The Wales-Wide Web

I am much taken by a comment by Scott last week: "...we have entered an era of connected media. Connected media does not contain interaction; instead content items are nodes in a network of connections that are the focus of interaction. The content is inside-out. The hot content today is not interactive - Flickr/Photobucket, YouTube, iTunes, RSS feeds all feature non-interactive content, yet the content is highly connected via layers of interlinked metadata (del.icio.us, technorati, recommendations, hyperlinks, comments...)."

Of course he is right. And it is pretty easy to understand the implications in terms of how we work and learn and in how we develop e-learning content. It is less easy to work out how it effects how we report on our work. On the one hand our work will not be in one place - it will be scattered across different media and on different web sites. Last year we started looking at some of the implications of this in a seminar called 'How Dude, where's my Data'. NB I have finally got together a wiki documenting at least some of the outcomes of that seminar.

But students are still assessed largely on the outcome of their learning and in terms of their competence. Not - here are my connections - but here is something I have done and here is something I claim I can do. This is far less easy to document in terms of network nodes.

It may be that the e-Portfolios of the future will have to be based far more on process than merely outcomes - more here is something I claim I am competent to do and here is the interactions I have made which allows me to say this - rather than here is a thing I have made which allows me to claim I am competent.

I still feel that competence is a difficult concept pedagogically and am worried that educational technologists will see competence as a mere unproblematic taxonomy. This matters. If we are to develop and implement e-Portfolios - let alone Personal Learning environments - we have to get clear on these issues.

In the discussions I am having over e-Portfolios there is increasing agreement of the use of blogging type applications as a way of recording learning progress. There is also an awareness of the power of personal networks for peer feedback as an aid to reflection. BUT - and it is a big but - institutions and e-Portfolio providers still (naturally) want some way of representing achievement. How can we do this dynamically? Perhaps competence looks more like a tag cloud or a mind map than a 'skills journal'.

I'm trying to write a funding bid but keep getting diverted by the discussions going on on the blogs. Anyway I will write a quick entry now and then get my head down to business.

Dave has written a sad tale on the problems of open source business models. I don't agree with him that open source is broken - far from it. I have little problem in persuading potential clients to use open source (in my experience they really don't understand or care).

But I used to work for Knownet, and know from my bitter experience the problems of developing an income stream for a company developing open source applications for education.

Our business model was based on developing instances on use in mainly European funded projects. It worked - to an extent. But we still ended up working way to many hours and with recurrent cash flow problems. It was essentially a voluntarist model.

And of course there is money to be made out of customisation, support, training etc. But this does not fund mainstream development. The open source model is based on the benefit form many developers working together around the same code. But - in reality there needs to be someone organising, driving and inspiring such an effort. ELGG would not exist without the vision and drive form Ben and Dave.

Education is (or should be) a public good. I have written before about how the development and use of proprietory e-learning applications is effectively privatising education and is crippling innovation in pedagogy - in developing new ways and understandings of teaching and learning.

If we value open source in education - not just because it is better code - but because of the values it brings to education and learning - and if education is a public good - then open source development in education should be supported by those who support (ie fund) education. In the UK there is a great deal of money beings pent of educational technology. At least some of that money should be ring-fenced for open source development. This could be through an agency or might involve the creation of a trust or foundation to manage the development.

I think we should start a campaigning and lobbying for this. Because without such a fund I fear the issues Dave talks about will not go away.

The Sounds of the Bazaar March edition has some great features.

'e-Portfolios in action - the issues' is based on the work of the European Commission funded MOSEP project.

It features interviews with staff from in the UK. Wolsingham has developed an e-Portfolio - called an EME - for for Careers development by students.

News from the Bazaar features the forthcoming Bazaar Seminar on Personal Learning Environments in Athens.

This months Bazaar interview is with Helen Keegan from the University of Salford in UK. Helen is researching the potential of Second Life for learning (although it sounds as if she is also having a lot of fun). And Blog of the month features Helen's Second Life Blog - called Troubleandslife. Helen says "it's for fun rather than research (although as times go on the lines will no doubt become increasingly blurred). Pay it a visit - its a great read.

All the jingles in this issue are produced by Dirk Stieglitz.

