User generated content

We had some quite heated debates at the Concede Project meeting yesterday on the nature and direction of user generated content (UGC). When we met in Erlangen, Germany for our last project meeting in May this year, we came up with a definition of UGC: User generated content is "content created and shared freely by students and/or teachers that has not been formally peer reviewed". We think this definition works, and it appeared recently for example, in my keynote slides for the Budapest EDEN Research Workshop. The debate centred not upon what UGC actually is, but rather upon what happens to it once it is being used (or re-used) by others. For example, does UGC lose its informal nature when components of it are incorporated into say, a peer reviewed journal article, or an assessed essay at a university? My view is no, it doesn't. The wiki page, or blog content, or whatever the UGC format is, remains informal in nature, regardless how elements of it are being used or repurposed. But here lies an interesting point that we made at the project meeting - one of the aims of Concede is to enhance the quality of UGC so that it can be incorporated into higher education provision. It could be argued than that any UGC that has been incorporated into a formalised, peer reviewed piece of work (e.g. as a citation) is an indicator of high quality.

Further, we discussed the idea that although UGC is not formally peer reviewed, it is constantly being informally peer reviewed. Blogs like this one for example, are open for comments from all, novice, enthusiast and expert, to provide feedback, suggestions, even refutations, via the comments box under each post. This is of course, one of the most instant forms of peer review available. We had a very interesting time yesterday, locked into our room on the 11th floor of the Technical University of Budapest's tallest building. I will be writing an interim evaluation report on Concede in the next month or so, as we are nearly midpoint in the project. I will share some of it here on this blog later...


User generated content by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Open for use?

Open for use?

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

Above are my slides for today's keynote at the EDEN Research Workshop here in Budapest. I'm talking about open educational resources and open scholarship (a form of open educational practice), as well as the power of social media to give every learner a voice. I want to challenge some of the deep seated ideas such as pay wall publishing and closed knowledge systems that are so redolent of the Ivory Tower reputation academia has nurtured over the past few centuries. Nuff said.

Open for use? by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

It's not really learning anymore

The final keynote of this morning's first plenary session at the EDEN Research Workshop in Budapest featured the Open University's Grainne Conole, who in her own inimitable style, crammed so much content into just 30 minutes of fast paced presentation, I found it difficult to take down any meaninful notes. It wasn't her fault though - it was rather a distinct lack of wifi connectivity and technology failure on my part that made me resort for the first time in ages to taking notes with - shock horror - a pen and paper! Well, at least I discovered that I can still write with a pen, albeit a lot slower than I remember doing when I was an undergrad. It's like riding a bike, apparently you never forget - but you do slow down with age. I still wish I could have typed down the notes though - it would probably have done Grainne a little more justice for a great speech. But, here goes:

Grainne talked about educational policy in relation to research, teacher practices and learner responses, and this triumvirate of outcomes can reveal a whole host of influences, including a clash of local culture versus global hegemony. Here she listed a host of learning theories, and linked them to existing pedagogies before weaving them into recent high profile e-learning projects. She cited the abject failure of Google Wave, and suggested that it was the shortfall between how the software could be used (its potential affordances) and the actual perception of its usefulness by users that did for it.

One statement Grainne made will stand out, and should be repeated to all undergraduate students. Acquiring knowledge and recalling it, she said, is no longer adequate - it's not really learning anymore. Anyone can copy and paste from Wikipedia and construct an essay (and I daresay pay for pre-written essays on just about any subject under the sun if they wish to get into wholesale plagiarism). Teachers, she argued, are not fully exploring the full potential and power of learning technologies in the classroom, or indeed outside of it. They perceive a lack of time, lack of skills and few rewards as the key barriers to adoption of new technology for learning. She recommended that we all need to choose between two models: the belief based (implicit) model and the design based (explicit) model.

