Towards a Social Learning Space for Open Educational Resources

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OpenEd 2010, Barcelona

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk

Simon Buckingham Shum & Rebecca Ferguson

Knowledge Media Institute & Institute of Educational Technology The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK

Towards a Social Learning Space for Open Educational Resources

www.open.ac.uk/sociallearn

What does it mean to create social media tuned for learning?

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How do we do what we’re good at as a

university, and remain open to innovation?

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Why social learning now?

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arguments from… technology / uncertainty / pedagogy /

innovation / resilience

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Four dimensions of “Open”

Open IP

Open Communities Open Data Standards

Open Economics

Social learning building momentum in workplace

The New Social Learning Tony Bingham & Marcia Conner Berrett-Koehler, 2010 www.thenewsociallearning.com

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Informal Learning Jay Cross Jossey Bass, 2006 http://internettime.pbworks.com/The-Book

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Argument Map summarising Hagel et al’s (2010) “The Power of Pull”, and its connection to learning to learn

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Argument Map summarising Hagel et al’s (2010) “The Power of Pull”, and its connection to learning to learn

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Argument Map summarising Hagel et al’s (2010) “The Power of Pull”, and its connection to learning to learn

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Argument Map summarising Hagel et al’s (2010) “The Power of Pull”, and its connection to learning to learn

Learner-centred universe

My learning space

(richly resourced, rewarding, safe, in control of my own learning)

Find a teacher /tutor, or a student, or a co-learner

Create, offer and find learning materials

Share /publish my

learning

My learning needs, my aspiration, my curriculum

My identity My learning record My privacy settings

Learning /Knowledge maps

Chat, conferencing,

blogging, posting

My online learning /teaching

reputation My learning buddies

How far and how

fast I want

My choice of online tools

My real-world learning context

My learning projects My devices

& platforms

Share, network, join,

participate

but a me-centred universe alone is not good for learning…

principles for social learning

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trust • affirmation • challenge personal passion

quality relationships critical thinking

Social learning technology: candidate dimensions of the design space

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everyday social media

“friends” like me

1-many from the start

rapid information exchange

no reflection required by the UI

tag clouds

generic web analytics

recommendations based on navigation, ratings, purchases…

myriad activity traces in the cloud

informal personal endorsements

social media tuned for learning?

+ learning peers/mentors who both affirm and challenge

+ 1-1 mentoring

+ learning conversations

reflection encouraged by the UI

+ meaningful connections

+ learning analytics

+ recommendations based on learning profiles and activities

+ a secure e-portfolio to evidence learning

+ verifiable accreditation by trusted platforms

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open and interoperable

SocialLearn: key features

activity-based, user-defined toolkits

look+feel of social media platform

aggregated user profile

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Core social networking

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Core social networking

Gadget ideas…

  SocialLearn:   PhD Skills Gadget   Path Gadget   I’m Stuck Gadget   Mentor Gadget

  Plus other providers…   From KMi: eg. Flashmeeting, Virtual Microscope, ROLE…   From OU: eg. Library Search, OpenLearn Recommender   From other educational institutions, eg. Moodle tools (UOC)   From SocialLearn developer community   From e-science projects, eg. MyExperiment   From Google: eg. Calendar; Gmail, Reader…   From the global Gadget Directory: thousands more…

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SocialLearn dashboard of Google Gadgets

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Configuring Gadget Sets

SocialLearn gadgets dropped into iGoogle

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SocialLearn: accessing my Gadgets from the browser toolbar on any website

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SocialLearn: accessing my Gadgets from the browser toolbar on any website

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SocialLearn: accessing my Gadgets from the browser toolbar on any website

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A site which has enabled SL Gadgets can have them embedded and contextualised to the page (the OU’s Cloudworks)

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learning paths as social artifacts

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Engeström: Wildfire Activities: …inquiry, trails, history, consolidation,

argument, landmarks, places, exploration

Learning paths as social artifacts …inquiry, trails, history, consolidation, argument, landmarks, places, exploration

  Learners and educators can make many levels of contribution…

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Learning paths as social artifacts …inquiry, trails, history, consolidation, argument, landmarks, places, exploration

  Learners and educators can make many levels of contribution…

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Learning paths as social artifacts …inquiry, trails, history, consolidation, argument, landmarks, places, exploration

