conole keynote ascilite 2009 conference presentation
TRANSCRIPT
New digital spaces - pushing the boundaries into the unknown; trajectories
of user behaviour in new frontiers
Gráinne Conole, Open University, UKASCILITE Conference, Auckland, 8th December 2009
Outline The broader context
A changing digital landscape: redefining ICT
Paradoxes created by ‘digital’ Educational dilemmas Jenkins twelve skills for participatory
culture A case study intervention
Cloudworks: Vision, theoretical underpinnings, key
concepts Emergent patterns of user behaviour Evolving theoretical framework
Grand challenges What are the key research questions? Methodology? Theoretical perspectives?
A changing digital landscape: redefining ICT
Trends Shift from content to social
mediation New practices of creation,
sharing and dialogue Scaling up/network effects
Web 2.0 practices Peer critiquing User generated content Collective aggregation Community formation Digital personas
goalachieves
Mediating artefacts
Multiple communication channels: Email, texting, blogs, wikis, forums, Skype, social networking sites,virtual worlds…
Multiple locations & representations: Repositories, RSS feeds, social bookmarking, concept maps, tag clouds, data maps, avatars
Thought experiment: A user interacting with technology to achieve a specific goal
Expansive knowledge domain
Death of expertiseeveryone an expert
Hierarchy & control less meaningful
Multiple pathways/lost in cyberspace
Increasingly complex digital landscape
Beyond ‘digital space’/New metaphors
Content distributed, everything is miscellaneous
Multiple (co-)locations/loss of content integrity
Collective intelligence
Social collective/digital individualism
Free content & tools, open APIs and mash ups
Issues re: ownership, value, business models
Paradoxes created by the digital
Expansive knowledge domain
Challenges the role of the teacher
Hierarchy & control less meaningful
Need for new learner pathways
Increasingly complex digital landscape
Widening skills gap between ‘tech savy’/others
Content distributed, everything is miscellaneous
Need to rethink the design process
Collective intelligence
Potential for new forms of learning
Free content & tools, open APIs and mash ups
Lack of uptake
Educational dilemmas
Digital literacies
Jenkins twelve skills for participatory culture Play – experimentation/problem solving Performance – alternative identities Simulation – construct models of real-world processes Appropriation – sample and remix of media content Multitasking – scanning and then focusing on salient details Distributed cognition – interaction to expand mental capacities Collective intelligence - to pool knowledge with others Judgment – evaluation reliability of different information Transmedia navigation – follow the flow of stories across
modalities Networking – search for, synthesize and dissemination
information Negotiation – travel diverse communities, multiple perspectives Visualisation – different data representations for ideas, patterns,
trends
Digital literaciesSeely BrownJenkinsLea and GoodfellowLankshear
A case study intervention
Issues Lack of uptake of technologies for learning and teaching New skills needed for engaging in a participatory digital
landscape Teachers say they want examples/want to share/discuss
Aim To bridge the gap between the potential of technologies
and their actual use in an educational context Research question
Can we harness web 2.0 practices to foster better sharing and discussing of learning and teaching ideas and designs?
Principles and methodology
Principles User-centred Theory-based Critically reflective and evolving
Methodology Rich evaluation with elements of virtual ethnography Agile development: initially build in Drupal, now Codeigniter Series of phases: design decisions, development, evaluation
Data collection Web stats including google analytics Interviews ‘Cloudfests’ and focus groups Workshops and conferences Observation and reflective diaries Critical friends group and design summits
Initial theoretical perspectives
“Social objects”Social networking makes little sense if we leave out the objects that mediate the ties between peopleEngeström
Design framework for socialityEnabling practiceMimicking realityBuilding identityActualising selfBouman et al.
