Archive for the ‘Open Educational Resources’ Category

Keynote presentations released as Open Educational Resources

February 9th, 2021 by Graham Attwell

Tony Bates has released a series of five 40-50 minute keynotes which an be downloaded without cost from the Commonwealth of Learning’s online institutional repository for learning resources and publications, OAsis, under a Creative Commons license. The subjects of the keynotes are:

  1. Developing quality blended learning courses
  2. Digital learning and the new economy
  3. New technologies and their potential and limitations for teaching and learning
  4. Ten lessons for online learning from the Covid-19 experience (based on research findings)
  5. Online learning in the (k-12) school sector

The intention is that these can be streamed during virtual conferences, included in education and training programs, or watched individually. As James Clay says on Twitter: “I think this is an interesting concept for future online events. However there is a difference between YouTube or Netflix and an online conference. How do you add value to an event so that it is more than just streamed video?”

I went to a couple of events last week that were trying different formats. One was a professorial inaugural lecture by Bob Harrison who, it seems insisted on prerecording his presentation so he could actively participate in the accompanying chat. The other was the OECD conference on AI and the Future of Work, where the real value was not presentations as such but great (and well prepared moderation of panels of speakers, with limited opportunities for particpant questioning.

However, coming back to Tony Bates’s video keynotes, the real value I see with these is with remixing. They are released under a Creative Commons attribution, share alike license which means they are free to remix. This allows using (in my case short) clips from the video in Open Educational Resources for a MOOC we are developing on AI for vocational teachers and trainers and part of the taccle AI project. I’m going to have a go this afternoon.

The reports of ITB for the TACCLE4 CPD projects are published on the website and on ResearchGate

November 18th, 2020 by Pekka Kamarainen

In my latest blog posts I have announced that I have completed the work on behalf of Institut Technik & Bildung (ITB) for the TACCLE4 CPD project. I have described the finalisation of the latest reports and given a group picture. In this way the journey from preparatory analyses to addressing key points in promoting digital competences of vocational teachers and trainers has become more transparent. Moreover, the revisited framework Theme Room training 2020 and theTACCLE4 CPD Showcase have been set to a context. And the glimpses to the newer work with the theme ‘Artificial Intelligence and VET’ and the progress with using the digital toolset Learning Toolset (as support for online conferences) have been added to the picture.

Now it is time to announce that all these reports have been made available on the TACCLE4 CPD website in the section

Developing Technology Enhanced Learning in VET.

In addition to this, the reports are also available on ResearchGate in the project space

TACCLE CPD and VET.

And, as has been mentioned above, they are also accessible via the above-mentioned LTB-powered resource environment

TACCLE4 CPD Showcase.

The project work with focus on the field of vocational education and training (VET) has been completed and the results have been delivered. Now it is time for follow-up activities and for reflecting on lessons learned.

More blogs to come (but from different perspective) ….

Workshop on Ai and Vocational Education as part of European Vocational Skills Week

November 9th, 2020 by Graham Attwell

geralt (CC0), Pixabay

This week is European Vocational Skills Week.

And as a partner of the European Vocational Skills Week the Taccle AI project, is organising an online workshop on “Artificial Intelligence for and in VET” on Tuesday 10 November 15:00 – 16:30 CET. Our Taccle AI project partners from five European countries will welcome you.

About the Workshop:

AI is particularly important for vocational education and training (VET) as it promises profound changes in employment and work tasks. Not only are some jobs vulnerable and new jobs likely to be created but there will be changing tasks and roles within jobs, requiring changes in initial and continuing training, for those in work as well as those seeking employment. This will require changes in existing VET content, new programmes such as the design of AI systems in different sectors, and adaptation to new ways of cooperative work with AI.

For VET teachers and trainers there are many possible uses of AI including new opportunities for adapting learning content based on student’s needs, new processes for assessment, analysing possible bottlenecks in learners’ domain understanding and improvement in guidance for learners

In our workshop we will explore these issues with short inputs and breakout sessions for discussion by participants around key issues.

Register now (here)!

The work of ITB for the TACCLE4 CPD project successfully completed

November 5th, 2020 by Pekka Kamarainen

In my latest blog post I reported of my last contributions to the ongoing EU-funded project TACCLE4 CPD. In the same context I announced the end of my career as an active researcher and my transition to retirement. However,  I then realised that I had been asked to write a short overview on the finalisation of my project work for the web page of our institute – Insitut Technik & Bildung (ITB), University of Bremen. I then thought that the best way to complete this task is to write firstly a blog post. In this way I have the chance to revisit firstly the initial idea, then the way that project work was shaped and finally results of the project. Here, it is worthwhile to note that I am not writing on behalf of the whole project but on the specific contributions that focus on the field of vocational education and training (VET).

