Home » Posts tagged 'university of southampton'
Tag Archives: university of southampton
Web Networks – from the micro to the macro
We are each unique – our brains make us so. At the microlevel the network in our heads is then tickled out into the the Web in, at first. the simplest of ways. Our first post, our first comment is that first baby-step. Unlike our firsf steps though, online everything we do is saved, is monitored, is shared. It takes on a life of its own. Multiplied billions of times now many millions of us have learnt to crawl, then walk, then run online. As we are virtual we can split into many versions or parts of ourselves too – the professional and private the immediate split, but then into hobby groups and as here, a study group. The network of networks is a living thing that mathematics can help to weight and categorize, even to visualise, but crucially – the point made here, humanising the maths requires the insight of someone asking questions, seeking to interpret what it taking place. I see currents in a digital ocean that transpires into a cloud that then precipitates digital artefacts in a myriad of other places. Others, like Yrjo Engegstrom, see the growing tendrils of a funghi. Either way it is fascinating to condense, simplify and sharing the thinking.
What is WebScience?
WebScience is the scientific study i.e. the identity of problems, the formulation of hypotheses and their in depth scrutiny and analysis, written up and published for sharing, discussion and further debate. This should mean publishing findings with the broadest possible variety of audiences in mind not just to the academic community, from whom further research should be expected, building on the work already done, but to other audiences who through the Web or serendipity, would find the work either appealing, appalling or inspiring.
To help with ‘meaning making’ (Conole, 2011) the metaphor I use to describe the Web is to compare it to the earth’s water cycle where the ocean is awash with digital content, and akin to Web 1.0 influenced by currents and tides, then evaporating into the atmosphere where it forms clouds is shared and transformed (Web 2.0) only to fall as precipitation and return to the ocean.
How much the Web conforms or differs from this pattern helps my analysis and comprehension of what is taking place.
Fig. 1 How we learn behaviourism (Vygotsky) to third generation activity theory (Engeström ) and the World Wide Web. (Doodle by J Vernon, 2013)
A more organic metaphor that places the Web in one context that interests me the workplace is that used by Yrjo Engeström (2008), in which a transmogrification of the model of an Activity System (Fig. 2) becomes like the ‘fingers’ of a funghi. The web after all is alive and growing. Here, an Activity System should be seen not as a static entity, but rather a living and growing thing. KnorrCetina (2003) talks of ‘flow architecture’ and if neither of these concepts ring true for you in then Zerubavel (1997) talks of ‘a mindscape’ while Cussins (1992) talks of ‘cognitive trails’.
Such patterns help describe, explain and predict what is happening in the Web, indeed a third metaphor, building on the ideas of Vannevar Bush from the 1940s, would be to think of the Web as a brain and to draw on lessons being learnt from neuroscience on how complex systems form connections and clusters. In turn, the brain would be an additional important area of study in relation to assistive technologies in relation to chronic illness and memory loss such as with. Alzheimers or Parkinsons.
In relation to WebSciences at the University of Southampton (SOTON) my interest in the iPhD begins with the lofty desire to ‘make a difference’ and to do so drawing on a combination of interests, professional experience, training and study.
It is from a career identifying problems, devising a synopsis, writing treatments, then scripts where amongst a plethora of industry and government an interest in health has developed. This can be pinpointed further to an interest in what role the Web can play in medicine, to inform and support health workers and patients, in particular patients with chronic illnesses such as Alzheimers, Parkinsons, asthma, diabetes and epilepsy.
Focusing even further to one illness and a particular group I have been considering what role e-learning might play to improve adherence to drugs.
I have produced training videos for pharmaceutical companies on the use of preventer inhalers.
My interest with e-learning is to use an inexpensive and readily accessed platform such as Qstream (Kerfoot & Baker, 2012) to deliver appropriate content, including video, through mobile and other devices in order to improve adherence to medication. A literature research has not shown the use of video in this way but there a number of studies where text messaging has been used to improve weight loss (Haapala, 2009), smoking cessation (Rodgers, 2005; Bramley, 2005) and diabetes management (Benhamou, 2007; Cho, 2009; Franklin et al, 2006; Hanauer, 2009; Rami, 2006) which suggests that e-learning initiatives to patients could change behaviours (Cochrane, 1992; Rand, 1994), while emails to multiple-choice questions are used to support medical students. (Kerfoot, 2008, 2009, 2009b, 2010).
A research question I would like to consider is:
‘Can the health of moderate persistent asthmatics aged 14-25 be improved through an e-learning programme that uses targeted emails linked to tailored short videos online (under 90 seconds) in order to achieve adherence to taking their prescribed asthma preventer inhalers to 80% or more?
