Personal Learning Environments, Web 2.0 and the Future of Higher

Education

Marc Boots-EbenfieldCenter for Teaching Innovation

Meier Hall 115

OrThe Death of Higher Education

(again) Marc Boots-EbenfieldCenter for Teaching InnovationMeier Hall 115

Web 2.0

• “Your institution will be irrelevant by 2020”

David Wiley, E-learn 2008, Associate Professor of Instructional Technology at Utah State University

• PLEs are great. They’re just completely incompatible with the existing education system.” Retrieved Jan 10, 2009 from http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wordpress/category/uncategorized/ Learning Technologies Centre Research Blog

Radio

• "This is no place to indulge in idle fancies, but it is no imaginary dream to picture the school of tomorrow as an entirely different institution from that of today because of the use of radio in teaching."

1927 application to the Federal Radio Commission by the State University of Iowa

American Journal of Distance Education 1,1, 1997 http://www.ajde.com/Contents/vol11_1.htm#editorial

TV• Just as with radio, educational

institutions did much to develop the television medium, but were quickly left behind once it matured.

• Educators, split between those who saw potential in television and those who disdained it, had difficulty in pulling together a united front to present their case. And this time, armed with the radio precedent and proceeds, the opposition was even better organized.

PLE: More than a Technology

• Web 2.0 • Open Source/Access Movement• Self-publication /Creativity• Modularization• Mobility• Personalization• Connectivity

Wiley, D. (2008). Openness and the Disaggregated Future of Education. Retrieved January 14, 2008 from http://www.slideshare.net/opencontent/openness-and-the-disaggregated-future-of-higher-education-presentation

Wiley, D. (2008). Openness and the Disaggregated Future of Education. Retrieved January 14, 2008 from http://www.slideshare.net/opencontent/openness-and-the-disaggregated-future-of-higher-education-presentation

Things Have Changed

• “…So James is in CIS and I am in English. If you told us in graduate school that I was going to spend a lot of time coding web pages and that he was going to craft reflective writing assignments, we would’ve said you were crazy… p. 14”

“’Future of e-portfolio’ Roundtable” retrieved January 8, 2009 from http://www.academiccommons.org/commons/essay/future-eportfolio-roundtable

Analog Digital

• Instant access• Customization• Modularization

Modularization

• Flat world• Outsourcing• Separation of

services/content• Separation of

content/design• Learning Objects• Project Teams

Open Access

• Open Courseware Initiative MIT • Open University in the Netherlands • Google Books• Project Gutenberg• Wikipedia• Public Library of Science• Arxiv.org• Flat World Knowledge

Open Source

“distributed peer review and transparency of process”•Google’s Open Social•Linux•Moodle•Ubuntu•Open Office

Web 2.0

• Accessing• Connecting• Controlling• Producing• http://www.alexa.com/

Then vs NowAnalog Digital

Comprehensive Modular

Tethered Mobile

Isolated Connected

Generic Personal

Consumption Creating

Closed OpenAdapted from Wiley, D. (2008). Openness and the Disaggregated Future of Education. Retrieved January 14, 2008 from http://www.slideshare.net/opencontent/openness-and-the-disaggregated-future-of-higher-education-presentation

Learning Management SystemsLMS is a system largely set in place to

restrict access• Restrict access only to students who

have registered• Restrict access to current courses• Restrict access to copyrighted

materials• Restrict access to student work

(FERPA)• Restrict access to faculty currently

teaching• Provide security from unsuitable

materials

Personal Learning Environments

“systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning. This includes providing support for learners to

• set their own learning goals• manage their learning; • managing both content and process,• communicate with others in the process of learning• and thereby achieve learning goals.”

