CoFIND: steps towards a selforganising learning environment

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CoFIND steps towards a self-organising learning
environment

• Jon Dron, Richard Mitchell, Chris Boyne, Phil
  Siviter
• jon.dron_at_brighton.ac.ukhttp//www.it.bton.ac.uk/
  staff/jd29/CoFIND.html

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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

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Learning from the web

• A phenomenally rich source of learning resources
• but
• Teachers still have a range of important roles...

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Roles of the teacher

• Including...
• Expert help
• A guided path
• Inspiration and motivation
• Feedback and assessment
• Establishing boundaries

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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

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CoFIND- some features
Collaborative generation of metadata about the
value of resources (qualities)
Collaborative rating
Collaborative adaptive categorisation
Sharing
Communication
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CoFIND as a facilitator of learningHow can
CoFIND take on the roles of a teacher?
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Expert help
Resources are returned in order of rating for the
selected quality

• Collaborative discovery of resources (web pages,
  people, books, ideas, places)
• Discussion mechanisms
• Resources returned according to ratings for a
  selected quality

Users may rate resources according to the
selected quality
A user selects a quality
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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

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A guided path
The screen is divided into four independent
sectors of topics

• Categorisations shaped by use

Selecting a topic increases its size whilst
simultaneously reducing the size of its
competitors
Users may add topics in any sector
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A guided path

• Quality ratings guide users to well rated
  resources of the sort they need
• Collective guidance born through interactions
  with the system

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Inspiration and motivation

• Through user interactions
• By finding interesting resources
• Through feedback and assessment

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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

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Establishing the boundaries

• Subject matter and relevance shaped by
  categorisation and use of qualities

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Issues

• The cold-start phenomenon

• Establishing niches
• Encouraging use
• Beyond the cohort -synchronisation issues
• Blogging - making paths

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fin