Bb Vista Week-11:

Communities of practice

Situated learning: Old assumptions was that learning is something that individual do (learning by doing or experiential learning); learning has a beginning and an end (temp not permanent); learning is best separated from the rest of our activities (not integrated with our every-day activities) ; and that is a result of teaching (teacher-Centre only). New track is totally different; learning is social and comes largely from of our experience of participating in daily life “process of engagement in a community of practices” which is known as situated learning; it is a move from legitimate peripheral participation to into full participation.

Communities of practice: Communities of practice are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor “for example, a group of engineers works on similar problems”. Over time, this collective learning results in practices that reflect both the pursuit of our enterprises and the attendant social relations. These communities are developed around things that matter to people. In some groups we are core members, in others we are more at the margins. The characteristics of such communities of practice vary (Formal/informal, with names/without names). However, members are brought together by joining in common activities and by “what they have learned through their mutual engagement in these activities”. In this respect, a community of practice is different from a community of interest or geographical community in that it involves a shared practice. Three elements are crucial in distinguishing a community of practice from other groups and communities: The domain, which defined by the shared domain of interest. The community, engagement in activities (including complex activities and projects through cooperation) and discussions to build relationship that enables them to learn from each other. The Practice, members are practitioners, they develop a shared repertoire of resources “experiences, stories, tools…”

Conclusion: Social capital resident in communities of practice leads to behavioral change that enhances organizational effectiveness and profitability (learning communities can lead to learning organizations), Learning is in the relation between people (not only in individuals’ mind), Educators work so that people can become participants in communities of practice (educators as a facilitators/coaching/mentoring/..), and there is an intimate connection between knowledge and activity as learning is part of daily living.

Bb Vista Week 9 Task

Changes in Structures and Practices of Education

Happy Earth 2020

Dear Son,

I hope this video message finds you well,

Congratulations on your graduation’s project that has been published recently by UNESCO as a road map to have our planet free of Carbon monoxide by 2025. You are lucky with your current education system as it is totally different from our old education system in 2011, with youth people manage the new education system with their creative and innovative ideas. You are lucky in having free education from K1 to Master and Doctorate degrees, to live in a planet that recognizes educators as superstars. You are lucky to have education system that permits students from different continental to study in one global system (I know that you had to wake-up early to catch the 7:00AM jet from UAE to arrive UK by 7:30AM, otherwise you watch it online). You are lucky to have curriculum that focus on deep understanding (not memorizing) with its project/research based concepts, curriculum that can be transferred to any format you want. You are lucky to have learning environment that you can participate in its designing and not the ice cube model that we had in 2011.   You are lucky to have students communities involved in governmental activities and decisions making, involved in social activities, involved in politics, and involved in charity activities. You are lucky to live in a planet that uses dialogue instead of war to solve a problem; one hand world against poverty and climate change.

 This was my dream ten years back and I am happy to see it.

Your Father

Bb Vista Week 7 Task

Chapter 1: The Network Society from knowledge to policy

The road map (history) of knowledge societies was moving from survival to agricultural Societies, then to the industrial society (transition process countries like Portugal), and finally to the post-industrial/Information/knowledge society (Like US, Finland, Singapore).

Industrial society was built based on power networks (energy networks, which cause the factory model in education) while network society was built based on digital communication networks (like internet) which extend to every country in our planet. (Essential in our 21^st century learning model).

The network society, in the simplest terms, is a social structure (open structure) based on networks operated by information and communication technologies.Globalization is another way to refer to the network society. The network state

Cons views of new technologies/network society:

In these views, new technologies destroy jobs, Internet isolates, we suffer from an overload of information, the digital divide increases social exclusion, Big Brother extends its surveillance thanks to more powerful digital technologies, technological development is controlled by the military, the tempo of our lives is relentlessly accelerated by technology, biotechnology leads to human cloning and to major environmental hazars, Third World countries do not need technology but the satisfaction of their human needs, children are increasingly ignorant because they are messaging and chatting instead of reading books, nobody knows who is whom in the Internet, work efficiency is hampered by technology that does not rely on human experience, crime and violence, and even terrorism use the Internet as a privileged medium, and we are rapidly losing the magic of the human touch. We are alienated by technology.

