Pontydysgu – Bridge to Learning

I’m in Karlsruhe in Germany at a three and a half day meeting of the European Mature project. The project is ambitious and brings together many partners from different countries. It also brings tother knowledge managements pecialists and computer scientits as well as eductional technicans. I can’t say I awlays understand what is being talked about – at the moment the talk about core ontologies for interlinking a knowledge bus and semantic wiki is a little over my head.

The MATURE project is examining knowledge maturing processes and developing and testing technology based tools to support those processes. The project is based on the idea that the agility of organizations has become the critical success factor for economic competitiveness. Agility requires that companies and their employees together learn and develop their competencies efficiently in order to improve productivity of knowledge work. Failures of organisation-driven approaches to technology-enhanced learning and the success of community-driven approaches in the spirit of Web 2.0 have shown that for that agility we need to leverage the intrinsic motivation of employees to engage in collaborative learning activities, and combine it with a new form of organisational support. For that purpose, MATURE conceives individual learning processes to be interlinked (the output of a learning process is input to others) in a knowledge-maturing process in which knowledge changes in nature. This knowledge can take the form of classical content in varying degrees of maturity, but also involves tasks and processes or semantic structures. The goal of MATURE is to understand this maturing process better, based on empirical studies, and to build tools and services to reduce maturing barriers.

One of the key outcomes of the MATURE project is to develop and test a Personal Learning and Maturing Environment (PLME), embedded into the working environment, enabling and encouraging the individual to engage in maturing activities within communities (both established and newly formed) and beyond. Whilst the idea of knowledge maturing is a little difficult to work with, the idea that a Personal Learning Environment (and learning) can be embedded in evereyday work processes greatly interests me.

Thsi is a lits of what we think the PLME shoudl be able to do:

1. The PLME needs to support interchange and discourses with both formal and informal networks as well as the emergence of these in order to support sociofact maturing. These networks may form part of a wider organisational learning and knowledge maturing environment.
2. The PLME should facilitate users in supporting the learning of others as a significant form of skills and knowledge development.
3. The PLME should provide functionality to facilitate communities in developing collaboratively the tools, documents, routines, vocabulary and symbols that can carry the accumulated knowledge of the community.
4. The PLME needs to support active and dynamic knowledge development processes through the socialization, externalization, combination and internalization of knowledge
5. The PLME should support information and knowledge workers in the requirement to use different sources to obtain current and accurate information, to extracting and extrapolate key data and to interpret and manipulating that data in order to provide a service.
6. The PLME should allow for the collection of loosely coupled tools, both to provide flexibility for the different needs of different contexts and communities and also to facilitate agile development to respond to needs as a when they emerge.

At the Jisc Institutional Innovation workshop last week we distributed a hand out on Institutional support criteria projects. Steve Warburton produced the handout based on a talk by Gwen van der Velden from the University of Bath  at the NGTiP conference in February entitled “Engaging the sector: An institutional perspective of raising awareness to embedding new and emerging technologies“. It provided valuable insights into the process of institutional embedding from a managerial perspective. We used the handout in a workshop about what the Jisc calls Benefits Realisation )Valorisation in European jargon. Benefits realsiation is about the dissemination, institional emebedding and cross instiotutional transfer of projects. The questions Gwen raised are pertinent to the BR programme and provide a rubric against which to evaluate elements of BR proposals but also may be of interest for a wider audience. The key issues that Gwen raised are detailed below:

Where is the buy-in? Where are you embedding your technology/innovation/practice?

• Is it technology or practice?
• Are you planning change or replacement?
• Who initiates change?
• Embedding in what? E.g. financial systems, staff practice (takes time)
• Institutional ability to change depends on the nature of the institution and its’ ethos e.g. devolved, centralised,
• Change agents – who drives change? Are you targeting the correct stakeholders?

When does embedding work?

• Getting buy-in – sell the argument – give the tools for the need to change to be passed on
• User engagement: user and provider
• Embedding solutions, not enhancements
• Create patronage
• User-friendly presentation
• Leverage institutional reputation – what are the competitors using?

