Semester Reflection: Spring 2024
- Radovan Tanáč
- Aug 10
- 5 min read
ISKM06: Learning Society
A very practical course led by an incredibly energetic lecturer who managed to motivate me like no one before. The course was run in a friendly, open atmosphere - not as a traditional lecture where we would just listen, but as an active discussion on topics we had prepared for in advance by writing our own articles on Medium.
We actively engaged, listened, debated, and backed up our arguments with facts we had gathered beforehand. The lecturer also allowed us to vote for the topics that interested us the most or that we wanted to explore in more depth.
The course concluded with a “conference,” where each of us prepared a thorough, comprehensive article (again published on Medium) that served as the basis for our presentation. I focused on the topic: Online Education as a Digital Revolution.
Syllabus of the course:
Two definitions of the notion of learning society, technological change, technology penetration. Trend Analysis and Prediction Prediction (Deloitte, Garners, Google Trends, ..); prediction methodology; futures studies
Adult Education Policy, Accreditation Processes and Institutions, 70:20:10
Open Education and Open Science, MOOC, SOOC, Civil Science, Wikipedia, Wiki Access, Wiki Community, Nonlinear Learning
Connectivism and its critique, PLE, self-directed and self-directed learning, heutagogy, curricula, co-curriculum, portfolio teaching and their critique
Universities in Historical Perspective and Future, École 42, P2PU, OpenUniversity, learning communities, learning companies, P2P learning, mutual learning, learning on social networks, books without books
Changing educational processes, new forms and methods of learning, cyber-learning, kybergetics, cyberlearning vs. e-learning
Changing Society, Information Society, Changing Roles, Philosophical Issues of Learning Society: What is Learning? What do we learn? Lifelong learning, adult learning, different forms of approach
Learning man and AI, AC, neural networks, mental models, creativity, creativity management. Evidence based learning, data of controlled education and its critique (dehumanisation)
edTech and corporations, commercial education, business education, how to establish a school or school facility
edTech in pedagogy, edTech in andragogics
Critical Approach to Edge, Abuse of New Technologies; psychological shifts: attention, memory, multitasking, HCI, HCD and edudesign
SEP, RVP, Teacher Career Regulations, ICT Coordinator, mentor: Elementary and Secondary Education Policy, Competence for the 21st Century, Learning Competence Models, Alternative Educational Trips and Concepts, DIY, Historical Experiments and Contexts, Contemporary Forms of Alternative Education
Technology and Technology Trends Changing Education, EdTech Discourses, Interest Groups, Key Innovators, Pedagogy of Uncertainty, Key Personality Trends, Thinking and Working Out Loud, Designed Digital Tracks
Replacement topic: Digital Sociology and Psychology; Generation X and Y, digital natives, digital nomads, modeling social phenomena, network generation, cognitive dissonance, influencers, patterns, content filtering, self-verification theory, ... Third and Fourth Scientific Revolution, Time Data, Industry 4.0, Education and Science on data and their analysis, analysis limits, BI, data mining, modeling
In case you want to know more and deep in tothe medium posts read my Wrap!
ISKM07: Literature, Culture and Humanities
I’ve never been a big fan of courses from the Literature specialization, but I have to admit this one was actually quite enjoyable. One interesting aspect was that every week, different guest speakers would join us (professionals from the field, teachers, authors, and others) depending on the topic we were covering. Even a priest was there!
As a Slovak studying abroad, I sometimes lacked the basic background knowledge that my Czech classmates built on during discussions. Still, in the end, I managed just fine and even learned quite a bit about Czech history in the context of literature - something I’ll definitely be able to use in the future, especially when applying for permanent residence in the Czech Republic.
For our group project, we could choose any topic we wanted. My team decided to focus on LGBT representation in children’s literature aimed at Czech young readers. We presented its historical background, current state, several examples, and emerging trends in this field.
Syllabus of the Course:
Humanities in the mirror of literature and culture are presented on key phenomena and at the same time form the educational content of the subject:
1.-2. Literature, culture and Czech tradition;
3.-4. Literature and children's aspect;
5.-6. Literature, culture and philosophy;
7.-8. Literature, culture and history;
9.-10. Literature, culture and sociology;
11.-12. Literature, culture and religion;
Final reflection
ISKM09: Librarian English
This course took a rather unconventional approach - instead of attending two hours of classes every week for the whole semester, we had a full-day intensive workshop. Not only was it conducted entirely in English, but all the group projects we worked on were also done in English.
We tackled topics related to reading and information literacy, AI-driven photo manipulation (this was really hard to guess), and explored both the problems and possible solutions in these areas. At the end of the course, we completed a fairly extensive feedback survey.
It was a big fun experience from start to finish!
Syllabus of the Course:
Full-day workshop May 17th 2024
Follow-up questionnaire
ISKM10: Information Behavior
To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to this course at first, as it was delivered in a rather unengaging way - mostly theoretical lectures from the front of the class. But once we got to the core of the course (exploring different concepts, models, and paradoxes in information behavior) it started to capture my interest.
I was particularly drawn to the UX (user experience) topic, and I even chose it as the focus for my seminar work. Based on the theory I gathered here, I later wrote my diploma thesis, so this course turned out to be very practical for me. I also published another Medium article on the topic: User Experience (UX) – An Introduction to the Concept.
It was fascinating to get a comprehensive overview of all the various concepts we encounter in everyday life, often without even realizing it or knowing the right terms for them.
Syllabus of the Course:
Information Behavior and Information Interaction: Basic concepts and contexts
Perspectives, paradigms
Theory of Information Behavior
Models and modeling of information behavior
Information retrieval
Methods of information behavior research
Research of information behavior in specific contexts
Information behavior and AI
Rest of the Courses:
ISKM08, ISKM18, ISKM72, KPI22, CORE047
The rest of the courses included the Diploma Thesis Seminar II: Structure of the Project, which was mainly about writing the thesis, nothing particularly exciting to share there.
Practice and Internships were more interesting, giving me deeper insight into marketing and leading an NGO organization.
The course Basics of Algorithmic Thinking was quite easy for me since I had already taken programming courses at FI MUNI, such as Python and Java. However, for complete beginners, it was definitely helpful (more about Scratch here).
An online course, Creative Work with Information, was open to anyone, even outside of KISK, and was genuinely interesting → link here.
Last but not least, one of the “core” courses, Basics of Successful Business, served both as a source of free credits and as a chance to actually learn something valuable. It was great to understand how to start a business (perhaps somewhat similar to KISK’s own course “From UČO to IČO”).
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