Personal Blogs

I am going to approach the subject of research and activity in open education, from using a list detailed in an article by Martin Weller on 'Openness-Creativity Cycle in Education - A perspective'. In this it detailed that in the UK, Open Education had moved on significantly and that it is not just about accessibility any more.  I have taken three areas to review as priorities.  They are:

• Open Educational Resources
• Open Application Programme Interfaces
• Open Courses

OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

There are a large number of both Big OERs and Small OER’s. 

Big OERs are those designed by institutions specific to a part of a syllabus or course need.  They often have high production value and cost but are high quality resources that offer a core of understanding in a particular subject.  They are rarely contributed to on completion and tend to be accessed and viewed rather than adapted.

Small OERs can be designed by anyone and not just educationalists.  The content tends to be free from a specific syllabus or course requirement and have lower production costs and quality.  This tends to attract others to contribute to further develop the resource so can lead to ‘crowd learning’.

Learners find it reassuring to have both BIG OERs for the core and Small OERs for exploratory learning and to contribute in a social network.  If a suitable combination can be found then it encourages sharing of knowledge and experiences and this in turn ensures expression in the content.

The key aspect to consider for OERs is where to find them and how to distribute.  Small OERs may work well on social media and established channels such as YouTube, Facebook and other networking sites that individuals and communities already use as day to day communication.  Whereas Big OERs may work better through a ‘fit for purpose’ VLE.

It is about identifying where those interested in the subject matter meet and share information and also to identify projects and grants that have developed Big OERs.

OPEN APPLICATION PROGRAMME INTERFACES

Leading on from the Small OER’s, API’s offer a community of users to contribute and build resources or share things.  There are many examples to select from the best known example of Facebook through to other tools such as Mural.ly.  Word of warning through, there can be accessibility issues for different internet browsers and some features out there are far more restrictive than others.  But, some interfaces are very compatible and work with virtually any computer.  An example I would use here is my experience of using Mural.ly to develop anatomy and physiology revision features on the VLE.  The feedback I have had is that the content is very good and engaging and learners enjoy using it far more than the traditional reading and standard activities.  However, that only accounts for approx. 50% of the learners with many others own internet browsers not being able to open the site.  Additionally Mural.ly was meant to be compatible with iPads but still isn’t.  Many hours of development were put into the resources but at the last hurdle the access stops it achieving its full potential and supporting learners.  In fact, it impacts negatively on learning for some with frustration by the lack of access.

OPEN COURSES

Open courses offer such potential is many ways including as a feeder into progression accredited qualifications.  It is fully engaged with the life-long learning concept and encourages individuals to invest into their interests.  This potentially brings in those who have an affinity with a subject but would have previously been put off by either the traditional academic routes or the cost in accessing learning.  The addition of ‘badging’ offers further incentives and may make the user ‘catch the learning bug’.

It offers personal development, social development and acts as tester to see whether the subject is of interest to an individual.  If this feeds into additional formal courses there is a good chance that it will have a positive impact on retention and achievement figures as there has been the opportunity to see whether a learning programme  is right for them.  In other words it is mighty fine Initial Assessment for institutions to check that those accessing the course are suitable for the programme.

Industry can use Open Courses to get more people involved and interested in the subject.  This may be key for industries such as Science and Engineering where there is going to be a huge demand for knowledgeable people in the future to fill job vacancies.  By industry investing in Open Courses now they are securing their future professionals.  This may be of particular interest for certain industries that are looking to increase entry and progression of certain parts of  society that are under-represented in that field.  Open Courses can be developed specifically to that need without the constraints of standards and syllabuses.  Then on successful completion of this the individuals can be signposted into existing accredited qualifications to increase employment in the sector.

References:

Martin Weller. (2012). Openness-Creativity Cycle in Education. Available: http://jime.open.ac.uk/jime/article/view/2012-02. Last accessed 18th March 2014.

Brief - Imagine you are a member of a project board in a work context. You are preparing for next week’s meeting when the board will have to agree three pedagogies to invest in over the next two years.

