3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
Opportunities & challenges
of social computing
for lifelong learning
Christine Redecker, Kirsti Ala-Mutka, Yves Punie
European Commission DG JRC
IPTS - Institute for Prospective Technological Studies
Seville - Spain
http://is.jrc.ec.europa.eu/
http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/
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Presentation Overview
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
I.
Background: IPTS and its Learning 2.0 Project
II. iLANDS: Strategies for Innovation in Learning
III. Learning 2.0 for Organisational Innovation
IV. Learning 2.0 for Pedagogical Innovation
V. Addressing Challenges
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Learning 2.0 Study: Outline
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
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Desk Research
Literature Overview & Analysis of Existing Practice
Literature Review
Long List of Cases
of Learning 2.0 practices in
Europe
Database containing a variety of
cases
Focus: Innovation
8 cases
In depth case studies
To assess good practice
Focus: Inclusion
8 cases
Assessment
of the Impact of Social Computing on Learning
Validation Workshop
Development of Policy Options
I – Background
What is social computing?
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
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Social computing applications enable interaction and collaboration:
→ Users are participants (co-creators not end-users)
→ Networks of individuals & communities become collective resources
Social computing comprises:
→ Digital applications for social networking (e.g. Facebook);
→ video-sharing (e.g. YouTube);
→ photo-sharing (e.g. Flickr);
→ user-generated content (e.g. Wikipedia);
→ multiplayer virtual online worlds (e.g. Second Life);
→ Blogging;
→ Tagging, etc.
Open approach:
- Not only SC technologies & applications but also the “attitude” of SC
- Depends also on how SC applications are used
I – Background
iLANDS for Innovation
i
nnovation
Learning
&
Achieving
Networking
Diversity
Society
Teaching
Practice
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
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iLANDS for Innovation
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
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SC applications used as
methodological or didactic tools
to directly support, facilitate,
enhance & improve
learning processes and outcomes.
Learning
Intercultural Exchange
to broaden horizons:
&
nnovation
virtually meet people from
other age-groups,
backgrounds and cultures
making institutional learning
accessible & transparent
to
current & prospective students,
parents & the general public
→
→
Teaching
Practice
Knowledge exchange
between and among
learners and teachers;
Social sphere of
understanding &
support
Achieving
N
etworking
promoting students’ individual
learning progress
Diversity
empowerment of the learner;
Society
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Opening up to Society
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
making institutional learning
earning
accessible
& transparent
to
&
current & prospective students,
parents andchieving
the general public
L
Opening up to
A
Networking
Diversity
Society
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Opening up to Society: Web-Cams in Childcare
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
http://www.cocoonchildcare.ie/watch_me_live.asp (Ireland)
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http://www.issy.com/index.php/fr/parents/petite_
enfance/les_cyber_creches__1/les_webcams (France)
webcams in pre-primary institutions allow parents to monitor
their children’s activities via internet during the day
http://www.escuelainfantileltrenet.com/es/seccion/inicio.html (Spain)
http://cherryblossomcreche.com/webcams.htm (UK)
Opening up to Society: Schools
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
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French platform for podcasts produced
by primary and secondary school radio
projects
Blog used as website by a mixedaged Swiss primary school class,
where class projects, including
stories and podcasts, are displayed
and students and parents are kept up
to date with important information
http://podcast.ac-rouen.fr
www.flickr.com/groups/classrmdisplays
http://www.sofresh.ch/school/index.php
SC is used in primary & secondary schools
to publish students’ work & information on
school projects
Flickr group, where primary
school classes publish their
classroom displays
Opening up to Society: Universities
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http://www.youtube.com/ucberkeley
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
http://admission.case.edu/secondlife.asp
Higher education institutions are moving
to SC sites to become more accessible
to current & prospective students
http://www.myspace.com/warwickuniversity
II – Perspectives on Learning 2.0
Embracing Diversity
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
Intercultural Exchange
Learning
& people from
virtually meet
other age-groups,
backgrounds
and cultures
chieving
Embracing
A
Networking
Diversity
Society
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Embracing Diversity: Cultural Exchange
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
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http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com
http://slua.com/
SC can be used as a means to facilitate
intercultural exchange
www.geocities.com/optionalcourse7a191
http://www.icamp.eu/learnmore/project/
Networking & Community Building
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
Learning
&
Achieving
Networking
&
Diversity
Community
Building
Society
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Networking Learners
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
Community Approach based on OSN
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Community Approach based on blogs
http://www.lts.leeds.ac.uk/elgg/
http://community.brighton.ac.uk/
Universities encourage social networking to enhance
communication & cooperation among students & staff
creating an environment of understanding, fun, mutual
assistance & shared interests.
