Being Negroponte

'Learning when there is no school'

In 1995 I read a little black paperback book that changed my view on the world. The title of the book was 'Being Digital' and the author was Nicholas Negroponte. Several key elements of Negroponte's book stood out for me and challenged my thinking. Firstly, he talks of a time when all media will be transformed from atoms into bits. This premise, written in the middle of the 90s, looked forwards to a time when newspapers, movies, music, television, photography, and a host of other media would reside exclusively within the digital domain. The repercussions would be that large businesses who relied on shipping 'atoms' would go out of business, whilst those who sent bits would thrive. Negroponte is a gentleman and doesn't have the hubris to declare 'I told you so', but a quick look around at the world of business will tell you that he was right. Large photographic companies, the music industry, book and newspaper publishers, high street chain stores and even the mighty Hollywood film industry are struggling to adapt, survive or maintain their preeminence in a world where everyone has a mobile phone with a camera, downloads of e-books exceed print based sales, iTunes is the favourite method of purchasing your favourite music, movies can be streamed online, and people are migrating en masse to online stores such as Amazon. Negroponte's vision was prescient indeed, and we ignore the man's ideas at our peril.

Secondly, Being Digital featured further predictions about touch screen computers, artificial intelligence and convergent technologies such as TVs and computers combining their functionality. The entire book is crammed full of these instances, and it is not hard to see why it had such a huge impact on me and many others like me almost 20 years ago.

It was a delight and a privilege to be invited to meet Nic Negroponte over dinner in the run up to the Learning Technologies Conference. I sat and chatted with him for more than two hours as he regailed me and my co-diners with story after story of his many exploits. Negroponte established the now legendary MIT Media Lab, and was also founder of Wired Magazine. I first became aware of his work by reading his then regular column. He is well connected too. Close friend and LOGO inventor Seymour Papert married author and cyberspace researcher Sherry Turkle in the living room of Negroponte's home. Negroponte and his then wife met with Alan Turing's mother and brother, and were given all his 'baby photographs'. He worked alongside legends such as artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky and in so doing, became something of a legend himself. In his opening keynote speech at Learning Technologies, Negroponte stalked across the stage reminding his audience that it is a big mistake to assume that knowing is synonymous with learning. 'We know that a vast recall of facts is not a measure of understanding,' he declared, 'and yet we subject kids in school to constant memorising to pass tests.' His answer? What we need to do in schools, he said, was to find ways to measure curioisty, creativity, imagination and passion, as well as the ability to view things from multiple perspectives.

Negroponte is now celebrated for his high impact initiative to provide children in poor countries to access learning through laptop computers. His One Laptop Per Child project has now given children from Ramallah to Rio access to the learning they previously never had a hope of having. The total number of laptop computers distributed through the 1LPC project now exceeds 2.5 million in 40 countries, and there are many heart warming stories to be told. Children are now teaching their own parents how to read, using the laptops as tools. In Ethiopia, over 5000 children are learning to write computer programs using Squeak. Plans to begin distribution of touch screen tablets are well underway, and it won't be long before we are talking about One Tablet Per Child. All of this is run on a charity basis, and is philanthropic to the core, with supporters including the Bill Gates Foundation and Salman Kahn's Academy.

If we have learnt one thing from the 1LPC project, says Negroponte, it is that children learn a great deal on their own, with little or no help from others. This echoes the work of pioneers such as Sugata Mitra, whose 'minimally invasive education' was demonstrated by the 'Hole in the Wall' experiments. Negroponte said that Mitra is now working with him and others at MIT - they have joined forces to advance these projects further. Children have a natural curiosity, Negroponte is at pains to point out, and discovering, making and sharing things is second nature to them. We should nurture these characteristics he warns, rather than stifling it in rigid school systems.

Photo by Steve Wheeler


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

Changing the world

It's not often you get to talk with someone who has changed the world. That's exactly what I did this week in a glittering lounge in the Carlton Ritz Hotel, when I sat down with Steve Wozniak, co-founder (with Steve Jobs) of Apple. Wozniak designed the first Apple computer, and together with Jobs, set in motion a company that continues this day to mould our use of digital technology. If you use an iPad, iPod or iPhone, if you have an Apple Mac computer or laptop of any sort, you undoubtedly have Steve Wozniak to thank. Apple, and its co-founder Wozniak have shaped our desires and crystallised our dreams with innovation after innovation. Steve Jobs may be no longer with us, but Steve Wozniak - 'Woz' - lives on, larger than life, and as effusive and buoyant as ever about the future of technology and its role in education.