Pros Views of new technologies/network society:

Although some workers are displaced and some occupations are phased out (e.g., traditional typist secretaries), other occupations appear (e.g. assistant managers instead of secretaries), more jobs are created, and most displaced workers are re-employed, except for those too old to adapt, their fate being decided depending on public policies in each society; Internet users are more social, have more friends and contacts, and are more socially and politically active than non-users; using internet in charity activities (e.g. collecting money for tsunami hurricane’s refugees), for health awareness campaigns (e.g. diabetes/Aids/.. campaigns), for environmental issues (e.g. Hopenhagen group); electronic trade in internet (e.g. ebay, amazon,…); knowledge transfer that internet and new technologies facilities it; internet is a real indicator of globalization and diversity in cultures we have today in planet (not in all countries but for a lot of countries); Digital networking technologies enable networks to overcome their historical limits of sharing their knowledge in innovative and accessible way. 

There are three necessary conditions for productivity growth to take place: generation and diffusion of new microelectronics/ digital technologies of information and communication, on the basis of scientific research and technological innovation; transformation of labor, with the growth of highly educated, autonomous labor that is able to innovate and adapt to a constantly changing global and local economy “Self Programmable Labor”; diffusion of a new form of organization around networking.

Dilemmas of Our Time: Creativity versus Rentier Capitalism; Communication Democracy versus Political Control.

Chapter 7: The E-learning and the Transformation of Education for a Knowledge Economy

The knowledge economy is related to changes in society worldwide, particularly globalization, information/knowledge intensity, and networking and connectivity.

Characteristics of a knowledge economy include: the increased mobility of services, information, and workforce; the need to derive local value from information often in creative ways that go beyond expected performance; the need to work in multidisciplinary and distributed teams; the need to use information technology (IT) for knowledge management, sharing, and creation; the need to update and change ones skills throughout one’s lifetime; and the need to “act autonomously and reflectively, joining and functioning in socially heterogeneous groups”.

Know-why and know-who is matter than Know-what:

Know-what, or knowledge about facts, is nowadays diminishing in relevance. Know-why is knowledge about the natural world, society, and the human mind. Know-who refers to the world of social relations and is knowledge of who knows what and who can do what.Knowing key people is sometimes more important to innovation than knowing scientific principles.

Personal knowledge management skills as well as a knowledge management infrastructure for the organization or professional body supporting knowledge workers are critical to the learning needed for a knowledge economy.

The World Bank (2003) contrasts traditional learning with learning for a knowledge economy as moving away from the teacher and textbook as sources of knowledge towards the teacher as a guide for finding and interpreting real-world information; away from learning being delivered to learners who receive it toward learning by doing and participating as close to the real world as possible; from assessment being based on responding to questions with pre-determined right and wrong answers to assessment being based on competence development as documented by a variety of forms of performance including those that require integrating one’s work with the work of others.

.

Example from professional:

From Shell EP company applying the e-learning system and how it positively enhances employees’ skills and knowledge.

Example from education:

From University of Twente applying the e-learning system that causes a competencies growth to their students.

My Contribution to these two chapters reading Plus UNESCO report:

Network Society:

I believe there are plenty of challenges to build a network society, these challenges stated in UNESCO report like poverty, human rights, human security (Maslow’s theory), illiteracy, democracy, language barrier, social barrier, and a lot of other factors that affect forming a knowledge/network society, even within the same country it could be relative network society (like in India case as stated by UNESCO report).

Another problem would be the misuse of the internet, as stated in UNESCO report by giving examples about terrorist, I would add also slavery trade, and any other type of crime that could be happening using internet, Also privacy of individual (like what happened to some Facebook users sometime back). But there are ways we can secure the internet and deal with these challenges.

I believe also some people living in non-knowledge societies could be knowledgeable individuals themselves independently of the society that they live in, in condition of that they have all the tools/facilities/abilities that will make them members in the big network society (Globalization).

E-learning:

For sure E-learning is the future market for a lot of students all over the world as it saves cost, time, overcome the geographical obstacles, flexibility, and a lot of other advantages; even countries of South is taking a big move in e-learning (as stated by UNESCO report that out of the eleven largest open universities, eight are situated in countries of South), it is a new field in education investment because of its advantages.

