Educamping in Austria

I'm not particularly keen on camping out. I find it a little intense. But Educamp is another matter, and I have just been invited by supremo Martin Ebner to host/chair/moderate an English speaking track for this illustrious event. You may recall, if you are a regular reader of this blog, that I took part remotely in an earlier episode of Educamp, when it was held in March in illmenau, Germany. Or I would have participated, if my audio links to the conference had actually worked ... here's my account of what happened. Well, this time, I will be there in person, so unless I am struck dumb, all will be well, and people will actually be able to make out what I'm saying (....look - stop it!)

Educamp is really different. Here's what Martin says about this 'unconference': 'You go there and then we are offering an empty session plan and any participant who likes, stands up and says they want to do a session on this topic and [they] pick one of the empty places .... this will be done before the camp starts and then we can go to any session and discuss it - no papers and no prepared presentations, just on the fly and discussion.' Interested? Intrigued? Come along and find out more.... (no need to bring your tent, because it's not that kind of camp)

Educamp is held in Graz, Austria this November, and it promises to be just as eclectic, challenging, ad hoc and stimulating as previous Educamp events. Click on the link above and you will get the English version, and if you are so moved to do so, think about attending and doing a presentation. I'd look pretty silly sitting there chairing a session in English, which no-one was speaking at.... wouldn't I?

PS: No tents were harmed during the making of this blogpost.

What are you doing?

Do you use Twitter regularly? I'm presenting a workshop on Twitter at the ALT-C conference at the University of Manchester later this month and will repeat the workshop at the end of September during the ICL Conference in Villach, Austria. The workshops are mainly for beginners, but those who are more practiced in using Twitter are also welcome. I have been using Twitter both professionally and personally over the last two years and have blogged about it periodically. See for example my Teaching with Twitter post from January this year where I offer ten uses of Twitter in the classroom and my views on the semantic qualities of the microblogging tool: Is Twitter the Semantic Web?

One of the things I'm keen to find out about is how people are using Twitter for a) teaching and learning and b) for their own personal networking. I'm therefore seeking for Twitter users to respond to some questions in the comments box below this post. The best responses will be used as examples of people's use during the workshops, and you will get full credit for your contributions (unless of course you shoose to remain anonymous).

The questions are: How do you use Twitter in formal learning contexts? How do you use Twitter for personal networking? What do you feel Twitter is most useful for? What do you think are the main disadvantages of Twitter? Thanks!

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A right punch-up

There are only a few days left until we all migrate toward the University of Manchester for the ALT-C annual bash. And this year, perhaps it will be a bash.

This year several of us got together and decided to have a right punch up - the result is below, and we do hope you will come along and book your ring-side seats (Warning: no fake blood will be used).

In the immortal (and fictional) words of Captain James T. Kirk 'It should be fun!'

There's gonna be a fight...

The future success of e-learning depends on appropriate selection of tools and services. This symposium will propose that the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) as an institutional tool is dead, no more, defunct, expired.

And in the blue corner...

The first panel member, Steve Wheeler, will argue that many VLEs are not fit for purpose, and masquerade as solutions for the management of online learning. Some are little more than glorified e-mail systems. Steve will argue that VLEs provide a negative experience for learners.

The second member of the panel, Graham Attwell, believes that the VLE is dead and that the Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is the solution to the needs of diverse learners. PLEs provide opportunities for learners, offering users the ability to develop their own spaces in which to reflect on their learning.

The third panel member, James Clay, however, believes that the VLE is not yet dead as a concept, but can be the starting point of a journey for many learners. Creating an online environment involving multiple tools that provides for an enhanced experience for learners can involve a VLE as a hub or centre.

The fourth panel member, Nick Sharratt, argues for the concept of the institutional VLE as essentially sound. VLEs provide a stable, reliable, self-contained and safe environment in which all teaching and learning activities can be conducted. It provides the best environment for the variety of learners within institutions.

The session will be refereed by Josie Fraser.

Structure of session

The symposium will begin with an opportunity for attendees to voice their opinions on the future of the VLE. Each member of the panel will then present their case. The panel, with contributions from the audience, will then debate the key issues that have arisen.

