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The Case for Connected Learning

The Digital Age. The Global Economy. The Knowledge Society. All have impacted the
way our society thinks about and interacts with higher education. No matter what we
think of its current state, we must accept that our world has changed and will
probably continue to change with mind-blowing speed and intensity. Therefore,
higher education must also change if it is to remain relevant for our world.
It is time for citizens of Higher Education to advocate for
Connected Learning for a Networked World.

Written by Laura Gogia
July, 2014

2


Introduction:
Envisioning the Capacitor

Anisa Kannan is beginning her junior year in the Virginia
Commonwealth University (VCU) School of
Engineering. Although officially in a pre-medicine track, she is
also considering engineering as a career. This summer Anisa
enrolled in VCUs first massively open online course (MOOC),
best known by its Twitter hashtag #Thoughtvectors. It is her
first online course experience. On a Friday afternoon Anisa sat
down with me to discuss her thoughts about learning in general
and #Thoughtvectors as a connected learning experience,
specifically. Here is what she said.


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A lot of my classmates dont get the importance of working with each
other. You know, you spend all that time in high school where youre told
to write an essay and you dont get much back besides a graded essay. And
then maybe you put it on a shelf somewhere. Thats it.

But early on in college I had this professor who didnt just put a
grade on my paper. He gave me real feedback. Hed say, This is great but
have you thought about this? Suddenly I saw that getting feedback, not
just from one person but a lot of other people, would be extremely helpful.

I was nervous about taking an online class, because I understand
how important interaction and group work is, but if anything this online
course has had more opportunities for participation than any other class
Ive taken.

I get a little frustrated when I post and all I get for comments is three
classmates telling me Oh, thats so great! I want to have a discussion,
and thats not a discussion.

But there are so many other people in this open forum
commenting on my posts too. Its not like just having one teacher, its like
having six or ten or twelve teachers giving me feedback and showing
interest in what Im doing. It can be a little overwhelming, but a good kind
of overwhelming.

I think Ill send my final class project [on math education
reform] to the Board of Education. It probably wont change
anything but will anything change education?

Its really cool to think that I can send my work to people and make a
difference. Its a long way from just writing a paper for a class and sticking
it on a shelf after its graded.

I wish for every learning environment to be an open space, both
emotionally and physically. I want space to move around and talk to
people. And I want to be able to experiment without people getting all
judgy or biased.

You know that virtual spaces are wide open, right?

The problem with laboratory classes is that they have manuals, so
even though they are hands-on they arent the right kind of hands-on. You
go in and theres instructions waiting for you, telling you what to do and
how to do it.








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Say Ok, build a capacitor. Dont say Ok, build a capacitor and
heres how you do it.

Hands-on. I mean creating, making something. Groups of students
figuring things out and sharing what theyve found.

We need to teach ourselves if we really want to learn.

***
A capacitor is an electrical device that accumulates energy and then
discharges it when a switch is flipped. Institutions of higher education
have the potential to be capacitors, helping young people build their
passion for learning and doing before they flow forward headlong and
fully-charged into the wider world. But there are challenges to
overcome, not the least of which is an educational tradition that often
leaves students disengaged, instructors frustrated, and both unfulfilled.

We are Academic Learning Transformation (ALT) Lab, a unit housed in
the Office of the Vice Provost of Learning Innovation and Student Success,
devoted entirely to faculty development and student engagement at VCU.
In the following pages we briefly define the predominating educational
tradition before describing how that paradigm is not consistent with the
digital, networked age in which we live. Then we introduce connected
learning, a powerfully relevant educational paradigm that capitalizes on
the unique characteristics of the digital age to engage students in
experiential and situated learning experiences. Pockets of connected
learning already exist at VCU, and we will showcase some of them as the
pace cars for our urgent action: ALT Lab is aiming to make VCU a
distinctive capacitor for deeper learning, high engagement, and
student success by facilitating a decisive institution-wide
pedagogical shift to connected learning.









