Group items tagged

impossible to follow every discussion

gravitational fields that people follow, and where they group together

fluidity of people between nodes

fixed points of stimulating weekly keynote presentations

strategy to manage my approach of accessing the knowledge spread across the course.

How knowledge is “grown” as individuals interact with others

How individual learners develop their conceptual understanding of a topic

How teams solve complex problems

tools and activities that are most effective

How individual learners “eliminate” unneeded or irrelevant ideas and concepts

explore various methods for analyzing data

tools that aid that analysis.

Reflections on Open Courses: Curation, Ombuds, and Concierges

focus in LAK11 is to explore how we can better use data

methods for analyzing data produced by learners and numerous tools that aid that analysis

Google’s search algorithm has been ruined argues

What’s the solution? Well, a return to curation, of course.

What does this have to do with LAK11?

over the last five years, social networks and social media have taken over the web

We trust people we like, people with whom we feel a connection

All social interactions are information. Many information interactions are social.

urators – they present their views and spin existing stories within the framework of their beliefs

“temporary centres”.

problem of how to create temporary centres

ome commentary or facilitator posts

LAK11, we’ve taken a different approach. We’ve retained similar course design elements to previous open online courses (OOCs – I’m starting to think that M=Massive part of MOOCs is misleading or even off-putting

What we gain in our decision to run this course on various sites, using more or less accessible tools, is the demonstration that anyone with an interesting topic/idea and a willingness to experiment can open up a course for a broader audience.

What we lose – and I’m still uneasy about this trade off – is the integrated archive of activity in the course.

Complexity cannot be understood solely through algorithms

data mining, visualization

human aspect of data, sensemaking, curation, and trust

What is new with constructivism today is that these principles are being (have been) coupled with existing calls for educational reform

calls for increased learner control

From whence does connectivism originate?

1. Tools augment our ability to interact with each other and to act.

“carriers of patterns of previous reasoning”

all technology carries an ideology.

2. Contextual/situated nature of learning.

3. Social learning theory

4. Epistemological views: all learning theory is rooted in epistemology

5. Concept of mind.

6. We also find a compatible view of connectivism in the work of new media theorists such as McLuhan

7. We also find support for connectivism in the more nebulous theories of complextiy and systems-based thinking

8. Network theory

The Unique Ideas in Connectivism

1. Connectivism is the application of network principles to define both knowledge and the process of learning.

2. Connectivism addresses the principles of learning at numerous levels – biological/neural, conceptual, and social/external

3. Connectivism focuses on the inclusion of technology as part of our distribution of cognition and knowledge.

4. Context. While other theories pay partial attention to context, connectivism recognizes the fluid nature of knowledge and connections based on context

5. Understanding. Coherence. Sensemaking. Meaning.

Notes on some of the other resources

This one... a gonzo style interview with a dude who’s been in the industry

“more is different” it’s a classic. it says that… uh… more is different. Is short and approachable.

http://www.dataists.com/2010/09/the-data-science-venn-diagram/ A beginners guide to figuring out what the charts might mean

This week’s presentation – Ryan S.J.d Baker

a sense of what they actually do with the testing

This week’s activity SNAPP is uh… kind of a snap.

learners are a diverse group

uniformity of university program tracks masks the differences of learners.

In an open course, participants aren’t filtered in the same way.

Higher education generally homogenizes learners through pre-requisites or subject streams (programs).

we begin to connect with those who respond favorably, we gravitate toward those who we find interesting (but not so interesting that we feel no connection),

One of the primary ways of connecting with others in an open course is through creating and sharing artifacts of sensemaking.

When our learning is transparent, we become teachers.

Essentially, we form small sub-networks that connect (lattice-like) to other sub-networks

Our emotions are fundamental to our ability to be effective, and there’s unanimous consent that our jobs are stressful.

As I explored this concept, what seemed critical was the notion that emotional resilience can be developed

They persevere and believe that they are in control of their lives, and they are optimistic and believe in their own strength.

1. Have personal values that guide their decision-making.

Resilient teachers:

If I was the education czar, I would mandate that everyone working in schools have one component of their professional development—and a certain number of hours per year and minutes per meeting—allocated to developing emotional resiliency. If we really are going to transform our system, we need to start by attending to people’s emotional experiences and well-being.

2. Place a high value on professional development and actively seek it out.

3. Mentor others.

4. Take charge and solve problems.

5. Stay focused on children and their learning.

6. Do whatever it takes to help children be successful.

7. Have friends and colleagues who support their work emotionally and intellectually. 8. Are not wedded to one best way of teaching and are interested in exploring new ideas. 9. Know when to get involved and when to let go.

These

Polling of parents often shows that socialization is a key concern

“The Big Think” as an alternative to Facebook, the popular social-networking site that causes angst for many brick-and-mortar schools over online bullying that can spill over from the site into school hallways. The Big Think is a closed social-networking site open only to K12 Inc., students and their parents

cyber students were rated significantly higher by both parents and students themselves in various areas of social skills, though teacher ratings for those students did not differ significantly from those for students in traditional public schools. Problem behaviors among online students, as rated by the parents, teachers, and students themselves, were either significantly lower or not significantly different when compared with national norms.

The quality of the online program is a factor in socialization, as is the type of student enrolling, she said

For a student already lacking in socialization in a traditional school setting, online education could be even more isolating. And for low-achieving students taking online classes, Ms. Minke said, families may not be as involved as they need to be to ensure their children are “academically progressing and to monitor their social development.”

From a larger, societal perspective, she said, online students may not be exposed to the diverse viewpoints or communities they might see in a regular school.

I’d worry that [online students] might not have the diversity of positive adult role models.”

Adding a layer of socialization to cyber school can make the difference in a student’s experience.

“This gives them the opportunity to collaborate on their work or mingle and become more invested in the educational process,

“We want to build a student-student relationship as well as a relationship with a teacher,”

more popular than sending instant messages

only a little less popular than using social networking services

powerhouse of “crowdsourcing,” before most people had even heard that word

With Twitter, we are starting to see how a Wikipedia-like approach to information scales even further.

Along the way, there are errors and all kinds of other noise — but over time, it produces a very real and human view of the news.