The Dimensions of Learning -- Individual to Massively Collaborative

In searching for the frontier in the learning space, it's helpful to make a map and specify the dimensions. One important dimension on the learning space has been the continuum from individual to group learning. It's no surprise that group learning has given way from an endpoint to a midpoint as technology has enabled more and more of us to be in the same place at the same, *coughs*, ansynchronous time. That's a good illustration of how the frontier is pushed by technology. We were once comfortable with exploring how groups learn, and now we find that people are learning in what we could call, Massively Multi-Learner, Online Collaboration, or MMLOC, with apologies to MMORPG.

With a dimension defined, where are we on the continuum? Everquest, Guildwars, and Secondlife are great examples of systems where MMORPG has been applied, and some online learning has been enabled, so do they qualify as MMLOCs? The learning retreats from "massive" back to small group interaction with a massive audience from which to choose randomly. How massive can we get? Is a course with 2000 learners massive? Judge for yourself at the Massively Open Online Course, MOOC.

To be truly massive, you need to get out of the course model, as there will be limits to the coordinated action required in a course (unless we redefine "course"). One such place to go is to online learning communities where there's a defined purpose, such as learning to create curriculum or learning to apply social networking communities to learning, or even developing open software. Two of the larger defined learning communities I have found are curriki.org (size unknown) and Ning in Education (~8,000). If we're willing to adopt a model of learning where a community includes lurkers (those looking in at the community) to apprentices (those practicing on the periphery) all the way to masters (those at the center who are leading the community), then sourceforge.net is a great example with 2 million registered users dedicated to using and creating open software. Less project-oriented than sourceforge, more traditional, and bigger still, by this definition, is wikipedia.org. Wikipedia has a set of lurkers (unregistered users) that approaches the set of all online users, a set of registered users, and a much smaller set of core contributors.

Is the size of wikipedia the endpoint? The answer depends, again, on the definition of learning. If we count interacting with and creating digital content as learning, the collected set of web users is a learning community that has been thriving since its invention. (Anyone know the latest count of wikipedia or the web?)

But there is one endpoint not yet reached. Borrowing from Ray Kurzweil's idea of  "singularity", all of humanity will someday be interconnected in a meaningful thinking, collaborative learning singularity, that viewed from a distance can be seen as a highly complex organism. Is that the end? Let's really push the boundaries to include learning by machines as well - especially all machines and all people interacting in a single, cybernetic cloud. We'll explore whether that's beyond the frontier in future entries and may conclude that degree of machine integration to learning is also a dimension.

Finding the learning frontier: predicting the Top 4 Mobile Learning Apps of 2013 from the Top 10 Mobile Apps of 2012

In keeping with the theme of looking for the learning frontier in non-educational areas, the ReadWriteWeb posted a story on Gartner Group's Top Ten Mobile Apps of 2012. In any search, there may be some blind alleys before finding the good stuff, so I'll include those less direct applications to learning (and for a good reason -- you may see an application where I don't). I have kept the original numbering.


Possible Direct Application to Learning

2 Location-Based Services: "Gartner says this will be one of the most disruptive technologies in the future, with a user base growing from 96 million in 2009 to 526 million in 2012"  . Field simulations -- actually sending learners into the real-world or at least real-world spaces with GPS enabled applications that sense how close one is to another may have applciations. Thoughts where this could be useful?

3 Mobile Search and 4 Mobile Browsing:  How search and browsing apply to learning is obvious. One insight is that browsing capabilities will increase from approximately 60% to 80% of hand held devices, making access all the more likely, which is important as a practical aspect of learning if you're not supplying the devices. Another insight is that Gartner predicts a shakeup of the search services. In general, learning providers need to be ready to put  learning resources in mobile format. Any other applications here?
 
7 Near Field Communications (NFC): To quote the NFC entry in  wikipedia.org, "The significant advantage of NFC over Bluetooth is the shorter set-up time. Instead of performing manual configurations to identify Bluetooth devices, the connection between two NFC devices is established at once (under a tenth of a second)." The opportunity is the creation of a set of measurement devices that are easier to configure and possibly less expensive to create.

I am reminded of the promise of the TI calculator devices like temperature, pressure, and sonic measurement that could rapidly create time-based measurements. With mobile devices, they can also add location data, capture the data sets, upload to a common area, and support collaborative aggregation, analysis, and decision making. The medical devices (in the lsit below) could allow the creation of datasets as well.


Slight or Indirect Link to Learning


1 SMS Money Transfer and 6 Mobile Payments: no direct application to learning, except maybe for learning institutions wanting to receive payments.