.
5


Chapter 1.
The Inertia of Tradition

Do not conne your children to your own learning for they were born in another
time.
Hebrew Proverb

If we teach today as we taught yesterday, then we rob our children of tomorrow.
John Dewey
One hundred years ago, the Industrial Revolution changed the United
States from what had been a relatively modest agrarian society into a
manufacturing giant with international clout (1). The needs of growing
industry and the massive influx of immigrants from every corner of the
world drove the first wave of national education reform that the country
ever experienced. The reforms created a comparatively skilled workforce,
but this was secondary to the policy makers primary goals which were to










6
bring discipline and uniform nationalism to as many young people living
in America as possible (2).
Horace Mann had these goals in mind when he introduced the Prussian-
Industrial educational model to the United States in 1852 (3). A strict
physical and psychological hierarchy existed in Prussian classrooms, with
students typically sitting in rows of desks behind a teacher standing at a
chalkboard. Based on contemporary factory practices, this model
promoted a pattern of lecturing and drilling for instructors, and
encouraged obedience and conformity among students (2). As Ellwood
Cubberley, then Dean of Stanford University School of Education, wrote
in 1916: Our schools are, in a sense, factories in which the raw products
(children) are to be shaped and fashioned into products to meet the
various demands of life (4).
Over time the Prussian-Industrial educational model evolved into the
instructor-centered educational approach. Similar to its predecessor,
the instructor-centered approach encourages quiet and orderly
classrooms. Professors convey facts that students memorize and then
recite back to professors in graded examinations. Although the name of
the educational model changed, the underlying assumptions remained the
same: As long as instructors maintain proper class discipline and deliver
content adequately, good students will succeed while poor students are
culled from the system (2). The students social contexts, personal
interests, or educational take-away have little impact on the general
educational experience at all (5).
This model for education has remained stubbornly in place and intact in
K-12 and higher education learning environments since Mann first
introduced it. Some suggest that it is almost impossible to change any
model that supports such strong power hierarchies (structural and
psychological) as those that exist between students and teachers and
teachers and administrators (6). Some blame the lack of change on
barriers to instructional innovation, including the negative consequences
of poor student evaluations if things do not go as planned. Others point to
faculty reward systems that deemphasize teaching and prioritize research.
The general lack of faculty pedagogical expertise has also been blamed;
after all, many faculty are subject-matter experts who care deeply for their
students but only know how to teach as they were taught (7, 8). Regardless
of the reasons, the fact remains that many too many undergraduate








JOHN DEWEY
ALT-
EDUCATOR:
THERE HAVE ALWAYS
BEEN EDUCATORS WHO
HAVE REJECTED THE
INSTRUCTOR-CENTERED
APPROACH. JOHN DEWEY
WAS ONE OF THE
GREATEST ALT-
EDUCATORS. DISCOVER
WHY ALT LAB HOLDS HIM
IN SUCH HIGH ESTEEM BY
READING ABOUT HIS
LABORATORY SCHOOL
AND ENDURING MESSAGE.
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courses nationwide are as one VCU student put it, all lectures. All I do
is sit quietly and listen to what someone else has to say.
Instructor-centered, depersonalized education reflects the American
educational context of the Industrial Revolution. Given the widespread
illiteracy, social unrest, scant educational infrastructure, and almost
nonexistant understanding of how people learn, an efficient, uniform,
nationalistic educational approach might have been a reasonable or at
least an understandable place for reformers to start. But, over time,
contexts change. We have changed. And heres how.












