Network training

Network learning is based on the ideas of “horizontal” (or “decentralized”) learning activities and peer learning (that is, teaching and learning using the equal-to-equal model). Unlike traditional didactics and andragogy, one of the fundamental principles of which is the presence of a teacher or facilitator, whose entire functional repertoire is focused on creating a learning context, as well as optimal conditions for learning and self-study, mutual learning focuses on the transfer of these functions to the learning community . So, for example, the task of facilitation is distributed among the participants of the educational process or is “embedded” in the training and teaching materials created by joint efforts. In other words, participants in mutual learning mediated by information and communication technologies carry out “continuous joint production of a common learning environment” and “creating a learning context necessary and sufficient for their self-education” ^[1] .

In the West, this approach is considered as a promising area of ​​theoretical and practical developments that can change the approaches to learning, especially in higher professional education and in the corporate sector. In this case, we are talking about “managed” communication through the use of methods (including those based on network technologies) that require active independent work and interaction of students. An example of such an approach is the method of “teaching students” (“Peer Instruction”) used in the study of physics, used by Eric Mazur and his colleagues. The technique involves the involvement of students in active work on the study of concepts and theories, followed by their explanation to their peers ^[2] .

Approaches and principles of network education can also be implemented in an informal educational environment where people create and maintain a learning network for their own interests, for situational learning “at work”, or for research purposes. .

Definition of the term

To date, there is no well-established definition of network education.

Specialists at the Center for Information and Innovation at the Open University Business School (UK) consider it decisive that “learning is built around learning communities and interaction, expanding access beyond time and space, and contributing to increased efficiency” ^[3] .

Specialists of the Center for the Study of Modern Educational Technologies (Center for Studies in Advanced Learning Technology, CSALT), a research group of the University of Lancaster (United Kingdom), associated with the organization of a series of conferences on network education ( Networked Learning Conference ), define network learning as "learning in which Information and communication technologies are used to facilitate communication: between students, between students and teachers (tutors), between the learning community and its learning resources, which allows learners to they want to deepen their knowledge and expand opportunities that they consider important and that they can independently control ” ^[4] .

There is also the term, collaborative networked learning, implying the joint learning activities of autonomous participants (self-directed) through electronic dialogue ^[5] .

Thus, network education is based on the recognition of the potential and capabilities of computer technology and joint (collective, group) training. A number of researchers believe that it is decisive in network education that information and communication technologies mediate not just the interaction of students, but their work in the mode of the learning community in the joint creation of learning resources, sharing the areas of responsibility ^[6] .

Network and collaborative learning

This raises the question of how the network and joint (collaborative) training correlate. There is no clear distinction between these types of studies.

Often, collaborative learning (collaborative learning) is used as a general term to denote different approaches in education, which provide for joint intellectual efforts of students and teachers, when groups of students work together to find understanding, meanings, solve problems, create artifacts or their learning products ^{[7 ]} . Such a process assumes that people work in groups on a common task or a problem, to the solution of which they make a common (equal) contribution. Thus, it is understood that participants have a common level of training, skills and competencies, clear shared goals and coordinate their joint work. For joint learning, the joint formulation (definition) of learning objectives, joint training planning (content and timing arrangements), the exchange of information, its discussion and joint decision making are decisive. In a co-educational setting, students can criticize each other’s views and opinions as well as third-party points of view. They can turn to each other for clarification, criticism, and thus stimulate themselves and others to make intellectual efforts. In addition, they can motivate and help each other in bringing work to completion ^[8] .

Cooperative learning is based on a number of important principles and ideas about students and the learning process ^[7] :

1. Learning is an active, constructive process. This implies not only active and purposeful work with new information, ideas or skills for their development. New “content” should be integrated (included) into what students already know or use (see the personalized learning network: why we return to the old methods of work). In the course of joint training, students should not just learn new information or skills. They have to create something new, using the resulting "content". These acts of intellectual work — building knowledge or creating new things are crucial to learning.
2. Learning is determined by context. Studies show that the effectiveness and success of training is largely determined by the context or activity in which the results of the activity will be included. Therefore, the basic principle of collaborative learning is to immerse students in complex tasks and questions: learning must begin not with facts and ideas, but with problems to which the students themselves must select facts and ideas. Students should become observers from observers and develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
3. Students do not resemble each other, have different points of view and learning and thinking styles, have different experiences and aspirations. Therefore, teachers should not adhere to the same standards in the approach to students. Only working together allows students to bring all this diversity of ideas and experience and share them with others.
4. Learning is inherently social. Cooperative learning should be structured in such a way as to allow students to interact and engage in dialogue, during which learning takes place.