Community Approaches based on various tools
https://elgg.leeds.ac.uk/
Networking Researchers & Teachers
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
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https://www.researchgate.net/
Global Facebook-like
community for researchers
Virtual learning network for vocational
education and training (VET) professionals
www.eurotrainer.org/
SC allows teachers to exchange knowledge, material &
experiences and to collaborate on projects. A social (& emotional)
network of support & assistance can be established.
multilingual exchange & collaboration platform for teachers
in training, initiated by the University of Cologne (Germany)
http://www.share.uni-koeln.de/
social network for people teaching
foreign languages in primary school
http://primarymfl.ning.com
Learning 2.0 for Organisational Innovation
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
i
nnovation
E&T Institutions become...
Transparent &
accessible service
providers
Reintegrating
E&T into
society
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in E&T
organisations
Networking
Diversity
Society
Communities for Learning
Global places:
Transcending borders
between organisations,
countries and cultures
Learning & Achieving
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
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Access to learning sources
Knowledge management
Subject-specific methods
Achievement
Personal skills
Learning
Meta
skills
&
Achieving
media-sharing
immersive environments
blogs
N
etworking
social networking
wikis
bookmarking
Dpodcasts
iversity
multimedia
collaboration
Society
learner as (co-)producer
Access to Learning Sources
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
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http://itec610porto.blogspot.com/
Course blog by Prof. Stella Porto,
Graduate School of Management
& Technology
University of Maryland University
College
German-language
Podcasting platform
for research institutes
Stanford University
http://itunes.stanford.edu/
http://www.podcampus.de/
→ SC tools can be used as platforms for
the distribution of learning materials
III – Areas in which SC enhances learning
Access to Learning Sources: Insights
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
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→ Podcasts are attractive to learners: learning at one's own pace,
listening to the content as many times as necessary, anywhere &
anytime (Morales & Moses, 2006).
→ Podcasts effective in exam revision: Study by Evans (2008):
 Students believed podcasts to be more effective than textbooks
& own notes;
 Students were more receptive to audio learning material; in the
form of a podcast than a traditional lecture or textbook.
 Students needed less revision time, were able to take in more
information and were more flexible in when, where and how to
learn.
→ Podcasts contribute to better achievement: Study by Cramer
(2007): Students using lecture recordings extensively scored 15%
higher in their second than in their first midterm exam.
III – Areas in which SC enhances learning
Personal Knowledge Management
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
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Wikis gathering the collective knowledge of (groups of)
http://tags.library.upenn.edu/ students in primary & secondary education:
Penntags (University of Pennsylvania):
Social bookmarking for students & staff
http://wiki.zum.de/ZUM-Grundschulwiki
 SC tools can be used to gather the collective knowledge of a group,
http://www.prowiki2.org/glarnerschulen/wiki.cgi
 empowering learners to become authors of content,
 integrating them into a network of peer reflection, revision and support.
http://de.wikibooks.org/wiki/Soziologische_Klassiker
collaborative “Wikibook” by
students of sociology at the
University of Salzburg
(Austria): encyclopaedia of
important sociologists
http://welkerswikinomics.wetpaint.com/?t=anon
III – Areas in which SC enhances learning
Knowledge management: Insights
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
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Advantages of Social Computing for knowledge management:
 Students appreciate the ease of building up a substantial knowledge
base and the collaborative mode of operation (Barth, 2007)
 Individual & the group performance can be significantly increased by
collaborative work with SC (Liaw et al., 2008).
 Wikis can handle different forms of knowledge (Barth, 2007).
Findings on students’ research strategies:
 Students are already using and combining SC tools on their own
account for research network building (Conole et al., 2008).
 Students use blogs to support self-regulated learning in various ways
(Baggetun & Wasson, 2006), e.g.
(1) by reflecting publicly on a topic,
(2) as filters for links, building a personal knowledge base,
(3) as a knowledge repositories.
III – Areas in which SC enhances learning
New Subject Specific Methods
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
University of British Columbia, Canada: Ancient History & Culture; Arts
http://ancient.arts.ubc.ca/
RWTH Aachen, Germany: School of Architecture
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3D virtual worlds, like Second Life, are suited to replicate and investigate a threedimensional reality as is done in architecture, medicine, geography, natural
sciences, history, law and metaphysics.
(Reihman, 2007; Rauch & Wang, 2007; Chittaro & Ranon, 2007; Mzoughi et al., 2007; John, 2007 )
Similarly: Media sharing supports a more active student involvement and
practical approach in arts, design, music, composition, etc.
