Web x.0 and beyond

I'm amazed and delighted at the huge response to my slideshow Web 3.0: The Way Forward? which started out as a brief analysis of current thinking on how the web might be extended beyond social tools into a more smart and responsive personal environment for learning. Before long it was an invited presentation given to a small gathering of enthusiastic teachers at a Vital Meet seminar. As I write this post, just 4 days after posting it up onto Slideshare, the slide set has already received 5,500 views and has been embedded into at least 20 other blogs and websites. Web 3.0 is clearly a topic that catches the imagination of many people in education and beyond. I like Stephen Downes' comments on my use of the term Web x.0 in the diagram adapted from Nova Spivak:

"The idea of Web X is that it combines web 2.0 (social web) and web 3.0 (semantic web) to create what I have called .... the semantic social web. But it's more than just that, because it takes these and moves them off the web and into your hand. And more than just that, because it's the web of data, the geoweb, augmented media, the 3D web, and more. The eXtended web - the web, extended from the internet, into your life".

This was an acknowledgement of a trend I had tried to highlight in my slideshow - that intelligent content and tools can now be operated from your mobile phone while you are on the move. I believe we will see this trend continue, with geomashups and augmented reality applications becoming more common place, enabling learners to navigate not only content on the web, but their actual, physical environments too.

George Siemens also weighed in with a response:

"The development of the semantic web, linked data, and open data, coupled with location-awareness, recommender systems, augmented reality, data overlays, and similar developments is having a dramatic impact on how people interact with information and each other".

He also is particularly focused on how these tools can be used to improve learning.

So it's not only Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 we need to consider, but extensions beyond these into a truly integrated, fully responsive and entirely personalised learning environment that fits into the palm of your hand. This is my vision for the future, but as I continually warn - predicting the future can be hazardous. I wrote about this problem in a recent post entitled 'Seeing the future'. The U.S. Mayor who in 1880 announced that one day every town in America would have a telephone was right, but also so far wide of the mark, it's almost laughable. So when people ask me when we will see all of these tools being used for learning, I simply smile and say - "we'll see". We know the tools exist (see: The Future is the Web) we just don't know when they will become economically viable enough for institutions to begin investing in them wholesale. Perhaps they never will. Perhaps it will be down to individual learners to purchase their own devices and applications. Perhaps this will be another aspect of the 'do it yourself' personal learning environment ethos we are all talking about.

Web x.0 and beyond by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Web 3.0: The Way Forward?

Web 3.0: The way forward?

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

There were some interesting presentations at the Vital Meet seminar tonight, held at St James' School in Exeter. Chris Fuller (Follow him as @ChrisFullerisms on Twitter) spoke about Moblogging and argued that blogging while mobile fits into the ethos of a lot of young people. They enjoy living in the 'here and now' so would probably benefit from posting their observations and thoughts on the move rather than wait until later. Dan Roberts (@ChickenSaltash) reported on how his School, Saltash.Net in Cornwall is using a number of Web 2.0 tools to promote collaboration and creative approaches to learning in school. Peter Yeomans (@ethinking) from my own Faculty of Education at the University of Plymouth provoked some interesting discussion around the problems of trying to encourage undergraduate students to collaborate in online learning environments. Alistair Fitchett, an Assistant Head teacher at Tiverton High School in North Devon, gave an excellent opening talk on how his school is harnessing the power of new technologies to create excellence in learning. The team from The Welsh Connection, including St James' own Stephen Farmer (@StephenFarmer) spoke on how they were using a number of open source web tools to connect schools across the South of Wales and the West Country of England. I won't forget the pronouncement of the trio of awesome - Moodle, Elgg and Mahara. (I know that will please a number of people I know, not least @Networking_lady)!

My own presentation was entitled Web 3.0: The Way Forward? in which I attempted to paint a picture of future emerging technologies for learning. It's a very difficult task, because often we are wide of the mark when we try to predict technology trends. However, I called upon a number of my recent posts, such as e-Learning 3.0 and Anatomy of a PLE to illustrate what I think may happen in the next year or two, and how the Semantic and Pragmatic aspects of the Web, coupled with smart mobile devices may extend, enhance and transform the learning experience. I hope you find the slideshow useful and very much welcome your comments.

