Wilfred Rubens: technology enhanced learning

Impressie Design4all

De afgelopen dagen heb ik als lid van de programmacommissie dé conferentie over ICT en onderwijsvernieuwing, Design4all, bijgewoond. Normaal gesproken lees je dan op mijn weblog een inhoudelijke impressie. Ik heb nu echter inhoudelijk niets meegekregen van dit congres. Maar ik wil wel mijn ervaringen met de organisatiekant hier delen.

• Het congres met zo'n 1600 deelnemers verliep m.i. organisatorisch voorspoedig. Helaas viel donderdagmiddag in een deel van Maastricht de stroom uit, waardoor we maar één besluit konden nemen: het congres voortijdig beëindigen. Jammer voor de presentatoren, afsluitende act, de meewerkende leerlingen, standhouders, de bezoekers, organisatie en het gastcollege Leeuwenborgh Opleidingen. Let wel: het lag niet aan ICT, maar aan de stroom.
• De manier van besluitvorming hierover verliep prima. Mensen van de organisatie geven desgewenst input, maar een klein clubje neemt een duidelijk en eenduidig besluit. Sommige presentatoren gaven aan wel door te willen gaan, maar je moet bij een congres van zo'n omvang één lijn trekken.
• Op het moment dat de stroom uitviel, lieten de meeste presentatoren zich niet uit het veld slaan. Dankzij hun improvisatievermogen werden de meeste sessies gewoon voltooid. Petje af.
• Ik heb nog meer bewondering gekregen voor de mensen van het projectbureau van het Consortium voor Innovatie, dat dit congres al vele jaren organiseert. Ze houden het totaal overzicht en blijven ongelofelijk kalm en goedgemutst. Zelfs als -zoals donderdagmiddag in Maastricht- de stroom uitvalt.
• Je maakt lange dagen. Met veel korte briefings en voortdurend checken, checken, checken. Dat lijkt wellicht overdreven, maar is absoluut noodzakelijk. Dinsdagavond laat (rond 23 uur) hebben we zalen gecontroleerd, en doorgegeven als bepaalde zaken (denk aan glazen voor sprekers) nog niet in orde waren. Woensdagochtend om 7.45 uur hebben we weer zalen gecontroleerd om te kijken of verbeteringen waren doorgevoerd. Is toch belangrijk om congresgangers zo goed mogelijk te kunnen ontvangen.
• Voortdurende communicatie is van groot belang. Je loopt de hele dag met een portofoontje en 'oortje'. Vooral bij de start en afloop van workshops is het een gekwetter van jewelste. Bijvoorbeeld:
  'Wilfred voor ICT'.
  'ICT voor Wilfred'.
  'Kunnen jullie naar zaal 07 komen? Daar is een probleem met een beamer.'
  'Begrepen, Wilfred. Er komt iemand aan.'
  Dat gaat de hele tijd door.
• Humor en goede zin zijn heel belangrijk. En we hebben ook samen plezier gehad.
• Het is heel belangrijk om je strak aan tijdsschema's en afspraken te houden. Als bijvoorbeeld een spreker een andere zaalopstelling wil, dan is dat niet mogelijk. Want je hebt geen capaciteit gepland om na afloop van de sessie de zaal te herschikken. Een congres als Design4all met zeer vele parallelsessies en zoveel deelnemers leent zich niet voor dat type flexibiliteit.
• Je moet altijd zorgen voor reservecapaciteit aan apparatuur, en andere faciliteiten (bijvoorbeeld zo iets als extra flip overs). Als je daarmee sprekers -die extra vragen hebben- tevreden kunt stellen, dan scoor je als organisatie.
• Congrescentra zijn niet echt voorbereid op de 'online samenleving'. Ten behoeve voor dit congres is de bandbreedte -voor zover ik begrepen heb- ruim verdubbeld. Anders waren bepaalde toepassingen niet mogelijk geweest. Daarnaast zijn de kosten van een internetverbinding belachelijk hoog. En dan heb ik het niet eens over snel draadloos.

Een inhoudelijke impressie van Design4all vind je op de conferentieblog. Verder is het me wel gelukt om tijdens rustige periodes via mijn mobiele telefoon te twitteren. Al met al heb ik het een erg leuke ervaring gevonden. Je krijgt inderdaad inhoudelijk niets mee, en je bent niet in staat zelf een sessie te verzorgen. Maar goed: een mens moet keuzes maken in z'n leven ;-).