This week, Woz and I were both invited speakers at the 3rd International Conference on eLearning and Distance Education in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He was already sitting in the speaker's lounge, ready to present his opening keynote, when I wandered in, unaware that he was there. There was no-one else in the room. I walked over. We shook hands. We sat down. Then we talked.

The world according to Woz is one of sustained wonder at the many ways technology can be made to do our bidding. As a young boy growing up in the 50s and 60s, he told his father that he would one day own a computer. His father laughed and told him a computer would cost more than a house to buy. Computers in the 50s and 60s were indeed expensive. They were also almost the size of houses. But Woz's dream of one day owning a computer was realised when he began work for the Hewlett Packard computer company. Within a short time he was taking computers apart to see how they worked, and had soon had drawn up the plans to construct his very own computer - the Apple 1. He met Steve Jobs, who said 'we can sell this', and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now aged 62, and with a life time of achievements behind him, Woz has a great deal to say about schools and education. He even became a school teacher for a few years after he had made his fortune and had put Apple behind him. He believes that computers and digital technology are now our prime scientific and academic tools, but balances this with the view that regardless of the impact of technology on society, we still need rich personal and social interaction for effective education to take place. Hence, he says, teachers will always be needed. He is very determined to enforce the idea that children learn best when they are interested. When you have the desire to learn, he says, no-one can take that away from you. And yet, he argues, school is the one environment that currently teaches children that taking a test determines how 'intelligent' they are, but cramming for that test it is certainly not learning. He asks, are schools sending out the wrong message to children, when we ask them to study for test after test? Children are born curious, he says, and all of us - teachers, parents, society - should keep it that way.

On computers and design, Woz is adamant - he is only interested in designing devices that are interactive. 'They need to respond when I use them', he said, 'otherwise I lose interest'. On the nature of knowledge, he told me, all of us need to gain some 'fact' based knowledge, but that this is only the starting point, as we gain skills that will enable each of us to take our place in society. The man is insightful, inspirational and iconic. Yes, it's not often you get to speak to someone who has actually changed the world.

NB: The above content is taken from my conversation with Steve Wozniak, and also excerpts from his Keynote speech in Riyadh on February 5, 2013.

Photo image courtesy of Steve Wheeler


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

The future of classrooms

This is Part 4 in my series on the future of learning and technology. What will be the future of school classrooms? It is unlikely that we will see the demise of the classroom in the next decade. Those who study the future of education often suggest that the demise of traditional classrooms is not only inevitable, but imminent. This is due to the rapid proliferation of mobile technology, the disintermediation of traditional teacher and student roles, new trends such as MOOCs and the upsurge of user generated content on social media sites -  all of which take learning away from previously familiar territory. The argument that these tools and trends are removing the need for classrooms and 'schools' in specific geographical locations is a strong one, but also has some flaws.

In a recent article, Larry Cuban attempts to gaze 10 years into the future, and makes the case that classrooms will stay very much the same during this period. Firstly, he argues, teachers tend to use new technology in much the same way they used old technology, and that as a result very little has changed in terms of pedagogy. Secondly, he suggests that technology is overhyped and is not future-proofed, especially against 'major unplanned events', although what these might be, he fails to elaborate. Anyone who is familiar with Cuban's work will think 'well he would say that, wouldn't he?', but is he right?

One of the future developments he is optimistic about, however, is the lightening of students' backpacks. Cuban believes that the digitisation of texts (books, encyclopedias and other paper based knowledge) will take hold and become an important trend. He predicts the obsolescence of the hard bound book, at least in the hands of school children. Automated assessment of learning through computer adaptive testing is another trend he predicts, where students are given grades based on their performance on multiple choice questions. Implicit within this scenario is learner analytics, where the data mining of all student scores, attendance levels, social media postings and discussion group contributions can be analysed to provide teachers with an overview of where the student is, and whether any intervention is required. Also implicit within this prediction is the need for teachers to adopt new roles, change their professional practice, and move from instructors to facilitators and moderators.  It also means that teachers would need to revisit their concepts of knowledge and learning, and begin to accept that often learning occurs without their direct input, both inside and outside the classroom. Many teachers would welcome such a shift in practice, whilst many others might feel very threatened by such a seismic shift in the profession.

