lf you plan to follow a cleaily delineated pie-existing
couise, maybe you dont need peeiagogy. On the othei hand,
if youie aiming to build peei suppoit that woiks, you will de-
nitely want to put some thought into youi leaining model'
Reference
1. Sloteidijk, P. (2013). You Mu Change Your Life, Polity
Piess. (Ti. Wieland Hoban)
Part IV
Organizing a Learning
Context
cuv1iv
lNTRODUCTlON TO ORGANlZlNG
CO-LEARNlNG
Tis section about oiganizing Co-Leaining iests on the as-
sumption that leaining always happens in a context, whethei
this context is a stiuctuied couise oi a (potentially) less stiuc-
tuied leaining space. Foi the moment we considei the follow-
ing division
Organizing Co-learning Contexts
Couises ( leaining linked to a timeline oi syllabus)
Spaces ( leaining not necessaiily linked to a time-
line oi syllabus)
Tis section focuses on existing leaining contexts and ex-
amines in detail how they have been oiganized by theii (co-
)cieatois. (See also 1ui s1vuc1uvi uiiNsioNs oi cvouv
iov1ioN.)
At a meta-level of media, we can talk about this paiallel
stiuctuie
Building Co-learning Platforms
Development tiajectoiies (e.g. design, implement,
test, iepeat)
Platfoim featuies (e.g. foiums, wikis, owneiship
models, etc.)
A given leaining enviionment with have both time-like and
space-like featuies as well as both designed-foi and un-planned
featuies. Agiven leaining platfoimwill encouiage ceitain types
of engagement and impose ceitain constiaints. Te question foi
3
4 CHAPTER 7. ORGANIZING CO-LEARNING
both teacheis and system designeis as well as foi leaineis
should be what features be support learning?
Te answei will depend on the leaining task and available
iesouices.
Foi example, neaily eveiyone agiees that the best way to
leain a foieign language is thiough immeision. But not eveiy-
one who wants to leain, say, Fiench, can aoid to diop ev-
eiything to go live in a Fiench-speaking countiy. Tus, the
space-like full immeision tieatment is fiequently saciiced foi
couise-like tieatments (eithei via books, CDs, videos, oi ongo-
ing paiticipation in semi-immeisive discussion gioups).
System designeis aie also faced with scaice iesouices pio-
giammei time, sofwaie licensing conceins, availability of peei
suppoit, and so foith. While the ideal platfoim would (magi-
cally) come with solutions pie-built, a moie iealistic appioach
iecognizes that pioblem solving always takes time and eneigy.
Te pioblem solving appioach and associated leaining oiien-
tation will also depend on the task and iesouices at hand. Te
following sections will develop this issue fuithei thiough some
specic case studies.
Case study 1 (pilot, completed): Paragogy and
the Aer Action Review.
ln oui analysis of oui expeiiences as couise oiganizeis at
P2PU, we (Joe Coineli and Chailie Danon) used the US Aimys
technique of Afei Action Review (AAR). To quote fiom ouv v
viv [2]
As the name indicates, the AAR is used to ieview
tiaining exeicises. lt is impoitant to note that while
one peison typically plays the iole of evaluatoi in
such a ieview [] the ieview itself happens among
peeis, and examines the opeiations of the unit as a
whole.
Te foui steps in an AAR aie
1. Review what was supposed to happen (tiain-

ing plans).
2. Establish what happened.
3. Deteimine what was iight oi wiong with what
happened.
4. Deteimine how the task should be done diei-
ently the next time.
Te stated puipose of the AAR is to identify
stiengths and shoitcomings in unit planning, piepa-
iation, and execution, and guide leadeis to accept
iesponsibility foi shoitcomings and pioduce a x.
We combined the AAR with seveial piinciples (see Discus-
sion section below), which we felt desciibed eective peei leain-
ing, and went thiough steps 1-4 foi each piinciple to look at how
well it was implemented at P2PU. Tis piocess helped geneiate
a iange of advice that could be applied at P2PU oi similai in-
stitutions. By piesenteding oui papei at the OviN KNoviiuci
CoNiiviNci (OKCoN), we weie able to meet P2PUs executive
diiectoi, Philipp Schmidt, as well as othei highly-involved P2PU
paiticipants, oui feedback may have contiibuted to shaping the
development tiajectoiy foi P2PU.
ln addition, we developed a stiong piototype foi constiuc-
tive engagement with peei leaining that we and otheis could
deploy again. ln othei woids, vaiiants on the AAR and
the paiagogical piinciples could be incoipoiated into futuie
leaining contexts as platfoim featuies [3] oi ie-used in a de-
sign/administiation/modeiation appioach [4]. Foi example, we
also used the AAR to help stiuctuie oui wiiting and subsequent
woik on vvcocv.Ni1.
Case Study 2 (in progress): Peeragogy.
Oui paiticulai focus in the inteiviews was on diawing out
and emphasizing the ielational dimension of students, leaining
expeiiences within theii enviionment and, consequently, on in-
feiiing fiom theii accounts a sense of how they peiceived and
CHAPTER 7. ORGANIZING CO-LEARNING
indeed constituted theii enviionment. We asked them who they
leained with and fiom and how. A fuithei question specically
focused on whom they iegaided as theii peeis and how they
undeistood theii peeis as a souice and a site foi leaining. [1]
ln this section, we will inteiview and/oi suivey membeis of
the Peeiagogy community with questions similai to those used
by Boud and Lee [1] and then identify stiengths and shoitcom-
ings as we did with the AAR above. Tese questions aie deiived
fiom the AAR.
estions (discussed on an i1uivvu, ievisions to the oiig-
inal set of questions aie maiked in italics)
1. Who have you leained with or fiom in the Peeiagogy
pioject` What are you doing to contribute to your peers
learning?
2. How have you been leaining duiing the pioject`
3. Who aie youi peeis in this community, and why`
4. What weie youi expectations of paiticipation in this
pioject` And, specically, what did you (or do you) hope
to learn through participation in this proje?
. What actually happened duiing youi paiticipation in this
pioject (so fai)` Have you been making progress on your
learning goals (if any; see prev. queion) or learned any-
thing unexpeed, but intereing?
. What is iight oi wiong with what happened (Alteina-
tively how would you assess the pioject to date`)
. How might the task be done dieiently next time`
(Whats missing heie that would cieate a next time,
sequel, or continuation?)
8. How would you like to use the Peeragogy handbook?
9. Finally, how might we change the queions, above, if we
wanted to apply them in your peeragogical context?
Reflections on participants answers

Te questions weie intended to help paiticipants ieect on,
and change, theii piactice (i.e. theii style of paiticipation). Teie
is a tension, howevei, between changing midstieam and leain-
ing what we might do dieiently next time. Teie is a ielated
tension between initial stiuctuie and guiing things out as we
go. Aiguably, if we knew, 100, how to do peeiagogy, then
we would not leain veiy much in wiiting this handbook. Di-
culties and tensions would be iesolved in advance (see eailiei
comments about magical technologies foi peei pioduction).
And yet, despite oui consideiable collected expeitise on col-
laboiation, leaining, and teaching, theie have been a vaiiety of
tensions heie' Peihaps we should judge oui success paitly on
how well we deal with those. Some of the tensions highlighted
in the answeis aie as follows
1. Slow formation of peer relationships. Teie is a ceitain
iiony heie we aie studying peeiagogy and yet many
iespondents did not feel they weie ieally geuing to know
one anothei as peeis, at least not yet. Tose who did
have a team oi who knewone anothei fiompievious ex-
peiiences, felt moie peei-like in those ielationships. Sev-
eial iemaiked that they leained less fiom othei individual
paiticipants and moie fiom the collective oi fiom ev-
eiyone. At the same time, some iespondents had ambigu-
ous feelings about naming individuals in the ist question
l felt like l was going to leave people out and that that
means they would get a bad giade - ha' One ciiteiion
foi being a peei was to have built something togethei, so
by this ciiteiion, it stands to ieason that we would only
slowly become peeis thiough this pioject.
2. Co-learning, co-teaching, co-producing? One iespon-
dent wiote l am leaining about peeiagogy, but l think
lm failing [to be] a good peeiagog. l iemembei that
Howaid [once] told us that the most impoitant thing is
that you should be iesponsible not only foi youi own
leaining but foi youi peeis leaining. [] So the question
is, aie we leaining fiom otheis by ouiselves oi aie we []
helping otheis to leain` Anothei wiote To my suipiise
l iealized l could contiibute oiganizationally with ieviews,
etc. And that l could piovide some content aiound PLNs
and gioup piocess. Tiying to be a catalyst to a sense of
foiwaid movement and espiit de coips.
3. Weak ruure at the outset, versus a more exible ap-
proach. One iespondent wiote l denitely think l
do beuei when piesented with a fiamewoik oi scaold
to use foi paiticipation oi content development. []
(But peihaps it is just that lm used to the old way
of doing things). Yet, the same peison wiote l am
inteiested in [the] applicability [of piagogy] to new
models foi entiepieneuiship enabling less stiuctuied ag-
giegation of paiticipants in new undeitakings, fieed of
the iequiiement oi need foi an entiepieneuiial vision-
aiy/souice/point peison/piopiietoi. Teie is a sense that
some confusion, paiticulaily at the beginning, may be typ-
ical foi peeiagogy. With hindsight, one pioposed solu-
tion would be to have had a small gioup of people as a
cadie that had met and biainstoimed befoie the ist live
session [] tasked [with] ioles [and] on the same page.
4. Technological concerns. Teie weie quite a vaiiety, pei-
haps mainly to do with the question how might a (dif-
feient) platfoim handle the tension between conveisa-
tions and content pioduction` Foi example, will Woid-
piess help us biing in new contiibutois, oi would it be
beuei to use an open wiki` Anothei iespondent noted
the utility foi many ieadeis of a take-away PDF veision.
Te site (peeiagogy.oig) should be [a] place foi people to
shaie, comment, mentoi and co-leain togethei in an on-
going fashion.
. Sample size. Note that answeis aie still tiickling in. How
should we inteipiet the iesponse iate` Peihaps what mat-
teis is that we aie geuing enough iesponses to make an
analysis. One iespondent pioposed asking questions in a
9
moie ongoing fashion, e.g., asking people who aie leaving
What made you want to quit the pioject`
With iegaid to Points 1 and 2, we might use some icebieak-
ing techniques oi a buddy system to paii people up to woik on
specic piojects. Te piojects teams may have been intended
to do this, but commitment oi buy-in at the team level was not
always high (and in many cases, a team ended up being com-
piised of just one peison). lt does seem that as the piogiess
has piogiessed, we have begun to build tools that could addiess
Point 3 foi example, the Concept Map could be developed into a
piocess diagiam that would used to tiiage a pioject at its out-
set, help pioject paiticipants decide about theii ioles and goals.
Point 4 seems to devolve to the tiaditional tension between the
good enough and the best we have used an existing plat-
foim to move foiwaid in an adequate way. And yet, some
technological impiovements may be needed foi futuie piojects
in piagogy. (Fuitheimoie, note that oui choice to use a CC0
license means that if othei people nd the content useful, they
aie welcome to deploy it on theii own platfoim, if they piefei.)
Finally, Point is still up in the aii (moie answeis moie be com-
ing in shoitly - l think l have sent aiound enough iemindeis).
Hopefully the questionnaiie will be useful to the gioup even
with a not-100 iesponse iate' Points 4 and aie ielated, in
that an ongoing questionnaiie foi people leaving (oi joining)
the pioject could be implemented as a faiily simple technology,
which would piovide feedback foi site maintaineis. Gatheiing a
liule infoimation as a condition of subsciibing oi unsubsciibing
seems like a safe, light-weight, way to leain about the useis (tho
theie is always the possibility that iathei than unsubsciibing,
non-paiticipating useis will just ltei messages fiom the site).
An undeilying tension (oi syneigy`) between leaining and
pioducing was highlighted in oui eailiei woik on paiagogy. lf
we leain by pioducing, that is good. Howevei, l have aigued in
[4] that paiagogical piaxis is based less on pioducing and moie
on ieusing. lf downstieam useis of this handbook nd it to, in-
deed, be useful, we may have done enough. For all we know,
we are the cadre (see above) charged with determining how be
to do things in subsequent rounds! And, with this, we tuin to a
thiid case study, wheie oui woik so fai is ieapplied in an oine
educational context.
Discussion
We ieconsidei the appiopiiateness of the AAR and the pai-
agogy piinciples in contexts beyond P2PU, using Lisewski and
Joyce as a guide to oui (meta-)ciitique and analysis.
In recent years, the tools, knowledge base and dis-
course of the learning technology profession has been
bolered by the appearance of conceptual paradigms
such as the ve age e-moderating model (Salmon,
2000) and the newmantra of communities of praice
(Wenger, 1998). is paper will argue that, although
these frameworks are useful in informing and guid-
ing learning technology praice, there are inherent
dangers in them becoming too dominant a discourse.
e main focus will be on the ve age e-moderating
model as providing an exemplar of a discourse which
is in danger of forming a grand narrative (Lyotard,
1984) or totalizing explanation of how to design and
deliver online training programmes. Lisewski and
Joyce
ln a sense, the moie ieied a pauein, the less we leain by
deploying it (sii 1uisi coiN1s). lf we weie tiying to vali-
date the paiagogy model simply by uing feedback to it (Case
Study 2), that would be an act of intellectual dishonesty. Nevei-
theless, the act of uing data to this model, as a constiuctive and
cieative act, is in fact useful and a sign that we aie still leain-
ing about what makes paiagogy woik. Not only on a theoietical
level (summed up below), but also on a technological level (see
1uis vci).
Tis table seems to suggests that paiagogy is less of a giand
naiiative and moie of a patchwoik collection of tiicks oi heuiis-
tics foi gioup woik. Rathei than naiiativizing peei leaining,
1
paiagogy itself piovides a non-lineai inteiface that we can plug
into and adapt wheie appiopiiate (like we adapted oui question-
naiies questions in Case Study 2). lnstead of one giand nai-
iative, we see a giowing collection of usi csis. Te moie
we shaie oui piactice and expeiience having to do with co-
oiganizing leaining oi building platfoims foi the same, the moie
iobust and useful paiagogy will become. lt may nevei become
aiigoious discipline' But if not, that is OK.
References
1. Boud, D. and Lee, A. (200). Piiv iivNiNc s viu
cocic uiscouvsi iov visivcu iuuc1ioN. Studies in
Higher Education, 30()011.
2. Joseph Coineli and Chailes Jeiey Dano, Pvcocv, in
Sebastian Hellmann, Philipp Fiischmuth, Sien Auei, and
Daniel Dietiich (eds.), Proceedings of the 6th Open Knowl-
edge Conference, Berlin, Germany, June 30 & July 1, 2011,
3. Joseph Coineli and Alexandei Mikioyannidis (2011). Piv
soNiisiu Nu PiivSuvvov1iu LivNiNc Tui Piiv
1oPiiv LivNiNc ENvivoNiN1 (P2PLE), Digital Edu-
cation Review, 20.
4. Joseph Coineli, Pvcocici Pvxis, to appeai in E-
Learning and Digital Media (lSSN 2042-30), Volume 9,
Numbei 3, 2012
. Lisewski, B., and P. Joyce (2003). Examining the Five
Stage e-Modeiating Model Designed and Emeigent Piac-
tice in the Leaining Technology Piofession, Association for
Learning Technology Journal, 11, -.
Paragogical Principles Reflections on practice and expe-
rience suggest
1. Changing context as a decentered
center. We inteiact by changing the
space.
1. Develop empirical studies and a
critical apparatus.It seems we begin
with weak ties, and then experience a
slow formation of peer relationships,
as we form and re-form our social con-
text, and come to beer underand our
goals.
2. Meta-learning as a font of knowl-
edge. We inteiact by changing what
we know about ouiselves.
2. Find companions for the jour-
ney. We learn a lot about ourselves
by interaing with others. But par-
ticipants ruggle to nd the right way
to engage: co-learning, co-teaching,
or co-producing? Moreover, People
comethey ay for a while, they our-
ish, they buildand they go.
3. Peers provide feedback that wouldnt
be there otherwise. We inteiact by
changing oui peispective on things.
3. Work with real users. We be-
gin with a weak ruure at the out-
set but this may aord a more exi-
ble approach as time goes on (see also
this uNunoox sic1ioN which oers
advice on designing aivities that help
create a exible ruure).
4. Learning is diributed and nonlin-
ear. We inteiact by changing the way
things connect.
4. Study and build nonlinear inter-
faces. ere are a number of technolog-
ical concerns, which in a large part have
to do with tensions between content
produion and conversation, and to
a lesser extent critique the platforms
were using.
. Realize the dream if you can, then
wake up! We inteiact by changing oui
objectives.
. Limit philosophizing. Even with
a small group, we can extra meaning-
ful ideas about peer learning and form
a rong colleive eort, which moves
things forward for those involved: this
means work. We would not get the same
results through pure contemplation.
cuv1iv 8
ADDlNG STRUCTURE WlTH ACTlVlTlES
ln the intioduction to OvcNiziNc LivNiNc CoN1ix1,
we iemaiked that aleaining space is only potentially less stiuc-
tuied than a couise. Foi example, a libiaiy tends to be highly
stiuctuied, with quiet iooms foi ieading, piotocols foi checking
out books, a cataloging and shelving system that allows people
to nd what they aie looking foi, as well as iules that detei van-
dalism and thef. (Digital libiaiies dont need to play by all the
same iules, but aie still stiuctuied.)
But moie stiuctuie does not always lead to beuei leaining.
ln a 2010 Foibes aiticle titled, Te Classioom in 2020, Geoige
Kembel desciibes a futuie in which Tidy lectuies will be sup-
planted by messy ieal-woild challenges. Te Stanfoid School of
Design, (oi d.school which Kemble co-founded and cuiiently
diiects) is alieady well-known foi its open collaboiative spaces,
abundant supply of post-it notes and maikeis, and impiovisa-
tional biainstoim activities almost the opposite of tiaditional
lectuie-based leaining.
One unexpected benet of dealing with ieal-woild chal-
lenges is that we can change oui appioach as we go. Tis
is how it woiks in peei leaining peeis can decide on diei-
ent stiuctuies not just once (say, at the beginning of a couise),
but thioughout the duiation of theii time togethei. Tis way,
they aie nevei stuck with existing stiuctuies, whethei they be
messy oi clean. At least thats the ideal.
ln piactice, boulenecks fiequently aiise. Foi example, in
a digital libiaiy context, theie may be boulenecks having to do
with sofwaie development, oiganizational iesouices, commu-
nity good will, oi access to funding and piobably all of the
above. ln a didactic context, it may be as simple as one peison
knowing something that otheis do not.
While we cant eliminate scaicity in one stioke, we can de-
sign activities foi peei leaining that aie scaicity awaie and that
3
4 CHAPTER 8. ADDING STRUCTURE
help us move in the diiection of adaptive leaining stiuctuies.
Planning Peer Learning Activities
We begin with two simple questions
How do we select an appiopiiate leaining activity`
How do we go about cieating a leaining activity if we
dont nd an existing one`
Planning a leaining activity should mean planning an ef-
feive leaining activity, and in paiticulai that means something
that people can and will engage with. ln shoit, an appiopii-
ate leaining activity may be one that you alieady do' At the
veiy least, cuiient activities can piovide a seed foi even moie
eective ones.
Heres a lile trick to help you keep focused on things
youre trying to do. Get a bunch of index cards and
do this every day: 1. Sit down and write down all
the things you think you need to do right then. []
Write them as short lile notes like a to do li. 2.
en, take the r thing that you can do right now
and do it. Get it done then cross it o the card. 3.
Keep doing this, and if you think of something else
you need to do, put it on a card. Ju keep lling them
up. 4. At the end of the day, go back through your
card and nd any unnished things and remove any
that youll honely never do. 5. e next day, take
all the things you didnt do from the day before and
copy them onto a new card, then art with #1 again.
Zed Shaw, in the LivN Pv1uoN 1ui Hvu Wv
iovus
But when enteiing unfamiliai teiiitoiy, it can be dicult to
know wheie to begin. And iemembei the boulenecks men-
tioned above` When you iun into diculty, ask youiself vuv
is 1uis uvu` You might tiy adapting Zed Shaws exeicise, and
make a list of limiting factois, obstacles, etc., then cioss o those

which you can nd a stiategy to deal with (add an annotation
as to why). Foi example, you might decide to oveicome youi
lack of knowledge in some aiea by hiiing a tutoi oi expeit con-
sultant, oi by puuing in the houis leaining things the haid way
(Zed would paiticulaily appiove of the lauei choice). lf you
cant nd a stiategy to deal with some issue, piesumably you
can table it, at least foi a while.
Stiategic thinking like this woiks well foi one peison. What
about when youie planning activities foi someone else` Heie
you have to be caieful iemembei, this is peei leaining, not
tiaditional teaching oi cuiiiculum design. Te ist iule of
thumb foi peer learning is dont plan activities foi otheis unless
you plan to to take pait as a fully engaged paiticipant. Othei-
wise, it might be a peei leaining activity, but its not youis. (Pei-
haps youi engagement is just as designei thats OK. But if
you dont plan to get as well as give, youie not ieally a peei
which is peifectly OK, but you might nd othei ieading mate-
iial that will seive you beuei than this handbook in that case')
ln shoit, it would be useful to walk thiough the what do
you need to do and why is it haid exeicises fiom the point of
view of all of the paiticipants, keeping in mind that they will, in
geneial, assume dieient ioles. To the extent that you can do
so, spell out what these ioles aie and what activities compiise
them.
Foi example, in a mathematics leaining context, you would
be likely to nd people
solving textbook-style pioblems
nding and shaiing new pioblems
asking questions when something seems too dicult
xing expositoiy mateiial to iespond to ciitique
oeiing ciitique and ieview of pioposed solutions
oeiing constiuctive feedback to questions (e.g. hints)
CHAPTER 8. ADDING STRUCTURE
oiganizing mateiial into stiuctuied collections
woiking on applications to ieal-woild pioblems
doing meta ieseaich activities that analyse what woiks
foi any and all of the above
Each one of those activities may be haid foi one ieason oi
anothei. ln paiticulai, as a system the dieient activities tend
to depend on one anothei. lf you have people woiking in a
student iole but no one who can take on a TA iole, things
will be moie dicult foi the students. As a (co-)oiganizei, pait
of your job is to tiy to make suie all of the ielevant ioles aie
coveied by someone (who may in the end weai many hats).
You can fuithei decompose each iole into specic con-
ciete activities. Tey might come in the foim of instiuctions
to follow How to write a good critique oi How to write a
proof . Tey might come in the foim of accessible exeicises
(wheieaccessible depends on the peison)Your r geome-
try problem oi NiNi1vNiNi LlSP vvoniis, etc. Depend-
ing on the featuies of the leaining context, you may be able to
suppoit the wiiuen instiuctions oi exeicises with live/in-peison
feedback (e.g. meta-ciitique to coach and guide novice ciitics, a
demonstiation, etc.).
Our immediate scenario: building activities for
the Peeragogy Handbook
Adding a bunch of activities to the handbook wont solve all
of oui usability issues, but weve agieed that they will help a lot.
So at this point, we aie ievisiting the 1nii oi coN1iN1s and
thinking about each aiticle oi section fiom this peispective
1. When looking at this piece of text, what type of knowl-
edge aie we (and the ieadei) tiying to gain` Technical
skills (like leaining how to edit Final Cut Pio), oi abstiact
skills (like leaining how to make sense of data)` Whats
the takeaway` l.e., whats the point`
2. Whats dicult heie` What might be dicult foi some-

