Reflection: Manuel Lima: The Power of Networks

I find this to be one of the most lively, condensed and persuasive rationally presented videos I have ever seen. The cartoon character makes it into a work of art too. This fulfills my expectations of what teaching should be. Ten minutes imaginative and visually attractive input followed by hours of reflection. This is one of those events that will remain with me.

In search of Jabberwocky

The internet took all kinds of shapes in my imagination most of them cloud-like till Simon Fogg pointed me towards this down to earth video from Ted Talks (where else would it be?)

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Reflections on 'Could the Web be a Temporary Glitch ?'

In their paper 'Could the Web be a Temporary Glitch?', Carr, Pope and Halford conclude with these words:

'Openness is a property of the Web architecture and a contributory factor in the success of its adoption, but it is not an inevitable property of the user experience in the coming decade.'

This 'inevitable' clearly implies that the current situation is both dynamic and fluid. Everything in web history is about periods of transition. We don't live through periods of transition, as in the past, we live in transition. We see that in the recent past teens have moved and are moving away from facebook towards WhatsApp, WeChat and KakaoTalk. Their reasons appear to be greater privacy, restriction to friendship groups and avoidance of selfies, silly self portraits. Yet we know that despite many protestations to the contrary in the end economics take control as in almost all aspects of life (not creative commons hopefully)...so just maybe we are currently enjoying the Indian Summer of the web. Thanks to Mark Nash for his highly relevant links.

Reflections on web use and how I deal with the information I find

My perception of my web use is like this.

When I browse I tend to check out many news sites using www.aldaily.com as a good homepage for that. I often look through TED  for inspiration and lateral thinking and I use You Tube generally in the same way. For social networking I use facebook and twitter (somewhat reluctantly because of all the question marks against them in my mind) and LinkedIn. For educational networking , google+ educational groups mainly. Email and combined activities are done through google (waldorfy@gmail.com with web science in the subject line please). For music listening I utilize soundcloud, lastFM and musicovery. I subscribe to selected figures like Siemens, Downes and Hart in particular and either bookmark them in firefox or organise them in netvibes. Other information is stored in evernote, pinterest and dropbox (while networking is in progress). As a family we use online banking. I search quite specifically with specialist engines (also the invisible web) and more generally academically with sweetsearch, Google Blog Search and Google Scholar. For general searches I use google or DuckDuckGo

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Personal Learning Environment tools: preparation for Southampton MOOC Personal Learning Network

As there aren't any MOOC guidelines in my hands from Southampton yet, for the learning experience I researched what I think I will need as a minimum to prepare to be successful in the way I want.

I set up a blog (this one) as a place to reflect on my experience so that I am in a position to share it with others in a spirit of compare / contrast / grow. I gathered feeds about MOOC experiences from the instigators and participants; of course Downes and Siemens loomed large amongst them. I am instinctively  drawn towards the necessity of connectivism as a digital age dynamic theory. In my information gathering I need ways to organize and refine what I got, so I found myself trying out a variety of sources. The best amongst them were netvibes, rss feeds, bloglines, evernote and pinterest (for thematic graphic storage). Sources of inspiration were mainly You Tube and slideshare. I figured that my most detailed sharing would likely be done through something like dropbox after I learn who my like-minded fellow students are. I have used delicious as a bookmarker for years so old habits die hard. I'm not really proficient with google+ yet and I haven't really forgiven them yet for the death of various cherished tools. For getting the answers to my basic questions I have chosen a bundle of sources which I have used in the past - although on this occasion Techopedia has helped the most so far. That's my plan - let's wait and see how well it works. I guess the official estimate of 3 hours per week for 6 weeks will prove to be a massive understatement!

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Techopedia impresses this relative beginner and computing autodidact

I know a bit about computing I think. Yet when you have taught yourself, as you went along, with a few (half-understood) conversations with experts in computing (but not necessarily communication) it is great to find a fall-back position where you can check your knowledge and plug the gaps. That's what techopedia.com  does for me, at a basic, easily readable level, as well as updating and rounding up my half-knowledge in the following areas for example:

• the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web
• the pioneers of the World Wide Web
• a timeline of the development of the Internet and the World Wide Web
• understanding social media
• a beginner's guide to internet memes
• 6 key trends in online business
• what do massive open online courses (MOOCs) mean for education?
• cloud computing
• top 10 cloud computing myths busted

I hope this will all be useful background to my Web Science MOOc later this month and if not I have learnt something useful anyway. It satisfied my curiosity and at some point I had to stop clicking yet another hyperlink.

