In the last two lectures,we learned knowledge about communication and social behaviors on the internet.We got to know the concept of group,the difference between cooperation and collaboration and the theory of knowledge-----Epistemology.
We took an active part in the class activities which led us to know more about the relationship between epistemic aims and the size of the participants-----individual and group.
We went through two parts in this activity,which is Class Activity One and Class Activity Two.
In Class Activity One-A, we were required to read an article and answered two questions. The answers were highlighted in the document so as to convenient the next activity.
The article is about social cloud computing.As the first part was to be finished individually and we were given only limited time,I quickly scanned the whole article and noted some key words and eventually answered the questions as followed.
Q1: What is the definition of Social Cloud?
A Social Cloud is a resource and service sharing framework utilizing relationships established between members of a social network.
A Social Cloud is a resource and service sharing framework utilizing relationships established between members of a social network.
Q2: What are the possible applications of a Social Cloud?
1.A Social Computation Cloud.
2.A Social Storage Cloud.
3.A Social Collaborative Cloud.
1.A Social Computation Cloud.
2.A Social Storage Cloud.
3.A Social Collaborative Cloud.
4.A Social Cloud for public Science.
5.An Enterprise Social Cloud.
Q3: What strategies you have adopted in answering the above questions?
5.An Enterprise Social Cloud.
Q3: What strategies you have adopted in answering the above questions?
At the first time of reading this article,my only goal is to answer these two questions correctly.So I hardly had any deep reading.As to the first question,my aim was to find the definition of Social Cloud,so when I came to the sentence that "We now define a Social Cloud explicitly as", I knew that the next paragraph would definitely be the correct answer.
As to the second question,I knew my aim was to find several types of application of a Social Cloud.So when I read that "the point of difference of a Social Cloud is that applications can also leverage the relationships between users to deliver shared asymmetric services---leading to several potential Social Cloud application scenarios:" I knew the answer was coming. Meanwhile, the article has clear layout,so I quickly underlined the five kinds of applications listed by the author.
My strategy was just to find the key words.Like the words "definition","Social Cloud","application",and then I found the corresponding words like "define","leading to","several","applications" in the article. Finally I located the answers.
As I just quickly went through the article, I didn't know much more about the main idea of this article.My only aim was to get the correct answers of the two questions.So I can't describe this as a kind of understanding, and it's only some sort of knowledge.Because the answers are disconnected while understanding means that you can fit all information together.
When I read the Class Activity One-B,I came to consider something.
When I read the Class Activity One-B,I came to consider something.
Q1: Do you have any critiques against this article? What is its shortcomings?
After a relatively more careful reading,I found the article's layout was not so clear.As to the first
question.The paragraph of my answer was not all-inclusive,we can hardly understand what is the resource and service,and then came the sentence explaining that the resources exchanged need not be symmetric and can represent vastly different capabilities.Then, I knew much more about the definition of social cloud,and further more information can help you to understand if you read the related part of this article.
As to the second question,I have some doubt that why the application scenarios were classified into these five aspects.While A Social Cloud for Public Science's explanation is somehow related to computing, why it can't be concluded into the Social Computation Cloud part? Since there is an Enterprise Social Could,.why there doesn't exist any other kind of social cloud?
Q2: What cognitive processes have you gone through at:
(1) cognition level
(2) metacognition level
(3) epistemic cognition level ?
Q2: What cognitive processes have you gone through at:
(1) cognition level
(2) metacognition level
(3) epistemic cognition level ?
For the class activity one-A, I think I was in the cognition level, just acquiring knowledge as I thought was definitely right.And then it was proved by fact the the first time's answers were right.
After finishing the activity one-B, I reached the metacognition level, I tried my best to fit all information together, and made some connection.And at last, I still raised some questions about this article.
When we came to the group work---Class Activity Two, I think it is the epistemic cognition level.
In Activity Two, we were required to copy and paste the article to Google Drive and open it as a Google Docs.By commenting and discussing on a group's Google Docs, we got to understand more about this article and the questions.Finally, the submission of our work result was full of our visions, other group members had additional comments ,others pointed out the key words which helped us to understand the whole article.
After activity two,there are several questions waiting to be answered.
Q1: What was the epistemic aims in (1) Class Activity One(individual work) and (2) Class Activity Two(group work)? Is there any change in epistemic aim?If so,why did you change
your aims?
To answer this question, I should first know the content about the epistemic aims.
There are different types of epistemic aims.
----to acquire true,justified beliefs (liberal believers).
----to avoid false beliefs (conservative believers).
----adopt minimally justified belief.
----Understanding.
----Explanations.
In Class Activity One-A, I was to acquire true,justified belief through individual work.In Class Activity One-B, I was to avoid false beliefs.
There are different types of epistemic aims.
----to acquire true,justified beliefs (liberal believers).
----to avoid false beliefs (conservative believers).
----adopt minimally justified belief.
----Understanding.
----Explanations.
