Learner Centered Blog

Interesting slide show for reflection.

CCK09 Pedagogy of Blogging

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CCK09-Are you an expert blogger or forum poster?

What are the secrets of an expert blogger or forum poster? 

Here are my observations:

1. Avoid sound like an expert.   Being an expert prevents people from really interacting with you. They don’t tell you anything. They just ask questions and wait for you to respond.

2. Don’t write too much. Use short sentences. Leave some sentences incomplete….

3. Let your audience/reader takes a turn. You take a turn and let others take turns. Avoid domination.

4. Silence is golden.  Be strategically silent and wait until other people say/write/email something before you respond.

5. Encourage others to participate or interact. Offer a choice, make a statement, and ask your reader a question.

6. Your reader is important.  Think about a topic that interests your reader. A diary and a blog post is for you. Don’t expect everyone who reads to respond. Thank your reader for a response or comment.

7. Be yourself.  Avoid patronizing, but respect your readers, even if they are different from your views. Show your integrity in your writing and responses. Show a photo, so others know how you look like.

8. Your secrets of success: Would you mind sharing them with me?

John

Blogging and learning

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Blogging offers the bloggers the following

- recording half baked ideas

- musing

- connecting with people

- networking, getting to know what matters to people

- gripping with ideas, thoughts and insights

So, personal blogging is very informal, it works as it is written at a personal level.

Knowledge is fundamentally personal when it comes to blogging.

What do I think? 

That captures the spirit of personal blogging, of personal sensemaking. 

As blogging is personal, how would that make a difference to the community?  How would a blogger collaborate with others?  Group blogging (edublogs etc.)?  Community blogging?  That’s the communal sensemaking…

What’s next? How about way finding?  What are the ways to connect the bloggers and community bloggers to other communities, institutions, the “global and digital society”?  “Googling”, Delicious, social tagging, social networking such as Facebook and Twitters (as microblogging), Ning and Wikis (wikipedia and wikis) all form nodes and are part of the conduits, connections, and networks towards meta-learning, that way finding journey towards global learning.  That is the Personal Learning Networks (PLN) and Personal Learning Environment (PLE) that we all are creating, building, and contributing.

This gives rise to the ontological approach towards knowledge creation and personal learning.  That’s the innovation towards knowledge  creation, building, and aggregation through connecting, interacting, communicating, understanding, amongst people.  That’s the transformational learning we all aspire to.   That leads us to be connected to the Wisdom of the Crowd.  Would that be our ideal learning journey for life?

John

Resonance or dissonance in blogging under Connectivism

In Jenny’s post on Resonance in blogging, she writes:

• Resonance is the amplification of sound through sympathetic vibrations.
• To resonate means to correspond closely or harmoniously.
• Resonance occurs when the vibrations of one object come into alignment with another.
• Resonance evokes a feeling of shared emotion or belief.

I like her explanation on resonance.

May I resonate with a metaphor?

I like to use the magnet as a metaphor in team-working, and bloggers interactions: unlike poles attract, like poles repel.

We have even got animal magnetism.  Enjoy.

In the blogosphere, unlike bloggers will try to learn what each has got in their posts. And like bloggers who are posting always the same themes won’t get too much attention.

If you are interested, see my post on A symphony on Connectivism and you may wonder why resonance could be a challenge, if each musician plays their own music, or without a “conductor”.  Would that lead to a dissonance?

You may find this video on resonance of interests.

Would mirror neurons  also play a part in this resonance phenomena too? 

If people in a team always think in the same way, not much learning will occur. But if people in a team have different mindsets, they could share and make good use of the strengths of each other to solve any problems. The challenge is resonance doesn’t always happen in peace, it may happen after some strong interactions, or even a storm.    How about having a reflection on our own team formation and development? 

Would this apply equally to bloggers in a community, when every blogger thinks in the same way, not much advancement of learning would occur – or even a dissonance. 

Bloggers are looking for new, exciting and challenging ideas and information from the blogs. 

So if bloggers have diversified views, they could share and make good use of the synergy – mix and match the information, check whether they align with each others’ values, perspectives, habits and reality. Such Wisdom of the Crowd could create emergent knowledge that make sense to each others. Would that be the crunch of learning and research in a community of bloggers?

Would that be the magical bullet that could spark the resonance phenomena?

Would resonance relate to a blogger’s personality, likes and dislikes, experiences, social skills and relationships with other bloggers?  Just wonder!

Is networked learning always in alignment with organisational learning?

I think this is a fundamental question that most people would like to know the answer but rarely dare to ask.

What is intriguing is that individual networked learning could be in conflict with the organisational learning.   This is especially the case at this time of financial crisis.

Ethics:

During the 2002-04 period, it seemed as if most days brought to light another case of corporate lying, misrepresentations and financial manipulations.  What happened to managerial ethics?