The concept of peer learning based on the peer-to-peer model is by no means new. Despite the fact that such principles have not yet become decisive in the modern culture of education, these ideas are quite deeply thoughtful in pedagogical thought, and some of them are put into practice.

Correspondent network and educational facilities in Celestine Freinet's pedagogy

At the core of the educational practice of the French teacher Celestin Freinet was the idea of ​​expanding the horizons of student interaction. His theory of labor education implied the substitution of “individual labor” under the supervision of cooperation, which implies “uniting efforts, distribution of tasks, favorable conditions for cooperation, high quality of tools, ... interest of the whole group in the final result” ^[9] .

The cooperation was based on a number of principles of the organization of the educational process:

• No training, problem solving, analysis, expertise.
• No training tasks, there are constantly asked questions.
• No ratings, but personal offers are different.
• No mistakes - there are misunderstandings.
• No curriculum, individual and group planning
• There is no teacher, but there is a teacher organizing a common cause.
• The teacher does not educate, and solves common problems
• There is no class, there is a community.
• Community rules govern the hostel, adopted by students themselves

In order for the implementation of the idea of ​​cooperation to become possible, students should be able to interact, and for this, the circle of students should be as wide as possible. To solve this problem a school correspondent network was created. Students conducted personal correspondence with students from other schools, exchanging information, pictures, toys, photographs. In addition, correspondent schools exchanged school newspapers and pupils' own learning tools (“study cards”, containing educational material or study assignments, “free texts”, essays on a subject of concern to the student), as well as questions on certain topics that could reply correspondents. All this work was seen as a way to create a “live communication” context in which a student can, through trial and error, develop his own language to communicate with other people ^[10] .

Instrumental pedagogy of John Dewey

John Dewey, in his constructions, proceeded from the fact that socialization and learning mechanisms are inherent in any community. Determining for the community, he considered a close relationship that can be maintained even between people separated by a huge distance. “Even working together to achieve a common goal, people do not necessarily constitute a social group ... Now, if they were aware of a common goal and were so interested in it, that they would coordinate their specific actions for this purpose, then, yes, they would form a community. But for this we need to communicate. Everyone should know what others are doing and be able to constantly keep them abreast of their intentions and achievements ” ^[11] .

Thus, the determining factor is not only joint activities, but also interaction (communication, communication, dialogue) about this common cause. Moreover, each community has a certain culture and has its own mechanisms of socialization, ensuring the sustainability of the community. Thanks to these two elements, there are communities whose members have almost no direct contact with each other: artists, the literary and academic world. These people are scattered around the world, but each of them belongs to a certain community, because it has common goals and in its activity is guided by what has been created by other members.

This “educational environment” of communities has a certain value. Dewey himself relates it to the value of society as a whole, but he also speaks of value to community members, since this environment "develops mental and emotional attitudes of behavior among individuals by engaging them in activities that generate and reinforce certain motivations." “One or another participation in the life of those with whom a person is associated is inevitable, therefore the social environment necessarily exercises its educational or folding influence, it does so unconsciously and regardless of any particular goals.” In this regard, it is of particular importance how the environment can affect a person, and therefore, the value is determined by two factors: “how numerous and diverse are the interests consciously shared by members of this group, and how complete is the freedom of interaction of the group with other types of public associations” They are interrelated: the degree of diversity of interests directly proportional to the intensity of interaction with other communities, and hence the orientation of the community to "reorganization and development through broader relationships" ^[12] .

These thoughts are closely related to Dewey's other main idea, that knowledge is created in the process of acquiring and understanding experience. Consequently, the main goal of educational and educational activities in general is “permanent reorganization and restructuring of experience, which leads to“ an increase in the ability to choose the direction for finding new experience and the ability to manage it ” ^[13] .

The ideas of instrumentalism influenced constructivism, the theory of learning activities, based on the fact that learning is an active process in which people actively construct knowledge based on their own experience. When a person comes across something new, he must relate the new to his previous experience and existing knowledge, which may eventually be changed, or the new information will be discarded as irrelevant. Constructivism focuses on the leadership role of the teacher, not as a source of knowledge that should be remembered and reproduced by students. Its main function is to help students independently build knowledge, providing them with all the necessary tools: problem situations based on research, training activities in which students formulate and test their ideas, draw conclusions and conclusions, summarize and transfer their knowledge in the process collaboration ^[14] .

Relationship to construction ideas

The provisions of constructivism about learning as an active process of restructuring the experience were supplemented and developed in the approach of Seymour Papert , known as constructionism. Seymour Papert spoke about the importance of creating a learning environment in communities in which newcomers become meaningful participants in joint activities or get the opportunity to create something important for themselves or their associates. Under these conditions, students create new knowledge especially effectively.