It's not really learning any more by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Branching out

Gilly Salmon opened the EDEN Research Workshop in Budapest this morning with a keynote entitled 'The tree of Learning: Nurturing the Growth. In it she used her now very well known drawing of a tree with its branches bathed in 'Techno-shine', representative of her argument that all education, whatever it's hue, is now dependent upon and influenced by technology of some kind or another. I guess this is true for the Western industrialised nations of the world, but in Africa and parts of Asia, the shine has a little farther to go to reach their branches. But I digress slightly. Gilly traced the history of education from it's roots to it's new shoots - and in doing so reminded us all that although we have a rich history of pedagogy, some of the branches are falling away, and others are growing in surprising directions. Her metaphor extended to the evolutionary theory of Darwin, and a prediction that some of the unfit practices would not survive. But how to nurture the new growth necessary to keep education healthy? 'The longer you have been in education' she argued, 'the more difficult it will be to shift resources and energy into new ways of teaching and learning.'

There's nothing special about web based learning (and in particular distance and open learning) she argued. They're normal now and anyone who is in education, she said, must use technology. This of course opens up an entire area for discussion - what of the digital divides we still see in society? What about those who cannot or will not engage with new technology in education - will they simply fall away like dead branches on Gilly's proverbial tree of learning? Or will they need to be cut away? Her parting shot was interesting: Quoting John Richardson she pointed out that when it comes to the future, there are 3 types of people: there are those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened. I guess regardless of what happens though, the tree will continue to grow - it just depends on how fast, in what direction, and how much fertiliser is required.


Branching out by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Communities, spaces and pedagogies for the digital age

Communities, spaces and pedagogies for the digital age

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

I enjoyed a very interesting and stimulating day at Colchester Institute yesterday, where I gave two workshops for staff entitled: Communities, spaces and pedagogies for the digital age. Above is the slide set I used during the presentations. In both workshops we enjoyed some lively discussion, and hopefully, many were left thinking deeply about how they currently 'do education', and what the possible transformations might be. I have said this before, but I re-emphasised it yesterday, that it is not the technology that inspires or even transforms education - it is the teacher. Let me explain - using a chisel or a paintbrush is not in itself inspirational or transformational. It is the skilled hands of the sculptor or the painter that changes a lump of stone or a bare wall into the work of art. Computers, social media, any web tools we get our hands on, can only be used in this way if the practitioner has a creative vision.

We discussed whether all students have access to the tools. They don't. But the institution does, and it depends on institutional policies whether these opportunities are rolled out fully to all learners. We talked about time and resource constraints - and clearly all schools and colleges are labouring under the cuts, but it has always been thus. We explored the notion of changing pedagogies - now here is an area that is particularly contentious. Do we need to change our teaching approaches to meet the needs of learners in the digital age? Well, I believe we do, but I'm not taking everyone with me on this, and nor do I expect to. All I can do is give examples from my own professional practice (both as a teacher and as a learner) and show people that I can make a success of it. If I can, then maybe they can too. My Personal Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter is growing daily, as I connect with more and more people who have something valuable and interesting to say. It is this kind of dynamic, open networking that is transforming my own practice. Not the tools - the people who are behind them. Thank you to all the staff and particularly Jane Davis, for organising such a great event and for being perfect hosts for me yesterday. Now the @timbuckteeth roadshow rolls onward, tomorrow to Budapest, Hungary from where I will report on the EDEN Research workshop on Open Educational Resources.

Communities, spaces and pedagogies for the digital age by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

I store my knowledge with my friends

I'm at Colchester Institute on Friday to present a workshop entitled: Communities, Spaces and Pedagogies for the Digital Age. It's for a Learning and Teaching development day the Institute is holding where they will explore the theme of Transformational Learning and Teaching. I have spoken several times on transformation learning, and a few years ago actually brought out a book about the transformational power of ICT in education. It's not an easy subject to tackle, particularly in conservative organisations such as schools and colleges, where change of any kind is looked on either with horror (I don't like change) or a jaundiced eye - (yeah right, as if that's going to make any difference...)