The appropriateness and relevance to me of such an approach to research is to start with a clearly define problem and place it in a context where scrutiny can occur. In relation to the Web
increasingly the opportunity exists to use and gather ‘big data’, in this instance therefore to have at one level the belief that the globally, all those being treated for asthma form the data set.
Indeed, patients defined as anyone with a chronic illness who should be regularly and consistently taking preventative drugs for a chronic illness would embrace diabetics, those with epilepsy, Parkinson’s and Alzheimers. It is this bigger cohort, and the the role the Web can play to improve the prognosis of those with chronic illnesses that may be the focus of my interest for doctoral research.
It is vital to understand how people learn insights gained studying for a Masters in Open and Distance Education can in part be summarised in Fig. 6 as from each learning theory comes an appropriate research methodology. How therefore are patients with a chronic illness becoming informed about their condition and why in many cases are they failing to act upon it?
Fig. 2 Learning Theories drawn from multiple sources (Authors given). J Vernon (2013)
REFERENCE
Benhamou PY, Melki V, Boizel R, et al. Oneyear efficacy and safety of web-based follow up using cellular phone in type 1 diabetic patients under insulin pump therapy: the PumpNet Study.
Diabetes Metab. 2007;33(3):220–226.
Bramley D, Riddell T, Whittaker R, et al. (2005) Smoking cessation using mobile phone text messaging is as effective in Maori as non-Maori. N Z Med J. 2005;118(1216):U1494.
Cho JH, Lee HC, Lim DJ, et al. Mobile communication using a mobile phone with a glucometer for glucose control in type 2 patients with diabetes: as effective as an internet-based glucose monitoring system. J Telemed Telecare. 2009;15(2):77–82.
Cochrane, G.M. (1992) Therapeutic compliance in asthma; its magnitude and implications. Eur Respir J 1992;5:122458/
Conole, G (2011) Designing for learning in a digital world. Last accessed 30 May 2013 http://www.slideshare.net/grainne/conolekeynoteicdesept28
Cussins, A. (1992). Content, embodiment and objectivity: The theory of cognitive trails. Mind,
101, 651–688.
Engeström.Y (2008) From Teams to Knots: Activity theoretical studies of Collaboration and Learning at Work. Learning in doing: Social, Cognitive & Computational Perspectives.
Cambridge University Press. Series Editor Emeritus. John Seely Brown.
Franklin, V, Waller, A, Pagliari, C, & Greene, S (2006), ‘A randomized controlled trial of Sweet Talk, a textmessaging system to support young people with diabetes’, Diabetic Medicine, 23, 12, pp. 13321338, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 16th March 2013
Hanauer DA, Wentzell K, Laffel N, et al. Computerized automated reminder diabetes system
(CARDS): email and SMS cell phone text messaging reminders to support diabetes management. Diabetes Technol Ther. 2009;11(2):99–106.
Haapala I, Barengo NC, Biggs S, et al. (2009) Weight loss by mobile phone: a 1y ear effectiveness study. Public Health Nutr. 2009;12(12):2382–2391.
Kerfoot BP, Armstrong EG, O’Sullivan PN. (2008) Interactive spaced education to teach the physical examination: a randomized controlled trial. J Gen Intern Med 2008;23:973–978. Kerfoot BP. (2009a) Learning benefits of online spaced education persist for 2 years. J Urol 2009;181:2671–2673.
Kerfoot BP, Kearney MC, Connelly D, Ritchey ML. (2009b) Interactive spaced education to assess and improve knowledge of clinical practice guidelines: a randomized controlled trial. Ann
Surg 2009;249:744–749.
Kerfoot BP, Lawler EV, Sokolovskaya G, et al. (2010) Durable improvements in prostate cancer screening from online spaced education a randomized controlled trial. Am J Prev Med 2010;39:472– 478.
Kerfoot, BP., Baker, H., (2012) An Online SpacedEducation Game for Global Continuing Medical Education: A Randomized Trial. Annals of Surgery Volume 256, Number 1, July 2012. pp.12271232 http://www.annalsofsurgery.com
Kerfoot, BP., Baker, H., Pangaro, L., Agarwal, K., Taffet,G., Mechaber, A.J., Armstrong, E.G. (2012) An Online Spaced Education Game to Teach and Assess Medical Students: A Multi-national Prospective Trial. Technology and Learning. Academic Medicine, Vol. 87, No. 10 / October 2012 pp. 1443 -1449
KnorrCetina, K. (2003). From pipes to scopes: The flow architecture of financial markets. Distinktion, 7, 7–23.