8


Chapter 2.
A Networked World
The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and
change.
Carl Rogers

The illiterate of the 21st century wont be those who cant read & write but those
who cant learn unlearn & relearn.
Alvin Tofer

Tuesday August 6, 1991:
The WorldWideWeb (WWW) project aims to allow all links to be made to
any information anywhere. The WWW project was started to allow















9
high energy physicists to share data, news, and documentation. We are
very interested in spreading the web to other areas, and having gateway
servers for other data. Collaborators welcome!
With these comments about connecting and collaborating Tim Berners-
Lee made the WorldWideWeb (WWW) project public. It was not the first
milestone in internet history; indeed, the internets modern history can be
traced back through the 50 years preceding Berners-Lees announcement,
to Vannevar Bush, Doug Engelbart, Ted Nelson and many others. But the
introduction of the WWW and the Mosaic web browser two years later
signified the first time many everyday people were able to grasp the
concept of a networked world (9, 10, 11).
What is a networked world?
As a thing, a network is an interconnected group of people or objects. The
internet is an example of a network, although technically it is a super-
network that connects regional and national information and
communication networks into a worldwide web. As an action, to network
means to link, connect, or operate within a network, exchanging
information and developing contacts with people or things (12).
To be networked means to accept your place in a global community, to
respect that cultures that have never touched before are now on the same
plate. Step off of a plane in Istanbul, Mumbai, or Sao Paulo and there is a
chance that you will hear the same song playing on the radio because social
media allows art, entertainment, news, opinions, and trends to leap over
oceans. For some people this leads to concerns about increasing cultural
homogenization (13). For others it leads to a childlike wonderment and
awe, because it signals the potential for any unlikely individual or
otherwise under-resourced entity to impact the world. The internet, it has
been suggested, can be a big slingshot in the face of any Goliath (14, 15).
To be networked means to actively participate. Individuals in a networked
world receive, relay, and create information, acting on and reacting to
people and situations in a far-flung ecology. Henry Jenkins frames life in
this digitally connected world as a participatory culture evolving as such
because of low barriers to artistic expression, civic engagement, and self-
promotion and publication (16). Individuals consume digitized
information, but they also use digital tools and platforms to annotate,


















TED NELSON
ALT-
HYPERTEXT:
ALT LAB FEELS IT IS
FITTING THAT BERNERS-
LEE INTRODUCTED THE
WWW PROJECT TO THE
WORLD THROUGH A
NEWSGROUP CALLED
ALT.HYPERTEXT.
HYPERTEXTING HAS A
RICH HISTORY. THE
MEMEX. THE MOTHER OF
ALL DEMOS. COMPUTER
LIB/DREAM MACHINES.
HYPERTEXTING CAN BE
AN ARTFUL AND
PHILOSOPHICAL ACT
THAT SUBVERTS
LINEARITY AND
PROMOTES ALTERNATIVE
OR SCAFFOLDED FORMS
OF EXPRESSION. FROM
THAT PERSPECTIVE,
HYPERTEXTING IS FAIRLY
AWESOME.



10
combine, imitate, support, and criticize anything and everything they
consume. We dont just watch a YouTube video, we like it, embed it in
our blog posts, and record our own video, which triggers someone living
in different hemisphere to do the same.
To be networked means to personalize and individuate actions or
communications specifically for the context. The media is the message,
wrote Marshall McLuhan (17). Effective citizens in the networked world
understand that the communication styles and digital platforms they
choose impact the message and how others will respond to it. No longer
limited to text-based correspondence or voice-only phone calls, networked
individuals consider the needs of the situation before generating video,
podcasts, screencasts, dictation, animation, emoticons, or images using
synchronous or asynchronous formats that allow for broadcasting,
crowdsourcing, dialogue, or any combination thereof.
This world has implications for how we, as educators, think about
preparing students for their futures.