1.Innovation Selected – Crowd Learning  

2. How to implement – by developing a Learner Management System or Virtual Learning Platform that will allow users to access the system.  On this system there will be a number of features available including:

• Chat-Rooms
• Forums
• Wikis
• Library of resources (inc videos and audio resources) – a small base of resources to get the ‘ball rolling’ but with encouragement for the community to build this resource bank themselves, with an overview and support of experts as and when required
• Useful Links to other sources of information from reputable sources
• Links to other external features such as Stake Exchange Network or Flip Boards
• Post Box for users to upload own resources to further build the library

3. Benefits and Opportunities

• Building a community of knowledge and experiences
• Addresses immediate problems
• Allows users to ask questions and access information at the time when they want to know it
• Meet standard expectation of quick and accessible information
• Makes staff independent learners who now how to gain information to keep up to date
• Combining expert and general community answers offers information in various forms to meet the needs of various recipients
• Could allow for future investment in badging achievements or ‘institutional endorsement’
• Peer assessment development
• Individuals are able to analyse their knowledge gaps (personal ownership)

Costs

• Need to invest in a Learner Management System (although there are some free Open Source systems such as moodle that could be reviewed for use)
• Requirement of staff time to a) initially create forum and b) maintain system and support community

Risks

• Need to support learners in being able to identify relevant and suitable information and distinguish from inaccurate data/information but still be able to learn from someone’s personal experiences that may clash with centrally published media.
• Potentially large sources of data will need to be managed into logical chucks to make access to information easy to find

 4. Justification on recommendation

This innovation allows for a breadth of knowledge and experience to be shared in a community that encourages life-long learning and continuous knowledge development. 

It values diversity and this offers a range of perspectives to demonstrate that sometimes there is not one answer to solve one problem but many potential paths.

It therefore challenges current theories to robustly measure its relevance and accuracy in a rapidly changing world.

This system is relatively low cost to set up but offers a huge scope for growth as the community itself takes ownership.  Additionally this innovation has a strong lead in to other innovations such as:

• Badges to accredit learning
• Seamless Learning
• Citizen Inquiry

In summary Crowd Learning offers a cost –effective and broad innovation that opens the door to other innovations once momentum and participation has grown.

Reference:

Sharples et al. (2013). Innovating Pedagogy 2013. Exploring new forms of teaching, learning and assessment, to guide educators and policy makers. Report 2 (2), p3-38.

Activity 13

I work for an FE/HE College and the pattern of our use really does mirror that of the research (NMC Horizon Report) summarises.  The table above summarises my experiences to date

The top four areas of development are seen to be adopted in the next year or less.  All of these I am using in my own delivery and the college have used for roughly the same amount of time.

The middle four areas of development are seen to be adopted in two to three years.  Half of which I have applied and half of which still require development.

The bottom four areas of development are seen to be adopted in four to five years.  One of which I and the college have applied to our delivery but the other three are far away from planning let alone integration.

The main barrier and issue that stops the application of these technologies for me personally is a financial one.  There simply is no budget and any investment I make in my delivery results in bills to my own personal account but this is something I wish to do to keep up to date and offer high quality teaching.  An example of this is the use of Mural.ly that requires a monthly charge once a certain number of resources have been made. 

This barrier is one of the main reasons why developments such as ‘Augmented Reality’ or ‘Telepresence’ are still a way off.  The investment to develop these resources is too high in this sector and until they become more mainstream and affordable the likelihood of use is low.

Certainly in government funded education, the technology with the greatest chance of success in use, are those that are free or easy to access.  Early adopters in the industry will then use these and this in turn will drive strategy higher in the Senior Management Team to support this use.  I feel that in this current climate educators need to ‘sell’ and ‘showcase’ to those in a position to allocate budget.  This can be done but needs to demonstrate both an improvement in quality in terms of teaching provision and cost savings that will ultimately be achieved by reducing face to face contact time. 

Additionally, drivers such as Ofsted reports are having an impact on the sectors views of technology.  A recent inspection to my college highlighted the need to reduce ‘unnecessary contact time and travel to college campus’.  The Inspectors challenged directly why students were attending the campus when the delivery could be achieved by using the cloud learning tool of moodle.

Looking at the ‘significant challenges’ of the report and as highlighted above the main issue is currently economic pressures.  Other challenges were highlighted of which the main ones that I can relate to are:

• ‘Most academics aren’t using new and compelling technology’ – this is definitely an issue in my experience.  The students want to use this technology but in many cases their proficiency in technology use is far superior of the educator.  Many also have concerns that there job security will be diminished.  As a teaching profession we need to highlight that teaching is not disappearing but evolving (I.e. Connectivism) and that we need to adapt to the changing environment and the way technology has changed how we interact within the environment.

If approached from a positive perspective technology will allow us to offer a greater learning experience and a dynamic, innovative, open landscape where we all learn from each other.  In many ways I believe that even for my own professionalism and area of ‘expertise’, I am not an expert but am a student too and that I am learning all the time in this changing world. 

In terms of the three technologies I would like to see my organisation integrate into our delivery, they are:

Collective Intelligence - as an organisation we gather a huge amount of data and information that is never utilised or analysed for the purpose of ideas and events for the future.  Through encouragment peer learning could be far greater utilised.  It doesn't require a huge budget so would be realistic to apply.

