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Personalized Learning Systems and YOU PLE Conference University of Manitoba March 26, 2006 Terry Anderson, Ph.D. Canada Research Chair in Distance Education [email protected]
Personalized Learning Systems and YOU
PLE ConferenceUniversity of Manitoba
March 26, 2006
Terry Anderson, Ph.D.Canada Research Chair in Distance Education
CongratulationsYou - as a contributing
lifelong learnerAre the
Person of the Year!
This Person of the year
Wants to learn thingsContinuously moves between on and offlineIs learning to recognize and demand quality when investing in learningKnows there are many paths to learningUses a wide set of information and communications tools
“The decline of the compliant learner’. P. Goodyear 2004
How do professional educators deal with these
“persons of the year”?
“We must look at today's radical changes in technology, not just as forecasters but as actors charged with designing and bringing about a sustainable and acceptable world.”– Herbert Simon, 1916-2001
Presentation Overview
Context and the NetAffordances of the NetThe personal learning environment– Definitions– Implementation issues– Athabasca examples
Your comments or questions
Importance of this conference
Educational problems are not solved through evangelism, threats or technologies alone.Change happens when teachers, administrators and learners make it happen– Perceived benefits – Personal– Readiness - Organizational– Pressure – Inter-organizational
Chwelos; Benbasat; Dexter, 2001)
Each of us is an agent of change
Maybe the Sky Really is Falling!
The Net Creates – Great challenge and Great Opportunity
Values
We can (and must) continuously improve the quality, effectiveness, appeal, cost and time efficiency of the learning experience.Student control and freedom is integral to 21st Century life-long education and learning.Education is an academic, individual and a social experience – both on campus and online.
University of ManitobaCanada’s leading
Web 2.0 University !!Checkout your Myspace profile
The Ubiquitous Net Context
Context creates and constrains learningContext affords learning opportunitiesContext and Content are created:– through interaction, – through use and creation of artifacts
Canadian Connection to the Net
67.9% of Canadians use the Net Computer Industry Almanac (2005)
85% access from home – Canadian Internet Project (2006)
Average 13.5 hours/week76% Broadband
Affordances of the Educational Semantic Web (Anderson & Whitelaw, 2004)
Abundance of Content
High quality, Low cost Communication
Agent Assistance
Read/WriteWeb 2.0
Filtering,Mashups,Updating
AutomatedFacilitationNet as OS
ConnectedLearning
Affordance 1. Massive Amounts of Content
Any information, any format, anytime, anywhereCustomizable contentInteractive contentUser created contentOpen content resources
Wiki and Open CoursewareImagine a world in which every single person is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing. – – Terry Foote, Wikipedia
Content - conclusionCheap or freeNeed to learn to share and re-useDon’t build your value on your contentContent is necessary, but not sufficient to create a quality educational experience for the persons of the year"Centuries of specialist stress in pedagogy and in the arrangement of data now end with the instantaneous retrieval of information made possible by electricity." Marshall McLuhan 1964 p. 346
Affordance #2High Quality, Low Cost Communication
Multi synchronous– Synchronous, asynch– Text, audio and video– Stored, indexed and retrievable
MobileEmbeddedPervasiveLearner, teacher, community and publisher instigated
Each person operates a separate personal community network and switches rapidly among multiple sub-networks – WELLMAN, BOASE & CHEN 2002
Learning Happens through Interaction in
Communities of Inquiry
At homeAt workIn third places – “not work and not home”
Affordance 3Agents
Google AlertsMeeting WizardRSSAthabasca– Freudbot AIML– E-Advisor– Are you ready
for AU? Agents
These Affordances Stimulate Development of a Participatory Culture
relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorshipmembers believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another – (at the least they care what other people think
about what they have created).– Henry Jenkins, Media Education of 21. Century
2006
Creating Incentive to Sustain Contribution
Pedagogical Basis
Connectivism – “Knowledge exists in the network” (Siemens, 2005)
Community of Inquiry (Garrison & Anderson, 2003)
Integrated Virtual learning – pedagogy of nearness (Mejias, 2005) Learner construction and sharing of artifacts (Collis & Moonen, 2001)
New learning Environments John Seely Brown, 2006
Our educational discourse is largely stuck in a time warp, framed by issues and standards set decades before the widespread use of the personal computer, the Internet, and free trade agreements.”
Stewart and Kagan (2005)
Convergence between new learning and new technology
New Technology– Personal– User centred– Networked
– Ubiquitous– Durable– Affordable
New Learning– Personalised– Learner centred– Situated, Mobile– Collaborative – Ubiquitous– Lifelong– Expensive
Towards a Theory of Mobile LearningSharples, Taylor, Giasemi (2005)
Learning Networks
Imagine a world where there are tens of thousands of online learning paths, communities, experiences and objects.Imagine that they can be aggregated to demonstrate competence and accrue accreditation.How will learners find and connect to particular paths?Where will be the U. of M. be in this world?
