A Connectivist Disconnected?

Gladys Gahona’s message got me to LinkedIn today. Once there I found several invitations to join networks. I feel honoured to join you, thanks.

If the post title sounds as unbelievable or incongruent as a cat barking,  the fact that  Stephen Downes requested me on May 15th to join his network seemed equally unbelievable.   

However, it only shows that the map is not the territory.

Out of the web I’m connected. 
Inside the web, I’m disconnected.

Do the above phrases reflect the map or the territory?
Who knows? I guess it depends on the place where you’re standing.

Anyway, I came to post what is an unbelievable event from where I seem to stand now.

This is just the start of Connectivism

Today was the last Friday of our CCK08 course, I went to the live session at Ustream to find a link to an Elluminate session where people were gathered.  For the first time I had something interesting to share with voice.  What is it?

Smak posted in the chat: "@Stephen, George and others: Like to learn from you how decisions (say to connect and interact) are made". (Dec 1sr edit:John or Smak came by to let me know that Smak is his ID at Elluminate, thanks John!).p>

His question got me thinking because I belong, as far as I know, to the only group formed to make the final project. The team had set earlier an Elluminate session using the Webheads vRoom to decide what to add, change, agree on, etc. We are four members: Dolores from Spain, Carlos in Germany, Viplav in India and me from Mexico.  Only Carlos and I managed to get there.  It was very interesting  to watch our struggles to get to decisions in a connective way, we had lots of fun!  We are so diverse that it was not an easy task. I kept Smak question in mind and when Dave asked for speakers I raised my hand and at the appropriate time I got the mic, voiced his question and told them about our reaching decisions adventure.

Here are some of the questions  and comments posted in the chat:

• smak: I think this is the most important question in connectivism
• Wendy Drexler: Does decision making equal control?
• Lisa M Lane: and yet, decisions must be made
• ctscho: Decisions are local, perhaps?
• smak: @George: How about learning decision, individually, the network
• Wendy Drexler: With all of this connectivist content created as a result of this course, I'm already thinking about how I can organize it...bring it all together.
• Me: To have groups at the end is a very interesting journey, thanks!
• Jo Ann Hammond-Meiers: What is consensus versus honing in on a focused point
• Lisa M Lane: see, I knew it would come back to individualism (I didn't create any of the wikis I was promoting. LOL)
• Me:@ Viplav you're here too!  How have you find our decision making process?
• ViplavBaxi: @Maru: I think along the lines Stephen is talking right now
  - in a very individual manner, yet connected and evolving
• ViplavBaxi: @Jo: many other factors also enable - eg. common language, protocol
• Stian: @ViplavBaxi: Good point, would be very interested in exploring the role of language further.
• Stephen Downes: The way we create mechanisms to connect ... matters.
• Stephen Downes:  deaf networks, that all the nodes become the same (audio comment)
• Moderator (George Siemens): @maru - connectivism or cck08 attributes from the stance of the education field (To continue tagging)

This is just the start!  I would like to know about the research that surely will be conducted, keep me posted!  LOL No one will post me, RSS will! 

Playing with  SplashCast to create a demo and a collaborative site for the team to work independently but collaboratively,  I came up with this slide show.  I hope you have as much fun as I had while creating it!  (Only the first slide is in Spanish)

Wendy's exquisite video came to the table.  Enjoy!

This video came to put in place more pieces of the puzzle.  I've been thinking for a while that I need to define my needs and focus to get them covered.  Obviously I don't have the right connections or I'm looking in the wrong directions or I'm not looking at all.  I know about events serendipitously and many times I don't join the adventures I would like to participate in because I learn about them too late. So I need to observe myself, think and find out what I'm doing wrong.  Else, I go to Hubs where owners start sending daily emails advertising things, pissing me off with "sales", "unique opportunities to make money" and stuff just like in FaceBook. 

If they knew! LOL  Money is not my engine at the moment... has it been in any given period of my life? Yes, when I was homeless in Manchester while writing my Master thesis; my solution was to get a bicycle to save the bus fare for lunch, spend the night at the Maths building punching cards to get the SSPSx program running on ROSCOW and to sleep during the day in parks or in the living room of a charitable friend for a few days.

