Open Access Week: Athabasca University

Making sense of complexity inopen information environments George Siemens October 26, 2011

Openness is a control tradeoffAnd it means we have to do different things

Where are our control points?

Our curriculum?

Our teaching?

Fragmentation is a new reality. Our learning models experience Fragmentary need to embrace (reflect) it.• Conversations, content, context not (only) shaped by the school/educator• Learners are in control

Coherence is an orientation about the meaningand value of information elements based onhow they are connected, structured, and related Antonovsky 1993

Existing coherence forming systemsBooksNewspapersTV news programsMagazines(anything that is structured and that the enduser can’t speak into and alter)

Openness messes up coherence (and control)

Fragmentation of information requiresthat we weave together elements into some type of coherent frameworkYoutubeBlogsTwitterFacebookTEDtalksKahn AcademyOnline news/information sitesTraditional coherence frameworks

Networked informationdoesn’t have a centre

Informationfragmentation…loss ofnarratives of coherence

“the rise of millions of fragmented discussionsacross the world tend instead to lead tofragmentation of audiences into isolatedpublics” 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

Social forms collectivenet set group Jon Dron & Terry Anderson

‘‘. . . information foraging refers to activitiesassociated with assessing, seeking, and handlinginformation sources” Piroli and Card, 1995

What is sensemaking?

“Sensemaking is about labelling and categorizingto stabilize the streaming of experience” Weick et al. 2005

“a motivated, continuous effort to understandconnections . . . in order to anticipate theirtrajectories and act effectively” Klein et al. 2006

CynefinFrameworkDave Snowden

Domains of Sensemaking

Complicated is not complex.

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

When an answer is not known,or when agents interact in unpredictable ways, it is complex.

Lessons #1 in Paths to Failure:Education system is treating a complex problem as a complicated one.

Complex unknown problems require: 1. Mind of a scientist 2. Mind of an artist

What is wayfinding?

“the process that takes place when peopleorient themselves and navigate through space” Raubal and Winter 2002

“is the cognitive element of navigation … it doesnot involve movement of any kind but only thetactical and strategic parts that guidemovement.” Darken and Peterson 2002

The Landing

Finding complex informationenvironments: research spaces

The data setConnectivism and Connective Knowledge 2008 (CCK08)

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

The methods1. Social network and participation analysis2. Corbin & Strauss’ (1990) version of groundedtheory

SNA & Participation Habits

CCK08 Weekly Forum Posts

CCK08: Introduction forumLimitedinteraction.Most areisolated

Introduction forum posts: CCK08 Dialogue limited: Group too large?

Week 12 forum posts: CCK08 More equitable distribution? Due to smaller #’s of participants?

Open codingusing Coherehttp://cohere.open.ac.uk

Axial Coding

Self-organization and sub-networksSensegiving 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 ininteraction, whereby individual sense-makingprocesses are affected and new domains ofsocial sense-making can be generated that werenot available to each individual on her own” De Jaegher and Di Paolo 2007

Artefacts re-centre the learning conversation

Artifacts ofsensemaking

Organizingcoursecontent Dolors Capdet

Image of course structure created by course participant http://x28newblog.blog.uni-heidelberg.de/2008/09/06/cck08-first-impressions/

Language/externalization reduces the“occult character” of mental images. WittgensteinLanguage gives birth to thought Vygotsky

Language games Storytelling Debate, dialogue DescriptionsNarratives of Clarificationsensemaking Metaphors Analogies Examples Resonance

change.mooc.ca Twitter: gsiemens www.elearnspace.org/blog http://www.solaresearch.org/Learning Analytics & Knowledge 2012: Vancouver http://lak12.sites.olt.ubc.ca/

Open Access Week: Athabasca University

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