Cook invited talk Uni of Bristol

Using Social Media and Mobile Devices to Mediate Informal, Professional, Work-Based

Learning

John Cook Bristol Centre for Research

in Lifelong Learning and Education (BRILLE) University of the West of England (UWE)

http://www.uwe.ac.uk/research/brille/ http://people.uwe.ac.uk/Pages/person.aspx?accountname=campus\jn-cook

Invited talk: Centre for Learning, Knowing and Interactive Technologies, Graduate School of

Education, University of Bristol26th February, 12.30 to 13.45

StructureCritical overview of key issues from the literature on work-based learning, face-to-face and technology-supported

Initial typology (Cook and Pachler, 2012) of informal workplace learning in order to provide a frame for understanding social (mobile) network(ing) services in work-based learning

EC FP7 funded integrating project called Learning Layers is briefly described

Design Research: Methodological Reflections

Cook & Pachler (2012) Contains critical review of literature This paper also outlines the conceptual basis from my perspective

Based on a case study of MATURE People Tagging tool Personal learning networks (group or distributed self-regulation) to larger

clusters and networks = Scaling,

Cook, J. and Pachler, N. (2012). Online People Tagging: Social (Mobile) Network(ing) Services and Work-based Learning. British Journal of Education Technology, 43(5), 711–725. Link to paper http://tinyurl.com/8ktmuau

Critical overviewWhat is already known about this topic?

The importance of social networks and associated technologies in everyday life and commerce.

Some conceptualisations of learning through and at work exist but they tend to be based on the empirical study of professionals and graduate employees.

Critical overview What this paper adds?

A consideration of the use of social networks in learning in informal and work-based context.

An exploration of some of the affordances of social media for work-located learning.

A topology of factors in social network(ing) services and work-based learning.

An analysis of a case study of people tagging in relation to the typology of factors.

Critical overviewSocial media and mobile devices are under-researched in

work-based learning!The very notion of learning in the work place is contested. Work-based practice may be a better phrase?Similarly ‘learning in informal contexts’ may be better than

‘informal learning’Kraiger (2008) found that most ‘solutions’ in work-based

learning are targeted towards a learning model based on the ideas of direct instruction in a formal manner, e.g. transferring lectures and seminars from face-to-face interactions to computer-mediated interactions.

Critical overview Work-based and informal learning are discussed at a range of different

levels in the literature. In Cook & Pachler (2012) paper we focus on literature that is

empirically founded. One key proponent of an empirical tradition of work-based learning

research is Michael Eraut. There are, of course, other important scholars in the field, such as for

example Sawchuck (2010), Evans et al. (2009), Illeris (2007) or Livingstone (2006), to name but a few.

Given the significance and internal coherence of Eraut’s work, as well as its connectedness to other scholarship and research in the field, we use it as a basis for our conceptual thinking here.

Eraut’s work (2000, 2004, 2007, 2008) also has been derived mainly from the study of professionals and graduate employees rather than workers more widely.

Critical overviewLearning in workplace viewed as response to complex problem or task

Embedded in meaningful and authentic cultural contexts

Factors affecting learning in the workplace (Eraut, 2004)

Critical overview 

Table 1: A typology of Early Career Learning (Source: Eraut, 2008, p. 18)

Critical overview Eraut (2007, p. 406) posits that these features by-and-large play out in

the following four types of activities: Assessing clients and/or situations (sometimes briefly, sometimes

involving a long process of investigation) and continuing to monitor them;

Deciding what, if any, action to take, both immediately and over a longer period (either individually or as a leader or member of a team);

Pursuing an agreed course of action, modifying, consulting and reassessing as and when necessary;

Metacognitive monitoring of oneself, people needing attention and the general progress of the case, problem, project or situation.

Critical overview What is of particular interest for our purposes here is the fact that the

majority of learning activities through and at work seem to involve other people, e.g. through one-to-one interaction, participation in group processes, working alongside others etc.

This, for us, underlines the centrality of identifying relevant ‘others’ from and with whom to learn – and the possible role of social media and SNSs in it –, particularly given the documented problems in the transfer of knowledge between people in the workplace (see Eraut, 2008, pp. 15-18)

The art of discourse about practice then becomes one of establishing affinity with colleagues through work-related discourse and giving the appearance of being generally cooperative, without giving anything away that might increase one’s vulnerability (Eraut, 2008, p. 16).

Critical overview One of the early and often cited papers on social network(ing) sites is

that by (boyd & Ellison, 2008). In it the authors, in addition to charting the history of social network sites (SNSs) and setting out some relevant research questions, offer a definition of SNSs as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a publish

or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.