During my workshop, which I'm running twice, I'm going to explore how Web 2.0 tools and new approaches to creating learning space might transform the learning experience of students. I'm going to draw on all I have learnt from my recent overseas trips to challenge the audience to think differently, and in so doing, explore what might be possible in both physical and virtual spaces. The notion of community too, will come under scrutiny - what is it that learning in a social world can offer, and how can we foster communities of practice and interest with our students, not only within groups but across entire continents? I'm going to touch on a number of theories, not least Social Constructivism, but also Connectivism, a theory for the digital age.

I have an excellent quote from Karen Stephenson on Connectivist theory: She says: "Since we cannot experience everything, other people’s experiences, and hence other people, become the surrogate for knowledge". In practice, if you put a number of people in the same room and set them a task, they will all apply their own individual knowledge and experience, and in so doing, the sum of the collective effort will be greater than that which each individual could bring to bear on the task - it's known as distributed cognition - that is, no-one can know everything.

Distributed cognition is a multiplier - as some of the exercises I will facilitate will demonstrate. Stephenson goes on to say: ‘I store my knowledge in my friends’ is an axiom for collecting knowledge through collecting people. Wow - this is just the kind of stuff I do within my own community of practice and it's the social web that helps me to achieve this kind of learning. Notably, on Twitter or other social networking services, we all now have the capability to build up and maintain our own personal learning networks (PLNs) which we can draw upon like a water well, when we need it, with specific questions, whilst at the same time, sharing our own ideas, knowledge and expertise, and in so doing, enriching the distributed knowledge of the entire community.

Applying all of this in practice in authentic learning and teaching situations is the real trick.

Image source

I store my knowledge with my friends by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Don't miss the train!

I'm just about to hop on a train and make my way up to Milton Keynes for the first time, where tomorrow I'm an external examiner for one of the Open University's PhD candidates. Before the train arrives, there's just enough time to write a brief review of an extraordinary book that has landed on my desk this week. It's another one of those overprices IGI Global books I'm afraid, but ignoring the cost for a minute, I want to concentrate on the contents.

The book, edited by Mark Lee and Catherine McLoughlin, both of whom I respect immensely, contains some timely and in many cases, leading edge research on the use of Web 2.0 tools in tertiary education. The book is simply and concisely entitled: Web 2.0-Based e-Learning and is aimed at those working in further and higher education. At almost 500 pages, it's a weighty tome, but the 21 chapters it contains (one of which is one of my own) blend together succinctly to provide the reader with a stimulating sequence of accounts, case studies and research reports from across the globe.

Understanding Web 2.0 and its implications for e-Learning by veteran researcher Tony Bates for example, proposes new design models for education and training to better prepare workers in a knowledge based economy. Tracing a history of educational technology from multi-media, through virtual worlds and digital games through to mobile learning and open content, Tony draws out well established learning theories and melds them together with emergent ideas to provide a well argued treatise on how e-learning in all its various forms is evolving.

Another stand out chapter for me, is written by a team from Estonia, and is entitled: Considering students' perspectives on Personal and Distributed Learning Environments in course design. The chapter traces how students represent the structure of their personal learning environments, and their distributed potential. They conclude that any valid course design should enhance social networking, advance self-direction, enable community and group formation, allow for a variety of assessment methods, and support social filtering and mashing up of feeds. The personal learning agenda is well and truly affirmed in this chapter.

One more chapter worthy of mention is phophetically entitled: When the future finally arrives: Web 2.0 becomes Web 3.0. Written by Matt Crosslin, the chapter caught my eye not only because of it's speculative nature (the jury is still out over what Web 3.0 will look like) but also the narrative style it is written in. Crosslin entertainingly paints a picture of what learning might look like 10 years in the future, where students have access to holographic, 3-D full gesture controlled applications, enabling them to learn in a time and location independent manner, collaboratively and flexibly.

I could go on, but my train is pulling into the station, and I really think I ought to get on. More later, when I have had more time to read the book.

Image source


Don't miss the train! by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

A marriage made in Heaven?