Mark van Harmelen, "Personal Learning Environments," icalt,pp.815-816, Sixth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT'06), 2006

Personal Learning Environments• Needs of lifelong learners

– Assume multiple institutions of higher learning– Formal mentoring– Informal Learning– Portable: Maintain portfolio of information and learning compatible with

multiple institutions

• Collaborative• Openness is highly desirable• Personalization highly desirable• Locus of control shared between students and faculty members• Extra-institutional• Integrative

Netvibes• http://www.netvibes.com/#Home

Analog

• Learning released by timetable• Predetermined sequences• Whole units• Generic• Isolated• Bundled services– Content, experts, mentoring,

advising, resources

• Closed

We Understand Our Students

Only 20.7 percent of the 150 students from the class who attended the University of Massachusetts at Boston - the most popular four-year public college for Boston high school students - graduated by the spring of 2007. By contrast, the most popular private school, Northeastern University, has handed degrees to 82.5 percent of the 80 Boston students from that class who enrolled there by the fall of 2001.

The rates at other popular public colleges were even worse. Bunker Hill Community College graduated 14.2 percent of its 155 Boston students, while Roxbury Community College had a graduation rate of 5.9 percent for its 101 Boston enrollees,…

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2009/01/08/city_grads_falter_in_public_colleges/

Yet we don’t adjust to the situation

• Faculty teach at multiple institutions• Students take courses at multiple

institutions• Faculty bring external experiences to

classroom• Students bring external experiences to

classroom• Faculty have valuable connections outside

SSC• Students have valuable connections outside

SSC

Ideal Situation

• Shared student /faculty locus of control• Learning Communities• Experiential learning• Connect learning <- -> experience• Interconnected courses• Life-long connection with students• Personalized learning / mentoring

Technology• Enable integration of

technologies user already has• Access on all devices (cell phone,

iphone, Blackberry, laptop)• Student access to course materials

(current & past)• Open sources that allow integration

with other school and open systems• Student locus of control form

groups, share materials, ask questions

Content

• Clear Objectives– Majors, minors, concentrations– Courses

• Competency/Proficiency Assessments• Modular materials• Individual mentoring• Flexible programs

Problems

• Learner coordinates of technology• Learner coordinates own learning• Learner manages own resources (content &

contacts)• Unrealistic expectations for education

Bricolage

“The culture of everyday life is to be found in ‘ways of using imposed systems’: ‘People have to make do with what they have’. ‘Making Do’ (or bricolage) means constructing our space within and against their place, of speaking our meaning with their language.”

Kramsch, Claire. (1993). Context and Culture in LanguageTeaching. Oxford University Press. Quoting Michel de Certeau, pg 237

Constant Change

“The education system is constantly searching for better ways of coopting learners’ perceived needs by devising new courses for students to enroll in, developing new learning strategies for them to use, creating new materials for them to consume.But classroom teachers know that it is a losing battle… educational thought underestimates the incredible resources, both affective and cognitive, of the ‘popular culture’ of the [language] classroom.”

Kramsch, Claire. (1993). Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford University Press. pg 237

PLE Compatible Initiatives• E-portfolios (student, not accreditation centered)• Clear learning objectives• Content mapping • Formative assessment• Hybrid & online courses• Inclusion of Web 2.0, open source technologies• Learning communities• Experiential learning• Online services (library, registration)• Active, collaborative learning

Then vs NowAnalog Digital

Comprehensive Modular

Tethered Mobile

Isolated Connected

Generic Personal

Consumption Creating

Closed Open

ReferencesKramsch, Claire. (1993). Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford University

Press. Liber, O. (2007). “Inverting the Student - Institution Relationship: the Role of Personal

Learning Environments”. Proceedings of Bolzano Conversation 2007. Retrieved November 24, 2008 from http://www.copernicus-bz-pionieri.it/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=52

Moore, M. (1997). Editorial. American Journal of Distance Education 1,1. Retrieved January 8, 2008 from http://www.ajde.com/Contents/vol11_1.htm#editorial

Sclater, N. (2008) ‘Web 2.0, Personal Learning Environments and the Future of Learning Management Systems’, Educause Center for Applied Research, Research Bulletin, Boulder, Colorado, Volume 2008, Issue 13, June 24 2008

van Harmelen, M. (2006). "Personal Learning Environments," icalt,pp.815-816, Sixth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT'06). Retrieved

Wiley, D. (2008). Openness and the Disaggregated Future of Education. Retrieved January 14, 2008 from http://www.slideshare.net/opencontent/openness-and-the-disaggregated-future-of-higher-education-presentation