Re: Comments and reflection on Elluminate Session on 25 Nov 09 | |
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Great session. Many thanks again Frances for setting this one up and running with it, and thanks to everyone for a fascinating self-organised event. Heli and Ailsa, thanks for showing us how it should be done, combining the aesthetics and so many other things with the 'cognitive' stuff. Less is more, Ailsa! Complexity ... Complex events are by definition unpredictable, so behaviourist? not. Period. The question is not whether some things are more or less predictable (large or small error bars, or standard deviations), but whether there are some things (many things in fact) which are quite unpredictable, because they are "complex" in CAST (complex adaptive systems theory) terms, not in the everyday sense of "complex". So what is 'complex' -(in CAST)? It consists of: Self-organising systems (see Conway's Life), which may also be Self-reproducing (see computer viruses, biological viruses, and genes/memes/temes), which enjoy Substantial degrees of freedom (see CCK08/09), and which are likely to produce New, surprising, emergent events and properties, depending on the Constraints in place in a particular context (see the comparison between CCK 08 and 09, and look at Twitter as a paradigm case study): So... CCK08: no de jure constraints, at least one Troll on site, and with an implicit 'good behaviour' constraint in place, which is not made explicit, and which has no de facto effective sanctions, as the implicit constraint of modelling good behaviour didn't cut any ice with the Troll, nor was the 'Do not feed the trolls' (DNFTT) rule known to everyone in CCK08, and it certainly wasnt applied. vs. CCK09: de facto constraints (Troll self-excluded), and implicit constraints (modelled good beviour). The question is not whether there were any constraints and sanctions in place in 08 or 09. There were constraints and sanctions in place in both. There are two, linked questions: 1. What type of constraints best provide conditions for emergence? In CAST terms, negative constraints, i.e. constraining what can NOT be done facilitates emergence, and, paradoxically, autonomy. On the other hand, positive constraints, e.g. "you must do 3 assignments on the following topics, in text only, with references, against predetermined outcomes", are most likely going to exclude emergence. [So, does that mean we have to redesign our curricula, completely 'upside down'? Yes, and the design of CCK08/09 goes part of the way in designing 'courses' upside down for the same reason.] 2. Constraints without sanctions are just hot air. So what sanctions should be in place, and i) how can you avoid imposing them, by offering alternatives (diversions, etc), and ii) if you have to impose them, how will you go about doing so, to ensure that they are swift and effective? - And this means there is a 'you' in the picture, (singular or plural) 'you' cant be air-brushed out. To put it plainly: 'freedom is conferrred -either by an authority, or by a consensus, but conferred it is'. This is the simple (simplified) version. Life online is more interesting and complicated than that, and one of the problems with the DNFTT rule was that the Troll was quite interesting at times, so it was difficult to know whether to apply it. And ... Even under the most adverse conditions, emergence will out. (See Blackmore [the temes link above] on why evolution is a 'must').
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Re: Comments and reflection on Elluminate Session on 25 Nov 09 | |
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Hi Roy. Read the wikipedia definition of Troll you provided. There seems to be two major ingredients required to achieve this classification: 1. ...someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, with 2. ...the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response[1] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion... How was it determined that Catherine's intent was such? Who labelled her a troll? |
Re: Comments and reflection on Elluminate Session on 25 Nov 09 | |
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HI Roy, thanks for taking the time to express your preferences in detail. I guess I am coming from a different place. One of my paradigms is that conflict can be productive. I acknowledge that the amount of conflict acceptable differs among individual tastes, and I am not talking about physical conflict, while again acknowledging that verbal conflict can be harmful to many. In short: loud, strong arguments are ok by me and I prefer to stay away from ad hominem attacks. For example, I like how Catherine defended herself: Which is the most successful network in history Trolling for Trolls |
Re: Comments and reflection on Elluminate Session on 25 Nov 09 | |
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We need to practice online conferencing. Read what happened to Danah Boyd when she gave a talk at Web2.0 Expo spectacle at Web2.0 Expo... from my perspective and also about the great presentation from George Siemens at the Learntrends 2009 online conference I was so nervous before my 1st online presentation at the April 2009 Learntrends Conference Thanks Jay Cross for my 61 min of Fame Online I understand what Leila and Heli where feeling during their presentations!! |
Re: Comments and reflection on Elluminate Session on 25 Nov 09 | |
| I'll try out voice threads to see if i can load what i presented today. Thanks for the facilitation, 'tis the first time I've attempted to present anything on elluminate, and it was easier than i anticipated, so thanks for the opportunity. |
Re: Comments and reflection on Elluminate Session on 25 Nov 09 | |
I am very happy but tired - still after sleeping one night. It was almost midnight in Finland during the session and I became so activated that I couldn't sleep after it. So I dreamed about your presentations all the night.My brain works slowly with spoken English and it took all the night to understand what you said Now I am seeking for the recording in order to listen .. after repeating the experience I can say what happened.But great it was, surely. You are gorgious people and I trust you and we respect each other. So the experience empowers us and we get energy. When I get my mind into a better order I'll begin my narrative case study in my blog where is now only the slide from yesterday. It is streched but I don't care, the text can be read. The slide shows my intention and my direction. It is not very far from others who presented I suppose. The habit to use Elluminate blank table and share it, work together, it is fine. It worked in Frances Bell session (teacher disappearing) and it worked now. |