This environment is important because in it a person masters a language in which community members discuss not only and not so much the results of activities, but rather about the process of creating these results. In the process of discussing the mistakes and difficulties of the students, "the ability to allocate and focus on the language tools they use is developed in order to more precisely express what type of help they need." This ability is an important component of community learning, since “when a request for help can be accurately expressed, the facilitator does not need professional training in order to provide it”. As a result, possession of such a language creates a special culture within the group of students, which “not only enriches and facilitates the interaction between all the participants in the training, but also opens up opportunities for more expressive, effective and honest relations between the students and the students. This culture introduces us to a situation in which the line between students and teachers is blurred. ” ^[15]

Thus, in the methodical development of Papert the emphasis is shifted to the search for objects (model products), the work on which allows students to test personal “hypotheses” in practice, carrying out constructive actions and interpreting them.

The idea of ​​communities in which participants share their performance and discuss them is key to constructionism.

Learning Web by Ivan Illich

The ideas of abandoning the dictates of certified teachers and rigid institutional structures were at the heart of Ivan Illich ’s educational network. In the “educational web”, Illich saw the embodiment of an ideal educational system that: (1) provides everyone with access to available resources at any time and regardless of their age; (2) supports the efforts of all who want to share their knowledge and skills in the search for those who want to learn from them; (3) provides everyone with the opportunity to publish, submit to the public the results of their studies.

“Everyone who wants to learn knows that he needs information and a critical response to it. Информация может быть получена от предметов и от людей. В хорошей образовательной системе доступ к предметам возможен по личной заявке ученика, а доступ к тем, кто владеет информацией, требует и их согласия. Критика также может поступать по двум каналам: от ровесников и от старших, то есть от разделяющих мой интерес и от тех, кто готов поделиться со мной своим опытом. Сверстники могут быть коллегами, перед которыми встал тот же вопрос, компаньонами по играм и развлечениям (или по трудностям), готовыми и к прогулкам, и к любым играм. Старшие могут посоветовать, какой метод когда использовать, какую компанию для какого дела искать. Они могут помочь поставить правильный вопрос или прийти на помощь, если не находится ответ» ^[16] .

Под «паутиной возможностей» Иллич понимал «сетчатую структуру взаимного доступа» к каждому из четырех «различных каналов учения или полей обмена знаниями». Этим каналами являются:

1. Служба рекомендации образовательных объектов, которая облегчает доступ к предметам или процессам, используемым для формального учения. Этими образовательными объектами могут быть носители данных и информации, оборудование и техника, посредством которых может происходить обучение. Важной задачей при создании учебной сети Иллич считает именно расширение доступа к такого рода образовательным ресурсам, которые должны стать «подлинной общественной собственностью» именно в целях расширения возможностей обучения.

2. Служба обмена навыками, которая позволяет людям перечислить имеющиеся у них навыки, условия, на которых они согласны служить моделью для тех, кто хочет этим навыкам научиться, и адрес, по которому их можно найти. Для её функционирования необходимы институты, обеспечивающих свободное и недорогое использование информации и справочной службы, осуществляющих тестирования и сертификацию, помогающих созданию законодательства и защите от монополистической практики.

«Образец навыка» — это человек, который обладает навыком и готов продемонстрировать его на практике. При этом сертификация выступает вовсе как не обязательное требование, поскольку учащиеся с высокой мотивацией, часто не нуждается ни в какой помощи, «кроме показа того, чему он хочет научиться». Диагностика трудностей в учении также должна быть делом самих учащихся. Преграду на пути развития «рынка» навыков как раз и возводит требование сертификации носителей навыков. Подобного рода дефицит создаётся и множеством корыстных интересов, в том числе и самих носителей навыков. Поэтому для них должны быть созданы побудительные мотивы. Иллич видит следующий путь преодоления этих затруднений: — Создания свободных и открытых центров навыков, в которых будет доступно приобретение «фундаментальных» навыков, то есть тех, которые составляют основу для овладения ремеслом («чтение, печатание, счетоводство, иностранные языки, программирование на компьютере и численные вычисления, специальные навыки, такие, как язык электрических цепей, работа на определенных машинах и т. д.»). — Введение образовательной валюты, пригодной для посещения центров приобретения навыков. Минимальный базовый кредит на получение «фундаментальных» навыков может быть дополнен теми, кто зарабатывает распространением навыков. («Только те, кто передавал навык другим, будут иметь право быть более продвинутыми учителями. Так будет создаваться новая элита, элита тех, кто зарабатывает своё образование, делясь им с другими»).