Cuban is very sceptical of online courses, and presumably his sceptiscism also embraces MOOCs. He believes that online learning has repeatedly failed to deliver its promise. His argument here stems from the human need to socialise, to gather together face to face, and learn firsthand the cultural, moral and civic values we hold so important in today's society. Online course, he argues, fall very short of delivering this richness.

Cuban sees a place for technology in schools, but does not see it radically changing the face of the 'place for education', and says:

'...by 2023, uses of technologies will change some aspects of teaching and learning but schools and classrooms will be clearly recognizable to students’ parents and grandparents.'

Is he right? Will we see no radical change in schools in the next 10 years? Will it take longer for us to witness transformational changes in our education institutions, or are the changes above sufficient to revolutionise pedagogy? Are schools too conservative and resistant to change to be impacted by new technology? Is technology the only catalyst for change, or should we look elsewhere? As ever, your comments on this blog are welcome.

Photo by Paul Shreeve


The future of classrooms by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Is technology making us smarter?

This is part 2 of the series on the future of learning and technology. When discussing the future, especially the future of technology, there are some writers who almost always seem to be quoted. Near the top of the list is the futurologist Ray Kurzweil, who has much to say about our technological future, and also about the growth in human intelligence. His views are quite optimistic, especially around computers and the nature of knowledge. Kurzweil popularised the concept of 'the Singularity', but it was science fiction writer Vernor Vinge who originally coined it. In a nutshell, the Singularity describes a tipping point in technological development when computers exceed the power of total human capability. This will occur, Kurzweil argues, due to a rapid advance of technology and proliferation of human and machine intelligence. Whether we shall see the Singularity is one question. Whether it will have such as profound effect on our society and our humanity as Kurzweil and other predict, is an even bigger question. We simply don't know if computers can or will surpass human thought, or what the implications might be if they eventually do. Such questions have for years been a focus of the Strong vs Weak AI (Artificial Intelligence) debate.

In Kurzweil's view, technology and the human mind are symbiotic, reliant upon each other for their mutual development.  His vision of the future requires humanity to become increasingly intelligent, made smarter because of increased opportunities to connect, create and find knowledge across the network. James Flynn, (2012) of the University of Otogo in New Zealand reveals that over the last century, IQ scores have been steadily rising from generation to generation. Whether this occurs as a direct result of access to technology and greater opportunities for networking, is yet to be established. But, intuitively this seems to be a reasonable proposition.

There are those who argue the exact opposite, that humans are becoming less intelligent and more dependent upon technology. This perspective is championed by Nicholas Carr (2011), who provocatively argues that habituated use of search tools such as Google is 'making us stupid'. Carr's essential thesis is that we are bombarded with content on the Internet, and cope with this by reducing our depth of study whilst increasing our breadth of study. In other words, he argues, we tend to skim read and miss out on the richness of meaning we would have absorbed pre-internet. In his original publication, Andrew Keen (2007), was adamant that the Internet is undermining the authority of academics and is a threat to our culture and society. In his most recent edition, Keen turns his ire specifically onto user generated media such as blogs and YouTube (Keen, 2010). Tara Brabazon (2008) appears equally cynical about the impact the Web is having on this generation of learners, but provides a more measured response. She suggests that it is an error for universities to invest more in technology than in teacher development, and in so doing, opens a debate on the future of education in the digital age.

So the future of technology supported learning is uncertain and contested. Are we being made more intelligent by our habituated uses of technology, or are we becoming smarter because we have more opportunities to create our own content, and think more deeply about it? Does our collective increase in intelligence owe itself to better connections with experts and peers, or should we simply put the growth of knowledge down to a natural, progressive evolution of the human mind? Is technology actually a threat to good learning, creating a generation of superficial learners, or do interactive tools such as social media and search engines provide us with unprecedented access to knowledge?

Such questions are exactly what the study of the future is all about.  

References
Brabazon, T. (2007) The University of Google: Education in the post-information age. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Carr, N. (2011) The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains. London: W. W. Norton and Company.
Flynn, J. R. (2012) Are we getting smarter? Rising IQ in the 21st Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Keen, A. (2007) The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is killing our culture and assaulting our economy. London: Nicholas Brealey.
Keen, A. (2010) The Cult of the Amateur: How blogs, Myspace, YouTube and the rest of today's user generated media are killing our culture and economy. London: Nicholas Brealey.

Image source


Is technology making us smarter? by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Recycling learning

"...making good use of the things that they find, things that the everyday folk leave behind..."

