Slides by Jon Dron and myself to a small group at the Media Zoo at the Univ of Leicester. Adobe Connect vido available at http://tinyurl.com/anderson-elgg

1. Fun and Fear
in Open
Spaces
Media Zoo
University of
Image from kurtxio
Leicester
Jon Dron and Terry Anderson

2. Unpaid ADVERTISEMENT
Issues in Distance
Education Series
aupress.ca
www.irrodl.org

3. Values
We can (and must) continuously improve the
quality, effectiveness, appeal, cost and time
efficiency of the learning experience.
Student control and freedom is integral to 21st
Century life-long education and learning.
Education for elites is not sufficient for
planetary survival

4. Pervasive Openness
4

5. University as a More Open
Community
5

6. agoraphobia
the fear of open spaces
2

7. agoraphilia
the love of open spaces
3

8. Which networks do you use
and find useful? Why?
Anyothers?

9. Social forms
collective
net set
group

10. The Learning Management Systems
or VLE
• Fixed periods of engagement
• limited learner control
• teaching-led
• Closed
• Private
group

11. Athabasca Landing

12. A Wordle view of Landing rationale 5

13. An open space to
share...
Anyone can
share anything
with anyone.
Open in time and
in space.

14. Multiple rationales
collective
Sustaining ties
Cooperation
Making ties
Sharing
Ad hoc networks
Serendipity
Knowledge diffusion net set Interest -orientation
Social capital
Sense-making
Social presence
Collective intelligence
Intentional discovery
group
Courses
Committees
Research groups
Study groups
Centres and departments
15

15. “Your Friends Make you Fat”
Fowler & Christakis (2007)
A study of Obesity http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070725_obesity.htm

16. They can also make you smart!
Fowler & Christakis (2007)
A study of Obesity http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070725_obesity.htm

17. The Closed Garden versus Facebook
• Boutique networks
• Differentiating work, from school, from fun
• Context is king
• social networking a
feature, not a
destination

18. A Guided Tour of the Landing
https://landing.athabascau.ca
18

19. Athabasca Landing

20. Tool Instances
Users: 2657
Messages: 21762
Files: 3561
Blog posts: 3348
Wire posts: 1921
Bookmarked items: 1550
Discussion topics: 1305
Pages: 853
Photos: 788
Top-level pages: 530
Event Calendar: 171
Albums: 109
Bookmark Folder: 87
Polls: 69

21. New Users Added per Month

22. Monthly Blog Posts

23. Landing Groups
•271 Groups
•Average of 9 .39 members each
•42% of population a member of one or more
groups
•Of these, members of 8 groups (on average)

24. Social networking a
feature, not a
destination
• 35% of people followed by
someone else (long tail shown
here)
• 22% following someone else
• 17% reciprocal
• 4% members of nets and not
groups
• 24% in groups but not nets

25. Content creation and
the long tail
• 28% are content creators
• 61% of content created by 1% of those
• 33% by next 10%
• 90% of the 28% of people creating
content create 6% of it

26. A soft space
24

27. Public vs private
• It all depends on context and purpose...
PUBLIC SET NET GROUP
Blogs 36% 50% 2% 11%
Wikis (8.5%
18% 45% 2% 26%
private)
Bookmarks 9% 65% 0.5% 24%
Images 6% 75% 6% 10%
25

28. Public vs private
26

29. Groups
• Safety
• familiarity (in education)
• formality
• trust group
• scaffolding
• structure
• Reliability
• Group think Scariness
• Cliques, hidden curriculum
27

30. Networks
• Connectivity
• strength of weak ties
• blurred boundaries
• shifting contexts net
• risk
• insecurity
• partial openness Scariness
• (appear) unstructured
28

31. Sets
• anonymity
• Openness
• Aggregated traces
• analytics set
• Danger
• Imposed structure
• loss of identity Scariness
• unreliability
29

32. Why open?
• Greater interaction and feedback
• Transparency
• Social capital
• Self-promotion
• Altruism
• Course requirements
• Good ideas
30

33. Why not open?
• Fear of ....
• loss of face
• loss of privacy
• legal issues
• loss of control
• permanence
• freeloaders
• being unkind (especially wikis)
• exposure
• the unknown

34. Original Metrics
To increase the ease and effectiveness with Quantitative
which people at AU can create, sustain and Spread of social networks (number of users)
Profile Use
discover relationships and work
collaboratively, both professionally and
Qualitative
personally
Interviews
Focus groups

35. Original Metrics
To increase the ease with which Quantitative
information and knowledge can be Number and change in wire useage
shared outside formal channels Creation of groups
Number of blog posts
Use by university leaders
Qualitative
Interviews
Focus groups

36. Original Metrics
Integrate of services with existing Quantitative
provisions Successful integration of software
with Moodle, external blogs, twitter,
Wonderland,Zimbra, library, etc
Effectiveness of single sign on

37. Original Metrics
To enable the use of such services in Quantitative
formal as well as informal education and Use in formal courses
research Use by research groups
Creation of „learning‟ groups
(task, subject focused)
Number of “beyond the course”
learning groups
Qualitative
Interviews
Focus groups

38. Strategies for openness in social
spaces
• Selective access control
• Context control
• Use of defaults
• Establishment of norms
• Valorisation of open content
• Help and resources
• Open discussion
• Policies and rules
32

39. Final Questionable Implication
equivalencytheorem.info 39

40. 40

41. 41

42. The Interaction Equivalency (EQuiv) Website
http://equivalencytheorem.info/
Anderson, T. (2003 )Getting the Mix Right Again: An updated and theoretical
42
rationale for interaction.

43. OERu
• Can OERs + Student Networking eliminate the
cost of teachers??
43

44. OERu as a
Disruptive Technology
Clayton Christiansen 2012

45. • “The pessimist complains about the wind, the
optimist expects it to change, the realist adjusts the
sails.” William Arthur Ward (1921 – 1994)

46. https://landing.athabascau.ca/pg/profile/jond
Your comments and
questions are most
welcomed
https://landing.athabascau.ca/pg/profile/terrya