SNA

In fall 2008, I was lucky enough to enroll in a Social Network Analysis course. Since then, the network perspective has stuck w/ me, and I have found my self wondering where an idea exists in a network and how it might/ or might not change within the network.

I applied my SNA course work to my work in the cognitive science foundations in my final paper where I discussed professional development from a network perspective. (I'll link the paper shortly).

Ideas never exist in a vacum (we're social creatures after all), so it only makes intuitive sense to study the social context of those ideas. SNA does provides the medium for us to understand this context. We used Pajek, a free SNA software, with data that NU had already collected. Data collection is mind numbingly complex, but the central concepts of SNA can be understood by simply manipulating the data.

For teaching, SNA says:

• Weak ties are important: Innovation usually happens when we interact with those that are not clones of ourselves.
• Strong ties are important too: The sense of community that stems from strong ties is important for sharing ideas, i.e. learning.

So...not much of a suprise here...organizations need to balance. I suppose balancing is what makes great leaders and organizations great.

Karl Fisch discusses Personal Learning Networks here.