Yep, that's a blast from the past for those who grew up watching the children's programme The Wombles on television. Essentially, the Wombles were furry creatures who lived on Wimbledon Common and tidied up all the litter left behind by the 'everyday folk'. Not only did they tidy up, they also recycled the objects they found, into something useful. We could do with a few Wombles down our street, I can tell you.  

How does this fit into education? I hear you asking.... well, read on. 

A useful concept to aid the understanding of current web based learning practices is Bricolage (Levi-Strauss, 1996). Art students will recognise it as the technique of creating an image from a variety of materials that just happen to be available. In architecture, bricolage can refer to the seemingly chaotic proximity of buildings from various periods and styles. For Levi-Strauss, bricolage described any spontaneous action, espcially those that are steeped in personal meaning. The principal meaning of bricolage however, evokes a 'do it yourself'ethos, where each individual creates personal meaning through seemingly haphazard actions that draw together disparate objects to form new wholes.

In the UK punk movement of the late 1970s, chains, safety pins and dog collars were all appropriated as fashion items, eventually assuming additional meaning as statements of personal identity. In the context of learning, bricolage is a useful analytical lens. It was applied by Seymour Papert (1993) to explain a particular style of problem solving. He suggests that bricoleurs reject traditional, systematic analyses of problem spaces in favour of play, risk taking and testing out.  Younger users of technology tend to rely less on formal instruction or user manuals when they encounter new tools. Instead, they launch into an exploration of the device, to see what it can do. They learn to use it by testing it out, and also observing their peers. These sentiments are echoed by Shelly Turkle (1995) who argues that those working in digital spaces, such as programmers, often work in a bricoleur style, working through a 'step-by-step growth and re-evaluation process', regularly spending time standing back from their work to reflect.

Many of the above traits are desirable, transferable skills for 21st Century working, and can be witnessed in the daily activities of learning on the Web. As students develop their ideas, they create content, often drawn together through a variety of search and research methods that can be disparate and seemingly unconnected. Learners draw on a wide range of content, not only from the web, but also from other media and non-media sources as they construct personal meaning. Their personal learning environments (PLEs) tend to be a bricolage of free tools, handheld devices and a personal network of friends, family and peers. Haphazard their learning might appear, but over a period of time, the various sources of their content crystalise together into accessible, meaningful and personalised learning.

In essence, today's digital learners are finding content, recycling and repurposing it, organising and sharing it. They are creating their own spaces, developing and using their own tools and apps, and generally 'making good use of the things they find'. In so doing, I believe that this current generation of learners are developing into one of the most innovative, literate and knowledgeable generations this planet has ever seen.

References
Levi-Strauss, C. (1996) The Savage Mind. London: Orion Publishing Group
Papert, S. (1993)  Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas. New York: Basic Books.
Turkle, S. (1995) Life on Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Touchstone.

Photo by David Radcliffe


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

Keep juggling

How many balls can you keep in the air at one time? One of the most interesting stands at the World of Learning Exhibition and Conference in Birmingham this week was the Blue Beetle Training stand, which among other rolling performances featured a 10 minute tuition on three ball juggling. Reminiscent of Simon Finch's finest Pelecon 2012 keynote moment, the presenter - Graham David - worked manfully to convince passing, reluctant delegates to stop for a while, and engaging them by showing them how easy it was to learn to keep three balls in the air continuously. It was great audience participation, and quite entertaining to watch, too. Yet there was a serious underlying message to be received, too.

Juggling is not easy, and takes a lot of practice. But in one sense we are all jugglers, because many of us regularly keep many 'balls in the air' including a full-time job, childcare and family duties, voluntary work, and so on. How many of us would like tuition in how to do that successfully? Take the job of teaching - how many things do we need to do simultaneously to be an effective teacher? What skills do we need to not only keep our heads above water in our jobs, but also to excel, to become the best we can possibly be in our chosen areas?

Blue Beetle Training is one of a number of companies popping up in the learning and skills sector that focus on developing creative and innovative new ways to learn. We certainly need more of that. Creative learning is going to be a growth area in Learning and Development, because many are tired of the old ways of training in rows. We have the technology, but that is not enough. We also need a sea change in the way learning and development are conceptualised. Learning by doing, particularly if that 'doing' is situated in work practices, is arguably one of the most effective ways of training employees effectively. Problem based leaning, simulations, learning by making (constuctionism) and experiential approaches to personal development have all been shown to be highly effective. Couple these with social learning mediated through the personal tools and devices that most employees carry around in their pockets (but many employers currently ban), and you have a very powerful, sustainable and lifelong method to be workers skilled and productive. Exactly what will your organisation be doing in the coming years to teach your employees how to juggle?

