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?
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/
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