Tim Berners-Lee: The World Wide Web - Opportunity, Challenge, Responsibility (Photo credit: Anna L. Schiller)

Time to extend our concept of 'blended learning'

The time has come to reconsider what we mean by blended learning. I suggest that it can exist on two levels.

Firstly an acceptable definition from Wikipedia:

' Blended learning is a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place, path or pace.^[1] While still attending a “brick-and-mortar” school structure, face-to-face classroom methods are combined with computer-mediated activities.^[2] Proponents of blending learning cite the opportunity for data collection and customization of instruction and assessment as two major benefits of this approach.^[3] Schools with blended learning models may also choose to reallocate resources to boost student achievement outcomes.^[4]'

1. ^ "Blended Learning (Staker / Horn - May 2012)" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-10-24.
2. Jump up ^ Strauss, Valerie (22 September 2012). Three fears about blended learning, The Washington Post
3. Jump up ^ Harel Caperton, Idit. (2012) Learning to Make Games for Impact. The Journal of Media Literacy, 59(1), 28-38.
4. Jump up ^ Jacob, Anna M. (2011). Benefits and Barriers to the Hybridization of Schools. Journal of Education Policy, Planning and Administration, 1(1): 61-82.

Then a proposed extension from me.
 If a MOOC, for example, is accompanied by:

• peer-to-peer teaching with questions answered by a professor - for example by email
• dropboxes or wikis for idea collection and development
• skyping or video conferencing to set up pair or group learning
• with knowledeable peers or experienced tutors involved

isn't that blended learning too - or is it the case that we really believe a monopoly of knowledge resides in formalised institutions of learning?

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Paul Casey on 'The Pedagogy of MOOCs

A highly informed and informative look by Paul Casey at which pedagogy is used in which MOOcs by which institution:

Pedagogy of MOOCs from Paul_Stacey

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What is a MOOC? from Dave Cormier plus who are the major players?

I like this video for its straightforward, clear introduction to the purpose of a MOOC. It makes it clear how you determine the structure, the path you follow, the contacts you make, the networks you develop and maintain. It explains that the responsibility for success or failure is yours alone and it does it in a minimalist way.

An Overview of the MOOC Research Initiative from George Siemens

MOOC Research Initiative from gsiemens

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Lessons for MOOCS from Traditional Online Learning from George Siemens

Reflections on 'Open University Innovation Report 2 Innovating Pedagogy 2013'

Through Stephen Downes OLdaily feed I found out about the report: 'Open University Innovation Report 2 2013: Exploring new forms of teaching learning and assessment, to guide educators and policy makers' via David Hopkin's Technology Enhanced Learning Blog.
They examine ten educational development concepts which the report writers consider to be of interest over the coming years. I shall only comment on those which particularly interest me.

1. MOOCs

I think this diagram sums the position of MOOCs up perfectly:

 http://www.fleapalmer.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/mooc.jpg

The dominant area seems to be America but there are interesting experiments in Australia in my opinion. The UK is in the process of organising but dominant emerging business models are Coursera, Udacity and edX. Of the 20,000 who typically register only 5-10% reach the end. This interests me because before I register I learn what is on offer in an abbreviated form. If the course is stimulating it will point me in various directions - many of which may be away from the course - a divergent effect.
This seems to me to be the MOOC's great advantage - opening up, not closing down avenues as traditional courses demand in order to be awarded the degree etc. This is where the 'innovative learning pedagogies' mentioned could really come into their own, in my opinion. Apparently the key approaches at present are video lectures, recommended readings and staged assessment. Personally I want my lectures to be bite-sized, 20 minutes, like in the best TED Talks length.
2. Badges to Accredit Learning
For me the proof of badging will be in their growing acceptance. I understand that the core technology is there but how will Human Resources' managers react internationally and locally? The success of MOOCs long term will be closely related to the 'badge backpack' take up in the market place. Otherwise we are talking about leisure learning as opposed to recognised cunulative and flexibly developing life-long learning which is in tune with the zeitgeist.
http://www.dontwasteyourtime.co.uk/tag/openbadgesmooc/
4. & 5. Seamless Learning and Crowd Learning
This is where we are right now (outside of schools?). We are all potential experts, sources of knowledge and advice, judges of validity and we move seamlessly from person to person, location to location, device to device, recording, filtering, analysing and drawing conclusions about the data we experience. We discuss it, customize it , pass it on and publish it. This has been a grassroots novices revolution driven by expert technology. How fast can learning institutions accommodate to this?
6. Digital Scholarship
Aside from the open access, the use of digital media by academics I am struck by the advances in libraries and  library science of which the super Library of Birmingham in the UK is a prime example.


