CCK08 SL Cohort - Week 3 Recap

[Fleep]

Hi all,

Here's the brief summary and recap of the Week 3 discussions in the Second Life cohort of the Connectivism & Connective Knowledge course.

Meeting Times

Discussions are held in the Connectivism Reading Room in the Connectivism Village at:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/ Madhupak/16/70/66

Tuesdays at 11AM SLT (-7GMT)
Thursdays at 6PM SLT (-7GMT)
Sundays at 5PM SLT (-7GMT)

Current Stats from Connectivism Village

Unique visitors today = 18, yesterday = 9, total = 171
Visitor minutes on your land today = 428, Yesterday = 198, Total = 4766
Totals are for 10 days of monitoring

(Fleep notes that's an average of almost 28 minutes per visitor!)


Week 3 Discussion Recap:  Sunday - September 21, 2008 @ 5PM SLT
Full transcript located at:  http://chilbo.wikispaces.com/connect_092108

In Attendance: Fleep Tuque, Birdie Newcomb, Chimera Cosmos, Arielion Clawtooth, Chicken Stoop

Notes:

• The PPT on Networks seemed really dense and meaty. [17:21] Arielion Clawtooth: Unfortunately, even though it's Networks for Newbies I couldn't understand half of it. :) Sigh.
• Some discussion about how we heard about the Connectivism course, the backgrounds of the course instructors, and what we're getting out of the course. [17:54] Chimera Cosmos: I already got the email newsletters from Downes and Siemens, but I think I heard about this on Facebook [17:49] Arielion Clawtooth: I don't think anyone will spend thousands and thousands of dollars and go to look for a job interview to say "Uhhh, I connected a lot."
• People are becoming more comfortable/experienced with the CMAP program. [17:34] Arielion Clawtooth: I must admit my new CMAP is much prettier than the first one. Senseless but pretty. :)
• A question about how the builds/projects in the Sandbox were being done/coordinated (Answer from Fleep: They aren't! People are adding what they like when they like, if you want to self-organize a group build, we should discuss in future meetings.)
• Favorite quote from this discussion: [18:00] Birdie Newcomb: I think this course is an experiment betwen Stephen and George, maybe a bet like God and Satan in Job

Week 3 Discussion Recap:  Tuesday, September 23, 2008 @ 11AM SLT
Full transcript located at:  http://chilbo.wikispaces.com/connect_092308

In Attendance: Fleep Tuque, Kita Coage, Arieliondotcom Paulino, Blanche Maynard, Alice Burgess, Wainbrave Bernal, Margarette Fouroux, Birdie Newcomb, Gann McGann, Jeff Kurka, Graham Mills

Notes: Many people had not done all of the readings for this week (this seems to be a recurring theme =) ), but there was an engaging discussion about many aspects of Networking and how it applies to learning/connectivism. Fleep attempted some active facilitation of the conversation to steer the discussion towards the course content INSTEAD of the mechanics of how the course is working technically in response to some private IMs and emails, but based on the group discussion, decided this was a not so good idea and people should speak up for themselves if they want to steer the conversation in a particular direction. Some highlights from the discussion:

• Fleep asks that folks not wait for her to start the discussions, in case she can't make it to a meeting. If whoever is there at the beginning and end can copy and paste the transcript in an email to fleep...@gmail.com, Fleep will post it later (or of course post it yourself if you've already created an account on the Chilbo wiki at http://chilbo.wikispaces.com/SLCohortMeetingsTranscripts).
  
• The Network PPT (Week 3 reading) was pretty hard to read for some. Arieliondotcom Paulino: Yes but the audio is better. I haven't gotten to the third yet.
  
• Discussion of hierarchies vs Networks. Wainbrave suggests Bloom's "The Global Brain" (2006) for additional reading on this topic. [11:12] Wainbrave Bernal: actually there's been a tension between networks and hierarchies as competing strategies for organization throughout history - and, according to Howard Bloom - throughout the universe forEVER. Wainbrave's blogpost on the topic: http://hothousestrategies.com/tefblog/?p=100 - [11:17] Wainbrave Bernal: 1: Conformity Enforcer 2: Diversity Generator 3: Inner Judges 4: Resource Shifters 5: Intergroup Tournaments Wainbrave also suggests.. [11:20] Wainbrave Bernal: Another great theoretic framework along these lines is James Grier Miller's Living Systems Theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_systems_theory
• Discussion about discussing mechanics of the course versus discussing content of the course. [11:34] Gann McGann: yep thats the point i was working towards - my strategy here has been to identify the redistributors of knowledge within the course [12:08] Arieliondotcom Paulino: Maybe THIS group NEEDS that type of connection where another doesn't.
• Discussion of how a network determines "good nodes" versus "bad nodes". [11:53] Fleep Tuque: I think ultimately the network decides [11:53] Fleep Tuque: Not popularity content in the traditional sense [11:53] Fleep Tuque: but the aggregate effect of 30 people all INDIVIUDALLY deciding "Wow that guy is obnxoxious!" adds up to something like that [11:54] Fleep Tuque: I think what we thik of as popularity contest would be all of us getting tgether and talking about Annoying Guy [11:54] Fleep Tuque: but in a networked context [11:54] Fleep Tuque: we each decide for ourselves [11:54] Arieliondotcom Paulino: I knew you were talking about me. :)

