presentation at ecer2011

8/4/2019 Presentation at ECER2011

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Learning in a Network ofDistributedEnvironments and Resources

Nelson A. F. GonalvesEscola Superior de Educao e CI&DETS

Instituto Politcnico de Viseu (Portugal)E-Mail: [email protected]

Paulo DiasInstituto de Educao

Universidade do Minho (Portugal)E-Mail: [email protected]


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And it looks like this...


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Introduction

The research project, developed within a doctoralprogram in Educational Technology at theUniversity of Minho (Portugal), aims to build anunderstanding ofhow the informal experience of

knowledge contributes to the construction offormal knowledge.

Theoretical framework: Situated Cognition (Brown,Collins & Duguid, 1989), Communities of Practice (Lave &Wenger, 1991), Connectivism (Siemens, 2005), PersonalLearning Environment (Attwell, 2007), Actor-NetworkTheory (Law, 1992) and Activity Theory (Engestrm, 1987).


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What?

Study the culture of "blenderheads".

Produce a detailed description of the architecture ofparticipation and learning of the "blenderheads".

What leadership exists? What are the sustainabilityfactors of this open learning ecosystem?

How to educate for the challenges presented by thefuture? Can we, in this landscape strongly marked

by informal learning processes, find possibleanswers to issues such as academic inflation,lifelong learning, innovation, "long tail", etc.?


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How?

The study, an Ethnography (Gregory,2005), aims to produce a "thickdescription" (Geertz, 1973) of theBlender learning ecosystem,

articulating its socio-technicallandscape, the actors and networks,based on the trajectories ofparticipation and learning of

blenderheads and the researchersown experience.

That's me!


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1. Semiotic Domain: any set of practices that recruits one or moremodalities (e.g. oral or written language, images, equations, symbols, sounds,gestures, graphs, artifacts, etc.) to communicate distinctive types of meanings.(Gee, 2003, p. 18).

2. Affinity Group: group of people associated with a Semiotic Domain (Gee,2003).

3. Network of Practice: networks that link people to others whom they maynever get to know but who work on similar practices (Brown & Duguid, 2000,

p. 141).

4. Affinity Spaces: In affinity spaces people 'bond' first and foremost to anendeavor or interest and secondarily, if at all, to each other. (Gee, 2003, p. 98).

5. Community of Practice: a unique combination of three fundamentalelements: a domain of knowledge, which defines a set of issues; a communityof people who care about this domain; and a shared practice that they aredeveloping to be effective in their domain." (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder,2002, p. 27).

6. Personal Learning Environment: A PLE is comprised of all the

different tools we use in our everyday life for learning (Attwell, 2007, p. 4).


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Learning becomes both a personal and unique trajectorythrough a complex space of opportunities (...) and asocial journey as one shares aspects of that trajectory

with others (...) for a shorter or longer time before movingon. (Gee, 2007, p. 103).

Learning is a social activity thatemerges from the path traveledby learners or novices withinthe community towards fullparticipation and expertise,

forming an integral andinseparable aspect of socialpractice.


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BlenderArtists

Blender.org Blend.Polis The BlenderClan

Blender3D.cz

Blender .it PolskaStronaBlendera

G-Blender Blenderownia

BlenderBrasil

Blender PT BlenderUnderground

BlenderNewbies

PinoyBlenderUser Group

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

May -08 O ct- 10

109% 234% 73% 103% 22% 38% 40% 8% 99% 129% 334% 277% 535% 1603%

Forums: registered members

F di i ti iti


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Posts p/ day Topics p/ day Posts p/ Topic

May-08 Oct-10 May-08 Oct-10 May-08 Oct-10

Blender Artists 465.8 523.0 51.0 58.8 9.1 8.9

Blend.Polis 116.2 125.7 8.8 10.7 13.2 11.8

The Blender Clan 94.8 129.8 7.5 10.3 12.7 12.6

Blender3D.cz 33.9 22.2 2.9 2.1 11.5 10.6

Blender.it 55.6 52.2 6.1 5.9 9.0 8.8

Polska Strona Blendera 19.2 13.2 2.5 1.8 7.6 7.5

G-Blender 9.0 6.7 2.2 1.6 4.1 4.3

Blenderownia 52.2 53.7 4.8 4.4 10.9 12.3

Blender Brasil 21.8 24.6 4.0 2.9 5.5 8.4

Blender PT 2.8 4.5 0.4 0.3 7.2 13.1

Blender Underground 27.3 42.8 2.4 4.1 11.2 10.5

BlenderNewbies 13.6 27.3 2.3 3.6 5.9 7.5

Pinoy Blender User Group 2.7 7.4 0.9 2.3 3.2 3.2

Forums: discussion activities


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26, Filipino

31, USA

24, French

Need help with thisspecific problem

Here's the solution

I think there's anothersolution, moreaccurate

This is my scientificrationale

That one is an oldsolution

31 USA


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31, USAHere's my legitimacy

And...

Meet Physics &Newton!


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28, Australia

What is the bestway to learn?

Want to learn?

Do it like this...


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23, Australian


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29, Germany


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26, Australia

22 USA


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+ Fix videos

+ videos byrequest

22, USA

T t 1 bl / i t k ill i ?


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Tutee1: problem/mistake or illusion?

Tutor: mistake, I forgot to...

Tutee2: Yes you did. Adds a plus to thetutorial: what happens if you forget to...

Tutee1: the video shows method A ofrigging but I've done it in the past withmethod B. Which one is better?

Tutee2: A is better for this. B is better ifyou want to do that.


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USA


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14, USA


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1500

1600

Open movies


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139

18% 342%

633

82%

20413%

956%

121478%

S

ED+BBB+S

BBB

ED

Open moviespresales

2006 2008 2010


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SNowbAll...

Three Blender Foundationopen movies credits lists

Blender Foundation CertifiedTrainers list

Blender Certification ReviewBoard members

all speakers present at the

Blender Conference (2004-2010)

current version (2.5x)developers

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Affiliation network

Co-Affiliation as Opportunity or Co-Affiliation as Indicator

(Borgatti & Halgin, in press).


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PLE


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Next steps

Expand Social Network Analysis. Select subjects for interviewing.

Analysis of collected artifacts.

Continue participant observation and field diary. Identify some boundaries: socio-technical networks

and CoP.


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Final thoughts

Blender universe is expanding fast and (immigrantsand natives) Education is a central concern for thenatives.

Blurring, blending, complementarity: online and offline

identities, experts in X are novices in Y, social-leisure and learning activities, etc.

Free/Libre Software (free as in free speech, not asin free beer) and Free Culture (CC) are two social

concerns shared by the vast majority. Free andOpen tools, content and processes are valued.

Natural and daily use of a myriad of Old & Newtechnologies to support participation and learning

trajectories. Books + Twitter + DVD + YouTube + ...


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E-mail / homepage

nafergo[AT]gmail.com

http://nafergo.intervir.net

Thank you!

presentation at ecer2011

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