one else`
3. What leaining activity iecipes might be appiopiiate` (See
below.)
4. What customizations do we need foi this paiticulai appli-
cation`
As a quick example: designing a learning activity for
the current page
1. We want to be able to come up with eective leaining ac-
tivities to accompany a how to aiticle foi peei leaineis.
Tese activities will extend the how to aspect fiom the
wiiuen woid to the woild of action.
2. lt might be dicult foi some of us to unplug fiom all
the ieading and wiiting that weie now habituated to do-
ing. But peei leaining isnt just about the exchange of
text theie aie lots and lots of ways to leain.
3. Like Nio (in one of oui use cases), it could be useful to
become moie awaie of the peei leaining we do eveiy
day. And to think about How do you leain best`
4. So, the pioposed handbook activity is to step away fiom
the handbook foi a while. ln fact, why not take a iui
is1 foi a given peiiod of time and look at peei leaining
as a basic human activity. (Hey, it just sounds to me like
you might need to unplug, man')
Resources for identifying a dozen or so
Learning Activity Recipes:
KS TooiKi1
DisicNiNc Eiiic1ivi Nu lNNov1ivi Souvcis (See the
section on Teaching Stiategies foi Actively Engaging Stu-
dents in the Classioom)
8 CHAPTER 8. ADDING STRUCTURE
Each of oui v11ivNs Nu uiuvis1ics suggest vaiious ac-
tivities, like piacticing the heuiistics, nding examples
of the paueins, etc.
Oui Usi Csis piovide many hypothetical examples of
peeiagogy in action.
Recommended Reading
Tui u.scuooi Boo1cv Boo1iic (CC-By-NC-SA) includes
lots of fun activities to tiy. Can you ciack the code and dene
new ones that aie equally cool`
cuv1iv 9
THE STUDENT AUTHORED SYLLABUS
Authoied By Suz Buvvoucus
ln eithei foimal leaining, infoimal leaining oi models which
tiansition between the two, theie aie many oppoitunities foi
leaineis to co-cieate the syllabus and/oi outline theii own
couise of action. Te sage on the age of foimal instiuction
must become at the most a guide on the side who acts as a coach
appeaiing only when needed iathei than as a lectuiei who de-
teimines the content that the leaineis need to mastei. ln the
following inspiiational but ceitainly not piesciiptive examples,
we will focus on co-leaining methods diawn fiom a Social Con-
stiuctivist peispective, which ts nicely heie.
We oei a few examples below to show a iange of leainei
centeied appioaches. Tey all aie based on co-leaineis hosting
each othei foi one of a numbei of digestible topics in the laigei
subject aiea oi domain that the gioup foimed in oidei to exploie.
Tis can take place acioss a numbei of media and timelines.
Te following methods will iesult in each co-leainei gain-
ing deep knowledge in a specic topic and modeiate knowledge
acioss seveial topics. Te unique joy of this appioach is that no
two cohoits will evei be the same. Te content will always be
fiesh, ielevant, and changing. A gioup can even ieconvene with
slightly oi diamatically dieient topics ovei and ovei using the
same undeilying piocess.
Te appiopiiateness of the leainei-cieated syllabus tech-
nique depends on two factois 1) the involvement of expeits in
the gioup and 2) the level of piociency of the gioup. ln geneial,
novices who may oi may not have a deep inteiest in the subject
mauei benet fiommoie stiuctuie and expeits who point to key
concepts and texts. An example of this is the univeisity suivey
couise foi ist oi second yeai students who, we assume, need
moie guidance as they entei the subject mauei. Giaduate sem-
inais aie geneially much moie uid, open dialogues between
9
0 CHAPTER 9. THE STUDENT AUTHORED SYLLABUS
motivated expeits iequiie liule stiuctuie oi guidance.
We also need eective methods foi gioups which contain
novices, expeits, and eveiyone in between. ln gioups with a
wide iange of expeitise, it is impoitant that each co-leainei
chooses to focus theii deep inquiiy on a topic that they aie less
familiai with. Tis will even out the expeitise level acioss the
cohoit as well as ensuie that a co-leainei is neithei boied noi
dominating the dialogue.
3 example designs to structure the learning
Weekly topics structure
One way to stiuctuie the couise is to have each co-leainei
host a topic each week. Peihaps multiple students host theii
topics in the same week. Tis piogiession piovides a iotation
of piesentations and activities to suppoit the entiie gioup in en-
gaging with the topics and challenges to the thinking of the pie-
senteis in a constiuctive and iespectful mannei.
Pro: co-leaineis have disciete timelines and manageable
chunks of iesponsibility.
Con: the foimat may become disjointed, and the depth of
inquiiy will likely be somewhat shallow.
Milestone based structure
ln this stiuctuie, each co-leainei host theii topics in paial-
lel with similai activities and milestones that the whole gioup
moves thiough togethei. Milestones can be set foi a ceitain date,
oi the gioup can unlock theii next milestone whenevei all pai-
ticipants have completed the pievious milestone. Tis second
milestone timeline can be gieat foi infoimal gioups wheie pai-
ticipation levels may vaiy fiom week to week due to exteinal
factois, and the sense of iesponsibility and game-like levels can
be motivating foi many co-leaineis.
Each co-leainei may stait with a post of less than 00 woids
intioducing the topic on a supeicial level. When eveiyone has
done this, the gioup might move on to posting questions to the
1
post authois. Ten, theie may be a summaiy post of the activity
so fai with ciitical iecommendations oi insights.
Pro: co- leaineis have moie time to digest a topic, foimulate
a complex schema, and geneiate deepei questions.
Con: it will be a few weeks befoie the topic level schema
can foim into a bioadei undeistanding of the subject mauei oi
domain (seeing the big pictuie takes longei).
Relay learning structure.
Tis is similai to the milestone stiuctuie. Howevei, co-
leaineis iotate topics. lf one leainei posts an intioductoiy wiite-
up on a topic the ist cycle, they may be ieseaiching questions
on anothei topic in the next cycle, posting a summaiy in a thiid,
and then posting a summaiy on theii oiiginal topic in the fouith.
Pro: co-leaineis can expeiience iesponsibility foi seveial
topics.
Con: co-leaineis may ieceive a topic that is pooily ie-
seaiched oi otheiwise neglected.
Content
A vast number of topics
Within a subject of mutual inteiest to a gioup, theie aie a
consideiable numbei of topics oi questions. What is impoitant
is that each co-leainei can take iesponsibility foi a ieasonably
naiiow aiea given the duiation of the couise oi the timeline of
the gioup. Aieas that aie too bioad will iesult in a veiy supei-
cial undeistanding, and aieas that aie too naiiow will iesult in
a dull expeiience. Foi example, in maiine biology, topics such
as the intei-tidal zone may be too bioad foi a couise cycle of
a few weeks. Naiiowing to one species may be too specic foi
a couise ovei a few months.
Learner generated topics
Most cohoits will have some knowledge of the shaied aiea
of inteiest oi an adjacent aiea. lt is a good idea to iespect the
knowledge and expeiience that each membei of the gioup biings
to the table. A facilitatoi oi cooidinatoi may geneiate a list of
potential topic aieas, seuing an example of the scale of a topic.
We suggest that the paiticipants in the gioup aie also polled foi
additions to the list. ln laige couises, sending out a Google Foim
via email can be an eective way to get a quick list with a high
iesponse iate.
Expert informed topics
lf theie is no expeit facilitatoi in the gioup, we suggest that
the cohoit begin theii jouiney with a few inteiviews of expeits
to uncovei what the main buzz woids and aieas of focus might
be. One way to locate this type of expeit help is thiough contact-
ing authois in the subject mauei on social netwoiks, ieviewing
theii posts foi ielevance, and ieaching out with the iequest.
We iecommend two people inteiview the expeit ovei video
chat, foi example in a Hangout. One peison conducts the in-
teiview, and one peison takes notes and watches the time. We
stiongly suggest that the inteiview be outlined ahead of time
Warm up Who aie you, what aie youi goals, and why do
you think this inteiview will help`
Foundational queions Ask a few questions that might elicit
shoiuansweis to build iappoit and get youi inteiviewee talking.
Inquiry What people say and what they do can ofen be veiy
dieient. Ask about topics iequiied foi masteiy of the subject
mauei (e.g. What aie the aieas someone would need to know
about to be consideied piocient in this subject`). Also, ask
is1ioNs 1u1 viivi s1ovv1iiiiNc. Avoid suvivi1ivi
oi ciosiiNuiu is1ioNs.
Wrap up Tank the inteiviewee foi theii time, and be suie
to follow up by leuing them know both what you leained and
what you accomplished because they helped you.
3
Shared goals and group norms
Choosing useful outputs
Geuing togethei foi the sake of shaiing what you know in
an infoimal way can be faiily stiaightfoiwaid and somewhat
useful. Most gioups nd that a common puipose and output
that aie explicitly dened and documented help to engage, mo-
tivate, and diive the gioup. Foi the examples above, the gioup
may decide to cieate a blog with posts on the vaiious topics oi
cieate a wiki wheie they can shaie theii insights. Othei out-
puts can include community seivice piojects, business piopos-
als, iecommendations to senioi management oi administiation,
new pioducts, and moie. Te key is to go beyond shaiing foi
shaiing sake and move towaid an output that will be of use be-
yond the co-leaining gioup. Tis activity is best desciibed in
CoNNic1ivis1 theoiy as the special case of netwoiked leaining
wheie we nd evidence of leaining in collective action and/oi
behavioial change in gioups iathei than a psychological oi neu-
iological piocess in individuals.
Group cohesion (a.k.a. the rules of the road)
One challenge of this kind of collaboiation is that each gioup
will need to decide on noims, acceptable piactices and behav-
iois. Cultuially diveise gioups in paiticulai may iun into com-
munication oi othei issues unless theie is a way to cieate shaied
expectations and communicate piefeiences.
One way to do this is with a teamchaitei. Tis is a living doc-
ument wheie the initial iules of engagement can live foi iefei-
ence. Te gioup may add oi edit this document ovei time based
on expeiience, and that is a welcome thing' Tis documentation
is a huge asset foi new membeis joining the gioup who want to
contiibute quickly and eectively. Any co-editing woid pio-
cessing piogiam will woik, but we stiongly iecommend some-
thing that can be edited simultaneously and that lives in the
cloud. (Google Docs is convenient because you can also embed
youi Chaitei into anothei site.)
Tiy staiting with the following thiee sections, and allow
some time foi the gioup to co-edit and negotiate the document
between icebieakeis and kicking o the ocial leaining piocess.
Mission: Why aie you foiming the gioup` What do you want
to accomplish togethei`
Norms: Use Ni1ii11i` No iiiNc` Post youi vacation
days to a suviu ciiNuv` Cultuial noims`
Members:lt is useful to include a photo and a link to a public
piole such as Twiuei, Google oi Facebook.
Assessments and feedback loops
Co-authored assessment rubrics
Tests. Qizzes. Exams. How can the co-leaining gioup as-
sess theii peifoimance`
Tese types of couises benet fiom an appioach similai to
coaching. Set goals as individuals and a gioup in the beginning,
dene what success looks like, outline steps that aie needed to
achieve the goal, check in on the goal piogiess peiiodically, and
assess the iesults at the end of the couise against the goal ciite-
iia. Goals may include domain expeitise, a business outcome, a
papei demonstiating masteiy, a co-cieated iesouice, oi even the
quality of collaboiation and adheience to shaied gioup noims.
Learner created assessments
Anothei eective way to cieate an assessment is to decide
on an individual oi gioup output and cieate a peei assessment
iubiic based on the goals of the individual oi gioup.
One way to cieate a iubiic is to spend some time dening the
qualities you want youi output to have based on positive exam-
ples. Peihaps a gioup wants to cieate a blog. Each peison on
the team may identify the qualities of a gieat blog post based on
examples that they admiie. Tey can use that example to cieate
a ciiteiia foi assessment of co-leainei authoied blog posts. We
iecommend that the ciiteiia have a 0 to point scale with 0 be-
ing non-existent and being supeib. Wiiting a few indicatois

in the 1, 3, and columns helps to calibiate ievieweis.
Cieate a suviu uocuiN1, peihaps staiting with a list of
ciiteiia. Collapse similai ciiteiia into one item, and cieate the
indicatois oi denitions of 1, 3, and point peifoimance. Agiee
on the iubiic, and decide on howthe co-leaineis will be assigned
assessment duties. Wlll eveiyone ieview at least two otheis`
Will each co-leainei pioduct need at least 3 ievieweis befoie it
goes live` Will you use a svviusuii1 oi a iov to collect the
assessments`
ln a univeisity seuing, the instiuctoi of iecoid may wish to
appiove a peei assessment iubiic, and it is sometimes a good
idea to have a few outside expeits give feedback on ciiteiia that
the gioup may have missed.
Outside assessments
lt is possible that an instiuctoi of iecoid oi similai authoiity
will cieate the assessment foi peifoimance. ln these cases, it
is ciucial that the co-leaineis have access to the giading iubiic
ahead of time so that they can ensuie theii activities and timeline
will meet any iequiiements. ln this case, it may be possible to
iequiie that the co-leaineis self-oiganize entiiely, oi theie may
be inteimediaiy assignments such as the chaitei, pioject plan oi
liteiaiy ieview.
Cyclical use of these models
So much more to learn
As mentioned above, the joy of this type of leaining is that
no two gioups will evei do it the same. Teii piocess, goals,
and outcomes can all be unique. As designeis and facilitatois of
this type of leaining enviionment, we can say it is a wild iide'
Each class is exciting, iefieshing, and on tiend. Te co-leaineis
become oui teacheis.
lf a gioup geneiates moie topics than it is possible to covei
at one time given the numbei of gioup membeis oi if a gioup
CHAPTER 9. THE STUDENT AUTHORED SYLLABUS
has plans to continue indenitely, it is always possible to set up
a system wheie potential topics aie collected at all times. Tese
unexploied topics can be haivested foi use in anothei leaining
cycle, continuing until the gioup achieves compiehensive mas-
teiy.
Risks
Tis foimat is not without its own unique pitfalls some chal-
lenges aie leainei disoiientation oi fiustiation in a newleaining
stiuctuie with ambiguous expectations and uneven paiticipa-
tion. Some gioups simply nevei gel, and we do not know why
they have failed to achieve the cohesion iequiied to move foi-
waid. Othei gioups aie the exact opposite. Heie aie a few iisks
to considei if you would like to tiy the methods suggested heie
and how to mitigate them.
Uneven expertise: Ask co-leaineis to be iesponsible foi topics
that aie new to them.
Uneven participation and cohesion: Ask co-leaineis what
they want to do to motivate the gioup iathei than imposing youi
own ideas.
Experts/facilitators that kill the conversation: ln the chaitei
oi othei documentation, explicitly state that the puipose of the
discussion is to fuithei the conveisation, and encouiage expeits
to allow otheis to exploie theii own thinking by asking piobing
(not leading) questions.
Ambiguous goals: Encouiage the gioup to document theii
mission and what they will do as a team. Tis can change ovei
time, but it is best to stait out with a cleai puipose.
Conclusion
Make mistakes. Coiiect couise. lnvite new peispectives.
Cieate a stiuctuie that eveiyone can woik with. Change it when
it bieaks. Most of all, have fun'
cuv1iv 10
CONNECTlVlSM lN PRACTlCE HOW TO
ORGANlZE A MOOC
Summary
Massive Open Online Couises (MOOCs) aie online leaining
events that can take place synchionously and asynchionously
foi months. Paiticipants assemble to heai, see, and paiticipate in
backchannel communication duiing live lectuies. Tey iead the
same texts at the same time, accoiding to a calendai. Leaining
takes place thiough self-oiganized netwoiks of paiticipants, and
is almost completely decentialized individuals and gioups cie-
ate blogs oi wikis aiound theii own inteipietations of the texts
and lectuies, and comment on each otheis woik, each individ-
ual and gioup publicises theii RSS feed, which aie automatically
aggiegated by a special (fieely available) tool, gRSShoppei. Ev-
eiy day, an email goes out to all paiticipants, aggiegating activ-
ity stieams fiom all the blogs and wikis that engage that weeks
mateiial. MOOCs aie a piactical application of a leaining theoiy
known as connectivism that situates leaining in the netwoiks
of connections made between individuals and between texts.
Introduction
Tiaditionally, scholais distinguish between thiee main c1
icoviis oi iivNiNc 1uioviis behavioiism, cognitivism and
constiuctivism. Some would add a fouith one coNNic1ivis,
but this is uisvu1iu. One inteiesting application of connec-
tivism, a leaining theoiy and piactice foi the digital eia, is the
Massive Open Online Couise.
8 CHAPTER 10. HOW TO ORGANIZE A MOOC

