2015-04-22 research seminar
TRANSCRIPT
It's hardly easy to be softly hard: freedom and control in learning spaces
Terry AndersonJon Dron
University of TallinnApril 2015
Athabasca University, Alberta, Canada
* Athabasca University
34,000 students, 700 courses
100% distance education
Graduate and Undergraduate programs
Master & Doctorate
Distance Education
Only USA Regionally Accredited University
in Canada
*Athabasca University
Agenda• Reviewing Generations of Education and
Pedagogy• aligning them with Groups, Sets and Nets• Case study Using Athabasca’s Landing Elgg
installation
setnet
group
collectives
Individual
Proposition #1The Next Generation Learning Evolves
From and With Past Generations
Proposition #2
• Different Structures/Pedagogies/Technologies, with different affordances and degrees of hardness effect our use.
Learning as Dance (Anderson, 2008)
• Technology sets the beat and the timing.
• Pedagogy defines the moves.
Technologies
• The orchestration of phenomena to some use (Arthur, 2009)
• Assemblies of hard and soft components• Pedagogies are among the soft components of
all learning technologies
Orchestration of phenomena embedded
path dependencies
Uniformity
Hard is easy
the adjacent possible
Creativity
flexibility and freedom freedom from error
Orchestration of phenomena by humans
Soft is hard
Soft Hard
technologies
1. Behavioural/Cognitive Pedagogies
• “tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em,
• tell ‘em • then tell ‘em what you
told ‘em”
Direct Instruction
Gagne’s Events of Instruction (1965)
1. Gain learners' attention2. Inform learner of objectives3. Stimulate recall of previous information4. Present stimulus material5. Provide learner guidance6. Elicit performance7. Provide Feedback8. Assess performance9. Enhance transfer opportunities
Basis of Instructional Systems Design (ISD)
Enhanced by the “cognitive revolution”
• Chunking • Cognitive Load• Working Memory• Multiple Representations• Split-attention effect• Variability Effect• Multi-media effect
– (Sorden, 2005)“learning as acquiring and using conceptual and cognitive structures” Greeno, Collins and Resnick, 1996
Behaviourist/Cognitive – Knowledge As a Thing:
• Logically coherent, existing independent of perspective
• Largely context free• Capable of being transmitted• Assumes closed systems with
discoverable relationships between inputs and outputs
• Readily defined through learning objectives
Technologies of Ist generation
• CAI, text books, One way Lectures, Video and audio broadcast
Social Focus of Ist generationIndividual Learner
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Instructivist freedoms
• Locationwhere?
• Subject
what?• Time when?
• Approachhow (pedagogy, process)?
• Pace how fast?
• Sociabilitywith whom (if anyone)?
• Technology using what (medium/tools)?
• Delegability choosing to choose
setnet
group
notional levels of choice once a typical course is in progress
Hardness of individual learningPapa Bear’s bed
Future of Ist generation
• OERU• Limitless, very low cost content• Challenges of accreditation• The (forever?) just around the corner, ‘learner
adaptation’ technologies
Content:A bargain even at 80% off??
Most of us like Free!
Interactive MIT coursesMITX Announced
Shameless Plug and Giveaways!
Issues in DistanceEducation Serieshttp://aupress.ca
2nd Generation DESocial Constructivist Pedagogy
Constructivist Learning is:
• “Learning is located in contexts and relationships rather than merely in the minds of individuals”
Greenhow, Robelia & Hughes (2009),
Kathy Sierra http://www.speedofcreativity.org/
“learning is a continual conversation with the external world and its artefacts, with oneself and with other learners and teachers” (Sharples, Taylor & Vavoula, 2007)
Knowledge as a Collaborative Process
Group as the Social Unit of Social Constructivist Pedagogy
Why Groups?• “Students who learn in small groups
generally demonstrate greater academic achievement, express more favorable attitudes toward learning, and persist …
• small-group learning may have particularly large effects on the academic achievement of members of underrepresented groups and the learning-related attitudes of women…” • Springer; Stanne, & Donovan, (1999) P.42
Problems with Groups• Restrictions in time, space, pace, &
relationship - NOT OPEN• Overly confined by leader expectation
and institutional & curriculum control• Usually Isolated from the authentic
world of practice• “low tolerance of internal difference,
sexist and ethicized regulation, high demand for obedience to its norms and exclusionary practices.” Cousin & Deepwell 2005
• “Pathological politeness” and fear of debate
• Group think (Baron, 2005)• Poor preparation for Lifelong Learning
beyond the course• EXPENSIVE
$
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Group model
• Membership and exclusion, closed • Hierarchies of control• Focus on collaboration and shared purpose• teachers: guides
group
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Social constructivist freedoms
• Locationwhere?
