TellNet - Learning Analytics in a Teachers' Social Network

Our TellNet project manager Riina Vuorikari wrote a nice blog article about an umpcoming symposium on the eTwinning project at the Networked Learning Conference 2012 in Maastricht, The Netherlands. Please find the article below. As an ad-on here is a downloadable version of the RWTH Aachen University contribution "Learning Analytics in a Teachers' Social Network" by Manh Cuong Pham, Yiwei Cao, Zinayida Petrushyna, and Ralf Klamma.

Learning Analytics in a Teachers' Social Network

View more documents from Ralf Klamma.

The Tellnet project is in an interesting phase: the results from the first half of the project are now available and even peer-reviewed by experts in the field. They will be presented in early April 2012 in a symposium within the Networked Learning Conference. Download the introduction flyer here.
Three papers presented in this symposium discuss issues exploring different techniques, proposing new tools, and conducting prospective studies:

• 1. The paper “Learning Analytics in a Teachers' Social Network” presents a new approach of Social Network Analysis to identify metrics that can discover teacher’s social capital and the evolution of communities. It presents an approach, validated in eTwinning, that explores network properties with selected centrality measures, and collects and observes the large network data set about members’ interactions. 

• 2. The paper “Supporting Teachers’ Networked Learning Skills for More Online Engagement” elaborates on the technological affordances that are needed to foster participation in networks. It explores how technology can help to deal with the problem of members’ engagement in learning networks. The paper presents an approach that focuses in knowledge articulation, and the supportive tooling that can be offered to individual learners for this purpose. 

• 3. The paper “Teacher Collaboration in the Context of Networked Learning. Current eTwinning Practices and Future Perspectives” elaborates on the role of professional networks in the coming years. It presents an overview of emerging trends and challenges for teacher networking based on a review of existing literature and on consultations with stakeholders. The paper argues that eTwinning is an important case study to take into account when discussing the future of teacher collaboration networks. 

• The symposium also features a keynote by Riina Vuorikari: “Studying Informal Technology-Mediated Learning Networks: A Case Study on eTwinning Analytics”. The keynote outlines the context for the Tellnet research and its chosen methods to study professional social networks (e.g. social network analysis, information visualisation, future forecasting), and illustrates the value of analysing users’ interactions with various tools and interfaces to provide insights into professional networks regarding cooperation and collaboration.