This week in the #EL30 course with Stephen Downes, we are looking at graphs.
First, two passages from his recent draft monograph on graphs.
“In connectivism we have explored the idea of thinking of knowledge as a graph, and of learning as the growth and manipulation of a graph. It helps learners understand that each idea connects to another, and its not the individual idea thats important, but rather how the entire graph grows and develops.”
and
“So where does this knowledge come from? It helps us see how a graph – and hence, knowledge – is not merely a representational system, but is rather a perceptual system, where the graph is not merely the repository, but a growing and dynamic entity shaped by – and shaping – the environment around itself.”
I have just finished watching the first season of Stranger Things. It was pretty great and, perhaps because something is wrong with me, I started to see the series as a flow of connections between the characters, which as Downes suggests, is all about the building and sharing of knowledge.
To illustrate this, I created a set of five graphs. As you look at them, try to see the changing connections of the characters as flows and sharing of information.
It would be great to hear what your thoughts about these and this method of conveying evolving networks.
Inventing Learning 
One possibility to bring in the time dimension is to use cold and warm colors. Without understanding anything of your story, I tried this here http://x28hd.de/demo/?tmp/gerald.xml .
Otherwise a Powerpoint animation could be used where arrows are “wiped” towards the head.
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Thanks so much for you comment and for your work on the graph. What did you use to make this? I have been thinking about other attributes to provide for each node, as well as wanting to show change over time.
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I used my own tool, condensr.de, and you can store more information in the right pane. A slideshow capability is included in vue.tufts.edu as far as I remember.
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Thanks for this. I look forward to playing with condensr.
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This is an interesting approach.
I haven’t watched Stranger Things, so what would be helpful to me would be to have some annotation. Matthias’ tool would allow you to do that. Then if I clicked on a node I would get a little information or explanatory narrative about the character and storyline.
Given that you have a series of maps, I agree with Matthias that somehow they need to be brought together, so that it’s easier to see the progression and changes, but I’m not sure how I would go about that.
I always have difficulty interpreting other people’s maps, which is why the annotation affordances of Matthias’ tool is so helpful.
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Jenny,Thanks for taking the time to comment. I had wanted to show change over time in one graph, but wasn’t happy with my mapping tool to do so. I am planning on investigating Matthias’ tool with annotation. My larger project is looking at the emergence and evolution of student networks in K-12 settings. Hopefully, I get use this example to clarify my thinking about flows of information and knowledge and expand from there.
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