As mentioned in UNESCO report, I believe that rich countries need to help poor countries to build their infrastructure which is going to enable delivering e-learning to those countries.

E-learning requires huge efforts from the provider to upload all material/courses and make it available online for all users; good example in UNESCO report was MIT which had to upload 500 of their courses online plus 1,500 in phases.

A good example mentioned in UNESCO report was the UK government initiative called National Grid for Learning to connect libraries, schools, and learning centers to form virtual education resource center; a good example also would be khalifa university initiative in UAE to connect the government universities (HCT, Zayed, and UAE-U) to form a virtual education resource center.

Bb Vista Week 6 Task

Applying Understanding Strategy in classroom

I created a story of my imagination for two emirate students, Khalid, and Talal. Khalid lives in Dubai and study IT while Talal lives in US and he study Business, they use their facebook accounts to communicate with each other. through out the drawing of this story plus some YouTube videos related to it, I explored to my students how Internet traffic is moving from Khalid’s laptop to his ADSL then to Etisalat and how Etisalat route this traffic out to AT&T in US then to Talal’s Laptop, plus illustrating what is happening behind the scenes when you type facebook in your browser and how it is converted to something that machine can understand it and how it is doing this function, and a lot of other core concepts that they need to know about Internet and browsing.
My Conclusion is that, creating social narrative that is directly related to students’ every-day life is really a good way to illustrates basic concepts.

Another good example; we had a project with our students about wireless to apply it in certain area in our college, once project started they start their research on best tools to use in wireless survey then they start acquiring knowledge about core concepts in wireless design and implementations, they used many resources (Internet, discussions, asking experts/technical individuals,..), I was amazed that new technical areas they had to read and understand about it to do their project properly. they really did a good job and they build a structured knowledge based on their
hands on experience on that project.
my conclusion is that applying project-based/research-based education is very powerful way for understanding specially in areas like IT.

Bb Vista Week 3 Task:

My Learning Theory

I really enjoyed the reading of these two articles about learning theories. I believe that it is very much related to my own work when I am doing any training to students or staff. I consider learning as a processes group life cycle which divided into five phases “see Fig-1”: 

                                                Fig.1 “My own imagination of learning life cycle”

1- Planning process phase; it maintains the way curriculum, instruction, and assessments will be designed. This phase should be based on what is taught, why it is taught, how it is taught, and how learning is assessed, plus taking into consideration the social and community context.  I prefer to plan a course using the cognitive and humanist aspects, I believe in rule that is saying “failing to plan is planning to fail”. (It would be great if students can be involved in this phase someway somehow, through ideas about instruction, assessments, and even curriculum).                                                                                                                                              2- Design process phase; where we design the actual curriculum, instruction, and assessments which will be aligned with the teaching in the 21^st century knowledge society; that encourage students to understand and to use the metacognition technique; that encourage students to be active learner. (It would be great if students can be involved in this phase someway somehow, through ideas about instruction, assessments, and even curriculum).                                                                                                                                               3- Implementation process phase; it is the start point in interaction between student and teacher which should be bi-directional communication and not only one side talking and other side is listening. Teacher should help in changing any mismatch preconceptions with his students, help them to imagine the new concepts from their angle, and help students in creating their own metacognition technique. Again I personally prefer cognitive and humanist theories with taking into consideration the social and community context of the student.                                                                                                                                                      4- Monitoring process phase; this phase should be there from the start of planning phase to the end of the course, as it keep us updated with the students’ feedback/preconceptions/metacognition, it should be the phase which enable us to take proper decisions to enhance students’ experience with learning.                                                                                                                                                     5- Closing process phase; this is the phase where our course ended and we get the learned lessons from it to enhance our performance in next course, plus we should get a final feedback from students about what they did like in that course?/was it helpful for them in their practical life?/……

 I Value:
Using latest useful technology tools in education. 
Honest in teaching & learning. 
Advising and accepting other side point of view.                                               
Positive interaction between teacher & students during any discussion.                            

I believe in:
Education is a bi-directional communication between teacher & student.
Education is an important mission statement for a teacher.
Education “learning” is happening every day to all of us in different situations and not only inside school.