The project idea and finding the way to work with it in the field of VET

TACCLE4 CPD project was launched as a successor of three earlier TACCLE projects that focused on promoting the digital competences of classroom teachers. The acronym TACCLE stands for “Teachers’ Aids on Creating Content for Learning Environments. The three first projects developed handbooks and online materials to support teachers who were creating contents for e-learning. The aim of the fourth project was to develop strategies and models for continuing professional development (CPD) to promote digital competences of  teachers and trainers in different educational sectors.

Whilst the other partners were focusing on general education and adult education, ITB was invited to work with the field of VET. Here the main reference was the involvement of ITB in the co-design of digital tools, multimedia training for vocational trainers and pilot testing of digital tools in the EU-funded Learning Layers project. From this point of view the background of ITB experience and collaboration with practitioners differed from the approach of other partners who focused integrating the use of digital tools to school-based learning.

The above-mentioned contrast became apparent when the founder of the project, Jenny Hughes from Pontydysgu became seriously ill and then passed away during the first year. As Angela Gerrard from Pontydysgu took over the coordination, the project team had to redefine their roles in the project and find their own ways to work in their respective fields. From this point on the work of ITB became a specific sub-project that focused on the field of VET  and built upon the work in the Learning Layers project.

The main contributions of ITB to the project

Consequently, the contributions of ITB have been special reports that link the issue of promoting digital competences to contexts of vocational and work process-oriented learning. From this perspective the reports have addressed the following themes, challenges and working perspectives:

  • The report on Policy analyses made transparent specific governance models in the field of VET (federal structures, stakeholder involvement) and the role of national local and sectoral innovation partnerships;
  • The examination of Prior and parallel innovation projects gave insights into different innovative approaches in school-based education and in vocational learning contexts;
  • The report on Open Educational Resources (OER) in the field of VET gave insights into specific cases in which OER had been used in vocational learning arrangements;
  • The research report on Strategies and Training concepts for promoting  digital competences builds upon the previos reports. It makes distinctions between school-based and work process-oriented approaches, dicusses overarching frameworks and outlines different innovation paths.
  • The framework “Theme Room Training 2020” builds upon the research report. It revisits the experiences of training with theme rooms in the Learning Layers project. It then outlines a new set of thematic blocks in the light of the research report (e.g. the innovation paths) and other contributions (e.g. the planning tool “TACCLE Routemap”).
  • The report on Civic learning and new uses of digital toolsets complements the picture with newer developments. Firstly it informs of training initiatives that focus on artificial intelligence (AI). Secondly, it informs of new ways of using the Learning Toolbox (LTB) as support for self-organised learning and for online conferences during the coroca-crisis.

The final activities and results – Multiplier Event and the TACCLE4 CPD Showcase

In the final phase ITB organised a Multiplier event in the training centre Bau-ABC Rostrup – a former partner of the Learning Layers project. The event was based on a short resume of the work of the TACCLE4 CPD project and on the experiences of Bau-ABC trainers on the use of the Learning Toolbox (LTB) as support for training. Also, the experiences with training in theme rooms and the prospect of relaunching a new round of such training was discussed. The work with and in the multiplier event has been documented in and activity report.

In this context ITB presented the TACCLE4 CPD Showcase – a digital resource environment that presents the work of the project as a collection of several LTB-stacks. In this way the showcase provides a comprehensive overview and an easy access to the digital resources that have been produced and used in the project. The showcase has also been introduced in a special report for the project.

I think this is enough of reporting of the work that has been completed in the TACCLE4 CPD project. From now on I need to move on to a phase of reflecting on lessons learned – in this project and throughout my career as researcher. That is a different exercise.

More blogs to come (but from a different perspective) …

 

 

 

Sustainable Development and an Action Oriented, Transformative Pedagogy

August 20th, 2020 by Graham Attwell

I missed this presentation at the time but today with the crisis in education due to Covid 19 it seems more relevant than ever. Dr Rajiv Jhangiani says “Education for Sustainable Development does not only integrate contents such as climate change, poverty and sustainable consumption into the curriculum. It asks for an action oriented, transformative pedagogy, which supports self-directed learning, participation, problem orientation, inter- and transdisciplinary an the linking of informal and formal learning.

Only such pedagogical approaches make possible the development of the key competences needed for promoting sustainable development.”