• Subject
what?• Time when?
• Approachhow (pedagogy, process)?
• Pace how fast?
• Sociabilitywith whom (if anyone)?
• Technology using what (medium/tools)?
• Delegability choosing to choose
setnet
group
notional levels of choice once a typical course is in progress
• Trust both opens and constrains• Typically a structured process• But…• Opportunities for negotiation of
control• Shifting boundaries• Diversity valorized• Big issue: getting it just right for
everyone
Baby Bear’s bed?
3rd Generation Connectivist Pedagogy
• Learning is building capacity - networks of information, contacts and resources that can be applied to real problems.
Connectivist Knowledge isA Process
• Emergent• Distributed and diverse• Chaotic• Fragmented• Non sequential• Contextualized
What is Connected Knowledge?
• Knowledge is defined by its creation through activities– Accessing information– Evaluating, filtering– Conveying ideas– Reformatting, mashing– Analyzing, – Collaborating (Barth 2004)
Networks add diversity to learning
“People who live in the intersection of social worlds are at higher risk of having good ideas” Burt, 2005, p. 90
Networks Celebrate and Stimulate Cognitive Diversity Cognitive Diversity
Arises when from:• different types of information and knowledge perspectives• different ways of viewing the world or a specific problem
interpretations• different ways of categorizing a problem or partitioning
perspectives • heuristics yielding different ways of generating solutions to
problems• predictive models - different ways of inferring causes and
effects (Fisher, L. (2009)
• “A social network is crucially different from a social circle, since the function of a social circle is to curb our appetites and of a network to extend them. “ Adem Gopnik, 2011
• Read more http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/02/14/110214crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz1NHjpnxne
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The net model
• bottom-up, open• inclusive• focus on individual and connections• teachers: role models and co-travellers
net
36
Connectivist freedoms
• Locationwhere?
• Subject
what?• Time when?
• Approachhow (pedagogy, process)?
• Pace how fast?
• Sociabilitywith whom (if anyone)?
• Technology using what (medium/tools)?
• Delegability choosing to choose
setnet
group
notional levels of choice once a typical ‘course’ is in progress
• Limitless assembly• Limitless choice• Limitless dialogue• But too soft?
Mama Bear’s bed
But do learning networks really work??
• Network ghost towns
• Build it and they may come, but not likely
• When is the last time you checked into a Ning account?
Fear of open spaces
• “The property of knowledge as as a body of vetted works comes directly from the properties of paper …. There is little to none of the permanence, stability and community fealty that a body of knowledge requires and implies. The Internet is what you get when everyone is a curator and everything is linked” – David Weinberger P. 45
choice != controlit’s not just about
networks
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Set model• cooperation, anonymity• focus on filtering and selection• tags and categorisation• teachers: analyzers, curators
and publishers• Analytics• Collectives
set
setnet
group
CollaborationStructureRolesMembershipIntention and purposeHierarchiesThe classical ‘class’ model
Sustaining tiesMaking tiesAd hoc networksKnowledge diffusionSocial capitalSocial presenceEmergenceShiftingContextual
CooperationSharingSerendipityInterest -orientationSense-makingCollective intelligenceIntentional discovery
classes, tutorial groups, learning management systems, etc
MOOCs, blogs, LinkedIn, social networks, etc
Social interest sites, Wikipedia, Google Search, Twitter, Pinterest, etc
4th generation of learning pedagogy
• reducing choices to only those choices that we want or need to make
Generations of distance learning pedagogies
1.Instructivist – Self Paced, Individual Study, etc
2.Social constructivist – Groups, classes, etc
3.Connectivist – Networks, MOOCs, etc
4.Holist - Sets and Collectives
clos
edop
en
net
group
set
indiv-idual
Hard
Soft
Instructivist
Constructivist
Connectivist
holist
Soft/open Hard/closed
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Holist freedoms
• Locationwhere?
• Subject
what?• Time when?
• Approachhow (pedagogy, process)?
• Pace how fast?
• Sociabilitywith whom (if anyone)?
• Technology using what (medium/tools)?
• Delegability choosing to choose
net
group
set
notional levels of choice once a typical ‘course’ is in progress
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How holist?
