RESEARCH AND ASSEMBLING OF DISTRIBUTED LEARNING
ENVIRONMENTS
Andrej AfoninKaunas University of Technology
Traditional education
• 1 teacher – many students• 1 source of information• Teacher in the middle Teacher
Student
Student
Student
Auditorium
Knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge
Results
Results
Results
Teacher
StudentStudent
StudentStudentKnowlegde
Results
Knowledge
Results
Knowledge
Results
Knowlegde
Results
Auditorium
Learning enhanced with VLE
• 1 teacher – many students• 1 source of information• Teacher in the middle
• Benefits– Reuse of Learning Material– Facilitated testing– Asynchronous communication
Teacher
Student
Student
Student
VLE
Knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge
Results
Results
Results
Teacher
StudentStudent
StudentStudentKnowlegde
Results
Knowledge
Results
Knowledge
Results
Knowlegde
Results
VLE
Current situation in TEL
Student
Teacher
Blogs
Media resources / Video blogs / Podcasts
Social Bookmarking
Collaborative development tools
VLE
Knowlegde
Results
Discover Share
Read
Write
Get
Send
Read Write
WatchCreate
Internet + RSS
Rea
d W
rite
• 1 teacher – many students
• Multiple sources of information, teacher is one of many
• Changing role of educator from being a manager to being a facilitator
• Student in the middle
SolutionPLE
Teacher
VLE
Social Bookmarking
Bookmarking
Wiki
Collaborative development tools
Blogs
Media resources / Video blogs / Podcasts
Blogs
Media
RSS
Internet + RSS
Internet / Distributed Services
A framework, meeting raised challenges, for building Personal Learning Environment (PLE).
A PLE is a concept based on Web 2.0 technology. It’s a browser based collection of tools which create an environment where learner access information from variety of sources
The main point of PLEs is that they are personal and they are learner-centric and can be whatever the learner wants them to be
(Laura Overton)
PLE elements• Production tools
– Developing own content e.g. blogs, wiki
• Collaboration and Sharing tools– Share content with others
• Communication tools– Instant messaging, video-conferencing,
email• Storage tools• Aggregation content
– RSS• Aggregating people
– Social networking• Aggregating software
– Mash-ups• Identity management
– Single sign-on• API and protocols
– Key requirements for PLE to grow
(Laura Overton)
PLE
Teacher
VLE
Social Bookmarking
Bookmarking
Wiki
Collaborative development tools
Blogs
Media resources / Video blogs / Podcasts
Blogs
Media
RSS
Internet + RSS
Internet / Distributed Services
Benefits
• Create a repository of material about particular subject matter
• Communication and collaboration• Organize material in a way is personal to you• Learn formally and informally• Learn at a time and place to suite you• Learn through out your life• Interact with colleagues and wider communities• Explore a subject in an informal manner• Reflect on your learning• Submit work for assessment and review
Drawbacks
• Number of tools and their use depends on learners computer performance
• Informational literacy
• Essential to reconcile the structured nature of formal education with informal attributes of networked learning
• Data privacy and security issues
Educational issues
• Web 2.0 services use cases and learning scenarios– trials with students
• Results– paper about iCamp distributed environment– paper about social software, past, presence and
future tendencies– paper about use of social software in learning process
Technological solutions• .NET technologies + jQuery• OAuth protocol for a single sign-on• Distributed architecture support
– Web Sockets, HTTP extension for synchronous and asynchronous communication
• Suitable for intensive data exchange• Dense applications with many independent elements• Cross-domain applications• HTTP for establishing connection, pure TCP session for data exchange
– PubSubHubbub protocol• open server-to-server publish/subscribe protocol as an extension to Atom
and RSS• turns existing Atom and RSS feeds to real-time streams
• Journal paper about distributed system design and implementation
Concerns && Discussions
• No concerns about technology– Working prototype in 6 month
• Where is science?– what to write in my thesis's
Thank you slide
Thank you for your attention!
Andrej Afonin
Kaunas University of Technology