3. Служба подбора партнеров — коммуникационная сеть, которая позволяет людям описать учебную деятельность, в которой они хотят участвовать, и найти партнера для совместного исследования. Эта служба должна функционировать подобно клубам, сводя вместе людей имеющих общие интересы и возможности, стремящихся вместе упражняться и улучшать имеющиеся навыки.

В традиционной образовательной системе человека также окружают партнёры-сверстники, которые иногда помогают друг другу овладевать основами определённой предметной области. «Группа сверстников всегда формируется вокруг цели учителя. Однако хорошая образовательная система должна позволять каждому человеку самому определять вид деятельности, для которой он ищет партнера». Такой выход за пределы мест проживания и учебных заведений потребует от учащихся особого типа грамотности: умения искать, встречать и оценивать «новых партнеров для новых усилий».

4. Служба рекомендации преподавателей, которые могут быть перечислены в справочнике, дающем адреса и резюме профессионалов с высшим образованием, профессионалов без высшего образования и «свободных художников» вместе с условиями доступа к их услугам. По мнению, Иллича с увеличением автономности учащихся побудит их искать «независимых» наставников, основная задача которых «поддержать новичка в его образовательном предприятии».

An important role will be played by “network administrators” who “will focus primarily on creating and maintaining access paths to resources” on creating (designing) educational networks. Another important function will be performed by “pedagogical advisers”, specialists in the field of efficient operation of these networks, helping “students to find ways in which they will most quickly achieve their goals”: ​​help in setting new goals, choosing the most appropriate methods, textbooks, time for classes.

Connectivity

Connectivism (eng. Connectivism ) is a relatively young theory that considers the essential characteristics and specifics of the learning process in the digital age. The foundations of the theory developed by George Siemens (Canada).

J. Siemens proceeds from the fact that the exponential growth of knowledge requires non-linear models for learning (process) and knowledge (state). Expanding access to knowledge in the age of networking requires a revision of how we learn, learn, and come to knowledge. For connectivism, several basic views on the process of teaching and learning are characteristic, in contrast to traditional ideas:

• Learning is a process that takes place in an uncertain, hazy and changing environment in which fundamental elements constantly shift. Therefore, the teaching itself is unstable and dynamic. This process cannot be completely controlled by the individual.
• Knowledge is not stored in the head of an individual and cannot be transferred there via transmission channels (translated). Knowledge is online, and the key skill required for cognitive activity in the modern world is the ability to see connections, recognize patterns, and see the meanings between areas of knowledge, concepts, and ideas.
• Cognition is the process of “binding specialized nodes, sources of information,” that is, the process of becoming a network that can be maintained from the outside. This integration of information nodes allows us to rise to a higher level of understanding ^[17] .

J. Siemens also formulated a number of principles of connectivism:

• Training has an ultimate goal - (precisely) the empowerment of “doing something”. Such an increase in competence may be in a practical sense (that is, to develop the skill of using new software or learn how to skate), or in the ability to function more effectively in an era of knowledge (self-awareness, personal information management, etc.). The most important thing in learning is not only the acquisition of new skills and understanding of something; Motivation (or start-up) is another necessary element. The principles of motivation and quick decision-making often determine whether a student will actually act in accordance with known attitudes.
• Learning is the process of connecting links of specialized sites or sources of information. The student can significantly improve the effectiveness of their learning by incorporating into existing networks.
• Learning (in the sense that something becomes known, but not necessarily recognized by the knowledge carrier) can be outside the person — in communities, networks, or databases.
• The ability to learn something new is more important than the knowledge that we currently have. Knowing where to look for information is more important than knowing the information itself.
• Establishing and maintaining connections is necessary to facilitate the learning process. Making connections provides more bang for your buck than just trying to understand a certain concept taken separately.
• Learning and knowledge comes from a variety of opinions.
• Training takes place in different ways. Courses, e-mail, communities, correspondence, online searches, e-mailing, reading blogs, etc. Courses are not the primary means of learning.
• Different approaches and personal skills are needed for effective learning in modern society. For example, the ability to see the connections between areas of knowledge, ideas and concepts is one of the basic skills.
• Organized (institutional) and self-directed learning are complex tasks. Personal knowledge consists of a network that is included in organizations and institutions, which, in turn, are included back into the first and carry out the training of the individual. Connectivity tries to provide insights into how individuals and organizations learn.
• To be “in the subject” all the time (that is, to have the most up-to-date knowledge) is the task of all connectivist learning.
• Decision making itself is a learning process. The choice of what to learn and the meaning of the incoming information is perceived through the prism of a changing reality. While the answer is right now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to changes in the information climate affecting our decisions.
• Learning is the process of creating knowledge ... and not just their consumption. Training tools and design methodologies should strive to benefit from this particular training ^[18] .