+

Personalisation through technology enhanced learning

Gráinne Conole, The Open University, UKE-Portfolio conferenceCity University, 24/06/09

Blog:www.e4innovation.com

Websites:ouldi.open.ac.uk

olnet.org

In memory of Prof. Robin Mason

+Technology-enhanced personalisationReflections on what personalisation means

in a technology-enhanced context

Snapshot of current perspectives on: technology trends, the nature of content, and the students of tomorrow

A framework for personalisation mapped against some case study examples

Pedagogical models for rethinking design

Questions on future perspectives

+A definition

Personalisation:To endow with personal or individual

qualities of characteristicsTo design or produce (something) to

meet someone’s individual requirements

+The changing context…

Three examples:E-portfolios and reflective practice

The VLE is dead!Everything is free!

+Reflective practice

+The VLE/LMS is dead!

+Education for free: CCK08 & discourse

ltc.umanitoba.ca/blogs/futurecourse/

Did we change the world? No. Not yet. But we (and I mean all course participants, not just Stephen and I) managed to explore what is possible online. People self-organized in their preferred spaces. They etched away at the hallowed plaque of “what it means to be an expert”. They learned in transparent environments, and in the process, became teachers to others. Those that observed (or lurked as is the more common term), hopefully found value in the course as well. Perhaps life circumstances, personal schedule, motivation for participating, confidence, familiarity with the online environment, or numerous other factors, impacted their ability to contribute. While we can’t “measure them” the way I’ve tried to do with blog and moodle participants, their continued subscription to The Daily and the comments encountered in F2F conferences suggest they also found some value in the course.

+From PLE to PDE…

What does your Personal Digital Environment consist of?

What does it say about you?

What do you do (types of activity)?How do you do it (what tools do you use)?Where do you do it (locations and contexts)?

+My Personal Digital Learning Environment

InformationWriting (Word)Finding (Google) Blogging (Wordpress)Presenting (Powerpoint)Recording (Audacity)

CommunicationWriting (Email)Talking (Mobile & skype)Texting (SMS & twitter)Learning (Audio conferencing)Presenting (Video conferencing)

Hardware: Laptop, iphone, ipod, portable hard disk, camera, flip video camera

Learning, research, work

Where: Dining room table, hot desking space, hotel rooms, airport lounges

Function Pre 2005 Now..

Text/Data Word, Excel Google docs

Presentation Powerpoint Slideshare, podcasts, YouTube

Finding info Google Google+, RSS feeds

Managing info Bibliographic tools, repositories, e-journals

Social bookmarking, blogs, wikis

Personal management

Microsoft exchange Shared calenders & to do lists

Communication Email, forums, chat Skype, elluminate, social networking

Visualisation Mindmaps Compendium, mind42, cohere

Shift from information to communication

Co-evolution of tools and practice

Conole, forthcoming in Lee and McLoughan

+Changing technologies

Ubiquitous & networkedContext and location awareMobile technologiesCloud computing

+Learning in the Cloud

Sclater, N. (2009)

Clouds are a large pool of easily usable and accessible virtualized resources (such as hardware, development platforms and/or services). These resources can be dynamically re-configured to adjust to a variable load (scale), allowing also for an optimum resource utilization. This pool of resources is typically exploited by a pay-per-use model in which guarantees are offered by the Infrastructure Provider by means of customized SLAs.Coming soon Google wave

+Virtual learning

+Changing content

Trend towards free content, tools & servicesRise of Open Educational Resource MovementNeed for new tools to find &useStill fundamental barriers to sharing & reuse

+Changing students Technologically immersed

Learning processes Task orientated, experiential,

cummulative

Attitudes and approaches group orientated, experiential,

able to multi-task, just in time mindset, comfortable with multiple representations

Disconnect between student & institutional approaches

Caution re: net gen claims, importance of taking account of student differences

Do seem to be age related changes taking place and these are strongly linked to social networking and the use of a range of new

Netgeneration, Digital Natives.... (Oblinger, Prensky, etc.), Ecar reports, Kennedy survey, Chris Jones, Mary Thorpe, JISC LEX projects, PI roject

+Personalised and mobile Individualised

Personal Learning Environment

Synchronised information across devices

Location and context aware

+New learning spaces

Combining the affordances of new technologies with good pedagogy

Taking account of context, location and time

SKG: Learning Spaces project, Australia

+Converging practices

Modern technologies Modern pedagogy Web 2.0 practices

Location aware technologies

Adaptation & customisation

Second life/immersive worlds

Google it!

Badges, World of warcraft

User generated content

Blogging, peer critique

Cloud computing

From individual to social

Contextualised and situated

Personalised learning

Experiential learning

Inquiry learning

Peer learning

Open Educational Resources

Reflection

Distributed cognition

+

Properties of learning spaces

Characteristics of good pedagogy

Affordances of new technologies

Intersections

PersonalisedSituativeSocialExperientialReflective

AdaptiveContextualNetworkedImmersiveCollective

FurnitureEquipmentLightLayoutNoise

+7 dimensions of Personal Learning1. Development of key skills

2. Improvement of student learner skills

3. Encourage learning through motivation

4. Learning environments for collaborative learning

5. New models of assessment

6. Technology as personal, cognitive and social tools

7. Teachers are keyJärvelä (2006)

+1. Key skills

Students taught to use conceptual and factual knowledge in purposeful activities in authentic environments

