Transcript CoFIND: steps towards a self-organising learning environment Jon

CoFIND: steps towards a selforganising learning
environment
Jon Dron, Richard Mitchell, Chris Boyne, Phil Siviter
[email protected]
http://www.it.bton.ac.uk/staff/jd29/CoFIND.html
Self-organised learning
Aim
To replace some or all of the roles of a teacher by
providing an environment for collaboration
which organises itself as a result of the
combined actions of its users
Learning from the web
 A phenomenally rich source of learning
resources
 but…
 Teachers still have a range of important
roles...
Roles of the teacher
Including...
 Expert help
 A guided path
 Inspiration and motivation
 Feedback and assessment
 Establishing boundaries
CoFIND
Collaborative Filter In N Dimensions
 A self-organising knowledge base
 A collaborative bookmark database (web
pages, pictures, books, places, people,
newsgroups and more)
 A communication mechanism
 A sharing mechanism
CoFIND- some features
Collaborative generation of metadata
about the value of resources (qualities)
Collaborative
rating
Sharing
Collaborative adaptive
categorisation
Communication
CoFIND as a facilitator of
learning
How can CoFIND take on the roles of a
teacher?
Expert help
Resources
are returned in
 Collaborative
discovery of resources
order of rating for
thepages,
selectedpeople,
quality books, ideas, places)
(web
 Discussion mechanisms
 Resources returned according to ratings for
Users may rate resources
a selected quality
according to the
selected quality
A user selects
a quality
Self-organisation by qualities
 Learners enter resources
 New or existing qualities are used
to rate resources
 Qualities compete- the more they are
used, the more selectable (successful)
they become
 Successful qualities produce lists of
useful resources
 Success encourages re-use
The screen is divided
into four
independent sectors
of topics
A guided path
Categorisations shaped by use
Users may add
topics in any sector
Selecting a topic increases its size
whilst simultaneously reducing
the size of its competitors
A guided path
 Quality ratings guide users to well rated
resources of the sort they need
 Collective guidance born through
interactions with the system
Inspiration and motivation
 Through user interactions
 By finding interesting resources
 Through feedback and assessment
Feedback and assessment
 Users may post their own resources
 Resources may be rated by other users of
the system
 Qualities indicate what is considered good
or bad about a resource
 Users can add comments or discuss
resources
Establishing the boundaries
 Subject matter and relevance shaped by
categorisation and use of qualities
Issues
The cold-start phenomenon
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
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Establishing niches
Encouraging use
Beyond the cohort -synchronisation issues
Blogging - making paths
fin