Rand, C.S., Wise, R.A. (1994) Measuring adherence to asthma medication regimens. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 1994; 149:6976
Rami B, Popow C, Horn W, et al. (2006) Telemedical support to improve glycemic control in adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Eur J Pediatr. 2006;165(10):701–705.
Rodgers A, Corbett T, Bramley D, et al. Do u smoke after txt? Results of a randomised trial of smoking cessation using mobile phone text messaging. Tob Control. 2005;14(4):255–261.
Zerubavel, E. (1997). Social mindscapes: An invitation to cognitive sociology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Related articles
- Living with Chronic Illness Changes Your Life (theadventuresofarthritisnfibromyalgia.wordpress.com)
- The Ingredients of being chronically ill (brainlesionandme.com)
- An A to Z of chronic illness: Part 5 (brainlesionandme.com)
Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0 – The way it was, the way it is, the way it will be.
Fig. 1. Way is will be …
- Way was
- Way is
- Way will be …
Web 1.0 Top down and traditional
Web 2.0 Democratization of information – anyone can publish
Web 3.0 The data takes over – construction and reconstructing itself to form unique and original combinations, even coming up with new ideas?
This is doodled on the back of a handout from the Web Science Doctoral Training Centre, University of Southampton where I had spent the afternoon on 6th February.
Serendipity really – the long train journey in and back and the iPad had run out of juice obliging me to do some reading. In any case, pen on paper is often the best place to express thoughts, to ‘get them out there’ in a scamp or draft form.
This is how Dion Hinchcliffe expresses it:
With a link to hundreds of his diagrams
Related articles
- Web2.0 (ericyounglee89.wordpress.com)
H809 Tutor Marked Assignment QQs on scope, sense cam and blogging
Blogging
The idea of looking behind blogging came from the reading … but did I reference it???
i.e that innovations never occur in isolation, there was always something else beforehand.
The mistake we all make is to assume that innovations land on a pristine landscape and we react with typically human surprise at this new marvel that will either revolutionise or destroy everything. I need to remember where I read that!
Something on innovations … eeek.
It does matter though, with blogs there is clearly a history of
a) keeping a diary
b) citizen journalism in the form of leaflets and ‘letters to the editor’
c) authors keeping a writer’s journal and
b) scientists and explorers keeping a formal ‘log’.
That and human nature to write stuff down – well, at least 1% of the population do, which gives the other 99% something to read.
Life Logging
Sense Cam came out of the efforts of Gordon Bell, now 81, and for the last 10 years head of research at Microsoft.
He got it into his head to digitise everything and then wear a gadget around his neck to capture even more. This seems moronic and his own writing isn’t academic, more a memoir, but others, Microsoft and University of Southampton, have pressed on. The Sense Cam is a fag-packet sized device you hang around your neck – a camera with a light and sound sensor, then triggers the taking of a picture as you go about your daily business (could be awkward). At the end of the day these pictures are downloaded and software filters the stuff.
Southampton (WebSciences) have examples of this.
You can now buy a SenseCam made by Microsoft and various Microsoft Research Labs are trying them out. The hope is that in time such a device will help support those with dementia or any kind of memory fade … the evidence from Southampton illustrate Ebbinghaus’s ‘Forgetting Curve’ – how we forget stuff pretty fast over days/weeks against use of various methods, including a Sense Cam. It does appear, naturally, that looking back regularly at a set of carefully selected pictures (I think there has be human intervention for obvious reasons) the patient/student subject is far better able to recall, retain, and therefore I presume to restore and ‘fix’ memories better.
I am starting to wonder if a person is indicating for Alzheimer’s or some such that they might use such a device ?
Or the Google Glass device to do the same thing. If I were a first year medical student doing my disection I’d like to use a sense cam to personalise a record of the activity, for example.
If I go down the blogging route ‘is blogging a valid activity for student assessment’ is far too broad while ‘Can blogging by students of journalism writing in English in Hong Kong be used as a formal part of assessment’ might be doable. Off the top of my head here, but let’s say there are 4 to 6 colleges where such a course is offered in Hong Kong …
So what about a geographically defined study?
China might be problematic due to restrictions on use of the Internet (and its vast size). Perhaps Poland!? Somewhere where the numbers aren’t huge. Then again, doesn’t it depend on the methods and tools you use? I am struck by this stuff they call ‘Big Data’ where a cohort of 10,000 on an Open Course (this at Stanford using Coursera) can reveal the nuances of ‘poor teaching’ – where in the past 1 or 2 students made the same mistake it goes unnoticed, but when 2000 students make the very same mistake then there’s clearly something wrong with the course.
To use Diana Laurillard’s apt phrase ‘it depends’. (don’t ask me where or when she said it, if you know, please tell me so that I can reference it correctly).
Who would you invite to an e-learning dinner party?
