Loops of reciprocal causality

[John Graves]

Reading pages 20/21 of this white paper on Systems Thinking

http://www.iseesystems.com/resources/Articles/STELLA%20IST%20-%20Chapter%201.pdf

which suggest that when it comes to learning
"cause-and-effect comes in loops,"

it dawned on me that I had read the book

I Am a Strange Loop (2007) by Douglas Hofstadter

which suggests a central role for self-reference. Specifically,
"a strange loop is a paradoxical level-crossing feedback loop."

Since a MOOC has a capacity for modifying its own content,
it is like M. C. Escher's Drawing Hands (1948)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_loop
and we are both drawing out and being drawn here.

The MOOC structure differs from the familiar hierarchy of teacher/student.
It has qualities of a heterarcy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterarchy

Another useful concept for MOOC activity is stigmergy,
the tracing of reinforcing pathways.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigmergy

Has research into online learning leveraged new ideas in cognitive neuroscience
such as mirror neurons?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neuron

With simulation theory, we come full circle,
back to the Systems Thinking whitepaper and thinking via mental simulations ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_theory_of_empathy

I hope you found this loop of self-reflection not TOO strange.
Would be curious to know if you could follow it or where you diverged.

John Graves
john....@aut.ac.nz
+64 21 213 8367 (mobile)
http://bit.ly/JohnGravesLinkedIn

[Vanessa Vaile]

Another one of those times I wished for the thumb or a star or a flag.  I have not yet digested sufficiently to answer your question, although think I fell off the melon wagon about 2/3's through ~ but will follow the yellow brick links to get back on.

[Vanessa Vaile]

PS I've done a lot of reading in different areas of urban studies because I was researching space and movement in literary cities. I keep returning to thinking about MOOC architecture, locations and flow like a city, down to planners trying to manage and users resisting control and using in their own ways. Use shapes space more than planning. Smart planning works with organically emerging use patterns rather than trying to superimposing them top down. Also Kevin Lynch's comments on reading urban space and the images its elements create seem apt. http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/62 

These mental representations, along with the actual city, contain many unique elements, which are defined by Lynch as a network of paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. First, paths are channels by which people move along in their travels. Examples of paths are roads, trails, and sidewalks. The second element, edges, are all other lines not included in the path group. Examples of edges include walls, and seashores. Next, districts are sections of the city, usually relatively substantial in size, which have an identifying character about them. A wealthy neighborhood such as Beverly Hills is one such example. The fourth element, nodes, are points or strategic spots where there is an extra focus, or added concentration of city features. Prime examples of nodes include a busy intersection or a popular city center. Finally, landmarks are external physical objects that act as reference points. Landmarks can be a store, mountain, school, or any other object that aids in orientation when way-finding.

And then there is Wittgenstein's comparison of language to a city

Maybe I'd set myself at 3/4 along. Loops have the feel of flânerie. They all look more interesting than reading up on current research - possibly excepting on the neurocognition of learning

So maybe what we have here is science fiction

[Paul]

Hei Vanessa,

You may also be interested (or have already read!) in the following
books:

1. The poetic and real "Road that Is Not a Road and the Open City,
Ritoque, Chile": http://www.amazon.com/Road-that-Open-Ritoque-Chile/dp/0262660997

2. The awesome Paul Tilley´s "A Phenomenology of Landscape: Places,
Paths and Monuments": http://www.amazon.com/Phenomenology-Landscape-Monuments-Explorations-Anthropology/dp/0854969195

3. Some points in "Nonsite to Celebration Park":
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nonsite-Celebration-Park-Edward-Whittaker/dp/1905200722

4. Tina Richardson´s "Leeds Psychogeography Group":
http://particulations.blogspot.com/2010/01/leeds-psychogeography-group.html

Apologise in advance for just posting links without reflections!

regards
Paul

On Jul 4, 6:35 am, Vanessa Vaile <vcr...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> PS I've done a lot of reading in different areas of urban studies because I
> was researching space and movement in literary cities. I keep returning to
> thinking about MOOC architecture, locations and flow like a city, down to
> planners trying to manage and users resisting control and using in their own
> ways. Use shapes space more than planning. Smart planning works with
> organically emerging use patterns rather than trying to superimposing them
> top down. Also Kevin Lynch's comments on reading urban space and the images
> its elements create seem apt.http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/62
>

> *These mental representations, along with the actual city, contain many

> unique elements, which are defined by Lynch as a network of paths, edges,
> districts, nodes, and landmarks. First, paths are channels by which people
> move along in their travels. Examples of paths are roads, trails, and
> sidewalks. The second element, edges, are all other lines not included in
> the path group. Examples of edges include walls, and seashores. Next,
> districts are sections of the city, usually relatively substantial in size,
> which have an identifying character about them. A wealthy neighborhood such
> as Beverly Hills is one such example. The fourth element, nodes, are points
> or strategic spots where there is an extra focus, or added concentration of
> city features. Prime examples of nodes include a busy intersection or a
> popular city center. Finally, landmarks are external physical objects that
> act as reference points. Landmarks can be a store, mountain, school, or any

> other object that aids in orientation when way-finding.*

[Paul]

John,

I have decided to book mark this thread and dedicate more reading time
to your links/questions - and Vanessa also brings to this discussion
some very interesting metaphors than can easily be turned into a new
paper!