Re: Comments and reflection on Elluminate Session on 25 Nov 09 | |
| I agree it was a great experience, the atmosphere created by the facilitators managed to encourage a lot of participation. I really liked all of the presentations and was particularly inspired by Heli´s psychological approach and her "find your own voice" motto. I felt very self-conscious about my microphone issues though, but that´s another lesson from connectivism for me: I wasn´t that familiar with the very simple concept of a microphone connection and didn´t know that with a USB microphone I would have done better. Becoming more familiar with all kinds of hardware and software is a requirement in new learning enviroments, an invisible requirement until it becomes an obstacle for communication. So I´d better get to know my computer like the palm of my hand (can you say this in English?) |
Re: Comments and reflection on Elluminate Session on 25 Nov 09 | |
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Great ideas Frances, 1. Self-organised study groups - Following CCK08, we have formed the Connectivism Ning Community Network and many of the CCK08 participants have joined it. Every one in CCK09 are invited to join. There is also a Connectivism wiki that participants could consider. 2. "Moving on Connectivism" workshop could be organised after CCK09, using various social media. We could use the Connectivism Ning Community Network to organise such workshops, with Elluminate run on a need or regular basis. 3. We have got distributed networks on Facebook, Twitters (tagged under #CCK09), CCK09 Ning, Diigo #CCK09, Google Research Group #CCK09, Delicious/tag/cck09, Friend Feed, various wiks - wikispaces on PLE/N, Wordpress (tagged under #CCK09) for us to consider.... Would a list of the links help? Would you mind to include your links in subsequent threads? That's my 10 cents worth What do you think? |
Re: Comments and reflection on Elluminate Session on 25 Nov 09 | |
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One of the challenges in holding synchronous event such as Elluminate is that people/participants all over the world are living with different time zones. So, it would be: 4 pm in Winnipeg of Canada 10 pm in London of UK 9 am in Sydney of Australia the next day etc. If the event is organised at a time where people have to attend a mid-night session, then those people would surely have to miss out from the event. On a few occasions, I have attended Elluminate sessions held at 1:00 am or 2:00 am (not with CCK08/09) and one at 5:00 am with CCK08. It was very difficult to focus, and I lost sleep on that night. Have you experienced similar problems? What would be the feasible solutions to overcome such time zone problem? (a) Would the holding of (same or similar) events with 2 time slots help? This would allow people from the same regional area to attend. (b) Or would the organising of event be based on the needs of people in certain regional areas? Would networks be "grouped" on such basis to allow online sessions be run? Would that also explain why some events have huge crowds attending, whilst others haven't? What do you think? |
Re: Comments and reflection on Elluminate Session on 25 Nov 09 | |
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I take Sui Fai John's points about the Ning and the time zone issue but there is something about the Speed presentation aspect that is important and was in the post I lost. Synchronous sessions enable better performativity and interactivity IMHO. With some great colleagues, I have run 'Slam' (based on poetry slams) workshops for the last few years (and have used something similar for extended Induction activity). Workshops are based on a topic or theme, introduced by short presentation(s). Participants then work in groups to produce a brief performance piece (that we can video), then watch each other's and vote. Here they are: http://web2slam.wetpaint.com/ http://digdivslam.wetpaint.com I think it might be possible to do a version of this that combined synchronous and asynchronous. So I am thinking that groups could work together synchronously to produce their Slam, publish it by a certain date when forum discussion could explore it, followed by some sort of plenary event that drew together common threads. |
Re: Comments and reflection on Elluminate Session on 25 Nov 09 | |
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Here is the recording of Responses to Connectivism Elluminate Session. Frances, I enjoyed your workshop postings and the Youtube videos. Participants would enjoy more with interactive activities, presentation, discussion and further interaction, agreed. Great idea to do a version of that combining synchronous and asychronous sessions. Those who couldn't attend the synchronous session (Elluminate) could also be involved in such network activities. Digital story telling (using voice thread) could be a useful mean to encourage collaboration amongst network members, but it requires a lot of good will, mutual sharing, time and efforts in making up the story. The voice thread that Ailsa and Gus mentioned could be a very effective way of sharing different views of participants based on a video or picture. What is required are some common themes that are of interests to our groups or networks. Any suggestion? Could we also use Goggle Wave to initiate a simple joint network project? This may be a project/discussion lasting for 2 to 3 days sharing on Goggle Wave. I think most of us might be excited in how we could apply Goggle Wave in network or education projects. What do you think? |
Re: Comments and reflection on Elluminate Session on 25 Nov 09 | |
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Hi Roy and CCK09 group in Voicethread Now I got the address http://voicethread.com/share/769312/ my voice sounds awful and unsure and I am afraid of speaking .. It is a new skill to learn to enjoy recordings. But I did this and better to be proud of it! I will write more to my blog when I have more to say .. and have time for wrtiting. |
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However, I have managed to put something up, it comes up with a cck search. Not sure i was at my most articulate, but its a site that I can certainly see has some potential. Thanks for bringing your knowledge of it into cck09, ailsa.
all the night.