Valencia

Het is wat rustig in deze weblog. De reden is een projectvergadering van het Work and Learn Together project, die deze dagen in Valencia plaatsvindt. En aangezien ik projectleider ben van dit Europese project heb ik weinig tijd om te schrijven.

In plaats daarvan veel overleggen, afspraken maken over deadlines en sociale contacten onderhouden.

Het is overigens goed toeven, hier. Ongeveer 18 graden. Veel zon. Prima eten en drinken (en goedkoop!). Er lopen hier wel grote groepen zingende en lallende Glasgow Rangers supporters rond, die dus erg aanwezig zijn en de Spaanse rust verstoren (tot vroeg in de ochtend). Zij worden vanavond waarschijnlijk in de Europacup uitgeschakeld.

Social Networks Research Report

Previously posted in Dutch (sorry for my Dutch readers).
Wildbit builds business-critical web applications and interactive websites. Recently, they published the Social Networks Research Report.

This report is the result of an in depth analysis on social networks for a web community project at Wildbit. The report aimed to discover how to attract members, define structure, influence participation, and manage the community in order to design the web site prototypes.

In fact, the emphasis is not on scientific research. It is very concrete (including suggestions). Could be helpful for one of our first workpackages.

Weblogs and professional development

An interesting blog by Ann Davis. She quotes Clarence Fisher who really beliefs that blogging is powerful for learning. Ann has her doubts:

I'd really like to see blogs used for professional development but I don't believe it will happen anytime soon.

You can conclude from her post that even in education and learning -where we should practice what we preach- there are not enough opportunities for professional development (e.g. due to time constrains). Furthermore, the learner often is not in control of his/her own learning, the organisation is.

You are not becoming very optimistic if you read this. But I am afraid, more or less, it is reality. Just look around you!

So, how to cope with it? If we only develop tools to facilitate learning (like weblogs and virtual communities) we will only get in touch with the few highly motivated employees. It is necessary to increase the awareness of the importance of individual and collective learning and development.

Only if this kind of informal learning is seen as "business critical" (also in schools and universities!), the construction of communities of practices will succeed. And this is quite a challenge. Even formal learning is often not seen as business critical. And this concept is much easier to explain and understand than informal learning. 

So, facilitate the happy few enthusiastic (intrinsically motivated) employees. But do also pay attention at the policy level.

Does a network of weblogs work as a CoP in the tourism branch?

Graham Attwell provides an interesting and reflective comment on my previous contribution "A network of weblogs as a community of practice" (he couldn't find a way to send a trackback to this previous post).

Graham has some serious concerns:

I am very doubtful that web logs - as they are currently being used - will prove a natural tool for many in that sector - or to the natural workflow and activities of people in that sector. That is not to say the web logs do not have their place - for instance for developing portfolios as part of a programme of continuing professional development or for exchanging information.

Mmmmm. Good point. It is very important to look at the "biorithm" of the branch. How could social software (like weblogs) support the business processes (like solving complex problems, what we call learning) of small and medium enterprises in the tourism branch?

Graham gives an example of Google Maps. And of course there are several communities that evaluate restaurants and hotels. But there must be more opportunities for informal learning....

A network of weblogs as a community of practice

The use of weblogs implies a transformation of the community of practice (CoP) concept. I want to illustrate this with a recent experience.

A community of practice can be described as a group whose members regularly engage in sharing and learning, based on a common interest. According to Wikipedia

the concept of a community of practice (often abbreviated as CoP) refers to the process of social learning that occurs when people who have a common interest in some subject or problem collaborate over an extended period to share ideas, find solutions, and build innovations.

These members are often working in a similar field of practice. They often use an online platform to share knowledge and learn from each other (e.g. Learning Times).

Since some years weblogs are becoming more and popular in the e-learning field. Today, there are several teachers and consultants who write about e-learning. Examples are Stephen Downes, George Siemens, Teemu Leinonen, Will Richardson, Ann Davis and our evaluator Graham Attwell. The are called Edubloggers. In the Netherlands there is also a group of active Edubloggers, and I am one of them. Most of the Dutch Edubloggers write in Dutch. Next to this group of Edubloggers, there are several practitioners without a weblog of their own that respond to weblog contributions. And a larger group is just reading the contributions.

