Group items tagged

Nice resource that analyzes the purpose of online communities--see excerpt below distinguishing between outcome- and process-oriented groups. The SLI could be a process-oriented purpose for students; more outcome-oriented for teachers? Excerpt: What are the group's specific outcomes or process goals? Please describe them. (i.e. an outcome oriented group may be compiling a set of useful practices for use in the field. A process oriented group may be about building relationships that can then be deployed in the field, such as a group of emergency relief workers, building relationships before disasters so they can better respond and relate in the field.) This isn't a ChangeMOOC find but that is the group-container for us three (Lisa, Brenda, Doris)

Description of a course offered by the Hague University of Applied Sciences, Fall 2012. Nancy White is one of the faculty. "The intersection of technology and social processes has changed what it means to "be together." No longer confined to an engineering team, a company, a market segment or country, we have the opportunity to tap into different groups of people using online tools and processes. While we initially recognized this as "online communities," the ubiquity and diversity of technology and access has widened our possibilities. When we want to "organize our passion" into something, we have interesting choices. It is time to think about a more diverse ecosystem of interaction possibilities which embrace things such as different group configurations, online + offline, short and long term interactions, etc. In this course we will consider the range of options that can be utilized in the design, testing, marketing and use of engineering products. In this course, we'll also begin to pay attention to "The Four i's of Innovation." You'll be learning a lot about these in the coming courses, but consider this a preview. The first i is the itch; "a hunch" that there is something going on. This inclination can indicate the sublime starting point for change or an innovation The second i is insight; the research framework to base the fundamentals of the innovation on The i for idea; the experimenting towards potential solutions ("what if"- approach) The final i is for impact; the realization of the changes and innovations."

Blog by John Sui Fai Mak on #Change 11 where he refers to an article by Zimmerman. I believe this excerpt is important for eCH schools teaching their students because of the increasing reliance on online classes. Excerpt: "Traditional teaching methodology designed to educate through the assumptions of the past is no longer viable for more recent generations. The development of learning strategies, time management, goal setting, self-evaluation, self efficacy and intrinsic beliefs are key processes in promoting more self-regulated individuals who are capable of succeeding in the school context and in life (Zimmerman, 2002). Self regulatory processes as part of strategic learning that fosters reflection are teachable and are regarded as responsible for the increase of students' level of motivational performance (Zimmerman, 2002)."

Article from Metropolis Magazine, October 2008 on Asset-based Design See excerpt: "In contrast, an asset-based approach works with communities to identify their skills and capacities, and invites them to play an active role in the renewal of their environment. "This approach says that all communities have assets. The needs-based provision of services really only addresses the symptoms of the issues without doing any deeper social analysis to uncover the root problems. If joblessness is linked to a lack of educational activities, well, then that is the root issue. We're not saying designers can come in and fix all of those problems; we are saying that designers themselves have a particular asset to contribute, which is their professional expertise at creating beautiful spaces and using design to involve the community in discovering and expressing who they are." How to practice design that builds on a community's strengths and priorities: 1. Identify your community partner. Target a specific organization to partner with, whether it's a design center, a development corporation, a block association, or a nonprofit. By honoring the community building that has already taken place, you will also attract less suspicion as a new face. Begin a dialogue to find a design project. 2. Immerse yourself in the life of the community. Spend time or consider living there. Find out where people like to eat and hang out, what kind of meetings they go to, and what places have a lot of energy-perhaps an arts or a recreation center. Find out what the kids are excited about. Connect with community leaders. Go door-to-door if necessary. 3. Conduct a social analysis. Who has power? What are the challenges facing the community? What are its demographics? What are its core values? Who makes the decisions, and who benefits from or bears the costs of them? It helps to understand how the neighborhood came into being, its history, and the larger town or region in which it is situated. Map ex

Howard Rheingold interviews George Siemens on MOOCs, May 2011, 21 minutes long video Youtube based, Week 1, September 12, 2011 EXCERPTS that intrigue me: At 2.12 into interview: "We encouraged people to create their own spaces. Our assumption was that educational institutions need to stop providing spaces for learners to interact, and allow learners to bring their spaces with them which means they have an archive. So people were setting up spaces in Second Life. We had the course syllabus translated into 5 languages, we had 2,300 people signed up to join. We let people do basically what they wanted." At 3:22 -"We wrap the social elements around the content. That's how traditional education is done. Here is your text, here is your readings, now talk about it. Our assumption was partly that we wanted the social interactions to actually produce the content which doesn't mean that we wanted to run through open meadows learning randomly. We still started off each week with readings, literature that we wanted them to engage in, videos, we wanted to keep everything open. We did have a closed journal but those were optional." 4:11 "The content isn't what you are supposed to master at the starting point. The content we provide you with at the start is the catalyst to converse, to form connections with other learners in the course, with other academics around the world, to use the content as a conduit for connections. Because once the course ends, the learning experience typically in a university setting typically stops. It's done. And even if you are really passionate about it, the university severs those connections on your behalf. But with the internet, those connections exist well past the course." But if your colleagues are blogging ... or are active on the internet, it's easy to stay connected. 6:05 HR question: In regard to Moodle are you using a Discussion Board or chat board, what parts of Moodle are you using? 6:12 "We are continuing to experime