This week the World of Learning Conference and Exhibition celebrated its 20th anniversary at the NEC, Birmingham, UK.

Photo by Steve Wheeler


Keep juggling by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Blogging with Freire

Well .... not exactly. Paulo Freire - that great Brazilian educational thinker - died in 1997, just as the World Wide Web was emerging in the Western world. So Freire didn't actually live to see the power and potential of social media, or the impact blogging would have on education. But what would he have said about blogs if he had been witness to the participatory web in all its present glory? Here is my interpretation of some of his ideas, drawn from his most celebrated book 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed', and presented in six key points as they might apply to the art of educational blogging.

1) Respond to reader comments with humility. Freire wrote: "...dialogue cannot exist without humility. Dialogue, as the encounter of those addressed to the common task of learning... is broken if the parties (or one of them) lack humility. How can I dialogue if I always project ignorance onto others and never perceive my own?" (p. 71). This is not just a message for educational bloggers. It is a message for teachers everywhere. How can we stand there in a self proclaimed position of enlightenment, and view our students (or audience) as being in a state of ignorance? This is hubris of the first order. And yet that is what happens in many classrooms across the world every day, because that is often how teachers are trained. It is also acknowledged that many teachers teach in the same way they themselves were taught. In a blogging context, it is easy to be offended when an adverse comment is received on your blog. You may be tempted to respond aggressively, to 'put the other person right'. Often though, good learning occurs when we consider the views of others. Even if we don't agree with the views of other people, it is good to consider them, to evaluate their meaning and contemplate alternative perspectives. Dialogue is what blogging is really about.

2) Don't be afraid to speak out. Freire counsels: "Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral." It's clear that there is a lot of inequality in the world, and some of this exists within the world of education. Schools are not perfect, and there is no education system in the world that has it completely correct. There is no better place for speaking out against injustice, or exposing inequalities than a popular blog site. It's better than owning a newspaper. People will read what you have to say if you have something interesting to speak about. So use your blog to speak out on behalf of those who can't speak out for themselves.

3) Use blogs to circumvent regulated learning. Students who blog quickly realise that they can explore knowledge for themselves. They can become independent learners. Freire was critical of the banking approach to education, where teachers regulate learning: "The teacher's task is to organise a process which already occurs spontaneously, to 'fill' the students by making deposits of information which he or she considers constitutes true knowledge" (p. 57). When a learner starts to blog, they start to think for themselves. They have to consider an audience of more than one (teacher and essay writing) and they are required to be masters of their own journey. In another sense, blogging can subvert traditional education in another way. The dialogue that can ensue from blogging is often more valuable than the act of writing on the blog. Quadblogging and the 100 Word Challenge are just two of the school based blogging projects that are making a real difference for learners by providing them with a guaranteed audience every time they blog.

4) Read other people's blogs and make comments. The act of seeking out alternative perspectives and views in itself will sharpen the reader's thinking and cause them to question received knowledge. Freire says: "... it is indispensable to analyse the contents of newspaper editorials following any given event. 'Why do different newspapers have such different interpretations of the same fact?' This practice helps develop a sense of criticism, so that people will react to newspapers or new broadcasts not as passive objects of the 'communiques' directed at them, but rather as consciousnesses seeking to be free" (p. 103). Alongside newspapers and news broadcasts we can add blog commentaries. Blogs are places where people can express their opinions and offer their interpretations, and these are the new street corners where individuals have their conversations. Engaging with knowledge in this way will liberate the mind and help develop critical thought.

5) Use blogging to support thinking. Often, abstract thoughts remain abstract unless they are externalised in some concrete form. Traditionally, writing has been used as a means to crystallise thinking, because as Daniel Chandler says "In the act of writing, we are written." Freire writes that "In all the stages of decoding, people exteriorise their view of the world" (p 87) which implies that in order to understand our personal reality, we need to first bring our thoughts out into the open. Blogs are public facing tools that enable their owners to externalise their thinking in a way that is open for scrutiny. In the act of public writing, we expose our ideas and begin to understand our own thoughts more clearly.

