Skills for Learning 2.0

I have been thinking and writing about 'Learning 2.0' for some time now. This is the argument that there has been a paradigm shift in the way students learn - from 1.0 to 2.0, from passive to active, from individual to social and from consumer to producer. This shift seems to run parallel to the development of the web over the last decade, and resonates with many who observe 21st century, digitally mediated learning in all its forms.

The University of Toronto's Mark Federman is a major contributor to this discourse. The writings of Federman's late Canadian compatriot Marshall McLuhan clearly pervades his work. During a live television programme on 21st Century learning recently, he was asked whether the three 'R's (Reading, Writing and aRithmetic) would still be relevant to this generation of learners. Federman's response was slick and insightful, even though it had probably been scripted well in advance of the TV show. He declared confidently that for this generation, the three 'R's would not be as important as the four 'C's. Asked to expand on this, he listed the four 'C's: Connection, Context, Complexity and Connotation. Although these are essentially characteristics of modern life, we can contextualise them as skills or literacies. Here are my thoughts and  interpretation of Federman's framework, illustrated above with one of my most recent slide graphics.

Firstly, learners need to be able to connect. In today's fast paced and change ridden world, learners need now, like never before, to be able to connect through technology to peers, experts, content and services. One of the most valuable assets a 21st Century learner has is their personal learning network (PLN). And we are all 21st Century learners, even if we are not enrolled on an accredited study programme. A lot of what is learned (some claim up to 70 per cent) is informal, and with a powerful enough network of connections to a PLN, there is no limit to what a learner can achieve.

Secondly, learners need to be able to contextualise their learning. Bill Gates once famously stated that content was king. This is no longer the case. Now context is king, because situated learning is powerful, and access to content is just the start of learning. Learning can be contextualised in so many different ways, and this is why personal learning tools are so important. The capability to personalise learning environments, exercise agency over the tools and systems you wish to use, and the ability to apply learning to your own individual situation, are extremely important components of successful learning today.

Thirdly, learners need to be able to work with complexity and be able to interpret, filter out extraneous content, and make meaning. They need to be prepared for uncertain futures, none of which can be accurately predicted. In short, they need to be able to see the wood from the trees. There are many tools available today that learners can use to harness the power of web based content, including aggregation, curation and tagging tools, all of which can simplify complexity and allow learners to gain a purchase on chaos.

Finally, learners today need to be able to make meaning from the mass of content they are bombarded with each and every day. Many learners make meaning through discussion, but increasingly we are witnessing a shift toward user generated content, where learners are creating their own videos, blogs, podcasts, slidesets and other digital artefacts to make meaning.

Graphic by Steve Wheeler


Skills for Learning 2.0 by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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.

Once more unto the Tweeps...

Once in a while I like to have a little fun with literature as can be seen in my blogpost in tribute to the genius of Lewis Carroll: A Web 2.0 Wonderland. For those who enjoyed such frivolous wordplay, here is a famous speech from one of William Shakespeare's plays, liberally peppered with hyperlinks to just a few of my favourite Twitter pals - some of those who have contributed significantly to my Personal Learning Network over the last year or so. These are all Tweeps worth following if you have any interest in education or learning technology. I have taken a lot of poetic licence with it. but if your name/link is not in this collection, please don't take up arms against me. Be nobler in the mind. Either your name didn't quite fit in to the scan (I can only take so many liberties), or I may yet include you in a future confection.... I hope you enjoy reading this and perhaps find a few new Tweeps to follow.

Once Moreland unto the breach, dear friends, once Moore;
Or Kruse the Hall up with our English dead.
In peace there's Domingo becomes a man,
As Michie stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war Bozarth our ears,
Then imitate the Aspin of the tiger;
Disguise fair nature with Hart-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a Terrell aspect;
Let Clay through the portage of the head
Like the brass Cronin; let the Bray o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a Gallen rock
O'erhang and Jakob his confounded base,
Smithers with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the Kuchel wide,
Hold hard the Baird and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is Finch from fathers of war-proof!
Frasers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from Vaughan till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
DisConnor not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call'd fathers did Barrett you.
Be Couros now to men of Grosseck blood,
And teach them how to Winn. And you, good Yeomans,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The Mitchell of your pasture; Lewis swear
That you are worth your Rubin; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you Levine and base,
That hath not noble Costa in your eyes.
I see you Dan like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's a Flynn:
Folley your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Kelly, England, and Saint George!'


Henry V, Act III.


Image source by Raul P


Once more unto the Tweeps... by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Locked and loaded

Next week is the annual bash for learning technologists here in the UK. ALT-C 2010 looms, and Nottingham beckons once again for a gathering of the clans. The last time we all went to the University of Nottingham campus for ALT-C, I met several people for the first time, including James Clay (who had his car broken into), Graham Attwell (who didn't have a car), Sam Easterby-Smith, Josie Fraser and Cristina Costa. I have worked with many of these on a regular basis since, and count them among my most valuable colleagues, as well as great friends. ALT-C (you see) is not just about attending to hear about the latest trends in technology supported learning, or watching cool demonstrations of the latests gadgets and gizmos, nor is it about listening to great (and sometimes not so great) keynotes. It's also about making new friends, forging alliances and extending your personal learning network. And coffee. Here's the ALT-C Crowdvine site delegates are using to connect before the event even starts.