Drivers for embracing technology

• Students and incoming staff
• Strategic agendas
• Credible results
• Technology wise institutional managers
• Risky times call for risky solutions
• Depending on middle managers – are not the key change agents (they will be the implementers) – go senior – see it as staff development

Convincing your stakeholders

• What is your strapline?
• Make sure you are not solving non-existent problems – need to define the problem
• Why would I support you?
• What problem you solve for you me?
• What do managers want to hear – the management discourse – which is not the same as Web2.0 discourse

I am extremely tired today – travelling from Bremen to Ilmenau for Educamp and back to Bremen, then on to Manchester for a Jisc conference and then to the Plymouth eLearning conference and now back to Bremen was a little overambitious I think.

But I have had some great conversations on the way. A longer reflection will require a little time and peace but here are some quick thoughts. The Educamp confernce was remarkable because of the participants. The largest group were teachers and this meant the conversation changed from the wonders of educational technology to effective teaching and learning. And it was the unconferecing format and the i9nformal approach which encouraged so much participation. Also, the fact that it was free. Teachers cannot afford the high registration costs that are charged by the ‘traditional’ elearning conferences such at Alt-C and Online Educa. And so these conferences become dominated by the educational technology community (in the case of Alt-cC) or the corporate elearning market (in the case of Online Educa). This is not to say that these communities have nothing to contribute. But the participation of teachers (and students) makes for a much richer discourse.

I presented a keynote in Plymouth. Steve Wheeler said i could be as controversial as I wished. In contrasting Learning pathways to traditional approaches to schooling based on curricula, I questioned the future of educations systems. One of my concerns with this approach, however, is the danger of exclusion. Whilst the introduction of universal education through the Taylorist schooling system was designed to meet the needs of the economies following the industrial revolutions, it did provide opportunities for learning for those previously denied access through income and class background. And moving beyond that industrial model of schooling which now increasingly looks very tired does endanger that right to education. However, the argument seems more complex to me. Although many working class kids have profited from access to school, the forms of organsiation and curriculum have also excluded or alienated others. Research suggests achievement is still class based and access to higher education is still problematic for those on low incomes. Furthermore, as learning moves beyond the institution and becomes distributed in the community through the use of new technologies, it is opportunities to participate in those wider forms of learning that is critical to equity in access to learning.

I will try to address this issue in subsequent blog posts. But now it is time for a break – I am off to watch the football!

Last weekend I traveled all the way to Ilmenau, Germany. I must say that it was not the easiest city to get to (physically – I think the virtual participants have no complaints here ) , BUT it hosted the best learning event I have recently been to. It was not just the fact [...]

Tomorrow is Earthcast09. And here is the awesome trailer. Full info here.

As promised yesterday, some more thoughts on the Educamp09 conference held last weekend in Ilmenau in Germany.

The overwhelming memory is of the atmosphere and buzz around the event. much of the reason for this was the superb organisation. Just small things really – a selection of different coffee, cartons of juice available throughout the conference. Great lighting and sofas to sit on to chat. Good music -all that kind of thing.

Another thing was the tech. This was not just a conference – it was an event. Every session was streamed out live. The sessions with online presenters worked. Big screens projecting the twitter stream. Very cool.

A lot of this was because it was an unconference. Apart from the opening panel discussion and a couple of invited international speakers, all the sessions were negotiated on the Saturday morning. No abstracts, no agonising over whether papers would be accepted. And the programme was simply filled in on the spot on a computer and then projected all over the conference spaces. No fiddling around to find out what session was where (Alt-C take note). And it was run by a volunteer organisation relying on (probably too small) sponsorship for funding. No funding bodies to keep on board, no policy bodies who had to have their egos massaged. A conference for the community run by the community.

There were no fees (Alt-C, Educa On-line – take note again). One result of this is that the conference was accessible to students and to teachers. The largest grouping at Educamp were teachers. And that brings another perspective to discussions on technology. The teachers came to share their own experiences and to learn as part of their practice.

If course the confernce was aided by the growing buzz around Web 2.0 and learning in the German speaking countries. I personally suspect that this is helped by the previous relatively low level of technology adoption in education. there is less baggage in the form of legacy technologies to be overcome.

The buzzwords from the confernce were “Bildung Hacken“. What is that? It is a term coming out of the Hacking Education confernce held in New York on March 10. However, Bildung Hacken is not really a precise translation – it means more in German – anyone care to attempt a translation / explanation?