Augmented reality  -the fact it develops interactivity is very encouraging as is the potential for discovery learning 

Game based learning - I can see the huge potential of this technology through creating 'goal orientated' environments.  It could also offer huge scope for developing team building skills.  It would probably be best utilised initially for general subjects that could be of interest to all learners (such as Information, Advice and Guidance) that is additional to the subject specific course.  Role play is seen as a a highly engaging learning process and this technology would allow for this to be applied with a teaching perspective.

References:

Johnson, L. and Adams, S., (2011). Technology Outlook for UK Tertiary Education 2011-2016: An NMC Horizon Report Regional Analysis. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Connectivism

I found a good starting point to understand what is meant by Connectivism from the perspective of the learner on this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwM4ieFOotA

Additionally, after reading the article Connectivism – A Learning Theory for the Digital Age (George Siemens – 2004), I summarise the key points of this learning theory:

Drivers:

• ‘learning must be a way of being’
• In history information development was slow – not now in the technological world we now live in
• Shrinking half-life of knowledge (half of what is known today we did not know 10 years ago).  Research from ASTD (American Society of Training and Development) is doubling now every 18 months.  Due to this reduced ‘life’ of relevant and current knowledge there has to be a new way to share and inform
• Learners require information that can be applied to more than one field, (the era of the ‘job for life’ is no more and it is likely that individuals will work in numerous fields across the duration of their working life)
• Informal learning has now become an integral part of the life-long learning process
• Technology itself is changing the way we see the world and interact within it
• ‘Know-how and ‘know what’ (the traditional methods) are now being applied with ‘know-where’ and how and where to find valid and current information/knowledge.

Key Features of Connectivism

• Learners can build their own learning network with RSS feeds. 
• Information can be accessed easily and quickly with up to date news/posts directly sent to learner to inform them of updates.  
• It requires an ability of the learner to build their communication network initially and then identify how best to use these connections to share information and ideas.  It is also a need to support the learner in maintaining positive connections.
• It also requires the learner to develop  skills in being able to analyse information from a selection of sources (some of which may be less reliable than others or be based more on opinion than fact), and then summarise their own views from this breadth of information
• From the teacher perspective they require motivational skills to encourage learners to develop productive networks and show enthusiasm for new developments and information/ideas identified by the learner.  They may require to challenge unreliable sources of information
• Importance in ‘developing the capacity to learn more rather than what is currently known’ or as put in another way ‘the pipe is more important than the content within the pipe’

References:

Wendy Drexler. (2008). Networked Student. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwM4ieFOo tA. Last accessed 21st Feb 2014.

George Siemens. (2004). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. Available: http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm. Last accessed 21st Feb 2014.

Reading through and interpreting these theories again, but now with an open learning/eLearning and Innovation perspective I found a very useful task.  It immediately demonstrated the need for interaction and support through a Learning Management System.  Having a virtual platform that contains learning resources is one thing but if delivery relies heavily or entirely on eLearning then features must include interactivity and feedback.

From my perspective, working in the Work Based Learning field, our delivery is face to face, one to one support on a monthly basis (approx. 2 hours) with a dedicated Virtual Learning platform for the learner and educator to access in-between those visits.   On analysis of the theories, the one that seems to be most aligned to the WBL need, I would summarise as ‘Scaffolding – Jerome Bruner’. 

The negative aspects of  this theory are no issue for WBL as we work one to one so can fully personalise the learning experience and offer the ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ scaffolding dependant on the skill  level of the learner.  It also offers a framework that has clear assessment, aims and objectives, something which is useful when we have limited face to face learning time as this is often required to carry out the assessment element of the delivery. 

I was also able to relate Work Based Delivery to ‘Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development’.  One of the risks of our delivery is that when a learner reaches ‘competence’ as set by the awarding body that we ensure that ‘differentiation’ is applied to stretch the learner further, if their skill level allows for this.  This theory also allows for some learners reaching competence itself as the achievement and requiring a level of learning getting there.  Our use of eLearning has to ensure clear and varied pathways to allow for this variance.

This is where ‘Flip’ learning seems to be used in WBL as if a learner is already ready for assessment there would be the risk of boredom if they went through the same learning experience as everyone else.  Detailed Initial Assessment, Skill Scans and Diagnostics are useful tools to use at the start of the learning process to identify current knowledge levels against the curriculum and ensure the correct level of learning provision that avoids boredom and/or frustration.