Marginal voices and non-dominant epistemic stances in open education

August 20th, 2020 by Graham Attwell

One way or another I have been involved in the open education debate for many years. Pontydysgu were a partner in the first projects Cover image for Open at the Marginssponsored by the European Commission to promote firstly open source software and subsequently open educational resources. And since then, some fifteen or so years ago we have published everything under a Creative Commons license. And slowly over the years the debate has shifted, over the past years looking at the meaning of open education practices.

More recently a debate has emerged over diversity and over non-dominant epistemic stances in open education. Now, many of those voices in the debate have contributed to an open book entitled Open at the Margins with the subtitle: Critical Perspectives on Open Education. The book is edited by Maha Bali, Catherine Cronin, Laura Czerniewicz, Robin DeRosa, and Rajiv Jhangiani and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

The description of the book says:

Open education is at a critical juncture. It has moved on from its northern roots and is increasingly being challenged from its own periphery. At the same time, it finds itself marginalised and under threat in an educational sector infiltrated by corporate interests. However, rather than bunkering down, becoming blinkered or even complacent, the editors of this volume believe that the voices from the periphery should be amplified. This book represents a starting point towards curating and centering marginal voices and non-dominant epistemic stances in open education, an attempt at critical pluriversalism. It is a curated collection of 38 blog posts, lectures, talks, articles, and other informal works contributed by 43 diverse authors/co-authors and published since 2013. Each of these contributions offers a perspective on open education that can be considered marginal and that challenges the dominant hegemony.

The book is free for download from the Rebus Community website. I havent read it yet but its on my list for this weekend. If it lives up to its description it is a very welcome and necessary contribution to the debate.

 

Open Covid Pledge for Research in Education

August 20th, 2020 by Graham Attwell

Pontydysgu are happy to have signed the Open Covid Pledge for Research in Education. Th pledge says”

  • We pledge to make our intellectual property openly and freely available to the world to support educators, students and decision-makers, to help educational organisations survive and thrive, and to build a fairer and more resilient education system.
  • We pledge – where possible – to openly license or dedicate to the public domain our intellectual property.

To find out more and to sign the pledge, go to the Advanced Learning Technology (ALT) web site.

European Union, AI and data strategy

July 9th, 2020 by Graham Attwell
lens, colorful, background

geralt (CC0), Pixabay

is the rapporteur for the industry committe for European Parliament’s own-initiative  on data strategy and  a standing rapporteur on the World Trade Organization e-commerce negotiations in the European Parliament’s international trade committee.

Writing in Social Europe she says:

Building a human-centric data economy and human-centric artificial intelligence starts from the user. First, we need trust. We need to demystify the data economy and AI: people tend to avoid, resist or even fear developments they do not fully understand.

Education plays a crucial role in shaping this understanding and in making digitalisation inclusive. Although better services—such as services used remotely—make life easier also outside cities, the benefits of digitalisation have so far mostly accrued to an educated fragment of citizens in urban metropoles and one of the biggest obstacles to the digital shift is lack of awareness of new possibilities and skills.

Kampula-Natri draws attention to the Finnish-developed, free online course, ‘Elements of AI’. This started as a course for students in the University of Helsinki but has extended  its reach to over 1 per cent of Finnish citizens.

Kampula-Natri points out that in the Nordic countries, the majority of participants on the ‘Elements of AI’ course are female and in the rest of the world the proportion exceeds 40 per cent—more than three times as high as the average ratio of women working in the technology sector. She says that after the course had been running in Finland for a while, the number of women applying to study computer science in the University of Helsinki increased by 80 per cent.

The future of work, Artificial Intelligence and automation: Innovation and the Dual Vocational Education and training system

March 2nd, 2020 by Graham Attwell


I am speaking at a seminar on Vocational Education and Training’s Role in Business Innovation at the Ramon Areces Foundation in Madrid tomorrow. The title of my presentation is ‘The future of work, Artificial Intelligence and automation: Innovation and the Dual Vocational Education and training system in Valencia’ which is really much too long for a title and I have much too much to say for my allotted 20 minutes.

Any way, this is what I told them I was going to talk about:
The Presentation looks at the future of work, linked to the challenges of Artificial Intelligence, Automation and the new Green Economy. It considers and discusses the various predictions on future jobs and occupations from bodies including CEDEFOP, OECD and the World Bank. It concludes that although one jobs will be v=craeted and some occupations be displaced by new technologies. the greatest impact will be in terms of the tasks performed within jobs. It further discusses future skills needs, including the need for higher level cognitive competences as well as the demand for so called lower skilled work in services and caring professions.
It considers the significance of these changes for vocational education and training, including the need for new curricula, and increased provision of lifelong learning and retraining for those affected by the changing labour market.
Artificial Intelligence may also play an important role in the organisation and delivery of vocational education and training. This includes the use of technologies such as machine learning and Natural Language processing for Learner engagement, recruitment and support, Learning Analytics and ‘nudge learning’ through a Learning Record Store, and  the creation and delivery of learning content. It provides examples such as the use of Chatbots in vocation education and training schools and colleges. It is suggested that the use of AI technologies can allow a move from summary assessment to formative assessment. The use of these technologies will reduce the administrative load for teachers and trainers and allow them to focus on coaching, particularly benefiting those at the top and lower end of the student cohort.
To benefit from this potential will requite new and enhanced continuing professional development for teachers and trainers. Finally the presentation considers what this signifies for the future of the Dual VET system in Spain, looking at findings from both European projects and research undertaken into Dual training in Valencia.
And I will report back here after the event.

