Group items tagged

For several years, there has been a rule-of-thumb, called "90-9-1″, that 90% of online participation in groups/communities consists of "lurkers" or more politely, "passive participants", and only 1% are active creators. Jacob Nielsen's 2006 post on Participation Inequality provides a good overview of this phenomenon. A recent BBC survey of 7,500 people shows significantly different results. Here we see that passive lurkers make up only 23% of participants; active (intense) participants have increased to 17%; and there is now an "Easy" group in the middle who, " … respond largely to the activity of others. This includes replying, 'liking' and rating, all activities where there's little effort, exposure or risk."

The system of education will change, teachers should be change agents.

Deals with the reality of distributing quality education to most of the people in the world. "DRIVERS OF CHANGE IN THE WAY WE TEACH AND LEARN The increasing recognition the world over of the central role that post- secondary education plays in social and economic success has resulted in many drivers for change, including the following which have been identified by Bates: 1) An increasing demand for college and university places 2) Changing demographics (more older and part-time students) and more learner diversity (broader intellectual, language and cultural ranges) 3) Growing numbers of students at ease with new technologies and social media who are demanding the same sort of flexibility and access from post-secondary education that they already enjoy in their daily business and social interactions. 4) Pressures on institutions to be more open and accountable 5) Recognition of society's needs for skilled knowledge-based workers and the associated focus on learning outcomes indicating the extent to which graduates have such requisite skills as critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, independent learning, and the ability to work in a variety of contexts, to work in teams and to navigate cultural differences. 6) Research evidence of the effectiveness of more interactive approaches to learning that engage students more intensively 7) The continuing evolution of Web-based technologies which make knowledge much more accessible and bring learners together without the constraint of time or place..."

Found this paper useful for clarification of what makes good scaffolding. My original intro to the subject focused on the notion of threshold concepts which can reside too far into an expert domain for getting students engaged. Definition: "adult controlling those elements of the task that are essentially beyond the learner's capacity, thus permitting him to concentrate upon and complete only those elements that are within his range of competence" Do not defeat learning by going too far out into the unfamiliar. "Scaffolding is no longer restricted to interactions between individuals-artifacts, resources, and environments themselves are also being used as scaffolds." "...six types of support that an adult can provide: recruiting the child's interest, reducing the degrees of freedom by simplifying the task, maintaining direction, highlighting the critical task features, controlling frustration, and demonstrating ideal solution paths." "Central to successful scaffolding is the notion of a shared understanding of the goal of the activity. Although some elements of the activity may be beyond what the child could accomplish in working alone, intersubjectivity (Rogoff, 1990; Wertsch, 1985), or a shared understanding of the activity, is considered critical. Intersubjectivity is attained when the adult and child collaboratively redefine the task so that there is combined ownership of the task and the child shares an understanding of the goal that he or she needs to accomplish."

Woodfield, Kandy and Morrell, Gareth and Metzler, Katie and Blank, Grant and Salmons, Janet and Finnegan, Jerome and Lucraft, Mithu (2013) Blurring the Boundaries? New social media, new social research: Developing a network to explore the issues faced by researchers negotiating the new research landscape of online social media platforms. NCRM Working Paper. "On a practical level, some of our network members were struggling with the constant stream of social media data, finding it difficult to keep pace with their participants as they moved on in their conversations and discussions. Digital overwhelm might become counter-productive to reflective social science if researchers are not skilled at managing data flows. Similarly, gathering massive datasets requires a computing power outside of the grasp of many independent researchers or students. The increasing emphasis on 'big data' runs the risk of access to datasets being increasingly concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority of researchers and organisations. An alternative perspective sees this as an opportunity for researchers to come together in creative, cross-disciplinary collaborations, Either way, social researchers will need to find ways of convincing those who own social media sites about the merits of extending, or at least continuing, some freely accessible datasets. The politics of social media research will become an increasingly important agenda for social scientists to engage with. Despite the strengths that social media offer in terms of providing an accessible platform for some marginalised groups, other hard-to-reach populations like the elderly, the poor and those with limited literacy remain more difficult to reach online." Page 12