The next Educamp is planned for Graz, in November I think. I am planning to be there. But here is a thought. Why not a UK based Educamp – and if we were to hold it at the same time we could link the two conferences electronically.

EduCamp 2009 in Ilmenau was cool. Great people, wonderful atmosphere and engaging discussions.  I will be posting soon on the vent and what I saw as the major issues emerging from it. enough now to say that it was an event for EduHackers.

And of course Sounds of the Bazaar was there with a live Saturday lunchtime show. I think it was the best of the live shows we have done. Despite English being a second language for most particpants, they were queuing up to come on the programme. But don’t take my word for it. Listen yourself to the podcast below.

NB Thanks to all the production crew – Helen Keegan, Cristina Costa, Dirk Stieglitz together with myself, Graham Attwell. Thanks to to all the kind people from educamp which made this show so much fun to produce.

The music is by Cool Cavemen from their albums Raw und All Cool Hits. Youcan find more great Creative Commons music on Jamendo.com.

Are you taking part in the Educamp09?

You now can, even if you are miles away from the event’s venue. The educamp team has put together quite a few interesting virtual sessions, and you are all welcome to join and interact with us. Below please find more information about our virtual guest speakers and links to the online channels.  See you there!

Schedule for Saturday

The Edu-BarCamp: After arrival, participants will briefly present their suggestions regarding the sessions they want to host as part of the event. This will result in the final version of the event’s schedule.
Participants will then be able to offer their sessions and/or take active part in the discussions hosted during the event.

From 9am – Registrations
09.30 bis 10.30 CEST – Welcoming and negotiating the event’s schedule

10.30 bis 11.15 CEST – Session #1
–> including session with Helen Barrett (virtual participation).
11.15 bis 12.00 CEST – Session #2

12.00 bis 13.00 CEST – Lunch
with the live radio show sounds of the bazaar with Graham Attwell and Helen Keegan (LINK)

13.00 bis 13.45 CEST – Session #3
–> including session with Steve Wheeler (virtual participation)
13.45 bis 14.30 CEST – Session #4
14.30 bis 15.15 CEST – Session #5
–> including session with Stephen Downes (virtual participation)

15.15 bis 15.45 CEST – Coffee Break

15.45 bis 16.30 CEST – Session #6

To join the virtual sessions, please link here: http://educamp.mixxt.de/networks/wiki/index.educamptv

The session schedule with the associated Mogulus-Channel for Saturday you find here.

I have been thinking a lot about the commodification of education. And this job advert from the UK Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (what a mouthful!)  seems to sum it up for me – the bean counters approach to innovation.

“Using your skills to the full

The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) is the sixth largest spending department in Whitehall with a budget of more than £20bn. Britain can only succeed in a rapidly changing world if we develop the skills of our people to the fullest possible extent, carry out world class research and scholarship, and apply the knowledge and skills to create an innovative and competitive economy. As part of our team, you will have a key role to play.
You’ll be responsible for producing the Departmental Estimates and documentation, the financial contribution to the DAR, the annual Country and Regional Analysis report to the Treasury and the monthly Departmental COINS returns to the Treasury. In addition, you’ll have the added challenge of maintaining data control as we make the transition from two financial systems to a new shared service provider in early 2010.”

The coming weekend sees the third Educamp conference at Ilmenau in Germany. The Barcamp type conference will focus on Corporate Learning 2.0 and E-learning 2.0 in schools or universities including the use of e-portfolios, digital games and virtual worlds in education or the trends of mobile and micro-learning.

In line with the idea of a BarCamp, everyone is invited to propose their own topics for discussion.

Ilmenau is not the easiest place to get to! And there are many great events being held at the moment. But, if you cannot attend in person, ‘Sounds of the Bazaar’ will be broadcasting a live radio programme from the conference on Saturday 18 April at 1200 Central European Summer Time, 11.00 BST. I’m not quite sure who will be on the programme yet (after all it is a barcamp) but I am sure it is going to be a lot of fun. Helen Keegan will be cohosting the programme, Cristina Costa will be in the chatroom and Dirk Stieglitz will be testing out our fabulous new mixing deck and the two new wireless microphones!

To listen to the programme just click here and the stream will open in your MP3 player of choice. And of course we will release the podcast of the programme as soon as we can.