The Wales-Wide Web

Have not posted lately - have had flu and been totally exhausted from too much travel. But today I have a few brain cells back in action.

Last week I was in London for a meeting of the Workplace Learning Partnership project. This is an interesting project. Funded by the EU Leonardo da Vinci programme, It brings together parters form six different countries, seeking to build partnerships between education providers and enterprises to provide learning opportunities.

The project application envisaged using Information technology for 'managing' the partnerships. form the beginning there was an ambiguity as to whether this was managing the partnerships - in terms of administration etc. - or managing the learning process.

As the project has developed - and the ideas of Web 2.0 and e-learning 2.0 have become more prevalent - combined with the increasing use of social software, the project has reexamined how ICt might be used.

It quickly became apparent that one size does not fit a ll in terms of using software to support WLPs. Whilst in each country there is collaboration between employers and educational institutions for providing learning opportunities, these take different forms and are at different stages of development in the different partner countries. Developmental needs are different. Above all, the context s different. One thing we do know about e-leanring is that context is extremely important.

the project has inched towards an understanding of how Personal Learning environments could support work-based learning. But, at the same time, we have come to appreciate that a PLE is not a 'thing', it is an approach to supporting learning. That approach involves the use of different practices using social software in different contexts.

Thus, instead of developing a platform for workplace learning, the need is to support the partners in developing their own practice in the use of social software. This is not as easy as it sounds. Education and training providers - and for that matter researchers - still have little knowledge and experience of the use of social software for learning. help is limited. Examples of vivid and appropriate practice are few and far between.

And yet I think this sort of work is more valuable than all of the 'create and on-line course' projects funded by the EU.

However, those partners with the most to contribute - those parters dealing with everyday practice in work-based learning, are looking for answers now. Whilst they might appreciate the 'micro-experiments' that would seem so useful, they are also trying to extend their own use of e-learning in the short term.

the issue os how to balance these different priorities and imperatives. For the WLP project the answer is probably to support parters in using already available Open Source software (Moodle?, ELGG?), whilst at the same time undertaking small developmental and experimental activities in the use of social software for learning - or better put, the development of social pedagogic processes and practice utlising ICT.

One further issue is worth pointing out. Whilst I was at the meeting, I interviewed a number of the participants for a series of short videos I am making about the project. It rapidly became apparent that there were tow radically different discourses. Some of the partners - the practitioners - were talking about workplace learning partnerships, whilst others - the researchers - were talking about research into workplace learning partnerships. I guess this is common in a project of this sort - but it does set up two dynamics which may not necessarily be convergent.

Technorati Tags: e-learning, Peronal Learning Environments, social software