A little bit of culture

I am really pleased that I was able to finish off the final editing and proof reading for the new book 'Connected Minds, Emerging Cultures' which has now gone to press. A whole host of people have contributed toward the 17 chapters in the volume. The publishers, Information Age, who are based in the USA, Greenwich, Connecticut, are already publicising it on their website, and I have seen some of the cover artwork, so publication is imminent. Here's the blurb (wot I wrote meself):

As the title indicates, this book highlights the shifting and emergent features that represent life online, specifically in and around the territory of e-learning. Cybercultures in themselves are complex conglomerations of ideas, philosophies, concepts, and theories, some of which are fiercely contradictory. As a construct, "cyberculture" is a result of sustained attempts by diverse groups of people to make sense of multifarious activities, linguistic codes, and practices in complicated and ever-changing settings. It is an impossibly convoluted field. Any valid understanding of cyberculture can only be gained from living within it, and as Bell suggests, it is "made up of people, machines and stories in everyday life." Although this book contains a mix of perspectives, as the chapters progress, readers should detect some common threads. Technology-mediated activities are featured throughout, each evoking its particular cultural nuances and, as Derrick de Kerckhove (1997) has eloquently argued, technology acts as the skin of culture. All the authors are passionate about their subjects, every one engages critically with his or her topics, and each is fully committed to the belief that e-learning is a vitally important component in the future of education. All of the authors believe that digital learning environments will contribute massively to the success of the information society we now inhabit. Each is intent on exploration of the touchstone of "any time, any place" learning where temporal and spatial contexts cease to become barriers to learning, and where the boundaries are blurring between the formal and informal.

And here's a taste of the contents:

Foreword, Howard Rheingold. Introduction, Steve Wheeler. PART I: DIGITAL SUBCULTURES. Learning in Collaborative Spaces: Encouraging a Culture of Sharing, Steve Wheeler. Mobile Subcultures, John Traxler. Podcasting: A Listening Culture, Palitha Edirisingha. The Emergence of Ubiquitous and Pervasive Learning Cultures, Mark A. M. Kramer. PART II: ROLES AND IDENTITIES. Identity in Cyberspace, Hugh Miller and Jill Arnold. Digital Tribes, Virtual Clans, Steve Wheeler. Gaming and the Network Generation, Nicola Whitton. Creating an Online Course Generational Community, Leon James. The Social Impact of Personal Learning Environments, Graham Attwell. PART III: CYBER PERSPECTIVES. Emerging Online Practices: An Endo-Aesthetic Approach to E-tutoring and E-learning, Viv Tucker. Cyberculture and Poststructural Approaches, Ken Gale. Cyborg Theory and Learning, Vasi van Deventer. Transfer Through Learning Flexibility and Hypertextuality, Gorg Mallia. PART IV: NARRATIVES AND CASE STUDIES. Cybercrime in Society, Steven Furnell. Language Evolution in Txting Environments, Tim Shortis. The Cultural Impact of E-learning and Intranets on Corporate Employees, David Guralnick and Deb Larson. Imagined Worlds, Emerging Cultures, Steve Wheeler and Helen Keegan. Author Biographies. Index.

Talking shop

Mark Kramer had his camera out a lot at Handheld Learning this year, as usual. He caught several of us in conversation near the front stage before the plenary session. In our conversation, Mark and myself, dana boyd, (and later on Marc Prensky) covered a lot of ground during our informal discussion including the effects of hypermedia, rhizomatic learning, constraints and affordances of technology, microblogging, data mining, democracy and privacy, freedom and online identity, etc... A number of Web 2.0 tools are mentioned including Boing Boing, Twitter, YouTube, blogging and Qik.

Have a listen in - go on, eavesdrop. We really don't mind. I'm just sorry you can't join in directly with the conversation, but you can comment on Mark's website.