By the end of the debate, participants will be able to have a greater understanding of the evolution and possible extinction of the VLE and the impact on learners. A summary of the key points of the discussion will be syndicated on several blogs and other online spaces, and delegates will be encouraged to tweet and live blog the discussion as it happens in real time.

Look... just watch the video

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Daydreamers

As I was watching the Ashes test match at the Oval today, I noticed a sign on the wall behind the England team balcony: It was a quote from T E Lawrence:

Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, and make it possible.

Later someone sent me the link to this TED Talk video of Pattie Maes (a research professor at MIT) talking about her new Sixth Sense Multi-gesturing device, which uses a camera, mirror and projector to enhance the wearer's senses. She and her team are visionaries in the truest sense of the dreamers Lawrence writes about. Their innovation I believe, will be far reaching, and will bring us one step closer to wearable, pervasive computing. The video is truly astounding and will inspire you. I highly recommend it.

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Interactive Learning Environments

The current special issue of the journal Interactive Learning Environments focuses on 'Social Networks Research', and here's a heads up for the next issue, due out in December, which has just gone to press. For those interested in Web 2.0 tools and technologies for learning, there will be a feast of articles in the special issue entitled 'Web 2.0 for Interactive e-Learning', which has been edited by Yueh-Min Huang, Stephen J.H. Yang and Chin-Chung Tsai. The table of contents is below, giving you a glimpse of what you can expect:

Culture, learning styles, and Web 2.0 by Bolanle A. Olaniran

The Social Semantic Web in Intelligent Learning Environments: state of the art and future challenges by Jelena Jovanovic, Dragan Gasevic, Carlo Torniai, Scott Bateman and Marek Hatala

An innovative approach for promoting information exchanges and sharing in a Web 2.0-based learning environment by Hui-Chun Chu, Gwo-Jen Hwang, Chin-Chung Tsai and Nian-Shing Chen

Using blogs as a professional development tool for teachers: analysis of interaction behavioral patterns by Huei-Tse Hou, Kuo-En Chang and Yao-Ting Sung

Self-arrangement of fleeting student pairs: a Web 2.0 approach for peer tutoring by Wim Westera, Gijs deBakker and Leo Wagemans

Finding trustworthy experts to help problem solving on the programming learning forum by Shian-Shyong Tseng and Jui-Feng Weng

Collaborative learning utilizing a domain-based shared data repository to enhance learning outcomes by David Lubliner, George Widmeyer and Fadi P. Deek

Location matters: leveraging knowledge building with mobile devices and Web 2.0 technology by Hyo-Jeong So, Peter Seow and Chee Kit Looi

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U-Learning?

Many would agree that anytime, anyplace learning has been somewhat elusive. Sure, we have had organised distance education for almost two centuries, and mega-universities (i.e. large open universities with >100,000 students) are now globally established and universally respected. But although open learning courses can provide learners with an equivalent experience to campus based learning at home and at work, it's difficult to accept them as 'anytime anyplace'. Content may be accessible anytime (especially if it's paper based) but dialogue with tutors or mentors is not always available, and neither is peer group interaction, nor is access to other materials and services. And it can still be a problem to learn while on the move.

Over the last couple of years I have given several talks on ubiquitous computing - also known as pervasive computing - and how it might be used in a learning context. I will call this ubiquitous learning or 'U-learning'. U-learning will rely heavily on access to devices and tools that enable and support learning in any context, whether mobile or static, anywhere 24/7, and in a manner that is seamless and unobtrusive. It will also need to be 'intelligent' according to the strictest interpretation of the ubiquitous model, so that it can predict changing contexts and user needs as they occur. The key tools of U-learning will be mobile phones, laptops and other portable wireless devices.

Mobile phones have never been more popular and public wi-fi zones are proliferating, even though problems are emerging for example in the free wi-fi coffee shop model. Attempts are being made for the provision of public internet access too. The picture above was taken in my home town of Plymouth this week, outside one of the largest highstreet banks. It's one of a number of free internet stations that are popping up (I would be interested to hear from anyone else who has seen or used one of these stations), as local authorities realise how important internet access is for tourism and business, but of course it won't be enough to satisfy the demands of U-learning, and I can't imagine anyone wanting to stand using one for long. Clearly, this is just the start, and there are several problems to overcome before we can start to experience genuine U-learning.

