Brainstorm in Progress: Open University

Showing posts with label Open University. Show all posts

Saturday, October 01, 2011

Concept Mapping with Compendium

Image by ryan2point0 I do a lot with concept mapping. I use it in my work as an instructional designer and I use concept maps in writing fiction and technical work, and I am really interested in Compendium right now. What is Compendium? It is more than just concept mapping software. "Compendium is about sharing ideas, creating artifacts, making things together, and breaking down the boundaries between dialogue, artifact, knowledge, and data." Compendium is a free concept mapping software package by the Compendium Institute, a group formed by Knowledge Media Institute of the Open University of UK, Verizon, Center for Creative Leadership, and others to promote the compendium methodology. "Our own particular interest is in visualizing the connections between people, ideas and information at multiple levels, in mapping discussions and debates, and what skills are needed to do so in a participatory manner that engages all stakeholders." What is really exciting about this is the techniques they are exploring with collaborative concept mapping:

"Extending Compendium's support for personal sensemaking, we have a particular interest in what we term collective sensemaking, and have developed a technique called Dialogue Mapping, and its extension, Conversational Modelling. Our experiences with these techiques for capturing and managing -- often in real time and under pressure -- the perspectives in meetings that emerge in open discussion or in collaborative modelling, lead us to claim that Compendium offers innovative strategies for tackling some of the key challenges in managing knowledge and making meaning:

improving communication between disparate communities tackling ill-structured problems
real time capture and integration of hybrid material (both predictable/ formal, and unexpected/informal) into a reusable group memory
transforming the resulting resource into the right representational formats for different stakeholders.

There is a tremendous amount of useful tutorials, videos and articles on the method at the The Compendium Exchange.

I am interested in seeing how this software holds up against CMaps which is what I currently use. I have used Gliffy and Inspiration occasionally for group projects but I am always on the look out for open source solutions. Especially one like this that asks the users to be thoughtful about what kinds of connections they are making to and with the information they are using.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Digital Native Mythology

Image via WikipediaI was glad to see some research this week on the so-called "Digital Native" in the article "Open University Research Explodes Myth of 'Digital Native.'" The whole idea of a "net generation" is ridiculous - the idea that because you were born after a certain year, you have some latent super-powers as far as technology is concerned. What the research shows is that it depends more on money, class, and access then on when you were born. Much of what is written about digital natives and the net generation is true only for the upper-middle classes and above or in areas where there is consistent access to technology. There is a whole body of literature that has grown up around this so-called generational relationship to technology and it is just hogwash. I agree that there are skills that we need around technology, I will even call them 21st Century Skills if someone wants to engage in buzz words. I love that the Open University is actually researching this rather than engaging in the anecdotalism that passes for research in much of education. Some of the more astute observers in this area include folks like Howard Rheingold who sees that though youngsters have some skills in technology, they still need to learn the critical thinking and focused attention skills required to engage in technology in a meaningful way. We do have to teach the current generation differently than the previous - not because they have wicked mad tech skills but because without the focus and discipline required to make sense of the media, they become mere consumers of media - passively disengaged in the world.

More on this can be found at http://www.netgenskeptic.com/

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Hewlett Packard Funds University of the People Research Students

Image via WikipediaHP is funding research projects with the University of the People, a tuition free open university. I am not sure about your end of the internet, but I haven't see much out there about this story. This is going to be one of the most significant stories in open learning of the year. There was a story about it at the Chronicle of Higher Ed. Long after the "real" colleges finish debating whether open universities, free universities and alternative schooling is effective or "valid," the graduates of these programs will be taking their portfolios into the workplace of major corporations. With open universities, MOOCs (massively open online courses), and other alternatives in education coming out of a combination of traditional schools and social networks, the education landscape is changing. This is no longer about creating free content. This is no longer about credentials, although students can go to the University of the People and get a bachelor's degree in computer science online at little cost. There is a $50 application fee and small fees around the grading of tests. They also offer Associate degrees in computer science and Associate and Bachelor's in Business Administration. What makes this story so significant is that the president of the college Shai Reshef, is not just interested in getting people educated but getting them jobs as well. The real revolution in education is not going to take place in the usual universities, it is going to happen when the highly motivated, self-directed learners from places like Wikiversity and U of P move into management of corporations. University of the People also offers general studies courses which I like because their students still get a chance to study history and the world around them.