8. Learning from Gaming
'Intrinsic integration' seems to be a key characteristic of gaming communities and according to the report the best games motivate with 'specific learning activities and outcomes' and the pedagogy needs to be matched by 'elements of challenge, personal control fantasy and curiosity'. They can also manipulate players' feeling of 'flow'. These then need to be integrated with worthwhile targetted learning goals.
9. Learning Maker Culture
Gaming can lead to making in the sense that the skills of today merge with the skills of yesteryear. An example could be cosplay.

English: Cosplay (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

10. Citizen Inquiry
The joining of natural curiosity to learn with structured inquiry; the transformation of knowledge consumption into knowledge engagement and creation. The public ownership of previously private knowledge.

The report itself can be found here:
http://www.open.ac.uk/personalpages/mike.sharples/Reports/Innovating_Pedagogy_report_2013.pdf

P2PU: A University for the Web & Distance learning history.

This great idea comes out of Australia where so much began in distance learning - to quote from the website:

'LEARNING BY EVERYONE. FOR EVERYONE. ABOUT ALMOST ANYTHING. COMPLETELY FREE'

https://p2pu.org/en/

It looks well worth a look and a try.

This prompted me to search out K Keairns report on the History of Distance Education (under its various synonyms). It van be found here and makes fascinating reading as well as being clearly presented in my opinion:
http://mysite.du.edu/~kkeairns/doc/history.html

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Finding the invisible web or deep web...

This post concerns the majority of websites and information; those areas which ordinary search engines just don't find because they are not targetting them. It also includes advice on how to search effectively at an academic level. From school to post-grad level this is vital if you don't want to waste your time!

First, the ultimate guide to the invisible web:
 http://oedb.org/library/college-basics/invisible-web

 Secondly, a search engine overview:
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2066359/Invisible-Web-Database-Search-Engines

Next, learn about how and how not to search for academic purposes:
http://www.vtstutorials.ac.uk/detective/index.html

Then, ten important invisible web search engines:
 http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-search-engines-explore-deep-invisible-web/

An example:
 

These lead on to the narrowing down of searches for academic purposes. An excellent categorisation and analysis can be found here: 'Research Beyond Google: 119 Authoritative, Invisible, and Comprehensive Resources'

http://oedb.org/library/college-basics/research-beyond-google

Highly recommended is the Bielefeld Academic Search Engine BASE:
http://www.base-search.net/

Blip TV demonstrates how to use BASE.
http://blip.tv/camosunlibrary/base-bielefeld-academic-search-engine-advanced-search-3537868

After that, consider using a metasearch engine, for example:
 www.metacrawler.com

Nearly there, take a look at these meta and multi-search engines:
 https://www.diigo.com/list/eclark131/Meta+and+Multi+Search+Engines/2lpg04uj4

Finally don't forget about the 314 search engines in other countries:
http://searchenginecolossus.com/ 

Having found your sources, it is important to cite them properly to avoid charges of academic plagiarism. This tells you how:
 http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/citations.html

Teaching in the 21st century from Sonja Delafosse from youtube

I found that this sums up the position I have arrived at so far; so I present it without further comment:

Tell it like it is...the future for learners and facilitators

Tell it like it is...

As a young learner and a bit later as a young teacher, I dreamed of having the classical library of Alexandria on my desktop. I also dreamed that I could have access to the thoughts of others; their impulses, their motivations, their conclusions, their successes and their near misses. That I could readily communicate with like-minded people both near and far. That I could share their dreams and they mine. Within my lifetime this has all come true. At the touch of a few keys I have the world at my fingertips, in my ears and in my eyes. And all I had to do was to learn where to look and master a few simple skills. Of course I have to be careful not to get knocked down by crazies but that has always applied in life. As I am older I don’t have to make the decision like parents and children do – at what age should all this begin if I want to allow childhood to be physical, psychological and emotional play – but that is only a matter of control and degree. Not whether but when to start experiencing 21^st century skills. All of this is a question of healthy balance and will require practice, parental and facilitator support and help in the growth of wisdom to get that balance right.