My Metaphors:
Teaching for me is like cleaning my room, organize books in shelves, and spray air refresher. This makes me very happy and willing to go on with other activities in my life.


students’ understanding Research:
I would like to say that in order to apply an understanding strategy in our classroom we should take a deep look to the main elements involved in learning process, teacher/curriculum/instruction/assessment/student/learning environment.

Let’s start with the main player (the teacher of course), I did read Marco Terese’s post about learning in Finnish, I do like their technique in teaching which permit teacher to teach only after a mastery level in training and education on how to deal with students’ needs, also I liked their policy/system regarding relation between teachers which make them work as a one team and not as a competitors, Also find below a good URL which focus on teachers’ evaluation:
http://www.tqsource.org/publications/February2008Brief.pdf

Second element is curriculum, which should present and reflect the concepts in simple and remarkable ways, avoiding complex examples/languages statements (Specially for non-native language speakers, which is the case for majority of the students all over the world today), giving examples from practical life to mutually apply/transfer between ever-day life and school, using graphics to illustrates concepts (when applicable), with a clearly defined targets from this subject-matter, with quizzes that test understanding after every module, with activities that encourage brainstorming and group work, not a hug syllabus in one book , should contain colors papers (specially graphics’ papers), fonts should be clear and readable (even the fonts on drawings/graphs!!), it should look as a nice book/ebook that student will like to read it.
See the below URL which take about designing curricula that seek understanding:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_by_Design

Third element is instruction, this is a big challenge, as instruction should present the concepts but using the innovative techniques in presenting these concepts using Audio/Video/Presentation/Project-based/...to make sure that instruction speak the same language as our students (Modern Technology Language). which could be illustrated very well in some field like health science see below youtube link as an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGxho71tScM&feature=related
Also teacher need to implement his own ideas (creations) which make subject-matter understood, plus removing misconceptions, see below URL:
http://www.edutopia.org/measuring-what-counts-memorization-versus-understanding

Fourth element is assessment, I believe that because most of our assessments were approached for memorizing and not for understanding that make our students align themselves with memorizing and not understanding as the assessments wants!!.
see below URL:
http://api.ning.com/files/4yilmyiT9cAYDaMWLbQTARb6WSh7rrjYuFIPAJJ5POHqbtuRueuXKpd0nLiRjviLQEwJT*uvvpq0ZZ1BtGIZopvJrjawAxdS/AssessmentforLearning1.pdf

Fifth element is student, which all elements in this process should help him/her to gain understanding to the subject matter, what motivate her/him to understand ?
see below URL:
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/motivation.html

Last but not least element is the learning environment, which include school or even home which affect students mentality, see below URL:
http://www.johnseelybrown.com/newlearning.pdf

That was a broadly coverage for students’ understanding.

Bb Vista Week 2 Task:

The most memorable learning experiences stories:

 I really like this topic, it triggers me to apply and share these memorable learning experiences I had in my academic and practical life with others.

First story is in academic field; during my high school time we had three departments (Math, Biology, and Literature) that we had to choose one of them in our second year of high school to be our specialization which in turn will determines which set of colleges we will be able to join after high school graduation. (For example a high school student graduated from Math department can join Faculty of Engineering but he cannot join Faculty of Medicine).                                                                                                         At that time I took a decision to join biology department, not because I like it but because I had a bad experience with some Math teachers during my earlier study. But guess what happened?  I had a very good Math teacher, who taught Math to my class in first year in high school, he was brilliant and very helpful to every student in our class, he was always saying to us “Do understand Math laws, feel it, and apply it, it is guaranteed way that you will never forget it”. Can you image that I still remember some geometry laws from high school time because of this man. He make it so easy for us, he was able to break this traditional barrier between teacher and students, he make us consider him as a father for all of us who is really care about us like his kids. I really appreciate his help to me which result in changing my mind and join Math Department and joining Faculty of Engineering later on, I believe that teacher is very important factor that can impact student’s future.