•  Sounds of the Bazaar 10 Full [41:34m]: | Play in Popup | Download
•  Introduction [1:40m]: | Play in Popup | Download
•  e-Portfolios in action - the issues [12:08m]: | Play in Popup | Download
•  Events: Bazaar Seminar in Athen [3:30m]: | Play in Popup | Download
•  Interview with Helen Keegan on Second Life [16:53m]: | Play in Popup | Download
•  Blogsite of the month [3:16m]: | Play in Popup | Download
•  Epilogue [0:28m]: | Play in Popup | Download
•  Credits [0:26m]: | Play in Popup | Download

It was a reader request. Honest. Could you make Sounds of the Bazaar available through iTunes. I had been meaning to do this for ages but had never got round to it.

So logged in to the iTunes store and wasted a bit of time whilst it refused to recognise my credit card (not very important seeing as I did not want to buy anything).

And then we found the page to upload feeds. Messed around for a bit working  out just what the feed was. And then...412 error.  Spent two hours messing around - the feed validates (although it did not initially).  But iTunes still refuses it. If anyone  has any ideas how to solve this I will be very grateful.

Bit quiet on this blog at the moment. That is because I am in wall to wall meetings. And, even worse, endless travel to meetings.

Its preety exhausting. It is not the time youy are in the meetings but the endless activity. True, the best bit of any meeting is in the pub in the evening. That is where the ideas get flowing. But it means you don't stop from half past seven in the morning until eleven at night. And I've been doing it for ten days now with another 14 days to go.

So I got wondering if all these meetings are necessary. Surely there must be some ways in which we can use technology to help. Yes, Skype is being used for audio and there is a slow trend towards more use of video conferencing. But this tends to be in addition to the meetings.

The problem - I think - is the lack of thinking about the purpose of meetings and the forms in which collaboration take.  What are we trying to achieve? How do we need to work to achieve this? How can that best be done. Even with the increasing use of wikis and wiki type environments we have not really worked out how to develop collaborative writing. So called workshop sessions are all too often presentations with questions.

Much of this could be done with technology - given a little imagination and planning. II think one problem is that many of the meetinsg I attend are bing frun by researchers. Researchers are not trained in how to plan and moderate workshops. the best meetings are often those planned by trainers. They are experienced in how to moderate collaboration. They worry about what the aims and objectives of the meeting are.

One last thing, before I finish this moan (and I am well aware of how many people are envious of all this travel). The endless air travel involved in international project is not sustainable. I hate to think of what my carbon footprint would look like. And perosnally I think there is much to be said for on-line conferences. They are not the same - but they bring a different quality to conference type events. As the AKA Specials once said: "Different, but Equal".

So OK, just for the record - next week I am in Pontypridd in wales, the first part of the next week I am in Houston, Texas, and the second half am in Bucharest, Romania. If you're around and fancy a pint just drop me an email.

In January I published an artcile entitled 'Personal Learning Environments - the future of eLearning?' in the second edition of e-Learning Papers, a new journal published by elearningeuropa.

The online journal subsequently invited readers to ask me questions about the paper. Very fine questions they were too. I have just got round to answering the answers will no doubt appear on the elearningeuropa portal shortly.

But if you impatient here are the questions and the answers. Seriously - I think some of the issues are worthy of further discussion - although I am not quite sure of the best forum for this. Anyway - feel free to add your comments here.

Question: Michael Feldstein, author of eLiterate weblog, writes about e-learning predictions for this year 2007 and says: "…despite a ton of buzz in the edu-blogosphere and some merit, 'e-Learning 2.0' will only see limited success in terms of widespread diffusion." Do you think this is realistic or pessimistic? Do you agree or disagree with him?
ma_moreau (France)
 
Answer: I’m not really sure what e-Learning 2.0 is or indeed if it a useful concept. But if he is referring to the use of social networking and social software applications for learning then I think he is most certainly wrong.

2007 will see increased adoption, experimentation and implementation of all manner of different software applications – most not designed for learning - to enable creativity and sharing. This includes the use of blogs, wikis, e-portfolios and social networking software.

True – the diffusion will probably be limited at institutional level. Institutions have invested a great deal of resource in Virtual Learning Environments. But we increasingly see not only students but teacher as well bypassing institutional systems to experiment with new applications for learning.
 
