Learning and Creating Knowledge in Social Networks

Learning and creating knowledge in a social networked era

George Siemens, PhD September 9, 2013

Presented to: Desire2Learn Ignite Conference

Melbourne, Australia

Slides:

http://www.slideshare.net/gsiemens/

(citations and sources in notes pane)

Intent of this presentation:

Detail the networks as an organizing structure for knowledge and learning Emphasize the need to transition to thinking in networks as a way of understanding and participating in science, society, learning, education, and creativity activities

We always lived in a connected world, except we were not so much aware of it…That has changed drastically in the last decade, at many, many different levels.

Albert-lászló Barabási

Structural holes Burt, 1992

Figure  2.6:  Structural  holes  and  weak  8es  

Weak & strong ties

Granovetter, 1973

“Intense connectivity can homogenize the pool…high cohesiveness can lead to the sharing of common rather than novel information”

Uzzi, Spiro (2005)

Dormant ties: Value of reconnecting

Weak ties: novelty and efficiency Strong ties: trust shared perspective

Levin, Walter & Murnighan, 2011

“All the knowledge is in the connections” David Rumelhart

“To ‘know’ something is to be

organized in a certain way, to exhibit patterns of connectivity.

“To ‘learn’ is to acquire certain

patterns”

Stephen Downes

870k papers visualized

h9p://cmap.ihmc.us/    

Linking  Open  Data  cloud  diagram,  by  Richard  Cyganiak  and  Anja  Jentzsch.  h9p://lod-­‐cloud.net/    

Why do some ideas spread?

"We're constantly being exposed to information on Facebook, Twitter and so on…Some of it we pass on, and a lot of it we don't. Is there something that happens in the moment we first see it…that is different for those things that we will pass on successfully versus those that we won't?”

Lieberman, 2013

Getting the “perfect” Reddit submission title

Lakkaraju, McAuley, Leskovec, 2013

Anesthesia and antiseptics Gawande, 2013

Hidden influentials in cascades (hubs often inhibit spread of information)

Moreno, 2013

Dow,  Adamic,  Friggeri,  2013  

Spicer, 2013

London Whale: How to lose $6b+

Metal workers: cylinders

Steam Wheels

Motion

Transportation need

Viability

Scientific progress

Entrepreneurship

“a thousand threads that lead from the locomotive to the very beginning of the modern world”

Rosen, 2010

“The process may be more like stitching together known parts than

pioneering a complete route from scratch”

W. Bryan Arthur, 2006

The power of an ecosystem

October, 2001

Courtesy  of  Apple  

April, 2003

October, 2005

TV shows, music videos (September, 2006, full length movies)

January, 2007

Courtesy  of  Apple  

Network theory of change

The integration of services provides the value for end users

Systems are now socio-technical. Cognition is no longer only “in our

heads”.

Technology is a part of our cognitive structure.

Networks become powerful through

lock-in and integration i.e. what they exclude

Today in education, we are witnessing an unbundling of previous network

structures.

And a rebundling of network lock-in models.

Silicon Valley

Shockley

Terman

With increased complexity,

(lack of) sensemaking in socio-technical systems leads to disastrous results

Bhopal, 1984

Mann Gulch, Collapse of sensemaking

Weick 1993

Black hawk shoot down, 1994: “was caused by a chain of events” GAO Report

Distributed content and conversations

gRSShopper  

h9p://grsshopper.downes.ca/    

John Baker, 2013

Soft is hard and hard is easy Jon Dron

“web-based participatory culture is subverting and destabilizing a top-down cultural industry model of education that has evolved around the medium of the book.”

Hanke, B. 2011

From guesses and hype to data and analytics Kolata (NY Times), 2013

Transparent boundaries…new ones being formed (yes, classroom walls are thinning, but the transition is broader)

h9p://mashe.hawksey.info/    

Incorporating network attributes into learning design: - Resonance - Diversity - Learning control - Optimal network structures - Knowledge profile/imprint - Competence as configuration of networks - Peer learning and information flow - Why some ideas/concepts go viral

A university as

“assemblage of strangers from all parts in one spot”

J.H. Newman Lecturers 1854-1859

Twitter/Gmail: gsiemens