Global learning collectives

This is part 7 in a series of posts on the future of learning and technology. I spent the last two years of my school life at AFCENT* International School, in Brunssum, Holland. There was one word to describe AFCENT School - diversity. I remember how culturally rich the experience was, because children from all of the NATO** countries attended, and I often sat alongside American, German, Canadian, French, Norwegian and Swedish classmates.

I discovered that this school's education was far more than just the three 'R's. We learnt phrases from each other's languages (slang and swear words were particularly good fun to practice), heard about unfamiliar customs and practices, and sampled strange and wonderful food and drink from other countries. I should point out that in the 1970s Britain was far less multi-cultural than it is today. This was the age of the cold-war and our parents were serving in the military. We took part in multi-national games that went on all day, where we played the roles of politicians and generals, as we tried to avert a nuclear war. We produced and performed in musicals such as Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar and Fiddler on the Roof in the school assembly hall. We learnt to play the games of other countries. It turned out that Baseball and American Football were less of a mystery for us Brits than Cricket was for our American counterparts. Who knew?

We learnt traditional songs and stories we would never otherwise have encountered, because each child could not avoid bringing their own personal stories, history and culture into the classroom. German Christmas, Canadian Bring 'n' Buy sales, and American cheerleaders were not something I had encountered in any English school. Believe me, if we'd had American cheer leaders at school in England, I would never have missed a lesson. At AFCENT School we literally had the best of both worlds by attending an international school. Not many school students are as privileged.

Some years ago, I saw several schools try to replicate this cultural richness through the use of video links to connect two (or more) classrooms together across distance. It was a great step beyond the pen pal letters we used to write when I was in secondary school in the 1960s. Then we had to wait for days or weeks for a reply. Now whole groups can meet and converse with each other in real time without travel. Language learning, cultural exchanges, personal stories, preparation for overseas school exchange visits and a whole host of other benefits can be realised when children collaborate and share their learning across language and cultural divides. The excitement of connecting with children in schools in other countries was tangible. Some schools who connected using videoconferencing manage to project the live video images onto big screens so that large groups could participate, and the kids loved it.

Video conferencing was just the start. We now have several alternative technologies that will allow schools to connect cheaply and easily with school children in other countries. One of the futures of education will be greater connectivity between schools around the world. Through the use of social media meeting tools such as Google Hangouts, video sharing tools such as Skype, and even massive online open games, students around the world already enjoy better chances to learn from each other and with each other, regardless of their geographical location. How will this develop? I foresee the emergence of global learning collectives where children will learn together across schools and time zones, collaborating on projects and other joint activities, and where technology will help us to once and for all bridge the great divides of geography, culture, creed and ethnicity.

*AFCENT = Allied Forces Central Europe. NATO = North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

Image source


Global learning collectives by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Txt in the city

I'm giving a keynote at an event being held at the University of Bath on May 19. It will be nice to go back to the city of Bath again so soon after my last keynote there on November 11. I enjoyed meeting the HEA podcasting special interest group and was well looked after. This conference will be the sixth in the series entitled 'Let's talk about txt', and apparently over 60 people have already signed up for the one day event. I wrote my title and abstract yesterday and sent it in to the organisers, Txttools. I hope it hits the mark:

Everything you always wanted to know about Txt but were afraid to ask

In this keynote presentation I will trace the history of written communication, and the emergence of communication technologies that have been used to convey our words. Taking a journey from cave wall paintings through the Gutenberg Printing Press to current handheld devices, I will argue that language is the first and most powerful human technology, and that all other technologies are merely extensions - vehicles to convey meaning from person to person.

In consideration of this position, txting can be seen as an evolving facet of interpersonal communication, and in its various forms (e.g. vernacular orthography, squeeze text, homophones, acronyms, respellings and rebuses) it has become the technological equivalent of spoken slang, and can therefore include or exclude. Through an examination of technology enhanced learning contexts and exploration of some examples of txt pedagogy, I will argue that if used appropriately, txt has powerful educational potential. Txt can motivate students to learn, and encourage creativity, and must therefore assume an ever increasing importance across all sectors of education.