  Learners and educators can make many levels of contribution…

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Learning paths as social artifacts …inquiry, trails, history, consolidation, argument, landmarks, places, exploration

  Learners and educators can make many levels of contribution…

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Learning paths as social artifacts …inquiry, trails, history, consolidation, argument, landmarks, places, exploration

  Learners and educators can make many levels of contribution…

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Forge new Paths from existing Paths…

Learning paths as social artifacts …inquiry, trails, history, consolidation, argument, landmarks, places, exploration

  Learners and educators can make many levels of contribution…

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Forge meaningful connections between any Question, Step, Path using a web app such as Cohere

is inconsistent with

refutes

is a counterexample of resolves

Building a Learning Path through OERs

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Building a Learning Path through OERs

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Building a Learning Path through OERs

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Building a Learning Path through OERs

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Building a Learning Path through OERs

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Following a Learning Path through OERs

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Following a Learning Path through OERs

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“Services”: towards a suite of recommendation engines, both from OU and developer network

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“Services”: towards a suite of recommendation engines, both from OU and developer network

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Com

mer

ce

People who bought this,

bought this… e.g.

(not

a c

urre

nt p

riorit

y fo

r us)

“Services”: towards a suite of recommendation engines, both from OU and developer network

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Nav

igat

iona

l

Soci

al/R

eput

atio

n

Com

mer

ce

People who bought this,

bought this…

People who viewed this also viewed

this…

You have three friends in common… People who rate her also rate him…

e.g.

fast becoming commodity services

(not

a c

urre

nt p

riorit

y fo

r us)

“Services”: towards a suite of recommendation engines, both from OU and developer network

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Nav

igat

iona

l

Soci

al/R

eput

atio

n

Com

mer

ce

People who bought this,

bought this…

People who viewed this also viewed

this…

You have three friends in common… People who rate her also rate him…

e.g.

fast becoming commodity services

Con

tent

This resource is similar to this one…

(semantic + multimedia

search R&D)

indexing

(not

a c

urre

nt p

riorit

y fo

r us)

“Services”: towards a suite of recommendation engines, both from OU and developer network

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Nav

igat

iona

l

Soci

al/R

eput

atio

n

Con

nect

ions

Lear

ning

to L

earn

Com

mer

ce

People who bought this,

bought this…

People who viewed this also viewed

this…

You have three friends in common… People who rate her also rate him…

This resource shows a counter-

example / supporting evidence…

This person is also trying to develop her planning…

e.g.

fast becoming commodity services services tuned for learning

Con

tent

This resource is similar to this one…

(semantic + multimedia

search R&D)

indexing

(not

a c

urre

nt p

riorit

y fo

r us)

Next steps   For next 6 months SocialLearn is running internal pilot

deployments with OU communities   Scalability   User engagement   Evidence of social learning   Multimedia indexing   Collaboration with other learning widget projects   Linked data potential   Analytics/Rec Engines   Walled gardens   Gadgets and Web apps tuned for learning

Track us on www.open.ac.uk/sociallearn 44

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Quality OERs OpenLearn

TESSA

iTunesU

YouTube

Site 2

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SocialLearn 1. Profile 2. User Interface 3. Social Graph 4. Services

Site 1

Interoperability via Google Gadgets

SocialLearn provides the ‘glue’ to connect learning activities, ‘friends’, coaches, and recommendations

Site 4 Site 3

…other sites…

The industrial-era university (school/college)

Knowledge development

Teaching

A canon of knowledge

Repository of knowledge (libraries)

Scholars

Students subordinated

Examination: – pass or fail

Builds national industrial strength Benefactors pay

Monopoly: – access to knowledge

– granting degrees

Nation building

Elite professional and social class

Disciplines and subjects

Objective truth, facts

Figure: Hardin Tibbs

The emerging learning model

Facilitating and guiding the

development of the whole person

Participatory learning

discourse

A knowledge saturated

environment Lifelong learning

Students as customers,

learner-centric

Flexible delivery and assessment

Builds free-market industrial strength

Nation/state and market-based

funding

Branding in a competitive environment, eroded

monopoly

Globally connected

Vocational focus, career-ready

accredited, everyone ‘learning or earning’

Modules and competencies

Subjective, qualitative, meaning

Figure: Hardin Tibbs

Uncertain futures…

50 Argument Map built using Open U’s Compendium: http://compendium.open.ac.uk

Challenge for the educational system…

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