A learning theory for the digital age
Te connectivist theoiy desciibes leaining as a piocess of
cieating connections and developing netwoiks. lt is based on
the piemise that knowledge exists out in the woild, iathei than
inside an individuals mind. Connectivism sees the netwoik as a
cential metaphoi foi leaining, with a node in the netwoik being
a concept (data, feelings, images, etc.) that can be meaningfully
ielated to othei nodes. Not all connections aie of equal stiength
in this metaphoi, in fact, many connections may be quite weak.
On a piactical level, this appioach iecommends that leaining
should focus on wheie to nd infoimation (stieams), and howto
evaluate and mash up those stieams, iathei than tiying to entei
lots of (peiishable) infoimation into ones skull. Knowing the
pipes is moie impoitant than knowing what exactly each pipe
contains at a given moment.
S1ivuiN DovNis and Giovci SiiiNs piomote the idea of
connectivism. Tey also piactice it, by oiganizing Massive Open
Online Couises (MOOCs) foi instance, CuNci11. People aie
fiee to paiticipate at will. Each week a subject is discussed dui-
ing synchionous sessions, which aie iecoided and uploaded foi
iefeience on the Change11 website. Te site also includes an
aichive of daily newsleueis and RSS-feeds of blog posts and
tweets fiom paiticipants.
MOOCs tend to be veiy leainei-centeied. People aie en-
couiaged to puisue theii own inteiests and link up with otheis
who might help them. But the distiibuted and fiee natuie of
the piojects also leads to complaints, paiticipants ofen nd it
confusing when they auempt to follow up on all the discussions
(the facilitatois say one should not tiy to follow up on all the
content).
Stephen Downes explains in Wu1 CoNNic1ivis ls Tis
implies a pedagogy that (a) seeks to desciibe successful net-
woiks (as identied by theii piopeities, which l have chaiactei-
ized as diveisity, autonomy, openness, and connectivity), and
(b) seeks to desciibe the piactices that lead to such netwoiks,
both in the individual and in society (which l have chaiactei-
ized as modeling and demonstiation (on the pait of a teachei)
9
and piactice and ieection (on the pait of a leainei).
Geoige Siemens says connectivism is a iivNiNc 1uiovv
iov 1ui uici1i ci.
Connectivism in practice
One example of a MOOC that claims to embody the connec-
tivist theoiy is cuNci.ooc.ca. Te uov i1 vovxs section
of the site explains what connectivism means in piactice.
Te MOOC oiganizeis developed a numbei of ways to com-
bine the distiibuted natuie of the discussions with the need foi
a constantly updated oveiview and foi a fedeiated stiuctuie. So,
if youi team wants to oiganize an open online couise, these aie
ve points to take into consideiation
Teie is no body of content the paiticipants have to memo-
iize, but the leaining iesults fiom activities they undeitake. Te
activities aie dieient foi each peison. A couise schedule
with suggested ieading, assignments foi synchionous oi asyn-
chionous sessions is piovided (using Google Docs spieadsheets
inteinally, Google Calendai exteinally - one could also use a
wiki), but paiticipants aie fiee to pick and choose. Noimally
theie is a topic, activities, ieading iesouices and ofen a guest
speakei foi each week. One should even ieect upon the ques-
tion whethei a stait- and end date aie actually needed. lt is ciu-
cial to explain the paiticulai philosophy of this kind of MOOC,
and this iight fiom the outset, because chances aie leaineis
will come with expectations infoimed by theii moie tiaditional
leaining expeiiences.
1. lt is impoitant to discuss the inteinal aspects, such as
self-motivation what do the paiticipants want to achieve,
what is theii laigei goal` And what aie theii inten-
tions when they select ceitain activities (iathei than othei
possibilities)` Eveiyone has hei own intended outcome.
Suggest that paiticipants meditate on all this and jot
down theii objectives. And how can they avoid becom-
ing stiessed out and geuing depiessed because they feel
they cannot keep up with all this` Te facilitatois should
have a good look at these motivations, even if its impossi-
ble to assist eveiy paiticipant individually (foi laige-scale
MOOCs).
2. ldeally, paiticipants should piepaie foi this couise by ac-
quiiing the necessaiy digital skills. Which skills aie nec-
essaiy can be decided by the gioup itself in advance. lts
all about selecting, choosing, iemixing - also called cu-
iating. Teie aie lots of tools which you can use foi this
blogs, social bookmaiks, wikis, mindmaps, foiums, social
dashboaids, netwoiks such as Twiuei with theii possibili-
ties such as hashtags and lists. Maybe these tools aie self-
evident foi some, but not necessaiily foi all the paitici-
pants.
3. Te couise is not located in one place but is distiibuted
acioss the web on vaiious blogs and blogging platfoims,
on vaiious gioups and online netwoiks, on photo- and
video-shaiing platfoims, on mindmaps and othei visual-
ization platfoims, on vaiious tools foi synchionous ses-
sions. Tis wide vaiiety is in itself an impoitant leaining
element.
4. Teie aie weekly synchionous sessions (using Blackboaid
collaboiate, oi similai gioup chauing tool). Duiing these
sessions, expeits and paiticipants give piesentations and
entei into discussions. Gioups of paiticipants also have
synchionous meetings at othei venues (such as Second
Life). Tiy to plan this well in advance'
. Many paiticipants highly appieciate eoits to give an
oveiview of the pioceedings. Specically, the Diiv
Nivsii11iv is a kind of hub, a community newspapei.
ln that Daily theie is also a list of the blog posts men-
tioning the couise-specic tag (e.g. Change11), also the
tweets with hashtag -change11 aie listed in the Daily. Of
couise, the MOOC has a si1i wheie sessions, newsleueis
and othei iesouices aie aichived and discussion thieads
can be iead.
81
Fiom the veiy beginning of the couise, its necessaiy to ex-
plain the impoitance of tagging the vaiious contiibutions, to
suggest a hashtag.
Foi haivesting all this distiibuted content, Stephen Downes
advocates the use of cRSSuovviv, which is a peisonal web envi-
ionment that combines iesouice aggiegation, a peisonal datas-
pace, and peisonal publishing (Downes developed it and would
like to build a hosted veision - eventually nanced via Kick-
staitei). Te gRSShoppei can be found on a iegistiation page,
which is useful piimaiily foi sending the newsleuei. lt allows
you to oiganize youi online content any way you want, to im-
poit content - youi own oi otheis - fiom iemote sites, to iemix
and iepuipose it, and to distiibute it as RSS, web pages, JSON
data, oi RSS feeds. DovNis Foi example, the gRSShoppei hai-
vestei will haivest a link fiom a given feed. A peison, if he oi
she has admin piivileges, can tiansfoim this link into a post,
adding his oi hei own comments. Te post will contain infoi-
mation about the oiiginal links authoi and jouinal. Content in
gRSShoppei is cieated and manipulated thiough the use of sys-
temcode that allows administiatois to haivest, map, and display
data, as well as to link to and cieate theii own content. gRSShop-
pei is also intended to act as a fully-edged publishing tool. (foi
alteinatives, see the technologies section fuithei on).
Alteinatives foi iegistiations Google Gioups foi instance.
But specic iules about piivacy should be dealt with what will
be the status of the contiibutions` ln this MOOC the status is
public and open by default, foi Downes this is an impoitant el-
ement of the couise.
Technologies
Some MOOCs use Moodle, but Downes dislikes the cential-
ization aspect and its not as open as it could be, saying peo-
ple feel beuei wiiting in theii own space. Othei possibilities
Google Gioups, Woidpiess, Diigo, Twiuei, Facebook page, Sec-
ond Life, but each couise uses dieient mixtuies of the many
tools out theie. People choose theii enviionment - whethei it is
WoW oi Mineciaf. Students use Bloggei, WoidPiess, Tumbli,
Posteious as blogging tools.
Key element is RSS harvesting
Give paiticipants a means to contiibute theii blogfeed. ln
Auu Niv Fiiu, Downes explains how to get this stiuctuie
and additional explanations (via videos) in oidei to contiibute
theii blog feed. Te administiatoi in this case uses gRSShop-
pei to piocess the content and put it in a database, piocess it
and send it to othei people. Alteinatively one can use Google
Readei (the list of feeds is available as an OPML le - which
can be impoited to othei platfoims). Teie is also a plug-in foi
Woidpiess that lets you use a Google Doc spieadsheet foi the
feeds, then Woidpiess foi the aggiegation). Many othei con-
tent management systems have RSS haivesting featuies.
Each individual could iun hei own aggiegatoi, but Downes
oeis it as a seivice. But aggiegatois aie needed, whethei indi-
vidual, centialized oi both.
Specialized harvesting
Using Twiuei, Diigo, Delicious, Google Gioups, lf Tis Ten
Tat (lFTTT) and Fiiu43 (take oidinaiy web page and tuin it
into an RSS feed).
Synchronous environments
Synchionous platfoims include Blackboaid Collaboiate
(used now foi Change11), Adobe Connect, Big Blue Buuon,
WizlQ, Fuze, WebX, webcasting, web iadio, videoconfeiencing
with Skype oi Google Hangout in conjunction with Livestieam
oi ustieam.tv. Oi take the Skype/Hangout audiostieam and
bioadcast is as webiadio. Set up and test ahead of time, but dont
hesitate to expeiiment.
83
Newsleer or Feeds
Feeds aie veiy impoitant (see eailiei iemaiks about the Daily
newsleuei). You can use Twiuei oi a Facebook page, Downes
uses email, also cieates an RSS veision thiough gRSShoppei and
sends it thiough lfu.com back to Facebook and Twiuei. Foi the
iest of us theie is Woidpiess, which you can use to cvi1i N
iii Nivs ii11iv. Downs also suggests this handy guide
on uov 1o uisicN Nu nuiiu N iii Nivsii11iv vi1uou1
ioosiNc vouv iNu'
Considei using a content management systemand databases
to put out specialized pages and the newsleuei in an elegant
way, but it iequiies a leaining cuive. Otheiwise, use blogs /
wikis.
Comments
Paiticipants aie stiongly encouiaged to comment on each
otheis blogs and to launch discussion thieads. By doing so
they piactice a fundamental social media skill - developing net-
woiks by commenting on vaiious places and engaging in con-
veisations. lt is impoitant to have activities and get people to be
involved iathei than sit back.
Foi an in-depth piesentation, please have a look at Fciii
11iNc Mssivi OviN ONiiNi Couvsi by Stephen Downes,
in which he focuses on ieseaich and suivey issues, piepaiing
events, and othei essentials.
Resources
basics
Hov 1uis Couvsi Wovxs
Wu1 is MOOC
Succiss iN MOOC
KNoviiuci iN MOOC
lN1vouuc1ioN Nu iNvi11ioN
Further reading
Downes & Siemens MOOC si1i
Wu1 CoNNic1ivis ls by Stephen Downes
AN lN1vouuc1ioN 1o CoNNic1ivi KNoviiuci by
Stephen Downes
Fciii11iNc Mssivi OviN ONiiNi Couvsi, by
Stephen Downes
cRSSuovviv
CoNNic1ivis A LivNiNc Tuiovv iov 1ui Dici1i
Aci by Geoige Siemens
A CoNNic1ivis Giossvv
Ruizois Nu Ni1vovxs by Geoige Siemens
Ruizo1ic Euuc1ioN CouNi1v s Cuvvicuiuby
Dave Coimiei
KNoviNc KNoviiuci, a book by Geoige Siemens
Ni1 Sv1, Howaid Rheingold (about inteinal and extei-
nal liteiacies foi coping with the always on digital eia)
Mssivi OviN ONiiNi Couvsis Seuing Up (StaitTo-
MOOC, Pait 1)
Li1iv1uvi viviiv
Relevant Handbook pages
PivsoNi LivNiNc Ni1vovxs
cuv1iv 11
PARTlClPATlON
Summary
All collaboiative woik is managed in some way. Methods
of managing piojects, including leaining piojects, aie ianking
fiom the moie foimal and stiuctuied to the less foimal and un-
stiuctuied.
Participation in business-oriented projects
When we think about pioject management in an oigani-
zation, we ofen ielate to well-established tools and piocesses.
Foi example, we will use the PvoJic1 MNciiN1 Bouv oi
KNoviiuci (PMBOK) as a standaid. Foi the Pioject Manage-
ment lnstitute (PMl) and most woikeis, those standaids aie the
key to pioject success. ln classical pioject management, tasks
and deadlines aie cleaily dened. We will, foi example, use Pvo
cv Eviu1ioN Nu Riviiv TicuNic (PERT) to analyze and
iepiesent tasks. We ofen iepiesent the pioject schedule using
a GN11 cuv1. Tose aie just two of the pioject management
tools that illustiate how pioject management iests imly on its
engineeiing backgiound. ln those veiy stiuctuied piojects, each
actoi is expected to woik exactly as planned and to delivei his
pait of the woik on time, eveiy individual delay potentially lead-
ing to a collective delay.
Participation in educational projects
lf we look foi analogies between pioject management and
education, we can nd some similaiities in models pedagogy of.
ln a papei called MoviNc ivo Piucocv 1o ANuvcocv by
Hiemstia and Sisco, we see how students hold a passive iole (on
a cognitive level) in the pedagogy model. Tey aie following
8
8 CHAPTER 11. PARTICIPATION
a plan oi syllabus that has been designed by the instiuctoi and
that wont change duiing the session. Students will have to com-
plete all theii tasks on time, in othei woids, ietuin theii exeici-
ces to the teachei befoie the due date. ln a peeiagogy pioject,
whose ioots lie closei to andiagogy than in pedagogy, paitici-
pation to the pioject is less iegulated (see Fvo viiv iivNiNc
1o viivcocv)
As peeiagogy piojects membeis expect to bieak the 90/9/1
vuii and biing on boaid moie than 1 of cieatois and 9 of edi-
tois, they also keep in mind the LoNc Tii iule. Te teim Long
Tail has gained populaiity in iecent times as desciibing the ie-
tailing stiategy of selling a laige numbei of unique items with
ielatively small quantities sold of each. ln othei woids, people
woiking in peeiagogy should accept that some paiticipants only
contiibute few ideas (oi may be even just one'). Going fuithei,
people may even be allowed to just watch a peeiagogy pioject
going on without cieating oi editing, in oidei to undeistand its
cultuie befoie feeling ieady to jump in and contiibute moie ac-
tively.
ln geneial, a peeiagogy community will constantly adjust
as it seeks an equilibiium between oidei and chaos, allowing
eveiyone to collaboiate at theii own pace without loosing focus,
and in such a mannei that the collective can delivei - whethei
thats a pioduct oi a leaining expeiience'.
How to deal with participation in a peeragogy
project
Accept that some people want to watch what is going on
befoie jumping in. Tis doesnt mean you have to keep
themfoievei. Afei a while you may un-enioll people who
dont add any value to the community. ln oui Peeiagogy
pioject, weve asked people to ie-sign up seveial times (at
any given junctuie, some piopiotion piefei to leave).
Accept that people may only contiibute a liule if this con-
tiibution is good it will add value to the whole
8
Undeistand that you can not impose stiict deadlines to
volunteeis
Let youi woik be open in a sense inspiied by
Wikipedias Niu1vi PoiN1 oi Viiv policy
Give ioles to paiticipants and dene some eneigy cen-
teis who will take the lead on specic items in the pioject
Oiganize iegulai face to face oi online meetings to
talk about piogiess and whats needed in upcoming
days/weeks
Ask paiticipants to be cleai about when they will be ieady
to delivei theii contiibutions
Have cleai deadlines, but allowcontiibutions that come in
afei the deadline in geneial, be exible
Add a newcomei section on youi online platfoim to help
newbies to get staited
cuv1iv 12
THE WORKSCAPE, A LEARNlNG PLATFORM FOR
CORPORATlONS
Summary
Cultivating a iesults-oiiented peei-leaining piogiam in a
coipoiate leaining ecosystem involves a few tweaks of the ap-
pioach and tools we discussed in ielation to moie open, diveise
netwoiks.
Jv Cvoss talks about Wovxscvis on Viio.
The Workscape, a platform for learning
Foimal leaining takes place in classiooms, infoimal leain-
ing happens in workscapes. A woikscape is a leaining ecol-
ogy. As the enviionment of leaining, a woikscape includes
the woikplace. ln fact, a woikscape has no boundaiies. No
two woikscapes aie alike. Youi woikscape may include being
coached on giving eective piesentations, calling the help desk
foi an explanation, and ieseaiching an industiy on the Net. My
woikscape could include paiticipating in a community of eld
technicians, looking things up on a seaich engine, and living
in Fiance foi thiee months. Developing a platfoim to suppoit
infoimal leaining is analogous to landscaping a gaiden. A ma-
joi component of infoimal leaining is natuial leaining, the no-
tion of tieating people as oiganisms in natuie. Te people aie
fiee-iange leaineis. Oui iole is to piotect theii enviionment,
piovide nutiients foi giowth, and let natuie take its couise. A
landscape designeis goal is to conceptualize a haimonious, uni-
ed, pleasing gaiden that makes the most of the site at hand. A
woikscape designeis goal is to cieate a leaining enviionment
that incieases the oiganizations longevity and health and the
individuals happiness and well-being. Gaideneis dont contiol
plants, manageis dont contiol people. Gaideneis and manageis
89
90 CHAPTER 12. THE WORKSCAPE
have inuence but not absolute authoiity. Tey cant makea
plant t into the landscape oi a peison t into a team. ln an ideal
Woikscape, woikeis can easily nd the people and infoimation
they need, leaining is uid and new ideas ow fieely, coipoiate
citizens live and woik by the oiganizations values, people know
the best way to get things done, woikeis spend moie time cie-
ating value than handling exceptions, and eveiyone nds theii
woik challenging and fullling.
The technical infrastructure of the Workscape
When an oiganization is impioving its Woikscape, looking
at consumei applications is a good way to think about whats
iequiied. Ask net-savvy youngei woikeis how they would like
to leain new skills, and they biing up the featuies they enjoy in
othei seivices
Peisonalize my expeiience and make iecommendations,
like Amazon
Make it easy foi me to connect with fiiends, like Facebook
Keep me in touch with colleagues and associates in othei
companies, as on Linkedln
Peisistent ieputations, as at eBay, so you can tiust who
youie collaboiating with
Multiple access options, like a bank that oeis access by
ATM, the Web, phone, oi human telleis
Dont oveiload me. Let me leain fiom YouTube, an FAQ,
oi linking to an expeit
Show me whats hot, like Reddit, Digg, MetaFiltei, oi Faik
do
Give me single sign-on, like using my Facebook piole to
access multiple applications
91
Let me choose and subsciibe to stieams of infoimation lm
inteiested in, like BoingBoing, LifeHackei oi Hupost.
Piovide a single, simple, all-in-one inteiface, like that pio-
vided by Google foi seaich
Help me leain fiom a community of kindied spiiits, like
SlashDot, Reddit, and MetaFiltei
Give me a way to voice my opinions and show my pei-
sonality, as on my blog
Show me what otheis aie inteiested in, as with social
bookmaiks like Diigo and Delicious
Make it easy to shaie photos and video, as on Flicki and
YouTube
Leveiage the wisdom of ciowds, as when l pose a ques-
tion to my followeis on Twiuei oi Facebook
Enable useis to iate content, like Favoiiting an item on
Facebook oi 'ing is on Google oi YouTube
Some of those consumei applications aie simple to ieplicate
in-house. Otheis aie not. You cant aoid to ieplicate Facebook
oi Google behind youi iewall. Tat said, theie aie lots of ap-
plications you can implement at ieasonable cost. Be skeptical if
youi collaboiative infiastiuctuie that doesnt include these min-
imal functions
Profiles - foi locating and contacting people with the iight
skills and backgiound. Piole should contain photo, position,
location, email addiess, expeitise (tagged so its seaichable).
lBMs Blue Pages pioles include how to ieach you (noting
whethei youie online now), iepoiting chain (boss, bosss boss,
etc.), link to youi blog and bookmaiks, people in youi netwoik,
links to documents you fiequently shaie, membeis of youi net-
woik.
Activity stream - foi monitoiing the oiganization pulse in
ieal time, shaiing what youie doing, being iefeiied to useful
92 CHAPTER 12. THE WORKSCAPE
infoimation, asking foi help, acceleiating the ow of news and
infoimation, and keeping up with change
Wikis - foi wiiting collaboiatively, eliminating multiple
veisions of documents, keeping infoimation out in the open,
eliminating unnecessaiy email, and shaiing iesponsibility foi
updates and eiioi coiiection
Virtual meetings - to make it easy to meet online. Mini-
mum featuie set shaied scieen, shaied white boaid, text chat,
video of paiticipants. Bonus featuies peisistent meeting ioom
(youi oce online), avatais.
Blogs - foi naiiating youi woik, maintaining youi digi-
tal ieputation, iecoiding accomplishments, documenting expeit
knowledge, showing people what youie up to so they can help
out
Bookmarks - to facilitate seaiching foi links to infoimation,
discovei what souices othei people aie following, locate expeits
Mobile access - Half of Ameiicas woikfoice sometimes
woiks away fiom the oce. Smait phones aie suipassing PCs
foi connecting to netwoiks foi access and paiticipation. Phones
post most Tweets than computeis. Google designs its apps foi
mobile befoie poiting them to PCs.
Social network - foi online conveisation, connecting with
people, and all of the above functions.
Conclusion
Leaining used to focus on what was in an individuals head.
Te individual took the test, got the degiee, oi eained the cei-
ticate. Te new leaining focuses on what it takes to do the
job iight. Te woikplace is an open-book exam. What woikei
doesnt have a cell phone and an lnteinet connection` Using
peisonal infoimation pipelines to get help fiom colleagues and
the lnteinet to access the woilds infoimation is encouiaged. Be-
sides, its piobably the teamthat must peifoim, not a single indi-
vidual. Tiity yeais ago, thiee-quaiteis of what a woikei need
to do the job was stoied in hei head, now its less than 10.
Part V
Co-Facilitation and
Co-Working
cuv1iv 13
CO-FAClLlTATlON
Authoi Maiia Aienas, with contiibutions by Chailie Dano
Summary
Co-facilitating emerges when people have to work to-
gether in order to complete a task, in environments like
schools, universities, shelters, churches, workplaces.
Co-facilitating in peer-to-peer learning
Facilitation is the piocess of enabling gioups to woik coopei-
atively and eectively. Peeis co-facilitate by taking and shaiing
leadeiship ioles to move the peei leaining piocess along fastei
and/oi moie eciently. Te main puipose of co-facilitation is to
oei and ieceive suppoit fiom a cohoit who is invested in the
pioject. Co-facilitation commonly can be found in specic col-
laboiations between two oi moie people who need each othei to
complete a task, foi example, leain about a given subject, authoi
a technical iepoit, iesolve a pioblem, oi conduct ieseaich Di.
Fink wiites in Creating Signicant Learning Experiences (Jossey
Bass, 2003) that in this piocess, theie has to be some kind
of change in the leainei. No change, no leaining. Signicant
leaining iequiies that theie be some kind of lasting change that
is impoitant in teims of the leaineis life, theiefoie a way to
measuie the eectiveness of co-facilitation is if theies been a
change in the peei gioup.
Which roles, competences and skills do we
need to co-facilitate?
Co-facilitation ioles can be found in gioups/teams like bas-
ketball, health, Alcoholics Anonymous, spiiitual gioups, etc.
9
9 CHAPTER 13. CO-FACILITATION
Foi example, self-help gioups aie composed of people who
gathei to shaie common pioblems and expeiiences associated
with a paiticulai pioblem, condition, illness, oi peisonal cii-
cumstance. Fieedom to Leain is among the leaining theo-
iies Cail Rogeis was known foi. Commenting on Rogeis ie-
lated woik, Baiieu-Lennaid iemaiked he oeied seveial hy-
pothesized geneial piinciples. Tese included We cannot teach
anothei peison diiectly, we can only facilitate his leaining. Te
stiuctuie and oiganization of the self appeais to become moie
iigid undei thieat, to ielax its boundaiies when completely fiee
fiom thieat. Te educational situation which most eectively
piomotes signicant leaining is one in which 1) thieat to the
self of the leainei is ieduced a minimum, and 2) dieientiated
peiception of the eld of expeiience is facilitated. Pait of the fa-
cilitatois iole is cieating a safe place foi leaining to take place,
but they should also challenge the paiticipants. As John Wooden
said of coaching Be quick, but dont huiiy. JouN HivoN ai-
ticulated this natuie of facilitation well
Too much hieiaichical contiol, and paiticipants
become passive and dependent oi hostile and ie-
sistant. Tey wane in self-diiection, which is the
coie of all leaining. Too much coopeiative guidance
may degeneiate into a subtle kind of nuituiing op-
piession, and may deny the gioup the benets of
totally autonomous leaining. Too much autonomy
foi paiticipants and laissez-faiie on youi pait, and
they may wallow in ignoiance, misconception, and
chaos.
Co-facilitating discussion forums
lf peeis aie piepaiing a foium discussion, heie aie some
ideas fiom Te tool box, that can be helpful as guidelines foi
iunning this type of meetings
Explain the impoitance of collaboiative gioup woik and
make it a iequiiement.
9
Establish how you will communicate in the foium
Be awaie of mutual blind spots in facilitating and obseiv-
ing otheis
Watch out foi dieient ihythms of inteivention.
Co-facilitating wiki workflows
A good place to begin foi any co-facilitatois woiking with a
wiki is Wikipedias famous Pillais.
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia
Wikipedia wiites aiticles fiom a neutial point-of-view
Wikipedia is fiee content that anyone can edit, use, mod-
ify, and distiibute.
Editois should inteiact with each othei in a iespectful and
civil mannei.
Wikipedia does not have im iules.
Co-facilitating live sessions
Leaining expeiiences in Live Sessions which include Social
Media and co facilitating exeicise is desciibed in the aiticle
Leaining Re-imagined Paiticipatoiy, Peei, Global, Online by
Howaid Rheingold, we have taken inspiiation fiom his points
and ie-mixed them slightly.
Establish ioles foi co facilitatois and paiticipants (modei-
atoi, technical iecoidei, wiitei to take notes, etc..).
Piovide a ieading list indicating what is ieally impoitant
and what is moie nice to know.
ldeally befoie, oi when the session begins, take some time
to allow paiticipants to familiaiize themselves with the
tools.
lntioduce youiself and youi peeis (co-facilitatois) and ask
the membeis to make a biief intioduction of themselves.
Reviewthe agenda foi the session, both to make suie theie
is an agenda (at the stait) and to make suie eveiything was
coveied (at the end).
Online tools like Mumble, Diigo, Etheipad and chat can
be used to communicate and inteiact in the session. How-
evei, considei whethei paiticipants aie inteiested in ex-
peiimenting with lots of tools. Ofen moie tools (and some
content) can end up making tasks haidei.
Keep it Simple Stupid, oi KlSS Remembei you came to-
gethei with youi peeis to accomplish something not to
discuss an agenda oi play with online tools, keep eveiy-
thing as easily accessible as possible to ensuie you iealize
youi peei goals.
Paragogical Action Review
Following any co-facilitating session it is essential that the
co-facilitatois come togethei and ieviewwhat happened. Ause-
ful fiamewoik is the Pvcocici Ac1ioN Riviiv(PAR), based
on the U.S. Aimys Afei Action Review, which has foui compo-
nents, to which we have added a fh. Afuithei dieience in the
Paiagogical Action Review is that it need not take place afei
the action, but can be integiated into the action (accoidingly, we
use a piesent tense phiasing).
Review what was supposed to happen (tiaining plans)
Establish what is happening
Deteimine whats iight oi wiong with whats happening
Deteimine how the task should be done dieiently in the
futuie
Shaie youi notes with youi othei peeis foi feedback and
to impiove things going foiwaid
99
Experiences and experiments in co-facilitating
LivNiNc RiiciNiu Pv1iciv1ovv, Piiv, Gioni,
ONiiNi, by Howaid Rheingold
Risivcu G1i is a netwoik dedicated to science and ie-
seaich, in which membeis connect, collaboiate and dis-
covei scientic publications, jobs and confeiences.
Cvi1iNc Nu Fciii11iNc Piiv Suvvov1 Gvouvs, by
Te Community Tool Box
Fciii11ioN Tivs, by Villanova Univeisity
HivuiNc PssioN1i C1s Tui Roii oi Fciii11ov iN
Piiv LivNiNc, by Pippa Buchanan
Riiiic1ivi Piiv Fciii11ioN Cvi1iNc Coiinov
1ivi SiiiAssissiN1, by Dale Vidmai, Southein Oiegon
Univeisity Libiaiy
Eiiic1ivi CoFciii11ioN, by Eveiywomans Centei,
Univeisity of Massachusseus
Resources
1. Piiv Euuc1ioN TviNiNc oi TviNivs MNui, UN
lnteiagency Gioup on Young Peoples Health
2. Co Fciii11iNc Advantages & Potential Disadvantages.
J. Willam Pfeifei and John E Johnes
3. A suvv of John Heions model on iole of facilitatois
4. Cvi Rocivs, Covi CoNui1ioNs Nu Euuc1ioN, Ency-
clopedia of lnfoimal Education
. Piiv Miui1ioN, Study Guides and Stiategies
. CoFciii11ioN Tui AuvN1cis Nu CuiiiNcis,
Canadian Union of Public Employees
. Bouii lN1ivc1ivi CouNi1v Wixi GuiuiiiNis
8. Baiieu-Lennaid, G. T. (1998) Cvi Rocivs HiiviNc Svs
1i. JouvNiv Nu Suns1Nci, London Sage
9. Piiivs oi Wixiviui, fiom Wikipedia
10. TviNiNc 1ui Fovci, (2002) US Aimy Field Manual -FM
-0 (FM 2-100)
cuv1iv 14
PARAGOGlCAL DESlGNS FOR CO-WORKlNG
-
-
- -
Heie oui aim is to develop the pio-
ductive paiagogical side of peei-
agogy thiough a discussion of the
stiategies, joys, and soiiows of co-
woiking. lt complements the co
iciii11ioN page.
Tese questions could apply to
oui woiking gioup(s) heie, and to
pieuy much any woiking gioup in
existence
How do you pass the ball`
How do you keep the eneigy
going`
How do you diagnose wheie
the gioup is going and make
things intentional instead
of assumed`
And how do we do all of this
in a way that takes leaining into
account` (Tee pioposed allowed
list comes fiom Simon Sinek, by
way of Fabiizo Teizi and the FTG.)
Co-working as the flip
side of convening
Linus Toivalds, inteiviewed by Steven Vaughan-Nichols foi
a Hewleu-Packaid publication, had this to say about sofwaie
101
102 CHAPTER 14. DESIGNS FOR CO-WORKING
development
e rmiake is thinking that you can throwthings
out there and ask people to help. ats not how it
works. You make it public, and then you assume that
youll have to do all the work, and ask people to come
up with suggeions of what you should do, not what
they should do. Maybe theyll art helping eventu-
ally, but you should art o with the assumption that
youre going to be the one maintaining it and ready
to do all the work. e other thingand its kind of
relatedthat people seem to get wrong is to think that
the code they write is what maers. No, even if you
wrote 100% of the code, and even if you are the be
programmer in the world and will never need any help
with the proje at all, the thing that really maers is
the users of the code. e code itself is unimportant;
the proje is only as useful as people aually nd it.
lt is impoitant to undeistand youi useis and iemembei that
contiibutois aie a special class of usei with a ieal time invest-
ment in the way the pioject woiks. We typically cannot Tom
Sawyei ouiselves into leisuie oi ease just because we manage
to woik collaboiatively, oi just because we have found people
with some common inteiests.
Te tiuth is piobably somewheie in between Toivalds and
Twain. Many people actively want to contiibute' Foi example,
on Wikipedia, the encyclopedia anyone can edit (as of 2011) s
Nv s 80,000 visitois make oi moie edits pei month. Tis is
inteiesting to compaie with the ic1 that (as of 200) ovei 0
of all the edits aie done by just . of the useis 24 peopleand
in fact the most active 2, which is 1400 people, have done 3.4
of all the edits. Similai numbeis apply to othei peei pioduction
communities.
103
A lile theory
ln many natuial systems, things aie not distiibuted equally,
and it is not atypical foi e.g. 20 of the population to contiol
80 of the wealth (oi, as we saw, foi 2 of the useis to do neaily
80 of the edits). Many, many systems woik like this, so maybe
theies a good ieason foi it.
Lets think about it in teims of cooidination as thought of
by the late Elinoi Ostiom. She talked about local solutions foi
104 CHAPTER 14. DESIGNS FOR CO-WORKING
local pioblems. By denition, such geogiaphically-based cooi-
dination iequiies close pioximity. What does close mean` lf
we think about homogeneous space, it just means that we diawa
ciicle (oi spheie) aiound wheie we aie, and the iadius of this cii-
cle (iesp. spheie) is small. An inteiesting 1ui1ici ic1
is that as the dimension giows, the volume of the spheie gets
thinnei, so the iadius must inciease to captuie the same d-
dimensional volume when d giows' Based on this, we might
guess that the moie dimensions a pioblem has, the moie ie-
souices we will need to solve it. Fiom anothei peispective, the
moie dieient factois impact a given issue, in some sense, the
less likely theie aie to be small scale, self-contained, local piob-
lems in the ist place.
lf we think about netwoiks instead of homogeneous space,
and notice that some nodes in the netwoik have moie connec-
tions than otheis, then we see the same issue applies to these
nodes they have moie complexity in theii immediate iegion
than the otheis. Tis might suggest that such cential nodes
(e.g. populai lms, populai woids, populai websites, populai
people) would, by denition, be less disciiminating in teims of
who/what they couple with. On a ceitain level (weak ties) this is
piobably tiue. But on anothei level (stiong ties) l think it must
not be tiue you cant ieally have it both ways.
Asking foi oiganizations to woik on the local level of
stiong ties when they aie ieally all about many low-bandwidth
weak ties isnt likely to woik well. Google is happy to seive ev-
eiyones web iequests but they cant have just anyone walking
in o the stieet and connecting devices theii netwoik in Moun-
tain View. (Aside the 200 aiticle on Wikipedia quoted above
was wiiuen by Aaion Swaitz, who achieved some No1ovii1v
foi doing essentially just that, though in his case, it was MlTs
netwoik, not Googles.) We might guess that the moie institu-
tionally commiued someone is, the less likely they aie to be able
to foim deep connections with anyone who is not an integial
pait of theii institution.
Of couise, we dont give up. We aspiie to cieate systems
that have both aspects, systems wheie a dedicated individual
can iise to the top thiough dint of eoit, etc. Tese systems
10
aie well aiticulated, almost like natuial languages, which aie so
expiessive and adaptive that most sentences have nevei been
said befoie. ln othei woids, a well-aiticulated system does lend
itself to local solutions to local pioblems but only because
all woids aie NOT cieated equal.
My brothers read a lile bit. Lile words like I and
It. My father can read big words, too, Like CON-
STANTINOPLE and TIMBUKTU.
Co-working: what is an institution?
We could talk in this section about Coases theoiy of the im,
and Benkleis theoiy of Coases Penguin. We might continue
o1iNc fiom Aaion Swaitz. But we will not get so deep into
that heie you can exploie it on youi own'
cuv1iv 1
DESlGNlNG A PLATFORM FOR PEER LEARNlNG
Author Joe Coineli
PiNi1M1u isa virtual community which aims to help make
mathematical knowledge more accessible. lve desciibed my in-
volvement with the pioject biiey in my Leain Math(s) the
Haid(ei) Way vvoJic1 vvovosi, and at consideiably gieatei
depth in my thesis' Tis aiticle summaiizes the main design
ideas. lt gets a liule technical, but dont woiiy, theies not too
much math
ln shoit l lumped the dieient activities that people could
do on PlanetMath.oig into categoiies (see the table be-
low). Moie oi less this table just means that on PlanetMath,
people wiite aiticles and link these aiticles to othei aiticles, add
comments, ask questions, make coiiections, and connect piob-
lems and solutions to expositoiy mateiial. Tey also deploy
uiuvis1ics foi solving pioblems and they xi Nu JoiN
cvouvs.
Context Feedback Qality Stiuctuie Heuiistic
A A
A

