My Personal Learning Network

I was asked by Grainne Conole to record a short video on my views about Personal Learning Networks, VLEs vs PLEs and other related topics, as a contribution toward her unkeynote with Ricardo Torres Kompen for the PLE conference in Aviero, Portugal this week. Well, here it is, as a short 3 minute video on YouTube:




My Personal Learning Network by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

More great places, awesome people

In my last post I recalled some of the great places I went to this year and some of the awesome people I met. Continuing my review of the year, here are my top five places and some more great people of 2011.

5. Mombasa, Kenya. As a part of the International Federation for Information Processing event calendar (IFIP Education Committee) I was invited to keynote a conference in Mombasa in August. I have heard so much about Kenya, but had never been to East Africa before this excursion. I arrived tired after two flights totaling almost 10 hours, and stepped out into the sauna. Mombasa is south of the equator, and in August is supposed to be in winter, but at 28 degrees with 90 percent humidity, you could have fooled me. Mombasa is an island city of almost 1 million souls, and is surrounded by water, so I went equipped with malaria tablets and insect repellent, and believe me, they were needed. And yet, in spite of the personal discomfort, I found the city to be charming, colourful, fascinating. We were warned that there was always a chance of trouble with a huge number of refugees entering the country just to the north of us, and because Somali pirates were operating along the coast, kidnapping and hijacking were real threats. We noticed that there were armed guards outside our hotel, and also guards on every floor inside the hotel. The Kalashnikov rifles were a dead give-away. I still managed to take a tuk-tuk into the old part of Mombasa though, and with my old friend Torsten Brinda, where we wandered around virtually unmolested, taking in the sights, sounds and aromas of authentic Mombasa. The experience of Kenya was made deeply poignant for me when I talked to these young people (pictured) outside some school gates during one of our visits. Some of them are too young to go to school, so they hang around outside gazing in each day, waiting for the time when they will be able to go to school to hopefully better their own lives and those of their families. Full story in Out of Africa.

4. Dublin, Ireland. I had the privilege of visiting the fair city of Dublin twice in 2011, the first time to keynote the 14th Irish National IT Training Conference in April, and the second time in June to speak at the Annual EDEN Conference. On both occasions, I met President Mary McAleese, and got to shake her hand. Ireland is a great country (I have Irish ancestory which helps) and Dublin is a fun city to spend some time in, especially when it's with my old friends Graham Attwell, Deborah Arnold, Philip Wilkinson-Blake, Mark Brown, Eileen Brennan-Freeman and Sally Reynolds, and new friends including Eamon McAteer and John Heffernan. Both trips to Dublin were memorable, not just because of the great experiences of attending two major conferences, but also because of the welcome the city gives, and here's a tip: Temple Bar and the Guinness Factory are a must for any visitors to the city. Full story in Feel the burn and EDEN comes of age.

3. Barcelona, Spain. I always enjoy my visits to Barcelona. It is quite simply one of the most attractive cities you can imagine and in terms of its eclectic and outrageous architecture, it is second to none. The influence of Gaudi, Picasso, Miro and a host of other avant garde artists is evident wherever you turn, and the opportunities to sample the culture and atmosphere of this iconic city are endless. On this occasion, in October, with the weather mild and bearable (I was last in Barcelona in July 2010 when the temperature was extreme) I was invited to keynote the Open University of Barcelona's 8th international conference on teacher training. I had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with Doug Thomas, who with John Seely-Brown, co-authored the book 'A new culture of learning', and also had dinner with legendary author Manuel Castells. It was wonderful talking to these great thinkers, and hoping that at least some of their wisdom and intelligence might rub off on to me! Full story in Slightly dangerous and In the same boat.

2. Wellington, New Zealand. This was my first visit to New Zealand's capital city, 'the coolest little capital in the world,' courtesy of Massey University's Mark Brown. I was invited by Mark to keynote two conferences for the university, and then to stay over in Wellington for the weekend before providing the international keynote for the Tertiary Education Summit. During the weekend I met up with old friends Jo Fothergill and Jedd Bartlett and met Karen Melhuish for the first time down at the offices of Core Ed. Wellington is packed full of things to do and places to see, including the spectacular harbour, Mount Victoria, and of course the Wellywood movie industry scene (Miramar district is where the famous Weta Workshop is located). Going on the Movie tour and visiting some of the location sites for the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy was one of the most memorable experiences of my time in New Zealand. In doing so I reflected on the art of film making to the extent that I eventually wrote this piece on attention to detail. I was also delighted to meet Dermot Donnelly on the tour, and I hope to keep in touch with him, given that we are both deeply involved in research into social media in teacher education. The national museum at Te Papa was just across the road from my hotel, so I spent a fun afternoon in there soaking up the kiwi culture and learning more about the history of the islands. Full story of my New Zealand lecture tour in Aotearoa.

1. Melbourne, Australia. This year, the city that has left the best impression has to be Melbourne. I really don't have enough room here to do justice to the seven days I spent in this cosmopolitan, wonderfully laid-back Australian city. Hooking up again with old friends John Sandler, Colin Warren and Joyce Seitzinger really helped to cement my welcome, and meeting new friends such as Mark Smithers and Dave Cummings added to the sheer enjoyment of the city. I was in town to keynote the inaugural technology for teaching and learning summit at the famous Rendezvous hotel, and was glad to share the spotlight with AUT's Thomas Cochrane with whom I spent some down time chatting about mobile learning and life in general. Thanks to all who looked after me so well in #Melb - it was a great pleasure, and very comforting to be in the company of such good friends, so far away from home. My time in Melbourne reached its zenith in a great tweetup gathering down on the riverside underneath St Kilda Bridge where Stephen Heppell and Claire Brooks joined us for drinks, and I was delighted to spend some time talking to Shelley Gibb, Jenny Ashby and Pam Kamande. The Melbourne skyline at night is spectacular, as under floodlights is the iconic Flinders Street Railway station. There is much to see and do in Melbourne; Victoria Market is bustling and colourful, the sporting scene is well represented with multiple world class stadia (including the MCG and Rod Laver Arena) on the edge of the city, and I spent an excellent day out with Joyce and Mark at the Victorian State Museum, learning much about the history of science fiction film making. Full story in The Melbourne set.


