#DigiWriMo #CLMOOC: Vertices, Edges and Digital Nomads

Network Analysis Study

I don’t claim to understand all of the data analysis that goes on when people research and examine all of the elements of our social interactions in places like Twitter and beyond. Here, for example, is what the Innovator’s Mindset MOOC looked like from a data analysis viewpoint.

IMMOOC Network Analysis

I grapple with making sense of it all, but it fascinates me just the same, particularly when a visual is teamed up with writing that dives into the data points. So this recently published piece by some friends in my social networking circles — Aras, Autumm, Maha B., Sarah and Dave, and Apostolos  — caught my attention.

I’m still reading it (the title alone is a mouthful: Community Tracking in a cMOOC and Nomadic Learner Behavior on a Connectivist Rhizomatic Learning Network) …. and learning the vocabulary of research.

definitions

Some of the elements explored here about hashtags and the wandering spirit of those in networked spaces in this research article certainly caught my eye. I am one of those people. And I wander around quite a bit, hoping to connect with people and picking their brains about writing, teaching and more. The insight of how hashtags are connector points makes a lot of sense to me.

Network Analysis Study

I am intrigued by the term of “nomadic learners” — those of us who skirt and toggle between open educational spaces. In fact, that term is more fluid than the “lurker” terminology that is often used, and debated in online spaces. A nomad is forever on the move, but not just transient — they stop, talk, chat, share, gather and then bring what they have learned to other spaces.

Or so, I hope.

Network Analysis Study

 

As CLMOOC hosts a taste of DigiWriMo this week and into next (with an open invitation to make and create and collaborate and explore), I hope we all become rather nomadic in our wanderings and in our creations, and in our connections. I’ll see you on the edge of the vertices.

Peace (on the compass of imagination),
Kevin

8 Comments
  1. I wish I understood, but I just don’t. You would think that someone recounting the experience to me would refresh some part of my memory, but it didn’t. I am glad our writers got something from it. It is too bad some folk don’t like the word ‘metaphor’ considering it is one of the major ways our mind works. As my buddy Einstein remarks on a poster in my office: imagination is more important than knowledge. This is a real divide here for me, one that even your post cannot bridge for me. Thanks for trying. I will always believe and accept as tacit knowledge that the tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction. I do value their work. I just don’t get it. The rhizome always rises to the level of mystery for me, beyond fact and academic contention, complex and unmanageable. I try to recreate that mystery, but I don’t think I can in any way make it do what I command it to do. I cannot make the rhizome into a dial that goes from zero to ten. I accept that and move on.

    antispamidamia: foxy gore Oh no. I just hit something. I was expecting to get out and find some kinda foxy gore on the road. I love foxes. When I did get out I saw it was a cardboard box with a fox on it. I killed a cardboard box. Then I heard something behind me, big and screaching and reaching out.

    • I liked the nomad metaphor because it is me. I am wandering from learning to learning, and can’t seem to place my tent in one spot. Nor do I want to. What makes this exploration so interesting is that we don’t have maps (metaphor alert) and the compass is sometimes broken or missing (I blame the mice), so we step into the unknown from time to time and make sense of it all (or not). The mystery of the journey, and my companions, makes it all worth the while.
      Kevin

  2. I am fascinated by the way you annotate lines from articles using visuals as backgrounds. Seeing these visuals appealed me once again to revisit article 😉 I also see that visuals are not selected randomly, but reflects the message in lines…

    It was my dream to write something empirical, but in the form of a comic…

  3. Thanks for highlighting the. Orion of nomadic learning; quite a useful frame for those of us who live in luminal learning spaces for our own variety of needs and wants.

    BTW, what did you use to grab the quotes and isolate them with images?

  4. I love this observation “A nomad is forever on the move, but not just transient — they stop, talk, chat, share, gather and then bring what they have learned to other spaces.” I think these are marks of lifelong learners, and I’m honored to have intersected paths with some kindred souls!

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