• plenty
• stigmergy, social navigation
• collaborative filtering• adaptive hypermedia
• learning and process analytics
• feedback loops
• sociability
• soft and malleable systems• openness (resources, people)Infrastru
cture
Structure
The collective
• Emergent structure• Individual
behaviours aggregated
• The crowd becomes an active agent that advises, filters, suggests or shapes
setnet
group
collective
direct
Collective types
stigmergic
mediated
e.g. flocks, shoals, herds, crowds
e.g. termites, ant trails, money markets Wikipedia edits
e.g.reputation systems, rating systems, collaborative filters
e.g., tag clouds, Google Searche.g. 2nd Life crowds
e.g. ant nest tidying
BioMimicry
Mobs vs Crowds
Mismatched social forms
The Matthew EffectPreferential attachment
Soft is hard Lost in social space
Deliberate attack
Valorisation of narcissism
Filter bubbles
Confirmation bias
Context separation
Loss of narrative
Control of privacy
Blind leading blind
Making landscapes for emergent pedagogy
Some concerns
Cold start problems
Mob stupidity
Exploiting the Behaviours of Others
• From an administrative perspective - Analytics
Analytics Opening and Connecting Black Boxes
LMS
StudentRecords
RegistryRecords
FinancialRecords
Graphical Profiles
Student profiles, Department score cards, instructor profilesRegistration trends, drop out, etc…etc….
idashboards.com
NKI (Norway) Quality Barometers
From a Learner Perspective
• Learner recommendation systems
APPLICATION OF RECOMMENDER SYSTEMS ON E-LEARNING ENVIRONMENTSA. Sekhavatian1, M. Mahdavi2
Learning Network Services for Professional Development By Rob Koper
Jon Insert some of your slidesFrom Lak11 and recent thinking on Sets
• to help learning designers make effective changes
• to help teachers know how learners are doing
• to help learners know how they are doing
• to help learners decide what to do next
• to tell learners what to do next
Human - adaptable
Machine - adaptive
Soft
Hard
Some risks of analytics
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mob_Chase.JPEG
http://www.flickr.com/photos/osucommons/3226077133/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cornelluniversitylibrary/3855473015/in/set-72157622140446726/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationaalarchief/2948560477/sizes/o/
Assemblies
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A soft space
What is the Landing?
• Walled Garden with Windows• A Private space for AU• A user controlled creative space• Boutique social system• Networking, blogging, photos,
microblogging, polls, calendars, groups and more
• Differentiating and merging work, from school, from fun
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Multiple rationales
67
setnet
group
collective
CoursesCommitteesResearch groupsStudy groupsCentres and departments
Sustaining tiesMaking tiesAd hoc networksKnowledge diffusionSocial capitalSocial presence
CooperationSharingSerendipityInterest -orientationSense-makingCollective intelligenceIntentional discovery
Where to look first
setnetgroup
Popular activities
Blog posts (4135)
Files (4023)
Wire posts (2335)
bookmarks
Discussion topics
wikiphoto
Wiki sub-page
Hard spaces
Filling gaps with people
Stretching tools
Filling gaps the Landing way
The Landing Platform
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1,424 plugins available, our installation using about 90Fairly strong development team, plotted roadmap
Athabasca Landing
2,988 users as of Jan. 19, 2012
Landing Groups
• 271 Groups• Average of 10.79 members each
UNDEGRAD COURSES (UC); 16%
GRAD COURSES (GC); 29%
ADMIN (AD); 24%
BEYOND COURSE (BC); 12%
SOCIAL (SO); 4%
STUDENT GOVERNMENT (SG); 5%
RESEARCH (R); 7%LANDING ADMIN (LA); 3%
Type of Landing Groups
UNDEGRAD COURSES (UC)GRAD COURSES (GC)ADMIN (AD)BEYOND COURSE (BC)SOCIAL (SO)STUDENT GOVERNMENT (SG)RESEARCH (R)LANDING ADMIN (LA)
New Users Added per week
Weekly Blog Posts
Files
80
Public vs private
• It all depends on context and purpose...
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PUBLIC SET NET GROUP
Blogs 36% 50% 2% 11%
Wikis (8% private)
18% 45% 2% 33%
Bookmarks 9% 65% 0.5% 24%
Images 6% 75% 6% 10%
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Sets, groups, nets (in that order)
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Project Three Major Objectives1. develop a platform to investigate the
relationship between individual and group learning (both formal and informal) in online communities utilizing networking technologies.
2. allow researchers, faculty, students, alumni and staff to interact, collaborate, communicate, and forge online communities throughout our distributed community.
3. Investigate “Beyond the LMS” next generation learning support systems
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Teachingcrowds.ca
• https://landing.athabascau.ca