Week Five: Connectives and Collectives

Networks and groups and collectives, oh my! What's the difference? Is there a difference? How and when does each best function? These are some of the questions we explored this week (and yes, I DO feel more on track this week!). There are so many things in this course that I never really considered, but I feel as though I should have done so a long time ago, but alas, here I am. In this post, I'll try to briefly recapture some of what I managed to glean from this week's materials.

The Seimens presentation focused on three critical elements of difference between groups and networks: individual autonomy, task specialization, and complexity. Differentiation between groups and networks can be defined as a function of these three aspects. Groups have less autonomy, greater task specialization, and complexity. Networks have more autonomy which results in a greater diversity of ideas. But don't rely on a network of people to get your task complete for there will be discussion and it may take a long while for action to occur. I had a random thought this week that perhaps that is why so many students struggle doing group work. Somewhere the autonomy, task specialization, and/or complexity is wrong for the expectations of the instructor or students.

Groups
I now recognize that groups are much more structured than I would have supposed a week or so ago. They usually have a set start/end date and are restricted or defined by rules to accomplish some very specific task. The only example of a group I belong to right now is my running group, Women's Running 301. We've come together, paid a fee, and meet every Monday night for track work and every Saturday morning for a long run. Our goal is a 10 miler in December. Our coach, Alison, leads the group by organizing our activities. There's not always the teacher/ student relationship in a group, but there are usually defined roles for some, if not all, members. Groups use certain sets of tools to accomplish their goals whether that is a track or a certain type of software or some other thing.

I really liked what either Terry Anderson or Stephen Downes (sorry I can't remember which) said in the Elluminate session this week about groups creating "same-ness." Everyone has the same group, the same tools, and the same direction. The end is the goal and we all work to get there.

Networks
"If groups are managed, networks emerge" - another great quote from the Elluminate session this week. In thinking about which networks I am a part of, I came up with a much more impressive list than the groups I belong to. In addition to belonging to the running group, I also belong to a network of runners here in Tucson and also in Pennsylvania. This is different than our group in that it's much more loose. Each run may include different runners, but there is also a sharing of knowledge whether it's where the best prices for running skirts is or different stretching techniques. We share information among each other while sometimes filtering by interest - usually the guys don't get the running skirt information!

Other networks of which I am part are those of birders, instructional designers, vegetarians, and community college employees. Some of those networks are national, for example, I keep in contact with several birders and vegetarians throughout the United States. We exchange stories, recipes and sightings. Other networks are more local. I'm very active in the instructional design network here at work, but don't really have too much contact outside of that.

Networks can be differentiated from groups in that the members are more independent. There are few if any goals to accomplish and members generally float in and out of the flow of information. Members provide information for each to use as needed. Want a new recipe? Just click on the the recipe wiki we vegetarians started at work. Where is the local birding hotspot this week? Check out the listserv.

Collectives
The most important thing I learned about collectives this week is that people don't join them, but simply become part of them as a by-product of being part of a group or network. The best example of a collective to I belong is e-Bird. This is an electronic species listing software that tracks a birder's sightings (where and when). it keeps track of all your sightings and lists - the year list, the yard list, the life list, but it also aggregates the information input by thousands of birders to output all kinds of birding statistics so that if I wanted to see a certain bird on a certain date, the software could tell me where my best chances of finding it are.

Education networks?
Certainly, groups have proven their effectiveness in academic settings, but what about networks? Do they have a place in education and if so, what is it? Given the fact that it is so much easier to network, it would seem to me that students should be given some exposure to networking in the classroom, but how? How could an instructor incorporate a network within a class? It seems to me that instructors need to start to reach beyond the limits of the semester and foster networking among students in a program, a university, a country, a career. Social learning software is doing just that, but some instructors are trying to force group "rules" onto a network.