Related posts:

The eXtended Web and the Personal Learning Environment: Rita Kop
X Web: George Siemens
Web 3.0: The Way Forward? Stephen Downes


Web 3.0: The Way Forward? by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Physiology of a PLE

Yesterday I posted my views on what I think are the essential components of a Personal Learning Environment - the Anatomy of the PLE. Today, I want to examine some of the functionality of PLEs - the physiology if you will - what is it that learners need from their PLEs? The slide to the left represents the three main functionalities I believe are the most important functions learners need for lifelong learning in a digital age. You will note that the functionality is exclusive to the personal web tools (PWTs) I outlined in yesterday's post. However, given that the context of the PLE is much wider than the web tools a student uses, it is possible to apply creation, organisation and sharing of content to a wider range of practices including analogue content, such as newspapers and magazines, realia (visits, real experiences, encounters, conversations) and other non-digital materials. Whether these remain analogue, or are in someway captured in digital format remains the choice of each indivdual lifelong learner.

There are other functionalities of course, but I believe that the essence of the physiology of most PLEs is represented in the diagram presented here. A fourth component, communication - which includes sharing, discussion and dialogue in both synchronous and asynchronous modes, can be represented as an overarching circle within the Venn diagram.

Such key functions of the PLE (Personal Web Tools component) can be managed through a number of tools, and learners each have their individual preferences, all of which ensures that each PLE will be unique to that individual learner. Some of these tools are represented here in the second figure, but these are by no means exhaustive, and of course, many are interchangable for different tasks and purposes. Note that the e-portfolio sits across all functionalities, and is the most likely tool to be provided by the institution. There is plenty more I could say but I will leave that for another blog post. I hope that these concept maps provide a more detailed set of ideas which provide a clearer view of how and why PLEs can be created, developed, managed and used by learners.

Physiology of a PLE by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Anatomy of a PLE

Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) do exactly what they say on the can - they are personal to each individual, created by them, owned by them, used by them within their lifelong learning. Originally a counterpoint to the institutional Managed Learning Environment (iMLE or 'VLE'), PLEs are becoming a much talked about concept, and were the prime focus of the recently held PLE Conference in Cornella, Barcelona. Delegates at the conference could not agree whether PLEs should remain the sole domain of the learner, or whether in some way they could be incorporated into institutional infrastructures. Some argued strongly for sole student ownership, vehemently opposed to any institutional meddling in a personal learning environment. Others held the position that PLEs should have some insitutional provision incorporated within them. Still others thought that PLEs should be part of the institutional infrastructure, brought within the protective envelope of the university fire wall. Many located themselves in middle ground positions. My personal view is that students own and create their PLE but that the iMLE also has something to offer them, even though it is highly problematic in its current form. I am arguing that many students tend to avoid using the iMLE because they either find it difficult to use, or irrelevant to their daily learning needs. It is a clash of concepts, no bridge seems possible, and the problem appears to be intractable.

I have been working with Manish Malik (University of Portsmouth) for some time now to try to reconceptualise PLEs, so that they are locatable within both informal and formal learning contexts. At the Barcelona PLE Conference we unveiled our ideas in a position paper, which we also share here on this blog. In previous posts I have argued provocatively that institutional VLEs present a number of problems for individual learners, not least the walled garden effect, which presents a great barrier to student freedom and creativity. I have played devil's advocate, role playing at high profile events to promote debate, engaging fruitfully with many knowledgeable peers, and in the process I have had some great fun. Now it's time to change direction a little and challenge the unhelpful binary of PLE versus VLE.

Firstly, we need to understand the true nature of the PLE - its anatomy. What does a PLE look like? What are its essential components? How does it differ from institutionally provided systems? Is there any common ground, and if so, how can this be harnessed? All these questions and more are yet to be answered, but in our view, the PLE is wider than the Web tools students use to create, find, organise and share content. It is also wider than the Personal Learning Network (PLN) of people and content that each of us generates when we learn informally or in formal contexts. This is represented in the first slide above.

