Donald .... Duck!

Donald Clark's opening keynote for ALT-C 2010 essentially polarised his audience this morning. Some loved his earthy, no-quarter given demolition of an host of established theories of learning. "Maslow's hierarchy of needs is only popular, because triangles are easy to put into Powerpoint slides" he opined. "Socrates was a bully" he claimed, and he also lashed into other long accepted and well established models, much to the delight, and also the chagrine of those assembled. What really rankled though with many of those present (and some of those watching via Elluminate) was his critique that academics do not question learning theories, not are they suffiently critical of them. (Picture above: Donald Clark appeals to the Gods of Pedagogy).

Clark argued that lectures are a relic of the medieval age, and complained that modern university teaching rooms are not tech friendly. Where are the power sockets in this room? he asked. Fair point. And how can you get students to interact when all the seats are bolted down and facing the same way? Another good question. But his outright dismissal of the lecture as a legitimate pedagogical method left many of the delegates reaching for their laptops and harsh tagging him. There was plenty of 'tweckling' from all parts of the hall, and I suppose that by now, Donald Clark has read these comments, and knowing him as I do, is ready for the next round. For he is in a fight, no doubt about it. He cited Donald Bligh's seminal book 'What's the use of lectures?', but failed to mention that Bligh goes on to describe several important ways to improve the lecture and make it more interactive and participatory for students.

Was he too opinionated? One delegate suggested Clark had given ALT-C a 'Glasgow Kiss', but that may be going a little too far. Donald certainly fuelled much disciussion, and became the human equivalent of a hand grenade tossed into an otherwise placid melange of academics and professionals. It certainly had the desired effect. He tore down a lot during his keynote, but many were left questioning whether Donald Clark actually built anything up? When asked what the alternatives were to the lecture, he didn't seem to answer substantially, to the satisfaction of those who were listening.

One final observation: Donald Clark seemed to consider it acceptable to lace his presentation with a number of profanities. It intensified as he became more passionate and warmed to his subject. However, for some in the audience, his style stifled his substance. They were more intent on the language he was using than they were on what he was actually saying. Never the less, whatever your opinion about 'the lecture is dead' rant, it caused a few waves and a lot of dissonance for the 550 or so delegates at this years event. More later. And in the meantime, to lighten the mood, above is a picture of Stu Johnson with an Apple device.

Donald ... Duck! by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Limitless learning

We're holding another conference in Plymouth next year! The theme for the 5th Plymouth e-Learning Conference is Learning without Limits - we will address the notion of anytime, anyplace learning. The conference will highlight the growing number of contexts in which learning can take place, and how technology is playing its role. PeLC10 will take place on April 8-9, 2010 in the iconic Roland Levinsky Building on the main University of Plymouth campus. We will focus on the challenges and opportunities brought by formal and informal learning, social networks and personal technologies, mobile learning and innovative on-campus education, virtual and real teaching & learning scenarios, and how teachers and learners are harnessing the power and potential of new and emerging technologies. Our two keynote speakers are Josie Fraser and Donald Clark - the conference website holds further details of costs, joining instructions etc.

As in previous years the conference welcomes proposals for papers, workshops, symposia and demonstrations from across all sectors of education and training, focused on topic areas such as:

Emerging Learning Technologies
Classroom Learning Technology
New Pedagogies and Practices
Mobile Learning, Ambient and Pervasive Technologies
Games for Learning
3D Multi User Virtual Environments
Social Web and Social Networking
Multi-Media
Digital Literacy
Digital Identity

We hope to see you in Plymouth for 2010. The deadline for proposals (300 word abstracts) is 15th January. Get your proposal in soon, and .... book early!

Join the Pelican Fringe

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Smart talk

I'm an invited speaker at the Learning Technologies Conference at London's Olympia in January. It promises to be quite an interesting two days in the capital with keynotes from Lord David Puttnam (remember Chariots of Fire?) and Stephen Heppell, as well as a host of other social media experts including my Twitter buddies Jane Hart, Donald Clark, Barry Sampson and Mark Oehlert.

