EDEN comes of age

Today saw the start of the 20th Annual EDEN (European Distance and E-learning Network) Conference, which is being held on the campus of the University College Dublin. The day dawned bright and sunny, although somewhat cool, and 425 delegates from 40 countries made their way over to the O'Reilly Hall to hear keynote speeches from Sir John Daniel (20 years of Distance Education in the Garden of EDEN: Good News and Bad News) and Dennis Pamlin (Information, Knowledge and Wisdom in the 21st Century) and a special address from the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese. Although the first two speakers were excellent, and provided thought provoking, challenging and inspirational value to the conference, it was the speech from Mary McAleese that took many by surprise. I don't know what the delegates expected but I can guess. So many previous politicians who have addressed specialised conferences tend to present in a sanitised style that is polished but devoid of any real substance. This is because their speeches are written for them by functionaries who know very little about the subject they are addressing. But Mary McAleese is different to the average politician. She actually knows her stuff, because unbeknownst to the majority of delegates, she has an impressive academic pedigree, and is an afficionado of digital technologies in learning. I knew this already of course, having witnessed a speech she gave two months ago to a group of ICT professionals in the Dublin Convention Centre. She introduced herself as a 'fading president', but if anything, she sparkled.

For at least 20 minutes, she held her audience spellbound as she recounted a history of learning technology and applauded EDEN for its massive contribution to our understanding of the digital incursions into education through the years. Technology gives education reach, she argued, urging us to drill down deeper into the future to make it a better place for people to learn. We need to open up spaces and possibilities, she said, and this was no pious, political platitude, because she honestly believes that learning should be open and accessible for all. Using technology, she argued, creates flexible learning environments which meet learner needs whatever their space or pace. She left the platform to sustained applause, and made it her business to deviate from her prepared pathway to shake hands with several of the delegates seated to the left of main stage, starting with yours truly. She is a visionary and charismatic in equal measure, and I wonder if the Irish people realise how fortunate they have been over the last few years to have her at the helm, particularly during such a trying economic climate. It was a great manner in which to celebrate EDEN's 20th year, and an excellent and highly appropriate way to kick off the annual conference. NB: Unfortunately there are no photographs available of the Presidential address, because for security reasons, we were not allowed to take pictures. However, you can watch the video on demand of the session by going to the EDEN website

EDEN comes of age by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Future directions

The first EDEN (European Distance and E-learning Network) Fellows day was a thought provoking and absorbing event. Held as a part of the celebration of EDEN's 20th anniversary, 24 Fellows, as well as members of the EDEN Executive Committee and invited guests met to discuss the future direction of technology enhanced learning in Europe and beyond in the grand surrounds of Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin. (Pictured - Fellows discussing a proposal for a position paper). EDEN Fellows are awarded the honour as "an expression of acknowledgement of professional merit by the Association, for NAP (Network of Academics and Professionals) members, who have demonstrated excellence in professional practice in the field of flexible and distance learning and provided valued support to the evolution and progress of EDEN."

Each Fellow was invited to give a 5 minute flash presentation addressing the question: 'What do you consider to be the most surprising development in e-learning over the last 5 years?' as well as what might be the direction of the organisation's future research efforts. Many of those who presented identified similar themes, including the exponential rise and popularity of social media (blogs, wikis, podcasts, social network tools), open educational resources and mobile learning. Some talked about their surprise that many institutions had failed to capitalise on these trends, and in some cases had virtually ignored their potential. Some, including me, called for the learner voice to be incorporated more into EDEN's activities, whilst others argued that we should go beyond the analysis of cognitive gain, and begin to more deeply examine 'softer issues' such as student attitudes, motivations, emotions and values. There was also a call to now put aside once and for all the inconclusive and possibly misdirected research attempting to find 'significant differences' between traditional and distance forms of learning.

Sir John Daniel (Commonwealth of Learning) provided an excellent opening keynote to those gathered on the theme of 'Open Schooling - the next frontier for distance education.' He presented a number of statistics which showed a gradually and welcome decline in the number of children aged 6-11 worldwide who are outside of school, but warned that the number may yet rise again to around 72 million by 2015. In secondary education he told us, the number is even higher, because it is at least twice as expensive to deliver as primary education. He cited Keith Lewin who is of the opinion that the cost of secondary education militates against many developing nations ever being able to implement it. The alternative, said Sir John, was to implement a worldwide policy where distance and open learning can be delivered to the unschooled. Citing his new book, Mega-Schools, Technology and Teachers, he suggested that structured teaching and high quality learning materials, delivered via distance learning methods would reach many children who are currently outside education. He warned though, that implementing any form of technology without first putting into place the 'building blocks' (teacher preparation and infrastructure to support learning) would end in disaster.

The EDEN Fellows day was merely a warm-up for the main event which begins on Monday, on the campus of the University College Dublin. You can follow the live stream from the Conference, including the keynote speeches here at this link and via the #edendublin Twitter hashtag. Keynote speakers include Sir John Daniel, Graham Attwell and Clare Dillon (Head of Microsoft Research).