Some readers of this blog may recall that I presented a keynote speech for the 'Let's Talk About Txt' conference organised by Txttools Ltd, at the University of Bath earlier this year. It's an excellent, small conference series that attracts delegates from both the public and private sectors of education and training, and is always well attended. My last talk was entitled: 'Everything you always wanted to know about txt but were afraid to ask', and is available in slideshow format at this link.

Well, I am delighted that I have been invited back again to keynote another of their conferences, this time at the University of Leeds, on November 16. Let's talk about txt 7 will be held at Bodington Hall, on the University of Leeds campus - details here. I must have done something right last time then. Below is the title and abstract of my keynote:

Combining Mobile Tools and Social Media: A Marriage Made in Heaven?

In the last decade we have witnessed an exponential rise in the use of participatory media on the web. Tools such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and social networking sites are flourishing, and boasting huge numbers of adherents. Alongside this rise in the use of social, participatory media we see an almost ubiquitous use of mobile telephones. Even in the developing nations of the world, the use of mobile phones is widespread and impressive. The advent of smart phones has raised the stakes even further affording developers major opportunities to create applications that will dramatically impact upon the daily lives of millions of subscribers across the globe. This presentation will examine these trends and will pose several questions: What happens when we combine the power of these two sets of tools? What happens when learners hold the power of the web in their hands? How will such possibilities impact upon education and training? What will be the new skills teachers and students will need to acquire to exploit the full potential of mobile social media? The answer of course, is that we don’t yet know all the answers, but we are beginning to find out, as research is conducted into for example, the mobile blogging (moblogging), mobile learning (m-learning), geo-caching, augmented reality and handheld teleconferencing. Such combinations of visual and textual media will advance learning and teaching in all sectors into a new phase, potentially changing irrevocably our conceptions about what it means to ‘learn’, the nature of knowledge, and the long established division between the roles of teachers and learners.


A marriage made in Heaven? by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Learning and teaching with Twitter

I have presented a few workshops now on how to use Twitter as a learning and teaching tool. One of my most viewed blog posts with more than 10,000 hits is entitled Teaching with Twitter so there is a lot of interest in the topic. The question is, how can we harness the potential of this tool in a teaching and learning context? There has been a spectrum of reactions to the workshops I have presented, from the sceptical throught to the enthusiastic, and all of the questions that have been asked are valid and representative of the concerns and issues associated with using any informal tool in a formal context. One question often asked is: How do we use Twitter with children when we can't be sure how open Twitter is? What do we do about maintenance of confidentiality, privacy and the need to protect kids from internet predators? Another question relates to something I posted recently about why Twitter is so powerful. It relates to the need to persist with the tool so that you give it enough time to build up a critical mass of followers and followed, ensuring that your personal learning network (PLN) becomes effective. People have asked how effective Twitter is in developing a PLN, and a live tweetout usually shows them just how effective Twitter can be in connecting you to a world of knowledge, experts and resources. People ask, how much time is involved, and can they afford the time investment? Another concern is about age - some argue that Twitter is more the preserve of older people and that younger people tend to spurn the tool because it doesn't have the attractive affordances of other social networking tools such as Facebook. There is also the issue of instant gratification - how do younger people feel about having to invest in developing their network of followers/followed when it patently takes a lot of effort and time? I'm sure you have a view or two on these issues, and I invite you to post your comments here for others to engage with. In the meantime, here's the slideshow I used at a recent workshop on Teaching with Twitter at the Ulearn Conference in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Teaching and Learning with Twitter

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

Learning and teaching with Twitter by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The art of Twitter

Learning how to use Twitter as a tool to develop your personal learning network is not always simple, and as with any other social networking tools, there is an unwritten protocol. There is quite an art to getting the best out of it. When the Internet and e-mail was first emerging as a major communication tool set, several people proposed an Internet ettiquette, or 'Netiquette', which involved guidelines such as using UPPER CASE letters only if you were shouting. Other devices for communication emerged such as emoticons, sideways smileys that were used to attempt to overcome the reduced social cues of text only talking. We think the time has now come to introduce a set of guidelines for Twitter - 'Twettiquette' if you like - and so Wolfgang Rheinhardt, Martin Ebner and I recently got together to write a paper for the World Computer Conference, held last month in Brisbane, Australia. I presented the paper, and we put together a slide set to accompany the presentation. Here it is below, in all it's unexpurgated glory. As you can see, it's entitled: 'All I need to know about Twitter I learned at kindergarten', and is, we think, a humourous, lighthearted take on using Twitter. We hope it makes you smile, think and tweet some more.