A
X T
X Q
A C
A P S R
L A, P
M A
G U
S H
Q C, W, P
A article
link
X object
T post
Q question
C coii.
P problem
S solution
R review
L collection
M classific.
G group
U user
W request
H heuristic
Table 1.1 A tentative decomposition of PlanetMaths activities
Te ve categoiies (Context, Engagement, Qality, Stiuc-
tuie, and Heuiistic) come fiom ieecting on the vvcocv
vviNciviis, and compaiing them with the Maitin Nowaks
vuiis iov 1ui ivoiu1ioN oi cooviv1ioN, then clusteiing the
actual activities that people can do on PlanetMath (as well as
10
108 CHAPTER 15. PLATFORM DESIGN
some new planned activities) into these categoiies. l also diew
inspiiation fiom the pauein and heuiistic language we devel-
oped in the peeiagogy pioject. l staited by clusteiing oui v1
1ivN iNcuci uicv into segments, like this
wrapper
pattern
language
carrying
capacity
roles
roadmap
heartbeat
moderation
polling
for ideas
discerning
a pattern
creating a guide
praxis
vs poeisis
simplify
what do
experts
do?
nd an analogy
why is it hard?
do you
know the
answer?
change
focus
ask for
help
give it a rest
change
description
divide
newcomer
Te key that shows how things t togethei is as follows
Context - Changing context as a decenteied centei. - Kin
selection
Engagement - Meta-leaining as a font of knowledge. -
Direct reciprocity
ality - Peeis piovide feedback that wouldnt be theie
otheiwise. - Indirect reciprocity
Structure - Leaining is distiibuted and nonlineai. - Spa-
tial selection
Heuristic - Realize the dieam if you can, then wake up'
- Group selection
Te analogies aie not peifect, and aie meant to help inspiie,
iathei than to constiain, thoughts on the leaining/platfoim de-
sign. lts impoitant to iemembei that Nowaks foimalism is
meant to be geneial enough to desciibe all dieient kinds of
collaboiation
109
In a kin seleion regime, we are working in a gen-
erational modality; we are looking at what is re-
lated, and this helps to dene that which is unre-
lated the other.
On PlanetMath, the most impoitant senses of ielatedness
apply to elements of the subject domain. Topics that aie linked
to one anothei in the encyclopedia aie ielated. Tese links can
eithei be implicit teim iefeiences (which aie spoued by Planet-
Maths autolinkei), oi moie explicit connections added by au-
thois, ieadeis, oi editois. Such links can build an implicit con-
text foi a newcomei who appioaches a given topic.
In a dire reciprocity regime, we learning about
ourselves in praice, usually in a social context.
One of the key legacy featuies of PlanetMath is that eveiy
object in the system is discussable. You can ask a question
about an encyclopedia aiticle, foi example, and this will go into
a common pool of questions. One of the diiving ideas behind the
sites (ie)design is that eveiy question should help us impiove
the site, foi example, by pointing out a place wheie the oiigi-
nal expositoiy aiticle could be impioved. Of couise, at the most
basic level, we hope that the questions ieceive good one-o an-
sweis (pioviding a benet to the initial question-askei). Even
the most simple question is a constiuctively ciitical question.
On the level of site semantics, it would be good to keep tiack
of which questions have been answeied, and which have not.
Qestions can be mutated into coiiections, iequests, oi math-
ematical pioblems to solve.
In an indire reciprocity regime, we are building
something that may be useful later on.
Anothei impoitant legacy featuie of PlanetMath is that, un-
like Wikipedia, aiticles aie not geneially open to the public to
edit (though some aie). Rathei, the typical piocess of ciowd-
souicing takes place thiough a coiiections mechanism. Fiom
an analytical peispective, we might expect coiiections to be one
110 CHAPTER 15. PLATFORM DESIGN
of the key ways in which site authois leain fiom one anothei.
ln a sense, the oppoitunity to get coiiections oi suggestions
pointed out latei might be one of the biggest incentives foi wiit-
ing an aiticle in the ist place' Oeiing a coiiection to someone
else is, of couise, a way to point out ones own knowledgability
(as such, a soit of ip-side of asking questions). Ceitain behav-
iois can help one develop a good ieputation (though PlanetMath
does not model this veiy explicitly) and peihaps even moie
impoitantly, a high-quality iesouice emeiges fiom such one-
to-one inteiactions.
In a spatial seleion regime, we are again den-
ing an inside and outside, and looking for ways
in which the ruures that we have identied can t
together.
One of the featuies that the legacy veision of PlanetMath
lacked was any soit of suppoit foi pioblem solving behavioi
which, in mathematics, is actually a pieuy essential thing.
Rathei, the site was set up as a iefeience tool foi people who
solved pioblems elsewheie. By moving suppoit foi pioblems,
solutions, and ieviews onto the PlanetMath site itself, we ex-
pect not only to open the maiketplace up to new kinds of
leaineis (i.e. people woiking at a moie basic level than ency-
lopedia authoiing OR people woiking at a faiily advanced level
who aie moie inteiested in applications than in theoiy), but also
to get signicant impiovements to the coie knowledge iesouice
itself (the encyclopedia). Tis is because an aiticle without an
auached pioblem is not a veiy piactical aiticle fiom a leain-
ing oi application standpoint. Similaily, a pioblem without a
solution is lacking something, as is a solution without a ie-
view. Building suppoit foi this, and suppoit foi people to stiuc-
tuie/stage pioblems with pioblemsets should help make the site
a much moie piactically useful leaining tool.
In a group seleion regime, we are building sets
of aivities and paerns (mileones, roles) which can
then a as seleors for behavior. (is is why Ive
combined it with the catch-all heuriic category.)
111
Anothei histoiical weak point of the legacy site was suppoit
foi teams. Tus, foi example, one eoit to impiove Planet-
Maths coveiage of topics in Real Analysis foundeied - because
theie was no way to gathei a ciitical mass to this pioject. Teie
aie social, technical, and knowledge aspects to this pioblem. Co-
woiking iequiies people to be able to join gioups, and it iequiies
the gioups to be able to stiuctuie theii woikow. ln some sense
this is similai to an individuals woik being stiuctuied by the use
of heuiistics. A peisons choice to apply this stiategy instead of
that one, oi to join this gioup instead of that one, is in the end a
somewhat similai choice.
Tese notes have shown howthe paiagogical piinciples, sup-
plimented with veiy geneial theoiies of collaboiation, and some
piactical obseivations as examined in the Peeiagogy Handbook,
can help design a space foi leaining, which is itself a leaining
space in the sense of knowledge building. Although the case
study has focused on mathematics leaining, similai ieections
would apply to designing othei soits of leaining spaces (e.g. to
the continued development of the Peeiagogy pioject itself').
Part VI
Assessment
cuv1iv 1
lNTRODUCTlON TO PEERAGOGlCAL
ASSESSMENT
Authors Joe Coineli and David Pieston
Summary
Tis aiticle will be about both (a) assessment in peei leaining
and (b) an exeicise in assessment, as we will tiy to put oui stiat-
egy foi assessment into piactice by evaluating the Piivcocv
HNunoox itself.
Thinking about contribution
lt is intuitive to say leaining is adaptation. What else
would it be`
Fuithei, since adaptation happens not just on the individual
level, but also on the socio-cultuial level anthiopologists use
the phiase adaptive stiategy as a synonym foi cultuie we
can say that contiibutions to social adaptation aie paiagogical.
Adapting strategies for learning assessment to
the peer-learning context
ln Eiiic1ivi GvuiNc A Tooi iov LivNiNc Nu As
sissiN1, Baibaia E. Walvooid and Viiginia Johnson Andei-
son have outlined an appioach to giading. Tey addiess thiee
questions
1. Who needs to know, and why`
2. Which data aie collected`
3. How does the assessment body analyze data and piesent
ndings`
11
11 CHAPTER 16. PEERAGOGICAL ASSESSMENT
Te authois suggest that institutions, depaitments, and as-
sessment commiuees should begin with these simple questions
and woik fiom them towaids anything moie complex. Tese
simple questions piovide a way to undeistand - and assess - any
stiategy foi assessment' Foi example, considei foimative as-
sessment
which involves constantly monitoiing student
undeistanding thiough a combination of foimal and
infoimal measuies. Teacheis ask seaiching ques-
tions, listen ovei the shouldeis of students woiking
togethei on a pioblem, help students assess theii
own woik, and caiefully uncovei students think-
ing [and] ieact to what they leain by adjusting theii
teaching, theieby leading students to gieatei undei-
standing. (Qote fiom the website foi the book
New Fiontieis in Foimative Assessment.)
ln this context, oui answeis to the questions above would
be
1. Teacheis need to know about the way students aie think-
ing about theii woik, so they can delivei beuei teaching.
2. Teacheis gathei lots of details on leaining activities by
listening ovei the shouldeis of students.
3. Teacheis apply (hopefully well-infoimed) analysis tech-
niques that come fiom theii tiaining oi expeiience and
they do not necessaiily piesent theii assessments to stu-
dents diiectly, but iathei, feed it back in the foim of im-
pioved teaching.
Tis is veiy much a teachei knows best model' ln oidei to
do something like foimative assessment among peeis, we would
have to make quite a few adjustments.
1. At least some of the pioject paiticipants would have to
know how paiticipants aie thinking about theii woik. We
11
might not be able to delivei beuei teaching, but peihaps
we could woik togethei to pioblem-solve when diculties
aiise.
2. lt may be most convenient foi each paiticipant to take on a
shaie of the woik, e.g. by maintaining a leaining jouinal
(which could be shaied with othei paiticipants). Tis im-
poses a ceitain oveihead, but as we iemaiked elsewheie,
meta-leaining is a font of knowledge' Outside of self-
ieection, details about otheis leaining can sometimes be
abstiacted fiom theii contiibutions to the pioject (leain-
ing analytics is a whole topic unto itsell).
3. lf a paiticipant in a leaining pioject is boied, fiustiated,
feeling closed-minded, oi foi whatevei othei ieason not
leaining, then theie is denitely a question. But foi
whom` Foi the peison who isnt leaining` Foi the collec-
tive as a whole` We may not have to pondei this conun-
dium foi long if we go back to the idea that leaining is
adaptation, someone who is not leaining in a given con-
text will likely leave, and nd anothei context wheie they
can leain moie.
Tis is but one example of an assessment stiategy in ad-
dition to foimative assessment, diagnostic and summative
stiategies aie also quite populai in mainstieam education. Te
main puipose of this section has been to show that when the fa-
miliai ioles fiom foimal education devolve to the people, the
way assessment looks can change a lot. ln the following sec-
tion, we oei and begin to implement an assessment stiategy
foi evaluating the peeiagogy pioject as a whole.
Case study in peeragogical evaluation: the
Peeragogy project itself
We can evaluate this pioject paitly in teims of its main de-
liveiable, the Peeiagogy Handbook (which you aie now iead-
ing). ln paiticulai, we can ask ls this handbook useful foi its
intended audience` Te intended audience could potentially
include anyone who is paiticipating in a peei leaining pioject,
oi who is thinking about staiting one. We can also evaluate
the leaining expeiience that the co-cieatois of this handbook
have had. Has woiking on this book been a useful expeiience
foi those involved` Tese aie two veiy dieient questions,
with two dieient taigets foi analysis though the books co-
cieatois aie also pait of the intended audience. lndeed, we
might stait by asking has woiking on this book been useful foi
us`
Foi me (Joe) peisonally, it has been useful
to see some more abra, conceptual, and theoretical ideas
(paragogy.net) extended into praical advice (which Im sure I can
personally use), with references to literature I would not have come
up with in library or internet searches, and with a bunch of ideas
and insights that I wouldnt have come up with on my own. I
denitely intend to use this handbook further in my work.
lts tiue, l do see myself as one of the moie involved paitic-
ipants to date, which stands to ieason since lm actually paid to
ieseaich peei leaining, and this pioject is (in my opinion) one
of the most cuuing-edge places to talk about that topic' lf you
get out of it what you put into it is tiue, then, again, as a ma-
joi contiibutoi, l think l deseive a lot. And lm ceitainly not
the only one quite a laige numbei of peison-houis have been
pouied into this pioject by quite a numbei of volunteeis. Tis
should say something'
Neveitheless, one does not need to be a handbook contiib-
utoi at all to get value fiom the pioject if it weie otheiwise,
we might as well just get iid of the book afei wiiting it. Ac-
tually, oui thought is that this woik will indeed have value
foi downstieam useis, and oui choice of legal teims aiound the
book ieects that idea. Anyone downstieam is fiee to use the
contents of this book foi any puipose whatsoevei. Foi all we
know, theie will be futuie useis who will add much moie to the
study and piactice of paiagogy/peeiagogy than any of us have
so fai. Tis could happen by puuing the ideas to the test, feeding
back infoimation on the iesults to the pioject (viisi uo' - the
ultimate assessment of the Peeiagogy Handbook will be based
119
on what people actually do with it) peihaps fuithei developing
the book, developing additional case studies oi iecipes, and so
foith.
ln fact, questions about usefulness aie what we aim to
study in oui alpha testing phase (which is beginning now').
Conclusion
We can estimate individual leaining by examining the ieal
pioblems solved by the individual. Sometimes those aie solved
in collaboiation with otheis. lf someone only consumes infoi-
mation, they may well be leaining, but theie is no way foi us
to measuie that. On the othei hand, if they only solve text-
book pioblems, again, they may be leaining and gaining intu-
ition (which is good), but it is still not 100 cleai that they aie
actually leaining anything useful until they stait solving piob-
lems that they ieally caie about' So, to assess leaining, we do
not just measuie contiibution (in teims of quantity of posts oi
what have you) but instead we measuie contiibution to solv-
ing ieal pioblems. Sometimes that happens veiy slowly, with
lots of piactice along the way. Fuitheimoie, at any given point
in time, some of the pioblems aie actually quite fun and aie
solved by playing' lndeed (as people like Piaget and Vygotsky
iecognized), if weie inteiested to know ieal expeits on leain-
ing, we should talk with kids, since they leain tons and tons of
things.
Recommended reading
Chiis Moigan, Meg OReilly, AssissiNc OviN Nu uis
1Nci iivNivs (1999), OviN UNivivsi1v
Jan Philipp Schmidt, Chiistine Geith, Stian Haklev, and
Joel Tieistein, PiivToPiiv RicocNi1ioN oi LivNiNc
iN OviN Euuc1ioN
L.S. Vygotsky MiNu iN Socii1v DiviioviN1 oi
Hicuiv Psvcuoiocici Pvocissis
RiiJo Mii11iNiNand Jxxo VivxxuNiN, Evis1iic On
Jic1s, Av1iic1s Nu OvcNiz1ioNi CuNci, Orga-
nization, May 200 ,12 43-4.
Supplement: An overview of assessment topics
Diagnostic, foimative and summative evaluation
Competency-based leaining
Expeiiential leaining
UNIT OF ANALYSIS
individual
gioup/team
class
couise
piogiam
oiganization
Purpose
diagnostic
foimative
summative
Feedback source
peei
pedadogical authoiity
content expeit
gioup
public
121
Models
Peei assessment
Self-assessment
Noim-iefeienced testing
Ciiteiion-iefeienced testing
lnfoimation-iefeienced testing
Wiiting
Tiansmedia/e-poitfolios
Other considerations
Suitability to task
Suitability to leaineis desiied/expected outcomes
(e.g., lf l want to mastei a skill, l need moie ex-
peit/ciitical/constiuctive feedback than someone clicking
a like buuon.)
Capital time, money, eneigy, ROl
Futuie documentaiy usage
piofessional guidelines
Further reading
Piiv Nu siiississiN1 (fiom National Capital Lan-
guage Resouice Centei)
Steven Jay Goulds e Mismeasure of Man
Wixiviui iN1vv oN viiv Nu siiississiN1
AssissiN1 s i1 vii1is 1o viiv iivNiNc iN uNiviv
si1v couvsis
Siii, viiv, Nu cvouv ssissiN1 iN iiivNiNc
Niv FvoN1iivs iN Fov1ivi AssissiN1
cuv1iv 1
FOLLOWlNG THE MONEY, ASSESSlNG
PROFlTABLlTY
Summary
Te metiics foi leaining in coipoiations aie busi-
ness metiics based on nancial data. Manageis
want to know Has the leaining expeiience en-
hanced the woikeis pioductivity`
Follow the money
When people ask about the ROl of infoimal leaining, ask
them how they measuie the ROl of foimal leaining. Test scoies,
giades, self-evaluations, auendance, and ceitications piove
nothing. Te ROl of any foimof leaining is the value of changes
in behavioi divided by the cost of inducing the change. Like the
tiee falling ovei in the foiest with no one to heai it, if theies no
change in behavioi ovei the long haul, no leaining took place.
ROl is in the mind of the beholdei, in this case, the sponsoi of the
leaining who is going to decide whethei oi not to continue in-
vesting. Because the guie involves judgment, its nevei going
to be accuiate to the ist decimal place. Foitunately, it doesnt
have to be. Ballpaik numbeis aie solid enough foi making deci-
sions.
AssissiNc Wovxvici LivNiNc fiomJv Cvoss on Viio.
Te piocess begins befoie the investment is made. What de-
giee of change will the sponsoi accept as woithy of ieinvest-
ment` How aie we going to measuie that` Whats an adequate
level of change` Whats so low well have to adopt a dieient
appioach` How much of the change can we auiibute to leain-
ing` You need to gain agieement on these things befoiehand.
Monday moining quaiteibacking is not ciedible. lts ciazy to
assess leaining immediately afei it occuis. You can see if peo-
123
124 CHAPTER 17. FOLLOWING THE MONEY
ple aie taking pait oi if theyie complaining about geuing lost,
but you cannot assess what sticks until the foigeuing cuive has
iavaged the leaineis memoiies foi a fewmonths. Without iein-
foicement, people foiget most of what they leain in shoit oidei.
lts beguiling to tiy to coiielate the impact of leaining with exist-
ing nancial metiics like incieased ievenues oi beuei customei
seivice scoies. Done on its own, this appioach iaiely woiks be-
cause leaining is but one of many factois that inuence iesults.
Was todays success due to leaining oi the ad campaign oi weak
competition oi the sales contest oi something else` Te way to
assess how people leain is to ask them. How did you guie out
how to do this` Who did you leain this fiom` How did that
change youi behavioi` How can we make it beuei` Too time
consuming` Not if you inteiview a iepiesentative sample. Foi
example, inteiviewing less than 100 people out of 2000 yields an
answei within 10 nineteen times out of twenty, a highei con-
dence level than most estimates in business. lnteiviewing 10
people will give you the iight estimate 99 of the time.
Part VII
Paerns, Use Cases, and
Examples
cuv1iv 18
THlNKlNG ABOUT PATTERNS
Authois Tui Piivcocv Ti
What is a paern?
A paern is anything that happens ovei and ovei again. ln
the context of peeiagogy, we mean iepeating things that we like,
oi that we think aie useful foi some puipose. Ting that happen
a lot but aie not desiiable aie called anti-paerns'
What is a use case?
A use case desciibes someone (oi something) who uses a
given system oi tool to achieve a goal. When wiiting a use case,
it is piesented with a title (which seives as a biief summaiy), a
main actoi, and a success scenaiio. Additional featuies can be
added, such as alteinate inteiaction paths leading to a vaiiation
on the iesult.
What do you get when you put these together?
Combine paueins and use cases and you stait to get some-
thing called a paern language. See the section on P11ivNs
Nu Hiuvis1ics foi one such iepiesentation. Tat page diaws
on the ielationships between the paueins weve found foi oi-
ganizing peei leaining, and some known pioblem-solving tech-
niques. See the page RisivcuiNc viivcocv foi additional
ielated discussion.
Paerns of peeragogy
Heie is oui index of the paueins weve found so fai (de-
sciibed in moie detail afei the jump)
12
128 CHAPTER 18. THINKING ABOUT PATTERNS
Hiv1ni1
CvvviNc Cvci1v
Cvi1iNc Guiui
DiscivNiNc P11ivN
Mouiv1ioN
Nivcoiv
P11ivN LNcuci
PoiiiNc iov luis
Pvxis vs Poiisis
Rouv
Roiis
Wvvviv
Use cases for Peeragogy
We also piesent a vaiiety of hypothetical and not-so-
hypothetical use cases
AccouN1iNc
Cis1 i vii
Dis1vinu1iu PvoJic1 MNciiN1
lvvoviu uv1ivi1v
lvvoviNc 1ui iiiiccv oi visivcu iuNuiNc
JouvNiis1 iN1ivs 1ui WuisviviNc Giiivv
Juuo
LiviNc 1ui OER uvi
129
MxiNc ouv ovN 1oois
Piiv LivNiNc oN 1ui TicuNici Euci
Piiv vvouuc1ioN 1o viiv iivNiNc
PvoiicoiN 1o ANv Fu1uvi M1u LivNiNc ENvi
voNiN1
Pivcocv uiivs soivi coviix vvoniis
S1v1iNc CovNv
S1ii Tuis Boox
S1v1icv s iivNiNc
Wi vi 1ui 1 vivciN1
YouNc sviviNc niocciv vN1s 1o voiu s1vv1ioN
Anti-paerns for Peeragogy
And some anti-paueins (things to avoid)
lsoi1ioN
Mcici 1uiNxiNc
Missv vi1u Luvxivs
MisuNuivs1NuiNc Poviv
Nvii GziNc
S1sis
S1ucx 1 1ui iivii oi vix 1iis
130 CHAPTER 18. THINKING ABOUT PATTERNS
Examples
Te above use cases and paueins make the stoiy abstiact
but how about some conciete examples of peeiagogy in action`
Considei
OviNH1cu.ovc, an open souice community aiming
to help newcomeis nd theii way into fiee sofwaie
piojects.
Te Fvii TicuNoiocv Guiiu is a youngei pioject with
aspiiations similai in some ways to those of OpenHatch,
but in this case, oiiented not just to paiiing newcomeis
with mentois, but paiiing clients with seivice piovideis.
Te idea is that we as a gioup will do useful piojects foi
oui membeis oi exteinal paities, and on-the-job we men-
toi and leain and get beuei. (Since this is a new pioject,
the vvoJic1 nuiiuiNc vusi is itself a nacent example of
paiagogy.)
Many moie examples on oui ixviis page'
Further reading
Tui Tiiiiss Wv oi BuiiuiNc, by Chiistophei Alexan-
dei. An elegant woik, like most of Alexandeis wiiting.
lf you want to stait out with something smallei, theies
a pithy essay by Chiistophei Alexandei called A Ci1v is
No1 Tvii, available online
P11ivNs oi Soi1vvi, by Richaid Gabiiel, who ap-
plies the pauein idea to sofwaie and piogiamming lan-
guages.
cuv1iv 19
PATTERNS AND HEURlSTlCS
Tis section diaws some paiallels between ceitain Minskian
heuiistics foi pioblemsolving, and the P11ivNs foi peeiagogy
that we came up with. Te heuiistics (which Maivin Minsky
discusses in a seiies of ios foi the One Laptop Pei Child
pioject) can be summed up with the following diagiam
Figuie 19.1 Minskian heuiistics foi pioblem solving
We can see some ielationships to the peeiagogy paueins
weve identied, ist summed up with a pictuie heie, and in
text below (some of the nodes in the diagiam aie clickable, and
clicking will take you to the page desciibing that pauein')
To elaboiate in woids
- We simplify things foi a Newcomer. (ln paiticulai, this
means that we dont expect the newcomei to use a high pio-
cessing level.)
- We change focus by using a Roadmap to guide us fiomone
step to anothei. ln addition, the piojects Heartbeat leads us to
131
132 CHAPTER 19. PATTERNS AND HEURISTICS
let go of oui focus at one moment, and iesume with anothei
point of view latei.
- We change description ist of all by having a Wrapper
who desciibes the new state of the pioject. Foi the Peeiagogy
pioject, that ofen meant summing up the high points that we
saw ovei a given peiiod of time. lt seems possible that with a
iich enough Paern Language, the desciiption would itself be
made in teims of paueins.
- We divide woik up not only hoiizontally among dieient
Roles, but also tempoially by using the Roadmap. Someone
who is moving ahead with the Roadmap is likely to be woiking
at the cuuing edge.
- When we nd an analogy, we aie basically Creating a
Guide of some soit. Tis can be used as a foim of exploiation,
as we look at how one foim of engagement may oi may not map
onto othei foims of engagement.
- When we ask for help, we may avail ouiselves of some
Moderation seivice that will decide how to deal with oui ie-
quest. One simple way to ask foi help is Polling for Ideas.
Obviously once we stait to get help, weie woiking in a iegime
of collaboiative eoit.
- lf you know the answer, then you may be able to ieuse it
(which is the basic idea desciibed in Praxis vs Poesis, though
the title is a liule bit obscuie). Someone who knows the an-
swei and who is good at self-explanation may also have a good
idea about how to get fiom the cuiient state to the goal state,
alteinatively, this may be bioken down into steps in some sub-
Roadmap, and moving fiom step to step would then illustiate
piogiessive pioblem solving.
- lt is impoitant to give it a re so as not to ovei-exhaust one-
self, busting ones own Carrying Capacity, oi, alteinatively,
oveiwhelming the gioup.
- lt seems that one of the things that experts do is Discerning
a Paern. Tis allows them to simplify theii piocessing.
- Finally, again, if we know why it is hard, then we may be
able to Create a Guide that will help get aiound, oi at least
beuei cope with, the diculty.
cuv1iv 20
PATTERNS
Heartbeat
ln the Collaboiative Lesson Planning couise led by Chai-
lie Dano at P2PU (which l joined twice, and wheie we ist
talked thiough the ideas about paiagogy), Chailie wiote indi-
vidual emails to people who weie signed up foi the couise and
who didnt paiticipate. Tis kept some of us (including me') on
tiack. Without someone oi something acting as the heaitbeat
foi the gioup, eneigy may dissipate.
Carrying Capacity
e carrying capacity of a biological species in an
environment is the maximum population size of the
species that the environment can suain indenitely,
given the food, habitat, water and other necessities
available in the environment. Wikipedias aiticle
on CvvviNc Cvci1v
If overimulation at the sensory level increases the
diortion with which we perceive reality, cognitive
overimulation interferes with our ability to think.
While some human responses to novelty are involun-
tary, others are preceded by conscious thought, and
this depends upon our ability to absorb, manipulate,
evaluate and retain information. Futuie Shock,
by Alvin Toei
l have been conceined that l might ovei-contiibute and
diown out othei voices heie. When l feel like that, l think l
should take a step back. Tats double tiue if l stait to feel the
133
134 CHAPTER 20. PATTERNS
symptoms of buin-out. Howevei, l categoiize this as a pat-
tein, not an antipauein. lt is good to know youi limits, and
the limits of the community you woik with. Find the level of
engagement that woiks. Lead by example but make suie its
someplace people actually want to go'
Creating a Guide
Meaning-caiiying tools, like handbooks oi maps, can help
people use an idea. ln paiticulai, when the idea oi system is
only newly discoveied, the associated meanings may not be
well undeistood (indeed they may not have been cieated). ln
such a case, the piocess of cieating the guide can go hand-in-
hand with guiing out how the system woiks. Tus, techniques
of xNoviiuci cv1ocvvuv and iNiNc xiNc aie useful
foi would-be guide cieatois. Even so, it is woith noting that the
map is not the teiiitoiy, and map-making is only one facet of
shaied human activity.
lve tiied to incoipoiate comments fiom Bob and Howaid
into this pauein. l hope it comes acioss cleaily. Many of the
paueins suggested heie should be iened collaboiatively in the
wiki. Collaboiatively iening a pauein is itself an example of
Cieating a Guide - that is, a pauein desciiption can be thought
of as a micio-map of a specic activity.
Discerning a Paern
[W]e saw that language use is typically what we have
to go on, from an analytical perspeive. Generally, if
we are not arting with language, we arrive at it soon
enough. Language becomes something to pay aen-
tion to, in much the same way in which Buddhiprac-
titioners have for centuries spent time watching their
breath. Pvcocici Pvxis by Joe Coineli
Te challenge of disceining a piagogical pauein typically
comes down to the question What aie we doing with lan-
13
guage` Foi example, in building a peei leaining piole some-
one might identify an inteiest (e.g. gaidening, puns). We no-
tice this is a pauein when it keeps happening (most paiticipants
have included some inteiests in theii self-intioductions). Te
classic example of a pauein fiom aichitectuie is A Place to
Wait something that comes up in a lot of aichitectuial con-
texts. Once a (suspected) pauein is found, we give it a title and
wiite down how using the pauein woiks in a peei leaining con-
text. ln the cuiient case, Disceining a Pauein helps us build oui
peei leaining vocabulaiy oi iepeitoiie foi peei leaineis.