6) Use blogging as reflection. Reflection is an important part of learning, and is a skill that must be developed if it is to lead to successful outcomes. Reflection is also the key to personal liberation. Friere argues that: "Attempting to liberate the oppressed without their reflective participation in the act of liberation is to treat them as objects which must be saved from a burning building" (p 47). Reflection means active participation in learning, and blogging is a very powerful tool to support this process.

Reference
Freire, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin.

Photo by Steve Wheeler


Blogging with Freire by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Learning pathways

I recently heard a story about the building of a new university campus. Unusually, the architect hadn't designed any pedestrian paths into his plan. When asked why there were no pathways between the buildings, he replied cryptically that he was waiting to see what happened. Soon, over a period of time, as students and staff walked between the buildings, they made their own tracks or 'desire lines' through the grass. Once these tracks had become established as the most natural and preferred routes, the architect ordered the builders in to pave over the tracks. 'Better they create their own pathways', he said, 'than for me build them, and then for them not be used'. Instead of imposing his own ideas onto the community, the architect had crowd sourced his design.

How often do we impose pathways upon students which do not meet their needs, or fit their expectations? How many times have we invested in technology, environments and curricula that is simply a waste of time and resources? The institutional learning platform - the VLE - is a classic case of decisions made about learning without consulting the learner. How can we reach a place in education where students find their own level and make their own pathways through learning?

Deleuze and Guattari's 1980 publication A Thousand Plateaus might offer us some clues. It was hailed by some as a masterpiece of post-modernist 'nomadic' writing. Others criticised it for its dense, pseudo-scientific prose. Whichever way you view this book however, it was notable for introducing rhizome theory as a metaphor for knowledge representation. According to Deleuze and Guattari, rhizomes are unlike any other kind of root system, having no beginning and no end. Rhizomes don't follow the rules of normal root systems, because they resist organisational structure and chronology, 'favouring a nomadic system of growth and propagation.' In plain English, the authors are attempting to describe the way ideas spread out naturally to occupy spaces like water finding its level. The rhizome is not linear, but planar they argue - and therefore can spread out in any and all directions, connecting with other systems as it goes. The same might be said about the way communities form, create their preferred ways of communication and decide their priorities.

Rhizome theory is also a useful framework for understanding self-determined learning - the heutagogy described by Hase and Kenyon. Hase and Kenyon contextualise heutagogy with reference to complexity theory, and suggest a number of characteristics including 'recognition of the emergent nature of learning' and 'the need for a living curriculum'. The self-determined pathway to learning is fast becoming familiar to learners in the digital age, and is also the antithesis to the formal, structured learning found in traditional education.

Dave Cormier - one of the foremost contributors to rhizomatic learning theory - takes this concept deeper into digital territory by equating rhizomatic learning to 'community as curriculum'. The advent of social media, mobile communications and digital media facilitate large, unbounded personal learning networks that mimic the characteristics of rhizomes. If we accept that there is a need for a living curriculum, it would be logical to also accept that a self-determined community generates and negotiates its own knowledge, thereby forming the basis of what its members learn. Rhizomatic learning is also premised on an extension of community as curriculum, where: 'knowledge can only be negotiated, and the contextual, collaborative learning experience shared by constructivist and connectivist pedagogies is a social as well as a personal knowledge-creation process with mutable goals and constantly negotiated premises'.

Students can, and do, create their own personalised learning pathways. There is also evidence that learning communities informally decide their own priorities, often observed in the emerging folksonomies that result when digital content is organised, shared and curated. These processes often occur in spite of the strictures and rules imposed upon students by the institution. Most are the result of informal learning, achieved outside and beyond the walls of the traditional education environment. Self-determined learning pathways are crucial for individual learners as well as learning communities and they are by their very nature beyond the control of universities and schools. Schools and universities cannot (and should not attempt to) harness these processes, but they can facilitate them. Just like the architect, institutions can refrain from imposing structures and pre-determined tools, wait to see what their students prefer and then provide them with the best possible conditions to support self-determined learning.

Image by justpeace


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

We learn by teaching

Although I am employed to teach, I consider it something of a disappointment if I don't learn something myself during my teaching sessions. Sure, it is my prime responsibility to ensure that my students are given the best opportunities to learn, and I take pride in creating the best possible learning environments and experiences I can offer. The real magic occurs when we are all learning together, and I would like to argue that this should be the case in any learning environment. In his 1968 book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire wrote 'Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students.' 