All I need to know about Twitter I learned at kindergarten

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

The art of Twitter by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Getting Granular with Twitter

I recently presented two papers at the World Computer Congress in Brisbane, Australia. The first, 'Getting Granular with Twitter' was a paper primarily written by my old friends in Austria, Martin Ebner and Sandra Schaffert and their colleagues, and a very good job they did of making sense of Twitter as a conference back channel and event amplifier. I was delighted to be asked to be involved in the paper and presented it to an audience of educators during the Learn IT strand of the WCC conference. I have now found time to post up the slides (after struggling with Slideshare's protocols, I managed to find a way around them by converting the .pptx file to .pdf) and they have already been receiving some attention from readers since I posted them up last night. I hope you find the slides useful:

Getting Granular on Twitter

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

Getting granular with Twitter by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Here's to the connections

That has to have been the longest day of my life. I have just travelled all the way from Auckland, New Zealand, to my home in South West England, via 3 flights, various bus and car rides and stop overs in Sydney and Singapore. I estimate that for me, Saturday has lasted 35 hours. But in reflecting on all the discomfort of long hours sat upright in cattle-class seats being served almost inedible airline food, with screaming kids and tactless fellow passengers all around, and the inevitable jet-lag, I have to say it has all still been worth it. I have flown over 26,000 miles across 3 continents on 10 airline flights. I never missed a single connection, but the social connections that I made are the ones I want to highlight as the most valuable aspect of my tour. I presented 4 keynotes, 5 invited workshops (image above taken at my keynote speech in Christchurch for Ulearn 2010) and 2 refereed papers and also recorded an Ed Talk for Core Ed, but those I met and talked to during this time will remain the most valuable experiences and best memories of my time downunder.

During my tour downunder, I have met many old friends, and made many new ones, and have shared some amazing experiences with them. I have previously argued that social media are more about connections than content, and these last 3 weeks have affirmed it for me. Here's to my old friendships renewed in Australia including: Philip D. Long (@radhertz), Larry Johnson (@Larry_Pixel) and Alan Levine (@cogdog) the latter two with whom I spent an excellent evening out on the South Bank of Brisbane. I also spent some time with Carol Skyring (@carolskyring) and met up with several of my colleagues from IFIP including Anna Grabowska, Andy Schaer, Phillipa Gerbic and Johannes Magenheim (@_jsm). In New Zealand, I strengthened existing friendships with Joyce Seitzinger (@catspysjamasnz), Jedd Bartlett (@Jedd), Derek Wenmoth (@dwenmoth) Kristina Hoeppner (@anitsirk), Carol Cooper (@TheELsite), Stephen Heppell (@stephenheppell) and Richard Elliott and we had a lot of fun and laughs along the way.

I also encountered many other 'old friends' from Twitter face to face for the first time including Steve Hargadon (@stevehargadon), Toni Twiss (@tonitones), Jenny She (@jshe), Helen Otway (@helenotway), Chris Betcher (@betchaboy), Robyn Pascoe (@serendipitynz), Michael Fawcett (@teachernz) and Erin Freeman (@efreeman). It never ceases to amaze me how much you can get to know people through social media without actually meeting them face to face. When you eventually do, you feel you know them quite well and get into deeper conversation quicker because the ice has already been broken (image on the left taken during my workshop at Waikato University).