So when I, as the new learner, embark on my odyssey to find these 21^st century skills what can I expect to await me?

In the construction of my personal learning environment I will find fellow travellers in life (on social media websites) or people searching for the same interests as I have (in learning communities). I will be able to gain access to them everywhere I go through my mobile devices (smart phone, tablet or phablet). I will become overloaded with possibilities and have to make crucial decisions about what to access and what to discard. As Wordsworth wrote: ‘The world is too much with us…’ That will become an on-going series of major decision-making process in my life; controlling information overload. I will be able to communicate face-to-face, by mobile, teleconferencing, videoconferencing, by email, skyping, through the internet, by sms, on social media, by posting my profile and creating a network Xing or Linkedin or through slideshare and the like. To search I can use a search engine, a metasearch engine or a specialist search engine like google scholar or sweetsearch. As tools I will have my laptop, netbook or tablet, phablet or smart phone. I can view and listen also on my ipod. I can film with a digital camera and orientate myself or plan travel with tom tom or garmin (or even do all of these on my mobile phone). I can handle writing, figures databases and presentations with open office. I can organise my music and videos with itunes, upload my original musical creations to soundcloud and customize my photos with photoshop and post them on flickr. Of course these are only well-known examples. For a fuller listing of possibilities see http://www.go2web20.net/ . I can communicate online with a learning platform, in virtual classrooms and physical ones with smartboards and get free tutorials with MOOCs or https://www.khanacademy.org/ . The latter is ‘completely free forever’. I can hone my reactions and live out my phantasies in online game-playing communities. When I am ready I can provide myself with a university education to doctorate level and publish the theses I produce on the way. I can publish my autobiography, my poetry and songs, my art or my hyperlinked novel novel. I can finance my causes through crowdsourcing. To this I can add everything desirable that my fellow users dream up in our collective futures and may much of it be opensource...

The question then is:

 ‘will learning institutions at all levels be ready in terms of the training of facilitators and their intellectual acceptance to meet this new challenging digital age and develop with it into web 3.0 and beyond or will they die out like the dodo?’

Image: www.en.wikipedia.org (no further info available)

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Opportunities in a Digital Age

Click on Mike Keppell below on Slideshare to see the range of work on digital future identities and the implications for learning currently being done at the Australian Futures Institute in Queensland.

Opportunities in a Digital Age: Implications for Identity, Inclusion and Economy from Mike Keppell

 

Gated communities online?

I just read about the problem caused by the enclosed nature of facebook and twitter where search engines can't readily reach. A similar situation applies to news aggegators especially since the death of google reader. News aggregators pass on the information without each reader scoring a hit on the website featured which means that it is harder to finance that site for advertising revenue. Thus aggregators do the reader a favour and the writer a potential disfavour if s/he is looking for revenue from the site.

This photo by Dean Terry on Hans Karssenberg's

http://www.inspiringcities.org/walls-of-incompetence/

somehow exemplifies that for me. Take a look at the site!

Strange that MOOCs appear at present to open up educational opportunities...
I guess if I am inexperienced in a topic I will pay for a teacher in the future
or if I'm intrapersonal and and of an autodidactic frame of mind I won't...
Either way it'll be interesting to finally see the death of the dias-centred diatribe -
I can hardly wait!

About 'The MOOC model for digital practice'

This 64 page paper presented by Alexander McAuley, Bonnie Stewart, George Siemens and Dave Cormi from 2010 covers the following aspects of MOOCs initially related to Canada:

• the digital economy
• as digital practice
• learner roles
• the implications
• gaps in knowledge 

It is available to download under CC licence:

http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/MOOC_Final.pdf

New directions for a digital age - MOOC 'Connectivism' (CCK12)

Following the Stanford Artificial Intelligence MOOC in the summer of 2011 George Siemens and Stephen Downes MOOC.ca decided to create a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to work on developing a theory called connectivism because all main educational theories were pre-digital age and therefore neither up-to-date or comprehensive.