I'm looking for collaborators for my on my BaeL crusade, people that gets no harm speaking and writing in Spanish, bilingual people interested on Digital Literacy and web 2.0 tools but... what do I have to offer in return?  Well... learners of Spanish, English, Basic Microsoft programs, e-tools and... plenty of data to do research.  Ning provides plenty of data, that I don't know how to obtain yet but it's there for the taking. Yahoo Groups also provides data but not in the same handy way.  I want to learn how to take advantage of the stats feature in Ning, the doors at Manchester University are open for me and a PhD sounds attractive but... that will take time.

Several "connections" have questioned the way I see my computer literacy or my illiteracies.  They interpret that as lack of self esteem but I see that as a reality.  I don't have a natural inclination to electronic devices or cables or plugs or computer tools; I'm clumsy, I take hours to do what Stephen suggest to do in ten minutes.  It's the same with cooking, I'm not a natural chef; I spend hours cooking what my sister cooks in half an hour.  In both areas I'm satisfied with my end products, the sites work, the tools do what they're supposed to do and the food tastes quite nice.  Sometimes I receive compliments from both areas.  The difference lies in that I have F.U.N. with  the computer and I hate the kitchen.  I rather spend my time having F.U.N.!

After Elluminate I went to my SLexperiments weekly meeting, were I felt like in the Chilbo SL Cohort.  SL continues to behave very badly, voice was down and we had to text chat... what a waste!  Besides, I'm tired, very very tired of typing.  You'll find the summary here.

(Btw: I don't know who Smak and Stian are. If someone knows their blogs, please share them to add the proper links here.  Thanks).

An Illiterate in the CCK08 course

Tonight, after the last  Elluminate CCK08 session, I went to Dave Cormier's blog and found his post about Literacy.  It was like if a veil was taken from my eyes, many of my discomforts found its place.

My reply there was:

Hi Dave!

Thanks for giving a name to how I felt during the CCk08 course, the word “inadequate” didn’t quite explain things for me. Illiterate is the perfect fit. In many aspects I was illiterate, in many others I remain so. I have a looong road ahead but now I see some paths.

I’m glad you explained to me some subtleties in the Korean language and culture, one of my best friends is Korean and I understand him a bit more now.

Thanks also for moderating the live online sessions. It’s been a pleasure hearing you.

Maru :X

Then I went to the Intro Emerging Tech 09 course wiki and found this video.  What caught my attention was that I had seen it before, finding little sense; today, I found more sense. Maybe, if I watch it again in the future I will see more patterns.

 

This morning's events are also clearer now after reading Dave's post.  I went to the  International Forum on Digital Contents (Ficod08 for his Spanish initials) in Second Spain.  Although it was in Spanish, it was about social networks and how are they used for business, I didn't understood some of the terms.  I saw that I had learned the technical words in English during the CCK08 course and I did not have the words in Spanish.  A side of my illiteracy showed up.

An hour later we had our weekly SLexperiments meeting in  Spanish, Dolores and I agreed on solving two things: my urgent problem to get rid of my cat paws and her required visit to Muvenation site.  Steve joined us and he helped me to select a new avatar, his Spanish is very good. The first new avatar remained with paws and I had to strip to sort out the problem, Steve's avatar respectfully turned his back to give my avatar some kind of privacy. I was so embarrassed!

With my new avatar  we went to Muvenation and met Daf there. Daf took us to where Dolores could join the Muvenation student's group that suited her needs and then we tested Daf's orientation site: 

http://slurl.com/secondlife/MUVEnation/212/194/100

Having satisfied our needs we rested by the fire.  It was a wonderful afternoon!

With my deepest gratitude to Dave, Stephen, George, Dolores, Steve and Daf.

CCK08 Final Mind Map

I'm placing here the concepts I found more relevant and how I see them relating and influencing one another.  The map itself has changed little, what has changed is how I understand it now.  For example, over the past two weeks the issue of Openness has gained more weight.

The red lines show a one way influence or impact; I may be wrong, maybe there aren't one way impact relationships with the concepts I mention.  The rest of the colours show the impact of one item; for example, the purple lines show the interaction of the concepts with our "Mind", the blue lines show the interactions with the "Context" and so on.