I also like to throw in one further idea of network complexity
regarding the nature of the loop, and that i of Deleuze and Guattari´s
description of a rhizomic system - http://ensemble.va.com.au/enslogic/text/smn_lct08.htm
- here we have the beginnings of what I understand as the future of
MOOC and Open Learning.

Paul

On Jul 3, 3:39 pm, "John Graves" <john.gra...@aut.ac.nz> wrote:
> Reading pages 20/21 of this white paper on Systems Thinking
>

> http://www.iseesystems.com/resources/Articles/STELLA%20IST%20-%20Chap...

>
> which suggest that when it comes to learning
> "cause-and-effect comes in loops,"
>
> it dawned on me that I had read the book
>
> I Am a Strange Loop (2007) by Douglas Hofstadter
>
> which suggests a central role for self-reference. Specifically,
> "a strange loop is a paradoxical level-crossing feedback loop."
>
> Since a MOOC has a capacity for modifying its own content,

> it is like M. C. Escher's Drawing Hands (1948)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_loop

> and we are both drawing out and being drawn here.
>
> The MOOC structure differs from the familiar hierarchy of teacher/student.

> It has qualities of a heterarcy.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterarchy

>
> Another useful concept for MOOC activity is stigmergy,

> the tracing of reinforcing pathways.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigmergy

>
> Has research into online learning leveraged new ideas in cognitive neuroscience

> such as mirror neurons?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neuron

>
> With simulation theory, we come full circle,

> back to the Systems Thinking whitepaper and thinking via mental simulations ...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_theory_of_empathy

>
> I hope you found this loop of self-reflection not TOO strange.
> Would be curious to know if you could follow it or where you diverged.
>
> John Graves

> john.gra...@aut.ac.nz
> +64 21 213 8367 (mobile)http://bit.ly/JohnGravesLinkedIn

[Jose I. Icaza]

Thanks John! A very interesting not so strange loop! I use system dynamics in my Sustainability graduate course; have read Hofstadter's fascinating book and am familiar with the initial research on Mirror Neurons. I wasn't aware of stigmergy. Some thoughts:

1 The white paper. A very nice exposition of the way thinking, communicating and learning are interconnected and "cause" one another in clossed loops. I fully agree that we fail in having our students learn the thinking skills mentioned by the author, though I disagree that System Dynamics is the answer to everything... There are many ways to visualize mental models (see [the periodic table of visualizations]). Simply sharing one's assumptions ("sharing the mental model") and where they lead to ("simulating the mental model and sharing results") goes a long way towards improving communication and peer to peer learning- of course it's best if we share a whole model of our thinking.

2 Stigmergy, heterarchy. Yes! That's what we do here - putting out our thoughts in shared spaces so that they have a chance to affect the mental models and actions of other people within what starts as a heterarchical dis-organization that inevitably leads little by little to several light hierarchies based on merit, contributions and so on.

3 Hofstadter's book deals with the emergence of conciousness out of self-reflecting loops in the brain. We can speak here of group conciousness or at least shared mental models that would emerge out of all this stigmergy. The adequacy of individual models is proved in action that produces desired results - and that would apply too to our shared mental models.

4 Empathy is not "putting oneself in other's shoes" as commonly said, but "Trying on the other's mental models" - seeing reality as he or she sees it. We do that naturally with our mirron neurons when actually observing the action in real time, and I think that something of that sort happens online but on longer time spans. We all form mental models of others and continuously update them online as we read their texts and contributions, and eventually learn to see the world "in their shoes and in their minds"

How to apply all this?

We are applying it here... Within a course based on wikis, the students would collaborate in building up content shared and improved by others, thus closing the thinking-communicating-learning loop. I have also tried sharing concept maps, Vensim models (similar to Stella) and Entity-Relationship diagrams and other visualizations and Google Waves. As always different models work best for different subjects and purposes, but wikis are sort of meta because in a wiki page you can usually paste-in other models and have people download and update them or comment on the models, always encouraging of the systemic thinking skills mentioned in the white paper. Something of that sort...