It was also great to make so many new friends, including Mark Neal (@markneal100), Nigel Robertson (@easegill), Mark Northover (@kiwimarc), Lane Clark and her partner, Brett and Di Lee, Mary Welsh, Allanah King (@Allanahk), Jane Nicholls (@janenicholls), Jo Fothergill (@dragonsinger57), Megan Iemma (@megsamanda) and Teresa Gibbison (@ To all of you, and those who I have inadvertently left out of this list, thank you for making my stay downunder memorable.

More images of my trip can be found at this Flickr site. Images above courtesy of Kristina Hoeppner and Teresa Gibbison

Here's to the connections by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Dark face of the Internet

Day one of the fabulous Ulearn conference kicked off today in sunny Christchurch, New Zealand. Ulearn is a prestigious event which this year has close to 2000 international delegates attending, and there is quite a buzz surrounding the event. There are far too many breakout sessions to shake a stick at, but with this many delegates to satisfy, it's essential there is a lot of choice. Lee Crockett's keynote from this morning is already well documented on the Ulearn conference website, and mine which followed at 4.20 in the afternoon will no doubt be summarised in the next 12 hours or so. But the session I would really like to report is the one presented by Brett Lee (pictured - no, not the Aussie fast bowler) on e-safety.

Brett, who represents the internet education safety company INESS was a policeman in Queensland for 15 years and during that time he was involved in detecting, identifying and prosecuting almost 100 internet predators. In a disturbing yet powerful presentation, he highlighted some of the dangers teens encounter when they venture into social network sites such as Facebook and MSN messenger. Brett asked the audience whether it would be acceptable for an adult to approach a child in the street and ask for their name, address, date of birth and photographs of them. Of course not, came the response, but many young people do just that by posting up information about themselves on Facebook, he said. He demonstrated how dangerous MSN could be, by showing a video of a conversation he had while posing as a 15 year old girl. In a very disturbing dialogue, he was contacted in a few seconds by a male, and within minutes was being asked questions of a sexual nature. Brett's advice is not to discourage young people from using the Internet to connect with their friends - instead he argues, they should be told of the dangers and educated in the ways to avoid the danger of the stranger online. A powerful presentation indeed, and one which certainly deserves a wider audience.

I enjoyed presenting my own keynote earlier today. It isn't often you get to engage an audience of over 1500 people for an hour, but I hope I was able to provide some interesting, entertaining and challenging content. I certainly received some very positive feedback verbally and via Twitter after the speech, and I am very pleased to have been able to contribute something in such a marvellous venue as the Christchurch Town Hall (see picture below).

On another note - this is an earthquake zone. Stephen Heppell is staying in the room next to me at the Crowne Plaza hotel, and during the night, I actually thought for one moment that he was trying to break through the wall! Sorry to take your name in vain, Stephen - you're a great neighbour!

It turned out to be yet another of those sudden, room lurching earth tremors Christchurch seems prone to these days. We suffered a magnitude 5.0 tremor on Monday evening at around 10.20 which made us all sit up and take notice for a minute or so. There is a lot of quake damage from the 7.1 quake on September 4th, and things are gradually being patched up. But it is slightly disconcerting when every so often throughout the day, you feel the vibrations and slight movement of the building around you. Ulearn is creating a stir in more ways than one, and it's certainly a moving experience.


Dark face of the Internet by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

In your dreams

Children have an incredible sense of imagination, and it only takes a small amount of encouragement to turn this into creative outcomes in the classroom. Technology can have an important role to play in this creative process if it is applied appropriately. One of the most powerful approaches I have seen in recent years involves the use of interactive narratives. From the time of the early book based 'choose your own adventure' stories such as the classic Cave of Time by Edward Packard, the ability to plough your own furrow through seemingly endless possibilities is a captivating idea, not least because it mirrors real life decision making. Turning the pages to find your next scene was part of the process, but with new digital media, the task has become easier and quicker. What place could such tools have in the classroom?

