Thinking Differently in a Digital World

I had thought of a more slick title such as 'Get Real, man!' - but thought better of it. However, the principle still stands. Two different posts recently reminded me of the vast gulf which still remains fixed between those in their ivory palaces of academia and the real world of day-to-day learning and living. How we can best use the communication systems that we have and how we relate to one-another in the digital world still needs to be understood.

The first post, from Wayne Mackintosh in New Zealand, mentions an incident which is quite common, that of moving house, and even, in this case, from one country to another. He writes:

We have recently relocated back home to New Zealand after working a few years in Canada. My son is in Year 11, and due to curriculum differences between the two countries, in some subjects he had already covered aspects of the NZ curriculum in Canada. He had an assignment to write a book review and had already done one in Canada. So he simply copied the digital version of the book review for submission here in NZ. Educational issues aside -- he was able to reuse his efforts and investment in learning from a previous learning experience.

Similarly, in subjects areas which adopt a concentric curriculum design on increasing levels of difficulty a student may want to rework last year's assignment covering the same topic. Part of our responsibilities as educators is to prepare our students for a changing digital future .... This may place interesting challenges on traditional notions of property and ownership of learning outputs.

In a completely different scenario the writer, Julian Beckton, was extolling the virtues of a rendering of Mahara into which, credit where it's due, he has put a lot of work. However, it appeared to be a very introspective HE solution and lacked little reference to the wider world. I responded somewhat critically but, I hope, constructively:

If you can consider that an e-Portfolio is ‘for life’, or ‘from 5-95′ or as Dr Barrett says, ‘from sperm to worm’, you will appreciate that the one tool must be far more user-friendly than your somewhat technical solution suggests.

Secondly, the e-Portfolio is the centre for all sorts of learning external to ’school’ or ‘college’ and as such must have within it a number of e-safe tools which allow peer-review, collaboration, polls, surveys and questionnaires etc.

Thirdly, within the context of the percieved audiences, there must be simple tools to control who sees what and when.

Fourthly, and this is my chief complaint with Mahara, the e-Portfolio tool must be capable of using a number of templates, colour schemes and fonts which allow some degree of personal self-representation.

Fifthly, you mention nothing as far as I can see, about ‘transition’. Although there are ‘fixes’ for allowing some level of interoperability with Mahara, you do not warn people that the Mahara solution will probably not be of any use to learners once they move on from their present institution.

So, the bottom line is still the question that I often ask, 'How can we use e-Portfolios to enhance or even revolutionise Teaching and Learning in a Digital World?'

Clouds in the Sky?

I'm not the most enthusiastic user of 'Cloud Computing' but I have genuinely tried to understand the mind-set of those who are. Perhaps, the cry of 'Is it free?' does not naturally burst from my lips. Perhaps I never did belong to the 'hippy-generation' and I very rarely get impressed with the Graffiti artists who ply their trade on every brick wall available. Perhaps my well-earnt salary makes me feel a bit more comfortable with paying for a product that is backed-up with a solid and free support service. Or perhaps it is my somewhat cautious fear of leaving my muddy footprints all over the ether.

However, I have recently been quite impressed with the thinking of others on this subject. Firstly, I came across Hazel Owen's blog. Her post on the hypothetical Chan Sook paints a very clear picture of the mindset of our young (and possibly not-so-young) students. Probably others could add equally competitive Web2.0 applications to her list, impressive as it already is. Her mindmeister mind-map is really something to browse. However, I took the liberty of producing an A4 'compression' of her map which is just about readable.

At the other end of the spectrum, I am very grateful to Paul (see comment on 'Cloud Computing?', below) for the link to a most comprehensive 26-page document from Sun Microsystems. If other readers have good documentation or links please respond by commenting.

Cloud Computing for all?

Just a brief post in response to one from Tony Bates. He makes reference to a recent EDUCAUSE 2-page document entitled '7 things you should know about Cloud Computing' which is a well balanced paper and well worth reading.

As the abstract says:

Cloud computing is the delivery of scalable IT resources over the Internet, as opposed to hosting and operating those resources locally, such as on a college or university network. Those resources can include applications and services, as well as the infrastructure on which they operate. By deploying IT infrastructure and services over the network, an organization can purchase these resources on an as-needed basis and avoid the capital costs of software and hardware. With cloud computing, IT capacity can be adjusted quickly and easily to accommodate changes in demand. Cloud computing also allows IT providers to make IT costs transparent and thus match consumption of IT services to those who pay for such services. Operating in a cloud environment requires IT leaders and staff to develop different skills, such as managing contracts, overseeing integration between in-house and outsourced services, and mastering a different model of IT budgets.

