Online self-organizing social systems – The decentralized future of online learning

Read

In looking to the future of online learning we have suggested that existing approaches to overcoming online learning’s key obstacle – teacher bandwidth – have critical weaknesses that will limit their success. Online self-organizing social systems, while not without their own weaknesses, exhibit strengths unseen in existing methods of learning facilitation. The OSOSS is thick with principles found in modern instructional design theories, yet creatively overcomes weaknesses in the very latest instructional technology fads. The OSOSS may also open previously unexplored areas of large-scale instructional design research, and provide fruitful linkages between instructional design research and that of other fields such as biomathematics, artificial intelligence, and complexity theory. As interest in problem-based learning and online PBL environments increases, we believe that the OSOSS – or something like it – will play a significant role in the future of online learning, because the OSOSS is so well suited to facilitating and mediating problem-solving and problem-based learning.

Sophia – Free Social Teaching and Learning Network focused solely on education

Read

Sophia enables innovation by connecting learners, teachers, experts
and parents. We provide an academic community where everyone has access to learning that surrounds and supports the traditional classroom. We encourage variety and creativity in teaching so that everyone can learn in a way that makes sense to them. Sophia is a social teaching and learning platform that taps the teacher in all of us and enhances the learning process by providing access to a wealth of knowledge, help, instruction, standards-aligned content, and expertise available to learners everywhere. We want to harness technology for the betterment of the educational system as a whole. We can all help others learn. And Sophia’s mission is to be a catalyst in this educational movement.