Fig.1. The dining room at Appleby Castle, Cumbria
I posed this challenge to an e-learning group on LinkedIn:
‘If you could invited anyone in the world to a dinner party who would it be?’
I could run this every month on a different continent and keep going for a couple of years … 12 might work better as I’d like to include a few undergraduates and graduates … perhaps guests would be asked to bring a member of their faculty, a young work colleague or inspiring student.
I’ve left myself off. As the host I would be at their service. Running the event behind the scenes and enjoying the conversation before and after.
Martin Bean, Vice Chancellor, Open University. Inspirational champion of distance learning and accessible education. The Open University has over 257,000 active students.
Dame Professor Wendy Hall, DBE, FRS, FREng – Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, UK, and Dean of the Faculty of Physical and Applied Sciences.
Vilayanur.S. Ramachandran – Behavioral Neurologist and Professor at the Center for Brain Cognition at the University of California, San Diego. Influential academic/research on how we think in symbols and metaphors
Professor Daphne Koller, Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University and a Third generation PhD. Informed on big data, open learn and the future of higher education.
Cammy Bean, VC Learning Design, Kineo US. An instructional designer who mixes creativity and the pragmatic.
Sugata Mitra – Professor of Education Technology at the University of Newcastle. Best known for the ‘hole in the wall’ computers used in research in rural India (and city slums).
Donald H Taylor – Founder and CEO of Learning Skills Group and annual Learning Technologies conference in London every year.
Kirstie Donnelly, Director of Product Development, City & Guilds. From linear video production to a global leader in applied, workplace learning.
12-16 would give me more scope.
I’d book the dining hall at the Oxford Union.
Dr Zbigniew Pelczynski – Founder of the School for Leaders, Poland. Retired Oxford Professor of Philosophy and Politics.
Dr B Price Kerfoot – Harvard Medic and educator, ‘Spaced Education’ and QStream
George Soros – Investor, entrepreneur and educational philanthropist.
Thomas Garrod – Wiseman of e-learning Global Network, educator, learning design.
Double the numbers and I’d run it as an exclusive weekend on the Isle of Eriska – the castle would be ours with 32 guests for the conference and another 18 family members for the extended visit.
- Jonathan Vernon – A career in video communications, training and coaching.
- Matt Bury – Wiseman of e-learning Global Network, learning design.
- John Seely-Brown – Learning from the periphery, former Xerox educator.
- Yrjo Engestrom – Cultural historical activity theory and knotworking
- Gilly Salmon – E-tivities, e-moderation
- Agnes Kukulska-Hulme – Professor of mobile learning at the Open University
- Martin Weller – Digital Scholar
- Diana Laurillard – Chair of Learning with Digital Technologies
- Gordon Bell – long lived, lifeblogging, Microsoft research and experimenter.
- Jay Cross – educator, speaker, inspired thinker on learning and e-learning
- Sir Jonathan Ive – SVP Design, Apple
- William Hague – Oxford, Insead and UK lifelong politician. Engaging and extraordinarily bright.
- Walter Isaacson – A pupil of Dr Pelczynski (see above), journalist and author of the Steve Jobs exclusive biography.
- Steven Pressfield – Author, thinker, influential pusher of the ‘War of Art’ (overcoming resistance).
- Marc Lewis – Advertising entrepreneur and Dean of London’s highly influential School of Communication Arts (SCA 2.0)
- Viktor Mayer-Schonberger – Director of Advancement of the OII and Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation
- Sir Martin Sorrell – WPP CEO. Highly influential and well regarded businessman.
- Richard Davey – Founder, owner of influential global law publishing group.
- David Waller – Ex FT Lex Columnist and Bureau Chief Germany, Founder of PR agency, Author, Head of Communications at Mann Group, previously for Deutsche Bank.
- Susanna White – award winning documentary and filmmaker.
(At the time this photograph was taken Appleby Castle was, aptly, the HQ and Training Centre for a UK based PLC. Managers attended from the US, Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa, the UK and various parts of Europe.)
Related articles
- To be told when you are right or wrong is essential to student learning (mymindbursts.com)
- Massive online education: Daphne Koller at TEDGlobal 2012 (ted.com)
- Should ‘real’ students do an online course on the side? (guardian.co.uk)
- What we’re learning from online education by Daphne Koller (bluesyemre.com)
- Technology brings classroom experience to distance learners (guardian.co.uk)
Way was, way is, way will be – Webs 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0
- Top down Web 1.0.
- Democratized Web 2.0
- Semantic Web 3.0
Doodle on the back of a hand out from WebSciences @University of Southampton DTC
14 years and this is what I’ve got to show for it
Mind Bursts 