(NMC & educause, 2008; Reid, 2008)
→ New learning tools, new learning methods
http://www.manuelglasl.de/index.php?article_id=6
http://artsmetaverse.arts.ubc.ca/
III – Areas in which SC enhances learning
Personal Achievement: Performance
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
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Social computing facilitates personalisation and collaboration,
which can both contribute to a significant increase in students’
performance and achievement in any subject
Personal
Achievement
collaboration
personalisation
Cavallaro & Tan, 2006; Gibson, 2004,
2005; Makri & Kynios, 2007; Laurinen
&Marttunen, 2007; Cobos & Pifarré,
2008; Liaw et al., 2008
Evans, 2008; Cramer,
2007; Carletti et al., 2008
blogs
immersive environments
Subject-specific methods
media-sharing
social networking
wikis Knowledge management
bookmarking
Access to learning sources
podcasts
Personal Achievement: Writing Skills
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
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Collaborative book-writing project
(Catalonia, Spain)
Collaborative book-writing project Austria)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ourscrapbook
http://childrenreviewingbooks.wikispaces.com/
“Bookworms” (Iceland): students publish, share
& comment on each others’ book reviews
Wikis and blogs support writing skills,
especially in primary and secondary education
primary and secondary school
students write book reviews &
recommendations
Personal Achievement: Language Skills
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
Latin Blog: cooperation of an
Italian & French secondary
school
“Wikispace for English” project
at an Italian secondary school
Wikis and blogs can support
foreign language skills
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Personal Skills
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
self-directed
learning
de Laat (2007); Barth
(2007)
motivation
De Laat (2007); Cavallaro
Personal skills
communication
& social skills
Lee et al. (2008)
participation
responsibility
Cruz & Carvalho (2007),
Frydenberg (2007)
blogs
& Tan (2006); Rau et al.
(2008); Langhorst (2006)
De Laat (2007);
Antoniou &
Siskos (2007);
immersive environments
Subject-specific methods
media-sharing
social networking
wikis Knowledge management
bookmarking
Access to learning sources
podcasts
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Personal Skills: Examples
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
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Conflict resolution & mediation skills
http://www.avataratschool.eu/
Increasing motivation, participation & intercultural skills
http://pcomunitaria.wordpress.com/
University of Salamanca (Spain): Collaborative
subject blog increasing motivation, participation
& social relationships
http://www.andeducation.co.uk/etwinpodcast.htm
Higher Order Skills
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
Online writing (blogs, wikis, etc.)
→ increases reflective thinking levels (Xie et al.,2008);
→ encourages active participation, meta-cognition and critical
thinking (Antoniou & Siskos, 2007);
→ supports reflective activities & the development of metacompetences (Carletti et al., 2008).
Meta
skills
However, a clear structure is necessary to attain higher order
cognitive skills (Kanuka et al., 2007; Carletti et al., 2008)
blogs
immersive environments
Subject-specific methods
media-sharing
social networking
wikis Knowledge management
bookmarking
Access to learning sources
podcasts
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Learning 2.0 for Pedagogical Innovation
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personalisation
collaboration
participation
motivation
social skills
reflection
meta-cognition
Meta
skills
Personal skills
Achievement
Subject-specific methods
Knowledge management
i
nnovation
Access to learning sources
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
→ learning collaborative process
→ self-directed learning
 empowerment of the learner
→ new methods & tools
→ new learning resources
Scaffolding Learning 2.0
→ Start simple, be patient;
→ provide ample (technical) support;
→ fit SC tool to learning objectives.
Usability
Attitudes
Interaction
Even advanced users need time &
assistance to familiarise with
learning 2.0 tools, functions &
options.
(1) Students’ attitudes influence
acceptance and performance
(2) SC can be used in very
personal ways → individual
learning pathways
→ Allow & encourage appropriation
tailored to individuals’ needs;
→ Develop ways for personalized
assessment.
Preconditions for SC collaboration:
(1) propensity & willingness to contribute
(2) team cohesiveness
(3) minimum level of prior knowledge
→ Provide incentives for collaboration;
→ Promote open, friendly & supportive
working atmosphere;
→ pay attention to weak students’ needs.
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Recommendations
Research Evidence
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
 Structured Approach:
→ SC tools fitted to objectives, learners’ experiences, attitudes and interaction patterns;
→ Tasks need to be transparent, relevant and targeted;
→ Tools need to be embedded in a supportive environment of guidance and support.
Scaffolding
 Importance of Teacher as designer, coordinator, moderator, mediator & mentor
IV – Factors influencing Learning 2.0
Challenges
3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
 Advertising & Commercial Activities
 Lack of control: loss of content, end of service (or fees)
 Copyright issues
SC Services
 Disclosing personal data
 Self-destructive behaviour
 Cyberbullying
 Online grooming
Adolescent Users
 Digital divides: regional, age, social
 Different eMaturity levels
 Learners with disabilities, special needs
 Advanced digital skills & “Participation divide”
Access & Skills
 Lack of experience & knowledge of SC & ICT
 No incentives for use, conflict with curriculum & assessment
 Lack of vision how SC can enhance learning
 Lack of training programs & policy support
Teachers
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3rd IPTS-IS Dissemination Workshop with DG EAC, 16th October 2008 – Learning 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Lifelong Learning
Thank you very much for your attention!
Questions?
Christine Redecker
Christine.Redecker@ec.europa.eu
(+34) 954 48 84 92
http://is.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pages/Learning-2.0.html
http://is.jrc.ec.europa.eu/
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