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.