Who does the work when learning on the Net?
Students used to dropping in and watching the teacher perform. Net learning demands and creates opportunity for engaged learnersNet instruction theory and practice must not: – Increase teacher work load
Use and re-useDon’t over teach or over moderateUse agents and sophisticated tools
– Make busy work for learnersNet learning does not emerge naturally from traditional instructive approaches and experiences –it takes work, incentives and experimentation.
We have to move learning out of an education context into one that stimulates, creates, rewards and evaluates learning anytime, anyplace, anywhere, for any reason.
Are today’s education tools helping create lifelong learners?
• John Seely Brown • New Learning Environments for the 21st Century 2006
Moving Learning from Institutionally Centered to Learner Centered
The Personal Learning Environment (PLE) Solution
Dallsgaard, 2006 http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2006/Christian_Dalsgaard.htmr
What is a PLE?
“The logic of education systems should be reversed so that the system conforms to the learner, rather than the learner to the system.” Futurelab 2006
What is a PLE ?
PLE is a concept, an idea, an ideal? A reaction to institutional Learning Management Systems?All the tools that you use to learn?Cool new name to drop at cocktail parties demonstrating how ‘with it’ you are?
What is a PLE?
A PLE is a web interface into the owners’ digital environment.– Content management integrating personal and
professional interests (both formal and informal learning),
– a profiling system for making connections– A collaborative and individual workspace– A multi formatted communications system– All connected via a series of syndicated and
distributed feeds.
"The PLE is an approach not an application." Stephen Downes
An approach that:–Values and builds upon learner input–Protects and celebrates identity–Respects academic ownership– Is Net-centric–Supports multiple levels of socializing,
administration and learning –Supports communities of inquiry across
and within disciplines, programs, institutions and individual learning contexts
Technologies used to create PLEs
Mobile computingWirelessHigh bandwidthCell phonesDigital photography, video and audio recordingInternet video, audio and conferencingLow cost hardware - $100 laptop
PLEs are not LMSLMS were designed, built for and operated by institutions of formal learning– Designed to meet teacher needs – Based on dissemination model of education– Contributions are owned by the institution– Student is forced to learn a new system at each institution– Designed for a push rather than a pull learning context– Course centric view of learning– Hard to interoperate with competitive or OS products– Designed to protect intellectual property, not make it
freely available– Very poor record of innovation
PLE- Learner Links their environment to that of education institutions
My hobbies
My calendar
My social Life
My school(s)
My files
My publicationsE-portfolios
My profile
My conversations(s)
My work
My identity
Learner Centred OLE.doc – Derek Wenmoth, March 2006
Early PLE Prototype products
Welcome to Flock, the safe, spyware free web browser that makes it easier to connect with your friends. With Flock it's a snap to upload, comment, and discover new pics. Read all the news you care about, in one place. Blog freely. Get search results as soon as you start typing in the search box, and much more.
RSS Reader on steroids
Blogs and ProfilesWith RSS
Formal education paradox?
Many PLE applications today are challenging to learn how to use, very unstable and not as administratively effective for either students or faculty as LMS substitutes.
Blogs vs Threaded DiscussionCameron & Anderson, 2006
Cognitive presence– Context beyond the course allows for enhanced verification and
application– Harder to follow threads and quickly find new contributions
Social Presence– Increased depth from chronological background– Openness may inhibit self-disclosure, humour
Teaching Presence– Poor navigation and tracking – Difficult to follow conversations– Harder to assess– Little institutional support
IndividualSpace Cooperative
Space
Profiles
Blogs
Group Ware
Wikis
Communities groups
Selective Disclosure
Self-pacedSocial learning
E- Portfolio’s
Each linked via RSS
Calendars
Typical PLE Applications
BloggingConnections
Real TimePacing
Social Presence
ContentAdmin
Asynchronous Int.
DisseminationKnowledge Polling
M2U.Athabascau.ca
Portal Products
Learning Objects
Elluminate Furl
Moodle
Technologies of AU’s MDE 663 Fall 2006
CMAP
Usefulness over 8 Educ Functions
Blogs
Moodle Dis-cussion
RSS
Cmap
Web Conf
Profiles
BookMarks
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
Usefuln...