Moderation
Why is a shbowl moie pioductive than debate`
Te small gioup conveisations in the shbowl tend
to de-peisonalize the issue and ieduce the stiess
level, making peoples statements moie cogent.
Since people aie talking with theii fellow paiti-
sans, they get less caught up in wasteful adveisaiial
games. - the ColN1iiiiciNci lNs1i1u1i
Pv1iciv1ioN in online foiums tends to follow a voviv
iv, with unequal engagement. One iemedy foi this is simply
foi the most active paiticipants to step back, and modeiate how
much they speak (see CvvviNc Cvci1v). OWS uses a similai
technique in theii vvocvissivi s1cx.
Newcomer
Unless theie is a newpeison to talk to, a lot of the education
stun we do could get kind of stale. Many of the paueins and
use cases foi peeiagogy assume that theie will be an audience oi
a newgeneiation of leaineis - hence things like cieating a guide.
Note that the newcomer and the wrapper may woik togethei to
make the pioject accessible.
Even in the absence of actual newcomeis, weie ofen asked
to tiy and look at things with a beginneis mind. Note Regis
has wiiuen vvc1ici uvici foi things we can do on behalf of
newcomeis in this pioject.
Paern Language
l use the idea of a paern language as a shoithand foi what
Chiistophei Alexandei talks about in his xivNo1i uuviss foi
the lEEE in 199.
ln shoit, once we have come up with enough paueins (in-
cluding the pauein of a paern language that l discussing heie,
and its geneializations pei Chiistophei Alexandei), then we will
be beuei able to do both the socio-technical design woik asso-
ciated with planning piagogical expeiiences, and, quite likely,
enjoy the actual woik moie too.
ln this quote fiom the linked aiticle, C. A. talks about com-
putei piogiamming, but l think the same could go foi any othei
soit of design-and-implementation woik
It is a view of programming as the natural genetic in-
fraruure of a living world which you/we are ca-
pable of creating, managing, making available, and
which could then have the result that a living ruure
in our towns, houses, work places, cities, becomes an
aainable thing. at would be remarkable. It would
turn the world around, and make living ruure the
norm once again, throughout society, and make the
world worth living in again.is is an extraordinary
vision of the future, in which computers play a fun-
damental role in making the world - and above all the
built ruure of the world - alive, humane, ecologi-
cally profound, and with a deep living ruure.
Polling for Ideas
and then Howard said At the beginning, until we all know
the ropes well enough to underand when to create a new discus-
sion forum topic and when to add to an exiing one, lets talk in
13
this topic thread about what else we want to discuss and I will art
new topic threads when necessary.
Polling foi ldeas can happen at many junctuies in a peei
leaining expeiience, e.g. we could poll foi ideas about who
would we like to join oui gioup`, and what would be good
iesouices foi us to use`
Praxis vs Poeisis
Piaxis, a noble activity, is always one of use, as
distinct fiom poesis which designates fabiication.
Only the foimei, which plays and acts, but does not
pioduce, is noble. [1] (p. 101)
Teie is a tension between making stun and using stun.
Peei produion, as the name indicates, is about making stu,
oi voisis. And stu is, at least in theoiy, kinda cool. Fuithei-
moie, some of the most familiai examples of peeiagogy in piac-
tice come fiom the ciaf and makei movements. Howevei, we
can also tiy to be awaie of just how much leaining is ieally
iemix ie-use and iecycling of othei peoples ideas and tech-
niques. Undeistanding and negotiating the tension between
ieuse and cieativity is key to the ait of iemix.
Reference
1. Baudiillaid, J. (19). e mirror of produion. Telos Piess
Roadmap
lt is veiy useful to have an up-to-date public ioadmap foi
the pioject, someplace wheie it can be discussed and main-
tained. Tis helps newcomers know wheie they can jump
in. lt also gives a sense of the accomplishments to date, and
any majoi challenges that lie ahead. Remembei, the Roadmap
exists as an aitifact with which to shaie cuiient, but nevei com-
plete, undeistanding of the space. Nevei stop leaining'
Examples
ln the Peeiagogy pioject, now that the outline is faiily ma-
tuie, we can use it as a ioadmap, by maiking the sections that aie
nished (at least in diaf), maiking the sections wheie editing
is cuiiently taking place, and maiking the stubs (possible stait-
ing points foi futuie contiibutois). While this does not piovide
a complete ioadmap foi all aspects of the pioject, it does give
editois a sense of what is going on. Te Fiee Technology Guild
piovides one ixvii.
And also
Note that a shaied ioadmap is veiy similai to a PivsoNi
LivNiNc PiN, oi paiagogical piole. Weve made some
ixviis of these as we got staited woiking on the Fiee Tech-
nology Guild.
Roles
Tis may seem like an obvious one, but educational inteiac-
tions tend to have a numbei of dieient ioles associated with
them. Considei that eveiything could bifuicate fiom the auto-
didact
1. Autodidact 2. Tutoi-Tutee 3. Tutoi-Tutee-Paient .
Tutoi-Tutee -1-Tutee -2-Paient-Piincipal etc., until we have
buisais, libiaiians, technicians, janitois, editois of peei ie-
viewed ieseaich jouinals, goveinment policy makeis, spin-o
industiial ventuies and paitneiships, etc., all involved in Educa-
tion. Even the autodidact may assume dieient ioles at diei-
ent points in time - sometimes making a libiaiy iun, sometimes
constiucting a model, sometimes checking a pioof. Te decom-
position of leaining into dieient phases oi polaiities could
be an endless theoietical task. Foi the moment, we just note
that ioles aie ofen piesent by default at the stait of a leaining
piocess, and that they may change as the piocess develops.
139
Wrapper
Chailie Dano succis1s that someone to take on the wiap-
pei iole, in othei woids do a pie/post wiap (e.g. weekly),
so that new useis know wheie the state of the pioject is at
any given point in time. Te piojects iN vci also seives
as a wiappei, and it should be checked fiom time to time to
make suie that it accuiately iepiesents the basic facts about the
pioject.
Note that the wiappei iole is similai to the integiative
function that is needed foi commons-based peei pioduction to
woik (i.e. accoiding to the theoiy pioposed by Yochai Benklei, it
is vital to have both (1) the ability to contiibute small pieces, (2)
some integiative function that stitches those pieces togethei).
cuv1iv 21
ANTlPATTERNS
Isolation
(Tis is in some ways ielated to Pv1iciv1ovv DisicN vs
Nvii GziNc.) An eoit that isolates itself - e.g. thiough lack
of humility - will not have the occasion to diaw on othei ie-
souices. ln populai discouise, idiosynciatic oi asocial behavioi
is ofen casually iefeiied to as u1is1ic, which may indeed be
a seivicable metaphoi (tho not without some caveats). As with
the symptoms of autism, social isolation (of vaiious foims) may
have its ioots inuncomfortably-intense expeiiences of sensation.
At the othei end of the spectium it can of couise be fun (and
useful) to iun into the same people oi ideas in dieient contexts,
to make connections in a cieative way, to help otheis succeed.
With a too-naiiow focus (cf. the notion of 1vNsvivsii1v),
people will bump into each othei uncomfoitably, oi iemain iso-
lated, with a too-wide focus, eveiything is chaotic in othei ways
(see CoLivNiNc Missv vi1u Luvxivs), motivating a nai-
iowing of focus. Fiom a design point of view we should be
consious of inteifaces that aie too loud, and think about how
that is compensated foi by isolation (of vaiious foims).
Magical thinking
Introduction
While the ideal platfoim would (magically) come with solu-
tions pie-built, a moie iealistic appioach iecognizes that piob-
lem solving always takes time and eneigy. Te pioblem solv-
ing appioach and associated leaining oiientation will also de-
pend on the task and iesouices at hand. [] Aiguably, if we
knew, 100, how to do peeiagogy, then we would not stand
141
142 CHAPTER 21. ANTIPATTERNS
to leain veiy much by wiiting this handbook. Diculties and
tensions would be iesolved in advance (see eailiei comments
about magical technologies foi peei pioduction).
Magical Thinking is the thief of process
Magical thinking of the kind desciibed above iobs a context
of its piocess (Nishida might say, its motion). lt seems pos-
sible that the moie stiuctuie we have in advance, and the moie
we can fall back on tiaditional modes of doing things, the less
we stand to leain. l quote at length
Optimization of decision-making processes confers
an important advantage in response to a conantly
changing environment. e ability to sele the ap-
propriate aions on the basis of their consequences
and on our needs at the time of the decision allows
us to respond in an ecient way to changing situa-
tions. However, the continuous control and aention
that this process demands can result in an unneces-
sary expenditure of resources and can be inecient
in many situations. For inance, when behavior is
repeated regularly for extensive periods without ma-
jor changes in outcome value or contingency, or un-
der uncertain situations where we cannot manipulate
the probability of obtaining an outcome, general rules
and habits can be advantageous. us, the more rapid
shi to habits aer chronic ress could be a coping
mechanism to improve performance of well-trained
behaviors, while increasing the bioavailability to ac-
quire and process new information, which seems es-
sential for adaptation to complex environments. How-
ever, when objeives need to be re-updated in order
to make the mo appropriate choice, the inability of
ressed subjes to shi from habitual rategies to
goal-direed behavior might be highly detrimental.
Such impairment might be of relevance to underand
the high comorbidity between ress-related disorders
143
and addiive behavior or compulsivity, but certainly
has a broader impa spanning aivities from every-
day life decisions to economics. SciiNci Mc
ziNi
Tis also has inteiesting implications when it comes to de-
tecting leaining (see visivcuiNc viivcocv). How do
emotions, stiess, leaining, habit, and adaptation ielate`
Messy with Lurkers
Gigi Johnson: (1) Co-learning is Messy. It needs
time, patience, confusion, re-forming, re-norming, re-
orming, etc. ings go awry and part of norms needs
to be how to realign. (2) Co-learning is a VERY dif-
ferent experience from traditional teacher-led learn-
ing in terms of time and completion. It is frurating,
so many people will lurk or ju ep in and out, the
laer of which is very dierent from what is accept-
able in traditonal learning. Online learning programs
are painted with the brush now of an unacceptable
50% average non-completion rate. Stanfords MOOC
AI class, which arted out with +100,000 people, had
12% nish. If only 12% or 50% of my traditional class
nished, Id have a hard time geing next quarters
classes approved!
Te second point is similai to the eailiei Anti-pauein Mis
uNuivs1NuiNc Poviv (Lvs). People have to join in oidei to
tiy, and when joining is low-cost, and completion low-benet, it
is not suipiising that many people willdissipate as the couise
piogiesses. Te messiness of co-leaining is inteiesting be-
cause it points to a soit of inteinal dissipation, as contiibutois
biing theii multiple dieient backgiounds, inteiests, and com-
munication styles to beai. ln ToiiNsoN i1 i., we obseived
More authors means more content, but also more
words thrown away. Many of the words wrien
by authors were deleted during the ongoing edit-
ing process. e sheer mass of deleted words might
raise the queion of whether authoring a paper in
such a massively diributed fashion is ecient.
lf we weie to desciibe this situation in tiaditional sub-
ject/object teims, we would say that peei pioduction has a low
signal to noise iatio. Howevei, it may be moie appiopiiate
(and constiuctive) to think of meanings as co-constiucted as the
piocess iuns, and of messiness (oi meaninglessness) as symp-
tomatic, not of peei pioduction itself, but of deciencies oi infe-
licities in shaied meaning-making and integiating featuies.
Misunderstanding Power
Zips law ates that given some corpus of natural
language uerances, the frequency of any word is in-
versely proportional to its rank in the frequency table.
us the mo frequent word will occur approximately
twice as oen as the second mo frequent word, three
times as oen as the third mo frequent word, etc.
Zipls law (oi othei foimulations of the same thing) gov-
ein the sizi oi ci1iis, and ielated foimulations desciibe iN
ivcv usi ioughly speaking, an elephant has a lowei metabolism
than a mouse and is moie eneigy ecient. At that same
link, we see the suggestion that cieativity in laige-scale enviion-
mentsspeeds up! e anti-paern howmany times have we been
at a confeience oi woikshop and heaid someone say (oi said oui-
selves) wouldnt it be gieat if this eneigy could be sustained all
yeai iound` Oi in a classioom oi peei pioduction seuing,
wondeied why it is that eveiyone does not paiticipate equally.
Wouldnt it be gieat if we could inciease paiticipation` lf you
believe the iesult above, laige-scale paiticipation would indeed
tend to inciease cieativity' - But neveitheless, paiticipation does
tend to fall o accoiding to some powei law (see lntioduction to
Powei Laws in Tui UNciv1iN1v PviNcivii, Voiui ll, lssui
14
3), and it would be a giand illusion to assume that eveiyone is
coming fiom a similai place with iegaid to the vaiious liteia-
cies and motivations that aie conducive to paiticipation. Fui-
theimoie, a piovisionist auitude (lf we change oui system we
will equalize paiticipation and access) simply will not woik in
geneial, since power laws are inherently an epiphenomenon of net-
works. Note that paiticipation in a given activity ofen (but not
always) falls o ovei time as well. Tis eect seems ielated but
is also not well undeistood (many people would like to wiite a
hit song / best selling novel / stait a ieligion / etc., but few ac-
tually do). See the anti-pauein Mcici TuiNxiNc foi moie
on that. About the title Note that those agents who do post the
most in a given collaboiation (iespectively, the woids oi ideas
that aie most common in a given language) will tend to inu-
ence the space the most. ln this way, we can see some paiallels
between the SvivWuovi Hvvo1uisis and Bouidieus notion
of svnoiic vioiiNci. Much as Paul Giaham wiote about
piogiamming languages piogiammeis aie typicallysatised
with whatevei language they happen to use, because it dictates
the way they think about piogiams so too aie people ofen
satised with theii social enviionments, because these tend to
dictate the way they think and act in life.
Navel Gazing
Te diculty l am iefeiiing to bieaks down like this
1. Ceitainly we cannot get things done just by talking about
them.
2. And yet, feedback can be useful, i.e., if theie aie mecha-
nisms foi iesponding to it in a useful fashion.
3. Te associated anti-paern is a special case of the pioto-
typical Bateson uounii niNu, the fathei who says to his
son, go ahead and ciiticize me - with the stiong hint that
all eective ciiticism will be veiy unwelcome.
lndeed ciiticism is not always useful. Sometimes it is just
noise. e art of paragogical praxis is to make something useful
out of what would otherwise ju be noise.
Stasis
Actually, of couise, living beings aie nevei really in stasis. lt
just sometimes feels that way. Dieient anti-paueins like lso
i1ioN oi NviiGziNc have desciibed dieient aspects of
the experience of feeling like one is in stasis. Typically, what
is happening in such a case is that one oi moie dimensions of
life aie moving veiy slowly.
Foi instance, it seems we aie not able to get piogiamming
suppoit to impiove this veision of the Social Media Classioom,
foi love oi money, since all developei eneigy is going into the
next veision. Tis isnt tiue stasis, but it can feel fiustiating
when a specic small featuie is desiied, but unavailable. Te so-
lution` Dont get hung up on small things, and nd the dimen-
sions wheie movement is possible. ln a sense this is analogous
to eating a balanced diet. You piobably shouldnt only eat giilled
cheese sandwiches, even if you like them a lot. You should go
foi something dieient once in a while. Tis is also ielated to the
pauein that talks about CvvviNc Cvci1v. Teie is always
some dimension on which you can make piogiess it just might
not be the same dimension youve iecently ovei-haivested'
Stuck at the level of weak ties
Remembei this fiom oui aiticle on ovcNiziNc iivNiNc
coN1ix1`
ere is a certain irony here: we are udying
peeragogy, and yet many respondents did not feel
they were really geing to know one another as
peers. Several remarked that they learned less from
other individual participants, and more from the col-
leive. ose who did have a team, or who knew
14
one another from previous experiences, felt more peer-
like in those relationships.
Are weak ties strong?
Weak ties aie ofen deemed a stiength see foi exam-
ple 1uis v1icii in Psychology Today, which says
[S]trong and weak ties tend to serve dierent func-
tions in our lives. When we need a big favor or social
or inrumental support, we ask our friends. We call
them when we need to move a washing machine. But
if we need information that we dont have, the peo-
ple to ask are our weak ties. ey have more diverse
knowledge and more diverse ties than our close friends
do. We ask them when we want to know who to hire
to inall our washing machine.
Te quote suggests that theie is a ceitain tiade-o between
use of weak ties and use of stiong ties. Te anti-pauein in ques-
tion then is less to do with whethei we aie foiming weak ties oi
stiong ties, and moie to do with whethei we aie being hone
with ourselves and with each other about the nature of the ties we
are forming and theii potential uses. We can be peeis in
eithei a weak oi a stiong sense. Te question to ask is whethei
oui needs match oui expectations'
ln the peeiagogy context, this has to do with how we intei-
act. One of the paiticipants in this pioject wiote
I amlearning about peeragogy, but I think Imfailing
[to be] a good peeragog[ue]. I remember that Howard
[once] told us that the mo important thing is that
you should be responsible not only for your own learn-
ing but for your peers learning. [] So the queion
is, are we learning from others by ourselves or are we
[] helping others to learn?
lf we aie only co-consumeis of infoimation (which hap-
pens to pioduced live, by some of the paiticipants), then this
seems like a classic example of a weak tie. We aie pait of the
same audience oi anyway, in the same theatei (even if
sepaiated fiom each othei by continuous 4th walls). On the
othei hand, actively engaging with othei people (whethei with
my leaining, with theii leaining, oi with the co-pioduction
of knowledge) seems to be the foundation foi stiong ties. ln
this case oui aims (oi needs) aie moie instiumental, and less
infoimational.
People who do not put in the time and eoit will iemain
stuck at the level of weak ties, and will not be able to diaw on
the benets that stiong ties oei.
cuv1iv 22
USE CASES
From peer production to peer learning
Main actor
Julian, an enthusiastic conveit to the powei of peei-leaining.
Main success scenario
1. Reecting on the success of S1v1icv s LivNiNc, Ju-
lian notes that othei housing associations might benet
fiom this piocess. He also notes that as most housing as-
sociation boaids aie made up of volunteeis like himself,
theie is a veiy wide vaiiation in backgiound, knowledge
and skills, and theiefoie not only a need foi lowcost (fiee)
leaining oppoitunities, but a iange of skills available to
enable them.
2. Julian sets up a peei leaining iesouice on the web, diaw-
ing on the expeiiences in implementing S1v1icv s
LivNiNc, and piomotes it thiough industiy-specic web
foiums. He diaws auention fiom an online jouinalist
wiiting in the housing eld who wiites a positive aiticle,
and as a iesult a giowing numbei of collaboiatois come
foiwaid.
3. Ovei a peiiod of a yeai oi so, the coie team of active
useis collaboiate to cieate standaids and exemplais in ie-
lation to dieient aspects of housing association govei-
nance that become a de facto standaid in the sectoi.
149
10 CHAPTER 22. USE CASES
Thoughts
1. Obviously a veiy specic use case that could easily be gen-
eialised
2. Possible paueins to extiact` Seeding Peei Communities,
Emeigent Standaids, Emeigent Assessment `
Cest la vie
Main Actors
Pieiie and Maiie - iecently maiiied.
Main Success Scenario
1. Tey fuinished o an apaitment fiom a Seais & Roebuck
sale. Teii cooleiatoi was ciammed with TV dinneis and
gingei ale. (She couldnt cook.)
2. But when Pieiie found woik, the liule money coming in
woiked out well. Tey got a hi- phono, and boy, did they
let it blast Seven hundied liule EPs, all iock, ihythm and
jazz.
3. When the sun went down, the iapid tempo of the music
soit of fell (foi vaiious ieasons).
4. Tey bought a souped up Meicedes a cheiiy ied 3
and diove it down to New Oileans to celebiate theii an-
niveisaiy.
. Cest la vie, say the old folks, lt goes to show you nevei
can tell'
(Apies Chuck Beiiy.)
11
Thoughts
l tiied to use the familiai song to suggest that piagogy
woiks in peisonal ielationships, too. Compaie the above stoiy
with this quote fiom Leopold von Sachei-Massoch
Tat woman, as natuie has cieated hei and as man
is at piesent educating hei, is his enemy. She can
only be his slave oi his despot, but never his com-
panion. Tis she can become only when she has the
same iights as he, and is his equal in education and
woik.
l dont know if Sachei-Massoch is paiticulaily ieliable as a
feminist. But it is inteiesting to look at companionship (along
with membeiship in the same age cohoit) as a ciiteiion foi a
peei-like and woiking ielationship in the stoiy. lts uncleai as
to whethei Pieiie & Maiie have equal ioles (he found woik,
but its not in any way implied that she was woiking so how
did she spend hei time` Etc.).
Distributed Project Management
Main Actor
Kim, a Ph. D. student in Geogiaphy.
1. Kim has dieient people on hei supeivision team some
in hei eld, otheis fiom geology. Tey all have somewhat
dieient ideas about what she should be doing with hei
thesis woik. None of them aie co-located. Tis situation
can be quite fiustiating.
2. Kim decides to go spend a few weeks woiking in close
pioximity to the one membei of the team who she has the
most iappoit with. Tis will also give hei a chance to be
in touch with othei students in hei eld.
3. ln the mean time, she establishes contact with yet anothei
ieseaichei whose woik is quite closely ielated to heis. Al-
though he does not have any foimal iesponsibilities oi ties
to hei pioject, they aie alieady colleagues in an academic
sense, and they have moie congiuent views on what hei
pioject is about. Afei she visits hei favoiite supeivisoi,
she may plan to spend a month oi so visiting this othei
ieseaichei in his home countiy.
Note
l think this soit of netwoiking to cieate an infoimal supeivi-
sion team happens faiily fiequently foi postgiad students in the
UK system. Ceitainly theie aie othei examples of distiibuted
pioject management - e.g. W3C woiking gioups come to mind.
Improved adaptivity
Main Actor
Madeleine, a student who is tiying to leain ieal analysis.
1. Madeleine has been using a peei-leaining website foi
mathematics foi a while now. When she gets stuck, she
asks foi help in context, and hei iequest is biought to the
auention of the appiopiiate community membei, who im-
pioves the pedagogic quality of the mateiial. Tis help
enables hei to solve math pioblems veiy eectively.
2. Now, howevei, the systems sofwaie is being updated.
lnstead of being solely a Web 2.0 system foi commu-
nicating about the subject, the system can keep tiack of
new concepts that Madeleine is using in the pioblems she
solves and the questions she asks. lt can suggest heuiis-
tics that have been used by othei students solving sim-
ilai pioblems. (lt knows about these things thiough a
13
combination of textual analysis and tagging of text by
Madeleine and othei useis, e.g. Natalie, who sometimes
gives comments on pioblems that Madeleine solves.)
3. As the systemgiows and impioves (thiough eoits of stu-
dents and mentois), leaining mathematics becomes in-
cieasingly easy. Te mateiial has been gone ovei by
100s of students and leaining pathways aie optimized.
Madeleine sometimes can get a quick tutoiing gig help-
ing out anothei youngei student, and make some money,
but mostly shes thinking about what othei subjects she
will need to add to hei poitfolio in oidei to become an
aichitect by the time shes 23'
Improving the eicacy of research
funding
Main actor
Javiei, who woiks foi the Euiopean Commission.
1. Javiei is inteiested in ieseaich topics like data analytics
and emeiging topics in lCT things that will inuence
leaining technology in the next yeais. He is also con-
ceined about how best to fund woik on new leaining and
teaching enviionments.
2. He wondeis what the baiiieis and incentives aie in this
niche. Foi example, why does ieseaich woik fiequently
not have the bioad-scale societal impact that the EChopes
it might`
3. Javiei is invited to a piagogy event, in which some un-
expected expeits on bioad scale impact help him undei-
stand that intensive funding foi ieseaich is ofen not go-
ing to have the desiied eect, since, foi vaiious ieasons,
even well-funded ieseaich piojects aie fiequently not well
connected to actual piactice.
4. He staits to build piagogy into funding calls smallei
pots of money going to piojects that connect with what
people actually do, woiking with paitneis like the Wiki-
media Foundation and the Fiee Sofwaie Foundation to
multiply eoit by involving volunteeis. lts time foi him
to take a well-eained vacation.
Journalist enters the Whispering
Gallery
Main actor
Joige Luis is a jouinalist foi a London business papei.
1. Joige Luis wiites on a daily and even houily basis about
the euiozone ciisis. He uses social dashboaids and cuiat-
ing tools and pioduces lots of cuiated stoiies about the
causes of the pioblems, the stupidity of the continental
euiopeans and howit will all end soon in complete and ut-
tei disastei. His souices aie othei jouinalists, well-known
economists and famous bloggeis.
2. On his way to the newsioom he usually passes St Pauls
cathedial, wheie Occupy London people piotest. He
thinks they iathei look like loseis, except foi one veiy
inteiesting young lady. She tells him wheie he can nd
the centei of the univeise at the Whispeiing Galleiy of
the cathedial. He thinks she is nuts, but also veiy beauti-
ful and inteiesting, so he walks the 29 steps fiom giound
level to the Galleiy. Once he gets theie, he iealizes that
the giil was iight. lt lS the centei of the univeise. Teie
aie muimuis to be heaid theie - it seems they come fiom
eveiywheie. He heais about guilds and the ciafsmen who
1
built the cathedial. He leains about how pioud they weie
and how they foimed communities of piactice, educating
the uninitiated, teaching each othei to cieate.
3. He ietuins to giound level. Te giil is gone, but yet he
feels happy. He iealizes he can do moie then iepackage
the social media stieams, that theie is moie than Twiuei-
the-new bioadcast medium. He staits a new jouiney
nding a guild, a community of piactice, but iestyled in
a 21st centuiy fashion. lt will be moie open, moie con-
nected to otheis then the old guilds. He will still use a so-
cial dashboaid and cuiaiing tools, but also he uses wikis,
and synchionous communication. And most impoitantly,
he staits building, togethei with otheis. Foi instance, to-
gethei with the people foimeily known as his ieadeis.
Tey will co-cieate the analysis, the seaich foi solutions
and sense-making, iathei than helplessly listening to ex-
peits, passively consuming the knowledge and infoima-
tion. lnstead, theyll stait building theii own destiny as
a community, and the newsioom will be pait of the plat-
foim.
Living the OER dream
Main Actor
Chailie, who does tutoiing and educational consulting, and
who has been doing ieseaich on paiagogy.
1. Chailie usually tutois one-on-one but has been puuing
woik into undeistanding and exploiing peei leaining and
peei pioduction, puuing it into piactice on P2PU and in
couises and piojects with Howaid Rheingold.
2. X-Y-Z peei leaining theoiy (paiagogy`) helps him design
leaining activities that woik well foi gioups of students
3. He deploys the new model on vvcocv.Ni1 as an educa-
tional staitup, and iealizes the OER dieam'
Making our own tools
Main Actor
Howaid iuns RuiiNcoiu UNivivsi1v and teaches couises at
UCB and Stanfoid.
1. Howaid cieated the peeiagogy pioject, as a place to ex-
peiiment and leain l want to expeiiment as much as
possible with peeiagogy, with the gioup of contiibutois