Also, they make the distinction between social networking and social network sites preferring the latter term as the former, according to them, emphasises relationship initiation. The term social network, they argue, reflects the fact that users are primarily communicating with people “who are already part of their extended social network”, i.e. they augment pre-existing social relationships and interactions.

Initial typology of informal workplace learning

Our typology of factors in Social (Mobile) Network(ing) Services and Work-based Learning are represented textually on next slide.

The derivation of the main nodes was made after going through the literature variously over several months and coming back to the simple focus presented by Eraut (2004, p. 269)

‘Factors affecting learning in the workplace’ calling them Context Factors and Learning Factors.

Initial typology of informal workplace learning

Initial typology of informal workplace learning (top 2 levels)

1. Contexts Factors

a. Work process with learning as a by-product

b. Learning activities located within work or learning processes

c. Learning processes at or near the workplace

2. Learning Factors

a. individual self-efficacy (confidence and commitment)

b. acts of self-regulation

c. cognitive load

d. personal learning networks (group or distributed self-regulation)

Table: Factors in work-based Social (Mobile) Network(ing) Services

personal learning networks (group or distributed self-regulation) (Rajagopal, et al., 2012)

i. building connections (adding new people to the network so that there are resources available when a learning need arises);

ii. maintaining connections (keeping in touch with relevant persons); and

iii. activating connections (with selected persons for the purpose of learning)

iv. aggregated trustworthiness (perceived credibility) = social validation + authority and trustee + profiles (Jessen and Jørgensen, 2012)

Key questions How can we scale up meaningful learning activities of individuals and groups so they become linked together

building confidence, commitment, performance & progress?

Amplified by SNSs and mobile technologies?Mediated by scaffolding and bridging activities?

Learning Layers A large-scale research project co-funded by the European

Commission’s 7th Framework Programme. The consortium consists of 17 institutions from 7 different countries. Total project budget over 4 years is 12 Million Euros (i.e. over 10.5

million GBP). The goal of the project is to scale up support for informal workplace

learning in regional clusters of small and medium sized enterprises. We will trial these innovations in two sectors that have been particularly

hesitant to take up learning technologies: health care in the North East of England and building and construction in North Germany.

www.cracked.com

Learning LayersThe Learning Layers project looks at how informal learning in the workplace can be supported by new technologies like mobile phone and tablet apps.

I lead a work package called 'Networked Scaffolding – Interacting with People' that is taking a Design Research approach to development.

Learning Layers One aim of Design Research (e.g. Bannan-Ritland, 2003&2009) is to identify

and model technology-mediated, social learning and behaviours in order to design tools that support and promote the practices under investigation.

For example, in Cook (2002) I proposed a Design Research approach (although I never called it that) which revolves around evolutionary prototyping. What this means in simple terms is that we need to consider repeated cycles of: empirical work, theory/model development and tool/artefact refinement.

I have extended this approach of ‘cycles for design’ to the Learning Layers project so that it now has much in common with participatory design process.

A "key characteristic of the participatory design territory is the use of physical artefacts as thinking tools throughout the participatory design process, a practice emanating from the research-led "Scandinavian" tradition" (Sanders and Chan, 2007, my bold).

Learning LayersRest of talk will be to give snapshots of the extensive

cycles for design being undertaken in Learning Layers by several work packages, including my own.

The starting point for my own work package is the initial typology (Cook and Pachler, 2012) of informal workplace learning; this is used to provide a theory/model for understanding

social mobile network(ing) services in work-based learning.

The talk will then go on to introduce on-going, overlapping activities from across the project:

Learning Layers State of the Art review of scaffolding and related concepts Initial textual example to motivate design Design ideas

Tools to inspire design, e.g. using the network section of the MoLE app from Tribal, a technical partner

Wire frames & story boards Analysis of Q&A Forums Ethnographic study and resulting user stories that describe current practices at the

workplace and personas Social Semantic Server to underpin interactions Application Partner Days, with co-design activities Integrated Model of Scaffolding Design Conference (a Month 5 milestone) which has a focus on mappings between the

multiple activities & design teams, held at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland, March 2013.

Conceptual model of face-to-face scaffolding (Pol, Volman, & Beishuizen, 2010, p. 274)

Initial textual example to motivate design

Scaffolding examples from medical domain (by John Sandars and John Cook)

A GP called Susan at the Diabetes Clinic has a PC dashboard with NHS data base icon and Layers icons (including one for a scaffolding informal learning networks). Susan has just used the NHS data base to diagnose a patient and wants to see what her trusted colleagues think. Susan enters the diagnosis through the Layers interface asking her network "was I right, what do you think?" She goes on her afternoon rounds and whilst walking to her third visit checks her mobile phone Dashboard. The Layers icon is flashing, when she clicks she has a 4 line answer to her question from her network; there is also a prompt from Layers to raise this at the next team meeting and to enter this into the notes of her patient (she accepts both). How Susan set up this informal learning network in the past could be a form of scaffolding based around ideas of ...

