Flexible PLEs with Netbooks

FLEXIBLE PERSONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS, DEVELOPED WITH

NETBOOK COMPUTERS, TO ENHANCE LEARNING IN FIELDWORK

LEARNING SPACES

Brian Whalley, Derek France, Julian Park, Katharine Welsh, David Favis-Mortlock

Learning Spaces, where are we going to?

Libraries, lecture room, study spaces

VLE PLE

Some concepts of space and thought and the integrationof facts, learning and understanding (in a spatial world)

‘Learning takes place through the active behavior of the student: it is what he does that he learns, not what the teachers does.’ (Tyler, 1949 in McLuhan 1965)

Extending the personal in a 21C, information-rich, world (for as many people as possible)

Computers in Fieldwork –Lyngen Alps, North Norway, 1984

Apple II

+ HDD + Screen + generator

Some people and their concepts

Alan Kay –The Dynabook"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

Neal Stephenson –The Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer(Diamond Age)

Douglas N Adams –The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy- ‘The Book’

The Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer

The Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer

The Book?

Not just yet

Some people and their views

V. I. Vernadsky – The Noosphere, The Biosphere (Seuss)

W. Kirk – The Behavioural Environment

K. R. Popper – World Three Ideas, ‘facts’, their

recognition and organisation

J.D. Bernal (the Sage)

‘The kind of organisation we wish to aim at is one in which all relevant information should be available to each research worker and in amplitude proportional to its degree of relevance. Further, that not only should the information be available but also that it should be to a large extent put at the disposal of the research worker without his having to take any steps to get hold of it.’

1939!

Who said this and when?

Vannevar Bush, 1936-45, Memex; ‘As we may think’

Bernal thought that a modern information service should:

• send the right information• in the right form• to the right peopleand• arrange those facts, of whatever

diverse origin, or bearing on any particular topic and should be integrated for those studying that topic

DOES THIS

HAPPEN Y

ET?

For rese

arch

ers? F

or stu

dents?

Learning experiences• NOT: ‘pile ‘em high and lecture ‘em long’

– And then examine them!

Sage on the stage from this; the lecture?

Traveling scholar and student

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco (The Sage of Bologna?Or ‘The Sage of the Page’?)

Data

Information

Knowledge

Intelligence Human, judgmental

Contextual, tacitTransfer needs learning

Codifiable, explicitEasily transferable

Wisdom

The ‘Knowledge’ or DIKW Pyramid

And for learners:

‘Everyone should be able to participate and control their own learning process’

(Knowles 1987)

Does a VLE (really) allow this?

Personal Learning EnvironmentA definition:

As such, a PLE is a single user’s e-learning system that provides access to a variety of learning resources, and that may provide access to learners and teachers who use other PLEs and/or VLEs.

Mark van Harmelen 2006

(NB ‘ideas about PLEs are still forming’)

Work by Scott Wilson and Stephen Downes

Technology Enhanced Learning (Dillenbourg)

Stephen Downes

"... one node in a web of content, connected to other nodes and content creation services used by other students. It becomes, not an institutional or corporate application, but a personal learning center, where content is reused and remixed according to the student's own needs and interests. It becomes, indeed, not a single application, but a collection of interoperating applications — an environment rather than a system".

Also contributions by Graham Attwell, Scott Wilson and Mark van Harmelen

Connectivism

"theory that learning consists of making the right connections." George Siemens and Stephen Downes

The categories of human thought are never fixed in any one definite form; they are made, unmade and remade incessantly; they change with places and

times. Emile Durkheim

Trip space

Team Space

Personal space

Knowledge space

OtherPersonal

space

Educational Spaces

… lab, home, library ….

Student +Computer(desktop,

laptop,‘netbook’)

Student information environment

Rich Internet Applications

PLE Field space

In the field

Fieldwork, lab and active learning

'You know what a learning experience is?

A learning experience is one of those things that says, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.’

(Douglas N Adams 'The Salmon of Doubt', p274)

Enabling metadata - a student NING site

Some tools for the future are here:

• Search Tools - will become more sophisticated

• Information aggregators (DevonAgent, C link)

• Tools for assisting the ‘learning’ and research

• Using metadata rather than facts• E-books and readers

What we are requiring is to take the hardware and the information

handling software and build in a 21st century student-centred pedagogy

An e-communication 'model' Empowered, independent and life-long learners?By working more in groups - encouraging confidence?