heie, with the co-leaineis in Rheingold U, and with othei
gioups in the futuie. l want to peisonally use the tools
weie building. l know something about how to do it, and
can make substantial contiibutions. But l also am leain-
ing a lot about how to do it fiom otheis, and expect that
to continue.
2. Although biinging a volunteei pioject to completion []
isnt a guaianteed slam-dunk, Howaid leains by doing lf
l had it to do ovei again, l would have thought out the
woik ow and delineated it befoie we staited talking
about how to do the pioject.
3. With both fiequent, and othei less fiequent, but thought-
ful, contiibutois, the pioject continues to develop, and
will indeed complete somehow (even if no one knew quite
what to expect in advance). Howaid and othei contiib-
utois have leained a lot in the piocess - and this will be
useful both foi the duiation of the peeiagogy pioject, and
in futuie piojects. As hoped'
1
Peer Learning on the Technical Edge
Main Actor
Jess, a hackei and engineei who develops new libiaiies and
piogiams quickly and on the bleeding edge of newtechnologies.
1. Jess develops something new and totally cool and diops
the souice code in GitHub. Tese tools aie developed
iapidly and aie a much lightei leaining lif than leaining
say an entiiely new piogiamming language.
2. She cieates documentation foi hei new libiaiy and puts it
up on a web site foi othei developeis to iead.
3. She is tiying to nd a beuei way foi othei developeis to
leain how to use the new tools and libiaiies she cieates
and staits thinking about peei leaining.
4. Howcan she use what tools and piocesses oi methods that
aie alieady out theie to engage othei developeis to leain
fiom and with each othei digitally` (Jess has no back-
giound in leaining theoiy and is not in the educational
eld.) She nds the peeiagogy handbook and a lot of this
stu staits to click.
Prolegomena to Any Future Math
Learning Environment
Main Actor
A student, Madeleine, who is tiying to leain multivaiiable
calculus.
1. Madeleine is eniolled in an advanced calculus couise at
univeisity. She leains about PlanetMath fiom hei instiuc-
toi who iecommends it as a place foi extia piactice with
homewoik pioblems. Madeleine cieates an account, lls
in basic piole infoimation, and staits solving pioblems
that the systemsupplies based on the infoimation she sup-
plied in hei piole.
2. Te pioblems that the system supplies aie automatically
linked to iefeience iesouices in PlanetMaths encyclopae-
dia. Tis expositoiy mateiial gives Madeleine easy ac-
cess to the ielevant mathematical concepts, examples, and
hints needed foi solving the incieasingly dicult piactice
pioblems. Howevei, she eventually iuns into a pioblem
wheie neithei the automatically supplied infoimation, noi
hei cuiient knowledge of the subject, is sucient. Shes
completely stuck on a pioblem having to do with watei
ow in a pipe' Madeleine auaches a help iequest to the
pioblem l undeistand that l have to use the two vaiiables
x and y to solve foi watei ow, but l dont undeistand
what the boundaiy limits of the equations would be do l
have to conveit it to polai cooidinates`
3. Tis iequest is noticed by Natalie, a mathematics giaduate
student who iegulaily looks at the feed showing iecent
iequests foi help with advanced calculus. She sees that
the iefeience iesouices linked to Madeleines pioblem aie
piobably not sucient, and that Madeleines idea about
using polai cooidinates would woik. Natalie makes some
changes to the encyclopaedia indicating that conveiting to
conveiting to polai cooidinates can be necessaiy in pipe
ow pioblems, and sketches an example. Natalie then
checks that this infoimation links to Madeleines pioblem
coiiectly, and aleits Madeleine to the changes. With this
new infoimation, Madeleine is not only able to solve hei
pioblem, but can pioceed with condence she had the
iight idea afei all'
19
Peeragogy helps solve complex
problems
Main Actor
Neo, who is a hackei by night, and an oce woikei by day
(and who ieads Baudiillaid in his spaie time).
1. Neo lives in New Yoik City, and woiks as a piogiammei
in an oce neai Wall Stieet. His day-job involves nding
paueins in maiket data (see Kevin Slavins TED 1ix).
2. He has been walking past Zuco11i Pvx on his way home
and moie oi less he nds this piotest stu annoying (he
has othei stu on his mind). But one of these evenings,
one of the piotestois catches his auention (shes diessed
iathei stiikingly). Tey talk a bit, and he comes away
thinking about what she said Aii ouv cviivNcis vi
iN1ivcoNNic1iu. What if all the solutions aie inteicon-
nected too`
3. Night time Neo becomes incieasingly obsessed with this
idea. Hes pulling down lots of web pages fiom OWS
activists, fiom companies, fiom goveinment websites
again, looking foi paueins. What would it take foi OWS
folks to solve the pioblems they woiiy so much about`
4. He eventually stumbles acioss the idea of piagogy and
it woiks like the ied pill its possible to solve the piob-
lems but only by woiking togethei. lt would be haid to
engineei a social media platfoim that will actually help
with this (OWS folks mostly use Tumbli and aient nec-
essaiily all that technologically minded). But he staits
woiking on a 1ooi thats geaied towaids leaining and
shaiing skills, while woiking on ieal piojects. At ist,
its just hackeis who aie using the tool, but ovei time they
adapt it foi populai use. Ten things stait to get inteiest-
ing
Starting a Company
Introduction
l think that Peeiagogy has avois leaining foi leaining
sake foi peisonal ends in a piogiession towaid leaining about
the woild to take action as a gioup. Te lauei gets heavily into
Action Reseaich (Stiingei, 200), which l love and woik heavily
in. lt is ieseaich in cycles, oi loops with feedback to tiy some-
thing, measuie it, see how it woiked with the ieal woild, then
plan the next question and set of actions. ln each cycle, the
gioup is Leaining. l look with that lens at company stait-ups
as a peipectual action ieseaich cycle. l heaid Eiic Reis at SXSW
talk about the Lean Staitup in this mode, including this diiection
in how he even wiote the book. Hypothesis, expeiiment, feed-
back, leain, pivot, next hypothesis ls the gioup in this peei-
agogy leaining set knowledge oi cieating new knowledge` Oi
thiough new knowledge making a change in the woild` A gieat
spectium of alteinatives' Heie, my scenaiio about a company l
was on the boaid on eaily on
Main actors
Cycle 1 Nick, an MBA student, plus a Computei Sci-
ence PhD, John, at a majoi univeisity. John had cieated
a unique technology foi identifying video clips and had
no idea what to do with it. Nick was an ex-engineei leain-
ing about how to launch new businesses.
Cycle 2 Additional leaineis and co-teacheis as boaid
membeis, each adding new leaining elements and expei-
tise.
Cycle 3 New leaineis as investois and clients.
11
1. Nick and John used a new business plan competition as
the catalyst and stiuctuie to expeiiment with what ideas
might be possible to giow this idea. Tey named it Find-
able (not the ieal name, the company did launch with
some inteiesting success, but well come to that latei).
Tey biought thiee othei MBAs into the initial gioup,
and within the connes of a business plan stiuctuie, ie-
seaiched the steieotypical elements of a business plan
addiessable maiket, competition, expense and ievenue
piojections, etc. Tey knew nothing of the aiea, and each
peison did independent ieseaich woik to piovide some
piimaiy (inteiview-based) and secondaiy (existing text)
infoimation about theii hypothesis of what the technol-
ogy could do foi what audience in what enviionment.
Tey woiked haid up until the competition deadline, and
won the business plan competition, gaining S1,000 in the
piocess plus the auention of some VCs on the judging
panel. Each peison had leained a lot about the technol-
ogy, the cieative piocess of wiiting the business plan, the
iituals involved of asking foi money, and the aws in theii
own plan that they found on its cieation. Tey used faiily
tiaditional technology tools email, shaied Woid and Ex-
cel les, telephone, seaich, and a shaied le system to
stoie eveiything that they woiked on.
2. Nick and Fied wanted to move foiwaid with this pioject.
Teii next hypothesis was that they could launch this in
a specic maiket. Tey ist came to the idea, fiom the
leaining fiom the business plan and lots of feedback fiom
the VCs, that they could stait with the adveitising maiket,
as they could nowidentify and tag any ad that they could
nd on cable oi the inteinet. Tey got seed capital fiom
thiee inteiested paities, who become pait of theii Action
Reseaich leaining team. Tey iealized to launch that they
needed moie voices on theii leaining team, so they added
theii ist 3 employees to design and sell the pioduct. Tey
also added an advisoiy boaid, including youis tiuly, as-
suming they would be woiking in the adveitising mai-
ket. Technologies` Tiaditional, though they nowincluded
all soits of tech development iesouices. New infoimation
into the mix` Tey had not put togethei gieat iesouices
to optimize theii time leaining, and spent a lot of eneigy
keeping up with things, infoimation, and oppoitunities.
Leaining` Some initial useis loved theii pioduct, but the
maiket size was smallei than they thoughtplus was veiy
entienched. Te companies did not see a ieal pain point
that was being solved.
3. Cycle 3 what the heck do Nick and Fied do with this`
Tis became the tiue leaining phase. Dieient companies
and advisois sawdieient needs foi theii intiiguing piod-
uct set. Tey spent 4 yeais (') geuing pulled this way
and that, using the VC money and needing moie. (Tis
is VERY much the leaining path l see in many small tech
companies.) Technologies` Same stu. Leaining team`
Ebbed and owed with new oppoitunities and peoples
patience. My expeitise was in the old model, so peace-
ably lef the team (but got options').
4. Cycle 4 a majoi public company found them thiough
theii leaining cycles, and found that they solved a pain
point. Tey invested a sizeable sum into a chunk of the
company, and launched theii pioduct into that solution.
Tis opened a whole othei set of leaining doois.
. Final cycle Happily, l cashed out my options. Two ma-
joi media technology companies ended up buying two ai-
eas of key technologies in 2011, much to my own pocket-
books happiness. Nick and Fied had moved on eailiei,
tuining the company leaining ovei to specialized man-
ageis. l need to see what Nick is up to next.
13
Thoughts
1. Many gieat paueins weie tucked into many cycles of
this use case, ofen unspoken assumptions in a new busi-
ness stait-up, including enviionment scanning, codifying
specialist knowledge, themes, modeling, etc. Consensus
building an inteiesting element.
2. Foi me, the additional elements aie (a) the scaolding of
the noims of cycles (e.g., business plan cieation, a com-
petition, a launch of a pioduct) help piovide noiming
fiamewoiks that can help gioups achieve as well as limit
theii looking at the stiuctuial noims as anything but ie-
quiied and (b) the lens of Action Reseaich Cycles fiom
my own POV. Aie we seuing a haid limit of pioviding
a hypothesis in oui co-cieation, so we know when we
aie done and what we have to study` Ten once that
chunk is done (and CELEBRATED) that anothei hypothe-
sis can be investigated, exploied, pioven, and co-cieated`
l believe that having pie-stiuctuied points of leaining
achievement, ieection, and celebiation can ieally help in
moving foiwaid.
3. My own biain is iethinking these issues aiound content
cieation afei heaiing Eiic Reis speak on how he tested
his content cieation foi his New York Times best-selling
book.
4. How aie we testing this Handbook, othei than living
thiough it` )
Steal This Book
Obviously such a pioject as Steal Tis Book could not have
been caiiied out alone. lzak Habei shaied the vision fiom the
beginning. He did months of valuable ieseaich and contiibuted
many of the suivival techniques. Caiole Ramei and Gus Reich-
bach of the New Yoik Law Commune guided the book thiough
its many stages. Anna Kaufman Moon did almost all the pho-
togiaphs. Te caitoonists who have made contiibutions include
Ski Williamson and Gilbeit Sheldon. Tom Foicade, of the UPS,
patiently did the editing. Beit Cohen of Conceit Hall did the
books giaphic design. Ambei and John Wilcox set the type.
Anita Homan and Lynn Boiman helped me iewiite a numbei
of sections. Teie aie otheis who paiticipated in the testing of
many of the techniques demonstiated in the following pages and
foi obvious ieasons have to iemain anonymous. Teie weie
peihaps ovei 0 biotheis and sisteis who played paiticulaily
vital ioles in the giand conspiiacy. Some of the many otheis
aie listed on the following page. We hope to keep the infoima-
tion up to date. lf you have comments, law suits, suggestions
oi death thieats, please send them to Deai Abbie P.0. Box 213,
Coopei Station, NewYoik, NY 10003. Many of the tips might not
woik in youi aiea, some might be obsolete by the time you get
to tiy them out, and many addiesses and phone numbeis might
be changed. If the reader becomes a participating researcher then
we will have achieved our purpose. Abbie Homan (emphasis
added)
Strategy as learning
Main actors
Te non-executive (Jim, Pamela, Julian) and executive (Claie,
Malcolm, Colin & Jenny) diiectois of a housing association (a
not-foi-piot oiganisation building and leuing social housing
foi families in housing need) Main success scenario
1. Te boaid of the housing association need to set a stiategy
that takes account of signicant changes in legislation, the
UK [welfaie] benets system and the availability of long
teim constiuction loans.
2. Julian, eagei to make use of his new-found peeiagogical
insights suggests an appioach wheie individuals ieseaich
specic factois and the team woik togethei to diaw out
themes and stiategic options. As a stait he pioposes that
1
each boaid membei ieseaiches an aiea of specic knowl-
edge oi inteiest.
3. Jim, the Chaiiman, identies questions he wants to ask the
Chaiis of othei Housing Associations. Pamela (a lawyei)
agiees to do an analysis of the ielevant legislation. Claie,
the CEO, plans out a seiies of meetings with the local
councils in the boioughs of inteiest to undeistand theii
ieactions to the changes fiom cential goveinment. Jenny,
the opeiations diiectoi, staits modelling the impact on oc-
cupancy fiom new benets iules. Colin, the development
diiectoi, ie-puiposes existing woik on options foi devel-
opment sites to ieect dieient housing mixes on each
site. Malcolm, the nance diiectoi, piepaies a biieng on
the new tieasuiy landscape and the changing positions of
majoi lendeis.
4. Each membei of the boaid documents theii ieseaich in
a piivate wiki. Julian facilitates some synchionous and
asynchionous discussion to diaw out themes in each aiea
and map acioss the aieas of inteiest. Malcolm, the FD,
adapts his nancial models to take dieiet options as pa-
iameteis.
. Claie ienes the themes into a set of stiategic options foi
the association, with associated nancial modelling pio-
vided by Malcolm.
. lndividual boaid membeis exploie the options asyn-
chionously befoie convening foi an all-day meeting to
conim the stiategy.
Thoughts
1. Tis may be a liule close to the peei pioduction end of
peeiagogy, but on the othei hand, wheie (if anywheie) do
we diaw the line`
2. Tis piobably needs to be made a liule moie abstiact to
be a useful use case, and in doing so l suspect will stait to
oveilap with Pivcocv uiivs soivi coviix vvoniis
3. lt looks to me as if theie may be some candidate pat-
teins buiied in this use case, e.g. Enviionment Scan-
ning, Codifying Specialist Knowledge, Extiacting Temes,
Modelling Outcomes, Consensus Building
We are the 1 percent
Main Actor
Tiinity, the daughtei of a Texas oil magnate.
Soundtrack
You Mxi Mi Lixi Cuvi1v by Te Knife
1. Tiinity has spent the last yeai tiaveling aiound the woild
to join in vaiious -Occupy piotests. Hei aim is to get
people in the movement thinking about how they can em-
powei themselves.
2. lts tiicky though, because as much as she knows she has
an impact on individuals, she still sees a lot of pioblems in
the woild, which, given hei manic-depiessive tendencies,
she tends to nd veiy distuibing.
3. She ieaches out to othei folks who aie piivileged in one
way oi anothei and a bunch of noimal folks tiying
not only to biing about political change, but tiying to es-
tablish a degiee of peisonal fiiendship and camaiadeiie,
and a feeling of belonging in the woild. Foi hei, this
is a constant stiuggle. She nds that woiking with othei
people on conciete tasks keeps hei fiom spiialing into a
state of gloom. ln the mean time, shes also building a
tiemendous amount of knowledge about the way social
movements and political piocesses woik.
1
Footnote
Te Knife is now iecoiding a new album to be ieleased in
2012. Lately we have iead a lot about the ongoing disciimina-
tion of Romani people in Euiope which is totally unacceptable.
Te foiced evictions must stop and adequate alteinative housing
must be aiianged. Now' Tui KNiii
Young aspiring blogger wants to avoid
starvation
Main actor: Simone
Simone is a young media depaitment giaduate, who fol-
lowed the adventuies of the jouinalist Joige Luis. Joige Luis
was tiansfoiming the newspapei opeiation into a kind of col-
lective leaining pioject, tuining the newsioom into a platfoim
foi discussion and leaining, and inciting the developeis to pio-
vide an APl foi exteinal codeis. Simone wiote a papei about
all this in hei last yeai at the media depaitment. She also iuns a
blog about tools which empowei people to paiticipate in politics
(local, nation-wide and inteinational).
1. Simone loves hei blog. She believes veiticals and special-
ization aie the futuie in blogging. Howevei, she needs
money to live, and to pay back the debts she made to
nance hei studies. Hei media depaitment was modei-
ately inteiesting, but nobody evei thought of oiganizing
a couise entiepieneuiial blogging/jouinalism.
2. Posting eveiy day about collaboiative online tools such
as wikis, foiums, blogs, mindmaps, synchionous sessions,
social bookmaiks, visualization tools, Simone decides to
ieach out and look online foi otheis who aie expeiiencing
the same challenges.
3. As she encounteis vaiious othei people, they stait cuiat-
ing stu about blogging business models and best piac-
tices. Tey nd lots of useful stu foi fiee at Robin Goods
website, and they manage to get access to online iesouices
at a stiange gioup which seems to specialize in mind
amplifying tools and liteiacies of coopeiation. Tey
also discovei that entiepieneuiial jouinalism is taught
at vaiious colleges, and invaiiably the piofessois and most
of the students theie indulge in blogging and publishing
about theii insights and expeiiments. All that mateiial
is being discussed on the collaboiative platfoim Simone
built.
4. Simone uses the discussions to blog about hei expeiience.
Afei all, issues about nancing media who empowei peo-
ple in oidei to bioaden and deepen the demociacy is some-
thing which is iathei on topic foi hei own blogging piac-
tice. Also, because of hei ieaching out, hei contacts in-
cieased consideiably. She woiks togethei with someone
to shaie a viitual co-woiking space, and people stait notic-
ing hei. Some ask hei foi customized expeit advice about
collaboiative tools and collaboiation methodologies. Te
city council expiesses some vague inteiest and consideis
hiiing hei as a consultant.
. Even though she gets seveial gigs, Simone iealizes its not
easy to eain a living as a bloggei. But it seems to open
othei doois howevei, she continues hei investigation
about business models foi collaboiative media. As yet we
dont know whethei Simones blog will be piotable in
itself, but we do see a netwoik aiound hei piojects, ex-
changing insights but also valuable business infoimation
and opening moie doois.
Thoughts
l had the oppoitunity to give some seminais at media depait-
ments heie in Belgium. ln my expeiience, the students weie not
familiai with cuiation piactices oi infotention stiategies. Tey
19
also lack couises in entiepieneuiial jouinalism. ln othei woids,
theyie still educated foi the big media companies, but theyie
not piepaied to stait the next TechCiunch oi Hungton Post.
Ofen the students asked me, afei the seminai, how can we
leain all this` they wont teach us these things heie. l think
theie is a need foi P2P leaining about not only cuiation, infoten-
tion, social dashboaids, communities and goveinance of com-
mon pool iecouises, but also about publishing stiategies, social
media woikows and business models.
Part VIII
Technologies, Services,
and Platforms
cuv1iv 23
lNTRODUCTlON TO TECHNOLOGlES FOR
PEERAGOGY
It is tempting to bring a list of technologies out as a
glorious cookbook. We need a 1/2 cup of gioup wiiting tools,
2 tsp. of social netwoik elements, a thick slice of social book-
maiking, and some sugai, then put it in the oven foi 1 houi foi
30 degiees.
We have cieated a bioad featuies/functions list foi Hand-
book ieadeis to ieect upon and considei. Te joy of this list is
that you can considei alteinatives foi the way you communicate
and woik while you aie planning the pioject, oi can add in new
elements to solve communications gaps oi cieate new tools.
Howevei, too many tools spoil the bioth. ln the wiiting of
this Handbook, we found that out isthand. We spent a lot of
maivelous eneigy exploiing dieient tools to collaboiate, cuiate
infoimation, do ieseaich, tag iesouices, and adjudicate among
all of oui points of view. ln looking at gioups woiking with the
vaiious MOOCs, as anothei example, dieient gioups of stu-
dents ofen camp in dieient social media technologies to woik.
ln laige couises, students ofen have to be pushed into vaiious
social media tools to co-cieate with gieat piotest and lots of
ineitia. And nally, co-leaining gioups ofen come fiom veiy
dieient backgiounds, ages, and stages of life, with veiy diei-
ent tools embedded in theii cuiient lives. Do we have time foi
thiee moie tools in oui busy days` Do moie tools help oi intei-
feie in oui woik`
ln this section, well shaie with you a few issues
What technologies aie most useful in peei leaining` What
do we use them foi` What featuies oi functions help oui
co-leaining piocess`
How do we decide (a) as a gioup and (b) foi the gioup on
13
14 CHAPTER 23. PEERAGOGY TECHNOLOGY
what tools we can use` Do we decide upfiont, oi giow as
we go`
How do we coach and scaold each othei on use of tools`
How much do the tool choices impact the actual outcome
of oui leaining pioject`
What aie the dieient ioles that co-leaineis can take
in co-teaching and co-coaching the technology aoi-
dances/assumptions in the pioject to make otheis lives
easiei`
Features and Considerations
We will begin below with a discussions of featuies and ini-
tial consideiations, and then move to a bioadei Choose Youi
Own Adventuie-style matiix of featuies leading to a wide va-
iiety of collaboiation-based technology tools online.
Technologies and Features
As we will shaie in the extensive list below, theie aie abun-
dant tools now available both foi fiee and foi pay to biing
gieat featuies to oui co-leaining endeavois. lt is tempting to
giab a gioup of fancy tools and biing the gioup into a faiily
complex tool enviionment to nd the peifect combination of ie-
souices. Te challenge as Adult Leaineis, we seek both comfoit
and context in oui lives (Schein, 199, 2004). ln choosing tools
as Biands and technologies, we can ignoie the featuies them-
selves and what we need as paits of the puzzle foi leaining. We
also can have anxiety about oui self-beliefs aiound computeis
and technology, which in tuin can limit oui abilities (Coviu
c HicciNs, 199).
Befoie we get to Biands and choices, it helps to ask a few
questions about the leaining goals and enviionments
What do we need as featuies, and at what stage of the
leaining piocess`
1
What aie we alieady comfoitable with, individually and
as a gioup`
Do we want to stay with comfoitable existing tools, oi do
we want to stietch, oi both`
What types of leaineis do we have in this gioup` Tech-
nologically advanced` Comfoitable with basics`
Do we want to invest the time to biing the whole gioup
up to speed on tools` Do all the gioup membeis agiee on
this` Do we want to iisk alienating membeis by making
them invest time in new iesouices`
We knowthat oui use will migiate and adapt. Do we want
to plan foi adaptation` Obseive it` Leain fiom it` Make
that change intentional as we go`
Reseaicheis ovei the yeais have heavily examined these
questions of human, technology, and task t in many aienas.
HuNCovu1iv lN1ivc1ioN ieseaicheis have looked at
t and adaptive behavioi, as well as how the tools can aect
how the pioblem is piesented in the woik (TiiNi, 200). Cie-
ativity suppoit tools (SuNiiuivN, 2002) have a whole line of
design ieseaich, as has the eld of Covu1ivSuvvov1iu Coi
inov1ivi Wovx Svs1is (CSCW). Foi co-leaineis and de-
signeis inteiested in the abundance in this space, weve added
some additional links below.
We heie will make this a bit easiei. Foi youi co-leaining
enviionment, you may want to do one oi two exeicises in youi
decision planning
What features do you need` Do you need collaboia-
tion` Giaphic models` Places to woik at the same time
(synchionous)` Between meetings (asynchioous)`
What aie the gioup membeis already using as theii pei-
sonal leaining platfoims` lt also makes sense to do an
inventoiy about what the gioup alieady has as theii leain-
ing platfoims. lm doing that with anothei leaining gioup
iight now. People aie much moie comfoitable as we also
have found in oui co-cieation of this Handbook cieat-
ing and co-leaining in tools with which they alieady aie
comfoitable. Membeis can be co-teacheis to each othei
as we have have in new platfoims.
What type of tools, based on the featuies that we need,
shall we stait out with` RisNicx 1 i. (200)looked at
technology tools having
Low thiesholds (easy to get people staited)
Wide walls (able to biing in lots of dieient situa-
tions and uses) and
High ceilings (able to do complex tasks as the useis
and uses adapt and giow).
What aie impoitant featuies needed foi co-cieation and
working together` ln othei pages above, we talk abundantly
about ioles and co-leaining challenges. Tese issues also aie not
new, Douvisu c Biiio11ii ncx iN 1992 foi example, shaied
long-standing issues in computei-suppoitive collaboiative woik
online about how we aie awaie of the infoimation fiom otheis,
passive vs. active geneiation of infoimation about collaboiatois,
etc. Tese challenges used to be solved by sofwaie design-
eis in individual tools. Now that tools aie open, abundant, and
diveise, gioups embiace these same challenges when choosing
between online iesouices foi co-leaining.
Which of these will be impoitant to youi gioup woik` Keep
in mind youi needs foi tools, plus how the gioup uses them,
will change as the co-learning project moves along. Aie you
willing to change tools duiing the pioject as youi needs and
useis change, oi do you want to plan on tools that aie gieat
in all these dimensions at the stait`
Useful Uses and fancy Features of Technological Tools
Fiom heie, we will help you think about what might be pos-
sible, linking to featuies and solution ideas.
1
We stait with ways to ask the key questions What do you
want to do and why` We will stait with featuies oiganized
aiound seveial dieient axes
Tii/Pici
S1cis oi Ac1ivi1iis Nu Tsxs
Sxiii BuiiuiNc/Bioos TxoNov
Usi Csis, and
LivNiNc FuNc1ioNs.
Each will link to pages that will piompt you with featuies,
functionality, and technology tool ideas.
Time/Place
We can fuithei bieak down tools into whethei they cie-
ate oi distiibute, oi whethei we can woik simultaneously (syn-
chionous) oi at oui own times (ascynchionous). To make ele-
ments of time and place moie visual, Bicxiv (199) cieated a
CSCW Matiix, biinging togethei time and place functions and
needs
Some tools aie synchionous, such as Google Hangouts,
Blackboaid Collaboiate, and Adobe Connect, while otheis let us
woik asynchionously, such as wikis, foiums, and Google Docs.
We seem to be consideiing heie mostly tools good foi gioup
woik, but not foi solo, while many otheis aie much easiei solo
oi in smallei gioups.
Stages of Activities and Tasks
DN SuNiiuivN (2002) has simplied the abundant mod-
els in this aiea (e.g., Cougei and Cave) with a cleai model of 4
geneial activities and 8 tasks in cieation foi individuals, which
we can lean on as anothei fiamewoik foi co-cieation in co-
leaining.
Activities
Tasks
Collect
Seaiching
Visualizing
Relate
Consulting Otheis
Create
Tinking (Fiee Association)
Exploiing
Composing
Reviewing
Distribute
Disseminating
Tools and functions wont be cleai cut between aieas. Foi ex-
ample, some tools aie moie focused on being geneiative, oi foi