Week 3 Discussion Recap:  Thursday - September 25 2008 @ 6PM SLT
Full transcript at:  http://chilbo.wikispaces.com/connect_092508

In Attendance: Fleep Tuque, Arielion Clawtooth, Sine Rennahan, Chimera Cosmos, Birdie Newcomb

Notes:

• Discussion of facilitation of the meetings, Fleep reiterated the desire to not actively moderate the conversation. [18:12] Fleep Tuque: I think this group is or should be fairly open and equal in discussions, ie participation shapes the conversation
• Discussion of "expertise" in networks. [18:14] Arielion Clawtooth: I'm confused about the expertise issue. For some reason I thought the Rizomatic thing said "no experts" but there was a lot of talk on the elluminate discussion about exprtise. [18:17] Claude Desmoulins: Maybe it was more about letting expertise happen rather than having someone declared the expert. [18:22] Claude Desmoulins: If I join a group and by reading blog posts and asking around and everyone says 'Fleep is the go to person about X ' [18:22] Fleep Tuque: I suppose that gets to some extent to _demonstrated_ expertise versus _claimed_ expertise.[18:23] Claude Desmoulins: Then Fleep's elevation to expert status is democratic/organic.
• Discussion of "spread of contagion", echo chambers, how memes spread and are "stopped" (or not - the long tail of memes?) with the EduPunk meme used as an example. [18:47] Arielion Clawtooth: If we left a sign that said "Up with edupunk!" or started posting about it in the moodle, those connections would grow, others would investigate "What is it?" Who posted that (expert)? [18:47] Birdie Newcomb: Hey, great idea. [18:47] Fleep Tuque: (Well, I should say, I don't think the edupunk concept is "dead", I think it just got a sound beating, but that I'm still thinking of and talking about it, as I'm sure others are, the meme lives on and in fact is still spreading, in this case by me. Ew! I have the contagion cooties!) :)
• Discussion of the practical application of connectivism so far. [18:45] Fleep Tuque: I guess so far, 3 weeks into the class, I have identified myself as a connective learner, I've been doing that naturally for a long time, BUT by thinking about the concepts being discussed in this course, and seeing my actions in a new light, I can be more _deliberate_ about it. [18:45] Fleep Tuque: For example, before this course, I might have "friended" some of you as an afterthought [18:46] Fleep Tuque: but by being part of the course, I am now consciously friending everyone who comes to these conversations and making that "connection" more explicit.
• Discussion of how to reference objects, builds, and spaces in Second Life for the first paper assignment. [18:57] Arielion Clawtooth: Anyone start their first paper yet I'm still worried about references. Fleep Tuque: http://simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Source_Citation_Ideas
  [19:00] Fleep Tuque: Source Citation Ideas Second Life is a new medium where the normal methods of citation often used in academia may have to be reinterpreted or applied in new ways. Please list here the methods you use in SL to document sources of images, notecard text etc so that we may all learn to be more rigorous about proper documentation.

Thanks to all and hope to see you at next week's sessions!

- Chris/Fleep


Chris M. Collins (SL: Fleep Tuque)
University of Cincinnati Second Life Learning Community
Second Life Ambassador, Ohio Learning Network
Co-Chair, Second Life Education Community Conference
UCit Instructional & Research Computing
University of Cincinnati
303G Zimmer Hall
PO Box 210088
Cincinnati, OH 45221-0088
(513)556-3018
chris....@uc.edu
fleep...@gmail.com

UC Second Life:  http://homepages.uc.edu/secondlife
OLN Second Life: http://www.oln.org/emerging_technologies/emtech.php
SLEDcc 2008:  http://sledcc.wikispaces.com

[Sia Vogel]

Chris, is it possible to try to give me a better explanation of the time? I live in Holland, Amsterdamtime, and I don't understand SL time.

greetz,

Sia Vogel

2008/9/26 Fleep <flee...@gmail.com>

[Fleep]

Hi Sia,

Second Life runs on Pacific Daylight Time, which is -7 GMT (for the moment, until daylight savings time ends on November 2nd, when it will move to -8 GMT).  The current meeting times are:

Tuesdays at 11AM SLT (-7GMT)
Thursdays at 6PM SLT (-7GMT)
Sundays at 5PM SLT (-7GMT)

So if you go to a time zone conversion calculator like http://www.onlineconversion.com/timezone.htm, you should be able to pick your city/time zone and see the difference.  In your case, it appears that Holland is 9 hours ahead of Pacific, so the Tuesday meetings would be at 8PM your time, for example.

Does that make sense?

All the best,

- Fleep

[Sia Vogel]

I think my problem was CMT, used by Stephen and George for elluminate and ustream and GMT used by you. now it's clear. Thank you very much! I don't know if I will be there on tuesday, but I like to try a meeting overthere very much, so one time I will be there.

thanks again,

greetz,

Sia

 

2008/9/26 Fleep <flee...@gmail.com>