Terry King and Emma Duke-WilliamsCDPT Mash-Up

5 Feb 2009

Participation and Control in Social Networking: Re-purposing the Web for Learning and Teaching

Background

• Start?– Learning and Teaching Online 2001 - 2006– Knowledge Building Community Model– Worked as an online research community using a

networked environment– Using Knowledge Forum Software– Studied community postings for evidence of

Knowledge Building Principles http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~kingt/research/MA_TKing.pdf

12 Determinants of KB (Scardamalia, 2002, http://www.ikit.org/fulltext/inpressCollectiveCog.pdf )

1. Real Ideas, Authentic Problems

2. Improvable Ideas

3. Idea Diversity

4. Rise-Above

5. Epistemic Agency

6. Community Knowledge, Collective Responsibility

7. Democratising Knowledge

8. Symmetric Knowledge Advancement

9. Pervasive Knowledge Building

10.Constructive Uses of Authoritative Sources

11.Knowledge Building Discourse

12.Embedded and Transformative Assessment

Knowledge Forum

Example KF Note

KF Success

Next?

•Using Blogs for student reflection in 2004•Started using Elgg in 2005•Blogging environment designed for education

•Big QuestionCould Blogging tools support learning communities?

Elgg Features

Elgg Network - communities

Elgg Network – Blog Forum View

Elgg Forum Postings

Using Elgg

New model for learning? Considered Connectivism – 6 stages

(Siemens 2006 http://tinyurl.com/cdc3b3 ) Seemed more applicable to networked learning

Siemens (2006, 46). Contents abridged.

URL to book “Knowing Knowledge”: http://tinyurl.com/cdc3b3 or http://tinyurl.com/c3gbmm

Six Stages of Connectivism

1. Awareness and Receptivity Individuals acquire basic skills. 2. Connection Forming Individuals begin to use tools and

understanding developed in level 1 3. Contribution and Involvement The learner begins to actively

contribute to the network/ecology. 4. Pattern Recognition Learners are network aware and

competent and …they are now capable of recognising emerging patterns and trends.

5. Meaning-Making Individuals capable of understanding meaning. What do the emerging patterns mean?

6. Praxis Individuals are actively involved in tweaking, building, and recreating their own learning network. Praxis allows the learner to critically evaluate the tools, processes, and elements of an ecology or network.

Research

New undergraduate unit (research methods) Graduated activities/ assessment artefact

Hoped to cover stages 1-3 of Siemen’s model

StudiedContents of posts.Focus groups

Findings from Elgg Research(2007/2008)

• Observed 1st 3 stages of Siemen’s model– Individuals acquire basic skills and .. begin to use tools and

understanding developed in level 1 – The learner begins to actively contribute to the network/ecology.

• Focus groups:– Students claimed to have learnt through

discussion– Wanted as much collaboration as possible.– .... all their cohort for final year. – ... external experts.

Elgg community links

Initial Findings from Elgg Research (2008/2009)

• Much less successful• Also started to follow some research using

Twitter for L&T … • Twitter is very interesting and may suggest

another approach for drawing students into connectivist learning

Start with the wider network …

Start of Year 1 Research

End of Year 1 Research

End of Year 2

Possible Alternative Approach

Prev 7

Prev 8 slide

Full embedding of student in wider network

Student community embedded in the wider network – and good basis for a community of practice.

BUT maybe only in ONE respect ……..

COP ?

• ONLY in so far…. Students may be novices in working these types of communities … can be drawn in, so they gain that expertise

• Expertise in how to be a good community member .. In how to work in these networks ..

•Possibly NOT the transmission of a craft or professional expertise

•More like apprenticeship learning

•Teacher has to be an expert in how to operate in this environment …. Challenge 1

Challenges for lecturers 2• Learning communities .. But NOT operating within an

expertise paradigm– credentials, transmission, deference, tradition, mandatory

• Very close to knowledge building communities– Task oriented, democratic, reciprocal, voluntary, dynamic

• Operate within collective intelligence paradigm– NOT one ‘body of knowledge’ shared by all members– Draw on diverse knowledge of members - combined

expertise of all members - sum total of all the parts – OK to ‘lurk’ – wait until your contribution is needed– But… an individual is affiliated to many communities

..Siemens higher stages of connectivisim – “pattern recognition” and “meaning making”

Challenges for Lecturers 3

• In collective intelligence communities emphasis on emotional and intellectual engagement (fun, game playing?)

• If not meeting needs .. participants leave / withdraw

• Have choices … and are in control

Challenges for lecturers 4• To shape the learning experience need to take

control and apply constraints• Ultimate aim is that the student can control their

own learning. Make informed choices.– “At every stage of learning, to either take control or

relinquish control” (Dron)

• Fear of loosing control … Answer?– Negotiated control

• Loosely structured, dialogue driven approaches

– Use stigmergy – • “behaviour of one guides and influences others” (Dron) • Twitter (followers), Blogs (active, influential centres, gather) • Structure emerges from the dialogue and takes the control load

from the participants

Summary• Re-examine COP Model – let go?• Lecturer expertise (active users of Web 2.0)• Active engagement with new cultures of

participation and media convergence. Implications:– extended access to new media technologies/ computers/

networks– participation gap , convergence resistors

• Happy with less control? Less imposed structure.– Be more relaxed with the structure that arises in the

dialogue taking the strain of control from the lecturer