cieating content. Wikis, Etheipad, Google docs, and otheis usu-
ally have a commenting/talk page element, yet geneiating con-
tent is the piimaiy goal and discuisive/consultative functions
aie in seivice of that. Some tools aie discuisive, oi focused on
woiking togethei foi the cieative element of ielating above
Blackboaid Collaboiate, the social media class ioomfoiums, etc.
19
Skill Building (Cognitive, a la Blooms Taxonomy, see
below)
Given that we aie exploiing leaining, we can look to Blooms
Taxonomy (ievised, ANuivsoN c Kv1uvoui, 2001) foi guid-
ance as to how we can look at knowledge suppoit. Staiting at
the bouom, we have
Remembeiing, as a base,
Undeistanding,
Applying,
Analyzing,
Evaluating, and then, at the top,
Cieating.
We could put seaich in the Remembeiing categoiy above.
Otheis [need to ie-nd and cite] contest that Seaich, done well,
embiaces most of the Blooms elements above. Samantha Pen-
ney has cieated a Blooms Digital Taxonomy Pyiamid of tools
foi leaining (cc 3.0 u11v//vvv.usi.iuu/uis1Nci/nu1.u1).
Use Cases (I want to.)
Technologies can be outlined accoiding to the need they
seive oi use case they fulll. Examples lf we need to cuiate,
Peail Tiees is an option. To publish oi cieate, we can look to
a wiki oi woidpiess. Othei choices might be gieat in oidei to
collaboiate, etc.
One challenge is that tools aie not that simple. As we look
moie closely at the technologies today, we need to ieach moie
bioadly to add multiple tags to them. Foi example Twiuei can
be used foi Convening a gioup, foi micio-blogging, foi ie-
seaich, etc.
Collaboiate with a Gioup
Cieate Community
Cuiate lnfoimation (select content, contextualize, and
shaie it)
Reseaich
Publish lnfoimation
Cieate Leaining Activities
Make Something
Tese plans get moie complex, as you aie making a gioup of
decisions about tool functionality in oidei to choose what com-
bination woiks foi use cases. lt may be most useful to use a
concept map (a tech tool) to think about the needs and combi-
nations that you would biing togethei to achieve each Use Case
oi Leaining Module.
Technology Features/Functions
We have not made this easy' Teie aie lots of moving ele-
ments and options heie, none of them iight foi eveiything, and
some of them fabulous foi specic functions and needs. Some
have the low thiesholds but may not be bioad in scope. Some
aie bioad foi many uses, otheis aie specic task-oiiented tools.
Tat is some of the chaim and fiustiation.
Weaving all of the above togethei, we have biought togethei
a shaied taxonomy foi us to discuss and think about co-leaining
technology featuies and functions, which we piesent as an ap-
pendix below. Tis connects vaiious technology featuies within
an expanded veision of Ben Shneideimans cieativity suppoit
tools fiamewoik. Weve cieated this linked toolset with multi-
ple tags, hopefully making it easiei foi you to evaluate which
tool suits best the necessities of the gioup. Please considei this
a staiting point foi youi own connected exploiation.
181
Appendix: Features and Functions
Weaving all of these fiamewoiks togethei, we have biought
togethei a shaied taxonomy foi us to discuss and think about co-
leaining technology featuies and functions. We have connected
vaiious technology featuies with an expanded veision of Ben
Shneideimans cieativity suppoit tools fiamewoik foi the linked
iesouice guide.
Note please add tools as posts that follow the following
1ivi1i foimat.
Click the links below to take you to samples of each of these
featuies and functions in gioups of tools. Please considei this a
staiting point foi youi own connected exploiation.
Activities
Tasks
Features/Functions
Planning/Designing (a cycle of Learning before
the Co-Learning)
Communicating
Deciding and Cieating Alteinatives
CoNviNiNc cvouv
PiNNiNc couvsi/s1vuc1uvi
Assembling a syllabus
Designing a leaining activity
DisicNiNc siiississiN1 (gioup and individual)
Si11iNc iNuiviuui Nu cvouv cois
BviNs1oviNc
VisuiiziNc
Collect/Share Inbound
Seaiching
Visualizing
Sivcu
Socii BooxvxiNc
Cvi1iNc/FiNuiNc TxoNoiis (shaied keywoids,
domain-based keywoids)
PvocviNc Tooisi1s
Coiinov1ivi viuiNc
Coiinov1ivi No1i1xiNc
Cuv1ioN Toois
G1uiviNc iNiov1ioN (e.g., captuiing audio, video,
text)
Suvvivs Nu Qis1ioNNivis
Relate
Consulting Otheis fiom the Outside
Qii11ivi visivcu
QN1i11ivi visivcu
Communication
Connecting with Otheis in the Gioup
PvoJic1 PiNNiNc ScuiuuiiNc
Voici/Viuio CoNiiviNciNc Sivvicis
Gvouv Eii / Fovu MissciNc Sivvicis
183
Fiii SuviNc Sivvici (Ciouu Bsiu)
ScviiN Cv1uviNc Nu ScviiN Cs1iNc
PvisiN11ioN Nu DocuiN1 SuviNc
Co-Create
Tinking (Fiee Association)
Exploiing
Composing
Reviewing
LivNiNc MNciiN1 Svs1is
DocuiN1 Coiinov1ioN and Editing
VisuiiziNc lNiov1ioN(foi analysis and synthesis)
CoNciv1 Mvs
Data visualization (of Big Data oi laigei sets foi
decision-making
Distribute/Action
Disseminating
Publishing Platfoims
Tvui1ioNi vuniisuiNc
Socii iui/suviNc uis1vinu1ioN
Visuiiz1ioN (foi piesentation)
Feedback
Socii MoNi1oviNc/Lis1iNiNc
A Key Resource
Ouv TicuNoiocv M1vix oN Goocii Docs
References
Andeison, L. W., & Kiathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). A tax-
onomy for learning, teaching and assessing: A revision of
Blooms Taxonomy of educational objeives: Complete edi-
tion. New Yoik, NY Longman.
Baeckei, R., GvuuiN, J., Bux1oN, W., & GviiNnivc, &
(eds.) (199) Readings in Human-Computer Interaion:
Toward the Year 2000. New Yoik, NY Moigan Kaufmann
Publisheis
Compeau, D.R., & Higgins, C.A. (199, June). Computei
Self-Ecacy Development of a Measuie and lnitial Test.
MIS arterly, 19, (2), 189-211.
Douiish, P. & Belloui, V. (1992). Awaieness and
cooidination in shaied woikspaces. ln Proceedings
of the 1992 ACM conference on Computer-supported
cooperative work (CSCW 92). ACM, New Yoik,
NY, USA, 10-114. DOl10.114/1434.14348
hup//doi.acm.oig/10.114/1434.14348
Resnick, M, Myeis, B, Nakakoji, K, Shneideiman, B,
Pausch, R, Selkei, T. & Eisenbeig, M (200). De-
sign piinciples foi tools to suppoit cieative think-
ing. Initute for Soware Research. Papei 81.
hup//iepositoiy.cmu.edu/isi/81
Schein, E. H. (199). Organizational learning as cognitive
re-denition: Coercive persuasion revisited. Cambiidge,
MA Society foi Oiganizational Leaining.
Schein, E. H. (2004). Organizational culture and leadership.
San Fiancisco, CA Jossey-Bass.
18
Shneideiman, B. (2002). Cieativity sup-
poit tools. Commun. ACM 4, 10 (Octo-
bei 2002), 11-120. DOl10.114/090.094
hup//doi.acm.oig/10.114/090.094
Teeni, D. (200). Designs that t An oveiview of t
conceptualizations in HCl. ln Human-Computer Interac-
tion and Management Information Syems: Foundations,
edited by P. Zhang and D. Galleua, pp. 20-221, Aimonk,
NY M.E. Shaipe.
Additional Research for Interested Co-Learners
liene Gieif and Sunil Saiin (198) Data Shaiing in Gioup
Woik, ACM Tiansactions on Oce lnfoimation Systems,
vol. , no. 2, Apiil 198, pp. 18-211.
liene Gieif (ed.) (1988) Computei-Suppoited Coopeia-
tive Woik A Book of Readings, San Mateo, CA Moigan
Kaufman.
liene Gieif (1988) Remaiks in panel discussion on
CSCW What does it mean`, CSCW 88. Pioceedings
of the Confeience on Computei-Suppoited Coopeiative
Woik, Septembei 2-28, 1988, Poitland, Oiegon, ACM,
New Yoik, NY.
Kamneisgaaid, 1988
Vessey & Galleua, 1991
Noiman, 2001, 2003
DeSanctis & Pool, 2004
Same Time (Synchronous) Dierent Time (Ascyn-
ronous)
Same Place
(Co-located)
Face-to Face Display-
focused (e.g., Smaitboaids)
Continuous Task Gioup-
waie, pioject management
Dierent
Place (Re-
mote)
Remote Interaction Video-
confeience, lM, Chat, Viitual
Woilds
Communication & Coor-
dination Email, bulletin
boaids, Wikis, blog, woikow
tools
cuv1iv 24
WlKl
ln the context of P2P-leaining, a wiki platfoim can be a use-
ful and poweiful collaboiation tool. Tis section will help you
undeistand what a wiki is and what it is not, why you should
use it, how to choose a wiki engine and nally how you could
use it in a P2P context. Some examples of P2P-leaining piojects
iun on wikis will help you see the potential of the tool.
What is a wiki?
Foi Wvu CuNNiNcu fathei of the wiki, a wiki is a
fieely expandable collection of inteilinked Web pages, a hypei-
text system foi stoiing and modifying infoimation - a database,
wheie each page is easily editable by any usei with a foims-
capable Web biowsei client [1]
Accoiding to Wikipedia a wiki is a website whose useis
can add, modify, oi delete its content via a web biowsei using a
simplied maikup language oi a iich-text editoi [2]
You can watch this CommonCiaf video vixi iN viiN iN
ciisu to beuei undeistand what a wiki is.
What dierentiates the wiki from other
co-editing tools?
Te pievious denitions show that a wiki is a website, in
othei woids it is composed of pages that aie connected togethei
by hypeilinks.ln additiont eveiy authoiized peison (not all wikis
aie totally open like Wikipedia) can edit the pages fiom a web
biowsei, ieducing time and space constiains. ln case one saves
a mistake oi foi any othei ieason would like to go back to a
pievious veision, a featuie called histoiy allows useis to see
pievious veisions and to ioll back any of them. Tis veision
18
188 CHAPTER 24. WIKI
histoiy allows also to compaie veisions avoiding the cluueied
of the commentaiies iainbow we aie used too in populai Woid
piocessois. Foi example if you woik on a wiki page, and come
back latei on, you will be able to catch up by compaiing youi
last veision with the lastest veision of someone else.
Tools like Goocii Docs oi E1uivvu aie design to enable
co-editing on a single document. Tis can be seen as a wiki
way of woiking on a document as it is web based and includes
veisioning. But it is not a wiki because a single document is
not a website. Tose tools oei iealtime collaboiation which
wikis do not and aie so fai easiei to use foi beginneis as they
woik in WYSlWYG mode, which many wikis do not suppoit.
Howevei, the advanced featuies vixi vxuv iNcuci make
it a moie poweiful tool. ln summaiy, tools like Googles Docs oi
Etheipad aie a gieat way to quickly collaboiate (synchionously,
asynchionously, oi a mixtuie of both) on a single document foi
fiee, with a low baiiiei to entiy and no technical suppoit. (Note
that Etheipad does have a wiki-links plugin that can allowit to
be used in a moie wiki-like way, Hcxvu is anothei ieal-time
editing tool that piominently featuies linking and it claims to
be the best wiki evei.)
Using a ieal wiki engine is moie inteiesting foi biggei
piojects and allows a huge numbei of useis to collaboiate on
the same platfoim. A wiki ieduces the cooidination complica-
tion as e-mails exchanges aie no moie needed to cooidinate a
pioject. On the othei hand it can help us deal with complexity
[3][4] especially if you put basic simple iules in place like the
Wikipedias Niu1vi voiN1 oi viiv to allow eveiy paiticipant
to shaie hei oi his ideas.
Going back to the continuum we talked about befoie, some
tools like Moodle, ShaiePoint, WoidPiess, Diupal oi otheis
have build in wiki featuies. Tose featuies can be good but
will typically not be as good foi wiki-building puiposes as a
well-developed special-puipose wiki engine. ln othei woids,
those tools main focus is not the wiki, which is only a sec-
ondaiy featuie. When you choose a ieal wiki engine like Miui
vixi, Tixi, Fosvixi, etc., the wiki will be youi platfoim, not a
featuie of it. Foi example if you stait a wiki activity in a Moodle
189
couise, this wiki will be only visible to a specic gioup of stu-
dents and seaichable only to those students. On the othei hand
if youi leaining platfoim is a wiki, the whole platfoim will be
seaichable to all membeis iegaiding theii peimissions. We aie
not saying heie that a wiki is beuei than othei tools but if you
need a wiki engine to addiess youi needs you may considei go-
ing with a stiong wiki engine iathei than a micio-wiki engine
embedded in an othei tool.
Why use a wiki?
Tose aie the main ieasons you should considei a wiki foi
youi peei leaining piojects
to ieduce cooidination complication by having a cential
and always up to date place to stoie youi content. You
will ieduce e-mail usage diasticly, and have access to youi
content fiom eveiywheie using any opeiating system
to keep tiack of the evolution of youi pioject and be able
to view oi ioll back any pievious veision of a wiki page
using the histoiy featuie
to make links between wiki pages to connect ideas and
people but also make links to exteinal URLs. Tis last
possibility is veiy handy to cite youi souices
to deal with complexity. As a wiki allows anyone to con-
tiibute, if you set some easy iules like Wikipedias NPOV
(Neutial Point of View), you will be able to catch moie
complexity as you will allow eveiyone to expiess his oi
hei opinion. Wikis also integiate a foium oi comment
featuie that will help you solve editing conicts
to deal with woik in piogiess. A wiki is a gieat tool to
captuie an on going woik
to suppoit tianspaiency by leuing eveiy membeis of the
community see what otheis aie doing
to suppoit a netwoik stiuctuie as a wiki is by essence an
hoiizontal tool. Using a hypeilinks you will be able to
jump by a single clic fiom a netwoik node to the othei,
fiom a computei to an othei, fiom one infoimation to the
othei, fiom one univeis to the othei, fiom one biain to the
othei. Tianslated fiom []
How to choose a wiki engine?
You will nd moie than a hundied dieient wiki engines.
Te ist main distinction is between open souice ones that aie
fiee to download and commeicial ones you will have to pay foi.
You will nd poweiful engines on both sides open souice and
commeicial. Sometimes the open souice ones look less polished
at ist sight but aie backed by a stiong community and oei a
lot of customization possibilities. Te commeicial aie sold like
a package, they aie nicely piesented but ofen they oei less
customization on the usei side and additional featuie oi custom
made tools will cost you an extia fee. Te second distinction
that we can make is between wiki faims and self-hosted wikis.
Te vixi iv is a hosting seivice you can nd foi both open
souice oi commeicial wikis. Te goal of those faims is to sim-
plify the hosting of individual wikis. lf you dont want to choose
a wiki faim hosting, you will have to host the wiki on youi own
seivei. Tis will give you moie latitude and data piivacy but will
iequiie moie technical skills and cost you maintenance fees.
Te Wixi1vix web site will help you choose the best wiki
foi youi needs. lt allows you to compaie the featuies of moie
than a hundied wiki engines. Hivi is the top ten list of the best
wiki engines by Waid Cunningham.
How can a wiki be useful in a peeragogy
project?
A wiki is a good tool collaboiative piojects and a specially
suited foi woik in piogiess as you can easily tiack changes using
the histoiy, compaie those veision and if necessaiy ioll back a
pievious veisions. ln othei woids, nothing gets lost.
191
Heie aie some ideas about how to use a wiki in a peeiagogy
pioject
Use a wiki as your learning platform. lt can also sup-
poit Mssivi OviN ONiiNi Couvsis (MOOCs). A wiki
will help you oiganize youi iivNiNc coN1ix1. You can
choose to give access to youi wiki only to the pioject pai-
ticipants oi open it to the public like Wixiviui. Using hy-
peilinking, you will opeiationalize the theoiy of coNNic
1ivis by connecting nodes togethei. As a leaining plat-
foim wikis aie poweiful because you can easily see what
otheis aie doing, shaie with them, get inspiied, meige
ideas oi link to ideas. ln othei woids, it cieates emulation
between leaineis. Foi additional iessouices about wiki in
education follow this Diigo iiNx.
Manage your peeragogy project. Awiki is an excellent
tool foi pioject collaboiation. Above all, the wiki can be a
cential place foi peei leaineis to wiite oi link to content.
Even if you use seveial technologies to iun youi pioject as
we did to wiite this handbook, at the end of the day, all the
content can be centialized on a wiki using diiect wiiting
on wiki pages oi hypeilinks. Tis way membeis can ac-
cess the content fiom anywheie and fiom any device con-
nected to the inteinet using any platfoim oi application
and they will always see the most iecent veision while
being able to biowse thiough the veisions histoiy to un-
deistand what has changed since theii last visit.
Publish your project. As a wiki is a website you can
easily use it to show youi woik to the woild. Regaiding
web design, dont foiget that a wiki can look way beuei
than a Wikipedia page if you customize it
Examples of peeragogy projects run on wikis
Avvvoviui is a wiki site foi collaboiative solutions in sus
1iNniii1v, voviv1v ieduction and iN1ivN1ioNi uiviiov
iN1 thiough the use of sound vviNciviis and vvvovvi1i
1icuNoiocv and the shaiing of wisdom and vvoJic1 infoima-
tion. Te site is open to stakeholdeis to nd, cieate and impiove
scalable and adaptable solutions.
Tiuousi is a peeiagogy pioject iun on a wiki that gives
newcomeis a place to leain about Wikipedia cultuie and get
feedback fiom expeiienced Wikipedians.
What are the best practices when using a wiki?
Cofacilitation help each othei leain, help each othei
administei
Self-election enable people to choose what they want
to woik on, at theii own pace, in theii own way
Communication use comment thieads and talk pages
to discuss wiki changes
Documenting changes most wikis enable editois to
wiite veiy biief desciiptions of theii edits
Rules keep iules at a minimum level to avoid chaos
without constiaining cieativity
Fun make it fun foi people to contiibute
Sources
1. Leuf, Bo, et Waid, Cunningham. 2001. Te Wiki way
quick collaboiation on the Web. Boston Addison-Wesley,
xxiii, 43 p. p.14
2. Wixi on Wikipedia
3. Andius, Calvin D. 200. Tovvu coviix uv11ivi
iN1iiiiciNci couNi1v Tui vixi Nu 1ui nioc.
Studies in lntelligence. vol. 49, no 3. Online
4. Baiondeau, Rgis. 2010. L cis1ioN ui vvoJi1 cvoisi
ii vixi. Ecole des Sciences de la Gestion, Univeisit du
Qbec Montial, 180 pp.
193
. Ayache, Giaid. 2008. Homo sapiens 2.0 intioduction
une histoiie natuielle de lhypeiinfoimation. Paiis Milo,
284 p. p.19
cuv1iv 2
REAL-TlME MEETlNGS
Authoi Hovvu RuiiNcoiu
Summary
Web seivices that enable bioadband-connected leaineis to
communicate in ieal time via audio, video, slides, whiteboaids,
chat, and scieen-shaiing enable leaining gioups to add some of
the audio-visual dimensions familiai fiom synchionous face-to-
face communication to otheiwise asynchionous platfoims such
as foiums, blogs, and wikis. Tis aiticle includes iesouices foi
nding and evaluating appiopiiate foi-fiee oi foi-fee platfoims,
tips on paiticipative activities foi ieal-time meetings, and sug-
gestions foi blending ieal-time and asynchionous media.
Real-time meeting media
Tis Peeiagogy Handbook was conceived and constiucted
by a gioup of people on foui continents who had not met and
had not known about each othei befoie we began meeting on-
line. Te piocess involves asynchionous media, including fo-
iums, wikis, social bookmaiking gioups, and Woidpiess, but it
piobably would nevei have coheied into a gioup capable of col-
lective action if it had not been foi the ieal-time meetings wheie
we weie able to see each otheis faces, heai each otheis voices,
use a whiteboaid as an anonymous agenda-geneiatoi, exchange
links in chat, showeach othei examples thiough scieen-shaiing.
Togethei, the asynchionous and ieal-time media enabled us to
begin to see ouiselves as an eective gioup. We used both ieal-
time and asynchionous tools to woik out piocesses foi cieat-
ing, iening, and publishing the Handbook, to divide laboi, de-
cide on platfoims and piocesses, to collaboiatively compose and
edit aiticles, and to design and add giaphical and video ele-
19
19 CHAPTER 25. REAL-TIME MEETINGS
ments. ln paiticulai, we used the Bicxnovu Coiinov1i
platfoim, a web-seivice that enables up to 0 people at a time
to meet in a multimedia, iecoidable, meeting ioom foi aiound
S00/yeai. Weve expeiimented with othei paid platfoims, such
as Auoni CoNNic1 (about the same piice as Collaboiate), and
when we meet in gioups of ten oi less, we ofen use the fiee and
iecoidable Goocii HNcou1 seivice. Smallei gioups also use
Sxvvi. Weie watching the development of Bic Biui Bu11oN,
a fiee and open-souice ieal-time meeting platfoim, as it devel-
ops the full suite of tools that aie cuiiently only available foi
a fee. Dozens of othei fiee, ad-suppoited and/oi fieemium we-
bconfeiencing systems such as Bic Mvxiv and DiDi can
be found in lists like Hovvu RuiiNcoius and RoniN Goous.
Fiee phone confeiencing seivices piovide anothei technological
lowest common denominatoi some piovide a few extias like
downloadable iecoidings.
Features of real-time meeting platforms
Teie aie many fiee seivices foi chat, scieen-shaiing, white-
boaids, and video confeiencing, but combining all these compo-
nents in sepaiate panes of the same scieen (piefeiably) oi as
sepaiate tabs of a biowsei can have a poweiful synchionizing
19
and haimonizing eect on the gioup. Te featuies to look foi in
meeting platfoims include
Audioandvideo Choose platfoims that enable voice-ovei-
inteinet-piotocol (VOlP) and easy ways foi paiticipants to con-
guie theii miciophones and speakeis. Todays webcams, to-
gethei with adequate lighting and a bioadband connection, en-
able a numbei of people to be visible at the same time. ln Black-
boaid Collaboiate, the peison who is speaking at a given mo-
ment is visible in the laigest video pane, while othei paiticipants
aie available in smallei video windows. Audio and video convey
much moie of a human dimension than text communications
alone. A gioup of people who have seen and heaid each othei
online aie able to woik togethei via asynchionous media such as
foiums and wikis moie eectively. Online face-to-face meetings
aie ofen the best way foi a gioup to aigue constiuctively and
decide on ciitical issues. Foiums and email aie compaiatively
bad choices foi distiibuted decison-making.
Slide pushing: Te best platfoims will conveit .ppt oi .pdf
les foi sequential display. With the addition of text chat, anno-
tations to slides, and the ability to iaise youi hand oi inteiiupt
with youi voice, an online lectuie can be a moie multidimen-
sional expeiience than even a highly discuisive in-peison lec-
tuie.
Text chat: As a backchannel, a means of quickly exchang-
ing links to ielevant iesouices, a channel foi collaboiative note-
taking, a way of communicating with the lectuiei and with
othei paiticipants, text chat adds a paiticulaily useful dimen-
sion to ieal-time peeiagogical meetings especially when the
division of laboi is explicitly agieed upon in advance. Weve
found that even in meetings that use the ieal-time collaboiative
editoi E1uivvu foi collaboiative note taking, paiticipants may
giavitate towaid the built-in chat box foi discussion.
Screen sharing: Te ability of paiticipants to show each
othei what is on theii scieens becomes especially impoitant in
peei leaining, wheie we all have some things to showeach othei.
Web tours: An alteinative to scieen-shaiing is the ability
to display the same web page(s) to all paiticipants by enteiing
URLs.
Interactive whiteboards A shaied space that enables pai-
ticipants to entei text, diawings, shapes, colois, to move and
iesize media, and to impoit giaphic content especially if it al-
lows anonymous actions can fostei the feeling of paiticipat-
ing in a collective intelligence. Collaboiative anonymous mind-
mapping of the discussion is one technique to tiy with white-
boaids. Te whiteboaid can also be used to geneiate an emei-
gent agenda foi an un-meeting.
Configuring Google+ Hangout - a free
alternative for up to 10 people
Foi up to 10 people, each equipped with a webcam, micio-
phone, and bioadband connection, Goocii HNcou1 can pio-
vide high-quality audio-video confeiencing. By enabling the
text-chat featuie and adding Google Docs, scieenshaiing, and
SketchUp (whiteboaid), it is possible to emulate most of what
the commeicial seivices oei. Adobe Connect and Blackboaid
Collaboiate cuiiently have the usei-inteiface advantage of dis-
playing chat, video, whiteboaid/slides as iesizable panes on one
scieen, at piesent, the fiee Google seivices can piovide a powei-
ful extension of the basic audio-video platfoim, but paiticipants
have to shif between dieient tabs oi windows in the biowsei.
Note that it is possible to s1vi HNcou1 Nu vicovu i1
1o YouTuni, again at no cost to the usei.
Suggestions for real-time meetings
ln the nine online couises l have facilitated, the emphasis on
co-leaining encouiaged paiticipants to suggest and shape ac-
tive ioles duiing ieal-time meetings. By cieating and taking on
ioles, and shifing fiomiole to iole, paiticipants engage in a kind
of collective leaining about collective leaining which can be as
pleasuiable as well as useful. Typically we ist biainstoim, then
analyze, then oiganize and piesent the knowledge that we dis-
covei, constiuct, and ultimately convey togethei.
199
Roles for participants in real-time meetings
Searchers: seaich the web foi iefeiences mentioned dui-
ing the session and othei iesouices ielevant to the discus-
sion, and publish the URLs in the text chat
Contextualizers: add two oi thiee sentences of contex-
tual desciiption foi each URL
Summarizers: note main points made thiough text chat.
Lexicographers: identify and collaboiatively dene
woids and phiases on a wiki page.
Mappers: keep tiack of top level and secondaiy level cat-
egoiies and help the gioup mindmapping exeicise at the
end of the session.
Curators: compile the summaiies, links to the lexicon
and mindmaps, contextualized iesouices, on a single wiki
page.
Emergent Agendas: using the whiteboaid foi anony-
mous nomination and piefeience polling foi agenda items,
with voice, video, and text-chat channels foi discussing
nominations, a gioup can quickly set its own agenda foi
the ieal-time session.
The Paragogical Action Review
Chailie Danoand Joe Coineli iemixed the US Aimys Afei
Action Review to make a technique foi evaluating peei leaining
as it happens. Te ve steps in the PAR aie
1. Review what was supposed to happen
2. Establish what is happening/happened
3. Deteimine whats iight and wiong with what we aie do-
ing/have done
4. What did we leain oi change`
. What else should we change going foiwaid`
Paiticipants can iun thiough these steps duiing live meet-
ings to ieassess the medium, the ieadings, the gioup dynamics,
oi any othei choices that have leaining ielevance. Te focus in
the PAR is on change as such, it piovides a simple way to imple-
ment the double loop leaining of Chiis Aigiis (see iefeiences).
References
1. Aigyiis, Chiis. TicuiNc sv1 viovii uov1o iivN.
Haivaid Business Review, 9.3, 1991.
2. Chailes Jeiey Dano, Joseph Coineli, and Di.
Muhammed Bello Umai, Tui Pvcocici Ac1ioN
Riviiv, submiued to e African Journal of Information
Syems.
Resources
Howaid Rheingolds webconfeiencing nooxvxs
Bic Biui Bu11oN
Bicxnovu Coiinov1i
Goocii HNcou1s
Bic Mvxiv
Part IX
Resources
cuv1iv 2
HOW TO GET lNVOLVED lN THE PEERAGOGY
PROJECT
is page is for people who want to help develop/improve this
handbook.
If you want to get involved, write to Hovvu RuiiNcoiu
at uovvuvuiiNcoiu.co.
Illurations by ANu LvoNs.
Hello and welcome!
Te peeiagogy pioject was kicked o aiound the time of
Hovvu RuiiNcoius Januaiy 23, 2012 RiciN1s Lic1uvi at
UC Beikeley. We now have a complete ist diaf of a handbook
e-book foi peei leaining (the website youie ieading'). Teies
still moie woik to be done and this page assumes youie intei-
ested in geuing involved. ln that case weie happy to have you
aboaid, and what you do heie is laigely up to you. Go thiough
the oiientation mateiial on oui Wixi. Poke aiound. Ask ques-
tions weie eagei to answei them. Find an aiea wheie you
feel knowledgeable (oi aie willing to leain) and have a passion
to contiibute.
203
204 CHAPTER 26. HOW TO GET INVOLVED
Te goal of this e-book is to be a USEFUL guide to peei leain-
ing (have a look at 1ui ou1iiNi)' To achieve that goal we have
multiple oppoitunities foi peeis to contiibute
add ielevant links to pages.
wiite the text foi a sub-section (like this one youie cui-
iently ieading),
oiganize a team to tackle a laigei section,
make a video (like these on oui YouTuni CuNNii),
take notes of live meetings oi cvov coNciv1 vs,
oiganize a newsleuei foi youi gioup oi the whole team,
add geneial puipose bookmaiks to 1uis Diico cvouv, oi
post comments and editoiial notes about peeiagogy.oig in
1uis oNi, and
discuss peei leaining maueis and this handbook infoi-
mally via oui foiums.
lts up to you. We do have noims and standaids thatve
emeiged fiom back-and-foith discussion and iesist ieady codi-
cation. lnstead of ieading a list of iules, join oui conveisations,
take advantage of the digital memoiy of a foium to iewind the
conveisation back closei to the beginning, guie out what the
community is like, and jump in. We wont know youve jumped
in, though, until you communicate with us about what youd
