1. Reuven M. Lerner, Sharona T. Levy, and Uri Wilensky Northwestern University & University of Haifa Chais Conference February 10 th, 2010 Connected Modeling: Design and Analysis of the Modeling Commons

2. Models Model: Reified theory about a system Often used in science and engineering Anatomy, molecules, DNA Also mathematical models Economics, cognitive science

3. Modeling and Constructionism Purpose of modeling: Construction and revision of conceptual understanding (Jonassen, 2006) Papert: Best way to construct knowledge is by creating sharing artifacts (1991) Modeling has been shown to help learning (Goldstone & Wilensky, 2008; Blikstein & Wilensky, 2008)

4. NetLogo

5. Wilensky, 1999 http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo 100,000 users worldwide Includes 400+ models, code examples Associated curricula (ProbLab, Connected Chemistry, MaterialSim, NIELS, BEAGLE)

6. Building vs. sharing NetLogo is successful for building...... but existing community structures are not promoting sharing. Sharing in journals, Web — not community netlogo-users: Only 5.7% of 9,696 messages included a model (over 7 years) Limited community models (274 in 7 years)

7. Interactions are vital Vygotsky: Learning leads to development when “interacting with people in his environment and in collaboration with his peers.” (1978, p. 90) Lave & Wenger (1991): Legitimate Peripheral Participation, CoP Schön (1983): “Reflection in Action”

8. Collaboration is vital A skill and a perspective (Kolodner and Guzdial, 1996) Much of our culture depends on collaboration and remixing (Lessig, 2008) CSCL sees collaborative communities as a learning paradigm (Stahl, 2006; Koschmann, 1994)

9. My research Encourage sharing, collaboration, communities of practice Encourage communication with models, not about them Identify patterns that emerge from such interactions

10. Modeling Commons

11. Wikipedia of modeling View, share, collaboratively build models Run models in the browser Create families of “branched” models Discussion, requests for help Social tagging

12. Research to date Round #1: Winter-spring 2008 12 people, 3 interviews, 4 written reports Concentrated on design Round #2: Fall 2008 24 people, 10 interviews Combination of design and usage

13. Research to date Round #3: Spring 2009 36 participants in 3 classes at 2 universities Total of 90 models uploaded

14. Design Research Clinical interviews (Ginsburg, 1997) and defined tasks (Nielsen, 2000) to improve design: Improve system usability Reduce threshold to sharing, collaboration, discussion

15. Home pages Users consistently reported a “lost” feeling “It would be nice... to find out what models were new, or what models there had been recent activity on. Both, actually... here’s a new model, and people are talking about this model.”

16. Solution: Dynamic page Your models Most-viewed Your tags Most downloaded Requests for help

17. Privacy 8/10 subjects said “sharing my models with others” has importance of 4 or 5 (out of 5) However, many expressed reservations for classwork or work-in-progress “...I wouldn’t have been comfortable, and the people I work with wouldn’t have been comfortable — showing the models to the world in an unfinished form”

18. Groups, permissions

20. Logfile analysis Every action in the Commons is logged Allows for analysis, understanding without looking over users’ shoulders

21. Logfile analysis: LPP* Predicted by Lave, Wenger (1991) 3 neither viewed nor uploaded 8 did view, but never uploaded 15 viewed before uploading 9 uploaded before viewing Some LPP behavior is seen in 63% (n = 36) *Legitimate Peripheral Participation

22. Networks Explicit vs. implicit networks Networks of people via models, discussions, tags Graphs are from one university class, where students were instructed to tag and discuss models, as well as upload them Some measures from Krackhardt (1994)

23. Explicit membership

24. Models + creators Connectedness = 0.097 Hierarchy = 0.271

25. Models + taggers Connectedness = 0.656 Hierarchy = 0.0426

26. Models + commenters Connectedness = 0.862 Hierarchy = 0.085

27. Models + all actions Connectedness = 0.731 Hierarchy = 0.030

28. Social networking Explicit group membership does not necessarily indicate actual ties Connectedness is a useful comparison only when the number of nodes is the same Multiple communication channels would appear to be the key to a truly connected graph (and thus community)

29. Future work 3 courses already used it; another soon Refining and extending logfile, network analysis methods Explore: http://modelingcommons.org/http://modelingcommons.org Soon will be announced to the world

30. Acknowledgements Prof. Uri Wilensky Dr. Sharona T. Levy Members of the CCL Researchers, students, and TAs who participated