 
Question: You say "PLEs are not an application". So, how can we actually set up our own PLE? And you, do you have your own PLE? If yes, could you explain how is it organized?
antonf (Italy)
 
Answer: As Jan Lai says in the question below: “PLEs are more a methodology or an approach to technology enhanced learning than an application.” However they do imply a movement away from seeing e-learning taking place within external spaces – e.g. institutional Virtual Learning Environments - to an understanding of learning taking place in wider contexts – both on and off line – and including the home and work as well as institutional courses. So rather than go to institutionally controlled spaces to record and reflect on learning, the learner will establish and manage their own space. Access to that space and interchanges that take place will be under the control of the learner rather than the institution.

Yes, I do have my own PLE, comprised of a ‘mash up’ of different desktop and web based applications I use for my everyday work and increasingly reliant on local and web based services. It isn’t particularly efficient and it has some pretty big gaps at the moment – but I hope to develop it further over the next year. Central to my PLE is the people I work with and the applications I use for communication with those people.

Question: Hello Graham. I'm involved in company training and in one of your presentations you claimed that social software can be used in workplaces for informal learning. Could you tell about this more in detail? What application you would recommend and how this kind of learning could be integrated to the formal training that the company carries out? Many thanks for your time!
jennyli (Norway)
 
 Answer: There are two approaches to this. One is to use social software attempt to encourage and facilitate informal learning in the workplace. regardless of curricula. The second is to use social software to extend the present formal training. And of course both approaches could be combined. Which approach is adopted does have implications for pedagogy and learning arrangements. If employees are encouraged to take part in informal learning – outside the context of formal programmes – and if the company wishes to recognise or certify that learning – then some form of Accreditation of Prior Learning will be needed.

Anyway, coming back to the software, wikis are being extensively used for collaborative documentation and exchange of ideas. My favourite is MediaWiki. Many companies are introducing social networking software for developing communication and facilitating the formation of Communities of Practice.  ELGG is a great application for this.

Web logs are another applications which can be used for individual to reflect on their learning from everyday experience. Web logs can also be extended to develop an e-portfolio, although this will require some support.

I read somewhere that IBM are encouraging employees to make podcasts and are excited by the wealth of informal knowledge being shared through the podcasts.

Question: Hi Graham, I would like to have your point of view on the effort by Bolton University to create a "all inclusive" PLE software. I have personally a very skeptical position towards the desire to transform an informal approach to e-learning (that's how I see PLE: a methodology and not a software) into a "platform". Do you see any future for such kinds of "formalization" of PLE?
Thanks a lot, Jan
Jan Lai (Italy)
 
Answer: Hi Jan, there is always a space for innovative, well thought out experiments in developing new applications. And who knows, PLEX may turn out to be a great tool. I suspect, though, it is more a proof of concept and research tool, than an application designed for mass use. As such I think this is fine, as long as it is seen as an application developed to support the idea of the PLE, rather than a tool which is the PLE.

Question: Dear Prof. Attwell, we are using a PLE (a mash up of ELGG, wiki and social bookmarking) for sharing knowledge inside my organization (a research center).  Do you think that PLE could be considered suitable in every context (schools, universities, workplace) and for all kind of competences? In which way do you think that PLE will affect the learning and training evaluation?
epanto (Italy)

Answer: It is interesting that you say you are using such a mash up for sharing knowledge. I think one of the developments which is inherent in my concept of the Personal Learning Environment is to close the gap between Knowledge Management and learning. It seems a little absurd that such a big gap has been allowed to develop in the first place. But as to your question - could a PLE be considered suitable for every context - I think that the key ideas behind the PLE - of user controlled learning - is suitable for every context. Of course how it is introduced, the form and organisation of the PLE and the amount fo help that learners will require will differ greatly. And yes, I think it is suitable for all kinds of competences. However, once more, we have to recognise that the pedagogic approach and the form of the PLE may well differ according to subject or competence. A PLE could be used very differently for studying history or for learning to become a carpenter. But the principles are the same.

Question: Hi Graham. Today many elearning experts are talking about Immersive Learning Simulations, Rapid Interactivity tools,  Games, learning interactions, etc. How would you relate these with Personal Learning Environment?
sarus (Germany)
 
Answer: In much the same way as I see anything else working as part of a Personal Learning Environment. I don’t really understand why people are getting so excited about the use of games. After all we have always used games in learning - quizzes and competitions are hardly new. true - we are only just beginning to develop the use of on-line games and environments. But that is just because we have been very slow in developing new pedagogic approaches to e-learning. I have said before that I think the introduction of e-learning led to a reverse in pedagogic innovation. We are just getting back on track now. As for immersive environments, I think there is considerable potential. But if I look at much of what is being developed in Second Life, it is not very inspiring. We are in danger of recreating the traditional lecture theatre - the only difference being that our avatar attends instead of us in person. I also worry a little about who is managing these environments and for what purpose. I do not think that MTV, for example, has a great interest in learning. And many of these environments require considerable bandwidth and modern computers with a  fast graphic card. Nevertheless the developments here are definitely worth following.