Let us promote ways in which 'e-learning' (in any sense)enhances students' experiences

StudentLectures

Tutorial

Essays

LabsFieldworkReading

WWWLibrary

StudentStudent

Student Alone Tutor input

Projects

Dissertation

feedbackfeedbackAssessmentAssessment

Internal and external e-communication

Personal Knowledge Network?

• How we all interact with the information environment

• Where the information environment can be anything from books to internet to in our heads

• Developing the tools to deal with this beyond our ‘memories’ (including Popper’s World 3)

So, what can we do with a PLE?

• ‘Anything’ you want• Extend your brain• Do new things with your brain• Link your brain with others• Use your computer to link to …….

Any bit of the world - people, places, things information - you, or your students, want

Paper and Pencil

Word processor, compact, shockproof, secure access, endless battery life, compact, etc

Netbook/iPad etc

WiFi/3G/Bluetooth

AppsApps

Cloud

Maybe the (nascent) PLE is already here …..On a Mac of course!

So - how do we use them?

• PLE - the person• PLE - the desktop• PLE - the person+kit• PLE - the broadband environment

• Handing responsibility to the student

Marguerite Koole’s FRAME ModelFramework for the Rational Analysis of Mobile Education

DeviceLearnerSocial

Dillenbourg, Schneider & Synteta

1 : A virtual learning environment is a designed information space.

2 : A virtual learning environment is a social space3: The virtual space is explicitly represented4 : Students are not only active, but also actors5 : Virtual learning environments are not restricted to

distance education.6 : Virtual learning environments integrate heterogeneous

technologies and multiple pedagogical approaches7 : Most virtual environments overlap with physical

environments

The Illustrated Primer -

‘… is an extremely general and powerful system capable of more extensive self-reconfiguration than most. …a fundamental part of its job is to respond to its environment.’

The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson, 1995 p. 108.

What we are requiring is to take the hardware and the information handling software and build in a

21st century student-centred pedagogy

Devices(Computers and affordances)

‘Livescribe’ for making notes,Written and aural

Dictation and speech recognition

Out in the field

Student Field Guide – Vegetation in Mallorca

Learning(after Beetham 2002)

acquiring skills

constructing knowledge and understanding

developing values

participating

• Student-centred• Constructivism• Activity based• Experiential• Communities of

practice

Using digital tools

Using digital resources

Using digital etiquette

Using digital communications

media

Learning activity

Specific interaction of learners with otherpeople, using specific tools and resources,oriented towards specific outcomes

LearningOutcomesNew Knowledge, skillsand abilities. Evidence of This and/or artefacts of the learning process

LearningEnvironmentTools, resources, artefacts affordances of the physical and virtual environment for learning

OthersOther people involved and the specific role they play in the interactions, e.g. support,

mediate, change, guide

Identities: preferences, needs motivations. Competencies: skills knowledge, abilities

Roles; Approaches and modes of participating

Learners

An outline for a learning activity, HelenBeetham 2007

River Discharge Study

Beach and Dune Study

Lab. Analysis and Compilation

Sampling Beach

Sampling Dunes

River Velocity measurements

River cross profile measurements DownloadGPS data

GPS dataanalysis and section plotting

Calculatevelocity data

Combine data Data analysis

Several groups(working independently)

Comparison of between-groupresults and report writing

Vegetation surveys(with key and photos on netbook)

Beach-dune profile surveys(GPS + Netbook)

Field ------ Lab

Photographs Micrographs Size analysis

DownloadGPS data

Combinedata

Combinewith satellite images

+ Other reports etc

Report Writing and Submission

[ podcasts - digital reporting - vidcasts ]Pre-fieldtrip preparation

Using Ron Oliver’s schema

Marguerite Koole’s FRAME ModelFramework for the Rational Analysis of Mobile Education

DeviceLearnerSocial

Things you can do oniPad/netbooks

• Note taking (Pulsepen)

• Photos/microscopy• Video• Voice recording• Field Sketching• Data entry (etc)• Modeling• Identification• Geotagging• PRS• E-book reader

• Modeling• Identification• Exchange data• Web lookup• Social networking• Mashups• Panoramas• Layars (Enhanced • Audioboo• Access to PDFs and e-book

So, why on earth do we use VLEs?

Search and classify - DevonAgent

‘Learning spaces are manifolds for exchanging metadata’

It is not the ‘fact’ itself but the metadata associated with that fact

that are really significant.

The PLE helps mediate this connectivity

In conclusion

Personal Learning Environments

are what you

and our students

make them

Ideas and Technology are in our favour!