However, before teachers all jump on the bandwaggon of 'free resources', as I have hinted at before, two things need to be considered which the author, P. Kurkowski, forgets to mention. Firstly, younger pupils, the less able, some disabled students and the elderly may require systems that are much more e-safe than the responsible average HE student may require. Secondly, Cloud Computing lends itself very much to the ideosyncratic choices of applications that teachers may never have experienced. The provision of support for an unknown number of different applications would become a nightmare if no forms of control were established. - But who would advise students to invest in a product that has no guaranteed future or who may be hooked into a system that suddenly starts charging for its services?

Addendum:

For a most erudite and lengthy exposition on cloud computing see Stephen Downes' article. He starts from the basis:

In the cloud of connections, we each become social neurons, mimicking the biological human brain but on a giant scale. This collective knowledge is far beyond anything a single search engine could index and archive. Intelligence is spreading everywhere, every minute, and cloud computing can draw new links across new ideas.

However, for an even more challenging read, see the site: Day 81: Ars Electronica Symposium Examines Cloud Intelligence one extract must suffice:

Jules Verne published his novel at the dawn of industrialised globalisation, when the steam engine and the colonial conquests of Europe made it possible for the first time to circumnavigate the planet in relative comfort, and in less than three months. In the 125 years since, the pace of globalisation has accelerated exponentially. Our cars, clothes, computers, and cupboards all depend on vast international networks of manufacturing, finance, and trade. This flood of globalisation has carried the economic and environmental crises to almost every corner of the world. Are these crises an inevitable part of human nature? Or is it possible to shape a new connected consciousness to tackle global problems collectively and equitably?

Welcome to the cloud. Welcome to new the social ecology of the 21st century. Welcome to mobile banking from a New York taxi cab direct to rural Kenya. Welcome to the wild wondrous web of blogs, podcasts, mailing lists and streaming video from camera phones the size of credit cards. All instant and all the time. The world has changed. We have changed.

But, I would ask, has 'Education'?

Are we Limiting their Learning?

Reflecting upon some work I did two years ago, I came across the above challenging graphic. So often teachers teach in the same way that they learnt. As much as we expect our students to 'think outside of the box' so often we fail them by not doing it ourselves.

It reminds me to re-think the early ideas I obtained from Dr Helen Barrett's work on Metaphors. I respectfully list an abridged version of her collated list. For the full versions including the distinguished sources see her website at:
http://electronicportfolios.org/metaphors.html

I therefore show this list in order to encourage readers to re-think how we can apply these concepts to the daily teaching and learning we try to encourage each day. Please enjoy:

28 Metaphors - What is an e-Portfolio?
Some years ago I discovered the work of Dr Helen Barrett and soon became enthralled with the enormous amount of work that she has done in relation to portfolios in over two decades and how it has shaped world thinking on the subject.

Rather than getting bogged down with the technicalities of security or ‘cloud computing’, rather than getting into the very personal ideas on teaching and learning, or discussing if the e-Portfolio can really be ‘Lifelong’ and ‘Lifewide’, it is worth just stopping to consider what various authorities have said concerning e-Portfolios. Helen Barrett presents a challenging list of thought-provoking metaphors from a variety of sources which I have cobbled together and in some places summarised slightly.

I suggest that it is well worth considering how all of these metaphors reveal something of the applicability of the e-Portfolio as a tool to aid teaching and learning and in particular PLTSs.

A Mirror
The mirror is a more obvious metaphor...fairly literally to ask the question how can the portfolio assist one to see oneself? (Dr. Mary Diez)

A Map
...the map image is linked to the mirror--focusing on what you see can spark the question about where you want to go next. (Dr. Mary Diez) (and, for that matter where you have come from and how far you have travelled. - RT)

A Sonnet
The portfolio, like the sonnet, is simply a form, a structure. Provided one puts quality work between the covers, the portfolio can be a structure to help an individual express meaning. (Dr. Mary Diez)

A Theoretical Act
...a portfolio is a theoretical act. By this I mean that every time you design, organize, or create in your teacher education program a template, a framework, or a model for a teaching portfolio, you are engaged in an act of theory. (Dr. Lee Shulman)

