Introduction

This section is about learning, knowledge exchange and management, education, epistemology (ways of knowing) and related developments.

It is maintained by Steve Ediger and Michel Bauwens.

For a good introduction see John Heron on facilitation and the revolution in learning

George Siemens, and his Connectivist learning theory, is one of the scholars most intensely constructing what I would call a 'peer to peer learning theory. Some basic entries are his Propositions on Learning, and his Connectivist Taxonomy

Chris Smith has a guide to free software and Linux resources for education and schools.

The Read/Write blog has an overview on the use of blogging and podcasting in education and on Elgg, a social network for education.

Key Topics: Open Education, Open Educational Resources, Open Courseware Initiatives, Open Textbooks

Thematic Issues of P2P News on Epistemology: Issue 89 [1]; Issue 77 [2]

Some Citations

Citation 1: The Open Education movement is gaining momentum

"The field of open education is gaining momentum around the world. Literally hundreds of open education projects are springing up from Tokyo to Boston to Paris to Beijing. Over 2000 courses are now available through OpenCourseWare projects alone. Add to this the growing number of open access learning object repositories, increases in the number and quality of open source educational software projects, the open education work agencies like UNESCO and the OECD are doing, and the field is diversifying as quickly as it is growing.." (http://cosl.usu.edu/conferences/opened2006/)

Citation 2: Schools need to open up to peer-based learning models

"When you look at children's learning outside school, it is driven by what they are interested in, which is the direct opposite of school-based learning. For example, in the United States a group of students were interested in Manga, the Japanese animated cartoons. In order to get hold of them before they were due to arrive on the market, this group got together, taught themselves Japanese, subtitling and web streaming, because they were motivated to.

What is the relationship with this idea that education is handing down a general base of knowledge? I think that is one of the tensions.

When you look at learning in the home you see knowledge-building communities. Children can act as teachers, they are allowed to adopt different identities and they are not just learners. They have control over the time of their learning and how long it will take. The school system needs to know a lot more about what is happening outside school in terms of children's passions, interests and abilities than it does at the moment.

We need a shift towards an education system that is about listening to what the learners are bringing into the school situation, as well as thinking about an education system that is pushing things out." (http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2006/07/smart_learning_.html)

Citation 3: the Learning 2.0 approach

"The traditional approach to e-learning has been to employ the use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), software that is often cumbersome and expensive - and which tends to be structured around courses, timetables, and testing. That is an approach that is too often driven by the needs of the institution rather than the individual learner. In contrast, e-learning 2.0 (as coined by Stephen Downes) takes a 'small pieces, loosely joined' approach that combines the use of discrete but complementary tools and web services - such as blogs, wikis, and other social software - to support the creation of ad-hoc learning communities." (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/e-learning_20.php)

Key Resources

Key Articles

Here's a good overview of recent technological developments (Web 2.0) and how these participatory technologies could be used for teaching and learning, by Bryan Alexander, EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 41, no. 2 (March/April 2006): 32–44 [3]. Chris Smith also maintains a link page of Web 2.0 resources for Learning [4]

'Coming of Age' [5] is an introduction to teachers on how they can use the 'new World Wide Web'.

Key essay by Yochai Benkler: Common Wisdom: Peer Production of Educational Materials [6]

An introduction to Connective Knowledge (and Knowing Networks), by Stephen Downes is an absolute must read introduction to participative epistemologies [7]

Key Blogs

Blogs that monitor P2P-like developments in the world of learning and education are:

1) The Connectivism blog [8], a new educational theory for the peer to peer age

2) Global Mentoring blog [9], bringing peers together for learning

3) Open Content and Education blog [10], freeing educational content

4) Flosse Posse [11] monitors the use of free and open software in the educational field

5) OL Daily by Stephen Downes [12], monitors how online can help in the creation of a more open and participatory learning environment.

Key Books

Howard Rheingold recommends Will Richardson’s excellent book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms

Key Conferences

Microlearning 2006

Future of Learning in a Networked World

Key Tags

P2P Learning

P2P Epistemlogy

P2P Hall of Fame

Educational Theory

Who should be in our P2P Hall of Fame on Educational Theory?

Candidates are: George Siemens [13](connectivist learning theory); Jean-Francois Noubel [14] and Pierre Levy (collective intelligence); David Wiley [15](open content and open education); Stephen Downes [16] (e-learning)

Educational Practitioners

Candidates are: Steve Ediger (Woodstock school in Northern India); Bryan Alexander [17](Web 2.0. in teaching); Chris Smith [18] (Shambles.Net, IT for international schools)

Recommended Initiatives

Candidates are: Lucy Hooberman's Mentoring Worldwide initiative [19]

Citation on peer teaching

Theresa Williamson on The power of peer teaching

"Everybody knows the proverb about how it's better to teach a man to fish than just to give him a fish, but there's a step beyond that: it's better that a man's neighbor is the one teaching him to fish, his peer. If some expert swoops in from afar you miss half the value of the interaction because of the inequality in that relationship. But if it's his peer teaching him? Then the man is much more likely to offer something in return. You are much more likely to create a real sustainable relationship rather than just a new dependency."

Theresa Williamson, Founder, Catalytic Communities (http://www.nextbillion.net/node/1723)

P2P Educational Concepts Encyclopedia