I understand better now what has happened to me and my connections this year (2008).  My offline connections have a new topic to talk about, besides that, the changes have been those brought about by life itself.  My online connections have widened, I got now a lot of new weak connections and a few stronger new connections.  With Becoming a Webhead (BaW08), Becoming an e-Learner project (BaeL), Connectivism and Connective Knowledge (CCK08), Connecting Online(CO09), Electronic Village Online moderator training (EVOMods09) and Corporate Learning Trends and Innovations (CLTI08) I have learned a lot this year.  My mind view things in a different way.

I see clearly that to have people hanging around with me they have to gain something valuable.  I understand now why when I had worked and pulled my share of work with some people who asked me to participate in their projects I got little or nothing in return when I asked for participation in mine.  They considered me some sort of an asset during their projects, what I did provided something valuable them and I was learning.  Once the project was ended if my project didn't go with their line of work they didn't participate, they wouldn't gain anything of value.  Reciprocity does not have anything to do with it, it's just the way a network works. It's a description of a fact, not a complain.

I understand that Openness is a delicate issue for people and organizations.  Some people and institutions say they are open to new ideas, that they want collaboration but in the practical sense they want you to do things in a certain way and don't accept changes.  It's their organization, their project, their wiki, their site and they have the right to have it as they want it.  It's very difficult to let go of power and control, to set a common goal, elicit participation and receive it as such.  I don't see that happening soon.  I didn't see evidence in Stephen's predictions on the future but what a wonderful piece to read.

His words: "To learn is not to acquire or to accumulate, but rather, to develop or to grow. The process of learning is a process of becoming, a process of developing one’s own self".

I wonder how could I use iCall? Stephen mentions that this allows events and syndicated contents to circulate within the same network, creating an association between time and content that is dynamic, fluid, and distributed.

How could I enable my communities? "At most, the educator needs to ensure that the tools are there for students to use, and that the channels of communication, from student to student, from community to community, are open".

I'm puzzled.  Why didn't Stephen mention "Equity" in his recent SL Conference as a feature of Reliable Networks?  Is that so unreachable?

CCK08 Forest, trees, paths and a bit of clarity

Today's session at UStream.tv brought along wonderful gifts. Thanks guys!

I saw a bit of clarity. I understood that one of the things that was confusing me was that I was not clear about which was Stephen's view and which was George's. Certainly the gray hair in George's avatar got me thinking that I had also confused their identities!!! As mentioned in the live session, I was walking through paths of confusion. The second one was the "distribution" issue.

I think I got the point, I may be wrong. While knowledge resides in the connections or forest, learning resides on the individuals or trees. Hence, knowledge is distributed across the networks, knowledge emerges from those connections, while learning is the capacity to build those connections and use them for our own purposes.

In this picture I show what I found:



The conversation was abundant, I felt it lighter and I could engage with it. It was about time :-)
Nancy White wrote, in her particularly rich descriptive manner, the way most of us feel in this non directive course. Her comment gave way to a description of intelligence. Intelligence is being understood as the ability or potential to comprehend, achieve, understand, function and absorb huge amounts of information. David Vidal came up with with the question: what is first, the egg or the hen?

That in turn lead us to... What is value? This point will be reviewed later on in the course but for now Stephen mentioned two aspects that define the value of something or someone:
1.- Goodness. Is it helpful?
2.- Measurement. Cost or number of units.

This other picture shows a bit of today's conversation

CCK08 Where does Connectivism work best?

Yesterday I came across Mike Bowle's interesting post.

"Thus brings me to my opinion on childhood learning and Connectivism.
The two can absolutely work together, and do it well; but not in traditional,
highly structured educational systems. In my view, Connectivism works best in learner-led environments, and the most learner-friendly environment of them all is the home".

My response:
What you post here is not traditional either and I find it very true. In Mexico, not many people can afford to educate their children at home and most of the schools are traditional, controlled, marks seeking environments. It is sad but true.
In my work I usually encourage parents to integrate their child to society instead of forcing them to get good grades. You see, I work with kids that are different. Regardless the medical term with which those kids are labelled, they are intelligent and want to learn at their own pace, in their own way with their own creative resources. Of course this is not allowed at school but their parents still need to send them to one. My proposal to them is to teach them to beat the school system while encourage them to learn what they are interested in learning.
The second best learner-friendly environment of them all is the Internet.

In an earlier post, also from Mike, I found another bit of information that got me thinking as well.

