Stephen Asunka

Harnessing the Power of Social Networks

Having read Barabasi's Linked, I now have a clear understanding of why some social networks continue to flourish whilst others flounder along or grow steadily only to collapse dramatically. Though I was aware of the presence of some influential persons or groups (hubs) in social networks, I was generally of the opinion that networks are made of nodes and random links between them (with six degrees of separation). As I understand networks now, most are basically scale-free and self-organizing, and are governed by power laws, and so are flexible and very tolerant to internal failures and external interventions.

Thus whereas communist networks have all but collapsed, other networks such as the illicit drug cartels, the mafias and terrorist networks have stood the test of time despite all the interventions so far put in place to uproot them. Communism was being held by a major hub - the Soviet Union - a phenomenon which Barabasi describes as the Achilles' heel of networks. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 (akin to removal of a major hub in a network), triggered a "cascading failure" which virtually engulfed the whole of Eastern Europe. On the other hand Al-Qaeda is a typical self-organizing scale-free network, and so even in the absence or otherwise of their leaders, the network still operates.

The lesson one can lesson from this book is that, in an attempt to create or foster a social network of any kind, one should not create a situation where the entire network overly depends one person or resource. Also to get the network growing and self-sustaining, then the network should be increasing the desire for people to be part of it by focusing on issues that people are very passionate about, either by virtue of their beliefs, perspectives or aspirations. Offering freebies (as in the case of hotmail at its inception) is another option, but in the educational sector, this will be hardly feasible.

At the time I came up with my Issue Entrepreneurship proposal, I had not yet read Linked. So my proposal was about creating a blog or wiki that will serve as a knowledge forum for high school and college science teachers, especially those in the developing countries. I thought that by putting a blog or wiki out there and announcing it to people I felt were interested in the issue, I will get some responses and hopefully, create a network of learners and resource persons. Now I am very much aware that such line of action is not the best. Even in the unlikely event that a sizeable number of individuals agree to join in the project, we will not create a robust and scale-free network, since removal of the wiki (hub) will most probably collapse such a network.

So what is the way forward?

Instead of trying to "start" a network, I should rather join some existing networks (as Ulises proposed), and then work towards becoming one of the hubs within the bigger network. Also instead of targeting and addressing only hard core science issues, my blog/wiki will occasionally venture into other science related social issues just to get people interested and willing to participate. Hopefully, as this community grows, it will eventually get to the point that I envisaged at the beginning.

posted by Steve @ 7:30 PM 2 comments

Issue Entrepreneurship Project

Developing a Learning Community of Science Teachers on the Internet

There is no doubt that the ever-pervasive "digital divide" is a reality and several initiatives and interventions have been (and are still being) put in place to address this issue both within and between countries. Apart from merely increasing accessibility to technology, effectively integrating ICTs in all levels of education is one such intervention that, it is hoped, will help ensure effective and productive ICT use, and eventually assist in bridging the divide. To this end, training programs have been embarked upon to get teachers predisposed to using technology in their classrooms.

However, as someone who has been involved in science teaching both at the secondary and higher education levels in a third world country, I am fully aware that most science teachers (especially those in less endowed communities), identify a lack of knowledge about the internet as one reason why they have not used it more often as a teaching tool. Questions they often ask include: what types of educational resources are on the internet and how do I find the useful ones? How do I adapt these resources to suit my particular situation? Some of the websites I used to visit have been taken off, where do I go next? etc. All these questions would not have come up if there were to be cooperation and collaboration within the science teacher community throughout the world. With most educational institutions now getting internet access, it should be possible for science teachers to cooperate and share their knowledge and skills online. This will help spread the use of technology in science teaching across borders and cultures, especially as scientific facts and principles are the same everywhere.

As a starting point in this direction, I am proposing the establishment of a weblog that will serve as an interactive medium that can connect high school science teachers across institutions and continents. This blog will contain pre-screened resource listings and instructional pieces that will help the teachers find and use websites and educational software, and also a discussion board for interactivity between teachers. Users can also blog-post their questions and concerns and get appropriate responses from credible personalities as well as from other users. Science teachers from third world countries will be targeted and encouraged to join in (I don't know how I will do that for now).

Whilst moderating the blog I will research the internet for potential resource persons whom I hope to encourage to join in providing useful content for other users. It is hoped that as this online community grows, a lot more science teachers, especially those who are still hesitant to integrate technology into their classroom activities, will gain the necessary technical knowledge and ideas from their more experienced and resourceful counterparts. Those teachers who are really committed to using the technology that is available to them in their classroom activities should therefore be able to do so eventually.

posted by Steve @ 6:03 PM 0 comments