Key concepts
Clouds: core objects in Cloudworks
Cloudscapes: collections of clouds
Activity streams: dynamic filters of new activity
Follow and be followed: Personal activity stream
and peer recognition
Key concepts: Clouds
Clouds: IdeasDesign or case studiesTools or resourcesQuestions or problems
Key concepts: Clouds
Clouds: IdeasDesign or case studiesTools or resourcesQuestions or problems
Clouds: IdeasDesign or case studiesTools or resourcesQuestions or problems
Key concepts: Clouds
Key concepts: Clouds
Clouds: IdeasDesign or case studiesTools or resourcesQuestions or problems
Key concepts: Clouds
Clouds: IdeasDesign or case studiesTools or resourcesQuestions or problems
Key concepts: Clouds
Clouds: IdeasDesign or case studiesTools or resourcesQuestions or problems
Key concepts: Cloudscapes
Cloudscapes:ConferencesWorkshopsCourse teamStudent cohortResearch themeProject
Key concepts: Cloudscapes
Cloudscapes:ConferencesWorkshopsCourse teamStudent cohortResearch themeProject
Key concepts: Cloudscapes
Cloudscapes:ConferencesWorkshopsCourse teamStudent cohortResearch themeProject
Digital trails and pathways
Filtering – personalisation and tailoring RSS feeds for people and cloudscapes Different levels of email alert Activity streams
Public activity stream (all activities on the site), Cloudscape activity streams, User activity streams
Tabbed views – all, clouds, cloudscapes, comments links, references, extra content
Serendipity Active clouds on home page Featured cloudscapes on home page Browse clouds, cloudscape, tags, people Search for keywords
Individuals, collectives, communities
Views from 142 countries Users:
Teachers (from K-12, tertiary, independent) Researchers Educational technologists/support staff Policy makers Researchers Learners
Characteristics Boundary crossing Multi-purpose, different motivations Lurking through active participation
Key concepts: Activity streams
Clouds
Key concepts: Activity streams
Clouds Cloudscapes
Key concepts: Activity streams
Clouds Cloudscapes Comments
Key concepts: Activity streams
Clouds Cloudscapes Comments Links
Key concepts: Activity streams
Clouds Cloudscapes Comments Links References
Key concepts: Activity streams
Clouds Cloudscapes Comments Links References Extra content
Follow & be followed Similar to following in
twitter Can follow cloudscapes &
people Indicates things & people
you are interested Anything you follow
appears in your personal cloudstream
Cloudworks principles and culture
Open, drawing on web 2.0 practices Clouds as core objects – social, cummulative, intelligent Intentionally both built around “communities”/’clusters
of interest” Cross-boundary, both filtering/personalisable and
serendipitous Dynamic and evolving through use alongside real
events as well as virtual ones Variety of types of activities and uses, but focus always
on sharing, finding and discussing educational ideas and designs
Emergent patterns of use
Events: conferences and workshops ETUG workshop, 20th-21st October 2009 http://cloudworks.ac.uk/index.php/cloudscape/view/1903
Discussions: Flash debates The changing nature of conferences http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/2577
Eliciting expertise and open reviews Literature review of Web 2.0 use in Higher Education http://cloudworks.ac.uk/index.php/cloudscape/view/1895
Aggregating resources Personalising formal learning with technology http://cloudworks.ac.uk/index.php/cloudscape/view/1871
Some stats….Aspect Everyone Team Non-team
Cloudscapes 142 58 84
Clouds 1557 1014 543
Comments 2378 786 1592
Links 2021 1371 650
1603 registered users
Added Sept.
From 143 countries
Evolving theoretical framework
Social objects
Activity theoryContext & culture
Sociality frameworkChanging practices
Rhetoric performanceExpression of self
Collective intelligenceExpression of self
Alevizou, G., Conole, G., Culver, J. and Galley, R., paper submitted to Netwerkd Learning
Summary
Evidence of new practices occurring on the site Genuine “buzz” about the site increasingly Mix of web 2.0 functionality and nice alignment with
existing web 2.0 tools Supporting a range of learning and teaching activities,
but remaining true to the core principles and vision Cloudworks champions on the rise Evaluation is shedding a lot of light on emergent
practices in web 2.0 environments Evolving roadmap, including:
Iterative redesign Voting/recommendations Open API Going open source Mobile Cloudworks
Grand challenges
Digital divide is ever increasing. How do we deal with this?
Are we seeing Jenkin’s 12 digital literacies skills? How can we help those in education develop these more?
How can we study these complex, fast evolving technological systems ? New methodologies?
What theoretical insights should we draw on? Is there evidence of new pedagogies emerging? Are we capable (and willing) to rise to the challenge?
Flickr images
Treasure island 1 http://www.flickr.com/photos/tontoncopt/2075310775/
Web 2.0 city http://www.flickr.com/photos/4everyoung/313308360/
Grand challenges http://www.kamaelia.org/GrandChallengesCover.png
Masai http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcsamsom/2316324361/