Question: Dear professor Attwell, I'm involved in the "Personal EU" organisation concept: www.personaleu.eu. How do you see the challenges of the initiative as a step towards an European "dream team" society?
takapiru (Finland)
 
Answer: Hi - I certainly like your ideas around developing intercultural networks and I appreciate the variety of different social software tools that you are using to do it. However, I am not quite sure I understand the idea of the Personal EU.  

I tend to think that knowledge is best shared and developed through communities of practice. Communities of practice as Etienne Wenger says are based on a shared repertoire of communal resources (routines, sensibilities, artefacts, vocabulary, styles, etc.) that members have developed over time.

Whilst the EU may style itself as a community it most certainly is not a community of practice. As such I am slightly sceptical about developing the kind of people based portal you appear to envisage. Of course it may be that I have misunderstood your ideas.

For me a dream team society would be one that rather than seeking the highest levels of implementation of information technology sought to eradicate poverty and inequality. But perhaps I am just old fashioned!

I am involved in a pretty lively discussion on the MOSEP project blog site. MOSEP is a project developing and piloting professional development for teachers on the use of e-Portfolios. It includes partners from six different European countries.

One issue above all has dominated the discussion on this site - that of reflection. Whilst everyone pays lip service to the importance of reflection in developing an e-portfolio - in reality there are limited ideas on how this might be done.

I am working on another project called Reflective Evaluation. This project is developing and testing tools to support adult education practitioners in reflecting on their practice as part of their continuing professional development.

This is an interesting project - much more interesting than it sounds! We have developed a lightweight editing tool which allows researchers, teachers and trainers to develop and edit short content ‘objects’ as the basis for reflection. The editor supports different question types and makes it easy to add multimedia type questions. These go into a database which now holds some 150 ‘learning objects’ in six different languages.

At present these are grouped into:

• Values
• Self evaluation and quality development
• Assessment and recognition
• Work conditions
• Collaboration and networking
• Teaching and learning

and have been developed at four different levels:

• practitioner
• team
• institution
• society

A further tool layer allows a facilitator to select a particular group  of questions for a particular user group and if desired, sequence those questions.

Practitioners work through the questions. Besides their own individual answer they are able to access others answers to the questions and to rate the answers. Practitioners can also themselves add questions into the database. The questions for reflection will be enhanced by a further reading and reference list being developed using a feed from Delicious.
I’m enjoying this project and am pretty confident it will work. The trick is that the ‘learning objects’ - the raw material for reflection need to be developed by practitioner and to reflect their experience. The key then to this, is the development of tools that are easy for practitioners to understand and use. And I think we are cracking  it. Besides myself there is only one other participant in the project with any background in Technology Enhanced Learning. Sometimes it is painful having toe explain basic concepts. But it is rewarding t o see how others are beginning to make use of the tools.

In May / June we will test the tools in anger with teachers and trainers. If you would be interested in joining the test  - or would juts like to know more about the Reflective Evaluation project and tools please get in touch.

Of course the smae tool could easily be used for posting materials for students - if anyone would like to give it a go just contact me.

I am in Houston, Texas for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation 2007 Open Educational resources Grantees meeting.

Central to the event is a presentation by Daniel Atkins, John Seely Brown, and Allen Hammond, of their 

Review of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement: Achievements, Challenges, and New Opportunities.

It is a substantial report with many interesting asides and well worth a read.

They identify the following 'key enablers' as driving the OER movement:

• "open source code, open multimedia content and the community or institutional structures that produce or enable them;
• the growth of what we are calling participatory systems architecture; Our notion of architecture includes both technical and social dimensions.
• the continuing improvement in performance and access to the underlying information and communication technology (ICT);
• increasing availability and use of rich media, virtual environments, and gaming; and
• the emerging deeper basic insights into human learning (both individual and community) that can informed and validated by pilot projects and action-based research."

