promoting distributed cognition at mooc ecosystems
DESCRIPTION
It is about promoting distributed cognitive learning behaviors with ecological design in MOOCsTRANSCRIPT
Promo%ng Distributed Cogni%on at MOOC Ecosystems
Kai Pata and Emanuele Bardone Tallinn University
Human Computer Interac%on Conference 2014, Crete, Iraclion
MOOCs promote distributed cogni.on based learning behaviors
Ecological learning design may facilitate distributed cogni%ve learning in MOOCs
I. Connec%vist MOOC as a learning ecosystem
• Users provide learning services to each other at MOOCs as produsers thereby crea%ng the abundance of ecosystem “species”
• Individual as well as crowd knowledge in MOOCs is operated by as well as incorporated into the different learning services Example learning services::
Peer comments to blog posts – kind scaffolding service User-‐created ar3fact as a learning resource – kind of knowledge provision service Socially annotated and aggregated contents – a kind of scaffolding service
Communi%es of learning services in MOOC learning ecosystems
• are temporary coali.ons deno%ng the services and actors at present in the learning design
• that can successively change during the life%me of a design product usage
• Currently available learning services in certain learning moment the MOOC ecosystem compete with each other or may form alliances, some services increase in numbers while others perish
blog posts, videos, wiki pages
forums, blog comment, skype sessions
blog comment, badges
facebook and twiOer walls
Red – facilitators, experts Green -‐ learners
Successive learning service communi%es in MOOC
Learning flows in MOOCs
• The main form of ecosystem existence is through trophic networks of species that transform energy and maOer composing and decomposing energy rich products, thus enabling the one-‐direc%onal trophic flow through the ecosystem.
• In MOOC learning ecosystems the relevant concept to trophic flow is a learning flow.
• User a?en.on to available services fuels the knowledge flows through the services, which defines the produc.vity of learning ecosystems.
The network structure of MOOCs • The permeability of MOOC learning ecosystem to learning flows will depend on the connec.ons between services that pass learning flows and the emerging side-‐paths and hubs in this network that can redirect the flows.
• There are always relevant goals, resources and required support available in MOOCs that may replace in the learning ecosystem purpose niches some of the missing services and allow the con%nuous learning flows.
Purpose niches of learning services
Red – facilitators, experts Green -‐ learners
Pruning homogenous communi%es at usual elearning courses
• Maintaining homogenous communi%es such as ideal teacher-‐planned sets of learning services needs constant care
• few learning services prescribe limited learning paths in order to maximize the produc%ve learning flows for medium learners that don’t exist.
Succession of wild communi%es in open informal learning seYngs
The natural learner-‐created communi%es, are based on the richness of constantly changing learning services that can replace themselves in the trophic networks, that guarantees beOer self-‐regula%on but also the
succession of the service-‐community in %me.
Maintaining semi-‐natural communi%es in MOOCs
In the learning ecosystems that inhabit semi-‐natural communi.es where both the teacher-‐ and learner-‐created learning services could co-‐exist, the former could be used to maintain the richness of wild services and keep
it in a state where succession is under control.
Mutualisms
• The mutualisms such as symbiosis (mutual benefit of using resources and living spaces) are one way how in natural ecosystems species get the compe%%ve premise.
• Mutualisms between different types of learning services are very important also in MOOC learning designs.
Socially annotated and aggregated contents e.g. tagcloud – a kind of crowd based scaffolding service
Socially annota3ng resources – a kind resource provision service
Tag-‐based user profile forma3on
Knowledge provision based on user profile
Communica%on
• In natural ecosystems there is communica.on between the individual species as well as the cross-‐species communica%on that has influence on trophic circula%ons (for example certain signals from species may be read by other members of the species or across species to get advantage in finding food or escaping for predators).
• Communica%on intensifies the learning flows within the learning ecosystem.
• The learning services in learning ecosystem must be aware of each other and able to communicate in order to orchestrate their ac%on.
• Communica%on (direct and indirect through signals and traces le] in the environment) can be used for swarming for learning in learning ecosystems
II. Distributed cogni%on at MOOCs
• Connec%vist MOOCs have a similarity to natural ecosystems also at a distributed cogni%on level
• Produsers form a .ghtly coupled system with MOOCs ecosystem of learning services created by all produsers, and the laOer simultaneously evolves and serves as one’s partner or cogni%ve ally in the struggle to control the ac%vity
• Learning services created by many at MOOCs enable this par.ally external locus of control
Learning behaviors related with distributed cogni%on
uptake of cultural paOerns
Cogni%ve niche forma%on Cultural niche forma%on
Ecological encultura%on
personal paOern
cultural paOern amplifica%on
forma%on of paOern networks
cultural paOern appropria%on chance
amplifica%on
%nkering
Epistemic Distributed Cogni%on Collec%ve Distributed Cogni%on
Chance-‐seeking PaOern appropria%on
Encultura%on of paOerns
Which learning to promote in MOOCs?
• We highlight produc3ve learning behaviors* related with distributed cogni%on – learning as chance-‐seeking, pa?ern appropria.on and ecological encultura.on
• The chance-‐seekers create cogni%ve niches that may extend or shiF the cultural pa?ern niches evolving the ecosystem,
• whereas paOern appropria%on ac%vity validates cultural pa?ern niches and stabilizes the ecosystem
• *Produc.vity of the learning ecosystem is its ability to accumulate informa%on to knowledge in %me – meaning how much users can be engaged in certain %me period by the learning services into the produc%ve learning flow.
Ecological design of MOOCs that triggers distributed cogni%ve learning • The design approach employed in MOOC ecosystems to promote produc.ve loops of pa?ern appropria.on, chance-‐seeking and ecological encultura.on is twofold.
• On the one hand the connec%vist MOOCs should be built so that they facilitate the self-‐organisa.on of learning ecosystems, which promotes environmental unan.cipatedness for chance-‐seekers.
• On the other hand, for promo.ng pa?ern appropria.on and increasing ecological encultura.on different means of learning-‐analy.cs should be used that make paOerns in the shared cultural niche visible for learners.
Visualizing learning service niches in MOOC ecosystems
Mul%dimensional space
The ecological learning design
• The ecological learning design is the meta-‐design process where par%cipatory cultures use ecosystem principles for enculturing for themselves responsive learning ecosystems that maximize for each of them possibili.es for flow experiences promoted by the learning flows of the crowd (actualizing pa?erns) or provide them opportuni.es for discovering chances.