Lifestream summary: week 8
I spent some time in other spaces this week, firstly reviewing other’s ethnographies and then starting to look at the results of our algorithmic play. As I start to think about the final assignment, it’s interesting to sees such creative use of a range of tools.
Renée: Screencast-O-Matic
Chenée: Sway
Daniel – SoundCloud
Daniel – Slidely
Cathy – Storify
With the shift in our focus to algorithmic cultures, as I roam in these spaces I have been thinking about the tracks and traces I am leaving and how my experience of the content is necessary entangled with the technologies I am using. As Knox (2015) reflects:
…and…
As I discussed with James last week, the content in my lifestream is impacted by the choices we are making about the spaces we are inhabiting as we learn and explore.
In terms of my play with algorithms, it has been, firstly, lots of fun and provided a new lens through which I observed my own internet use this week. I appear to be ‘rules-orientated’ and found myself feeling slightly transgressive as I explored some of the words on the Google blacklist. Have I subconsciously absorbed an algorithmic blacklist? Or am I attuned to the fact that my interactions are being tracked by algorithms?
My activities this week have been captured here. As we reflected upon in Learning Analytics, the implications of the use of Big Data and the permeation of algorithms into education provide us with much to reflect on. I tried to reflect some of this in my Padlet, with the video about Knewton and the School of One embedded within a cluster of quotes from Knox and Eynon about the educational implications of the use of algorithms.
2 thoughts on “Lifestream summary: week 8”
Hello Helen, thanks for this excellent weekly summary: it simultaneously tells me about your thinking and your lifestream activity over the last week. At the same time you’ve neatly brought in some of the ideas from the reading which adds a nice critical edge to your work here. Thanks also for the links to different bits of content which really helps the exposition of your ideas.
Something I hadn’t really thought about until now was whether the lifestream summary should also make space to bring in work by other members of the group. Looking at your links to the range of media being used by other members of the EDC class it seems to make sense that, in a course where there is so much interaction across the group within different digital spaces, that the lifestream summary should reflect this from time-to-time.
‘In terms of my play with algorithms, it has been, firstly, lots of fun and provided a new lens through which I observed my own internet use this week. I appear to be ‘rules-orientated’ and found myself feeling slightly transgressive as I explored some of the words on the Google blacklist. Have I subconsciously absorbed an algorithmic blacklist? Or am I attuned to the fact that my interactions are being tracked by algorithms?’
Out of interest, do you think your behaviour has changed since taking the Learning Analytics course? When I think about how my own approach to accessing online content has been affected by shared use of the computer I’m using now (something I know you can relate to), it almost feels like there is a ‘digital literacy’ issue at stake. In the same way that there is a growing interest in encouraging students to take account of the lasting consequences of their digital content, I wonder if there’s also a need for awareness around how their activity in digital spaces can affect their subsequent scholarly work (and beyond)?
Thanks for your feedback James. An interesting question about whether my increased understanding of LA has affected my own behaviours; in short, I don’t think so. However, it has affected my attitudes towards the use of data in the schools and the Trusts I work with. Even key figures in the field – such as Siemens and Gašević – acknowledge that it is an emergent science and much work is needed to ensure that LA offers improved experiences and outcomes for students. In my experience, the focus on summative data in schools and their use as a means to judge staff and students is crude and often unhelpful.