Given that
networked individuals
actively participate in a
global network through the
mindful adoption and effective application of
digital technologies, a networked world can be defined as a
world which
spins in a
compelled and
compelling state of
connection.
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Fact: The networked economy is not oriented towards production the
same way manufacturing or agricultural economies are (18). While the
networked world has enabled more streamlined dispersal of tangible
things, no amount of digital technology completely erases the time it takes
for a bubble-wrapped, brown-papered package to travel across the Pacific.
The strength of the networked world lies in its ability to provide services:
the more technical and niched, the better.
Implication: Therefore, the networked world values workers with skills
that allow them to perform highly technical services in rapidly changing,
increasingly digital environments. These services often require people to
solve complex and situation-based problems, typically the sort that cannot
be entirely anticipated before they occur (19).
Fact: The networked world is built of raw data generated and tossed into
a potential and virtually ungoverned space. The atomic mass of plutonium.
The capital of Belize. The etymology of a particular verb. All of these facts
this stuff can be stored and accessed in the networked world quickly
and essentially for free. An argument, one that is gaining traction in some
academic circles, has been made that content knowledge can and should
be universally accessible (20).
Implication: While internalizing some content knowledge will always be
important, content the facts and the stuff has been freed from the
medieval monastery. To a certain degree content knowledge can be
outsourced to the network, and most of society instinctively understands
this. Surveys and Delphi studies tell stories of large American employers
who value critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity
the so called 21st century skills as much as traditional classroom
content or even computing skills (21, 22). Value and employability, it
seems, lies in the ability to work with others to filter, interpret, organize,
connect, and present the stuff in ways that makes it manageable and
useful. The value is not necessarily in the stuff itself.
Fact: The networked economy has shaped a workforce that is inherently
different different motivations, practices, and purposes than those of
the past agricultural and industrial economies. Recent research suggests
that the long job of our grandfathers who went to work for a company
and left fifty years later with a pension, a banquet, and a watch is no
longer universally wanted or available. For a variety of reasons, the







ALT-
PRINTING:
WITH ONLINE
PURCHASING AND 3D
PRINTING, IT IS POSSIBLE
TO ORDER SOMETHING
FROM A FAR AWAY PLACE
AND PRODUCE IT
IMMEDIATELY (AND
EXACTLY TO
SPECIFICATIONS) IN A 3D
PRINTER. ALTHOUGH NOT
AS SPEEDY OR
STREAMLINED AS A STAR
TREK REPLICATOR, 3D
PRINTERS MAKE IT SEEM
AS IF THE NETWORKED
WORLD CAN PRODUCE
OBJECTS FROM THIN AIR.
VCU FACULTY IN SUCH
DIVERSE AREAS AS THE
SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
AND SCHOOL OF WORLD
STUDIES ARE ALREADY
USING 3D PRINTING TO
ENHANCE THEIR
TEACHING AND
SCHOLARSHIP. ALT LAB
HAS A 3D PRINTER SO
THAT IT CAN HELP
FACULTY EXPLORE
APPLICATIONS IN THEIR
OWN DISCIPLINES.



12
Millennials change jobs twice as often as proceeding generations did or do
(23, 24).
Implication: The content knowledge that individuals need to know
changes swiftly and decisively. As technology advances and global markets
expand, as people bounce through different jobs either from personal
preference or marketplace whims, as the internet keeps streaming
stubbornly, unrelenting, and interminable with stuff it is no longer
enough for college graduates to be able to follow instructions, memorize
facts, and provide uniform responses that would produce As on
traditional exams. As our context changes, our educational needs change
too. And so,
Given that successful citizens of the networked world are those
who understand and participate mindfully in a global, digital
community,

Given the need to equip all students with valued and valuable
skills (for the good of society and for themselves),

Given the growing importance of collaboration,
communication, critical thinking, and creativity in relationship
to content knowledge,

Given the unique characteristics of the networked world that
allow for a more level playing field, enabling more individuals
to respond to, create in, and make an impact on the world,

Given the need to move away from industrial age educational
models so that our practice as educators is relevant to and
consistent with this world in which we live,

And the need to be nimble as our world continues to change
with unprecedented speed,

Given all of these things, how should educators respond?















