Learning and creating knowledge in a social networked era George Siemens, PhD September 9, 2013 Presented to: Desire2Learn Ignite Conference Melbourne, Australia
Aug 19, 2014
Learning and creating knowledge in a social networked era
George Siemens, PhD September 9, 2013
Presented to: Desire2Learn Ignite Conference
Melbourne, Australia
Slides:
http://www.slideshare.net/gsiemens/
(citations and sources in notes pane)
Intent of this presentation:
Detail the networks as an organizing structure for knowledge and learning Emphasize the need to transition to thinking in networks as a way of understanding and participating in science, society, learning, education, and creativity activities
We always lived in a connected world, except we were not so much aware of it…That has changed drastically in the last decade, at many, many different levels.
Albert-lászló Barabási
Structural holes Burt, 1992
Figure 2.6: Structural holes and weak 8es
Weak & strong ties
Granovetter, 1973
“Intense connectivity can homogenize the pool…high cohesiveness can lead to the sharing of common rather than novel information”
Uzzi, Spiro (2005)
Dormant ties: Value of reconnecting
Weak ties: novelty and efficiency Strong ties: trust shared perspective
Levin, Walter & Murnighan, 2011
“All the knowledge is in the connections” David Rumelhart
“To ‘know’ something is to be
organized in a certain way, to exhibit patterns of connectivity.
“To ‘learn’ is to acquire certain
patterns”
Stephen Downes
870k papers visualized
h9p://cmap.ihmc.us/
Linking Open Data cloud diagram, by Richard Cyganiak and Anja Jentzsch. h9p://lod-‐cloud.net/
Why do some ideas spread?
"We're constantly being exposed to information on Facebook, Twitter and so on…Some of it we pass on, and a lot of it we don't. Is there something that happens in the moment we first see it…that is different for those things that we will pass on successfully versus those that we won't?”
Lieberman, 2013
Getting the “perfect” Reddit submission title
Lakkaraju, McAuley, Leskovec, 2013
Anesthesia and antiseptics Gawande, 2013
Hidden influentials in cascades (hubs often inhibit spread of information)
Moreno, 2013
Dow, Adamic, Friggeri, 2013
Spicer, 2013
London Whale: How to lose $6b+
Metal workers: cylinders
Steam Wheels
Motion
Transportation need
Viability
Scientific progress
Entrepreneurship
“a thousand threads that lead from the locomotive to the very beginning of the modern world”
Rosen, 2010
“The process may be more like stitching together known parts than
pioneering a complete route from scratch”
W. Bryan Arthur, 2006
The power of an ecosystem
October, 2001
Courtesy of Apple
April, 2003
October, 2005
TV shows, music videos (September, 2006, full length movies)
January, 2007
Courtesy of Apple
Network theory of change
The integration of services provides the value for end users
Systems are now socio-technical. Cognition is no longer only “in our
heads”.
Technology is a part of our cognitive structure.
Networks become powerful through
lock-in and integration i.e. what they exclude
Today in education, we are witnessing an unbundling of previous network
structures.
And a rebundling of network lock-in models.
Silicon Valley
Shockley
Terman
With increased complexity,
(lack of) sensemaking in socio-technical systems leads to disastrous results
Bhopal, 1984
Mann Gulch, Collapse of sensemaking
Weick 1993
Black hawk shoot down, 1994: “was caused by a chain of events” GAO Report
Distributed content and conversations
gRSShopper
h9p://grsshopper.downes.ca/
John Baker, 2013
Soft is hard and hard is easy Jon Dron
“web-based participatory culture is subverting and destabilizing a top-down cultural industry model of education that has evolved around the medium of the book.”
Hanke, B. 2011
From guesses and hype to data and analytics Kolata (NY Times), 2013
Transparent boundaries…new ones being formed (yes, classroom walls are thinning, but the transition is broader)
h9p://mashe.hawksey.info/
Incorporating network attributes into learning design: - Resonance - Diversity - Learning control - Optimal network structures - Knowledge profile/imprint - Competence as configuration of networks - Peer learning and information flow - Why some ideas/concepts go viral
A university as
“assemblage of strangers from all parts in one spot”
J.H. Newman Lecturers 1854-1859
Twitter/Gmail: gsiemens