making sense of complexity in open information environments

Making sense of complexity in open information environments

George SiemensOctober 26, 2011

Openness is a control tradeoff

And it means we have to do different things

Where are our control points?

Our curriculum?

Our teaching?

Fragmentary experience

• Conversations, content, context not (only) shaped by the school/educator

• Learners are in control

Fragmentation is a new reality. Our learning models need to embrace

(reflect) it.

Coherence is an orientation about the meaning and value of information elements based on how they are connected, structured, and related

Antonovsky 1993

Existing coherence forming systems

BooksNewspapersTV news programsMagazines

(anything that is structured and that the end user can’t speak into and alter)

Openness messes up coherence (and control)

Fragmentation of information requires that we weave together elements into some type of coherent framework

YoutubeBlogsTwitterFacebookTEDtalksKahn AcademyOnline news/information sitesTraditional coherence frameworks

Networked information doesn’t have a centre

Information fragmentation…loss of narratives of coherence

“the rise of millions of fragmented discussions across the world tend instead to lead to fragmentation of audiences into isolated publics”

Habermas 2006

Argument: we socialize to make sense of information

… i.e. it is our ability to work with information

(abstraction, representation, “point to”) that defines humanity

As information quantity and complexity increase…

We adopt two approaches:

1. Better technical systems2. Better connected social systems

setnet

group

collective

Social forms

Jon Dron & Terry Anderson

‘‘. . . information foraging refers to activities associated with assessing, seeking, and handling information sources”

Piroli and Card, 1995

What is sensemaking?

“Sensemaking is about labelling and categorizing to stabilize the streaming of experience”

Weick et al. 2005

“a motivated, continuous effort to understand connections . . . in order to anticipate their trajectories and act effectively”

Klein et al. 2006

Cynefin FrameworkDave Snowden

Domains of Sensemaking

Complicated is not complex.

When an answer and path is known, but requires time and effort, it is complicated.

When an answer is not known, or when agents interact in unpredictable

ways, it is complex.

Education system is treating a complex problem as a complicated one.

Lessons #1 in Paths to Failure:

Complex unknown problems require:1. Mind of a scientist2. Mind of an artist

What is wayfinding?

“the process that takes place when people orient themselves and navigate through space”

Raubal and Winter 2002

“is the cognitive element of navigation … it does not involve movement of any kind but only the tactical and strategic parts that guide movement.”

Darken and Peterson 2002

The Landing

2008, 2009, 2011

Finding complex information environments: research spaces

The data set

Connectivism and Connective Knowledge 2008(CCK08)

Tools used by learners

http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/643/1402Fini, 2009

Roughly anything.

The methods

1. Social network and participation analysis

2. Corbin & Strauss’ (1990) version of grounded theory

SNA & Participation Habits

CCK08 Weekly Forum Posts

CCK08: Introduction forum

Limited interaction. Most are isolated

Introduction forum posts: CCK08

Dialogue limited: Group too large?

Week 12 forum posts: CCK08

More equitable distribution? Due to smaller #’s of participants?

Open coding using Cohere

http://cohere.open.ac.uk

Axial Coding

Self-organization and sub-networks

Sensegiving through artefact creation and sharing

Sensemaking/giving through language games

Knowledge domain expansion

Wayfinding cues, symbols

Social organization through creating sharing

Coherence expression(sensegiving)

ArtifactsNarratives

Participatory sensemaking:“the coordination of intentional activity in interaction, whereby individual sense-making processes are affected and new domains of social sense-making can be generated that were not available to each individual on her own”

De Jaegher and Di Paolo 2007

Artefacts re-centre the learning conversation

Artifacts of sensemaking

Organizing course content

Dolors Capdet

http://x28newblog.blog.uni-heidelberg.de/2008/09/06/cck08-first-impressions/

Image of course structure created by course participant

Language/externalization reduces the “occult character” of mental images.

Wittgenstein

Language gives birth to thought

Vygotsky

Language games

Storytelling

Debate, dialogue

Descriptions

Clarification

Metaphors

Analogies

Examples

Resonance

Narratives of sensemaking

change.mooc.ca

Twitter: gsiemens

www.elearnspace.org/blog

http://www.solaresearch.org/

Learning Analytics & Knowledge 2012: Vancouver

http://lak12.sites.olt.ubc.ca/