Design ideas

Tribal: MoLE (Mobile Learning Environment http://www.mole-project.net/research

http://htk.tlu.ee/layers/MW/images/thumb/2/22/ReachOutTo.jpg/200px-ReachOutTo.jpg

By Tribal

Ethnographic study and resulting user stories & personas that describe current practices at

the workplace

Actors

Peter (GP running the Diabetic Clinic)

Richard (Business Manager)

NHS trainer Tina (Diabetic Nurse Specialist)

Jane (GP of Diabetic Clinic)

Douglas(GP, not involved in

Diabetic Clinic)

Patient Staff from other GP practices

Situation / Trigger · New Pathway Guidelines The NHS has produced new pathway guidelines on how to manage a certain diabetic condition.· Training Invitation The Diabetic Clinic at Rowland Green Medical Centre (GP Practice) receives an invitation to attend local training on the new guidelines.

Tools / Physical Objects / Locations

Information on new guidelines

NHS, NICE Pathway website

NHS training rooms

USER STORY 1: CASCADING LEARNING

Sequence of Activities

Peter Richard NHS trainer

Jane (GP of Diabetic Clinic)

Douglas(GP, not involved in Diabetic Clinic)

Staff from other GP practices

Attend local training on new guidelines

Training Session and discussion on new guidelines

Reflection and urge to spread the information

PeterRichard

Email(to all relevant staff)

Peter

- Receives and deletes Email- Sends patient in concerning condition to Diabetic Clinic due to vague awareness of new guidelines

Tina (Diabetic Nurse Specialist)

Occasional meetings(diabetic team meeting, practice

education meeting)

Peter Richard

Delay due to time intensive day-to-day work

- Receives and saves Email- Remembers and searches the new guidelines when treating a patient with concerning symptoms

- Receives and flies over Email- Does not remember the information on new treatment and consults patient the old way

Results

· Both feel enthused by the training and fully understand the new pathway.· Peter ensures he follows the new pathway in future – it is now part of his way of working.

· Feels reasonably well informed about the guidelines. · She knows what to do, where to get more information and will follow the new pathway.

· Jane is not yet really aware that there has been a change and has not made a change to her working practice. · At some point in the future it may be picked up on and she will then rapidly adopt the new pathway.

· Douglas does not feel confident that he understands the new guidelines. · He feels he is losing knowledge and skills as a specialist as he prioritizes those ones that are more general.

Peter Richard

Email

Email folder for education material

Private communication facilities (Coffee room)

Presentation and training tools: powerpoint, video, written material

Transportation and facilites

Peter Richard

Tina

Jane

Douglas

By University Innsbruck

Application Partner Days, with co-design activities

Tribal and Aalto University go into action

Integrated Model of Scaffolding

Brainstorming!

Design Conference

A Month 5 milestone which has a focus on mappings between the multiple

activities & design teams, held at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland, March 2013Criteria for Selecting Design Ideas

Learning and ScaffoldingNetworking and Peer ProductionMeaning MakingPotential to scale and be sustained beyond the

immediate context of interaction

Design Research: Methodological Reflections

Bannan-Ritland, B. (2009). The integrative learning design framework: An illustrated example from the domain of instructional technology. In T. Plomp & N. Nieveen (Eds.), An Introduction to Educational Design Research. Enschede, Netherlands; SLO Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development.

In Year 1 we are looking at these areas

ILDF Phases Informed Exploration

Enactment-Detailed Design

Local Impact Broad Impact

Sub-phases · Needs analysis · Survey Literature · Theory

development · Audience

characterization

· Research Systems design

· Articulated prototype

· Detailed design

· Formative evaluation

· Theory systems refinement

· Implementation · Evaluation

results

· Publish results · Diffusion,

adoption & adaption

· Consequences

In Learning Layers not as linear as ILDF. We are working in parallel on these in year 1

· Needs analysis: textual examples, WP7 Application Partners generate ideas

· Survey Literature: many of the work package are developing their own perspective

· Theory development: Integrated scaffolding model

· Audience characterization: ethnographic study, co-design, new empirical work on existing online fora

We are trying to understanding the problem space and moving forward on multiple fronts.

· Articulated prototypes: wire frames, story boards, mock-up, semantic server, other design ideas

· Research Systems design: The design conference will use ‘design criteria’ to evolved distinct design teams.

·

· Diffusion, adoption & adaption: we are trying to think about this now, particularly how we will scale via networks and clusters

Thank YouQuestions