5 Mobile Health Monitoring: presumably this is done by creating blue-tooth devices and applications that readthem on the mobile device. This will impact learning in health care as a subject and may also be the technology on a mass scale breakthrough needed to support other blue-tooth enabled devices for taking measurements in the field.

8 Mobile Advertising: Unsolicited, location sensitive, commercial content. If we strike the commercial and substitute with learning, there's an application there for in-the-field learning that does not require a group environment to be effective.


9 Mobile Instant Messaging: defined as an alternative to SMS. Not clear if there's a true prediction here, so in the "slight to none" category.

10 Mobile Music: the music may have not direct application, but as a gateway technology, it has implications for mobile content, ala iTunesU.

Mobile Internet Devices for Learning

The NMC report lists mobile internet devices as one of the near horizon technologies that will penetrate higher ed down under (greater than 16%). The availability of Apple's iTunesU and iPod/iPhone devices led to adoption of this approach by several universities in the US. More recently some universities have adopted Amazon's Kindle ; a number of vendors have seen their netbooks adopted. The increasing availability of wireless networks helps speed adoption, particularly by students, if not only for learning purposes. The rapid increase in availability of smart phones and supporting networks, combined with an increasing number of applications, enables informal learning now and formal learning adoption in the near horizon.

  The history of education is littered with promising technology innovations that later turned out to be marginally effective, such as film strips, videos, and even classroom computers, proving that it's not the technology itself, but the availability, teacher preparation, applications, and the degree of thinking designed into the learning experience. With that experience in mind, what are the features of mobile computing technology that enable quality learning?

Here's a partial list, and please post ideas of your own:

• Mostly anywhere availability: the devices can be taken to the "field" to help guide realistic learning opportunities, record data, capture pictures and videos of events, and with GPS or location software, record location information; specialized development of sensors could also allow weather, chemical or other data collection. Imagine all the high schools in a state taking field trips at hundreds or thousands of locations with students collecting and integrating into a common geospatial dataset water and other environmental readings. Imagine further that the science classes help students analyze the data as practicing sicentists and publishing their findings in a collaborative "State of the State" report.
• Real-time connectivity across distance: at its simplest, this is phone or text communication, but with the proper organization and perhaps apps like twitter allowing point-to-multi-point communication, simulations of distributed organizations, emergency management situations, and distributed coordination are possible. Several years ago, Colorado Technical University and the Challenger Learning Center hosted a network-based Mt. Pinatubo-like crises simulation, that is now possible much more affordably with group communication devices.
• Mediated, real-world communication: the mediated aspect of modern workplace communication is learned best by actual practice with workplace devices; too much performance simulation in face-to-face situations does not reflect current and future practice. Simulations designed to expose the limitations of devices can improve the use of such devices.
  
• Affordable, complex applications (mindtools to go): the affordability factor may increase the availability of devices and applications so that more learners can engage thinking constructively;
• Access to information: the kindle device gives convenient access to books, the iPhone to audio and video lectures; but while non-traditional delivery of traditional content is useful, even more useful is the availability represented by searchable sources such as wikipedia.org or even access to expertise networks through texting.

These features are some of the advantages specific to mobile smart devices. Please share your experiences and ideas.

Side note, technorati claim code: B6WUWRZHJMZ4.

Where do we find the learning frontier?

The title asks, where do we find the learning frontier? Well, on average, not in the classroom. In the spirit of discovery, I picked up the recent NMC report on learning down under in Australia and New Zealand. What I found echoes the approach I've used for predicting the next generation of learning technology: the tools for learning in the future are those that  people use to work, play, and communicate, in the present.

The rise of social networking is an example. People are increasingly finding the Web as a communication tool (facebook, linkedin, myspace) and if we believe that the social element is an important part of  learning (see social constructionism or the theories of Vygostky),  then informal learning is definitely on the rise. Communities of Practice are also built on the foundation of good communication. Another blog entry in TLF begins to look at facebook in particular and another social site, Ning in Education, looks at the use of the Ning platform for supporting or actually organizing learning (and is one itself for those who want to learn more).

To the extent that learning should concern itself with employability (ask any undergrad how important this is), using the tools in the learning environment that are used at work to create valuable work products (see PLM), looking at the work and play frontier is especially useful.

One of my goals in writing this blog is to discover that frontier collectively with you all. Please post in the comments your blogs or thoughts on examples that you believe predict learning innovations to come.

Also, as the NMC reports (and reported earlier in Mindstorms by Seymour Papert), schools are remarkably resistant to adoption of technology in meaningful ways, so examples of successful adoption strategies are needed.

Keep pushing the frontier!