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New technology and the future of learning

It has been a interesting day. I spent most of it at the Learning Skills Group Conference in Olympia, London. Although I had to leave early to catch my train, I still managed to see the keynote by Chris Bones and the session on assessment by Donald Clark, and my impression overall was that it was a very well received event. There were around 450 delegates for this free event, and Don Taylor and his team are to be congratulated on putting together such a great line up of speakers, that also included Craig Taylor, Cathy Moore, Laura Overton, Nic Laycock, Alicia Sanchez and Charles Jennings. My own session, entitled 'New Technology and the Future of Learning' attempted to gaze (tentatively) into the near future, and to ask questions such as 'what will be the new roles of trainers and developers in the next few years?' and 'what new literacies will learners need to capitalise on new technologies?' I started with a personal journey of over 35 years working in learning technology, and made the point that as each new technology is introduced, there always seems to be opposition and objections. I counselled however, that technology for technology sake is often a mistake. New tech should only be introduced if there is a good reason - for enrichment, extension or enhancement of learning, when it can't be achieved using existing methods. It's very dangerous to try to predict anything, because we are often wide of the mark. But we can trace the trends and see the strong possibilities. I therefore made several broad brushstroke predictions that the future of learning will be: open, personal; social; mobile; augmented; and visual. I spoke about some of the new and emerging technologies such as augmented reality, magic symbol technology and infographics, as well as some of the already established technologies such as gestural interfaces, social media and smart mobile devices. There was an excellent discussion around the questions posed, and I daresay discussion will continue. Below is the slide show (with some additional annotations), to prompt you to join in with the discussion if you weren't able to personally attend the event.

New Technologies and the Future of Learning

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Be nice to techies

One of the best pieces of advice I can give to teachers is: always be nice to technicians, secretaries, librarians, and other support staff. They are the ones who make schools, colleges and universities work. They are professionals and they deserve your respect. And if you mistreat them, they have the power to make your life absolute hell.

Those who know my personal history will know that in a former career, I was a classroom technician. From 1976 to 1981, I was employed in my first job as an Audio Visual Technician where my role was to support lecturing staff. I did graphic design, illustrations and photography for them. Occasionally I also worked in the print room, creating the documents that would later be published in-house. I worked in the College's video studio, usually behind a camera, sometimes editing and producing. I repaired projectors and soldered cables, wheeled video recorders and televisions in and out of lecture halls, tested microphones and public address systems, and showed movies for the Film Society. It was a fast paced and varied job, given that I was one of only 3 audio visual technicians serving a very large teacher training college. Most of the academic staff were great, and treated us well, asking our advice on how best to present their lessons to the students, what technology to use (in the 1970s, the technology of the day was the new Philips 1500 video cassette tape which held 30 minutes, the Kodak Carousel Slide Projector, 3M Overhead projectors and the Bell and Howell 16 mm film projector - computers had not yet arrived, and copying of handouts was done using a hand cranked Banda Spirit Duplicator). Most of the lecturers treated us with respect, but there were a very small number of academics who looked down upon us as though we were very inferior to them.

One particular female lecturer - let's call her Sadie Stick - was well known for her impatience, temper tantrums and general arrogance. The staff were not particularly keen on her, and neither were the students. One day, after I had set up all of the teaching equipment for the morning lectures, and double checked it was all working in each room, I was back down in the AV workshop, about to launch into the day's scheduled repairs. The phone rang. It was Sadie. She was furious. She demanded that I come upstairs immediately into her lecture room, because the Overhead Projector she had ordered was faulty. I made my way quickly up the stairway and found her lecture room.

I walked in, and there she was, in front of almost a hundred students, hands on hips, glaring at me. I think she was having a particularly bad day. She launched into a diatribe about how incompetent I was, and how I couldn't even be trusted to provide a working Overhead Projector. Dr Stick berated me for wasting her time, and that of all her students (who I must say looked distinctly embarrassed by her tirade). She said she was going to report me for negligence, and see to it that I was disciplined. She pointed to the Overhead Projector, and demonstrated that it was not working. She clicked the switch on and off, on and off, on and off, to make sure that I received the message loud and clear exactly how angry she was. And at about that point, I think Dr Sadie Stick ran out of steam.

I looked around the room theatrically. I walked over to the power socket and flicked on the switch. The light from the Overhead Projector blazed gloriously on the screen. I then calmly, and without a word, walked out of the room... to absolute silence.

Image source by Alan Levine


Be nice to techies... by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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.

Literacy, wot literacy?