Mobi Mundi on a Wednesdi

Well it is certainly a mobile world, but unfortunately not for me this morning. My iPhone battery is dead as a dodo and I have just spent the best part of an hour running the battery down on my laptop trying to get my wifi connection to work. It's Wednesday and the final day here at Handheld Learning 2008. We have been Flickring and Tweeting the conference on Twemes since the outset - take a look at the fun we have been having! I have just enjoyed sitting in the research strand on mobile technologies listening to three presentations. Mark Kramer from Salzburg, Austria was first up and talked about the future of learning using mobile devices. I like the way Maek draws on his day-to-day experiences and encounters to illustrate the key points he makes. He is doing a lot of ethnographic research and captures these human encounters as digital artefacts on video and audio devices, with live streaming to the web.

A South African perspective was offered by Adele Botha of Meraka Institute. Adele talked about the pervasiveness and ubiquity of mobile telephony in South Africa and outlined some of the key uses of the technology in education.

The main thrust of her presentation was to examine the new digital literacies such as 'mobiquette' that are required by learners and practitioners in the new digital mobile age of learning.


The final presentation was by David Cameron (yes that one - not the other one), who is based at Charles Sturt University in Australia. David spoke on the subject of how mobile media in the classroom can and do transform the educational experiences of young children. He presented some useful examples of how he and his colleagues use the technologies in drama based learning. An excellent session with plenty of time for questions and discussion, although the silubrious but elusive venue - The London Barbican Centre - was a little too difficult to find for those who may have stayed up a little late last night.

Connected Minds ...

'Connected Minds, Emerging Cultures' is a new book several of us have got together to produce over the last year. In the next few blog posts I will present an extract of the introduction to give you a flavour of what you can expect in the book when it is published at the end of the year through Information Age Publishers (Greenwich, Connecticut, USA):

In the opening section there are four chapters about digital subcultures, the first of which focuses on learning within the collaborative online spaces increasingly popular in education. The chapter showcases some of the recent research into the use of wikis in higher education and Steve Wheeler approaches this topic armed with an extensive data set derived from the discussion group postings of his online teacher trainee groups. He concludes that wikis are a powerful and as yet relatively untapped online collaborative tool that has the potential to promote deeper engagement with learning.

The second chapter, written by John Traxler, dwells on the realities and possibilities of the mobile culture, made possible by cellular and wireless technologies that are now pervasive in the Western world and in the process of becoming a global phenomenon. Although the future of mobile technology seems robust, Traxler raises a number of important questions about its impact on learners, teachers, communities and society in general. He offers to evaluate this impact through an exploration of the impact of mobile technology on culture, community, discourse, identity and their educational implications. The author attempts to reconcile the perception that discrete mobile subcultures exist with the perception that all cultures are somehow transformed by mobility.

Chapter 3, written by Palitha Edirisingha, reveals that a ‘listening’ sub-culture has grown up around the increasingly popular podcasting technologies. In his chapter, Edirisingha traces the development of podcasting through media, entertainment and technology industries and the transformation of a broadcast tool into a learning tool. He identifies a variety factors that have an impact on the formation of such a listening culture. He highlights some of the lessons learned from empirical studies, predominantly from an international study called IMPALA. Edirisingha concludes by offering insights into how podcasting can be effectively used for learning, with a focus on higher education.

Part 1 concludes with chapter 4, in which Mark A M Kramer explores the ways students are beginning to harness mobile networked enabled technologies to create new cultures of learning and collaboration. Kramer argues that these new movements can best be understood as a ubiquitous and pervasive learning culture in which anyone can engage in a form of learning that takes place independent of time and location. He concludes by suggesting that this new culture of ubiquitous and pervasive learning is inevitable, but warns that it may take time to become established in education.

More tomorrow from the Introduction...