WISE project – (SecondReiff Aachen School of Architecture) Authentic real-time modeling environment in Second Life for Architecture students

Ancient Spaces – (British Columbia) students move in a virtual world, to get new insight into the subject matter (Ancient Spaces)

Focus Examples

+2. Learner skills

Improvement of student learner skills

Personal Inquiry Project – development of inquiry-based learning skills for students to enhanced their understanding of Science

Mundo des estrellas – young people in hospitals, interactive gaming, life swapping and sharing of experience

Focus Projects

+3. Motivation

Encourage learning through building motivation

Multiple delivery channels and media: Content on iTunes, podcasts and YouTube videos as alternatives to text, student generated content

Notschool – virtual home schooling for disaffected children

Focus Examples

+4.Collaboration

Designing new learning environments for collaborative learning

CSCL pedagogical patterns – Jigsaw, ArgueGraph, Concept Grid script

LeMill – teacher sharing and collaboration, social tagging of resources

Wlker’s Wikinomics – collaborative co-construction of understanding of Economics

Focus Examples

+5. Assessment

Devising new models of assessment

REAP project – distillation of good practice in assessment into a set of guiding principles

Utilization of technologies to support diagnostic, formative and summative assessment, as well as peer assessment

Focus Example

+6. Appropriation

The use of technology as a personal, cognitive and social tool

SCHOME – a rich multimedia environment, focus is gifted students, an open pedagogy approach

Pebblepad: e-Portfolio, a “Personal Learning System”

Focus Examples

+7. Support

Remembering that teachers are key

OU Learning Design Initiative – range of tools, methods and approaches to support the learning design process

Olnet – global network to support researchers and users of Open Educational Resources

Focus Example

+Pedagogies of the future

Context, shift from: Individual to social; Information to experience Generic to contextual Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 practices

Three examples: Task timeline Pedagogy profile Curriculum map

+Task timeline view

+

Block 1

Block 2

Block 3

Total

Pedagogy profile

Block 1 5 3 4 1 0 0 4

Block 2 6 3 3 3 3 2 4

Block 3 6 3 3 3 4 3 4

Total 17 9 10 7 7 5 12

Conole, 2008 in Lockyer et al.

+En rumbo OU Spanish Course

L140 En rumbo Task Profile Review

34.50

2.50 3.25

13.0014.75

0.75 0.000.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

25.00

30.00

35.00

40.00

Stu

den

t H

ou

rs

Task Type

PM

33

+

Guidance & support

Evidence & demonstration

Communication & interaction

Information & experience

Thinking & reflection

Curriculum mapping

+ Curriculum mapping

Guidance and support “Learning pathway”Course structure and timetableCourse calendar, study guide, tutorials

Information and experience “Content and activities”Could include course materials, prior experience or student generated contentReadings, DVDs, podcasts, lab or field work, placements

Communication and interaction “Dialogue”Social dimensions of the course, interaction with other students and tutorsCourse forum, email

Thinking and reflection “Meta-cognition”Internalisation and reflection on learningIn-text questions, notebook, blog, e-portfolio,

Evidence and demonstration “Assessment”Diagnostic, formative and summativeMultiple choice quizzes, TMAs, ECA

+ Value?GC

36

Guidelines for curriculum design

Comparing between courses

Deconstruction of existing learning activities

Checklist of good practice

Reflective evaluation

+Final thoughts Students increasingly digital – demands on institutions?

Students and teachers - personalised environment of tools vs. institutional tools?

What new forms of blended learning spaces are needed?

How do we support new approaches to design and delivery of courses to make more effective use of technologies and lead to an enhance student learning experience?

How do we take account of a digital divide that is ever narrower but deeper?

What new digital literacy skills will learners and teachers need ?

What new pedagogical models are needed to marry the affordances of personalisation with the best affordances of technologies?

How do we account for blurring boundaries (real/virtual, formal/informal, etc)?

+References Conole, G., De Laat, M., Dillon, T. and Darby, J. (2008),

‘Disruptive technologies’, ‘pedagogical innovation’: What’s new? Findings from an in-depth study of students’ use and perception of technology’, Computers and Education, Volume 50, Issue 2, February 2008, Pages 511-524.

Conole, G. (submitted), Personalisation through technology-enhanced learning, in J. O’Donaghue (ed), Technology Supported Environment for Personalised Learning: Methods and Case Studies, IGI Publications.

Conole, G. (forthcoming), Stepping over the edge: the implications of new technologies for education in M. Lee and C. McLouglin (forthcoming), Web 2.0-based e-learning: applying social informatics for tertiary teaching, Hersey, PA: ICI Global.

Johnson, L., Levine, A., & Smith, R. (2009), The 2009 Horizon Report. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

+References

Iiyoshi, T. and Kumar, M.S.V. (2008) (Eds), Opening up education – the collective advancement of education through open technology, open content and open knowledge, MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachuetts, available online at http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11309&mode=toc, last accessed 5/2/09.

NSF (2008), Fostering learning in the networked world: learning opportunity and challenge. A 21st Century agenda for the National Science Foundation, report of the NSF task force on cyberlearning, available online at http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf08204, last accessed 8/2/09.

Sclater, N. (2009), Elearning in the Cloud, 'International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments', IGI Publishing (forthcoming)