ALT-
PUBLISHING:
IT HAS TAKEN EUROPE
AND PARTS OF ASIA BY
STORM SINCE ITS
FORMIZED INCEPTION IN
BUDAPEST OVER A
DECADE AGO, BUT OPEN
ACCESS PUBLISHING IS
ALSO MAKING GREAT
STRIDES IN THE UNITED
STATES PARTICULARLY
WHERE GOVERNMENT,
ACADEMIC RESEARCH,
AND HEALTHCARE MEET.
ALT LAB RECOGNIZES OUR
PHILOSOPHICAL KINSHIP
WITH THE ONGOING
OPEN ACCESS INITIATIVES
AND PROJECTS AT VCU.
WE ALSO RECOGNIZE
THAT THESE PROJECTS
OFTEN MAKE EXCELLENT
CONNECTED LEARNING
EXPERIENCES.

13

Chapter 3.
Connected Learning
I dont think education is about centralized instruction anymore; rather, it is the
process of establishing oneself as a node in a broad network of distributed
creativity.
Joichi Ito

People learn by confronting intriguing, beautiful, or important problems.
Kenneth Bain

Connected learning is not a learning theory. It is not a specific set of
teaching techniques. It is not, as Anisa Kannan would put it, a laboratory
manual with step-by-step instructions. Rather, connected learning is an
educational approach based on the same underlying philosophies that








14
drive the networked world (25). It occurs in communities of practice,
defined as generative or action-oriented entities bound together by a
shared purpose (26). Connected learners learn by participating, creating,
and making an impact in an integrated school-home-community-virtual-
openly networked space. In other words their coursework allows them to
learn through engaging as empowered citizens in the networked world: by
doing now as students exactly what we hope they will do in the future (27).

Connected learning is participatory. Successful citizens in the
networked world understand their role in a relatively nonhierarchical
community. They take advantage of informal mentoring when it is offered
and mentor others when the opportunity arises (16, 25). Connected
learning experiences create similar circumstances within the classroom.
Students learn that expertise comes in many forms, and they begin to
consider and weigh the value of different perspectives. Instructors are just
one type of expert that exists within a connected learning classroom; they
provide mentorship and resources for group learning when necessary, but
are mindful that peer feedback and other learner contributions may be just
as powerful, or more so, than their own (27).

Excellent connected learning experiences also show students how they
might engage with course material in a community of practice that extends
beyond the classroom (28). VCU sophomores enrolled in Dr. Jason Coats
classes participate in Twitter-mediated discussions weekly. Coats uses
these discussions to replace more traditional group projects that often
suffered when student were unable to coordinate their schedules. When a
students class tweets capture the attention of a Twitter user not enrolled
in the course, Coats observes carefully (and quietly) as the outside
participant deftly guides the student into a deeper understanding of the
poem. Scenarios like this demonstrate how students might benefit from
academically oriented social media interactions, potentially receiving a
variety of feedback and connecting their studies to people and situations
outside traditional academic boundaries.

Connected learning is generative. Learning through the creation of
a product with a clear purpose for an authentic audience is a well-
supported educational construct (29). The relative ubiquity of digital
cameras, mobile phones, tablet computers, and open source web apps in








ALT-
ENGLISH
DR. JASON COATS,
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
OF FOCUSED INQUIRY IN
VCUS UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE, TEACHES ENGL
215: VISUAL POETRY
ONLINE TO UNDECLARED
SOPHOMORES & NON-
ENGLISH MAJORS. FOR
HIS INSIGHTS ON
ENGAGING STUDENTS
THROUGH BLOGGING
AND TWITTER-MEDIATED
CLASS DISCUSSIONS,
CLICK HERE.

15
the digital age allows students to generate and publish professional-
looking creative content with unprecedented ease. The global nature of
digital age communication also increases the likelihood of reaching a
wider audience (25).

VCU Department of Biology faculty Dr. Dianne Jennings and Ms. Jill Reid
co-teach Field Botany, a course that involves the curating, identification,
and organization of flower and plant specimens. The course has always
culminated in the production of student field journals, and the instructors
have witnessed how engaged students are when they create something
with a clear purpose: Students have always liked this course because they
feel like what they have learned can be applied and shared with others,
says Jennings. But when Jennings and Reid asked students to collectively
upload their specimen photos to an open WordPress site, students were
no longer making small, individualized journals to share with interested
friends and family; they were creating a comprehensive, interactive online
resource for the entire Richmond area. They got really excited when we
reminded them their collective work really equated to a publication that
would be used by the public and they were all authors on it, Jennings
reports. Digital networking allows students to connect schoolwork with
community engagement in ways that are exciting and meaningful for
everyone.