like to do, who and how youd like to help, how you think we
ought to do it. You can have a look at the outstanding tasks and
teams that aie listed on 1uis Goocii Doc.
20
Where to go, what to do when you get there, to
learn about how we work
We use the foiums to communicate asynchionously and con-
tinuously. We also meet iiiegulaily foi synchionous audio-
video sessions. lnfoimation and answeis about both methods
of communication can be found in the foiums.
Click on 1ui iovus 1n. Each foium is a containei foi
conveisation thieads that can continue foi months. Te How-to
tab can show you how to navigate the foiums. Please iN1vo
uuci vouvsiii' Afei that, the ist place youll want to go is
the Nivcoiv iovu 1ovic, wheie you can get useful infoi-
mation and ask questions about how things woik aiound heie,
how to get staited. ln 1uis 1uviu youll nd a weekly iecap
of activity in the foiums, wiki, live meetings.
Workflow: How to Create Content for the
Handbook
1. Sign up foi a pioject team in the foium oi cieate one by
pioposing it in a new comment thiead in the PvoJic1
Tis iovu.
2. Communicate with othei team membeis thiough what-
evei media woiks best foi you foium, wiki comments,
GHangouts, Skype, face to face. Do shaie what you dis-
cuss/decide in the foium.
3. Cieate content on the HNunoox vixi, oi in any place
youd like that is linked fiom 1ui vixi ou1iiNi.
4. Tiii 1ui iui1ovii 1i that you aie ieady foi an edi-
toiial once-ovei. Make suie youve signed the CC0 Covv
vicu1 Wiviv (License) so that we have peimission to
iedistiibute youi woik without iestiictions.
. Editoiial team looks at mateiial, communicates with oiig-
inal content cieatois if necessaiy, edits content.
. Editoiial team and content cieation team sign o on the
content. When the content is ieady to be moved ovei it
will be labled RFWP next to the content on 1ui vixi
ou1iiNi.
. Te WoidPiess Teamis cieating the Table of Contents, and
Menu foi the site. When youi content is ieady, we will
cieate empty posts foi you to copy ovei youi content into
on the Woidpiess site, and add them to the table of con-
tents.
8. One membei of youi Pioject Team (oi moie if needed)
should volunteei themselves to move ovei youi con-
tent. Te WoidPiess Team will cieate a useiname and
login foi that WP Pioject Team Editoi. lf you aie a WP
Editoi foi youi Team, please post to let us know in the
20
WovuPviss Si1i Fovu and we will add you as an edi-
toi. We will need youi email addiess in oidei to email
you youi passwoid.
9. Once the content has been moved ovei, maik it in the
wiki outline as moved to WP and content should then be
edited theie. Make suie to maik youi aiticle in the wiki as
moved to woidpiess - view/edit heie inseit youi link.
10. Foimauing youi post We will (this is not done yet) use
these sample posts foi foimauing consistency Hov 1o
Gi1 lNvoiviu page and the Hov 1o OvcNizi MOOC
page. You will be able to use these as examples of how to
foimat youi post.
How to join or start your own project team
Tui iovu 1uviu nou1 voiuN1iiviNc 1o uiiv cvi
1i 1ui uNunoox. lts not a contiact, but its a public
commitment to say lll do that oi l can help with that.
Tuis is vuivi vi 1ix nou1 vu1 oucu1 1o co iN
1ui uNunoox, how to oiganize the outline.
Te PvoJic1 Tis iovu Take a look at the Pioject
Teams and jump in wheievei you nd a task that inteiests
you.
Details About the Wiki
WlKl BASlCS - Get a look at what people have cieated
using this RiciN1 CuNcispage.
CREATlNG A PAGE - To cieate a new wiki page,
linked fiom an existing page Edit the existing wiki
page, type oi choosen anchoi text to link to youi new
page, enclose the anchoi text in in double biackets,
submit the page, click on the new link, cieate a wiki
page, edit its contents, submit. Tis piocess is de-
sciibed undei 1ui Hov1o 1n as Cvi1iNc Niv
Wixi Pci.
TEMPLATE FOR ENTRlES - Make suie that this is a
how-to-do-it-oiiented iesouices. Scaold with just
enough theoiy, explained without special jaigon, to
make the how-to-do-it cleai. Link to the liteiatuie
ieview (and add to the lit ieview if necessaiy) foi
moie detailed discussion of empiiical, scholaily, the-
oietical undeipinnings of the how-to-do-it. Each
page should have
* Set of tags Specify a set of tags you would like
used to iefei to mateiial ielated to this entiy.
* A Status line at the very top, indicating
whethei it is a stub, an outline foi a completed
aiticle, a diaf in piogiess, a diaf ieady foi edit-
ing, oi a diaf edited and ieady to move to Woid-
piess.
* A list of content creators and editors afei
the Status line.
* Short summary under the creators/editors
list Stait and maintain a summaiy (undei ap-
pioximately 300 woids) above the body of youi
entiy, eithei a categoiy oi sub-categoiy.
* Source citations and Resources: Make suie
diiect quotations of mateiial that aie not the
content cieatois own woids aie cleaily iden-
209
tied with quotation maiks, immediately fol-
lowed with enough infoimation foi ieadeis to
nd bibliogiaphic infoimation and/oi URLs foi
all cites in the Resouices section, cited souices
should be listed with all bibliogiaphic infoima-
tion and URL in the oveiall list of iesouices.
When you have diafed oi substantially changed
an entiy, the ownei should notify the ownei of
the Resouices entiy.
* Links to related pages. lf anothei pait of the
Handbook is paiticulaily ielevant, link to it.
* Link back to main page of the outline Each
page should include at the bouom a laige link
back to the main page of the outline.
* A good example of a page that has all these ele-
ments, well composed, is CoNNic1ivis iN Ac
1ioN Hov 1o OvcNizi MOOC.
* COMMENT THREADS ATTACHED TO WlKl
PAGES - Adding a comment to a wiki page
will stait a comment thiead oi append the new
comment to the existing thiead in chionologi-
cal oidei. Comment thieads on wiki pages can
focus on discussions of the specic additions
and changes pioposed to this wiki team by the
pioject team membeis foi this entiy. You can
toggle between a wiki page and a page of com-
ments by means of the Talk tab, next to the
View, Edit, Outline, Revisions, and Access con-
tiol tabs.
How we Communicate
FORUMS - Te asynchionous (paiticipate whenevei youd
like) conveisations in the foiums aie how the community of
peeiagogy handbook cieatois foimed. lts wheie we engage in
exended discussions of issues and decisions iaised in live ses-
sions. lts wheie we keep tiack of which dieient teams aie
woiking on which mateiial. lts wheie the small teams can en-
gage with the community as a whole. lts a place to ask ques-
tions, piopose changes, volunteei to help, hand o woik to the
next team.
LlVE SESSlONS - We meet synchionously at agieed-upon
times, using audio, video, text chat, slides, scieen-shaiing. Foi
gioups of ten oi moie, we use Blackboaid Collaboiate, foi
which Howaid has a 0-seat-at-a-time license. Tese sessions
aie iecoided. Foi infoimation about scheduling, and iecoid-
ings, see 1ui iovu 1ovic. Paiticipation iequiies a faiily fast
(bioadband) lnteinet connection, a miciophone oi headset, and
(if you wish), a webcam. Foi gioups of ten oi smallei (usually
foi pioject teams), we use Google Hangouts. lndividual teams
do theii own scheduling.
TWlTTER LlST - Follow Piivcocv & to get added to
the Peeiagogy Twiuei list please post youi Twiuei name uivi.
Stephanie Schippei will then add you.
TWlTTER HASHTAG -viivcocv FACEBOOK PAGE
estions?
lf you have questions, use the foiums, post a comment on
the Talk page foi this wiki entiy, email the team eneigy centei,
oi email uovvuvuiiNcoiu.co
cuv1iv 2
PEERAGOGY lN ACTlON
We have been wiiting the missing manual foi peei-pioduced
peei leaining the Peeiagogy Handbook (viivcocv.ovc).
Tioughout this woik we have asked and aimed to addiess ques-
tions like these
What would a motivated group of self-learners need to know
to agree on a subje or skill to learn, nd and qualify the be
learning resources about that topic, then sele and use appropri-
ate communication media to learn it together? What would these
people need to know about learning to put together a successful
learning programme?
lt is cleai to us that the techniques of peei pioduction that
have built and continue to impiove Wikipedia and GNU/Linux
have yet to fully demonstiate theii powei in education. We
believe that the Peeiagogy Handbook can help change that by
building a distiibuted community of peei leaineis/educatois,
and a stiongly veued collection of best piactices. Oui pioject
complements otheis woik on sites like Wikiveisity and P2PU,
and builds upon undeistandings that have developed infoimally
in distiibuted communities of hobbyists and piofessionals, as
well as in (and beyond) the classiooms of geneiations of pas-
sionate educatois.
Heie, we piesent Peeiagogy in Action, a pioject guide in 4
paits. Each pait ielates to one oi moie sections of oui hand-
book, and suggests activities to tiy while you exploie peei leain-
ing. Tese activities aie designed foi exible use by distiibuted
gioups, collaboiating via a light-weight infiastiuctuie. Pai-
ticipants may be educatois, community oiganiseis, designeis,
hackeis, students, seasoned peeiagogues, oi ist timeis. Te
guide should be useful foi gioups who want to build a stiong
collaboiation, as well as to facilitatois oi theoiists who want to
hone theii appioach. Togethei, we will use oui vaiious talents
to build eective methods and models foi peei pioduced peei
211
212 CHAPTER 27. PEERAGOGY IN ACTION
leaining. Lets get staited'
Seing the initial challenge and building a framework
for accountability among participants is an important
starting point.
Aivity Come up with a plan foi youi woik and a con-
tiact foi youi gioup. You can use the suggestions in this guide
as a staiting point, but youi ist task is to ievise the plan to suit
youi needs. Helpful questions can be what aie you inteiested
in leaining` What will youi main outcome be` What piob-
lem do you hope to solve` What steps do you need to take to
accomplish this` How collaboiative does youi pioject need to
be` What soit of suppoit do you anticipate needing peisonally`
What pioblems wont you solve`
Technology Familiaiise youiself with the collaboiation
tools you intend to use (e.g. Woidpiess, Git and LaTeX,
YouTube, GlMP, a public wiki, a piivate foium, oi something
else) and cieate a ist post, edit, oi video intioducing youiself
and youi pioject(s) to otheis in the woildwide peeiagogy com-
munity.
Suggeed resources Te Peeiagogy Handbook, paits l (lN
1vouuc1ioN) and ll (Piiv LivNiNc). You may also want to
woik thiough a shoit lesson called lviiiN1iNc Pvcocv,
fiom the eaily days befoie the Peeiagogy pioject was convened.
Foi a succinct theoietical tieatment, please iefei to oui liteiatuie
ieview, which we have adapted into a Wixiviui vci.
213
Further reading Boud, D. and Lee, A. (200). Peei leaining
as pedagogic discouise foi ieseaich education. Studies in Highei
Education, 30()011.
Observations from the Peeragogy proje We had a faiily
weak stiuctuie at the outset, which yielded mixed iesults. One
paiticipant said l denitely think l do beuei when piesented
with a fiamewoik oi scaold to use foi paiticipation oi con-
tent development. Yet the same peison wiote with enthusiasm
about models of entiepieneuiship fieed of the iequiiement oi
need foi an entiepieneuiial visionaiy. ln shoit, theie aie tiade-
os to be made hopefully in an infoimed fashion.
Other people can support you in achieving your goal
and make the work more fun too.
Aivity Wiite an invitation to someone who can help with
youi pioject. Claiify what you hope to leain fiom them and
what youi pioject has to oei. Helpful questions to considei
What iesouices aie available oi missing` What do you alieady
have that you can build on` How will you nd the necessaiy
iesouices` Who else is inteiested in these kinds of challenges`
Technology Pick a tool thats new to you and could poten-
tially be useful duiing the pioject. Stait leaining how to use it.
Locate some people aiound the woild who shaie similai intei-
ests.
Suggeed resources Te Peeiagogy Handbook, paits lll
(CoNviNiNc Gvouv) and lV(OvcNiziNc LivNiNc CoN
1ix1).
Recommended reading Schmidt, J. Philipp. (2009).
Commons-Based Peei Pioduction and education. Fiee Cultuie
Reseaich Woikshop Haivaid Univeisity, 23 Octobei 2009.
Observations from the Peeragogy proje We used a stiat-
egy of open eniolment new people weie welcome to join the
pioject at any time. We also encouiaged people to eithei stay in-
volved oi leave seveial times ovei the past yeai, we iequiied
people to explicitly ieaim inteiest in oidei to stay iegisteied
in the foium and mailing list. Tis choice cut down on dead
weight. Neveitheless, the pioject continued to accumulate con-
tent, which gave newcomeis the discouiaging feeling that theie
was a lot to catch up on. Weve aimed to sum up the high points
in the handbook'
Solidifying your work plan and learning strategy to-
gether with concrete measures for success can move the
project forward significantly. Working in teams and shar-
ing information with others will help you to develop your
project.
Aivity Concietise youi ideas by, foi example, wiiting
an essay, making visual sketches, oi cieating a shoit video to
communicate the unique plans foi oiganisation and evaluation
that youi gioup will use. Ten, edit the pages of the Peeiagogy
Handbook boldly by this time you should have identied at
least one section that needs to be impioved. Make the neces-
saiy ievisions.
21
Technology Take time to mentoi otheis oi be mentoied by
someone, meeting up in peison oi online. Paii up with someone
else and shaie knowledge togethei about one oi moie tools. You
can discuss some of the diculties that youve encounteied, oi
teach a beginnei some tiicks.
Suggeed resources Te Peeiagogy Handbook, paits V
(CoFciii11ioN Nu CoWovxiNc), Vl (AssissiN1), and
pait Vll (P11ivNs, Usi csis, Nu Exviis).
Recommended reading Aigyiis, Chiis. Teaching smait
people how to leain. Haivaid Business Review 9.3 (1991), and,
Geisick, Connie J.G. Time and tiansition in woik teams To-
waid a new model of gioup development. Academy of Man-
agement Jouinal 31.1 (1988) 9-41.
Observations from the Peeragogy proje Peihaps one of the
most impoitant ioles in the Peeiagogy pioject was the iole of
the Wiappei, who piepaied and ciiculated weekly summaiies
of foium activity. Tis helped people stay infoimed about what
was happening in the pioject even if they didnt have time to
iead the foiums. Weve also found that small gioups of people
who aiiange theii own meetings aie ofen the most pioductive.
Wrap up the project with a critical assessment of
progress and directions for future work. Share any
changes to this syllabus that you think would be useful
for future peeragogues!
Aivity ldentify the main obstacles you encounteied.
What aie some goals you weie not able to accomplish yet` Did
you foiesee these challenges at the outset` How did this pioject
iesemble oi diei fiom otheis youve woiked on` How would
you do things dieiently in futuie piojects` What would you
like to tackle next`
Writing Communicate youi ieection case. Piepaie a shoit
wiiuen (oi video, oi photo, ) essay, dealing with youi expeii-
ences in this couise. Shaie the iesults by posting it wheie otheis
in the bioadei Peeiagogy pioject can nd it.
Extra credit Contiibute back to one of the othei oiganisa-
tions oi piojects that helped you on this peeiagogical jouiney.
Tink about what you have to oei. ls it a bug x, a constiuctive
ciitique, pictuies, tianslation help, PR, wiki-gnoming oi making
a cake` Make it something special, and people will iemembei
you and thank you foi it.
Suggeed resources Te Peeiagogy Handbook, paits Vlll
(TicuNoiociis, Sivvicis, Nu Pi1iovs) and lX (Ri
souvcis).
Recommended reading Stallman, Richaid. Wuv soi1vvi
suouiu ni ivii (1992).
Observations from the Peeragogy proje When we weie
deciding how to license oui woik, vaiious Cieative Commons
licences weie pioposed (CC Zeio, CC By-SA and CC By-SA-
NC). Afei a biief discussion, no one was in favoui of iestiicting
downstieam useis, so we decided to use CC0. ln connection
with this discussion, we agieed that we would woik on ways to
explicitly build ieusability into the handbook content.
Micro-Case Study: The Peeragogy Project, Year
1
Since its conception in eaily 2012, the Peeiagogy Pioject has
collected ovei 300 comments in oui discussion foium, and ovei
200 pages of expositoiy text in the handbook. lt has given con-
tiibutois a new way of thinking about things togethei. How-
evei, the pioject has not had the levels of engagement that
should be possible, given the technology available and the global
inteiest in impioving education. We hope that the handbook
21
and this accompanying syllabus will piovide a seed foi a new
phase of leaining, with many new contiibutois and new ideas
diawn fiom ieal-life applications.
cuv1iv 28
STYLE GUlDE
Format your HTML nicely
We need to be able to piocess the content fiom this Woid-
piess site and tuin it into vaiious foimats like LaTeX and EPUB.
Oui automated tools woik much beuei if pages aie foimaued
with simple and unifoim HTML maikup. Some key points
Maik up youi links use Tui Piivcocv HNunoox in-
stead of u11v//viivcocv.ovc. lts best if the link text
is somewhat desciiptive.
Use a numbeied list to foimat youi iefeiences (see CoN
viNiNc Gvouv foi one example of an aiticle that gets
this iight')
Woidpiess does not automatically add paiagiaph tags to
youi paiagiaphs.lf you want youi text to appeai justi-
ed and if you want the paiagiaphs to tiansfei to down-
stieam foimats, switch to HTML editing mode and wiap
individual paiagiaphs with ...
Use Heading 2 and Heading 3 tags to maik up sections, not
bold text. lf you use bold oi italics in youi paiagiaphs,
you should check that the maikup is aually corre. lt
should exactly suiiound the woids that youie maiking
up like this and it should not include
extia spaces aiound maiked up woids NOT like
this .
Keep it short
Te easiest sections to iead aie those that aie shoitei and in-
clude some kind of visual (video oi image) and have some pei-
219
220 CHAPTER 28. STYLE GUIDE
sonal connection (i.e. they tell a stoiy). Foi anything longei,
bieak it up into sub-pages, add visuals, make suie each sub-page
is accessible to someone (who is it`). Tink cleaily of this ieadei,
talk to them.
Use of bullet points
Maybe this is just a pet peeve, but l nd text veiy haid
to iead when theie aie moie than a few bullet points included.
Foi me, it woiks beuei when the bullet points aie ieplaced with
numbeied lists (which should still be used spaiingly). lt also
seems that when many disjointed bullet points appeai, some-
times the authoi is ieally just indexing the main points that aie
piesented beuei in someone elses naiiative. Teiefoi, considei
ieplacing an entiie bulleted list with a iefeience to someone
elses book/webpage/chaptei. ln todays hypeilinked woild, its
easy enough foi the ieadei to go elsewheie to get good content
(and indeed, we should make it easy foi them to nd the best
tieatments aiound'). ln paiticulai, it is not entiiely pleasant to
read a taxonomy. Maybe that soit of thing can be moved into
an appendix if we need to have it.
Including activities
ln todays live meeting, we agieed that activities would not
magically solve all possible usability/ieadability pioblems, but
they aie good to have anyway. And, accoiding to oui page lay-
out, each chaptei should have at least one activity (linked to
fiom the sidebai). So, when ieading the book, please make note
of any activity that can be included. (Also make note of piob-
lems that wont be solved by adding activities')
Simple, not conversational
ln oui eoits to escape fiom academia-speak and simplify
the text in the handbook, its impoitant to make suie we aie not
heading towaids the othei extieme being too conveisational.
When weie having a conveisation with someone, we tend to
221
peppei oui ideas with tiansitional oi pivotal phiases (ln any
event, With that said, As l mentioned elsewheie, etc.) that
help to keep the talk owing. We also go o on biief tangents
befoie making oui way back to the main topic, and sometimes
expiess ouiselves in iun-on sentences. While this is peifectly
natuial in speech, it can be confusing and complex when being
iead (in oui handbook oi elsewheie). Lets stay conscious of
oui audience and tiy to meet that peifect balance of simple, yet
piofessional in oui wiiting.
Additional style bonus points
Avoid double spaces afei paiagiaphs, this is a lefovei
fiom the age of typewiiteis and can cieate iiveis of
white space.
Capitalize ist woid of bulleted list, especially if items in-
clude a veib foim (this list and the one above aie exam-
ples').
Capitalize ist woid of headings and subheadings, lowei
case all otheis.
cuv1iv 29
MEET THE AUTHORS
Bryan Alexander USA, VT
(Author) l ieseaich the ways
new technologies change edu-
cation, teaching, leaining, and
scholaiship. lm passionate about
stoiytelling, gaming, pedagogy,
and undeistanding the futuie. My
family homesteads on top of a liule
mountain, iaising food. BvvN
oN Tvi11iv BvvNs vivsoNi
vinsi1i
Paul Allison USA, NY (Au-
thor) Cuiiently, l teach English at
the BvoNx Acuiv SiNiov Hicu.
Anothei community that lm a pait
of is the Niv Yovx Ci1v Wvi1iNc
PvoJic1. lm the NYC Technology
Liaison foi the N1ioNi Wvi1iNc
PvoJic1. l help to manage You1u
Voicis and l co-pioduce Ticu
ivs TicuiNc Ticuivs. Pui oN
Goocii Puis vivsoNi vin
si1i
223
224 CHAPTER 29. MEET THE AUTHORS
Mara F. Arenas Repblica Ar-
gentina (Author, Editor) lnde-
pendent consultant ieseaichei on
TlCS applied to Leaining, Digital
Communication, lnstitutional, Coi-
poiate. On line facilitatoi tutoiship.
Piofessoi on Semiotics, Social Com-
munication, Netwoiking. Mv
oN Goocii Mvs vivsoNi
vinsi1i
Rgis Barondeau Canada (Au-
thor) l build biidges between ie-
seaich, piaxeology and technol-
ogy and l become cieative by
nding a likeness between things
which weie not thought alike be-
foie (Bionowski, 198). lm in-
teiested in complexity, cultuie, so-
cial media especially wikis, educa-
tion, open goveinment and moie.
Reach Rcis oN Tvi11iv Ricis
vivsoNi vinsi1i
Doug Breitbart USA, NJ (Au-
thor, Meeting Support) l a cata-
lyst and piovocateui who has woin
the hats of auoiney, consultant, fa-
cilitatoi, coach, entiepieneui, fa-
thei, husband, student, teachei.
Douc oN LiNxiulN Doucs viv
soNi vinsi1i
22
Suz Burroughs - USA, CA (Au-
thor, Designer) l enable the con-
nections between the teachei and
leainei in all of us by designing
iobust, measuiable leaining envi-
ionments wheie people shaie theii
knowledge and expeiience with
each othei. Leaining Designei, De-
sign Tinking facilitatoi, Visiting
Piofessoi of lnnovation. Suz viv
soNi vinsi1i
Joe Corneli U.K. (Author, Ed-
itor) Joe Coineli does ieseaich on
the anthiopology of modein math-
ematics. He is a membei of the
boaid of diiectois of the US-based
nonpiot, PlanetMath.oig, and a ie-
seaich student at the Knowledge
Media lnstitute of Te Open Univei-
sity, UK. Reach Joi oN luiN1i.c
Jois vivsoNi vinsi1i
Jay Cross USA, CA (Author)
Jay is the Johnny Appleseed of
infoimal leaining. Te lN1iv
Ni1 Tii AiiiNci, which he
chaiis, helps coipoiations and gov-
einments use netwoiks to accelei-
ate peifoimance. Jv nv iii
Jvs vivsoNi vinsi1i
Charles Jerey Dano USA,
IL (Author) Chailes is the Ownei
of Mi. Danons Teaching Labo-
iatoiy, an Educational Publishing
and Seivices im he established in
2009. He staited co-publishing ie-
seaich on Paiagogy, Peeiagogys
inspiiation, in late 2010. Cuviis
oN luiN1i.c Cuviis vivsoNi
vinsi1i
James Folkestad - USA, CO (Au-
thor, Editor, Designer, Devel-
oper) My appioach to education
has shifed fioman emphasis on my
teaching, to a moie cential focus on
student leaining, and nally to an
activity-systems appioach as l have
come to iealize that the two (teachei
and leainei) aie insepaiable paits
of the leaining ecosystem. Reach
Jis oN Goocii Jis viv
soNi vinsi1i
Gigi Johnson, EdD USA, CA
(Author, Developer) l mix foimal
leaining piogiams with piogiams
to help leaineis begin to woik, live,
and cieate eveiywheie. My own ad-
ventuies include wiiting, singing,
video, teaching, and paienting 3
teens. Gici oN Tvi11iv Gicis
vivsoNi vci
22
Anna Keune Ger-
many/Finland (Co-author,
Designer) l design technology foi
leaining and l like it. lm aliated
with the Media Lab Helsinki,
Aalto Univeisity School of Aits,
Design and Aichitectuie. ANN
oN Tvi11iv ANNs vivsoNi
vinsi1i
Roland Legrand Belgium (Au-
thor) lm a nancial jouinalist,
heavily involved in expeiimenting
with social media and new foims
foi iepoiting and community con-
veisation. RoiNu oN Tvi11iv
RoiNus vivsoNi vinsi1i
Amanda Lyons USA, NY De-
signerl am a Visual Piactitionei,
Oiganization Development Consul-
tant & Expeiiential Educatoi. l
love helping people communicate
via visual tools that geneially in-
clude maikeis and papei. l think
oui education system could benet
fiom using visual communication
tools as well as text based meth-
ods. Reach ANu oN Tvi11iv
ANus vivsoNi vinsi1i
Christopher Neal USA, WA
(Communications and Media) l
am diiven by technology and its
ability to modify viitual communi-
ties and social media, and a passion
foi SocialLeain, SocialiA, Situated
Cognition, Social Leaining Teoiy,
Connectivism, etc. Cuvis1ovuiv
oN Goocii Cuvis1ovuivs viv
soNi vinsi1i
Ted Newcomb USA, AZ (Au-
thor, Project Management) Hap-
pily ietiied giandpa, cuiating on
digital cultuie, sociology of the web,
inteiested in collaboiation and co-
opeiation in digital netwoiks that
iesult in positive change. Tiu oN
Anou1.i Tius vivsoNi vin
si1i
Howard Rheingold USA,
CA (Author, Editor) lnspiied by
Chailes Dano and Joe Coinelis
woik on paiagogy, l instigated the
Peeiagogy pioject in oidei to pio-
vide a iesouice foi self-oiganizing
self-leaineis. Leaining is my pas-
sion. Reach Hovvu oN Tvi11iv
Hovvus vivsoNi vinsi1i
229
Paola Ricaurte Mexico (Au-
thor) My believe education and
technology aie essential tools foi
social change. My challenges ac-
tivist, teachei, mothei, immigiant.
My philosophy l am what l am be-
cause of who we all aie. Poi oN
Tvi11iv Pois vivsoNi vin
si1i
Fabrizio Terzi Italy (Inven-
tor, Designer, Translator) l am
involved in social and educational
piojects ielated to public access to
knowledge and cultuial diveisity. l
am an active membei of FSF and
the FTG woiking on Fiee Cultuie.
Fnvizio oN luiN1ic Fnvizios
vivsoNi vinsi1i
Geo Walker U.K. (Author) A Fuithei
and Highei Education Lectuiei and Tutoi,
social netwoikei, e-leaining advocate. Gi
oii oN Tvi11iv Gioiis vivsoNi vin
si1i
Tese mateiials aie made available undei the teims
of Cvi1ivi CooNs 0 covvvicu1 viviv instead
of a tiaditional copylef license. We the undeisigned
agiee to the following, wheiein this woik iefeis to
Te Peeiagogy Handbook and all othei content posted
on viivcocv.ovc oi the oiiginal collaboiatoiy site,
u11v//sociiiuicissvoo.co/uos1/viivcocv.
I hereby waive all copyright and related or neighbor-
ing rights together with all associated claims and causes
of action with respect to this work to the extent possible
under the law.
Bryan Alexander, Paul Allison, Rgis Barondeau, Doug Bre-
itbart, Suz Burroughs, Joseph Corneli, Jay Cross, Charles Jef-
frey Dano, Julian Elve, Mara Fernanda, James Folkead, Kathy
Gill, Gigi Johnson, Anna Keune, Roland Legrand, Amanda Lyons,
Chriopher Tillman Neal, Ted Newcomb, Stephanie Parker, Char-
loe Pierce, David Preon, Howard Rheingold, Paola Ricaurte, Ver-
ena Roberts, Stephanie Schipper, Fabrizio Terzi, Geo Walker
Note that this waivei does not apply to othei woiks by
the above authois, including woiks linked to fiom viiv
cocv.ovc. lt also does not apply to embedded content diawn
fiom othei sites and included foi the ieadeis convenience.
Futuie contiibutois Note also that we will iequiie a similai
copyiight waivei agieement. Tat said, the waivei also means
that you aie fiee to do essentially whatevei you like with the
content in youi own woik' Have fun'
How we came to this decision
Tiee Cieative Commons licensing options weie pioposed
by vaiious membeis of the community. Afei a biief discussion,
no one was in favoi of iestiicting downstieam useis, so we de-
cided to go with CC0. We agieed that we would get enough
ciedit by having oui names on viivcocv.ovc. ln connection
with this discussion, we agieed that we would woik on ways to
explicitly build ieusability into the handbook content.

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Te Peeiagogy Handbook

with contributions from

Welcome to the Peeragogy Handbook!

CHAPTER 2. HOW TO USE THIS HANDBOOK

1. Review what was supposed to happen (tiain-

Reflections on participants answers

make a list of limiting factois, obstacles, etc., then cioss o those

2. Whats dicult heie` What might be dicult foi some-

ing non-existent and being supeib. Wiiting a few indicatois

8 CHAPTER 10. HOW TO ORGANIZE A MOOC

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