"As we delve further into the course, I think it’s critical to differentiate
discussions on the theory itself from those regarding implementation of the
theory within a specific context. Both matters are very important ones to explore, but they are - at the core - very different questions".

I do not see Connectivism applied at schools in the future. If the theory manages to get around the evaluation and curriculum points it will stop being Connectivism.
In practice, it will depend on the openness of the schools and teachers, I do not see it in a near future. At least not in Mexico. As digital literacy is very low here
I do not see Connectivism blooming online with Mexican teachers or students.

I highly recommend reading and discussing Mike’s posts on his blog.

CCK08 G. Siemens conference's notes

I made two presentations to share my notes. One in Spanish and one in English.
Enjoy them! I hope to find answers.
Hice dos presentaciones para compartir mis notas. Una en Español y otra en Inglés.
¡Disfrutenlas! Espero encontrar respuestas.

G.Siemens Notes 24sep08 S Lconference

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: cck08 connectivism)

Notas G Siemens Sl 24 Sep 08

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: cck08 connectivism)

CCK08 First week impressions

Mike Bogle's post made me realize that, instinctively, I look for people with a similar view to share what I know and ask what I don't. My reply to his clear post was:

"Your idea of connecting with a goal, to be honest, produced relief. I struggled with the idea of "using" others. Though I have seen that is beneficial for those involved, somehow I was not quite comfortable with it.
Only after reading your clear exposition I understood better what I do with my connections, I have a clearer picture of why people follow me and why they stop doing so and vice versa.
I am too far from you, the tools I use to connect are few, I invest long hours learning how to use them. I guess that as soon as I learn how to use them comfortably I will add more."

Jeffrey Keefer's presentation about the aim of Social Media & Web 2.0 tools points out that there should be an intention, permeated by a mission or vision, along with a message to transmit.
Is this course considered as Social Media?, Do I have to seek for an audience?

As student, my target audience would be the facilitators who would assess and shape my work. I don't even know if I reached them, if I am doing what I am expected to do, if I posted where I am supposed to post or if they are following me. Total Isolation. Jeffrey's questions ring in my head. What do they want from me? What do they think about me? Among so many participants they probably don't know I exist, no one from the staff has contacted me in Moodle.

This bothers me deeply. As a trainer I am quick giving feedback to show that I care and I am listening. Of course I have not had more than 2000 students! I have to admit that I miss the Webheads kind support. I will continue taking responsibility for my learning disregarding audience; though, one of the reasons to take the course for credit was to have regular feedback.

I know that the moderators of the course have a clear idea of the message they want to transmit though I am still lost in new concepts, tools and procedures. As far as I understand we are supposed to make our own learning connections or networks but as I don't have a clear idea of the message I cannot engage yet in serious conversations.

CCK08. My first connections.

I see now that I am connecting somewhat randomly in the course, therefore I feel isolated. I managed to disable the arrival of the Daily email summary which did not help either, I need to find out how to restore it.
Besides, I have not been able to post the RSS feed to my blog and this stormy week I have had long power cut offs.
I recovered the drafts of my posts but they do not seem to make sense anymore; I keep writing for myself. This will end up as a boring and long post for others to read. I guess this one will be posted with an earlier date. Today is September 12th.

It may have been for the best that I could not post here for a few days,to request a Gmail account had terrible consequences.
After reading Mike Bogle's post "Growing a Network" I realize that I have been doing reasonably well with the Webheads Community but that, besides BaeL, they are the only connection source I had until CCK08. I would like to connect with people who are taking the course for credit, I advanced a bit on that by asking in one of the live sessions. Lorraine Mockford picked up the flag and created a thread and I created a Survey that I hope help us to arrange live meetings when necessary.

This week I met new faces along with familiar ones. I received an emal from Elsa Martínez, she is also a Potosina uprooted from my beloved San Luis Potosí to Toluca. She has extensive experience on Distant Learning Education. I am delighted to have a Paisana as friend in Toluca!! We had a nice chat over the phone.
I also received a kind email from Steve Tuffill who came to read my blog before the last two entries were posted.

On the first and only email digest I received, I found a comment from my dear friend Nergiz Kern. She is a sweethearth! She's very generous, kind, caring and a certified Language teacher. I met her this year in the EVO Convention Courses and we hang every Friday in SL.