A Story
A portfolio tells a story. It is the story of knowing. Knowing about things... Knowing oneself... Knowing an audience... Portfolios are students' own stories of what they know, why they believe they know it, and why others should be of the same opinion. A portfolio is opinion backed by fact... Students prove what they know with samples of their work. (Pearl & Leon Paulson)

A Journey
... we suggest that students view their portfolios as a journey into knowing and that they write a narrative describing that journey. Our goal is to help students tell their story, a story that has a happy ending. (Pearl & Leon Paulson)

A Laboratory
The portfolio is a laboratory where students construct meaning from their accumulated experience. (Pearl & Leon Paulson)

A Test
.... portfolios that are composed of written reflections (a form of an essay) and products representative of the candidate’s skills, and performance, fall under a professionally acceptable definition of “test”. (Dr. Judy Wilkerson & Dr. Steve Lang's "High Stakes" Portfolios)

A Celebration of Learning Across the Lifespan
An electronic portfolio has the potential to become a dynamic celebration of learning that documents one’s professional development across his or her career. (Dr. Helen Barrett)

A Comparison with Financial Portfolios
A financial portfolio documents the accumulation of fiscal capital or monetary assets. A learning portfolio documents the development of human capital or intellectual assets. (Dr. Helen Barrett)

My Attic
... referred to my website as an "attic" with a lot of history/artefacts of my journey... Of course an e-portfolio is more than a collection of artefacts, but this metaphor evokes fond memories of grandparents' houses and the rich memories that are represented in the artefacts stored there. (Dr. Helen Barrett)

Campfires around which we tell our stories
"Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories," says musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson. If that be so, what tales will be shared in the flickering glow of peoples' electronic portfolios? (Dr. Joanne Carney)

My digital clone
A digital representation / extension of my self – my eSelf. (Serge Ravet)

My work companion
A tool blended into my learning / working environment. (Serge Ravet)

My butler
A service provider to one’s self. (Serge Ravet)

My dashboard
An informative display of the state of my skills and knowledge. (Serge Ravet)

My planner
A tool to plan my learning. (Serge Ravet)

My IPR management assistant
A tool to value and exploit my personal assets. (Serge Ravet)

Others from various sources (see list):

A Teenager’s Bedroom
It's their teenage bedroom, we own the house and we can say there are key things that need to be in there, but we can only stand back and watch as they decorate it in a manner that they find wonderful, and we may find hideous.

A Toothbrush
A habit of mind, something you do every day.

My tree
My electronic portfolio is my tree. In building a portfolio I see a tree of many branches with each branch being an extension from the trunk which begins with ones self and goals. As we grow, our branches grow and spread out in many directions.

A Caterpillar (or Acorn or Seed)
An emerging form... undergoing metamorphosis through personal growth... from a caterpillar to a butterfly; from an acorn to a tree; from a seed to a flower or plant

A Kaleidoscope
Just as a kaleidoscope needs light to view the endless possibilities of visual combinations of the coloured glass, a e-portfolio provides the illumination for the learner to view the endless possibilities of the potential views and connections of her/his learning experience from self to global society.

A Window
I like idea of the window working two ways (ignoring police stations, of course). Not only can others look inside but portfolios, like windows offer the chance for the portfolio author to look outside as well. In the portfolio process, reflecting and conferencing help the portfolio author accomplish this external gaze. But secondly, the owner can choose which windows people may look through by closing the blinds when necessary.

A Confessional
A place where the student can quietly and privately recount acts of commission and omission and confess such to a selected audience. It is a place of catharsis and refreshment. Upon leaving this sanctuary the student is inspired to new levels of enlightenment and endeavour. (Ray Tolley)

A Constant Companion
People often work best at the strangest of times or places. We are not all constructed like robots to think only between the hours of 9 to 5 at our office desk. The e-Portfolio is a companion or familiar friend to whom we can turn at any hour of the day or night, anywhere, anywhen. (Ray Tolley)

A Digital Theatre
It is my digital theatre - where the audience is by invitation only. (Ray Tolley)

A Festival
A family time such as Christmas or Thanksgiving when we come together, celebrate the good things in life and invariably reflect on past occasions. (Ray Tolley)

NB. For all the original sources, please see Dr Barrett's site at:
http://electronicportfolios.org/metaphors.html

Economies of Scale?