Connected Learning has shared purpose. Shared purpose implies
the individuals have personal and shared connections to the work being
performed. Learners are most engaged when they are grappling with
content, issues, or skills that interest them on a personal level with
outcomes that reach beyond their school grades (25). As John Dewey
wrote: Every subject gives an opportunity for establishing cross-
connections between the subject matter of the lesson and the wider and
more direct experiences of life (30).

Drs. Reed and Smith of the VCU School of Education have firsthand
knowledge of the educational power of personal interest and shared
purpose. Passionate lifelong advocates for educating through universal
learning design (UDL), they recently began collaborating with instructors
from Mico University College in Jamaica to create a virtual classroom
meant to provide professional development in UDL for educators,







ALT-
BIOLOGY
VCU DEPARTMENT OF
BIOLOGY FACULTY DR.
DIANNE JENNINGS
AND JILL REID LEAD
THEIR FIELD BOTANY
STUDENTS IN
CREATING AN ONLINE,
PUBLICALLY AVAILABLE
RESOURCE FOR THE
JAMES RIVER PARK
SYSTEM. FOR DETAILS
OF THIS
PARTICIPATORY,
GENERATIVE
CONNECTED
LEARNING
EXPERIENCE, PLEASE
CLICK HERE.



16
internationally. Reed and Smith recruited VCU doctoral students who
were interested in UDL to assist them with curating, generating, and
assessing the virtual classroom content. What has resulted, according to
Dr. Reed, is dynamic, organic learning in which students get to see how
what they read is applied in the real world. Because it is a real project, we
have all the wonderful opportunities that the real world gives us - the often
unexpected and often expansive need to learn new skills and do new things
that we as instructors cannot begin to anticipate.

Connected learning has impact. Excellent connected learning
experiences are conducted in the open, involving public digital platforms
such as but not limited to Twitter, WordPress, YouTube, Flickr, or
SlideShare (25). Public platforms create opportunities for students and
instructors to explicitly connect academics to the wide world, making
study and scholarly dialogue inherently relevant to life. When students
and instructors can see that people are interested in their work and that
their efforts might make a difference in some way, they are inspired to
work harder and learn more.

As one undergraduate said when describing her experience of open
blogging and tweeting in VCUs recent massively open online course
(MOOC): A professor from an entirely different university saw my posts
and offered to let me interview him for my project. It feels so nice to have
so many people from all over interested in my educationknowing that a
lot of people are interested pushes me to come up with something inspired
and unique for my final project. It wont just be any old paper.

Being able to harness the sharing-power and self-publication properties of
the internet can amplify the impact of student work, just as it spreads the
work of professional and amateur recording artists from Istanbul to
Mumbai to Sao Paulo. We see that in Drs. Reed and Smiths virtual
classroom, where VCU student research provides Jamaican teachers with
professional development materials; also in Dr. Jennings and Ms. Reids
Field Botany class, where student research provides a Richmond
community public service; and in Dr. Maghboeba Mosavels Community-
Based Participatory Research seminar, where student create digital stories
to be used by local nonprofit organizations for promotional purposes; and
Dr. Marcus Messner and Ms. Vivian Medina-Messners VCU Social Media







ALT-
EDUCATION
VCU SCHOOL OF
EDUCATION FACULTY
DRS. EVELYN REED
AND FRANCES SMITH
ARE COLLABORATING
WITH JAMAICAN
EDUCATORS TO
PROVIDE ONLINE
PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
OPPORTUNITIES
RELATED TO
UNIVERSAL LEARNING
DESIGN (UDL). VCU
DOCTORAL STUDENTS
PLAY AN INTEGRAL
ROLE IN CURATING,
GENERATING, AND
ASSESSING THE
GLOBAL UDL VIRTUAL
CLASSROOM CONTENT
AND EXPERIENCE
RICH, CONNECTED
LEARNING IN THE
PROCESS. FOR MORE
INFORMATION, CLICK
HERE.