--jose

[vaness...@gmail.com]

Paul ~ thank you so much. You made my day. I still collect city titles, although mostly by bookmark these days. I remember a reading a number of Tilley essays on the city and urban space, probably in the book. Citylit is like a city (or a mooc): confusing, chaotic, easy to get lost in ... and always to learn

Vanessa

[Jose I. Icaza]

Vanesa Vaile: 

> PS I've done a lot of reading in different areas of urban studies because I was researching space and movement in literary cities

Very interesting cross-fertililzation of disciplinary areas: urban architecture <-> MOOCs architecture. What makes a city interesting, vivid and "easy to use" <-> MOOC architectural design and its interface. Actual use shaping architectural decisions,  in both fields. In MOOCs, emerging architecture is fluid, dynamic. It may never "freeze" -even after the MOOC finishes

> (cities) "contain many unique elements, which are defined by Lynch as a network of paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. First, paths are channels by which people move along in their travels."

Paths are very visible in cities -one can look at the city map at different levels of detail. A path in a MOOC may start at the top of this thread an then branch off to other places in the city (references to other posts, parts of the wiki, twitter...) or out of the city (books, internet...). Or it may start at one of our wiki discussion main pages.  Problem: unlike in a city, all paths are not clearly *visible* unless one spends too much time navigating around the MOOC. What technology would make them visible, at differient levels of detail?

> "nodes, are points or strategic spots where there is an extra focus (...) Prime examples of nodes include a busy intersection or a popular city center".

Themes or topics that become very popular in the MOOC - many people congregating and sharing around them. How to identify them, automatically? Difficult with so many technologies being used. A single technology for the MOOC? What would be your choice?

> districts are sections of the city, usually relatively substantial in size, which have an identifying character about them. A wealthy neighborhood such as Beverly Hills is one such example.

mmm yes but I would'n choose any wealthy neighborhood as an example of an "alive district". Jane Jacobs in "The death and life of great American cities" argues that one characteristic of parts of cities that one would consider "alive" is a high level of diversity: homes, work places, commerce, restaurants, parks that have grown organically, and all mixed up. That was killed with zoning rules, which also killed the city.

MassiveOOCs atract a high diversity of people. Alive districts would perhaps be those themes that congregate people with very different backgrounds and disciplinary orientations.  

==

All metaphors have limits but this one was very fruitful!

--jose

 

[Vanessa Vaile]

Late for me to attempt sustained coherence but want to comment at least briefly. Jane Jacob's city was also the one I had in mind for that model of an alive district. Mumford's sense of the medieval city as organic.

Good distinction about paths. I could not help thinking of the jungle as a metaphor for the city out of control and falling into chaos.... Borges' forking paths and infinite library, and the jungle taking over Macondo at the end of 100 Years of Solitude. 

None are ever a total fit but metaphor and visualization help make sense of chaotic, hard to "read" systems. There's an early journal artice on Urban Sociology that I may feel compelled to hunt through long neglected hard copy files for ~ use of rhetorical strategies to make sense of the city. The same metaphors and rhetorical strategies appear regularly in city literature 

I appreciate the irony (or what?) of applying spatial images to un-space. 

[Vanessa Vaile]

another possibly useful schema comes to mind - Greimas' semiotic square. I used an 8 point version to classify / relate series of seemingly unrelated and oppositional metaphors for the city. Having already spent my late evening mental reserves, elaboration is now beyond me will have to wait

Thinking of some of them, I'd have to wonder about worst case scenarios, what it would be like if a MOOC went bad. 

Thank you all

[Jose I. Icaza]

Vanessa Vaile:

> "I appreciate the irony (or what?) of applying spatial images to un-space."

Actually I think that virtual "un-spaces" influence action in similar ways to city or architectural spaces; there are spaces where people feel confortable and gather together, and places that are rarely used. And actual spaces simulated online have been used for learning. A couple of examples:

1) One of the houses in the 3D world of Second Life simulates the perception of an squizophrenic entering the house. http://secondlife.blogs.com/nwn/2004/09/in_the_minds_ey.html 

2) I once designed a Learning Organizations course that on the screen looked as a museum. Each "painting" was actually an icon or image related to one of the concepts or subtopics of the course; clicking the icon took you to learning activities. Museum floors were arranged in order of historical importance. A museum is for exploring what you like; so the idea was that people would climb up and click to whatever painting interested them after consulting the museum guide. We also had problem-based museum tours and a tele-transportation cabin where you could ask a question a be instantly transfered to the painting that would answer the question... http://kasparov.mty.itesm.mx/~jicaza/papers/OnlineConsultingPaper.doc

==

Continuing with the City metaphor... In a city path you may meet other people traversing the path. Not so here in the MOOC; each netizen travels independently and there is no way to know that someone else is reading the very same article that you are reading or following almost the same sequence of links... with some more technology you could even meet people that have traveled the same path in the past - as if walking today by Baker street you could meet Sherlock Holmes =). Also, in a city park you can note frequently traveled shortcuts that were not planned by the architects...

==

I miss the time long ago when I had a list of 10 books that I definitely should read. Now I have a zillion links that I definitely should follow in this infinite library...

-- jose