Jon Dron and Terry AndersonOpen Access Week 2011

Fun and Fear in Open Spaces

Image from kurtxio

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agoraphobia

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the fear of open spaces

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agoraphilia

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the love of open spaces

Which networks do you use and find useful? Why?

Any others?

5A Wordle view of Landing rationale

set

net

group

collective

Social forms

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Group model

• Membership and exclusion, closed • Hierarchies of control• Focus on collaboration and shared purpose• teachers: guides

group

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The net model

• bottom-up, open• inclusive• focus on individual and connections• teachers: role models and co-travellers

net

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Set model• cooperation, anonymity• focus on filtering and selection• tags and categorisation• teachers: analyzers, curators

and publishers

• analytics

set

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Holistic model

• Overlapping social forms: sets, nets, groups• Ownership• Control and context• teachers:

all the rest, plusCollective Intelligence

Generations of Flexible Learning Pedagogies

1. Behaviourist/Cognitive – Self Paced, Individual Study,

2. Social constructivist – Groups, classes

3. Connectivist – Networks

4. Holist - Sets and Collectives

Anderson, T., & Dron, J. (2011). Three generations of distance education pedagogy. International Review of Research on Distance and Open Learning, 12(3), 80-97

Priv

ate

Publ

ic net

group

set

indiv-idual

The LMS at AU

• Fixed periods of engagement• limited learner control• teaching-led• Closed• Private

group

Athabasca Landing

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Multiple rationales

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set

net

group

collective

CoursesCommitteesResearch groupsStudy groupsCentres and departments

Sustaining tiesMaking tiesAd hoc networksKnowledge diffusionSocial capitalSocial presence

CooperationSharingSerendipityInterest -orientationSense-makingCollective intelligenceIntentional discovery

“Your Friends Make you Fat”They can also make you smart!

Fowler & Christakis (2007)A study of Obesity http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070725_obesity.htm

The Closed Garden versus Facebook

• Niche networks• Differentiating work, from school, from fun• Context is king

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A Guided Tour of the Landing https://landing.athabascau.ca

Athabasca Landing

Tool InstancesUsers: 2657Messages: 21762Files: 3561Blog posts: 3348Wire posts: 1921Bookmarked items: 1550Discussion topics: 1305Pages: 853Photos: 788Top-level pages: 530Event Calendar: 171Albums: 109Bookmark Folder: 87Polls: 69

New Users Added per Month

Monthly Blog Posts

Landing Groups•271 Groups

•Average of 9 .39 members each

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A soft space

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Public vs private

• It all depends on context and purpose...

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PUBLIC SET NET GROUP

Blogs 36% 50% 2% 11%

Wikis (8% private)

18% 45% 2% 33%

Bookmarks 9% 65% 0.5% 24%

Images 6% 75% 6% 10%

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Public vs private

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Groups

• Safety• familiarity (in education)• formality• trust• scaffolding• structure• Reliability• Group think• Cliques, hidden curriculum

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group

Scariness

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Networks

• Connectivity• strength of weak ties• blurred boundaries• shifting contexts• risk• insecurity• partial openness• (appear) unstructured

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net

Scariness

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Sets

• anonymity• openness• danger• Insecurity• structure• loss of identity• unreliability

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set

Scariness

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Why open?

• Greater interaction and feedback• Following norms• Social capital• Self-promotion• Altruism• Course requirements• Good ideas

•Fear of ....

• loss of face

• loss of privacy

• legal issues

• loss of control

• permanence

• freeloaders

• being unkind (especially wikis)

• the unknown

Why not open?

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Why not re-use?

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fear of the unknown

• Athabasca Landing: a site that enables selective sharing from private-public

• sharing is exposing: that is scary (and fun)

• choices without power are scary

• the unknown is scary

Open things in social space

• accuracy/trustworthiness: issues of reputation. • validity and trustworthiness comes from the

combined artefacts. • Matthew Principle• Group liability and guilt• Freeloading• Stupidity of Mobs, Group Think• legal fears

Challenges of Open• selective revealing - revealing

different things to different people.

• It's scary revealing to others – • Who will read this post??• problems of longevity:• taking advantage of others loss of

control, ownership• fear of exposure - showing

something not quite OK to a group is often easier than showing it to the world.

Teaching Presence in Social Spaces

• Network Leadership is not the same as group leadership

• Role models, co-travellers• Valuing leadership beyond ‘contact hours’

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• nets are closed: you talk to who you know• nets are open: they talk to others, friends of

friends

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But how do you use them?

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groupgroup netnet

setset

The elgg solutionelgg.org

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Who do you share with?

• Group - safe• Network - unsafe• Set - scary

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Practical Rationale

• Communications is a continuing challenge in our workplaces.

• Too many of our faculty and staff are disengaged from our community

• We lack any sort of knowledge management system- all knowledge explicit, little connected

• It’s hard to get to know people at Athabasca.

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