My second story is in practical life; I started my first career as a field service engineer; at that time I had zero experience in troubleshooting & solving technical problem and I had that fears that I cannot solve any technical problems and I will not be able to bring any machine up & running unless a senior engineer help me. Fortunately, I had a very good senior engineer, who taught me how to trust myself and use the products manuals I have plus using the troubleshooting methodology, he was so patient with me, he taught me how to read quickly a schematic electricity drawing and identify the critical points on it. He trained me for three months then he told me “Ahmed, I am sure you can troubleshoot now any problem” , after sometime he got a phone call from important customer saying that they have a severed problem in one machine, immediately he told me you will do it this time and not me, I was afraid a little bit as it was my first real challenge in my practical life but I went to this customer and I used the manuals, drawings and the logical troubleshooting methodology that I learned from him, I was able to sort out this problem, I went back to our office and I was surprised that my manger brought some sweets to celebrate my first success in my practical life with other colleagues.                                                                                                          I believe that I was so lucky to have this manger that really guided and helped me at the beginning of my practical life.

Bb Vista week 1 Task:

Pre-course reflection

I fond of teaching since I was a student, I used to teach to my colleagues during college days. Even after graduation I used to share any documents I have with my work colleagues and describe it to them intensively (they used to tell me “Ahmed we understood your Docs, do not take it seriously!!!”. I believe in power of knowledge and sharing it with others. Actually sometimes I understand more when I teach to others.

My background is mainly industrial engineering where I used to solve problems/manage new projects/training to new fellows or customers (using products manuals). Six years back I changed my career to IT Field as a Network engineer then I was promoted as a senior network engineer. I have got highly recognized certificates such as PMP®, ITIL®, and Cisco CCSP®/CCDP®/CCNP® Certifications.

I do not have official experience in teaching, just the training to colleagues/fellows/customer plus few numbers of Computer Network sessions to DWC Cisco Academy students.

Unfortunately I did not have any online learning courses before. I hope this course will give me that experience “I started to gain some of it this week”.

I hope to gain the knowledge of know how in teaching techniques and the new innovation ways in teaching. I hope to learn from other colleagues during our brainstorming/discussions. I hope to be a qualified educator which will enable me to start my official teaching in any of HCT Cisco Academies as I got already the industrial qualifications (Cisco Certificates). Plus I like to know exactly the rules, concepts, and methodologies of teaching before I start that career officially. Also these will enable me to understand how Students think and how I can deal with them in different situations, what I should expect from students, what do they expect from me.

This course will help me not only in my upcoming professional career but also in my life, it will give ideas that I can use to educate my kids, my relatives, and anyway I know who need a help to study something. My expectations might be high but I am sure that course will fulfill it.

I hope to be effective member in this team. I have that great feeling as a student who wants to success and helping each one in his group. I like to have the knowledge transfer between members which is really beneficial way of learning in my opinion. I have good IT skills which I hope to use it in helping other team members when they need it. Plus I have a good experience in projects management.

I am anticipating that our team members will guide and advise me specially that most of them have a good teaching experience which is going to energize me and make me more comfortable.

I am anticipating from my facilitator to be the person who will gave me the confidence about what we are going to do and helping me when I am out of shape through her guidance and advice.

I consider learning and teaching an important statement in my mission statement in this life, there is an Arabic adage that says “Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave” which I consider it as a golden rule for us in this life as knowledge is the real power.

I really appreciate that HCT is holding this course with cooperation of TAMK, I hope that will be a chance for all of us to find our own objectives we want to achieve from that course.   

Hello everyone (Salamo Alekoum)  

Nice to meet you on my page J

A bit about me: My name is Ahmed Hamdi Abdel Monem Al-Sorouge. I am married to Yosra and have our roots in Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. We have three wonderful kids (two boys, and one girl) who are fond of breeding cats.                                                                                                                                                          I am a senior Network Engineer at Dubai Women’s College. I graduated in 1997 as an Electronics/Communication Engineer (Benha University-Egypt). I worked as an electromechanical engineer for eight years in different fields (Oil, Machines, and Industrial X-Ray); I was responsible for the training to new fellows/customers most of the time.  In 2005, I changed my career to IT field where I started my steps to get recognized certificates such as ITIL®, Project Management PMP®, and Cisco CCSP®/CCDP®/CCNP®.

Why am I on the course? I believe that I was so focused on Industrial Certifications which is not bad. But I need to get an academic certification in teaching that will enable me to become a qualified educator.  

What do I hope for this course? To learn know how techniques in teaching.

My fears for this course! It not really fears. But I used to do all certificates face to face communication and that will be my first time in online courses. I believe it will be nice J