从联通主义到MOOCs:联结知识,共享资源——访国际知名教育学者斯蒂芬•唐斯

From Connectivism to MOOCs: Connecting Knowledge & Sharing Resources——An Interview with Stephen Downes

网络为教育带来了颠覆性的革命,也对学习提出了新问题:当知识获取途径变得多样化且便捷时,如何整合全球的知识源形成意义建构的学习模式,是当前教育工作者无法回避的命题。本期高阶访谈有幸邀请到联通主义(Connectivism)和大规模开放在线课程(Massive Open Online Courses,简称MOOCs) 的发起人之一斯蒂芬•唐斯(Stephen Downes)教授为我们畅谈他的开放教育研究理念与实践经验,并对如何在数字化时代进行有效学习提出解决思路。斯蒂芬作为在线学习领域的先驱,倡导在开放教育资源运动下构建学习网络(Learning Networks),即通过建立知识结点间的网络联结,帮助学习者获得知识、发展能力。他的这一理念贯穿于最初的联通主义和MOOCs 中,在世界范围内广泛传播。
斯蒂芬•唐斯就职于加拿大国家研究委员会的信息技术部门,专长研究在线学习、新媒体、教学法与哲学,与乔治•西蒙斯(George Siemens)一起创建了MOOCs。他最广为人知的应属他创建了每日新闻站——OLDaily 这一通过网络、邮件及RSS 向全球订阅者发布前沿信息与技术的站点。斯蒂芬•唐斯同时也是学习对象和元数据领域的领先研究者,最早在教育领域采用与发展RSS 内容聚合技术,并由此引出了e-Learning 2. 0 概念。斯蒂芬还是多家(在线)专业媒体的编辑与顾问。

The network era witnesses the disruptive revolutions in the education mode, where learners face the new challenges such as how can they deal with the open learning environments to actively develop learning competences instead of waiting for the teachers to bring knowledge forward. That is how people integrated the knowledge sources of globalization together to form a sense-making learning in the explosive growth of information and fragmented knowledge. In this interview, we are very pleased to have the originator of Connectivism and the Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs)—Stephen Downes to share with us his viewpoint on open learning, and propose the approachto learn effectively in the digital age. As a pioneer in the field of online learning, Stephen advocated that through establishing a network connection between nodes of knowledge under open educational resource movement, people can construct the learning network to acquire knowledge and develop competences effectively. This idea is widespread in the world from Connectivism to the MOOCs.
Stephen Downes works for the National Research Council of Canada where he has served as a Senior Researcher. He specializes in the fields of online learning, new media, pedagogy and philosophy, and is perhaps best known for his daily newsletter, OLDaily, which is distributed by web, email and RSS to thousands of subscribers around the world. Stephen, known as the originator of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs) with George Siemens, is also a pioneer in the domain of Learning object and Metadata, and the first adopters and developers of RSS content syndication in education, which leads to the concept of e-learning 2. 0. As an editor and consultant of a number of (online) professional media, he often presented the reports and lectures about the field of online learning, and published hundreds of articles both online and in print about learning networks and related technologies.