Learning, Knowledge and Competence in Global Online-Universities: How Terminology shapes Thinking
The first of my two papers that I am allowed to present and discuss at the LTEC in Maribor is a theoretical approach to innovation and change in academic distance education. Or as I learned by one of the reviews: A discussion paper.
And as I now have time to revise it for the camera ready Springer Version, I would like to have a little discussion in forefront of the “final” one :-). Reading the following abstract and keywords: what would your expectation towards the paper and its issues be? And – by the way: It is (too) on the use of terminology – and researching/writing in a foreign language brought me to the question if to use “competence” or “competency” and I decided on competence – what would you use if advocating for a more global and holistic definition as something that can not be counted and measured and is basis for any development in learning-processes?
Abstract. Learning, Knowledge and Competence are popular terms in scientific discourses on the conception and evaluation of academic education. With increasing frequency, those take place in online-settings. This leads to an increasing heterogeneity not only in age and educational background, but also in social-cultural aspects and roles. The traditional way of seeing heterogeneity as challenge to be overcome, has to be changed into recognizing its enormous potential for networked learning processes. To foster such a new learning culture, it is necessary to scrutinize the hidden influence and unconscious patterns behind terminology. To enable global learning communities to successful networked learning, we need to define a holistic key-competence, a tool to enable enhancement in heterogeneous contexts, and a change in methods and criteria to conceptualize and evaluate such learning-scenarios. This paper aims to gain epistemological perspectives for practical use in global online-courses through a fusion of the terms learning, knowledge and competence.
Keywords: Learning, Online-Learning, Knowledge, Competence, Online-University, New Learning Culture, Meta-Communication, Connectivism, Interactionism, Interaction, Learning Networks, Learning Theory, Paradigm Shift, Disruptive Innovation, Heterogeneity