17
Institute, where American and Iraqi students collaborate to create social
media campaigns for nonprofit organizations; and in so many other VCU
classrooms where the power of digital technologies are harnessed to
stimulate deeper learning, high engagement, and student success. When
connected learning is achieved, it combines personal interest, academic
goals, and community presence into one charged, networked experience.
It simulates what we hope students will continue to do throughout their
lives: learn, create, and share.




Afterward:
Building the Capacitor

Dream what you would love students to learn and then throw out the way you
normally think about it. If you let the learning emerge through a real world
experience, all the content will definitely be incorporated.
Dr. Evelyn Reed, Associate Professor - VCU School of Education













18
I can be up at 2AM and tweet something out about class right then. Its not like
a typical classroom discussion, which only happens in the classroom. I spend
more time thinking about class because I can act on my thoughts anywhere,
anytime.
Anisa Kannan, VCU Class of 2016

Having met with Anisa Kannan, having read her blog posts and followed
her Twitter feed during the course of the #Thoughtvectors MOOC, I can
confidently state that any VCU faculty member would be happy to have
such a student enrolled in their class. Anisa has an advantage over many
students, the students she identified as those who think of school as
writing a paper, getting a grade, and then putting the paper on a shelf (or,
worse yet, the trash). A VCU professor triggered her learning
transformation by providing her with enthusiastic and thoughtful
feedback about her assignments. What seems like the everyday work of a
faculty member launched Anisa into a connected learning paradigm that
will serve her well for the rest of her life.

Not all students will be removed so easily from the traditional, instructor-
centric model of education as Anisa was. They are so used to being told
what to learn and how to learn it that they often resist alternative learning
environments. This does not mean we should not try.

From a faculty perspective, building connected learning experiences is not
easy, either. Every successful connected educator with whom I spoke
mentioned his or her struggles to let go of the old instructor-centered,
content-centered paradigm. There is a deep sense of responsibility that all
conscientious faculty members have about delivering content. Those who
move beyond itwho move to a deeper understanding of what it means to
help students learn are a little brave for even trying.

And yet, as Anisa so wisely said, We need to teach ourselves if we really
want to learn. Todays students need to do more than follow directions,
perform basic skills, and conform. If they are to thrive they need to learn
how to participate, create, and impact their world for good. And above all,
they need to be flexible and realize they will have to learn new and different
things every day of their lives. To force students to wait until after they
finish their college educations to draw these conclusions (if they draw






19
them at all) is unnecessary, and makes higher education appear irrelevant
to the outside world. Connected learning is an educational paradigm that
allows students to practice living in the world by having them learn in the
world. As citizens of Higher Education, ALT Lab is asking you to join us
in our bold move to keep higher education relevant for our students and
our times. We are asking that you help us create:

Connected Learning
For
a Networked World.












20
Endnotes
1. Mills, J.A. (1999). Control: A history of behavioral psychology. New
York, NY: NYU Press.
2. Lindeman, E. C. (1989). The meaning of adult education. A classic
North American statement on adult education. Norman, OK:
Oklahoma Research Center for Continuing Professional and
Higher Education
3. Cubberley, E. P. (1919). Public education in the United States: A
study and interpretation of American educational history.
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved from:
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=J_tEAAAAIAAJ
&oi=fnd&pg=PR3&dq=Ellwood+P.+Cubberley,+Public+Educati
on+in+the+United+States+(1919)+p.+167&ots=zF8Ig7mRux&si
g=Oh2ZgQYURvRjIryJKV2Cg0LAEAk#v=onepage&q&f=false
4. Cubberly, E. P. (1916). Public school administration: A statement of
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