This MOOC in its ongoing form was their sharing and developing experience with thousands of other interested parties.

http://cck12.mooc.ca/

Stephen Downe's ebooks can be accessed here:

http://www.downes.ca/me/mybooks.htm

Reflections about online personas

It's also a good idea to read Andy Beal's useful free beginners' guide to monitoring and managing online (persona or brand) presence:

http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2006/03/online-reputation-monitoring-beginners.html 

I found this interesting quote from Berlin Fang in the China Daily which seems up the persona problem neatly:

'Our virtual image is not always, if ever, a mirror image of who we actually are offline. Most of us now have a "split personality" problem between our virtual selves and our real selves. But such a differentiation existed even before the Internet.'

Between public and home life; social and work life; authors and their characters - the split personality has always been there.

Mastercard research on online personas

I found this research from Mastercard as reported in Business Wire to be illuminating about online persona types - to quote:

'Though consumers are increasingly savvy in managing their online identity, the consumer research reveals there is a clear hierarchy in the kind of information they are willing to share, and there are certain types of organizations they trust most with their data. Some of the key findings about each online persona group include:

• “Open Sharers”: Twenty-one percent of online consumers fall into this category, which tends to skew more male (60 percent). Open Sharers are the most highly digital group of the five and tend to lead less risk-averse online activities. Half of them are online more than 10 times per day and when they share their personal information, they expect deals, access and offers in return.
• “Simply Interactors”: This persona (which accounts for 21 percent of online consumers) includes some of the most dedicated social networkers, yet they are not particularly tech-savvy consumers. When it comes to online shopping, a majority (80 percent) will research products online, but 63 percent still prefer to shop in person. Though they are aware of targeted marketing, they don’t see their data as valuable and thus don’t express significant concern about it.
• “Solely Shoppers”: This online personality is characterized by their reliance on the Internet for savvy shopping research and purchases. Making up 21 percent of all consumers online, the majority (90 percent) of these Internet users researches products online before buying and half use their mobile phone to price check in-store in order to get the best deals. Surprisingly, they have low awareness of target marketing – as only 37 percent know that social media sites use their personal data to inform ads.
• “Passive Users”: As the name suggests, this group’s members are not fully convinced of the Internet’s value and therefore tend to spend the least amount of time online of all the personas. Accounting for 20 percent of all online consumers, Passive Users are less frequent on social networks (only 48 percent) and not heavy online shoppers. Compared to other personas, they are more likely to shop from their mobile device and more willing to trade their data for something in return.
• “Proactive Protectors”: Comprising 17 percent of all online consumers, the Proactive Protectors are highly aware of targeted marketing – in fact 82 percent are knowledgeable that marketers can target them based on their search and browsing history. They are unlikely to use social networks and the most guarded with their privacy settings of all the personas – taking steps to protect and control their digital footprint'

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20131002005755/en/What%E2%80%99s-Digital-DNA-MasterCard-Study

'We are all cyborgs now'

What happens when a man is merged with a computer?
Seven real life human cyborgs:

http://www.mnn.com/leaderboard/stories/7-real-life-human-cyborgs

Or getting a bionic eye:

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/technology/2009/march/Man-s-Orwellian-Bionic-Eye-Camera-Nears-Completion.html

I also refer to my own posting elsewhere:

http://digitalculture-ed.net/arthurh/2009/11/12/gies-from-disembodied-towards-embodied-how-material-are-cyberbodies/

Managing online personas

The management of an online persona with all its different ramifications requires extreme dexterity. For those who care about their career it can be a real headache and hiding doesn't help either. In this case low profile can amount to no profile.

I like this thought provoking article by Rachel Balik:

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/features/way-to-work/IV-Managing-Your-Online-Persona.html

also this collection about teachers stzruggling to separate professional and private lives online:

 http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/Americas/May-June-08/Teachers-Struggle-to-Separate-Private-and-Professional-Lives-Online.html

For students I like the following online sequence of activities to check out 'Naming in a Digital world: Creating a Safe Persona on the Internet. First a summary then the source:

'OVERVIEW

Naming takes on new meanings in digital settings—as students build personas through e-mail addresses, screen names, and online profiles, they can be unaware of the ways that others may read the information they share. Students begin this lesson by researching and discussing their own names. They investigate the role that situation and audience play in how names, such as nicknames or full names, are used. Next, they determine which of their names would be appropriate in a variety of different situations and then apply that idea to email, deciding which email addresses would be appropriate for each situation. Students use an online game to see what they can tell about another person from looking at their email address and then review online safety information. Finally, students choose a specific name that they would (or do) use to represent themselves online and create a profile for this online persona.'

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/naming-digital-world-creating-843.html