Some might complain that 'only the expert has a right to teach', or that 'students should not be allowed to go off and find out for themselves', but sadly, this is really missing the point. Every student brings their own unique knowledge and experiences into the classroom, and it's impossible for 'experts' to know everything. Let me give you a recent example: During an ICT session this week, as I made hard work of 'wiping the interactive whiteboard clean', my students pointed out to me that on Smartboards, all you need to do is circle the text you wish to delete with the wiper and then tap the middle of the text, and hey presto - the entire text disappears. Well, that was new to me, and I won't forget it - it's a new skill that will save me a lot of time and effort in the future. Now that's learning - and I'm very glad it was me on this occasion that learnt something new - from my students. But you see, there is more to learn about this incident than the fact that the students taught the teacher a new 'skill'. The students and I had a good laugh about me (a so called expert in ICT) not knowing how to use an IWB, but ultimately, the secret to good learning is that often you can't afford to be afraid to admit that you are ignorant of something. Pride often gets in the way of good learning, but sometimes we need to admit 'I don't know', and we also need to admit that students know things teachers don't. Often, being honest about your ignorance, and being open to new ways of doing and new ways of thinking, opens the door for new learning, unlearning and relearning. How many of us have sat through a lecture or conference presentation, and have been afraid to ask a question because it might make us look stupid? If we all want to ask that same simple question but we are all too afraid to do so, then that is stupid - because then the entire room remains ignorant.

There is an old Latin aphorism - Doscendo discimus - which means, we learn by teaching. Must we be so rigid in our mind set as to not see the powerful potential of this idea? Can we not break away from the idea that students are only there to learn and teachers must only teach? Can't we each do both, and isn't this exactly what Freire meant? I insist that all my students present their learning in seminars, and I also encourage questioning during these seminars. It's for a very good reason - having to stand up and explain something, means the students need to learn it first. They need to become familiar with the concept, theory, idea they will be talking about in front of their peer group. Even better, in recent years several of our Plymouth University Primary Education students have presented at conferences, Teachmeets and other public events, in front of people they have not previously met. This is really dropping them in at the deep end, but I think it's important they have the experience. They are understandably very nervous, but afterwards, each and every one of them will tell you the same story: They are glad they have had the chance to present in public, and they learn a lot from this rich experience. If you want them to learn, get them to teach.

Image by Sneebly


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

Learning and performance

Learning is performance. No matter what we learn, our knowledge, skills (and also our attitudes) are usually externalised in some kind of outward expression. Some are obvious: Learning a language will lead to conversation. Acquiring dexterity in art results in the production of artifacts. Learning to play an instrument ultimately results in some form of musical performance. Such performances don't have to be public, but often they are. Some are less obvious - learning complex mathematical formulae will result in applying these to mathematical problems. Learning engineering will result in the construction of engines, bridges, walls, buildings, etc. The image above, taken in Melbourne, Australia, is a performance of learning that includes several disciplines, including engineering, design, construction and mathematics. We talk about 'becoming'. Becoming a nurse, carpenter, doctor, lawyer, technician, accountant, teacher. On our journey of becoming, we engage in a great deal of performance.

Some of our earliest performances, particularly in formal learning contexts (school, college, university), are under the scrutiny of subject experts who award grades, and ultimately, some form of accreditation. This kind of performance is commonly referred to as formal assessment. Sadly, it is often the case that the measure of performance is not fit for purpose, as we have all witnessed recently in the universal failure of standardised testing, or the exam paper fiascos that continually assail our senses via the media. Some forms of assessment are ill suited because they are not designed to measure important aspects of learning, or more commonly, are too narrow to consider the entire performance. Inappropriate assessment methods can be a disaster.

'Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.' - Albert Einstein

Yet the externalisation of learning - knowledge performance - is a vitally important part of the learning process, not only for the student, but also for the entire community they live within. It is important for the student's motivation and also, if done properly, will provide the student with feedback on how to improve the performance next time. It is important for the community, because the community needs skilled and knowledgeable members, and some form of check is required to ensure that the skill or knowledge is up to date, safe to use, and is relevant for the needs of society. If we get assessment wrong, we fail the student, and ultimately we fail society.