It may seem prosaic, but one of the most trenchant barriers to u-learning happens to be limited battery life. How often have you used your handheld device, or mobile phone, and the battery has died at a crucial moment? Battery technology is becoming increasingly reliable, with longer life, but it's still a niggling problem. There have been many attempts to address it. One possible solution is public battery charging stations such as those appearing in Japan but waiting for the battery to charge doesn't sound like fun. Another is wireless energy transfer - a method of transmitting power so that batteries can be recharged without having to plug them in. Although prone to technical problems, wireless power transmission is now in prototype testing stage, yet it may be a while before we see affordable versions. When a robust solution to battery life is found, U-learning will be realised widely, and when it is, we will finally witness true anytime, anyplace learning. But what then will be the implications for the traditional institution?

Related posts:

Charging... charging... (James Clay)

Dead personal

Since I posted the 'Two fingered salute' earlier this week several people have asked me what I meant by 'personal web'. I was also asked why I didn't use the term PLE (Personal Learning Environment). The two are not to be confused. The authors of the 2009 Horizon Report (I cannot recommend this document highly enough) succinctly define the personal web as "a term coined to represent a collection of technologies that confer the ability to reorganize, configure and manage online content rather than just viewing it". The report goes on to define personal webs as self created and consisting of online tools that suit each individual's unique preferences, styles and needs. Sound like a PLE? Almost, but not quite.

I deliberately avoided using the term PLE because I believe the PLE extends beyond personal web tools to encompass other tools and resources, such as paper based resources and broadcast media such as television and radio, as well as conversations with other people and so on. Having said that, each and every one of the above could be mediated through web tools, but they are not exclusively so.

At its core, the personal web is also very proactive: The Horizon Report gives an excellent, if somewhat idealised conceptualisation of the personal web: "Using a growing set of free and simple tools and applications, it is easy to create customized, personal web-based environments — a personal web — that explicitly supports one’s social, professional, learning and other activities via highly personalized windows to the networked world. Online material can be saved, tagged, categorized, and repurposed without difficulty..." I know there is a problem here, and this has been pointed out by some of those who have responded to my Two fingered salute post. It is this: Not everyone has the skills to use, or is willing to use the web tools that are referred to above. For those who don't, the institutional VLE (or perhaps no web based use at all) is an option.

This may sound like a climb down from my position on the death of the VLE, but It is not. I have always believed in a hybrid solution and indeed use one in my own professional practice, but for the sake of the polemic momentum, I'm advocating that institutions seriously reappraise their use of the VLE (read 'managed learning environment'). Much of it is dross, creative thinking is stifled, true collaboration is constrained, many students hate it, and many of the staff are not all that keen either (because it creates a lot of hard work with very little pay-off). The institutional VLE cannot by any stretch of the imagination, be perceived as a personal web - it is often too sterile and homogenised - but it can be a useful, safe and content rich starting point for those who are embarking on learning through the web.

The debate on the future of personal webs, VLEs and PLEs will continue online no doubt, but we also intend to conduct a face-to-face dust-up at ALT-C in Manchester this September. There should also be plenty of opportunity during the Fringe (F-ALT) sessions - see the F-ALT website for more details on these informal discussions.

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Two fingered salute

They stood facing each other across a muddy ploughed field. It had rained heavily the night before. On the one side, flying their colourful banners, the pride of French medieval nobility: at least 30,000 men in shining armour, armed to the teeth and ready for an overwhelming victory. On the other side, the army of Henry V - less than 8,000 English and Welsh soldiers, weakened and bedraggled from weeks of forced marching, dysentery and hunger. The French looked like they had just stepped out of a Louis Vuitton boutique, and their opponents looked like crap. Yet over the course of a few hours, Henry's small dishevelled army systematically took their enemies to pieces with the result that the French dead were piled up in walls, and their noble families, sometimes three complete generations, were slaughtered like cattle. The French snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, losing over 5000 dead, while Henry's army sustained around 200 dead. The year was 1415, and the battle took place just outside the tiny French village of Azincourt. The Battle of Agincourt radically altered the course of European history, and Henry V regained the crown of France through his determination, will to succeed and the sheer pugnacity of his ‘happy few’, his ‘band of brothers’.

