1. Making sense of complexity in open information environments George Siemens October 26, 2011

2. Openness is a control tradeoff And it means we have to do different things

3. Where are our control points?

4. Our curriculum?

5. Our teaching?

6. 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.

7. Coherence is an orientation about the meaning and value of information elements based on how they are connected, structured, and related Antonovsky 1993

8. Existing coherence forming systems Books Newspapers TV news programs Magazines (anything that is structured and that the end user can’t speak into and alter)

9. Openness messes up coherence (and control)

10. Fragmentation of information requires that we weave together elements into some type of coherent framework Youtube Blogs Twitter Facebook TEDtalks Kahn Academy Online news/information sites Traditional coherence frameworks

11. Networked information doesn’t have a centre

12. Information fragmentation…loss of narratives of coherence

13. “the rise of millions of fragmented discussions across the world tend instead to lead to fragmentation of audiences into isolated publics” Habermas 2006

14. 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

15. As information quantity and complexity increase… We adopt two approaches: 1.Better technical systems 2.Better connected social systems

16. setnet group collective Social forms Jon Dron & Terry Anderson

19. ‘‘... information foraging refers to activities associated with assessing, seeking, and handling information sources” Piroli and Card, 1995

20. What is sensemaking?

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

22. “a motivated, continuous effort to understand connections... in order to anticipate their trajectories and act effectively” Klein et al. 2006

23. Cynefin Framework Dave Snowden

24. Domains of Sensemaking

25. Complicated is not complex.

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

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

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

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

30. What is wayfinding?

31. “the process that takes place when people orient themselves and navigate through space” Raubal and Winter 2002

32. “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

34. The Landing

35. 2008, 2009, 2011 Finding complex information environments: research spaces

36. The data set Connectivism and Connective Knowledge 2008 (CCK08)

37. Tools used by learners http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/643/1402 Fini, 2009 Roughly anything.

38. The methods 1. Social network and participation analysis 2. Corbin & Strauss’ (1990) version of grounded theory

39. SNA & Participation Habits

40. CCK08 Weekly Forum Posts

41. CCK08: Introduction forum Limited interaction. Most are isolated

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

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

45. Open coding using Cohere http://cohere.open.ac.uk

46. Axial Coding

48. 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

49. Coherence expression (sensegiving) Artifacts Narratives

50. 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

51. Artefacts re-centre the learning conversation

52. Artifacts of sensemaking

53. Organizing course content Dolors Capdet

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

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

56. Language games Storytelling Debate, dialogue Descriptions Clarification Metaphors Analogies Examples Resonance Narratives of sensemaking

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