But what of those who have already become? Do they stop becoming? The answer of course, is no - we continue to become, because we do not stop learning and we continue to perform our knowledge. For performers, there have never been more channels, stages and platforms upon which we can perform our knowledge than there are in today's media rich and internet aware society. More and more people are performing their knowledge online to a potentially worldwide audience, through blogs, through YouTube and on other popular social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr. Blogging and other user generated content practices enable us to focus our performance of knowledge and project it toward relevant peer groups. These are powerful practices because of their immediacy and accessibility; and having an audience raises your game. Some performances provoke comments from the community - a form of peer review that works as a professional assessment of thoughts and ideas, invention, ways of articulating, strength of argument, contribution to debate, illustration of points and reflective criticality. This represents the conversation as curriculum I wrote about in a recent post. But this curriculum extends beyond conversation into community. Knowledge performance is at the centre of community as curriculum.  From the sharing of knowledge comes the discourse that adds to everyone's collective knowledge within the community of practice, and extends its boundaries. It is this sharing of experience, new ideas, contention and support that advances the community of practice exponentially. The tools are here to achieve it. Performance of knowledge through social media will be one of the vital components of education and training in the coming years.


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

Who are the Wikipedians?

I doubt if there is anyone reading this blog who has not used Wikipedia in some way in the last 12 months. The free online encyclopedia has become such a part of our daily lives I sometimes wonder what we did without it. And we all have one man to thank for it (all right, two if you also count Larry Sangar. Well, OK - also one or two others...).

The final keynote speaker at Learning without Frontiers was the Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. He started with a statement that very few changes seem to be happening in the world of education. The most important changes, he argued, were happening in the world of informal learning and this was being led by technology, and particularly the web. And that is where services such as Wikipedia come in.

When people contribute to Wikipedia they are contributing to the entire storehouse of human knowledge, not just one encyclopedia, said Jimmy Wales. Wikipedia is not a text book, nor even a volume of content - therefore it should not be used as such in formal education, he warned. Rather it is a free online resource which is a growing treasure house of knowledge for everyone to use, repurpose and share. If you want to understand Wikipedia, he said, you need to consider all of the thousands of volunteers out there - the community of users, authors and editors, rather than the office staff - who have no direct official input into the content or its organisation. Wikipedia is a global phenomenon which means that it differs from culture to culture around the world. 408 million people each month edit and generate content on Wikipedia. For young people, Wikipedia is the prime source of knowledge for them. They don't reach for the encyclopedia on the shelf - they go to Wikipedia. It is such an important source of information today, that we should know who makes it - so just who are the Wikipedians? asked Wales. He showed a video to illustrate the diversity of backgrounds and cultures of those who are 'Wikipedians':



Two thirds of those creating and editing content are at least educated to graduate level and many contributors hold PhDs. They are sharing their knowledge and expertise freely. No-one writes an article alone, said Wales. They are collaborating with other people who have similar interest and knowledge around the same topic. That is both the beauty and the power of Wikipedia.


Who are the Wikipedians? by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Cold Turkey?

So I spent (almost) a two week holiday completely OFFline! I admit I suffered the usual withdrawal symptoms though and was tempted on perhaps three or four occasions to go online - the opportunities have been there. You see, I didn’t have internet access in the house I stayed in, but there were several places such as libraries, museums, etc around the region so I could have. I did the same thing last year when we went on holiday to Spain for two weeks – a holiday is a holiday, and I try to avoid anything that resembles work! I admit I do keep my mobile phone with me, but only to take pictures and keep in touch with family.

I heroically resisted the siren's call of the Internet and went cold turkey until the penultimate day of my holiday when I finally succumbed during a visit to Newcastle. I found a computer in a library at the University, logged on and my fears were justified. 268 e-mails were stacked up staring at me, and 197 of them were spam. Blimey. Shouldn’t have bothered. So I had to respond directly to 71 messages when I got home...

Appropriately, I’m reading Distraction by Mark Curtis at the moment. It’s an interesting book, dealing with the pressure we are under today to manage the growing tide of information that continually washes up on our personal shores. Perhaps his most important question in the book is ‘Do we run the risk of believing that data is everything and confusing information with knowledge?’ Curtis believes we have reached the ‘tipping point’ where humankind (at least in the industrialised nations) has no way back in an ‘always connected’ culture. There's an interview with him at this link if you want to know more. The book is not all doom and gloom though, and engages the reader with a number of scenarios in which information and communication technologies can enhance life and create new opportunities for creativity and lively community engagement. He warns though, that the boundaries between public and private spaces are being eroded by digital technologies and we are all being sucked into this vortex. Well, I guess it will be time for me to go cold turkey again in a short while … probably just around Christmas.