Mind your language

Never ceases to amaze me how the web can be searched to unearth all sorts of curios. I recently discovered several reviews of my scribblings in other languages, but there always seem to be words that don't translate. Here's a Finnish review of the paper I presented at the EDEN conference in June:

Steve Wheeler kuvasi tulevaisuuden opiskelua käsitteellä ”Nomadic Learning”, missä opiskelija vaeltaa digitaalisissa maailmoissa kehittäen omaa osaamistaan vapaasti saatavien resurssien avulla yhdessä toisten opiskelijoiden kanssa. Käytössä ovat Web 2.0:n sosiaaliset työkalut, jotka mahdollistavat rikkaan ja dynaamisen oppimisympäristön. Yliopisto-opiskelijoilta kerätyn palautteen perusteella Wiki-työkalu edellytti tavallista tarkempaa kirjoittamista, kriittistä tietoisuutta ja vahvaa keskittymistä opiskeluun. Siksi työkalu koettiin varsin vaativana ja toisten tekstin muokkaaminen nähtiin usein ongelmallisena.

I was also amazed to see that my blog from yesterday was translated into German and up on the web within a few minutes of me posting mine. It's translated as:

Lernen mit ' e: Veröffentlicht... und unzerdrückt (Learning with 'e's: Published ... and unjammed)

...and my final sentence on what my avatar is doing when I'm not in SL goes:

'Erhält mich denkend..., was meinen Avatara tun in SL tut, wenn ich nicht dort bin, ihn in der Überprüfung zu halten??' (Avatara hmm? well, ich weiss nicht...)

A recent paper I co-wrote for a Brazilian Medical journal was translated from English into Portuguese and the title now reads: 'A cultura colaborativa e a creatividade destrutiva da web 2.0: aplicativos para o ensino da medicina'. Well... I'll take their word for it, but they might be laughing at me behind my back and it could all be a load of rubbish...

One of the best things I found on the Web when I first started out was Alta Vista's Babel Fish online language translator. I know it has since been surpassed by a number of other web tools, and it often wasn't grammatically accurate, but it still made me think of Star Trek and the universal translator device. Be great to have one of those, so that I could at least understand the computer techies here at my university. Also interesting to think that 87 per cent of web pages in the known universe are in English (or an American version of it).

Now who's going to translate this blog entry?

The Downes side

Reading Stephen Downes' blog Stephen's Web yesterday caused me to think more deeply about the nature of blogging. Stephen very kindly makes links to three of my recent blog postings from the ICL Conference in Villach, Austria. But Stephen my friend, I think you missed the point.

Here's a quote from him, er, quoting me.... "Summaries could be more informative and less, um, colourful ("two papers that shone out like diamonds in the mud in an afternoon of mediocrity")."

Hmmm... my first response is that it's my blog and I can use whatever poetic licence I like to convey my thoughts. But it goes deeper than this. Words are powerful, and often, metaphors can provide a lot more meaning than mere description. There are other conference blogs that are more informative. Go read those. Those who regulalry read this blog, I hope, have gotten used to my 'colourful' language and 'tongue in cheek' approach, and realise that this is the style these postings will take. It's a happy situation, I think you will agree... that blogs are not all the same, and that bloggers should use any devices they want to, to get their messages across. It would be a pretty boring blogosphere otherwise!

Thanks though, Stephen, for remarking that my links to the presenters were useful. It's certainly driven more readers to my site over the last few days. Oh, and I really like your 'colourful' picture on FaceBook! Cheers mate.

Blending in...

Finally back in the UK, and in my own comfortable bed tonight.... But on reflection, it's been a good week in Italy. I was mistaken for an Italian four times this week in Napoli. People kept coming up to me and gabbling away in Italian... it's like another country...or London. Perhaps I am blending in with the locals, or maybe it's because Italians are naturally friendly and don' care who they talk to ...? Here are 10 things you should do if you want to be mistaken for a local in Napoli:

1) Get a tan
2) Talk Italian (Although this is not entirely essential - I assure you I can't)
3) Always wear sunglasses, even at night
4) Talk with exaggerated arm waving and hand movements
5) Look nonchalent
6) Walk across the road without really looking (they will stop for you, or swerve to avoid you)
7) Ride a moped without a helmet on, but with at least one girl on the back
8) Don't drive a car, aim it
9) Drive with your horn, not with your brakes
10) Hold a mobile phone to your ear at all times, and a cigarette in the other hand