Redefining learning spaces

I have just posted up a FaceBook site to announce next year's Plymouth eLearning Conference (23-24 April, 2009). Next year we will be under the banner of 'Crossing Boundaries: Redefining Learning Space'. As with this year's conference, we will be in the eyecatching Roland Levinksy Arts Building (pictured). All are invited from any sectors of education and training, and there is an early call for workshop, papers and demonstrations on the theme:

The 4th Plymouth e-Learning Conference will examine the theme of e-learning in a time of change, and will challenge notions of traditional boundaries, learning spaces and roles. We will focus on new practices, new technologies, new environments and new learning. There will be primary, secondary and tertiary education threads. We invite papers on the digital divide, e-learning methods and case studies, mobile and pervasive technologies, digital games, multi-user virtual environments, informal learning, new classroom technologies, personal learning environments and social software.

The event will be over two days next year, and we have some interesting sessions planned, and a spectacular social event for the evening of 23 April. Just think 'marine life', and you may guess what we will be doing! (Hint- no, nothing to do with the Royal Marines!)

I hope to see you there for what promises to be an excellent and memorable event.

Elluminating experience

Just enjoyed an interesting half hour testing out the Elluminate Live! platform in preparation for a panel session I will be doing with Helen Keegan (Salford University) and Nicholas Breakwell (Hibernia College, Dublin) for the Sloan Consortium International Symposium entitled 'Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning'. It will be held on 7-9 May and hosted by Pheonix University, Arizona. The moderator for the session will be Gary Morrison, and my invite to present at the panel is a legacy of last year's EDEN conference in Naples. I spoke then on wikis and social network tools and how they can be used to support nomadic learners. They must have liked it because Gary Morrison wrote about it and then got in touch. Looking forward to it... By the way, I will be speaking at this year's EDEN 2008 conference in Lisbon too - on using blogs for mentoring of student teachers. If you haven't been to one, it's well worth the trip if only for the networking opportunities (people not computers, obviously).

Just started a new e-learning blog on JISC Emerge ('JISC Community Presence') too, which will be an experience. I have many friends already established on this platform, so it's a very nice opportunity to be able to join them all. A lot of this content will be mirrored there in the future. Oh, and vice versa.

Finger Trouble

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. It's been 10 days since my last blog....

Been so busy it makes my head spin to think about it, but hey... here's something to amuse you. I saw this today and it made me laugh. It's so old it's got hairs all over it, so apologies if you have seen this before, but this goes under the heading of 'finger trouble' I believe.

Actual dialogue of a former WordPerfect Customer Support employee (now we know why they record these conversations!)
"Ridge Hall computer assistance; may I help you?"
"Yes, well, I'm having trouble with WordPerfect."
"What sort of trouble?"
"Well, I was just typing along, and all of a sudden the words went away."
"Went away?"
"They disappeared."
"Hmm. So what does your screen look like now?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"It's blank; it won't accept anything when I type."
"Are you still in WordPerfect, or did you get out?"
"How do I tell?"
"Can you see the C: prompt on the screen?"
"What's a sea-prompt?"
"Never mind, can you move your cursor around the screen?"
"There isn't any cursor: I told you, it won't accept anything I type."
"Does your monitor have a power indicator?"
"What's a monitor?"
"It's the thing with the screen on it that looks like a TV. Does it have a little light that tells you when it's on?"
"I don't know."
"Well, then look on the back of the monitor and find where the power cord goes into it. Can you see that?"
"Yes, I think so."
"Great. Follow the cord to the plug, and tell me if it's plugged into the wall."
"Yes, it is."
"When you were behind the monitor, did you notice that there were two cables plugged into the back of it, not just one?"
"No."
"Well, there are. I need you to look back there again and find the other cable."
"Okay, here it is."
"Follow it for me, and tell me if it's plugged securely into the back of your computer."
"I can't reach."
"Uh huh. Well, can you see if it is?"
"No."
"Even if you maybe put your knee on something and lean way over?"
"Oh, it's not because I don't have the right angle - it's because it's dark."
"Dark?"
"Yes -the office light is off, and the only light I have is coming in from the window."
"Well, turn on the office light then."
"I can't."
"No? Why not?"
"Because there's a power failure."
"A power... A power failure? Aha, Okay, we've got it licked now. Do you still have the boxes and manuals and packing stuff your computercame in?"
"Well, yes, I keep them in the closet."
"Good. Go get them, and unplug your system and pack it up just like it was when you got it. Then take it back to the store you bought it from."
"Really? Is it that bad?"
"Yes, I'm afraid it is."
"Well, all right then, I suppose. What do I tell them?"
"Tell them you're too @#&!@! stupid to own a computer."

