Today @ #P3workshop: Institution-enhanced community-based learning with Nils Peterson

(Yes! Complimentary free wifi at our P3 Workshop. One of those small pleasures at conferences that's right up there with free coffee.)

I missed catching Mandy Dailey's opening remarks, and Cathy Davidson's. Sleepy computer fail! But now, Fiona Barnett is introducing the HASTAC Scholars program -- this year there will be over 175 HASTAC Scholars from all over the world. When asked what HASTAC is, Fiona responds: Difference is not our deficit, it's our definition.

Fiona introduced the 3 HASTAC Scholars Amanda Philips ,Ana Boa Ventura, Kim Singletary, who interviewed the three panelists: Nils Peterson, David Gibson and Anne Balsamo. I'll include Nils Peterson's talk here, and David Gibson and Anne Balsamo in separate blogs, since each of them will present separately.

Starting with Nils Peterson:

Assistant Director, Office of Assessment and Innovation, Washing State University. (NilsPeterson.com -- another place where Nils blogs, including: nilspeterson.com/2010/09/08/live-assessment). Nils began by saying that he was turning off his cell phone, and asking us to turn on ours. Encouraging us to open our laptops, or phones, and join each other on Twitter (#p3workshop), or on online rating form: http://bit.ly/9Gr8TB. We can suggest other perspectives, assess his discussion. "Assessment is a community effort. Its principle goal is learning, not classifying or sorting," from one of his slides. We may not agree with the dimensions of feedback to assess his presentation, so the online rating site allows a chance for that. 

Institutional-based learning ----> Community-based learning, looking at the differences.

Current slide includes: Park It: Focus now on learning and learners. Challenges to the Academy can be a topic this afternoon.

And then: Contexts

1. (Oops, missed this one...)

2. Exploding demand for higher levels of learning to promote economic development in developing nations.

3. Need to solve urgent interdisciplinary problems.

Credentialing: Nils: my college diploma for BS in Chemistry has never done be any good until today, to use it as a prop.

Internet has changed us. Then: Intellectual property is protected. Information scarcity -- has changed to Now: Intellectual property is shared. Information abundance. "Open Course Ware resources are not intended as supported open learning for students." From: The Forum on the IMpact of Open Courseware...(missed it!)

Community-based learning, we're shifting the focus. Students are expected to be joining communities of practices. Learners are expected to increase social capital.

--> As aside: I need to pick a channel and stick with it! Trying to listen, blog, watch #p3workshop and the backchannel that Ruby set up...can't figure out which way to connect best with the community. People are in so many different places --

We're watching a YouTube video of a professor showing instructions in playing the violin. Next, Nils talking about Heifetz master class in teaching violin, a community learning about playing the violin from a dead master. Interesting -- so there is a community that interacts with each other in the comments section, learning in a community, learning virtually. An advanced student is filmed working with Heifitz, with students in the background. We are able to watch this video, which is in black and white, can't tell what year. We are listening to the student play, and then the master stops him and begins to give feedback: he tells the student, the accompanist, he demonstrates the performance, and the student plays again. Search for Bach prelude in YouTube, and will find all sorts of students learning and working on different aspects of their work.

ePortfolios are student-owned, not institution-owned. They are important to the learner "The long tail of public evidence." (not sure where that quote comes from).

Assessment: Old: feedback is private, faculty members create and ratify the assessment criteria. Feedback to the students is communicated by or with a letter grade. Potential: Feedback is a public resource for other learners. Expert consensus from the community of practice validates the assessment instrument and criteria.Students merit direct and unfiltered feedback from teh community using public criteria that the community has articulated. Criteria has to be public and be debated in public.

Discussing how classrooms are now discussing topics with students, who then edit or create new entry in Wikipedia, they generate their own knowledge. Then the assessment of the community depended on how the Wikipedia community responded. Credentialing: For what purpose? In what context? By who's authority? The instructor is not the assessor.

I argue for: American Higher Education:

open content --> institution-enhanced community-based learning

• real-world open-ended problems
• interdisplinary expertise (faculty + world)
• feedback from public communities
• student work contributes to the world
• stakeholder experiences value of credential

Nils argues that:

• content, learning goals and assessment criteria should be public
• community role verifying/ improving goals and criteria.
• student work and feedback should be public and contribute to the community
• from these, the community will implicitly be able to both credential learning and reform the credential

(asking for feedback at http://bit.ly/9Gr8TB) I took a look and find it hard to assess Nils, even harder to think of different dimensions for feedback. Really interesting way to think about this).

Great -- Nils is asking if someone can summarize the back channel. I was feeling like I was outside that conversation.

Now we're open for questions:

Nils had mentioned that Microsoft will not hire computer scientists from the University of Washington computer science department. Julian Lombardi asked Nils to comment on his concern that Microsoft would become the driver of what computer scientists should learn, for students in an academic institution.

Phillip Schmidt asked several questions, Nils responded: that the community can create its own criteria, that they can actually discuss publicly what it is that should contribute. Nils suggested looking at YouTube for more examples, which, like Wikipedia, provides toeholds for people to start doing institution-based community-based learning.

Excellent question: first-generation learners, minorities -- they may want the respect of higher education learning, with grades, doing things in a way that is widely recognized. How to work with those groups with this approach, when they may want traditional assessment. Nils responded that technical skills, community skills can anchor this.

Nils: Online learning that is closed, put up there for monetization, with closed access to expertise, assessment -- and yet presented as though it is credentialed by a known institution, that's worth being skeptical about.

Cathy Davidson mentioned that the backchannel is talking a lot about reality television -- <laughter>

That's it! Onto David Gibson next...