In this representation of the PLE, we try take a more consiliatory perspective beyond the unhelpful binary discourse of 'PLE vs VLE'. We propose a hybrid approach. Essentially, we argue that students require structure and scaffolding when they first venture into digital learning environments. No-one is a digital native, no matter how much the Prensky theory is talked up. Yet the average institutional Managed Learning Environment is by nature dull, uninspiring and difficult to navigate. Web 2.0 tools (Cloud Learning Environment) are more attractive, easier to use and free, but are unprotected and vulnerable. Further, the content sent to the application ends up becoming the 'property' of the Internet company and is difficult to delete, a target for data mining. Whilst CLEs will not fully address all of the tensions between iMLEs and PLEs, we argue that they provide a tentative bridge to provide the best of both worlds in terms of affordances and interoperability. We would be very interested to hear your views on this proposal. Tomorrow: Physiology of a PLE

Related posts

Response to Anatomy of a PLE: Mark Smithers

The Dichotomies in Personal Learning Environments: Ismael Pena-Lopez

Mapping the PLE Sphere: Ismael Pena-Lopez

The ILE and FLE in Harmony: Ryan Tracey

Anatomy of a PLE by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

PLE bargaining

The first conference on PLEs took place in the humid but tranquil Cornella area of Barcelona this week. For two days, the 'unconference' event hosted delegates from all over the world at the silubrious and very impressive Citilab Cornella. Those attending the PLE Conference found themselves quickly immersed in discussion, dialogue and debate over the nature and ethos of the personal learning environment. For me and many others who attended (both physically and virtually) it was probably the most connected event we have experienced. The Twitter stream alone went wild, and by midday on the second day there had been over 5000 messages inserted into the #PLE-BCN hashtag stream. Every session, including the breakout sessions, was streamed live over the web, and many people participated from outside the event. Many of the photos of the event are already up on Flickr at this site. A great set of photos by David Alvarez is also available here.

The unKeynote was quite a feature of this event. Day one kicked off with Alec Couros and Graham Attwell performing a double act in which they managed to engage just about every member of the audience in some way. We discussed issues such as the definition of a PLE, the tensions existing where binary representations of institutions vs individual provision of web tools is used, and the future of learning in the context of personalised pedagogies. Assessment and accreditation of learning were discussed, as was the curriculum. Ilona Buchem (on Twitter @mediendidaktik) has written a useful summary of Day 1 and Lisa Harris offers her personal reflection of the event. In the unKeynote speech by Jordi Angel and Ismael de Pena (all in Spanish with live mobile translation) on Day 2, the speakers promised chaos. What they got was chaos and also a tinge of anarchy, as the entire audience ran around and voted with their feet in a quadrant of options a the back of the room. The conclusion of this exercise? We couldn't agree. What we did agree on though, was that the PLE is 'all about me' - it's what each of us personally creates around us as a means to support our lifelong learning. A number of questions were posed such as: should the PLE remain outside the institution. The super edupunks were at loggerheads with the conservatives, and there were many, many shades in between. Some preferred to remain in the centre of the quadrant to be counted in all four camps. It was fun, dynamic, and thought provoking all at once. I think the picture above by the wonderfully effervescent Joyce Seitzinger (follow her on Twitter as @catspyjamasnz) epitomises the experience.

When I have more time I will try to capture some of the true essence of this astounding event. But right now I have to pack for a flight back to the UK, so I will blog later. Hasta la vista!

Image source

PLE bargaining by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Loss of control

I'm attending the International Network Conference (INC 2010) conference in Heidelberg today, so this is an opportune time to talk about its most famous son - Johannes Gutenberg.

When I first started teaching I thought my role was to transmit knowledge. I was caught up in the cycle of teaching-learning experiences I remembered from my own formative years. I was essentially perpetuating the kind of teaching style I had myself been exposed to. We teach as were were taught. It took me some time to realise that a) I could also learn from my students, b) that I wasn't the font of all knowledge and c) that there were other, more effective techniques available than simply lecturing. I developed a number of interactive and participatory resources where the students were given the control over the process, and I was forced to stand back and facilitate. It was uncomfortable for me to stand back and not intervene, to try to take control. But I had to do it, and in adopting this new style, I believe I became a more effective teacher.