N= 9 of 13
Advantages of PLEs
Identity Customizable and controlOwnershipSocial Presence Capacity and Speed of InnovationOpen Connectivity (API, mashups, web services)
See my blog posting at: Are PLE’s ready for prime time?http://terrya.edublogs.org/
Advantages of LMS’s
Advantages of LMS– Purposefully designed– Mature– Safe and Secure– Ease of Use– Centrally Supported
Some see PLE’s as just for informal learning
Learning is “a continuous, (largely) self-organized process of change” Sebastian Fiedler] PLEs:– provides learning systems for the vast majority of
people who are not enrolled on formal learning programmes.
– helping learners organize informal learning. – allow people to form their own (transitory) networks
for learning. Learning is a social activity and takes place in communities of interest and communities of practice. (from Graham Attwell)
Response to my blog posting Are PLE’s ready for Prime Time?Who are "we" in this case? We in the ed-biz or we human inhabitants of the earth? I may be being hyper sensitive but all too often we in the ed-biz see it as our job to operationalize things for them, the (demonic) other. Through this, Terry appears to be perpetuating the teacher/learner divide. Too many discussions are about how can we do things for you/them. Not until we realize that we are them and they are us - without abdicating responsibility for mentorship, inscription, facilitation and, indeed, teaching - can such ideas as PLEs be realized.
Seb Schmollerhttp://my-world.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/01/personal_learni.html
PLE Activities
Making connectionsSharing artifactsApplying knowledge on and offlineSharing experiences and creating new contextsTeacher’s job is to help learner’s determine and satisfy their learning needsNeed to create and support environments from which learning emerges
Institutions are moving to PLEs
From computer owners (Labs)To ISPs (email and web space)To online architecture (LMS) and portalsTo web services, open standard and access applications, accessible through many, learner owned interfaces
From PLE Reference Model Presentation by Colin Milligan/George Siemens
A PLE Roadmap
Transitioning to PLEs
Be the person you want your pupils to be – model desired behaviour (Stephen Downes).Support a culture of innovation and teaching scholarshipUse only open standard and interoperable toolsTry a new tool in every course you teach
2006 EduBlog Survey
Scott Mcleod N=160
“Time Inc. to Eliminate Nearly 300 Magazine Jobs”
(Jan 19, 2007)
"It really is a different world, and these legacy businesses are going through a wrenching transition . . . they have to run the old business while building the new one." Harold Vogel
ConclusionThe context of both formal and lifelong learning is changing rapidly, creating great opportunity and considerable risk.Taking advantage requires allowing student and teacher choice, support and opportunity to exploit affordances of Net technologies.Role of management is to create an ecology of innovation.There is no single ‘killer app” in this environment - rather an evolving set of personal and social tools, pedagogies, and resources
The Great Community
..a subtle, delicate, vivid and responsive art of communication must take possession of the physical machinery of transmission and circulation and breath life into it. When the machine age has thus perfected its machinery, it will be a means of life and not its despotic master.– John Dewey (1927) The great community
Your Comments or QuestionsMost Welcomed !
Terry Anderson
Final reference: futurelab (2006) Social software and learning
Learning in a Networked Era Focuses on:
Even in formal learning, Learner Choice to co-determine and negotiate:– Tools for learning– Content– Time and place– Pace– Means of evaluation– Ways to learn– Relationships– Openness
Rod Boothby. ,2006 http://www.innovationcreators.com
ThreadedDiscussions
Choices Appropriate learning EnvironmentsSkills and Knowledge Feedback
http://www.nestafuturelab.org/research/personalisation/report_01.htm
"First Law of Technology":
"A consistent pattern in our response to new technologies is we simultaneously overestimate the short-term impact and underestimate the long-term impact. – Roy Amara of the Institute for the Future.– “Learning a living” – The Age of Information demands
the simultaneous use of all our faculties, we discover that we are most at leisure when we are most intensely involved, very much as with the artists in all ages” McLuhan, 1994 p. 347
Net-Gen TeacherAction Research
Lisa Suben, 23. told her supervisors she was going to produce her own fifth-grade math curriculum. A year later, her students achieved the largest one-year math score jump ever seen at a KIPP school from the 16th to the 77th percentile
Jay MathewsWashington Post Staff WriterTuesday, December 19, 2006
Suben said: "My primary goal as a teacher is to help my students understand the reasoning behind math rules and procedures. – Understanding is constructed by the learner, not
passively received from the teacher.– Understanding is built by making connections
between as many strands of knowledge as possible.– Understanding is galvanized through communication.– Understanding is only valuable when you reflect on it
and question it." Jay Mathews
Terry’s Technology of the Year Award
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) society aims to distribute a laptop to every child in the world in the next 5 to 10 years
“Our display has higher resolution than 95% of the laptop displays on the market today; approximately 1/7th the power consumption; 1/3rd the price; sunlight readability; and room-light readability with the backlight off.
www.laptop.org
