about spime and simplexity

The course is advancing in the serendipity way, it leads to unexpected results, things that were completely unplanned. While working on my mindmap had some terminological discussions with other people from other disciplines and I mainly like two concepts that might be meaningfull in the context of connectivism.

SPIME

This word comes from Bruce Sterling, and is basically a contraction of time and space to describe a new class of objects, who exactly know where they are based on a system of global positioning and the ability to track and record a set of data. According to OpenSpime spimes are the foundation of a new global structure, the Internet of Things, where the value of the network arises from the autonomous objects, without the necessity of human intervention.

SIMPLEXITY

According to Peter Wepperman simplexity can be explained as following: “We long for simplicity and satisfaction. Simplexity therefore stands for a balance between the growing complexity of daily life and our own personal satisfaction”.

Words, terms and neologisms are shaped in their dialogue. That’s basically the first reason why they came up in the brainstorm exercise through mindmapping connectivism. Let’s see if it connects with some of your ideas.

 

timeboxing and visualizing networks

How much time do you spend on this course? Interesting question. I think I should use a virtual timer for this to measure more properly. At this stage due to circumstances I am more a peripheral participant with intention to upgrade myself to the actively engaged participant. Maybe I need to practice some timeboxing that I have learned from Litemind.

Very happy this week to find the management guide for formal networks from the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ). Networks are powerful tools for sustainable development and so this is my first entire content link within the development framework that I am exploring in this course. Hoping to find more in the upcoming weeks.

Interesting to have some theoretical background on networks last week. I would like to complement this knowledge with some tools or strategies that visualize networks. Anyone suggestions? Thanks for the Clustrmap tip which I will integrate very soon in my blogs. The search for a network analysis tool (the network version of Google Analytics) would be pretty handy to get an overview of my online networks.A nice application is Touchgraph but I would like to see more sophisticated tools to visualize network data.

Try out the CCK08 tag in Touchgraph to see the networked links on this course.

 

Moving on .. bit by bit

A bit behind in the course but taking the word ‘serendipity‘ and searching for missing places of learning. So far did not really got the follow the formal schedule of the course but was mainly wandering around in the field of informal learning. Between my to-do lists definetely have to start my to-learn list in order to structure a bit more my learning activities. One thing I got more clear is how most of this tools I will use in the upcoming Lifelong E-Learning course at our Centre. Most of the tools were already used but I have to define more clearly what the relation is between the course wiki, the personal blog, the additional resources, the live conferences, etc. and stimulate the participants to build an individualized learning route while connecting with meaningfull resources.

What I did so far and what is in the planning list?

- I finally started to build a concept map with CMAPS, did not set the work-in-progress online yet.
- Will tag tomorrow some relevant sources in my del.icio.us archive that could be linked with networked learning and connectivism.

Some additional ideas and questions >

- Quotes sometimes capture concepts or ideas very fast and clear. Any list of quotes already related to this course?
- Would it be possible to structure this massive online course as a massive open space according to the open space technology?

And last but not least a technical helpdesk question> somebody knows how to embed Flickr-Slideshows in a wordpress blogpost? I think WordPress does not accept <scripts> and how do you upload new wordplug plugins if your blog is hosted under WordPress and not on your own server? Thanks !

 

reviewing connectivism as a theory, some planning and some ideas to work out

A hectic week and not much time to think about connectivism as a theory. Some ideas I would like to explore:

- Connect connectivism with ·learning and the brain ·. Explore what reflections on – a whole new mind – and Daniel Pink have in common or completely not. Brain, neural networks and connectivism, interesting paths to explore. OECD recently published a book :”Learning and the brain, towards a new learning science“. Some transdisciplinary thinknig ahead.

- Connect connectivism with the global reflections on – The world is Flat – from Thomas Friedman.

- Apply connectivism as a theory in a vocational educational context and see what kind of implications this has for vocational training. Anyone has suggestions on this aspect?

These thinking paths and a general review of the connectivism theory I will integrate in the first assignment for this course.

 

Thinking about connectivism in a development context

Next week the Massive Open Online course is finally starting (more than 1800 participants !). I started to focus on some interesting themes and saw that there is already a group of participants interested in exploring connectivism in a development context. One of our first tasks is to explore this contemporary learning theory more in depth. By accident I finally got to read “The world is flat” from Thomas Friedman and in a way it made me connect connectivism on a more macro, let’s say global level. In this way relevant issues in my current work become more and more understandable. Wished I could see Friedman live on this issues such as his workshop on Poverty, Development and the ten world flatteners“. Coming back to the course I realized that the world is becoming really flat. In the last two days I was skyping, blogging, emailing, twittering with people all over the world with a similar interest. Really hope that I find some time next week to connect.

 

Rethink the digital divde

The video that I mentionned in my previous post. Rethinking the digital divide.

more about “untitled“, posted with vodpod

 

Exploring potential themes

In order to cope with the information overload that is arriving in the following weeks I used this first week to explore some potential themes where I want to focus on:

- An interesting Moodle introduction from Hala Fawzi (connecting from Sudan)  sets out the question on balancing between good content and finding the right pipes.

- An email conversation with Sheila Jaganathan from the World Bank reminded me to finally start writing an article on the pedagogical potential of educational blogging in a developing context. I will apply the wiki-way in order to connect with your thoughts.

- An interesting Skype conversation with Florence Rademaker made me think if the current e-learning content and the pipes that we are using are adapted to the specific needs of participants from developing countries. After checking the Google map we discovered quite some empty spaces which connect the world less than I thought. It also brought me to a video of impressions on how to rethink the digital divide

 

Diving into this learnscape

Hi ! I’m plugged in this blog to monitor and reflect upon several issues in this highly connected course. Currently I’m working at the International Training Centre of the ILO in Turin and exploring new interactive technologies in a development context. Some of the course aspects I would like to translate and adapt to this context and results will be taken along in a Lifelong E-Learning course that I’m running. Some of the insights I will try to summarize on a staff development blog that we are piloting, not only on learning technology but also on learning methodology.

I personally like the interactive information flow and the way the two notorious ‘guides on the side’ channel this flow in a jungle of syndication and aggregation. For this type of course there is only one successful strategy: “the more you put into it, the more you get out of it” so I hope time allows me to plug in whenever is possible.

More information about me is available at Linkedin and for the time being I can share my Del.icio.us archive.

Have a good connective experience !