While visiting the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art on the South Bank in Brisbane a few weeks ago, I was impressed by the installation artists exhibiting at the venue. One in particular caught my attention. It is entitled 'You were in my dream', was created by Isobel Knowles and Vanessa Sowerwine and consists of a box with a face shaped hole in it. You place your face in the hole, and a video camera captures a live feed of your features. It then incorporates your face into a wonderfully created stop motion animation which is located in a fantasy dream world. The idea behind the installation is that by using a mouse, you choose what your character will do next, and in doing so, you see your character transformed into a variety of fantasy characters, some ideal, some distopic. I was transformed slowly into a rabbit and then had to run for my life through a forest, with a ravenous wolf chasing. No matter how dangerous or dystopic a setting your character finds themselves in though, they always wake up from 'the dream'.

I can see such approaches being very valuable in the classroom for a lot of reasons. If similar setups were available at a reasonable price, lessons could be enlivened and children challenged in new directions, as they learnt decision making, problem solving and the consequences of their actions. It goes beyond role playing, taking on the nuances of identity construction and the complexity of moving through endlessly changing terrain. To quote from John Hedberg and Barry Harper: “....by enabling learners to be co-constructors of narratives, narrative-centered learning environments can promote the deep, connection-building, meaning-making activities that define constructivist learning.”

If you want a definition of Modern Art, there is one on the wall of the gallery: Modern Art is art that is created within the time period it represents. Such digitally mediated interactive narratives certainly capture the need for today's students to see how they fit into the world and interact with it - changing and being changed by their environments.

Image source

In your dreams by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

On my last leg

Bless me father for I have sinned. It's been one long week since my last blogpost. I've been busy, is my excuse. I'm having a wonderful time here in New Zealand. It's an awesome, heartbreakingly beautiful country, rich in culture and with plenty to see and do. I have been pretty busy touring around the North island speaking at various events, but over the last two days I have had some down-time to spend with my family in Auckland (City Centre pictured left). I have seen some breath taking sights and some spectacular views of the city from atop Mount Eden. I also took a short trip across by ferry to see the namesake of my own birthplace - Devonport - and I was impressed by how similar the two towns are. I have now arrived in Christchurch, on the South island, on the last leg of my tour, and I have to admit that I am a little weary of travel. I'm staying just across the road from the Convention Centre where Ulearn 2010 will kick off on Tuesday.

We are expecting quite a crowd of tech-savvy teachers for Ulearn - around 1800 have registered according to one of the organisers I spoke to. Stephen Heppell is flying in tonight to join us, and we also have Lee Crockett and Lane Clark to make up the foursome of keynotes for the event. All of the keynote abstracts and the entire programme can be found on the conference website. I'm going to be speaking on transformational change in education, and will touch on social media, new teacher roles and a host of other related topics in my own keynote on Wednesday afternoon. It seems, from talking to teachers here in New Zealand, that their local education problems are just the same as anywhere else the world over. Whilst this is reassuring in one way, it is also distrurbing to think that governments across the globe all treat education the same way. They throw some money at it (usually in the wrong places) and then expect the issues to go away. Teachers are hard pressed enough to do their jobs, without having to worry about issues of behaviour management, standardised assessment processes, and all the attendant paperwork that comes with the job. It's often a thankless task, and when it all goes wrong, guess who gets the blame - the teacher, of course.

Look, I don't want to start on a rant, but I am increasingly frustrated about the lack of resources most schools suffer from. Schools with technology that is dated so much, children would rather use the kit they have at home - which is often more up to date. There are practitioner issues too of course. Why the majority of teachers in schools I visit across the world use interactive whiteboards as presentational tools is beyond me. Let's get the kids up and using them too shall we? And when it comes to new and emerging technologies, there are still many barriers up against using social software - YouTube is filtered out, yet contains some incredible learning opportunities for language, music, history, science and sport. And Mobile phones are still banned by most schools and limited to a few isolated activities under strict supervision. All of these issues will be touched upon in my keynote on Wednesday. I'm looking forward to engaging with the audience and hope we can have some useful dialogue.

More pictures like the one above are online.... here's a link to all the photos people have taken of the events during my New Zealand tour.

On my last leg by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.