This important aspect of managerial behaviour seems to have been forgotten or ignored as some managers put their self-interest ahead of others who might be affected by their decisions.  Take, for example, the ‘Enron Three’ (former chairman Ken Lay, former CEO Jeff Skilling and former CFO Andy Fastow).   All behaved as if the laws and accounting rules did not apply to them.  They used greed, manipulation and collusion to deceive their board of directors, employees, shareholders and others about Enron’s worsening financial condition.  Because of these managers’ unethical actions, thousands of Enron employees lost their jobs and the company stock set aside in their retirement savings became worthless.

Although Enron seemed to be the pivotal event in this corporate ethics crisis, executives at a number of other large companies were engaging in similar kinds of unethical acts.  In Australia, there was the HIH collapse in 2001 which ultimately led to HIH directors Ray Williams and Rodney Adler being found guilty in 2005 of criminal charges in relation to the collapse.  Ray Williams was found guilty of considerable abandonment of duty and was jailed for a minimum of two years and nine months.  Rodney Adler was found guilty of making false or misleading statements which the sentencing judge describe as displaying an appalling lack of commercial morality. …

What would you have done had you been a manager in these organisations? How would you have reacted?  One thing we know is that ethical issues are not simple or easy!  Make one decision and someone will be affected; make another and someone else is likely to be affected.  In today’s changing workplace, managers need an approach to deal with the complexities and uncertainties associated with the ethical dilemmas that arise.

Source: Robbins, S   Management  4th edition 2006 (p57-58)

As an educator and learner, are we also facing similar ethical issues in the learning ecology?  What are those ethical issues? As a blogger, what are the implications if the information that we are sharing with others were originated from an incorrect information source?  Are we able to discern those sources with lying, misrepresentations and manipulation of information?  Are we responsible for the provision of accurate, up-to-date information in our blogs?  What learning ethics do we adopt in our communication and interaction with other bloggers or readers? 

What happens if our learning practice is not aligning with our organisation’s mission and vision?  Examples include when organisations have banned the use of social networking tools such as Facebook, YouTubes or My Space, whereas you as an educator is continuing to teach your learners using those tools.   Is it a concern to you?  Is it a concern to your organisation or institution?

How would you deal with the ethical issues in networked learning and organisation learning?  If you have found some ethical issues that are in conflict with the organisation practice, how would you deal with them? 

Comments?

An alternative way of blogging -Skype conversation

Here is my comments left in Jenny’s interesting Is Blog Conversation Distinctive

Jenny, That’s an excellent summary of some of the major reasons of blogging. As discussed, there are many others which could only be revealed via private chat. And I suspect that we could only reveal some “truths” even through formal research, based on “privacy”, and “cultural reasons”.
Here are some of my thoughts on Skype conversation (hope that it could echo with your conversation on whether blogging is distinctive):
I am delighted that we have opened up another way of connection – the Skype tele-conferencing (or over the phone). I greatly appreciate your wonderful sharing of views over Skype.  As it is a synchronous two-way communication, I have gained a deeper understanding of your perspectives as well as my own thinking. This strengthens our connections significantly. I am wondering if such Skype conversation could be an alternative “private” blogging that people would like to consider in future connections. Instead of writing, we talk and listen, and actively exchange views. Is such action learning more effective?
We could agree on actions promptly, and ask questions to clarify our different views. At times, this could be a challenge for me, as I have to remind myself in focusing on certain topic ( based on a “professional approach”). You might have noted that I prefer an informal approach in the chat, as this is our first one. And I was both excited and eager to share nearly everything with you. Just can’t wait for that conversation to slip away. Such experience could hardly be gained from a blog.
So, I found this an interesting experience in that all the myths, assumptions and mysterious character and appearance of a person may be revealed gradually in such a tele-conference. Whereas in blogging, you could still keep it as a suspense, for months, or even years. Curiosity to know about a blogger may be another important motivation towards reading a blog too! By the time when you talk and meet with the blogger face to face, what will be your impression? Ah Ha! Guess my age!  That’s how you look like! (This is added here on this blog, not left in Jenny’s comments)
Don’t you think so?
Again, what a great chat we have! Million thanks.
John

Transformational Thinking behind blogging and on-line discussion

This is my response to Jenny’s What Makes a Post Valuable.  Jenny writes:

For me, the post has to resonate with my own experience in some way. It has to make a connection, either to my understanding and experience of the subject or in a social capacity. This initial connection makes the post meaningful and makes me read on.

Deciding whether a post is valuable or not is slightly different. I have to relate the post to my own context, experience and needs and determine whether the post will have an effect on any of these.  As a tutor online I try to connect with my student. To do this I try to find out as much as I can about them so that I can connect with them on a personal level and post something that resonates with their experience and is meaningful. I think this initial relationship building can help successive posts to become more meaningful and hopefully valuable.

May I refer to my previous posts on Parallel Thinking – the 6 hats in blog discussion and Transformational Thinking – the additional hats in thinking in my interpretation of transformational thinking behind blogging, or on-line discussion over the network?

Here is the suggested model based on 8 hats:

1. Whenever we read a post in a blog or microblog, we might be looking for information (white hat).   We may ask questions on “What information is available from this blog?”, and “What information is missing?”, “What information is based on facts, beliefs or opinions etc.?” (white and black hats) etc.