Congratulations are in order to the NZ Ministry of Education for their brave decision to provide an impressive Software Agreement for the next three years. Click to see announcement.

Cynics may suggest that in providing something 'for free' it creates a lock-in which is hard to resist. Of course, as the statement says, "Schools will still be free to use any product they wish to. A number of schools are using open source software or browser based alternatives and they will continue to have this choice." But, as the graphic attempts to illustrate, 'Who wouldn't chase after free software?'

The whole point for e-Portfolio watchers, as I referred to before, see post - 'A Common Approach?, is that I am impressed with Local Authorities, Districts, States or even whole countries that see the benefits of the economies of scale and are willing to take up the challenge.

Again, some will be aware of the far-sighted vision of those in Minnesota who established a State-wide free e-Portfolio facility for all residents. This has proved without doubt that, without the 'holy grail' of perfect interoperability, eFolio is the best solution for portability or transition that anyone has thought possible.

In the UK, despite all our impressive programmes for 'Home Access' and a 'Digital Britain' the Government's present approach to e-Portfolios is particularly tardy. Yes, individual schools are developing their own in-house e-Portfolios and we have some good work going on in the careers service, 'Connexions'. However, what with 35 or so VLE suppliers offering various attempts at e-Portfolio solutions and a few commercial free-standing systems, it would appear that 'everybody does that which is right in their own eyes.'

The point of this post, therefore, is to ask if UK readers in particular agree with my proposition that whole-school or Local Authority-wide provisions of an e-Portfolio system such as eFolio, which is both Lifelong and Lifewide, is the logical solution. Economy of scale is essential at the present time. I just wonder when our mandarins will wake up to this fact!

Online Learning

A recently produced research document makes encouraging reading- even if a lot of the interesting bits are embedded within masses of statistics and tables. However, although this document is about online learning we can extend its conclusions to the additional functionality that an e-Portfolio can provide. As the document is online and available for all to see I trust that the extracts as listed below make a fair basis for further discussion.

US Department of Education
Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning
May 2009

Extracts from the Executive Summary:
Online learning—for students and for teachers—is one of the fastest growing trends in educational uses of technology. The National Center for Education Statistics (2008) estimated that the number of K-12 public school students enrolling in a technology-based distance education course grew by 65 percent in the two years from 2002-03 to 2004-05. On the basis of a more recent district survey, Picciano and Seaman (2009) estimated that more than a million K–12 students took online courses in school year 2007–08.

These activities were undertaken to address four research questions:

1. How does the effectiveness of online learning compare with that of face-to-face instruction?
2. Does supplementing face-to-face instruction with online instruction enhance learning?
3. What practices are associated with more effective online learning?
4. What conditions influence the effectiveness of online learning?

Worth noting:
When a α < .05 level of significance is used for contrasts, one would expect approximately 1 in 20 contrasts to show a significant difference by chance. For 51 contrasts, then, one would expect 2 or 3 significant differences by chance. The finding of 2 significant contrasts associated with face-to-face instruction is clearly within the range one would expect by chance; the 11contrasts associated with online or hybrid instruction exceeds what one would expect by chance.

Key Findings:
The main finding from the literature review was that:

• Few rigorous research studies of the effectiveness of online learning for K–12 students have been published.
• Students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction.
• Instruction combining online and face-to-face elements had a larger advantage relative to purely face-to-face instruction than did purely online instruction.
• Studies in which learners in the online condition spent more time on task than students in the face-to-face condition found a greater benefit for online learning.
• Most of the variations in the way in which different studies implemented online learning did not affect student learning outcomes significantly.
• The effectiveness of online learning approaches appears quite broad across different content and learner types.
• Effect sizes were larger for studies in which the online and face-to-face conditions varied in terms of curriculum materials and aspects of instructional approach in addition to the medium of instruction.
• Blended and purely online learning conditions implemented within a single study generally result in similar student learning outcomes.
• Elements such as video or online quizzes do not appear to influence the amount that students learn in online classes.
• Online learning can be enhanced by giving learners control of their interactions with media and prompting learner reflection.
• Providing guidance for learning for groups of students appears less successful than does using such mechanisms with individual learners.

Extract from the Conclusions:
In many of the studies showing an advantage for online learning, the online and classroom conditions differed in terms of time spent, curriculum and pedagogy. It was the combination of elements in the treatment conditions (which was likely to have included additional learning time and materials as well as additional opportunities for collaboration) that produced the observed learning advantages. At the same time, one should note that online learning is much more conducive to the expansion of learning time than is face-to-face instruction.