The French should never have met the English and Welsh in open battle. From previous heavy defeats at Crecy (1346) and Poitiers (1356), they had reason to fear the longbow of the English and Welsh archers, who each could accurately fire a dozen or more armour piercing bodkin arrows a minute. In the reloading stakes the French cross-bows were no match. Legend has it the French feared the archers so much that they threatened to cut off the two fingers on the drawing hands of every one of them if they were captured. At the end of the battle when the hundreds of Frenchmen (those who were fortunate enough to be spared because they were rich enough to attract a ransom) were paraded through the ranks of archers, the archers showed them their two fingers – the V sign that has since become the British gesture of defiance.

The reasons why Henry V won against overwhelming odds?

1) The French had no effective leadership, but the English and Welsh had a strong and determined leader in King Henry V.
2) The English and Welsh were more flexible and manoeuvrable than the French, who came at them in a way that bunched them together and tripped them over so that many simply drowned in the mud.
3) The English and Welsh archers did not wear the heavy plate armour that encumbered the French men-of-war. The French got bogged down in the muddy field and once they were down in the mud, the archers moved in swiftly to dispatch them with their poleaxes and knives.
4) The awesome fire power of the English and Welsh long bows was a significant factor. It did for the first and only French cavalry charge that was meant to destroy the archers.
5) The English and Welsh had very little left to lose and nowhere to go but forward.

Anyone with a modicum of insight will see that there are several parallels here with the battle between the institutional VLE and Edupunk style ‘do-it-yourselves’ personal web tools. The shiny, expensive and cumbersome VLE dominates the battlefield that is education, and is supposedly the killer application that all colleges and universities have bought into. The colour of the banner doesn’t matter, because whatever the brand, the VLE has essentially a common architecture and purpose: it is there to restrict access, deliver homogenous content and control the activities of its users. It lumbers ever forward into confined spaces, tripping itself over as it goes, and is slow to adapt to new requirements. Whilst its champions think it is invincible, they don’t seem to realise that it is becoming bogged down in a morass of apathy, resistance to use and lack of response to change.

The personal web by contrast, moves along lightly at the pace of its users, being directed as changes and personal needs dictate. It has an awesome array of choices, and is responsive to the needs of communities of practice as well as the individual. It is cheap, and not very attractive (at least in corporate terms) when compared to the institutional VLE, but it is a damned sight more effective when it comes to supporting learning. The institutional VLE is led by the entire institution and is therefore slow to respond to change, whilst the personal web is led by one user. The personal web has one more key advantage – it is owned by the individual who created it.

All things considered, it is inevitable that the personal web will win in a straight fight against the institutional VLE. The VLE has had its day and will meet its demise, even though its supporters cannot see it coming. The personal web is on the rise. For me and many, many others, we’re showing our two fingers to the institutional VLE.

Responses to this post and related posts:

VL-istically speaking (Matt Lingard)
It's not dead ...yet (James Clay)
Not dead yet (Mark Notess)
The VLE/PLE debate (Lyndsay Jordan)
Dead personal (Steve Wheeler)
USpace (University of Sheffield)
Virtual Learning Environments (Dan Kennedy)
Is your VLE really a Virtual Learning Environment? (Paul Vaughan)
Social media is killing the LMS star (Bryan Alexander)
The VLE debate (Dan Stucke)
Move to a more agile VLE (Jez Cope)

Image source (From the movie Kes)


Learning with 'e's by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Saluting a hero

I took time out a few days ago while up in the North East to visit St James Park stadium, the home of Newcastle United, to pay my respects to Sir Bobby Robson. Robson was not only a local hero, he was a true legend of the beautiful game – a giant in the world of sport.