Ideas for the forthcoming Multiplier Event of the TACCLE4 CPD project – bringing Learning Toolbox and OER into practice

February 17th, 2020 by Pekka Kamarainen

In my previous post I told that I will be travelling quite a while and get back to office at the end of May. But I also mentioned that we (me together with my colleagues Ludger Deitmer and Jan Naumann) are planning a Multiplier Event on using digital tools to enrich vocational learning culture. And we will be working together to develop our ideas further. Here I have put on paper our first ideas:

1. What kind of event are we planning?

We are planning a Bremen-based and German-speaking Multiplier Event of the TACCLE4 CPD project to be hosted by ITB on Friday 12th June 2020.

2. What is the title of the event? What is our key message?

“Digitale Wege in der beruflichen Bildung – Alibi-Ansätze oder Innovationen”

With this provocative title we want to stimulate critical discussion on halfway-thought reforms around digitization in the field of VET. As a contrast we want to give insights into practitioner-led innovations in vocational learning.

3. What kind of an event do we want to have and with whom?

We want to have an event for and with VET practitioners. We want to invite them to think of their own possibilities to shape new learning arrangements with digital toolsets (e.g. with Learning Toolbox) and open educational resources (e.g. with such learning designs that Jan has presented in the OER-report for TACCLE4 CPD).

As participants we want to invite teachers (from vocational schools) and trainers (from training centres) of whom we know that they

  1. have an interest in enhancing their digital competences and
  2. want to develop vocational learning with digital toolsets and OER.

In this respect we want to give them inspiring impulses and opportunities for hands-on training in terms of peer-to-peer support.

4. What contents for discussion and training have we considered?

From the perspective of TACCLE4 CPD project we discussed two main perspectives:

  • Use of Learning Toolbox as means to enhance vocational and workplace-based learning culture – in particular from the point of self-organised learning.
  • Use of Open Educational Resources (OER) as support for shaping-oriented learning and for combining different learning paths.

From the perspective of TACCLE AI and VET project we discussed some further perspectives that could be taken up:

  • The shaping of “Smart factory” competence centres in vocational schools and their contribution to the development of vocational learning culture.
  • The use of humanoid robots as “assistants” to teachers in large classes with  heterogeneous learners and diverse support needs.

5. What further ideas we want to emphasise in the event?

Promoting the readiness of participants to work with new tools:

  • Tools with which they can co-shape their own teaching/learning arrangements;
  • Tools that they can develop themselves and use in their teaching and learning.

Create an understanding for the unity of culture, structures and technology in order to achieve sustainable innovations in VET:

  • Culture – to bring into picture and spread the innovative spirit to develop learning and to engage colleagues and learners;
  • Structures – to ensure the acceptance of the new ideas and the readiness of the whole organisation to support new initiatives;
  • Technology – to use appropriate technology for working and learning tasks.

(Points from the perspective of unsuccessful practice:

  • You may have inspired teachers but if the structures do not provide any flexibility, the innovations remain isolated.
  • You may have up-to-date technologies, but if they are not linked to the learning culture, their potentials are not in full use.
  • You may have supportive structures and adequate technologies, but if teachers are not able/willing to take initiatives, the innovations do not take off.)

Provide insights into new learning concepts (enriched with digital tools and digital media) and how to work with them:

  • Micro-learning (adjusted to vocational and workplace learning with major time constraints)
  • Nuggets with max. 5 minutes digital media content to capture the concentration of learners and to stimulate further learning.

– – –

I guess this is enough for the moment. I will get back to this topic in due time.

More blogs to come …

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    Gap between rich and poor university students widest for 12 years

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    Quality Training

    From Raconteur. A recent report by global learning consultancy Kineo examined the learning intentions of 8,000 employees across 13 different industries. It found a huge gap between the quality of training offered and the needs of employees. Of those surveyed, 85 per cent said they , with only 16 per cent of employees finding the learning programmes offered by their employers effective.


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