I'm sat watching the evening news and I'm listening to a report about a decline in literacy, due apparently to a dwindling interest in book reading. 1 in 4 children will never read a book outside school, intones the BBC news man. Other statistics are thrown at me as I watch the news reporter build his case. 1 in 3 do not own a book and 1 in 6 children will struggle with their literacy, he says. Figures quoted are obtained from the National Literacy Trust he says. The BBC TV reporter goes on to suggest that kids today are "increasingly bombarded with new technology and new distractions" (images of children playing shoot em up computer games flash across the screen at this point), and that "the place of books, literacy and quiet reading ranks highly amongst the concerns of many parents." The BBC reporter balances his report by conceding that "kids do read, but increasingly it's not books." Well, that's helpful. I want to ask - so what do they read? But already, the channel has moved on to the sport.

Here's what I know: Increasingly, sales of books on Amazon are in electronic form, and this year, for the first time, the online store has reported that the sale of e-books has outstripped conventional book sales. But e-books are usually the preserve of adults. Few school children that I know actually read books on Kindle. Most don't own a Kindle or other e-book reader. Do children read other things then - on the Web for example, or on their games consoles? More to the point, what are kids interested in reading? Should they, as is the view of our esteemed Education Secretary Michael Gove, be tasked to read 50 books a year? What a splendid way of turning kids off reading altogether! I know that if I was forced to read a book a week when I was in school, I would very quickly have found a way of losing those books in a ditch somewhere.

I'm sceptical about the BBC news item, and the idea it is propagating that literacy is on the decline. Hasn't it always been thus? I can recall government statistics from when I was at school (oh so many years ago) saying that our country was in trouble, because of the poor standards of 'reading, writing and arithmetic.' I was messaged on Facebook yesterday by another Steve Wheeler (no relation, and certainly no friend) who going by his picture, is probably of the same generation as me, but behaving more in compliance with his shoe size than his age. Out of the blue, on my wall this stranger had written 'Your not Steve Wheeler I am.' By response I kindly pointed out to him that the correct grammatical construction should be 'You're not Steve Wheeler. I am.' He fired back a snide comment. I blocked him. No matter. The key point of this story is that every generation has its literacy problems. Is there really such a decline in literacy? Has it changed all that much from previous decades? If there is a decline, should we really be placing all the blame on 'new technology and new distractions?' There are so many questions. It's a complex issue.

The statement that new technology is distracting, and the implication that it is doing damage to literacy needs to be challenged. I would point those who are sceptical about the role of technology in education, and those who claim that it has had little impact on learning to the time just before Gutenberg introduced his movable type printing press. Literacy - reading and writing - was then the preserve of the elite, and it was zealously protected. Post Gutenberg, it became a world in which all could participate, and knowledge grew exponentially as a result.

Perhaps we should not be asking why children are reading less print books. Instead, maybe we should be asking 'what are the new literacies they will need in the society in which they will grow up and work?' Perhaps we should look more at how the emphasis on literacy is changing to digital literacies (notice the plural) ... the transliteracies and other new skills of communicating across social media and mobile platforms that are already assuming greater import as they transform our society.

No, I don't think the demise of the printed book is nigh. I believe there will be a place for print for a long time to come. And there are still many, many children who continue to read and enjoy books. But print is now having to move aside to make some space as newer methods of mass communication take a more prominent role in our world. The way we represent knowledge, the world around us, society, community, reality, is changing. So there you have it. Those are my thoughts on the topic. Do you read me?

Image source by Guldfisken


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Excuses, excuses...

A blog post from Chris Betcher (@betchaboy on Twitter) is currently doing the rounds. Entitled You don't have to like it, the post is a no-holds barred indictment of teachers who find ways to avoid the use of new technologies in the classroom. Here's an excerpt from Chris's post:

I just cannot accept excuses about technology being optional, whether it's from someone who is new to teaching or others who are close to retirement. There are children in those classrooms every day who deserve the best education we can offer them, and it is completely unfair if that education is less than it should be because someone wants to pick and choose which aspects of their job they feel are important. No child should have to put up with out of date learning experience just because their close-to-retirement teacher is "taxiing to the hangar".

One of the most important things Chris says in his post is that technology is not a new thing. I would add to this that opposition to new technology in the classroom is also not a new thing. I gave a keynote presentation in Christchurch last year in which I showed quotations from those who had opposed the introduction of slates, the pencil, the ink pen and a whole host of other 'new technologies'. In each case, the arguments were superficially about the perceived adverse effects of the technology - 'the kids won't be able to write properly', 'what if they break the slate - it's expensive to replace', and 'The costs of these new writing implements could have been spent more wisely elsewhere.' Sound familiar? The same excuses and opposition is still being trotted out today by those who are opposed to the use of mobile phones in classrooms. 'Txting is dumbing down literacy', or 'the expense of buying and upgrading computers cannot be justified.'

I'm with Chris on this one. Teachers who avoid the use of technology in classrooms because they feel uncomfortable or out of their depth should probably reconsider their careers. It's not about comfort zones - it's about children's education. No excuses. If we deprive children of the best possible conditions for learning, we betray their future.

Image source


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