Are there still people around like that I wonder?

Young pretender?

There is more interest in my 5-stage wiki activities model (Left) - this time from Holland. A few days ago Wilfred Rubens (Utrecht) posted a brief commentary and now Paulo Moekotte (Enschede) has posted an image of the model alongside Gilly Salmon's 5-step e-moderation model. He argues that 'students would probably need some kind of e-moderating' (alongside the wiki activity). He doesn't feel that students get 'drawn in' to all collaborative learning activities on their own but often will require some kind of scaffolding. I tend to agree, but scaffolding can come from the built in features of the learning environment, which is where the wiki activities come in, and also in the form of encouragement from peers as well as tutors or 'e-moderators'. Anyway, this is the first time the two models have appeared alongside each other - is it sort of like the king and the young pretender? ....hmmm.

No, not really. For anyone who thinks they are rival models, they are not, and that's not what I intended. But there is probably some room for them to complement each other and I would be interested in hearing comments from anyone who has thoughts about it. In the meantime it looks as though I will need to do some more work to flesh out the model now that there is so much interest...

Wikis in Stages

I have had a lot of interest about the Wiki Activities 5 Stages Model I presented recently in Plymouth, Bristol, and Utrecht, Holland. By popular demand then, I have posted up the PowerPoint presentation I used at the JISC Higher Education Conference in Bristol on Tuesday which has graphic illustrations of all of the stages with some examples and a hyperlink to one of the live wikis. There is also some initial research data to support the use of wikis for collaborative and reflective learning.

You will also find the PowerPoint presentation about MentorBlog project on the same site. Any feedback from interested persons will be gratefully received....

Highlights by Richard

No, this is not a hair salon advert. There is some really useful commentary and reflection from Richard Hall (De Montfort University) on the highlights of the recent Plymouth e-Learning Conference, held on April 4th. Richard says:

"I had a really nice time last Friday, at the Plymouth e-Learning conference. Okay, it helped that the weather was great and that I was by the seaside, and that I love the train journey past the Cotswolds, through Bristol and along the coast beyond Exeter. However, the setting for the day, in the Roland Levinsky building, was excellent - an impressive use of building materials fused with a dynamic shape in the heart of the city. Plus, I met some really nice people - lots of smiling (I wonder if it's the sea air), and took away a few ideas."

Thanks for the feedback Richard - a great endorsement! Hope to see you, and many others at next year's Plymouth e-Learning Conference on April 23-24th....

JISC does well

Enjoyed an interesting and profitable day at the JISC South West Regional (Higher Education) e-Learning conference in Bristol today. Travelled up under blue skies... a good omen. The venue (At Bristol, left) was high quality, and apart from occasional 'noises off' from the exhibition downstairs, a most excellent place to hold a conference. Food was good - company was good. Met up with some old friends including James Clay (Gloucestershire - who did some live streaming video from the event), and Andy Ramsden (now Head of e-Learning at Bath), both in the picture below.... as well as David Benzie (Marjons) and Ali Press (Cornwall College).

After a somewhat disappointing start from some of the keynotes, we got down to some real business in the breakout sessions. Neil Witt (Plymouth) was on form with his presentation on videoconferencing. Julie Hughes (Wolverhampton) presented an interesting and engaging talk on blogging and e-portfolios for PGCE students. I used my iPhone to Twitter throughout the day directly to this blog for the first time. Will do more of this from other events. My own two sessions on MentorBlog and WikiLit projects were well attended and seemed to be well received going on the feedback I had. There were also papers on mobile learning, Shibboleth and digital storytelling to name a few.