There's so much of this fast-growing vine in the Southeastern U.S., you might think it was a native plant. Actually, it took a lot of hard work to help kudzu spread so widely. Now that it covers over seven million acres of the deep South, there are a lot of people working hard to get rid of it! But kudzu is used in ways which might surprise you…plus Kudzu's history

"Digital Labor calls on the reader to examine the shifting sites of labor markets to the Internet through the lens of their political, technological, and historical making. Internet users currently create most of the content that makes up the web: they search, link, tweet, and post updates-leaving their "deep" data exposed. Meanwhile, governments listen in, and big corporations track, analyze, and predict users' interests and habits. A collection of essays offering a wide-ranging account of the dark side of the Internet. "

Kop & Fournier 2010 paper on Self Directed Learning: Abstract New technologies have changed the educational landscape. It is now possible for self-directed learners to participate informally in learning events on open online networks, such as in Massive Open Online Courses. Our research analyzed the agency and level of autonomy required by learners participating in a course of this nature. Using Bouchard's four dimensional model of learner control, we found that there are new dimensions to self-directed learning in connectivist learning environments. The research also brought to light new challenges and opportunities for self directed learners who might not be able to call on trusted educators for support in their learning endeavors, but rely on the aggregation of information and informal communication and collaboration available through social media to advance their learning

Kop & Fournier 2010 paper on Self Directed Learning: Abstract New technologies have changed the educational landscape. It is now possible for self-directed learners to participate informally in learning events on open online networks, such as in Massive Open Online Courses. Our research analyzed the agency and level of autonomy required by learners participating in a course of this nature. Using Bouchard's four dimensional model of learner control, we found that there are new dimensions to self-directed learning in connectivist learning environments. The research also brought to light new challenges and opportunities for self directed learners who might not be able to call on trusted educators for support in their learning endeavors, but rely on the aggregation of information and informal communication and collaboration available through social media to advance their learning

"This book arises from a series of workshops on collaborative learning, that gathered together 20 scholars from the disciplines of psychology, education and computer science. The series was part of a research program entitled 'Learning in Humans and Machines' (LHM), launched by Peter Reimann and Hans Spada, and funded by the European Science Foundation. This program aimed to develop a multidisciplinary dialogue on learning, involving mainly scholars from cognitive psychology, educational science, and artificial intelligence (including machine learning). During the preparation of the program, Agnes Blaye, Claire O'Malley, Michael Baker and I developed a theme on collaborative learning. "

"This book arises from a series of workshops on collaborative learning, that gathered together 20 scholars from the disciplines of psychology, education and computer science. The series was part of a research program entitled 'Learning in Humans and Machines' (LHM), launched by Peter Reimann and Hans Spada, and funded by the European Science Foundation. This program aimed to develop a multidisciplinary dialogue on learning, involving mainly scholars from cognitive psychology, educational science, and artificial intelligence (including machine learning). During the preparation of the program, Agnes Blaye, Claire O'Malley, Michael Baker and I developed a theme on collaborative learning. "

"We all practice daily curation that is more or less creative. In the instant of clicking on a link, you forge a connection. As you rifle through your feed-loads, snatching up the most appetizing headlines, you cause collisions. You select a bit of content out of a boundless pile, scanning or storing it for later, and you recover or reframe value. If you choose to share what you've found, you provide commentary and context. In these automated ways, habits of curation create your online identity."

"We all practice daily curation that is more or less creative. In the instant of clicking on a link, you forge a connection. As you rifle through your feed-loads, snatching up the most appetizing headlines, you cause collisions. You select a bit of content out of a boundless pile, scanning or storing it for later, and you recover or reframe value. If you choose to share what you've found, you provide commentary and context. In these automated ways, habits of curation create your online identity."