My own presentation is scheduled for Day two, where I will tackle the subject of 'New Smart Devices for Learning'. Here's the blurb from the conference website:

Smart phones are now proving themselves for learning, but what happens next with smart devices? Join Steve Wheeler as he explores how existing technologies such as GPS, cameras, light-weight projection and bar code scanning can be combined with new software to extraordinary effect. In the next few years, individual's interactions with the world, and how they learn in it, may be transformed. Steve will explore:

• Augmented reality: the short-cut to information
• The power of smart devices combined with semantic search
• Wearable learning devices - pipe dream or practical reality?
• Devices already altering how people learn: from Kindle to the TouchTable
• The challenge for L&D: adopt and understand now, or play catch up later

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The 5th Plymouth e-Learning Conference

The 5th Plymouth e-Learning Conference (8-9 April, 2010) 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 (PDAs interactive whiteboards, etc), personal learning environments, visual media (videoconference, digital photography), e-portfolios and social software (wikis, blogs, podcasting, etc). The event will once again be held in the spectacular Roland Levinsky Building, on the University of Plymouth main campus.

At the 2009 event over 200 delegates from 17 countries participated over the two days, which saw 2 keynotes, and more than 80 demonstrations, papers, and workshops. Our keynote speakers for the 2010 event are Josie Fraser and Donald Clark.

Josie Fraser is well known in the field of social media and learning, and writes regularly about her research on her blog SocialTech. Josie spreads her time and energy across a wide variety of social media/networking spaces, where she can be found experimenting with all manner of emerging technologies. At the ALT-C 2008 Conference, she received the prestigious Learning Technologist of the Year award and continues to be at the forefront of learning technology development. At this year’s conference Josie will talk about how social media can be used to liberate learners and how we might attain learning without limits in a truly anytime, anyplace context.

Donald Clark was CEO and one of the original founders of Epic Group plc, which established itself as the leading company in the UK e-learning market, floated on the Stock Market in 1996 and sold in 2005. Describing himself as 'free from the tyranny of employment', he is now a board member of Ufi (LearnDirect), LINE Communications, Caspian Learning, Brighton Festival, and a school governor. He has produced over 40 papers, dozens of book reviews and many articles on e-learning. Donald has also won many awards for the design and implementation of e-learning, notably the 'Outstanding Achievement in e-learning Award'. He is a regular speaker at national and international conferences and has won Best Speaker awards at several conferences. Donald is also a regular (and controversial) blogger on e-learning!

On behalf of the local organising committee, I invite you to join us in April 2010 for what promises to be another excellent, enjoyable and thought provoking event.

Clark is not Keen

I'm back home from Online Educa Berlin, and it's time to reflect. Germany was a lot of fun, cold, festive and ... well, Germany. I'm left wondering though who this woman is everyone keeps talking about - anyone know anything about Alice Klar...?

Anyway. In comparison to all the other conferences on elearning and ICT I have been to this year, Educa just has to be the best. It had everything - an excellent environment for relaxing, thinking, discussing and networking (the Hotel Intercontinental on Budapesterstrasse must be one of the best and most expensive venues for a European elearning event), great social events, and an excellent line up of sessions. With over 2000 delegates at this year's event, it was also packed with diversity, both culturally and in terms of alternative perspectives. The content in most of the sessions was stimulating, challenging and in some cases absolutely inspirational.

I'm referring in particular to a keynote session on the final day of Educa, presented by Donald Clark (above), who was articulate, humorous, and at times, deeply profound in his analysis of the process of learning. He began by debunking many of the established and commonly accepted learning theories espoused by the likes of Benjamin Bloom (Taxonomy), Robert Gagne (Stages model) and Abraham Maslow (Hierarchy of needs). Maslow's model is particularly popular in the corporate training sector, said Clark, because most people like to put pyramids on their PowerPoint slides. Glib, perhaps, but also inherently true when faced with the oversimplification of Maslow's model. (Don't forget that Carl Rogers onces stated that we don't have to work our way through all of Maslow's hierarchy - some people can self-actualise instantly). Clark also launched into learning style theories by the likes of Kolb and Honey & Mumford.

By far the most delicious experience for the audience however, was Donald Clark's response to the earlier keynote by enfant terrible Andrew Keen. How the two differ in their approach! We should all feel insulted, said Clark, by Keen's dismissal of bloggers and wikepedians as merely 'monkeys with typewriters'. There were audible gasps when he labelled Keen 'an idiot', but I think the gasps were of admiration rather than surprise or outrage. Donald Clark was simply articulating what many people were thinking. 14 years olds have as much right to post internet opinions as Harvard professors, we heard him say. And social software is not about making money, but about liberating learners to contribute their own content to the mix.

But... 'get a grip, Andrew!' was perhaps the most apposite soundbite of the day...