So congratulations, JISC - you have done well with this one day event, succeeding in bringing together the great and the good e-learning bods from across the region in a thought provoking and stimulating day. But, please, one small word to the wise - there is still room for improvement on the keynote speaker front!

Wiki activities 5 stage model

Tomorrow I'm in Bristol on the invitation of the JISC to present two papers reporting on recent research we have been doing on social software at their regional support centre conference.

One of my papers will detail my wiki activities 5 stage model. I have tried to develop a model which describes how students are gradually drawn into deeper cognitive engagement with learning whilst at the same time they are gradually developing their collaborative strengths. There has already been some interest in my model (see for example WebSphere Geek) and I anticipate and welcome discussion about its merits and limitations. See the wiki activities page of one online group for an example here.

The model starts with Exploration (where students are finding out about their new learning environment, discovering the do's and dont's and generally orientating themselves on the wiki). Next comes Exhibition - where they are encouraged to talk about themselves, to show and tell best practice and to reflect on their experiences. They are also asked to perform tasks such as 'Mining for Gold' - finding useful websites, online resources etc, that they can share with the group as 'gold dust resources'. Third comes Explanation - here they describe in deeper terms their ideas and provide other group members with more detail. They may for example, elaborate on why their 'gold dust resources' are so useful. Fourth, there is Elaboration - here students start to edit each other's postings and append arguments or discussions with counter arguments. They may expand upon their resources, or annotate each other's postings. Finally, Evaluation is where students place a value on the validity, reliability and relevance of their work. They judge the significance of their collaborative fruits and decide where they will go next in their learning journey.

It's no co-incidence that all the stages begin with an 'E' - not only is it easier to remember, but the more we can exploit the 'e' in e-learning, the better, in my opinion....

Larry Snotter makes a MUVE

I thought it would be fun to give Larry Snotter another outing, so here he is, once again, in all his glory...

Tragically, trainee chat room Wizard Larry Snotter has become addicted to Second Life. His avatar, a disturbingly thin blonde woman with a twisted smile, has begun to dominate his life. His irritating little friend Nobby (himself a reformed Internet addict), takes it upon himself to help Larry to quit…

LARRY: You don’t understand Nobby. I've got to keep going back. I don't belong here in RL. I belong in your world – in Second Life. It's the only place I've got... friends.

NOBBY: Friends who don't even text Larry Snotter?

LARRY: Well, I expect they've been.. hang on, how do you know my friends haven't been texting me?

Guiltily, Nobby produces Larry’s SIM Card.

NOBBY: Larry Snotter mustn't be angry with Nobby -- Nobby hoped if Larry Snotter thought his friends had forgotten him... Larry Snotter might not want to go back into Second Life, sir...

LARRY: Give me that. Now.

Nobby frowns sadly, then runs out the bedroom door. Larry desperately chases Nobby, dashing headlong down the stairs and into the kitchen. As Larry races in, he finds Nobby standing on the bench top, waving his arms. Larry’s personal computer floats into the living room, hovering 8 foot above the parquet flooring.

LARRY: (Horrified) Nobby... Please... No...

NOBBY: Larry Snotter must say he's never going back online.

LARRY: I can't. Second Life is my home.

NOBBY: (With a tragic expression) Then Nobby must do it, sir. For Larry Snotter's own good.

Nobby snaps his fingers. The computer plummets to the floor, and smashes, sending shards of glass and pieces of plastic flying.

In a fit of rage and grief, Larry turns Nobby into a toad.

