Post on 17-Jan-2015
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transcript
Apophenia: Understanding and
meaning in information abundance
George SiemensIADIS 2007
Lisbon, Portugal
Learning about Portugal
• Language• Culture• Customs• History
• Sites/locations reflecting traits
• Information sites• Skype (Portuguese)• Opinions of colleagues
Once here..
• Tours• Walking• Sights, smells, sounds• Food, beverages
What does it mean to “know” Portugal?
Gee, thanks George. We knew that.
We know, but is it reflected in practice?
Ideology?
Multiple facets
Multiple experience
To know is to connect multiplicity
We are giving our learners a one-
dimensional experience
Beyond monochromatic approaches
Current methods ≠ needs
Abundance– Destroys current linear, expert approach
“In a world of rapid change, quick access to knowledge becomes as important as knowledge itself”
Daniel Rosenberg
New Old Ideas
Conrad Gesner: “Confusing and harmful abundance of books” (1550)
Journal of History of Ideas (Jan, 2003)
Humanity’s knowledge and our means to share it are increasing at an accelerating rate. Yet, our perceptual and cognitive abilities stay nearly constant.
http://www.infovis.net/printMag.php?num=170&lang=2
Growth is accelerating
• 800,000 scientific journal articles in 2002, 1 M in 2006 (Boyack)
• IDC (six fold increase: 2010)
• Berkeley – How much information
• Data smog (David Shenk)
Not enough experts to make sense of it all…
Knowledge needs
Requires:– New tools– New methods– New mindsets
New tools
• Encyclopedia (aggregate)• Pageflakes• ManyEyes, data visualization
New methods
• Patterning by software• Trails of “the many”• Networks
Patterns, history
New mindsets
• Bacon: taste, swallow, chew (1612)• Louis-Sebastien Mercier: Four books,
eliminate the rest
Interact with patterns, not with information
How are our students interacting?
• Superficial (Wikipedia)
• NEED multiple points of input…representations…facets
• Need nodes to form networks
http://news.com.com/The+Big+Picture/2030-12_3-5843390.html
Tags: Web of meaning
Visualization
• Grunt cognition
• Move to meaning/sensemaking
• Provides insight
• New connections
Money Street
World Health Chart
Mapping conversations, connections
http://www.cmu.edu/joss/content/articles/volume8/Welser/
Yeah, ok, but what’s the use?
• Network models of learning are adaptive
• Multiple approaches…multiple experiences
• Today’s information is tomorrow’s sensemaking
• Complex, integrated understanding
Challenges
• “Why of” education: transformative & reactive
• Foster basics…but honor known (history as a conversation) (Spencer, Dewey, Piaget)
• New research – rewriting monthly
We need to question deeply the assumptions on which we are building tomorrow’s education
www.elearnspace.orgwww.knowingknowledge.com
www.connectivism.ca