The other known faces I have seen in the course so far are: Vance, Bee, Nellie, Jose Antonio, Cris Costa (Adopted Mancunian), Teresa, Horacio, Cristina Costa, Carla, Hala, Natasa, Susan, Doris and Sasa.

Besides leaving a comment, I took screenshots of the interesting profiles I came across with and added to them part of the data they posted on their introductions and messages. I want to remember their objectives for the course and where are they from. The screenshots are here.

If you happen to be reading please stop. It's a long list of my new first connections.

The new faces I found and left a comment are so far:
Johan Potomus is interested in the tools we use, Tita Beaven is a lecturer in Spanish focused on Virtual Ethnography as research method, Jaime Caro is conducting a Web 2.0 program for teachers in Colombia, Juan José Calderón is member of the Sevilla University and editor of an e-learning blog, Fridemar Pache is interested on Extreme Open Business to integrate new income models, Maria Irene Albers is an English teacher graduated from the U. of Carabobo in Venezuela currentrly doing her PhD at the U. of Sevilla. María Gómez is an Undergraduate and High School teacher in Caracas using web 2.0 tools and wanders what exactly do teachers need to change. Silvia García from Caracas is an Online Courses Designer and Administrator interested on how do we use ICT's and their social effects. Collin Milligan from Glasgow Caledonian U. is researching learning technology. José Rodríguez teaches 3rd graders in L.A. and wisely calls CCK08 and Odyssey
Oriol Miralbell is a Lecturer at the Open U. of Catalonia, leading e-learning U. in Spain. Gabriel Bunser is a professional coach from Santiago, Chile interested on how Connectivism affects teaching and learning. Liz Renshaw from Australia interested on using technologies to work in diferent ways. Alejandro Valadez from Monterrey, Mexico works at Sanfora Training and Development and wants to share ideas and generate more knowledge. Bruce Nightingale is a Senior Lecturer at Nothingham Trent U.focused on training ICT teachers and researching multy modal learning. Gina Bennett coordinates distant education and educational technology in Canada.
Beatriz Jaramillo is an English teacher in Chile. Therese Weel from Vancouver, Canada expects to have her world view changed. Antonio González from Spain is an Andalusia's Government pedagogical advisor and Catherine Fitzpatrick who is active in SL, she/he claims to be skeptic but she/he is generating more connections than anyone.

CCK08 My long run connections.

People keep asking me why I am paying for a course given for free. The answers "I seek feedback to learn" and "credentials are important for me" do not seem to suffice. I have my mind racing all over the place, I wish I had a handy voice recorder! Besides meditation, what helps me to focus again is to write the bothering thought down. So, here I go.

The best way I find to explain my point of view is by telling stories, I use them with my patients. So I will tell the story of MMV®.

Our Centre, or company, is called MMV® Centro Multidisciplinario de Asesoría Integral. We founded it in 1993. Our first year was great. We had plenty of work and according to our accountant, we did exceptionally well considering that it was our first year on business.

When we where thinking about names, it was easy; we were a Multidisciplinary group of friends, we assessed students, people, projects and organizations and integrated our work fields. The initials issue was also easy. Vero's position was crucial. Her daughters, then just kids, were an important part of our engine; besides, she is the most visually attractive and friendly of us, her connections opened a lot of doors.

I worked with her giving Spanish/English classes and doing some of the English Spanish translations. She was Head of the Languages Area which included German. I worked with Margarita in the Educational programs and Psychology projects, she was the Head of the Education and Research Area and she took English lessons with Vero. Margarita and I worked together in the Organizational Projects with Toluca Industry, I was the head of the Organizational Area.

Looking at the way we interacted we thought that it was a good idea to place Vero initials at the middle, she was our strong connecting point. Lancelot was our shining Knight in Armour, an Arian car made in Monterrey Mexico: The Gross Borgward.

The funny part is that when we asked ourselves what would be the meaning of "MVM" initials or what would we say to people when they asked... the first thought that popped up was "Me Vale M..." There was a long lasting burst of laughter!
After a while we decided that the first "M" should stand for Margarita, who has a PhD. The second "M" should stand for me with a Master Degree. Vero has a Bachelor degree so "V" would be the last,obviously not the least, to avoid trouble and misunderstandings.

O.K. Back to read!