Learning in Dense, Distributed Social Networks

I just finished reading my new Web 2.0 Bible: Here Comes Everyone.

I don't want this to be too much of book review, but you can probably already tell that I give a lot of heed to Clay's analysis of the changing social landscape in large part because of the invention and proliferation of the internet. We're just starting to see the real societal evolution-type tools seeping through the floorboards of previous failures. We're starting to realize that it's not just geeks and recluses that are using social networking tools like Facebook.

An aside: sometimes, when we gather in groups to discuss the phenomena of social networks, too often the questions start to tune like this "Well, I used [tool X] for minutes/hours/days, and [such-and-such] really bothered me. Is [tool X] really viable/valuable?" Almost always, this is the wrong question. Debating about whether or not Facebook is a viable tool is like standing on the side of the highway discussing if roads are really worth it--while hundreds of cars pass. Millions of people have already answered this question:Yes! If people are spending their time there, then we, as educators/business people/evangelists must not decide if, but how to use these tools.

One of the most interesting things I've learned about social networks such as Facebook is the complexity and geometry of the connections. Borrowing from the diagram below and Clay's observations, social networks have a much more decentralized look than a distributed or centralized network.Also, the connections, by and large, are for more denser among the clusters of connections than with the nodes that tie the distributed collections together. In other words, most people in social networks are closely tied to a group of people, with only one or two of those ties being to people who are tied to many, many people.

This structure seems to make sense. In fact, I would say that it's generally a good representation of the kind of social networks that exist in non-internet realms. Think of yourself and your group of friends, you're probably likely to see a similarity in structure.

Could educational social networks be described in a similar fashion? Take me for example. I am connected to multiple "educational" networks (they probably wouldn't describe themselves thus) that are extremely dense both as to the contributors as well as the content. One subject, one programming language, one API. However, some of those people in that network are also connected to multiple other content area networks. There isn't much transparency as to the benefits of multiple connections of educational networks: it's not like on Facebook where we can browse through each other's educational "friends." At least not yet.

Now back to the how for education. For Facebook, if we take into account the fact that the maintainers of this tool are ever increasingly seeking to be a platform for social interactions, then the possibilities of social objects are really endless. Not only that, but since the cost of producing quality, meaningful, and useful Facebook social objects (much due to the lowered cost of failing poor applications), Facebook has become, in a sense, a sandbox of social tool engineering. Without a doubt, we'll start to see more (and better) applications that enhance areas like education. There are already lists. Further, since education is in many aspects a social endeavor (and since it's where a great number of people are spending their time anyway), it seems hard to argue that social tools can't enhance, or at the very least, change the educational experience. With text messaging almost out of control amongst high schoolers and educators in a frenzy, we may already be seeing some change, for the better or worse. If social changes are occuring (they are), then social activities such as learning are bound to see changes as well.

EDUCATING ANALYSTS

After an exhaustive 1/2 hour search (hey, everything happens at greater speeds nowadays, right?) for the uses of web analytics in education, I came across a gem of a starting point. The title: Using Log File Analysis to Evaluate Instructional Design — A PowerPoint presentation used in Ken Fanser and Rod Riegle's presentation at the 2003 Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning.


This resource hits a lot of really great ideas about using Web Analytics as a valuable tool for evaluation. It's dated but at the same time still very applicable. Some points I found interesting to consider after reviewing this presentation:

• One of the biggest barriers to entry for someone wanting to use a "log file" to evaluate their online instruction was getting the data in a readable format. No more. Tools like Google Analytics completely eliminate a lot of these painful and complicated steps of getting set up to see who's looking at your content.
  
  
• Some of the proposed limits to web analytics for use in education are still valid, while others I don't believe to be such a problem. Por exemplo, it still can be easy to misinterpret results from analytics tools, most of which are geared towards business goals rather than educational goals. Yet, the amount of data you can get from one user is not quite as limited as the presentation suggests, as well as some of the issues raised with rich media (Flash) aren't quite as valid. There are plenty of ways to work around/with rich media to cater to your analytics.
  
  
• The presentation raises some very important questions as to the effectiveness of analytics in online education.
  
  
• A fundamental question, quite possibly one of the only questions that needs to be asked in evaluation, is "Did learning occur?" How can that be determined from page views? Maybe with deeper analysis, we can approach a way to guess. Yet, isn't that a struggle of any educational medium, to assert whether or not learning did, in fact, occur?
  
  
• Another question that may be difficult to answer with web analytics: Was the content engaging?
  
  
• A more elementary question: How do I link student X to user X? Is it possible to evaluate effectiveness of instruction with web analytics at the single user level?

All in all, a great find for the subject. I wish I could get access to the recorded presentation.

BLOGS = DONUTS?

Sorry, I wanted a tantalizing post title to get your attention. I have a theory that everyone, including you, has a specific donut that resonates with your DNA. It will call to you like a siren. You can't resist it--there's no use even trying. It might even change from month to month.

Now, how many calories is it going to take you to find it?

This post is really about the educational uses of blogs. Hopefully this doesn't come across as the laziest fulfillment of an assignment ever attempted by mankind. The assignment was to find a specific "article" about the educational uses of blogs and to discuss its (the article's) interest to me as well as expansions or improvements on it.

Honestly, one of the best resources I found was Kimberly McCollum's blog post spawned from the same assignment. Let's be honest, she did her homework.

Really though, I found the article (post) great for two reasons:

1. It's concise. It doesn't make my eyes tired thinking about how much I'm going to have to skim (notice I didn't say "read") to get information
   
   
2. It's a starting point. The post gives an overview of what I'd want to know about the educational uses of blogs by giving an overview and pointing me in possible directions.
   

Heck, if Kimberly's post were hosted on Blogger, it may have even climbed to the top of Google's search for the keywords "educational uses of blogs." Maybe my linking to her post will be the catalyst that propels her to the top and results in litters of comments to such a number that she won't be able to respond and continue her normal life.

Back to the assignment--my only expansion on this topic is due to the tendency I have to use loose definitions. First, if we're talking about education, I like to include self learning. I'm a huge fan of self learning, not only because it's how I've built my trade but also it's so reflective of the kind of person I am. Self learning, combined with a loose definition of "blogs," is the essence of how I educate myself in my work. I independently and randomly search others' work, learn from it, internalize it, sometimes expand on it, and apply it. My self learning is almost completely dependent on using blogs as starting points.

So when we talk about the "educational" uses of blogs, it might be useful to expand the definition of "educational" beyond a classroom or teacher-centered setting. I really liked the part in Kimberly's article that talked about the benefits of "reflective practice."

I feel like I might be thinking in circles, too. The assignment to search out an article (isn't that really a blog, although sometimes more static?) about educational uses of blogs followed by blogging about that article seems a little like asking someone to use a word processor to type a report about a document that explores the benefits of word processing.

Maybe I should stop writing posts after 10:00.