Very interesting process map on how to argue with research results, Grant Wiggins' blog

Stephen Downes' blog Excerpt: "The process perspective asks whether the MOOC satisfied the criteria for successful networks. Of these, the most important are contained in what I call the Semantic Condition, which ensures that the MOOC remains a living system. The semantic condition contains four parts: autonomy, diversity, openness, and interactivity. The MOOC is assessed against each of these and a degree of compliance may be found."

A description of The Extended Mind by Richard Menary, editor. This excerpt below captures the debate: The environment has an active role in driving cognition; cognition is sometimes made up of neural, bodily, and environmental processes. Their argument excited a vigorous debate among philosophers, both supporters and detractors. This volume brings together for the first time the best responses to Clark and Chalmers's bold proposal. These responses, together with the original paper by Clark and Chalmers, offer a valuable overview of the latest research on the extended mind thesis."" I found this mention of the Extended Mind from a PBS Next Avenue blog post on 8 ways to make yourself smarter. To me, it suggests that if we place ourselves in learning situations such as networks or MOOCs, we will increase our cognition AND through the mix of intellectual connections/people we know there, we extend our minds considerably.

Dave Snowden's website Cognitive Edge; explanation of ritual dissent to increase diversity of views and idea enhancement Justification in explanation: "Overall plans that emerge from the process are more resilient than consensus based techniques."

Article by Scott Gillum at Forbes, 1/6/12. Excerpt: "The next-generation tools, like Curata (a HiveFire company) and Curation Station, are focused on B-to-B marketing with a value proposition focused on their ability to drive awareness by improving organic search, and provide organizations with an opportunity to build thought leadership. The key to this evolution is being the "curator." The curator is an editor who sorts through the content to find the information relevant to a company and/or its audience. Curators are not content creators. And this is where I think the challenge lies in using these tools for thought leadership. Creating a content farm on a "hot" topic will not improve organic search (Google has already figured this out) or establish thought leadership in that space. In the survey, marketers stated that "creating original content" was the number one challenge. Companies have to have a point of view and not just aggregated content on the subject. That said, tools can play an important role in the development of thought leadership content but not on their own. For example, the process I used in the past for developing content involved five steps: Decide on an issues set. Develop a point of view. Conduct research to validate the POV. Summarize the research and draw out insight. Write and publish a content piece."

Slide show by Harold Jarch on PKM--personal knowledge management--uses systems theory to show how we learn on mega (society), macro (organization), and micro (person) levels. (February 2010) It seems to me that a large part of a MOOC's value is forcing people to build a personal knowledge management process. They might have been able to ignore such a need before enrolling in a MOOC but cannot manage the avalanche of material otherwise. Not only do they need to become better organized in their seeking (this is where the MOOC departs from the day to day personal/professional learning sequence since it aggregates the begining content for them and continues to aggregate the work of MOOC participants), they then need to make sense of it (here again the social filtering and assessment are very helpful), and share their findings/unique perspective. As feedback is received, it motivates the first learner to keep trying to go forward. We all need an alliance of informed and thoughtful folks to keep up with the speed of change. The tools developed in the course of the MOOC can then be the core of PKM. This slide show also makes me realize that ALL online learning communities require some type of PKM and if one doesn't have a regular method for pulling information in and pushing tentative or firm opinions/conclusions out, full value cannot be realized.

Learnlets is Clark Quinn's blog. This is what he wrote on January 26 about Sharing Failure. The closing paragraphs are the most interesting to me. Excerpt: "Now, just getting people sharing isn't necessarily sufficient. Just yesterday (as I write), Jane Bozarth pointed me towards an article in the New Yorker (at least the abstract thereof) that argues why brainstorming doesn't work. I've said many times that the old adage "the room is smarter than the smartest person in the room" needs a caveat: if you manage the process right. There are empirical results that guide what works from what doesn't, such as: having everyone think on their own first; then share; focus initially on divergence before convergence; make a culture where it's safe, even encouraged, to have a diversity of viewpoints; etc. No one says getting a collaborating community is easy, but like anything else, there are ways to do it, and do it right. And here too, you can learn from the mistakes of others…"

Very interesting qualitative analysis framework offered by Patrick J. Tierney, Brock University, Canada, in December 2012 issues of IRRODL. I did not get through the entire article to say that I fully comprehend it but the coding method described seemed to resemble the three stages we have gone through as qualitative analysts of dialogue in CPSquare.