#UCSIA15 Reflections for final week: From audio to cricket
The digital reputation economy is becoming more important: “Increasingly, your digital footprint will become inseparable from your identity and your reputation” (Burrus, 2015). Maybe this is also true of writing style? Especially “as academics look to write for different audiences and in more accessible ways” (Hartley, 2014). This source introduced the concept of the quantified self; along with exploring about.me as a personal landing page.
“#QuantifiedSelf and a person are both entities, producing information that can be acquired, stored, and analyzed to gain new knowledge that can be shared through charts and stories alike, thus embodying the heart of what makes quantified self an exciting movement” (Lidwin, 2015)
On a connected twist, the aptly titled ‘the value of illustrating numbers’, attempted to differentiate data illustration and data visualisation as, “when it comes to data about people, perhaps the approach needs to be a bit more thoughtful and respectful.” (Kosara, 2015).
As the closure of #UCSIA15 nears, I visited the quantification and visualisation of downloads of The Value of Numbers (TVON) iBook and the webpage views on Medium. As a snapshot, TVON made its century and the profile of the views on Medium resembled a pattern of a recurring audio wave. The question still exists on whether to turn the volume and/or frequency up/down on my public broadcast.
Over the years, I have constantly squirreled relevant content, into broad categories, to build a library of resources to access as/when required. Through the consideration of curriculum design, these resources will hopefully help morph and mould a signposted learning journey for others.
The process of collating and sharing my weekly feeds as a ‘personal learning environment’ has been a valuable exercise to extract more learning, understanding and context from them, especially when framing impact, values, knowledge of authentic self , and permission to be different.
“With few exceptions, electrode-positive (reversed polarity) results in deeper penetration.”
The synthesis and re-synthesis of the feeds helps to build the ensemble of information to orchestrate decision-making and future direction… I have referred to this incremental series of tweets over the last month. This note was particularly reminiscent of the polysemic (Keith’s descriptor) messages in the last blog linking convergence with fusion, order from chaos, and revealing the, now glaringly obvious, importance of the bee theme, through cross-pollination of ideas to catalyse innovation.
The theory of effectuation was brought to my attention, which I could relate to from multiple angles as an practitioner, educator, and researcher. There is a need for nimble curriculum design in an ever-changing domain, where bold 21st century leadership is required, where the PA technology and processes progress rapidly, and the model of education is transforming; with the need to embed the “8 tenets of being a relevant educator”
The importance of collective intelligence was also reinforced in this article and aligned to many of the principles covered in the first 3 #UCSIA15 reflective blogs
“Individuals in innovative organizations learn how to inquire, they learn how to actively listen, but guess what? They also learn how to advocate for their point of view. They understand that innovation rarely happens unless you have both diversity and conflict. Creative agility is about being able to test and refine that portfolio of ideas through quick pursuit, reflection and adjustment. It’s about discovery-driven learning where you act, as opposed to plan, your way to the future. It’s about design thinking where you have that interesting combination of the scientific method and the artistic process. It’s about running a series of experiments, and not a series of pilots.” (Hill, 2015)
Along with social collaboration:
“Technology can help us build global connections, combine ideas of many different individuals and give those ideas proper time to incubate. This incubation time is necessary for the idea to develop into a concept that one day hope to call a stroke of genius.” (Willer, 2015)
And this article on ‘learner-centered teaching’:
“By making it easier for students to learn the content, are we denying students the opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills they’ll need to navigate the real world?” (Norman, 2014)
Through filtering the noise and overload of channels of information to find and amplify the resounding signals from within and outside the PA domain, I believe there has been value in the reflections from a PA and personal value. Unfortunately, there continues to be a lack of participation in social media, but there is a very close link between silence and listening, and also “engagement does not necessarily equate to learning” (Sheninger, 2015)
Sheninger (2015) also directs readers to the Glossary of Education Reform:
“In education, student engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education. Generally speaking, the concept of “student engagement” is predicated on the belief that learning improves when students are inquisitive, interested, or inspired, and that learning tends to suffer when students are bored, dispassionate, disaffected, or otherwise “disengaged.” Stronger student engagement or improved student engagement are common instructional objectives expressed by educators.”
And stated:
“students can walk away from a lesson or activity having been very engaged, but still walk away with very little in the form of new knowledge construction, conceptual mastery, or evidence of applied skills.”
These elements combined emphasise the importance of praxis in teaching performance analysis, but I know what you’re now thinking… apart from a token mention of century, when does cricket come into the story?
Given the concurrency of the ICC Cricket World Cup, there has been a great international partnership between Cardiff Met and University of Canberra where the bat(on) has been handed on, running a series of quick singles to alternate the strike; a togetherness to share the lead (shame it wasn’t about ducks…), whilst England promise “to look at the data” following their dismissal.
“The result is an ever increasing overflow of business-speak morphing with a vast silo of scientific analysis to produce a sporting culture where paralysis by analysis appears capable of not only cramping performance but the very language.” (O’Connor, 2015)
Over time, technology has moved on from cassette to CD to DVD and currently online formats… Over this period, Keith’s mindset and actions have passed the test of time. He was before his time, and is of this time; beyond that, differentiating him further, he continues to be pioneering to this day, paving the way “so that we can achieve our learning goals faster and effectively.” (de Paula Costa, 2015). It will be interesting to see if/how #UCSIA15 develops further whilst learning ”valuable lessons about building with community, not for it”, potentially sharing this 21st Century Leadership Mantra:
Move fast. Stay open. Be wise. Switch directions as needed. Globalize. Go social. Be great. Keep climbing!
“How did Bill think about what his role was? Bill said, “I lead a volunteer organization. Talented people don’t want to follow me anywhere. They want to co-create with me the future. My job is to nurture the bottom-up and not let it degenerate into chaos.” How did he see his role? “I’m a role model, I’m a human glue, I’m a connector, I’m an aggregator of viewpoints. I’m never a dictator of viewpoints.” Advice about how you exercise the role? Hire people who argue with you. And, guess what? Sometimes it’s best to be deliberately fuzzy and vague.” (Hill, 2015)
“You know when you are in a community of practice, if it changes your practice.” (Hart, 2012)
Another permanent record for the collection, Keith.
PS. I have enjoyed #UCSIA15. Thanks for the invite…