He played for Fulham, West Brom and England, and then went on to manage the national England team in two World Cup tournaments. He managed Newcastle United, as well as Barcelona, FC Porto, Sporting Lisbon and PSV Eindhoven, and led lowly Ipswich Town all the way to that shock EUFA Cup win in 1981. Sir Bobby was a fighter too – he battled valiantly against cancer for a lot of his adult life, but in the end, earlier this week, he sadly succumbed. His sporting legacy across Europe is tremendous, and for many he was unique. He was rewarded for his service to sport and his single-minded support for cancer charities with a knighthood in 2002.

I was overawed when I walked out onto the terrace at St James Park that day. In bright sunlight, I was greeted with a sea of football shirts, draped over the seats, stretching across one complete end of the huge stadium. Interspersed with flowers, cuddly toys, placards, banners and other artefacts, it was a visual spectacle the old boy would have loved to have seen. What struck me most though, was that many of these shirts, keepsakes etc, were probably irreplaceable, each holding sentimental value for its owner. I watched as a man reverently draped his antique England shirt, circa 1950s, over one of the chairs – he probably owned it as a young lad. It must have cost some of these fans dearly to give away their prized possessions, which they placed like offerings to their hero – their deepest mark of respect and thanks for the man they so revered.

This got me thinking about how we honour people in the world of education. Well, mostly we don’t. Sure, in the UK there is the annual teacher of the year award, and there are other awards such as the one we see each year at the Handheld Learning Conference, but generally, many teachers, learning technologists, researchers and other education professionals tend to go unnoticed and unlauded through most of their careers. I was honoured to receive a fellowship from the European Distance and e-Learning Network last year in Lisbon. It’s the one and only award I have received to show for over 30 years of engagement and service to education. Many others in the teaching profession are less fortunate than me. In the U.S. there are, I notice, a lot more opportunities to recognise great teaching, research and educational leadership. I was at the US Distance Learning Association awards in Washington D.C. in 2001 to see the ‘American Eagle’ award presented for outstanding contributions to distance education. There are awards for best papers, best presentations and so on, at many of the major conferences. At ALT-C next month, the Learning Technologist of the Year award will be presented. Education professionals need to be honoured for their steadfast work in classrooms and lecture halls - and yes - also behind a keyboard and screen late at night.



So if we set up a hall of fame for learning technology legends, who would be your top three nominations and why?

Rotten Apple!

I have had no problems with my Apple iPod at all. Well, none you want to listen to anyway. I used it a lot to listen to my personal music playlists. Flaming hell, I flogged it to death. That was before my iPhone came along. Now my iPod languishes unused on my bedside table, in a manner reminiscent of that thoroughly stupid cartoon advert about turning your discarded mobile phones into cash. I do have several problems with my iPhone, including capricious battery life, complete failure of edge technology and some initially extortionate monthly charges from O2 which I have now eradicated by taking out a pay-as-you-go contract. Now O2 won’t be able to prise so much cash out of my wallet, but even with all the problems, I’m hanging onto my iPhone because I love its touch screen.

I was intrigued but not particularly surprised then to read that one poor 11 year old British girl called Ellie Stanborough reportedly suffered the terrifying incident of having her iPod explode on her. Experts point to the lithium ion batteries Apple use as the source of the problem. So there in the picture in the Daily Mail is Ellie looking suitably forlorn but uninjured, holding up the wreckage of her once shiny iPod. But here’s the most horrendous part of the story... As you would, Ellie’s parents contacted Apple to report the incident and ask for a refund. Apple responded by offering to refund the money, but only if the Stanboroughs kept quiet about the incident. If the Stanboroughs talked to the press, said Apple, there might be legal action taken out against them. Cor, what a rotten Apple!

This kind of gagging tactic, it has emerged, has also been attempted in the U.S. on a number of other occasions when Apple iPods have apparently exploded. One allegedly blew up inside a young lad’s trousers and badly burnt his leg. The boy’s mother is taking Apple to court in Ohio, and we eagerly await the verdict. In fact the first time this kind of thing happened was in Japan, in March last year! So I would imagine that Apple have really got the pip now that the news has also emerged in the national press on both sides of the Atlantic that not only do they appear to have a serious safety issue with the lithium ion batteries inside their famed iPod devices, they also want a complete news blackout when things go drastically wrong. Chew on that for a while...

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