In Class Activity One-A, I was to acquire true,justified belief through individual work.In Class Activity One-B, I was to avoid false beliefs.
In Class Activity Two, we aimed to adopt minimally justified belief and eventually understand it and then submit the explanation we could give.
We were changing our epistemic aims from shallow to deep,which I think it attributes to the group discussion and collaboration.Everyone gave out some improvable ideas,and the ideas were all diversified.Thus, it was a process of building knowledge.The discussion was a problem based discussion instead of assimilation.Everyone was active in the activity,many group members raised the thought like "I suppose""I wonder why",the more the participants engage in problem-based discussions,the more effective is the knowledge co-construction.This why we soon covered all epistemic aims and reached the epistemic cognition level.
Q2: Is there any differences in terms of individual and group epistemic cognition,how?
As epistemic cognition is the highest level of building knowledge.It involves the communication with others and justification about the main idea.People share their own ideas with each others and rise above them to reach the goal of knowledge advancement.They learn from each other and discuss the issue with a goal to produce new knowledge through this learning process.However,for individual epistemic cognition,we just consider things in our own mind, not ensuring its comprehensiveness and can't reach a very high-level summative evaluation,which is a very large difference from group epistemic cognition.
Q3: How did you approach to the problem individually and in group,respectively?
Is there any differences in the processes involved?
Is there any differences in the processes involved?
For my individual work, I have described clearly as to my approach and the processes. And for our group work,expressing our own ideas, avoiding the false answers,raising more diversified thoughts and minimizing our conclusion were the major processes.
At last, I want to share more after these two activities.I think google docs is really a good tool for us to communicate with each other, which definitely enhance the collaboration among us.
Before this activity, I never really got to know this tool, but now, I do really appreciate its function to collaboration.
Google docs is a web-based word processing and spreadsheet program which increases collaboration efficiency.With which we can put the document on to the web and others in the team can do the real-time online document editing and revising.We don't need to send several copies to every member in this group and got several copies back anymore, and also don't need the labor force to integrate all points of view once again.When one is revising the document,he can see others' editing at the same time, and the system will
automatically save the amendment each time so that you can see who made what changes at any time in the past node and resume to the state as you want.
In this social network,useful tools and services are of great support to communication and collaboration.
I totally agree with you that after we finished the task, we know more about the concept of group. At the same time,we understand the relationship between the epistemological aims and the size of the participants. Your explaination is so useful to help me distinguish the difference between the two tasks.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your time reading my such long blog and I'm glad it can help you to distinguish the difference between the two tasks. As we can learn from the activity, group is really a good way to learn much more. Abilities of cooperation and collaboration can also be improved through such group tasks.
DeleteYou really think deeply about the class activities, that's great, and makes me understand the difference between individual work and collaborative work better.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I like Google Docs even more after using the PBWorks. Google Docs is more Real-time and efficient. It's a great application.
Thank you for your comment. And I also agree with you that Google Docs is a useful tool for we to communicate in time, and also help us in the group task. By using this kind of social tools, we are actually learning how to cooperate and collaborate in one group. It's also a group discussing way on the internet, and that's exactly the core content of this course.
DeleteI share the same viewpoint with you about the experience of this activity. In the task, we understand the differences between individual and collaborative work impressively. Group epistemic cognition is more comprehensive and profound. but to integrate the opinions of us is much more complex. And also, we know the cognitive processes(cognition level metacognition level and epistemic cognition level ) more deeply with this experience.BTW, I also appreciate Google Docs as a free and convenient online Office software.
ReplyDeleteThe introduction of your answers to the class questions has a nice reflection to the cognitive processes, from scanning to reading to understanding. In terms of the third level, epistemic cognition, we need more group discussion and collaboration which cannot be ignored. Just as you said, “it was a process of building knowledge”. Moreover, Google docs is not only a useful tool to communicate and collaborate with others, but a suitable example of social cloud. The features from reading materials could be expressed in Google docs in detail, and we could understand the content in further.
ReplyDeleteIt is clearly showed that your group has an impressive collaboration. The most important change I think group work brings to us is changing our aims while learning. Like you mentioned in your blog "At the first time of reading this article,my only goal is to answer these two questions correctly.So I hardly had any deep reading.", the epistemic aims really matters through study. Communications through group members will facilitate deeper discussion to gain deeper understanding.
ReplyDeleteYour viwe on the difference between individual work and collaborative work is helpful. And so far, I like to have a group project more than an individual one, because I joy the meeting of minds. From different places,their thoughts are truly diverse. At last,about Li yelin's point on Google Docs, I have to say I hold the same idea. PBwork needs more highlights to attract people.
ReplyDeleteIn epistemology in general, the kind of knowledge usually discussed is propositional knowledge, also known as "knowledge that." But your view on our task showing another relationship between epistemic aims and the size of the participants-----individual and group. I agree that, in this social network,useful tools and services are of great support to communication and collaboration. I enjoyed the reading on your article~~
ReplyDelete