So I'm locked and loaded and ready to drive up the autobahn to Nottingham next week, and here in the picture, is what I'm taking with me: 12 essentials I will be using to keep me out of mischief while I'm at the conference. 1) A four gang mains extension cable. The more sockets you have, the more friends you make. 2) The all important Acer Netbook. Small, but perfectly formed, and powerful when in the hands of the right blogger. 3) Sony Cybershot camera. Small, compact, and very versatile. 4) My trusty Nintendo DS, for use when the keynote speeches get deathly boring. (Look, Sugata, Donald - I'm joking OK?). 5) Power supply for said DS. 6) Power supply and cable for netbook. 7) Camera/netbook cable. I'm not that sophisticated yet. 8) Ethernet cable in case my guesthouse doesn't have wifi. Yes, guesthouse. I am not staying in student accommodation again. Ever. 9) Power supply for iPhone, iPod Touch and other Jobby things. 10) Wireless presenter and laser pointer. For keeping the audience in check. 11) iPhone. 12) iPod Touch. My iPhone is not enabled for internet. Don't ask, it's a long story, involving O2, a bowl of custard and a nun. 13) There is no 13. If there was it would have been my memory stick, but I forgot to put it in the photo.

So there you have it. My travelling companions for ALT-C. What are you bringing? Oh, and I lied about the nun.


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

Outrageous alternatives

What is the most outrageous alternative education scenario you could imagine? Children not attending school, but instead learning from home? Done it. Got the t-shirt. Distance education in the outback of Australia and other large area countries has been there for years, and so has home schooling in all its hues and colours. OK. What about no school at all then? Children going straight to work as soon as they are able to walk? Well, the sweat shops in the Far East can easily lay claim to that one. And of course, in Europe in the last century but one, it was prevalent for all but the very well off. It may be radical, but anyone who advocates it deserves a size 12 boot up their backside.

OK, what about children taking control of the curriculum, controlling discipline, and deciding what the teachers should teach them? Nope, completely passe. T'was done by Summerhill School and a number of other progressive, humanist schools in the 1960s in England and elsewhere. How about something a little less radical then? Teachers stepping back out of the way, so that the child takes centre stage and learning is focused on their personal development? No again - Montessori schools have been taking the approach for years. How about a more balanced curriculum then, where academic topics are equally weighted with artistic, aesthetic and social skills? Close, but no cigar - the Rudolf Steiner school movement has cornered 'head, hearts and hands' education for some time. Are we running out of alternatives? Is there any radical approach that has not been tried and tested? Are we doomed to continue with a rusty, creaking, increasingly outmoded national curriculum which every day becomes more and more irrelevant to the needs of the modern, fast changing, digitally-rich world of the information society? Are we?

Well, there is 'deschooling' of course. Deschooling in the sense that Ivan Illich proposed in the early 70s. No need to panic. It's not doing away with schools, as most people think when they hear the phrase 'deschooling'. No, it's more a philosophy premised on the assumption that universal education is simply not possible, nor is it desirable. We don't all need to know the same stuff, therefore why should we all sit together in the same room, at great public expense, for so many thousand hours of our young lives, to be forced to learn it all? Illich was also concerned that we should do away with 'funnels' - he talked about 'learning webs' that enabled every child (and indeed every adult) to learn what they personally needed to survive, thrive, care and share in the society they found themselves in. His idea of 'peer matching' was radical:

The operation of a peer-matching network would be simple. The user would identify himself by name and address and describe the activity for which he sought a peer. A computer would send him back the names and addresses of all those who had inserted the same description. It is amazing that such a simple utility has never been used on a broad scale for publicly valued activity. (Illich, 1971)

Hmmm. Impossible? Under the current funding regimes of mass public education, and in the present ethos of rigid curricula and control freakery of Western governments, trying to formalise something like this is difficult. But when we consider that 80 per cent of what we learn is achieved primarily outside the school gates, I am sure we might agree there are some potential loopholes to exploit. So let's see - how radical can we get with education? What if every child had their own device to connect to the world of knowledge and what if it was actually fun. What if they could search for any topic they wanted to know about and find complete resources on it in seconds, on a screen right in front of them? What if children could match their interests and knowledge needs with others who they could link with around the globe? What if children could learn from each other in this way using social networks and massively online role playing games? What if each child could create his own personal learning environment using tools that were free, scalable and open for all to use without any concerns about personal safety? What if this kind of learning was formally accreditable in such a way that employers would recognise it? What if the learning webs that Illich dreamed of were actually a reality, brought to us through easy to use personal devices, connected anytime, any place, and totally free to use?

So why aren't we doing it?

Image source

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

Web feats 5: URL Shorteners

With the advent of Twitter has come the need to shrink web addresses (URLs) down in size so you don't take up too much of the 140 character limit. A lot of people share useful websites they have found with their Personal Learning Network (PLN) over Twitter. One of the best URL shorteners is Bitly. The reason it is useful to me, is that Bitly has so much more functionality than simply reducing the size of URLs.

The new look Bitly has tools that allow you to view statistics (metrics) about your shortened URLs, including how many others have clicked on your links, and an information page dedicated to each individual link, showing how many others have tweeted it, shared it, commented on it, and even useful stats on the top referring sites. These are very useful statistics if you want to trace the reach and effectiveness of your web site links. There are also easy shorcut tools that allow you to enter the long URL, click and then copy and paste the shortened URL into Twitter, Facebook, or wherever. The best bit about Bitly though, is the real time metrics section that displays hyperlinks of the Twitter accounts of all those who have retweeted your link. Cool stuff indeed.

Images source

Web feats 5: URL Shorteners by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.