Sitting here now, in the heartland of Germany, in the place where a literary revolution once took place, I am reflecting now on how teachers still try to maintain control in the classroom. Here are some of my thoughts on the notion of teacher control:

Once upon a time, the lead pencil was an expensive and rare tool. Not many people used it, because not many people had the skill to do so. Pencils were kept chained up in libraries where there was restricted access. The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg turned over the apple cart. What had been the preserve of the priviledged few - the nobility and clergy - was suddenly thrown open to the masses. The emergence of universal, mass produced and accessible text instigated a movement for mass literacy, and a communcation revolution ensued. The priviledged few lost control over literacy, and the world of learning had been blown wide open. Knowledge grew rapidly and as it did, so people began to learn how to question the status quo, and social movements gained momentum. The printing press was a disruptive technology - it changed forever our way of life.

Why do we still use ICT suites in schools? Do we have pencil suites? No - we used to have chained pencils before the advent of the Gutenberg press, but when everyone started to learning to read and write, chained pencils were massed produce, came down in price, and were accessible to everyone. The chained pencil was no more. People carried pencils around in their pockets. The same is now happening to computers - the personal computer is now handheld or laptop based, and they are being carried around by students wherever they go. There is a new literacy revolution going on. Students are using portable, wifi connected devices in the classroom (whether they are allowed to or not) and connecting in new ways that are alien to their teachers. Teachers are losing control of the small preserve they thought was safe. They hang on to the ICT suite because it is safe. They feel they can maintain control if all the technology is in one place, and is able to be booked for special sessions. Only thing is, ICT and computers are not special, anymore than the pencil is special. Both are merely tools that can be used to promote and support learning, and both must be freed up so that students can use them wherever and whenever they are.

The ICT suite locates computers and ICT in a setting that is restrictive and constrains creativity. It shows students that they have to go to a particular place and space to 'do computing'. It also constrains some teachers, who might spontaneously wish to bring a computer mediated activity to their session, and can't do so, because they need to 'book the ICT suite' in advance. I could go on, but I won't. I will simply say this: Teachers are losing control now just as the nobility and clergy did in Gutenberg's time. They just don't know it yet.

Image source

Loss of control by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

From HEL to Weinheim

You won't believe the view I have here from this terrace so here's a photo to capture at least a little of the beauty and serenity of this spot. It's a poor substitute for actually being here and experiencing to the birds singing and the peacefulness. I'm staying with Sigi Jakob-Kuhn and her husband Manfred, in Weinheim, just outside Heidelberg, in Germany. You can follow her on Twitter as @networking_lady, and she also has an excellent blog of schools using technology, called School Networking which you should take a look at if you work in schools too. I first met Sigi in Salzburg two years ago when we were both attending a conference there run by the Salzburg Research Foundation - we hit it off, and have been in touch ever since. So when she found out I was taking part in this week's International Network Conference (INC2010) - which for the first time is being hosted outside of Plymouth, in Heidelberg - she invited me to sat with her before the conference.

Last night I flew in from Helsinki and was driven in an open top convertible by Manfred, who I think believes he is the inspiration for Sebastien Vettel (look I'm joking, OK - he drives more like Michael Schumacher), from Frankfurt airport and arrived windswept but happy in Sigi's hillside house. We talked late into the night about all things digital and pedagogical. Sigi's school teacher friend Ulrike Montgomery was also there, and we enjoyed a very stimulating conversation over a few glasses of wine. Sigi has some great ideas about how to incorporate e-portfolios such as Mahara into the formal learning environment. One of her slideshows (presented at a recent German Moodlemoot is linked here). The common theme seems to be teacher resistance to change, and Germany seems to have its fair share in the classroom. Although Moodle is used as a centralised tool by many schools, teachers don't seem to like it, and the same applies to interactive white boards, which if used at all, tend to be teacher tools rather than student ones. It's the same wherever I go in the world. Although there are pockets of excellence where these tools are used appropriately, interactively and with the student in mind, many teachers still see them as mere extensions to the overhead projector or traditional resources set. They are not. They extend, advance and enhance the learning environment if the student is placed in the centre. Use them as presentation tools, and they lose their potency.

Today we are going to explore the town of Weinheim, where I have previously been with some of my Atlantis students (we visited a brewery here last October with staggering results). Then tonight I am off to Heidelberg to get ready for tomorrow's conference.

From HEL to Weinheim by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.