Personal Observation:
Although there are some remarkable facilities available to some students in the US, I wonder just how many children in 'average' schools in the US have the same computer ratios as in the UK or more importantly what % of the US population uses 'Home Access' as we are beginning to understand it here in the UK.

I say this because I am not sure how well we can compare 'like-with-like' across different countries. Until the UK can get down to producing similar research for our 'K-12' cohort we will not be able to begin to ascertain the added advantages of e-Portfolios.

There are still many 'loopholes' in the paper that I am still trying to clarify with the American authors. For instance, were their 'online learning courses' freestanding tools with no f2f support? And then, what does f2f mean? Individual 1:1 tuition or one lecturer in front of 200 students? Did the online courses allow collaboration? Did they allow individual investigation or project work? Was the students' work machine-marked or was it assessed by a real person? Why, in some cases did online retention rates drop - was this just bad teaching or was it online technical frustrations?

For me, the document, despite all its academic excellence, raises a number of issues which need to be discussed with those who are aware of the contexts.

Moving House?

There comes a time in most people's lives when they have to move house and take all their loved possessions with them - and what an upheaval that can be! Unfortunately some people have a perception of the e-Portfolio as being that 'removal van' or 'pantechnicon' - which is used to transport every bit and piece of value or even no-value - just sentimental rubbish that one cannot throw away. However, the analogy gets worse! The learner decides that rather than unloading all their stuff, every bit of coursework, every idle amusement, every item of correspondence shall all be kept on board - because, after all, they are not stopping here but plan to move on again. And the effort of unloading and loading up again is just too much bother.

Others prefer to travel light, only carrying with them the immediate essential tools and equipment currently used in their studies. They have a more scatter-brained approach to learning - leaving a never-ending trail of artefacts scattered, on their academic travels, around the universe - sometimes called 'cloud computing'. The trouble with this approach, as any parent knows, is that things get far too easily misplaced or even lost for ever. For those who haven't read my previous jottings on 'transition' the potential amount of travelling the learner could experience is illustrated here.

As one gets older and possibly not much wiser there is the temptation to carry around even more clutter, 'just in case'. However, as we make our way to yet another presentation or job interview we begin to understand the need to cut our 'showcase' down to the bare minimum with which our audience can cope. And this is so true of our e-Portfolios. eFolio, in particular, is capable of displaying only what we want to show, uncluttered by ephemera or irrelevancies.

I have seen far too many blogs containing discussions about how much space on a school's servers their e-Portfolios should take. Similarly, there are debates about how long students' artefacts should remain on the school's servers once the students have left. Surely, these are all irrelevancies when considering the fundamental purposes of an e-Portfolio? It all comes down to an understanding of one of my several mantras:

"Let the VLE do what it does best and
leave the e-Portfolio to do what it can best do!"

This approach leaves all coursework, past and present, on the VLE's server alongside the specialist programs, assignment briefs, schemes of work, assessment tools, on-line reporting and all the other mechanics needed to run an effective 'electrified' school. How long these 'school owned' artefacts are kept is down to the institution's Policies.

The e-Portfolio, on the other hand, should be seen as belonging to the learner and need only contain those artefacts and tools that the student considers needful in their present circumstances. - Anything that rightfully belongs to the learner and is no longer immediately needed can be off-loaded to one's own PC or Tb backup for safe keeping.

Again, the e-Portfolio should be seen as a flexible and adaptable system. As much as any young adult may change friends or experience the coming and going of different teachers, the e-Portfolio should be flexible enough to adapt to the differing audiences who are permitted to share in the learner's activities. As children steadily mature into adulthood, so too, their affections and loyalties will change and their e-Portfolios should be capable of reflecting that change. It is not so much the opportunity to publicise one's avowed following of a film star, pop-group or football team so much as the fact that the e-Portfolio is capable of reflecting something of one's deeper self image.

The choice of media is so very important. Certainly we should avoid those e-Portfolio systems that are so heavily document-based as to provoke the audience to shout out, "I cannot understand what you are saying for the mass of words you write." The colour schemes, choice of fonts or avatars and the selection of recorded interviews, video-clips or SlideShares one may include will no doubt say more about a person than the text they write.