Central to the report is the call for the development of an Open Participatory Learning Infrastructure (OPLI) (which is not a long way form what Ray Elferink and I have been advocating in the form of an Architecture of Participation. The authors "believe that the Hewlett Foundation can play a leadership role in weaving the threads of an expanded OER movement; the e-science movement; the e-humanities movement; new forms of participation around Web 2.0; social software; virtualization; and multimode, multimedia documents into a transformative open participatory learning infrastructure—the platform for a culture of learning."

They go on to say that "the proposed OPLI seeks to enable a decentralized learning environment that:  (1) permits distributed participatory learning; (2) provides incentives for participation (provisioning of open resources, creating specific learning environments, evaluation) at all levels; and (3) encourages cross-boundary and cross cultural learning." The OPLI can be envisaged as "a dream space for participatory learning that enables students anywhere to engage in experimenting, exploring, building, tinkering and reflecting in a way that makes learning by doing and productive inquiry a seamless process."

This is good stuff indeed - visionary but not beyond the realms of what can be achieved. Particularly welcome is the weving together of technical and social objectives. My only reservation is the continued stress on the role of higher education institutions - but maybe this is a reflection of the objectives of the Hewlett Foundation.

More tomorrow - I'll try and post a couple of live blogs from the conference. In the meantime I'm off to the Longneck Reception and the Good Company Barbecue Dinner.

As promised an update on the Wliiam and Flora Hewlett Foundation Open Educational resources programme.

There are many interesting people here and the informal sessions are pretty good. The conference itself is rather traditional - bit of a shame given that they did get the key documents out in advance - there could have been far less presentations and more time for discussions.

Yesterday i posted a summary of the main report introduced at the conference - a Review of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement: Achievements, Challenges, and New Opportunities. by Daniel Atkins, John Seely Brown, and Allen Hammond (see also a critical review by Stephen Downes).

Discussions, at least in the informal sessions, have focused on three main issues.

the first is internationalism and the role of the programme with relation to the developing world. In this regard it is unfortunate that the major part of the report on the developing world is contained as an appendix to the main report. But there remains a feeling that the report is talking about how we can export OERs from the economically advanced countries (which sometimes seem to be reduced to the USA) to the developing countries.

There is little or no emphasis on how the OEr movement can support development in the underdeveloped countries, less still on how that content might be shared and valued.

The second is the assumption of the leading role of universities in the OEr movement. whilst talking about wider forms of learning, new pedagogies and different forms of knowledge, especially tacit knowledge, universities are still given the leading role in developing the proposed Open Participatory Learning Infrastructure (OPLI).

And the third 'emergent issue' is the role of people and networks as opposed to technology in facilitating the development, sharing and reuse of OERs. Although the document recognises social objectives as integral the OPLI still seems technologically driven, rather than based on real learning needs.

Nothing new in this - but given the global ambition and social objectives of the Hewlett Foundation they are pretty fundamental issues.

We've spent a lot of time at the Hewlett Conference on Open educational Resources being persuaded that mobile phones are the future platform for e-learning, particularly in the developing countries, especially with the spread of wifi enabled phones. May be right, may be wrong - I'm not convinced one way or the other. in general I am unconvinced that the next platform is the key issue although affordability and access to hardware and infrastructure is obviously a key issue in those countries. I am even less convinced that aid is counter productive and the answer is to leave it to the market as we are being told (citing research funded by Vodaphone!).

Some of the figures are pretty interesting though (not sure of the source).

Developing world

• There are 1.5 billion mobile phones in the developing world
• The industry expects to sell another 1 billion in the next 3 years
• Mobile phone usage is growing by 1 million a month growth in india

India

• There are 48 mobile phone users per thousand of population
• There are 23 internet users per thousand of population
• There are 11 PC users per thousand of population
• There are 0.5 broadband users per thousand of population

China

• There are 258 mobile users per thousand of population
• There are 73 internet users per thousand of population
  
• There are 40 PC users per thousand of population

Brazil

• There are 109 internet suers per thousand of population
  
• There are 86 PC users per thousand of population

South Africa

• There are 471 mobile users per thousand of population
  
• There are 81 internet users per thousand of population
  
• There are 88 PC users per thousand of population

Indonesia

• There are 141 mobile phone users per thousand of population
• There are 52 internet users per thousand of population
• There are 19 PC users per thousand of population

Percentage of population with mobile phone coverage

• India - 40%
• China - 56%
• South Africa - 90%
• Indonesia 73%

What does all this mean? I'm not sure but it does tend to point to the potential of mobile phones as a platform.