NOTE: comments by Terry on YouTube page -- he also made a vialogue of the video, https://vialogues.com/vialogues/play/4430 Published on May 21, 2012: In this RSA Animate, Manuel Lima explores the power of network visualisation to help navigate our complex modern world. Taken from a lecture given by Manuel Lima as part of the RSA's free public events programme. Listen to the full talk: http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-and-past-events/2011/the-power-of-networks-knowledge-in-an-age-of-infinite-interconnectedness

Elizabeth Sillence. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. June 2013, 16(6): 480-485. doi:10.1089/cyber.2013.1512. Published in Volume: 16 Issue 6: June 10, 2013 Published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking Advice has been defined as "opinions or counsel given by people who perceive themselves as knowledgeable, and/or who the advice seeker may think are credible, trustworthy and reliable," (pp. 519).11 This definition highlights the difficulties involved for both parties in managing the interaction. For the advice seeker, asking for advice is in a way undermining their identity as a competent person, playing down their own knowledge and abilities while the advice giver has to demonstrate they are worthy of offering advice. Advice givers also have to pay attention to the cues of the advice seeker. They have to be sensitive to their needs, even recognizing that advice is being sought. The way that the advice is presented is crucial as well if the giver is to succeed in passing on his or her way of thinking on the topic. The context may require that the advice giving is mitigated. Locher and Hoffman suggest that such mitigation occurs in the form of humor or through the use of lexical hedges such as "maybe" or "perhaps." While relatively little research has examined "peer" advice online, it does seem that the extent to which advice exchange is seen as an important or even defining aspect of a community varies between forums. In a study of an online support group for depression, Lamerichs found advice exchange was not seen as central to the community's functioning,5 while Kouper, in a recent study of an online motherhood forum, noted that offering and receiving advice was an important type of social interaction within that community.14 The structural and pragmatic features of the advice exchange process are one indicator of its value within the online community.

the real headless mooc

"being a lifelong learner is something you just have to take on personally"

"being a lifelong learner is something you just have to take on personally"

"Postman's Third Law: "At any given time, the chief source of bullshit with which you have to contend is yourself." Postman's Fourth Law: "Almost nothing is about what you think it is about-including you."

I am somebody who like to go back to sources. Here is the original speech in case some of you may find it useful" http://aquadoc.typepad.com/files/bs_speech_postman-1.pdf

much thanks for the full article -- I like Postman and to go back to sources too

Stephen Downes's comment in OLDaily, Feb. 7 Questions about rhizomatic learning Jenny Mackness, February 6, 2014 At a certain point, perfectly good theories become nonsense. This may be that point. I am sympathetic with the list of questions Jenny Mackness poses to Keith Hamon about rhizomatic learning (a concept I'm increasingly questioning). For example: "I'm not sure that I would know how to distinguish a 'rhizomatic learner' from other learners." And "'A rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things, interbeing, intermezzo.'" Strictly speaking, this is false of rhizomes (unless you're talking of the specific connection between plant and plant, in which case, one wonders how it is different from any other connection (and wonder why it can't have a middle)). I've commented to Dave Cormier (who seems to have a better handle on this) about this in the past: a rhizome network is a mesh, which is good, but there's no openness, no diversity, not really even any autonomy. And you mix that in with (quite frankly) silly statements from Deleuze and Guattari (like: "'State space is 'striated' or griddled") you get something that really begins to lack coherence. I've long complained of continental philosophers that when they don't understand something, they just make stuff up. There's too much of that in educational theory too.

It remains for teachers to figure out how to leverage the opportunities of the internet for their learner's advantage. It is not enough to rely on the internet to "do it for you". The internet is still not a teaching machine. Best practice (Jim's version): teach content creation, collaboration, and reasonable dialogue - globally if possible.

"In my teaching, I stress the importance of the creative process over the product, but the impact of how or when this shift in understanding takes place came into sharp focus only recently. In preparation for the final of my Studio Design{ course, I took my class to the study Room at the RISD Museum to view a portfolio of paper folding structures by the artist Tauba Auerbach. The Complex structural and color interactions in the portfolio make it a favorite to show[….] instead of witnessing surprised joy, I watched a roomful of heads and shoulders slump in desperation. I was startled to realize the little more than half-way through their first semester, my students were projecting themselves into this portfolio not with the passive eyes of spectators, but with the knowledge of makers. No longer just an end product to them, this portfolio now embodied hours of toil and experimentation, trial and error, measuring and calculating. Seeing it demonstrated to the students that if they wished to make successful work they needed to build up their creative muscles." Page 37