Slides of Conference paper presentation, Networked Learning conference, 2-4th April 2012, Maastricht, The Netherlands

1. Information aggregation in
networked learning: The human
factor and serendipity
Rita Kop
Institute for Information Technology
Learning and Collaborative Technologies Group

2. What to expect
Rita Kop

3. ‘The circumstances, conditions and the very
status of knowledge, learning, teaching and
researching are currently in a state of
profound upheaval under the impact of rapid
and far-reaching technological change’.
Lankshear and Knobel 2000
Rita Kop

4. Changes in the
nature of the Web
Rita Kop
http://www.flowtown.com/blog/have-we-reached-a-world-of-infinite-information?display=wide

5. ‘This new reality presents challenges for the
existing higher education system. In
particular, how do people learn and solve
complex problems in social, global networks
in climates of information abundance?’
Siemens, 2012
Rita Kop

6. The changing learning
environment
Rita Kop

7. Changes in student
behaviour - Research
using a virtual computer
University
resources used:
28.51%
Web resources
used: 71.49%
Pardo and Kloos (2011)
Rita Kop

8. Changes in learning:
Open Networked Learning
• A new theoretical
paradigm
• Transforms relations
and communication
• Challenges existing
educational structures
• Asks why we should
continue to believe
preconceived definitions
of knowledge, learning,
or collectively built
knowledge?
Rita Kop

9. How neutral is
the Web?
Barabási (2003)
Rita Kop
http://bit.ly/gsiqF7

10. Critical Literacies for
educators and learners
Level of New
complexity: semantics:
• Change •Text
• Context • Hypertext
• Presence
• (Social) Media
• Networking
• Technical
• Participation
• Attention
• Searching
• Remixing • Tagging
• Filtering
• Intercultural
•Aggregating
• Analytics
Rita Kop

11. Recommender systems
and serendipity
Rita Kop

12. Serendipity in the
information stream?
Rita Kop

13. Information aggregation
Moving from:
Rita Kop

14. To:
and
http://davidwarlick.com/colearners/?p=73 Rita Kop

15. Factors affecting
serendipity
• Autonomy
• Openness
• Interactivity
Stephen Downes
Rita Kop

16. The human factor
and serendipity
Level of communication
Diversity
Degree of distance
Rita Kop

17. RESEARCH
ON MOOCS

18. Challenges in
capturing Big Data
Rita Kop
abovethelaw.com
meatmeter.blogspot.com

19. Who were the
participants?
Participants’ age
Participants’ residence
Rita Kop
Participants’ professional background

20. What did
participants do?
PLENK participation rates Rita Kop

21. 21

22. What did people
share on Twitter?
• Twitter posts
• Discussion posts
• Blog posts
• Concept maps http://zaidlearn.blogspot.com
/2010/09/plenk-2010-most-awesome-course-
on.html
• Google map
Wordles
• Pearltrees networks
• Presentations
• Animations
• S.Network groups
• Second Life area
Rita Kop

23. How did people
communicate on Twitter?

24. Twitter PLENK
connections to hash-
tag networks
#tags related to Twitter posts in the PLENK Daily - six weeks duration

25. Factors influencing serendipity on
the PLENK2010 Twitter network
• Number of incoming messages
• The balance between messages: noise to signal
ratio
• Tweets or re-tweets
• RSS streams shared
• # Networks
Rita Kop

26. Conclusions
• Small study
• Serendipity and predictive analytics systems
• Learning Analytics
• Human factor
Rita Kop

27. Further research
• Results need comparing with the
effectiveness of more traditional information
filtering strategies
• Serendipity Index

28. Frederika.Kop@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
www.you-learn.org
@ WelshCloggy
Links to MOOC and PLE
research publications:
http://bit.ly/AEgnnp
Rita Kop, PhD.