Not all the Dutch Edubloggers do not know each other personally. Some Edubloggers meet at (international) conferences, once in a while. Last year on the night before a large Dutch e-learning conference a "Edublog"-dinner was organized. Several Edubloggers attended this dinner. This year a second "Edublog"-dinner will take place.

The Dutch Edubloggers do not use a central spot on the web to communicate and learn. They use their own weblogs. Let me illustrate this with an example. A few weeks ago I attended a national conference about the "next generation" virtual learning environment. I wrote an impression in my weblog about it. Other Edubloggers did the same. The impressions differed a lot. Response was given in different weblogs, for example by someone who did not have a weblog of his own. One Edublogger, who did not attend the conference, wrote an important reflective contribution in his weblog. And someone else summarized the discussion in his weblog. At last, another Edublogger reflected on this process (which stimulated a new discussion). She also visualized this process.

Is this a working CoP? Definitely! Although, the Edubloggers do not collaborate intentionally. Moderators (summarizing discussion, analyzing the process) were not asked to do their job, they do it spontaneously. Do they use one virtual platform? No. How do these Edubloggers know what discussions are going on? The answer is simple: thanks to RSS. According to Wikipedia RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a format that allows

internet users to subscribe to websites that have provided RSS feeds; these are typically sites that change or add content regularly. To use this technology, site owners create or obtain specialized software (such as a content management system) which, in the machine-readable XML format, presents new articles in a list, giving a line or two of each article and a link to the full article or post. Unlike subscriptions to pulp-based newspapers and magazines, RSS subscriptions are free.

It looks like complex technology, but it is an extremely user-friendly. As an end user you use a RSS-feed reader, which enables you to see very fast which of your favorite weblogs and websites (that support RSS) have changed since  you visited them the last time. Furthermore, the Dutch Edubloggers have an aggregator (a web application that collects syndicated Web content, such as RSS and other XML feeds from weblogs and websites that support RSS).

Personally I use the RSS-feed reader Bloglines. It is web-based and simple to use. I subscribed to more than 90 RSS-feeds (almost all about e-learning). I try to check them daily (not all weblogs/sites change every day, fortunately).

In my opinion we should take this development into account if we want to facilitate CoP's in the Work and Learn Together-project. A hugh advantage of a network of weblogs above a traditional virtual CoP is ownership. The individual professional owns his/her personal weblog. If (s)he starts a weblog, you can assume that (s)he is motivated to write. A weblog is bottom up, a CoP -often- top down. See my previous remarks about Why Do Professional Learning Communities Fail to Develop?

So, let's promote the use of weblogs and RSS(-feed readers). Let us facilitate weblogs. Our COP should have an aggregator. Let us look for weblogs about tourism, stimulate branch organizations to use weblogs.

Why Do Professional Learning Communities Fail to Develop?

About a week ago Stephen Downes wrote about Why Do Professional Learning Communities Fail to Develop?

Downes writes about an online discussion between teachers. He concludes:

the answer is pretty simple - when they're imposed from the top (usually in a slap-dash duct-tape manner), they fail. And they poison any attempt that may follow. "That's the key. It has to belong to the teachers who are part of the community. If the community belongs to 'the administration' and teachers are merely invited to attend, things fall apart."

According to Downes this is also the case for students. And in my opinion for the tourism employers and employees as well! We cannot succeed if push a commpunity of practice top down. If we built it, they will definetely NOT come automatically. And they will not at all participate. This is a huge challenge for the Work and Learn Together project: how can we stimulate en facilitate? 

Work and Learn Together: the start

Regular visitors of my weblog will be suprised. Normally I never blog in English.

Well, the fact is: in future Dutch will be the main language of my messages. But today and yesterday I had a kick off meeting of a new European project: Work and Learn Together. This project deals about communities of practices for workplace learning in the tourist sector.

We discussed about using weblogs in this projects and several project partners did not have experience with weblogs. We agreed that I would put some posts in my weblog about the project (in English), so other partners could see how this can work out. Graham Attwell -who is evaluator in this project- will do the same in his weblog (in fact, it was his idea). So, the coming months some posts in the category Work and Learn Together will be in English.

Ofcourse, everybody can respond.