EduMedia in the Alps

Its all quite beautiful here up in the middle of the Austrian Alps. I am in Salzburg to speak at the EduMedia conference this week. The weather is hot and sunny and the birds are singeing in the trees. The theme of this conference is Self Organised Learning in the Interactive Web. I have already enjoyed some interesting and stimulating conversations with the likes of Jay Cross (USA), Mark Kramer (Austria) and Wolfgang Greller (OU Netherlands) and I am looking forward to listening to the first keynotes in approximately 10 minutes time. Jay actually did a video interview of me over breakfast which he says he will post up on his website later on. Hope I dont have egg on my face....

I will try to blog and twitter from the conference as the sessions go on, but network connections here are a little flaky at times. More later, including some stunning photgraphs of the area....

Diamonds in the mud

They saved the best 'til last... The papers on the final day really cut the mustard for me. I chaired a session entitled 'pedagogical and psychological issues' (on my own request to the conference organisers) and I wasn't disappointed. An all female crew of 4 presenters took us through a fast-paced spectrum of ideas and research around e-learning. Maja Snyder (University of Maribor, Slovenia) evaluated several e-learning courses from a student perspective. Next up was Erika Pigliapoco (University of Urbino, Italy) who discussed the 'psychological sense of community' needed for all distance courses to succeed. Hot on her heels was Hiba Mustafa (University of Massey, New Zealand) who regaled us with a content superb offering entitled: 'Computer-based Meta Cognitive Training' in which she outlined a new web based tool for supporting problem solving for post-graduate students in medicine, vetrinary services, etc. Finally, in this truly global community of presenters, came Marissa Wettasinghe (National Institute of Education, Singapore) who presented a paper on how ICT has been used to support slow learners. And......I pronounced all their names perfectly.

The highlight of the day was found in two papers that shone out like diamonds in the mud in an afternoon of mediocrity. Lief Martin Hokstad (whom I had previously session-chaired in EDEN, Naples - the guy's a Steely Dan fan!) and his colleague Carl Fredrik Dons from the University of Trondheim, Norway, presented a paper about digital literacies which challenged and illuminated. Why is it that all Norwegians need three names? I don't know, but in conversation afterwards, we agreed that our research interests were so similar we probably need to do some work together...

Finally, last session of the conference....Mark Kramer (Pictured: University of Saltzberg, Austria) didn't disappoint us with a rip-roaring presentation full of hand-held technologies. His talk, entitled 'Learning in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing' was refreshing, providing the audience with new ideas to go away with. He took a picture of the audience and uploaded it to Flickr in under 10 seconds during the presentation just to prove a point. I'm the guy waving at the back...

Well, we were waving goodbye to each other soon afterwards, as we each made out weary way home. I have made some good new friends, and hope to work with some of them in the future. As for Villach and Ljubljana - these stunning cities with their breath-taking vistas of Alpine scenery will not go forgotten.

Trains, coaches and ICL 2007

I'm off to the Interactive Computer Aided Learning (ICL 2007) conference tomorrow morning. It's held at the Holiday Inn in Villach, Austria (pictured right). First I will be flying into Ljubjana, Slovenia, to stay the night before taking the train up the following day. Villach is a real pig to reach, so a night in Ljubjana beckons. The subject of my talk (which is co-authored by my wife Dawn) is 'Evaluating Wiki as a tool to promote quality academic writing skills'. She's done some interesting work developing wikis for 'minimum core' delivery at the University of Plymouth recently.

ICL is a new conference circuit for me, but I notice that a couple of familiar faces will be presenting at the event, so I won't feel totally lost. Star blogger Graham Attwell (Wales Wide Web) tells me he will be arriving about an hour before he is due to present - cutting it fine, mate. Mark Kramer (whom I first met at EDEN 2006 in Vienna) will also be there, and one of the keynotes will be provided by Andy DiPaolo (Stanford University) who was also at EDEN 2006. I'm looking forward to it. Well most of it....I'm chairing a session on Friday in which every single one of the speakers has a name I cannot even begin to contemplate pronouncing properly. Should be fun. For the audience. I will try to blog from the conference as things unfold. Now, does anyone know where I can find a good diction coach?