Due to the assessment constraints to meet ‘industry selected’ objectives, it can be hard to encourage creative and innovative minds of the learners and focus too heavily on the assessment activity.  As ‘Piaget’s Development Theory’ highlights, there is a powerful need for this and I will certainly be looking to apply further this theory into the WBL provision.  eLearning offers a great avenue to do this.

References:

Dominique. (2011). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF3aTutj6a4. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF3aTutj6a4. Last accessed 13th Feb 2014.

Dominic Piperata. (2009). Piagets Development Theory. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEam9lpa6TQ. Last accessed 13th Feb 2014.

bcb704. (2012). Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BX2ynEqLL4&feature=related. Last accessed 13th Feb 2014.

Digital Study Hall.

Summary – DSH is still in action and developing with the aim of, Improving education for slum and rural schools in India by the distribution of recorded live lessons by leading grass route professionals. This is then combined with local teachers who ‘mediate’ the video lesson.

This results in improved teaching standards and offers local teachers to develop their own practice by collaborating and being actively involved in delivering standardised video lessons.

It offers flexibility in its implementation to account for various levels of access to technology such as internet access and/or use of DVD.  The project also includes the provision of the most basic technologies such as TV, DVD and batteries to allow basic level access as a minimum.

Pedagogy - "mediation-based pedagogy" refers to the need of placing a teacher (or a "mediator") in between the students and the TV. DSH www.digitalstudyhall.in

On checking their website www.digitalstudyhall.in , at last count they had developed over 2000 videos covering ‘curriculum, special education and teacher training’ subjects. 

It was also very positive to see the development of going beyond the general educational needs but also developing resources for Information, Advice and Guidance on life issues such as Sexual Abuse and Child Marriage to offer 2 examples listed on the site.  Additional and beyond the original academic project, DSH runs a ‘Gender Empowerment’ programme ‘to reach 3800 adolescent girls from underserved communities’.

It details further that it has moved into collaboration with the organisation ‘State Council of Education and Training’ (SCERT), where it is running a capacity building project. 

It emphasises its’ aim to contribute to the ‘Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education’.

DSH is designed to work as a ‘decentralized network of hubs and spokes’.  Therefore, for this model to succeed it requires a significant numbers of partners to meet local needs.  It offers a framework that is flexible enough to accommodate the diversification, both culturally and in language that a large country such as India holds.

In their own admission, the research project is still young so not yet ready to be ‘replicated or deployed as a model’ and they are in the process of a thorough review and evaluation.

DSH is part of the ‘Study Hall Foundation’ which believes in, ‘Building a self is the most important part of the education. We believe that there has to be a relationship between self and the world, a relationship of mutual respect and care’.  www.studyhallfoundation.org

There are a number of articles and forums of debate for the use of collaborative recorded and live interaction.  In 2008, Shalni Galati (University of Oxford), issued a e-journal on ‘Technology-Enhanced Learning in Developing Nations: A Review’, where other examples had been identified.  One of which was in ‘1968 Mexico -  Telesecundaria.  A form of ‘televised lessons in distant classrooms in the presence of a teacher, to extend lower secondary schooling to its rural and far-flung communities’.  This has some commonality to the DSH project.

Since 1994 this project has used satellite systems which has increased delivery costs but in 2000 Perraton still evaluated it as a ‘fruitful alternative modelling to schooling’.

In 1996, Telesecundaria was rolled out on a trial basis to: Costa Rica; El Salvador; Guetemala; Honduras and Panama. Usage figures is listed below from the Ministry of Public Education of Mexico.

 (2013). Telesecundaria.

On reflection, my only concern over this 'mediated' delivery is the motivation and enthusiasm it offers teachers in these rural settings to develop their own innovative delivery.  I intend to read further into this to see what the projects objectives beyond this first phase and if there is a 'phase 2'.  It may be that they have a way to  integrate experienced and highly skilled teachers to be involved in the hubs and spokes to support less experienced teachers.  This is referenced in the article 'Minds on Fire' (John Seeley Brown and Richard P. Adler) that covered examples of 'legitimate peripheral participation'.

Resources

Digital Study Hall. (2014). What We Do. Available: http://digitalstudyhall.in/what_we_do.php. Last accessed 5th Feb 2014.

Shalni Gulati . (2008). Technology-Enhanced Learning in Developing Nations: A Review’. Available: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/viewArticle/477/1012. Last accessed 5th Feb 2014

Study Hall Education Foundation. (2014). Awards and Achievements. Available: http://www.studyhallfoundation.org/awards_achievements.php. Last accessed 5th Feb 2014

Wikipedia. (2013). Telesecundaria. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telesecundaria. Last accessed 5th Feb 2014.