I’ve been thinking about implications nearsourcing of information has for mobile learning, including in and out of schools. The term nearsourcing has origins in economics, in the past several decades in discussing location of manufacturing and trade of goods and services. IT developers have used the term as a reference to proximity of IT services to IT users.
The term seems useful also when considering the transmission of ideas and processes from one generation to another as through school curricula. I refer to this transmission as an information supply chain. Others set a higher standard by calling it a knowledge chain. Teachers and books have been a major part of these chains, with increasing value to users as they increasingly save learner’s time in mastering ideas and process of other people.
In that context, I wonder what uses the term nearsourcing may offer teachers and students for developing mobile learning. Here are several ideas, starting with a definition.
Nearsourcing of information acknowledges using insights of an information originator without considering interpretations others assign to those insights. It distinguishes sources closest to originals from farsourcing, or from what academics commonly call secondary, tertiary and other more removed sources.
Nearsourcing occurs when information users give priority to contents in information supply chains with fewer interventions between original sources and information a user selects to make a decision. It offers simplified information transmission from originators to learners and greater efficiency of collaboration of learners with originators of a bit of information.
As mobile learning matures, learners appear likely increasingly to differentiate between original sources and information that has passed through intervening sources, whether interventions appear as people or artifacts. The fewer interventions, the nearer the source the user selects.
Hmm. Ok, I think I’ll develop this further, and then post something more. I should identify where nearsourcing fits into decision making as part of learning. Does anyone see uses in education for developing the term nearsourcing?
I wonder whether the term ‘nearsourcing’ might be easily confused with ‘tranactional distance’ which is another similar concept that’s already being promoted in the field of education. In particular, among those who are involved and/or interested in distance learning practices and processes. Transactional distance is a term that’s used to describe the emotional distance a learner feels from the teacher, other students, program, academic institution, technology that enables programs, etc. It can also apply to teachers and other personnel who are affiliated with distance education programs and their relationships with others.Nearsourcing is a term that could apply to cognitive aspects of learning. In particular, metacognitive processes associated with acquisition and longterm storage of information. It could also apply to other cognitive processes associated with assimilation and accommodation of new information with old. I am going to keep thinking on this topic as it’s an interesting proposition. Gail Taylor, M.Ed.Human Resource Education Ph.D. CandidateU of I Urbana-Champaign
Thanks, Gail, for your thoughtful comment. I recognize the referent for transactional distance, but have used it to indicate behavior rather than emotions or cognition. I agree with you that similarities exist among ideas of nearsourcing and transactional distance as well as the older construct of social distance. Each appears to me to have a logical and perhaps an empirical basis distinct from the others. I suggest the idea of nearsourcing to index the countable distance between a learner and an information artifact. That distance offers tangible separations that may interfere in various ways with understanding or replicating data used in the original document. I use as a reference for subtle tangible differences measurable and hearable for some variations between analog and digital music as well as between these and presence at a live performance. As probably you have, similarly I’ve watched and listened to people interpret as fact, say Sam Kirk’s definition of learning disabilities, even though they never heard him discuss the term he coined. They offer a farthersource than the original without acknowledging that distance except by identifying sources and references. I’ll keep thinking about your comments. Are you conducting a study using indices of transactional distance?
I have a better understanding of how you might want to use the term ‘nearsourcing’ in educational settings. Would the countable distances apply to both the physical location of the person with the receiving device in relation to where the transmitter is located? How about the countable distances that also might apply to relay interference that would come into play when a person is using the receiving device in a location where weather is a factor? Or possibly in a building where the signal strength might be stronger in some places and weaker or non-existent in others? I’m currently not doing any studies on transactional distance issues related to using mobile devices. I have worked on other research studies exploring E-learning practices that took into account student relationship issues, including making assessments of transactional distance factors associated with feelings.Gail
Thanks, again, Gail, for sharing your thinking about nearsourcing. I agree with your suggestions about identifying physical distances, interruptions, etc. as a way to use the term. Please share references with me, if you decide to do so. I’m always trying to learn something. I’m using the term differently, though. Perhaps my examples unintentionally mislead instead of clarify. I give priority here to social aspects of learning processes, the symbolic transfer of information from one source to another. I’m not as concerned with the means of transmission as potential changes in that information during whatever transmission is used. I use a pinball machine as a metaphore when considering the transfer. Each bump against an obstacle changes the information. Mobile PC users have the potential for increased nearsourcing over a traditional classroom lesson. Mobile learners can review original artifacts without someone necessarily editing the image. Now, back to your point, the potential exists for altered images and in other ways electronic blips that produce changes changes. I acknowledge these, and will think about how their potential would affect my working definition of nearsourcing. I appreciate your thoughtful stimulation.
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Thanks, Liasa, for your comment. I responded to it at http://tabletpceducation.blogspot.com/2008/02/nearsourcing-of-information-and-mobile.html