More great places, awesome people by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The Melbourne set

We all thoroughly enjoyed our Big Fat Tweetup last night down on the riverside in Melbourne. Even the sudden early summer downpour couldn't dampen our enthusiasm for RL (Real Life) encounters with people we have all know for some years. Many have remarked on this, but it's true - when you eventually meet face to face the people you have been conversing with for years on Twitter, you feel you actually know them. You don't of course, but you can bypass a lot of the awkward social manoeuvring you often experience when you meet someone for the first time. It was a gathering for learning technologists and educators from all around.

Stephen Heppell (@stephenheppell) dropped by to share a glass with us en route to another event. Claire Brooks (@clairebrooks) and Dave Cummings (@daveymelb) were in great form, along with our tweetup host and organiser Joyce Seitzinger (@catspyjamasnz) and the excellent Mr. Mark Smithers (@marksmithers). Even Shelley Gibb (@mollybob) put in a surprise but very welcome appearance, all the way over from Sydney. It was great talking again with Colin Warren (@colwar) whom I first met face to face in Barcelona at last year's PLE conference, and to feel intuitively that we are kindred spirits. Good on ya mate! I met Jenny Ashby (@jjash) and Pam Kamande (@pamarasan) for the first time and we shared our experiences. I also enjoyed my discussions with Megan Colasante (@megacolour) about digital identity, anonymity and blogging as a professional practice. The weather remained warm and muggy, in spite of the heavy shower, and rich and varied conversations went on into the night.

Image by Joyce Seitzinger (from an idea by Mark Smithers)


The Melbourne set by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Digital footprints

Increasingly, as we ask our learners to engage with social media as a part of their study, we are also asking them to leave a trace of themselves on the Web. Whether it is writing a blog, posting a video on YouTube, working collaboratively on a wiki, or simply bookmarking a site on Diigo or Delicious, students are leaving their digital footprints - evidence of their presence - all over the internet. And there may be ethical issues attached. Digital footprints are persistent, with artefacts and traces remaining visible and searchable for many years. Should we therefore be more careful about what we ask students to do and where we ask them to go on the Web?

These questions were addressed by Dr Jenny Waycott, of the University of Melbourne, who was our final speaker today at the Inaugural Technology for Learning and Teaching Forum. Jenny talked not only of the benefits and potential of social media to enhance learning, but also gave a critical review of some of the issues and challenges. She asked her audience to consider not only the opportunities that are presented to transform learning, but also to think about how we might minimise the risks associated with learning while using the social web. She argued that although social media can change the way students communicate and share their work, there are hidden dangers and controversies we need to be ready to counter.

Dr Waycott told the story of one student who was also developing a fledgling music career. The student was careful that her digital footprint as a musician (which was already well established) was not contaminated by her presence on the web as a university student. She took great pains to separate out her two identities, and made sure that those who knew her as a student did not confuse her other online persona as a musician. The ethical implications of this for university staff are less than clear, but the student's wishes to keep her two digital identities separate need to be respected and treated with care.

Other students, she told us, were worried about copying on the web. Not plagiarism, she added, but other students copying their work and then claiming credit for it at the author's expense. What if another student learnt something new from the writer's work and then gained a higher grade than the originator of the ideas? What would be the ethical implications of this? She counselled that asking students to co-create or share their work on a wiki or other online social space could have detrimental effects on intellectual property if the guidelines are not clear. The jury is still out on these questions. What are your views?

Image by Wesley Fryer (remixed)


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

Down under

I'm in Australia this week to give the opening keynote for the Inaugural Technology for Learning and Teaching Forum, which will be held over two days at the Rendezvous Hotel in Melbourne, just across from Flinders Street Railway Station (pictured). Melbourne, this part anyway, is quite Bohemian, bustling, vibrant and very colourful. You can stand on a street corner and watch the whole of humanity pass by in about ten minutes. The other invited keynote at the event will be Tom Cochrane (Auckland University of Technology, NZ) who will address the topic: Transforming pedagogy with Mobile Web 2.0. Here are Tom's key points:

·         This session will reflect on the impact of over 30 mlearning projects between 2006 and 2011 illustrating how mlearning can be used as a catalyst to transform pedagogy from instructivist teacher-directed pedagogy to social constructivist pedagogy that bridges pedagogically designed learning contexts, facilitates learner generated contexts, and content (both personal and collaborative), while providing personalisation and ubiquitous social connectedness.

·         The session will outline an mlearning implementation strategy, and illustrative case studies. Links to supporting material can be found at http://web.me.com/thom_cochrane/MobileWeb2/, and http://thomcochrane.wikispaces.com/.

My own keynote speech is entitled: Learning Generations: Looking forward, looking back. I'm also going to be addressing how we might transform the learning experience, and will be interested to see what common areas Tom and I will touch on. Here are my topic headings:

·         A history of learning technology, change management and the adoption of new and emerging technologies in education.

·         Possible tensions between teacher and learner needs and expectations

·         Personal learning environments and student owned devices and their role within institutional contexts

·         The evolution of the web and what new roles teachers will need to adopt to harness the power of new and emerging technologies

·       I will argue that teachers and learners need new pedagogies and literacies if teaching and learning is to be optimised in the digital age. 

The rest of my Down Under lecture tour can be found here on this site.

Image by Hradcanska



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