Personal Transparency and self- analytic tools for online habits Mark Johnson David Sherlock David Griffiths The Institute for Educational Cybernetics The University of Bolton

There is a video presenting this work at &ei=Bn0JSYXQNYr82w Kn06CeCg&q=trackme&hl=en&so=1http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid= &ei=Bn0JSYXQNYr82w Kn06CeCg&q=trackme&hl=en&so=1

Making effective use of technology in learning Opportunities are available to Learners, e.g. – To seek out resources – Networking with other learners – Finding learning opportunities – Using tools available outside the institution These are very useful skills, even in a very traditional educational environment Similar situation in business

A digital divide? Not all users are equally able to deal with the opportunities of new technologies Those who are skilled are empowered, those who are not are excluded Widely recognised that learners and teachers need – Knowledge (what is available ) – Skills (how to use what is available) We provide courses to provide these things

Disposition and attitude Learners and teachers also need an appropriate disposition and attitude towards technology Often this is – Unrecognised as a significant factor – Seen as something we can’t fix There is a ‘long tail’ of disengagement with technologies

Natives and Immigrants? Prensky’s proposed the Digital Native / Digital Immigrant metaphor This suggests that we can’t do anything about attitude and disposition, it is determined by early experience of technology This determinist view is not supported by the past history of technological change, current use of technology, or the experience of educators

Habit The SPLICE project proposes that technological habits may be transformed from a position of disengagement to engagement Focused on identifying the mechanisms involved A key to this is to understand the nature of ‘habit’ Habits give some people a new way of operating and new power

Engaging in the online world Self publishing is a huge opportunity – A personal amplifier – Builds “social capital” – Many build careers on this, in business, academia, music… If everyone is amplifying then you also need to attenuate – Tools and ways of working can manage this – RSS readers can manage the information feeds which they receive, simplifying the task for users Learners need to develop habits which enable them to act effectively in their technological environment

TrackMe TrackMe is a tool developed by the SPLICE project Built in the Flock browser Designed to make unconscious technological practices more conscious through providing a range of analytical tools – categorization and management of web-history – sharing of practices through social networks – visualization of increasing online identity

Transparency Social software increases personal transparency Transparency is not always comfortable TrackMe extends personal transparency in a small group, and supports comparison with others Learners identify effective technological habits Transparency encouraged using – micro blogging (via Twitter) – social bookmark (via Delicious) – comparing user profiles with other users of TrackMe Using these tools provides insight, and also practical skills

Using twitter to get different views on a resource

Timeline of learner’s resources for a task

Analytics Analytics on a personal level Between users How their resources compare with other users ‘Random Resource’ helps users discover new resources Aim to help users identify the things they do with technology that have a positive effect on their learning process. Further self reflection is provided by integration with the Touchgraph Google browser which offers a visual representation of a learners engagement and activity on the web for easy analysis.

TouchGraph The TouchGraph Google Browser shows the network of connectivity between websites, as reported by Google's database of related sites TrackMe uses TourchGraph to generate a map of a learner’s online activities and the connections between them Opportunity to reflect on – How online activities interact with each other. – How activities have benefited from transparency and openness by showing which of the learners

TouchGraph map of a learner’s online activities and connections A post at Blogger has acted as a catalyst between two resources resulting in a explosion of learner interaction

Questions On exploring the analytical some of the questions are How effectively do your technological actions meet the goals you establish? How much repeated effort do you use in accessing multiple webpages? To what extent do you find yourself getting ‘distracted’ by online engagement? Can you remember all your passwords? How much time do you spend ‘refinding’ things that you have previously found? Can you detect any change in your habits? Is your online profile rising as you explore the internet?

Practical recommendations In relation to each of the questions above, some practical suggestions: Using RSS to aggregate frequently visited web pages Developing more effective search habits and saving them Using Identity management techniques to manage passwords Using Social Bookmarking services Making more effective use of public social action (Youtube, etc)

Work with learners Mixed group of learners from Multimedia and Visual Art courses at a Further Education institution in Wales Liked mapping personal presence on the web with TouchGraph Learners can see how increased engagement with social software services can impact on social position Basis for talking about bigger issues of technology, technological habit and personal empowerment

What is the real problem? When people experience technological difficulties we have found that these often do not have their origin in technology They have their origin in deeper personal things Often it is a reluctance to reflect on and change habits

Autonomous reflection not adopted by learners TrackMe envisaged as a tool which would encourage autonomous reflection of technological habit. Reluctance to reflect on and transform technological habits lead to a relucance to use TrackMe Results indicate that TrackMe is ineffective in this. Learners were not convinced of the benefit not of the tool, or even the argument

But TrackMe gives us something to talk about TrackMe offers a way of talking about something which would otherwise be very difficult to experience and articulate Exposes the connection between individual human action (especially with technology) and increased connectedness and social capital. The issues raised by TrackMe were still being talked about by learners in the group well after the end of the project Gradually new practices emerge with those discussions