Devon cream tea (calorie free)

Here are some more reflections on the Plymouth e-Learning conference.... Besides a large contingent of Plymouth bods, it was great to see people at the conference from Edinburgh, Salford, Chichester, Norwich, Swansea, Coventry, Leicester, Bournemouth, Staffordshire, Exeter, Gloucester, Cumbria, Portsmouth and DeMontfort Universities (and I have probably forgotten several others). The presenters were professional and polished in their delivery, and the audience was smart and tech-savvy, asking some pertinent and searching questions. Throughout the day, our learning technologists and other volunteer helpers slaved to keep the event on track, running around fixing technical issues before they became disasters, folding and stuffing (delegate folders mind), answering questions, running errands and generally making themselves useful.

The catering was also pretty darn good. Lunch was excellent. I have to own up - On a whim I organised an afternoon Devon cream tea for 80. I have a confession to make. I informed the conference in my opening speech that at the University of Plymouth clotted cream and scones was calorie free. I lied. It's packed full of wicked, naughty things, but I don't care (and neither did the delegates, many of whom wandered around oblivious with cream all over their faces). Mark Stiles lamented: (and I quote) 'it's impossible to eat this with a beard!' Another delegate was overheard saying: 'you wouldn't get this at my university!' Cream tea aside, it was a very successful day, with plenty of useful dialogue around usability issues, access, interoperability, intellectual property, copyright, sustainability, social interaction, professional mentoring, semantic web applications, ethics, innovation, policy, widening participation, and of course most importantly ... learning.

We are going to do it all again next year on 23-24 April. It will be bigger and better. We will have a social event, and two keynote speakers. A larger programme with plenty of interactive demonstrations. A book is planned (this year's 2008 event has already been spoken for - the best papers will go into an edited volume entitled: 'Digital Learning, Repurposing Education'. The editorial board is being chosen as you read this. Oh ... and we will have Devon Cream Tea again. I promise.

Plymouth Rocks

Well, now that the dust has settled on this year's Plymouth e-learning Conference, it is time to reflect. The verdict was that Plymouth rocks! It seems from the many positive comments we received that it has been a great success. 80 delegates attended the event today, to hear Professor Mark Stiles give a keynote on the tensions between institutional and student control over learning. Over 25 papers, demonstrations and workshops were also presented (Jackie Sitters, above, presents a paper on wikis in higher education), featuring Second Life, blogs, wikis, webcasting, handheld and mobile technologies, and there were lunchtine demonstrations by BlackBoard and our own home grown Leatning Technologist team. The latter was something of a triumph, because the LT team were able to present a neat version of the Nintendo Wii surface hack, which impressed a lot of those present.

Left is a picture of the final plenary where Ray Jones (University of Plymouth), Helen Keegan (University of Salford), Mark Stiles (University of Staffordshire) and I took part in a panel session. We answered questions from the delegates on the semantic web, plagiarism, sustainability and the future of e-learning, as well as revisiting issues such as ownership and control, formal vs informal learning and transparent vs opaque technologies. We are already planning next year's event which will take place over two days, on 23-24 April 2009. There will be at least two keynote speakers, a social event and conference dinner. Some photos from the day are available for viewing on Flickr.

Whose Sandpit and Whose Toys?

We're all set for the Plymouth e-Learning Conference tomorrow at the University of Plymouth. The weather here in Plymouth is glorious today with clear blue skies and a very comfortable temperature of 16 degrees. Mark Stiles will be presenting his keynote tomorrow, so for those who can't make it to the event, here's an extract:

Whose sandpit? Whose toys?

The need to repurpose education in the face of a changing world offers those working with technologies to support and enhance learning a range of opportunities hitherto unknown. The range of technologies is bewildering with social and mobile technologies, personal web-based tools and corporate systems all having things to offer. However who chooses the systems in any given context is also changing fast, with agendas like life-long learning and work-based learning introducing ever more stakeholders into the learning experience, and individuals being increasingly able to "opt-out" of using institutional systems.

How will institutions cope with this "new world" where not everything is under the control of the institution and increasingly both staff and students can "do their own thing"? A conflict of control between the individual and the corporate is growing, and the danger of innovation being stifled by the drive for "corporate regulation" is very real. The answer will be found in policies - but what policies are needed and who will frame them?

No doubt several people will blog about the event, and I may even Twitter some of my own comments during the day, if I can find space to draw breath....