Posted on other blog on this

Readings worth to kick-start an understanding of a concept and theory. I've written a bit on this in my PhD journey blog at: http://shazz-pkm-okm-framework.blogspot.com/2011/01/readings-worth-to-kick-start.html

Thanks, George, for sharing such simple to understand and worthy reading! Appreciate it.

Now I'm more interested in the topic,

- Shazz @ LAK

25 Jan 2011

Week 3 Video to Review: Metaweb

Sharing the video that is clear and easy to understand... Check this out!



Slowly turning into Gen Y?
- Shazz @ LAK
24 Jan 2011

Similar to SNAPP, probably better!

There are more functions and features extended from the capabilities of SNAPP, found in other applications. George gave a long list of similar applications to this "SNA", which I need to try out when I'm free later on...

Re: SNAPP look-alikes by George Siemens - Tuesday, 18 January 2011, 02:37 PM
	Hi Bert - in your request for SNAPP-look alikes, I assume you are referring to tools that map social networks. If so, there are numerous options available (some free, some not): Netdraw: http://www.analytictech.com/netdraw/netdraw.htm Pajek: http://vlado.fmf.uni-lj.si/pub/networks/pajek/ NodeXL: http://nodexl.codeplex.com/ Netminer: http://www.netminer.com/NetMiner/home_01.jsp Touchgraph: http://www.touchgraph.com/navigator Gephi: http://gephi.org/ UCINet: http://www.analytictech.com/ucinet/ etc. The reason we went with SNAPP for the week 2 activity is that it's a simple browser plugin and doesn't require manually loading data. It demonstrates social network analysis without needing the techical skills of the tools listed above.

Bert also shared one application as well, called SaNDVIS - coincidently it has the features I suggested in my previous blog, such as tags/keywords that make the threads/connections, and such... Marvellous!! B-)

Thanks, guys! Really worth it joining this MOOC! ;D

- Shazz @ LAK

22 Jan 2011

Discussion on SNAPP

Honestly, I was looking for this tool to generate the 'nodal network' to analyse the knowledge sharing over my social network. Yet, this 'webpage embedded analytics tool' - SNAPP - is basically compatible and purposely programmed for educational LMS, such as Moodle and Blackboard to name a few.

What is the benefit of SNAPP?

In terms of learning analytics, it is of no doubt a good tool to understand 'who learns from who', 'who picks up the trail from who', 'who follows or has interest on who/whose topic', and so on. It's about people and their activities that makes the network. It is something that I can make use of in my class in terms of identifying 'leaders' in class who have their own group of classmates that understand their styles of 'sharing knowledge'.

I find this (tool to identify leaders/facilitators) useful for programming (or highly technical) subjects, where students who help each other understand the technicality of programming language could assist me to guide the rest once they understood the concept I teach - so that I can concentrate on the other rest who needs my further attention to catch up with the topic taught the class. I experience this a lot in physical computer lab classes, especially when I have to cover certain topics in the syllabus and at the same time I have to monitor that everyone is catching up; and at each different lab session there could be different 'leaders' who voluntarily assist me in facilitating others, either in explaining the topic (how to program) or debug the code for their friends.

So these are the benefits I find from SNAPP - identifying prospect leaders who can be prospect MOOC initiators in their own environment/universities/communities.

What additional functionality is required?

Functionalities that may be valuable to add on can be:

• Keywords of discussion that the people pick up from each thread that makes the connection - it can show how a topic can disperse or branch out into new topics, and how/what the people actually understand from the original aim of the syllabus.
• Time gap between one person to another - it can show how long a person takes to catch up and what he/she may have missed that cause them to rely on those at the end of the thread.
• In real physical class scenario, students/learners may tend to catch up at the end of the 'semester', so they may not follow much in weekly basis; a function that could tell who may be a bit left behind - different colour or something?
• If it is logic that having more connections means you're a good learner, then maybe a function that shows the ranking in terms of number of connections (with other attributes/parameters) could assist in analysing the prospect "good" students.
• Understanding the patterns of connections and what learners have learnt may help in structuring the assessment better.

Again, I still hope that I'm in the right track of our LAK topics.

4 more weeks to catch up!

- Shazz @ LAK

21 Jan 2011

Falling for SNAPP

Only when I read Dave's blog (http://davecormier.com/edblog/2011/01/20/mooc-newbie-voice-week-2-big-data-must-be-important-its-big/) that I realised, "What? We supposed to use SNAPP this week?" Now, how did I miss that? ;D

Let me share with you what I've discovered from using SNAPP before I post another to answer George's questions...

I had the first try on one of the discussion topic started by George in Week 2, which I joined. As per my understanding, I need to go into a topic that I've contributed. So the first result is as follows:

The second try on SNAPP is on the Week 2 main list of discussion topics. I've hovered the mouse on my 'node', showing details on my 'data':

I got quite excited that I wanted to try on the Week 1 list of topics, since it has more responses from members of our MOOC. By this time, I hardly can see my node even though I had more than 2 posts in that week:

I saw a link from SNAPP to NetDraw, and statement saying that we can export the data in VNA format into NetDraw application. So I downloaded NetDraw to install it, copied the text format in SNAPP into a notepad file and save it as a *.vna file, and open the *.vna file in NetDraw application to get this result:

Believe it or not, I shouted "Yippee!!" when I saw the *.vna file really gives the graphical view like the one in SNAPP, just by opening the 'text' file! ;D Interesting!

Amazing at technology, amazing at discovery made,

- Shazz @ LAK

21 Jan 2011

LAK11 Orientation Presentation

Just sharing here the course outline and pedagogy, for LAK11.

Lak11_Orientation

View more presentations from gsiemens.

This may be useful if we want to practice similar method for our classes. I'm considering this myself already, at this moment.

Trying something new is always a good 'learning' experience,
- Shazz @ LAK

21 Jan 2011

A short break...

To my readers (if there are any)...

Let me explain my purpose of having this blog, so that everyone can understand that it is not just about reviewing what I've learnt from LAK11.

If you noticed so far, I copied all my reviews and put them in here, merely for some reasons:

1. To remind me about my own thoughts, so that it's easier for me to catch up when I need to at later stage.

2. Surprisingly, it could be useful for writing analysis in my own research paper - it happened before, especially reviews on articles read. I don't have to re-read and rethink of how to review anymore, but merely 'pick and lay'.

3. To show how I can 'connect' to the topics with my own experiences, with hope that others (i.e. readers) could learn something from it.

4. To bookmark important sources and points of my understanding, of course, and for backtrack purposes.

5. For my own 'learning analysis', if not analytics. ;D

Once I have a blog to share my thoughts in this topic, hopefully it's a long lasting one, with many more shares on LAK to update after the course ends.

All the best to us in LAK11!! ;D

- Shazz @ LAK

21 Jan 2011