2. Then when we found some relevance or resonance with our experience, we will continue to critically ask if the information presented is meaningful or not (black hat).

3. We then find out more information from our learner or blogger by retrieving and searching backgrounds of the learner or the blogger via the introduction to blog, previous blogs or URL links (white hat again). 

4. We may further reflect on the experience ourselves and see how our experiences could echo with that of the learner or blogger, or if there are new experiences that could be acquired.  This relates to the whole thinking, reflection process (blue hat)

5. We will then respond to questions or leave comments, suggest modifications, or provide advice (green hat).  We will also formulate the comments and response in message that the learner or blogger could comprehend. We will also try to use creative thinking in the process.  This could include using innovative responses (e.g. a video or graphic response or a referral to such media) (green hat).   

6 And if the comment is received with “acknowledgement” by the learner/blogger, then it may turn up to be meaningful and valuable one (yellow hat) from their perspectives.   These may be validated through their responses or feedback to the educator/reader.

7. Throughout these reading/reflection/response processes, we (the educator/blogger) may have thought about the intention and identity of the learner/blogger (purple hat) and check whether the post contains unique concepts that relate to the learner. 

8. As an educator, one could further inspire the learner/blogger through the use of media (videos, pictures, slides, music or songs, lyrics, poems, story) that will transmit our emotions or remarks of an emotional nature – likes or dislikes, love or hatred  in our response post or comments left on the learners’ post (red hat).  

9. These responses will assist in connecting ourselves with the other bloggers /learners with the nature or our spirits (colourless or transparent hat).

The above metaphors of hats may not happen in a linear fashion, and there could be loops and shortcuts when the educator and learner have established further connections with each other.  Further validation of this model via research (surveys, interviews, and discussions) is required.

How about a concept or mind map on the above?

How do these sound to you?

Transformational thinking – additional hats to thinking

This relates to my previous post Parallel thinking – the 6 hats in blog discussion.

I have been thinking of 2 additional hats:

The Colourless (transparent) Hat - This hat is looking at the nature and sensing of our spirit.

Thinking about nature, religious beliefs and spiritual coherence, growth and development- where it relates to supernatural thoughts that may only be revealed by the stimulation of a combination of our senses and emotions- sight, hearing, tastes, smell, breathing, touch that are associated with joy, love, hatred, sadness etc.  This is stimulated by pictures, slides, patterns, movies and videos, sound, fragrance, delicious food and drinks, observing the nature, the ecology of the environment, creatures and animals, the sky, the oceans, the mountains and the plants etc . It is based on tacit knowledge of nature and its existence and is sensed within our “hearts” and “mind”.   People who reflect, meditate, pray or worship often experience such thinking. 

The Purple Hat – This hat is looking at the conscience – individual, digital, network and group identity, laws and ethics.

Thinking about human rights, copyright and copyleft (digital or e- laws and ethics), an altruistic self and the collaborative entity, weak and strong connections (or links), their relationships and their mutual connections and recognition.  This is stimulated by communities’ successes or failures, digital identity success or crisis, and an understanding of the impact of virtual communities, games and reality on our life.

These 2 additional hats, when used in conjunction with the 6 hats would allow for transformational thinking at this digital age, especially in education and learning.  I am not sure what and how Dr. de Bono would think about these.  And I would surely be humble to learn from him if these hats could help in such transformation.

More hats will be forthcoming.

How about your hats?

Parallel thinking – the 6 hats in blog discussion

How useful would the “6 hats” parallel thinking be in blogging and discussion?

Instead of arguments, how about wearing the 6 hats in the thinking process?  Will it work in blog discussion?

The six hats of different colours represent EVERY BASIC TYPE OF thinking (Edward De Bono).

The six thinking hats:

1. The white hat concerns information. 

• What information do we have?
• What information do we need?
• What information is missing?
• How are we going to get the information we need?
• What questions should we be asking?

2. The red hat is to do with feelings, intuition, and emotions. 

3. The black hat.   The black hat is for critical thinking, for caution.  The black hat stops us from doing things that may be harmful. The black hat points out the risks, and why something may not work. 

4. The green hat is the energy hat. Green hat is for creativity.  Under the green hat, you suggest modifications and variations for a suggested idea.

5. The blue hat is looking at the thinking process itself.

• What should we do next?
• What have we achieved so far?

6. The yellow hat.  Under the yellow hat we make a direct effort to find the values and benefits in a suggestion:

• What are the benefits?
• Who is going to benefit?
• How will the benefits come about?
• What are the different values?

Under Connectivism – Learning and knowledge is IN THE CONNECTIONS, and IN THE NETWORKS and learning is the capacity to navigate across the networks, at neuro, conceptual and external, social levels.   Technology and tools could be the enablers in the learning connections.

Will these hats form part of those connections at all levels?  

What may be the values and benefits of using the hat metaphor in the thinking process for educators – bloggers?

Will a concept map on these 6 hats metaphor help us in thinking?  How about the relationships between parallel, creative and critical thinking?

Has there been any empirical research done on the thinking process – in the connections?