What students need to learn (1): information, visual, technological literacy

What do students need to learn? A recent report from the New Media Consoritum on new media in Australia and New Zealand points out that while our students are surrounded by the most technology and media rich environment, they do not necessarily know how to effectively use these riches for communication and thinking. The way the report puts the issue is:

"There is a growing need for formal instruction in key new skills, including information literacy, visual literacy, and technological literacy."

Another part of the report states the value of creativity and innovation in the real world is going up, yet schools remain largely silent on this topic. The three skills above can be enablers of innovation and creativity, if they are taught well using projects as the motivators (see PLM or PBL).

In future blogs, I'll highlight some of the NMC's cases that illustrate how our friends down under are making headway on these subjects. But, before you read those, take a moment to ask how you would accomplish this type of learning in your environment. Please post in the comments below.

Problem-based Learning

One proven model of learning that is quite promising for technologically based systems is problem-based learning. It's bee used for teaching diagnosis, design, policy development, and other typically difficult subjects to teach authentically.

A good source of reading on the subject is the Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning, a free online journal dedicated to scholarly research in the area of problem-based learning (what a surprise *grins*). 

If you're new to the idea of problem-based learning, I suggest you start with an overview article. Read as much or little as you like. I enjoyed the 3C3R article for it's model on how to think about the many sides of successful PBL implementation.

If you're exploring problem-based learning, especially online, please post a comment and link.

Facebook as a Learning Tool?

Facebook.com and it's in some ways more capable companion, Ning.com, are definitely changing learning as they support people connecting in groups and sharing what interests them. Whether these tools will be useful as supports for communities of practice is yet to be seen, and in some ways, they are low-end collaboration systems as their primary functionality is to connect to others socially, share media, and more recently, to play games. From the CoP viewpoint, maybe they function best as discovery tools for those forming ad hoc communities of practice who then move to other platforms for true collaboration.

One potential should not be dismissed, which is the use of facebook to support learning across boundaries through games. An interview with Curtis Bonk by Robin Good suggests the potential of games like farmville and asks how we create educational games with that platform? I ask, who and what would we want to teach? And why? In this case, the boundary spanning potential for learning is like marketing -- it's to push awareness either for the direct purpose of learning/teaching a particular idea or the indirect purpose of capturing an audience.

Any suggestions?

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If this is the Frontier, where are the Boundaries?

We start learning early before going to primary school, and if we survive higher-ed, then we keep learning. I purposely didn't call this blog the "Education Frontier" as I wanted to ensure that we don't limit ourselves (me and you all) to the standard practices of the U.S. based education system. Surely, those practices themselves are changing, and to help accelerate them, we need to look outside the global education system, and look where learning is happening.

As an example of non-school learning, one of my best learning experiences was working in computer science at the same time I was studying it in my bachelors. I was writing visual basic and Z80 assembler programs for career exploration funded by the State of Kansas. While my professors were criticizing Basic as a toy language, I was learning what made for effective and ineffective interfaces, search algorithms, and the business of applied problem solving. I never took a class that was as effective as working with real customers. Decades later, I discovered that this is learning in the "Legitimate Peripheral Participation" style defined by Lave and Wegner published 10 years after my experiences.

There are many types of learning, and to push the frontiers, we have to push the models and the technology that implement them. What are your favorite examples of great learning?

Mindtools

A significant topic of this blog will be about new mindtools together with new ways to use them.

MindTools was coined by David H. Jonassen. A MindTool is any tool that represents thinking abstractly and gives a high degree of control to the user to, in effect, reason by manipulation of the representation. A good example is freemind, an open source mindmapping tool. Truly useful mindtools support shared thinking. Wikipedia and debateGraph are good examples.

A MindTool supports some or all of the following learning and professional activities: meaningful learning, knowledge construction, reflective thinking, cognitive partnership, and scaffold thinking.

Some of the other mind tools mentioned in (Jonassen, D. H. (1999). Computers as Mindtools for Schools: Engaging Critical Thinking, 2e. Prentice Hall) are mindmaps, databases, spreadsheets, and simulation creation tools.

Please share some of the tools you are using to think bigger.

The Professional Learning Model (PLM)

PLM is a model we created in 2004 at Colorado Technical University to capture our approach to learning that emphasizes realistic problems and projects. This combination of university-level learning with professionally useful learning is based on learning theory (most notably legitimate peripheral participation and social constructionsim).

Typically students work through realistic scenarios that represent the full complexity of problems and situations found in the professional environment. They may also bring projects into the class from work.

An important part of PLM is the use of mindtools for amplifying individual and collective problem solving. Some of these tools are found in professional settings, while others are not common, yet would be of great help. We often call them "cool tech".

We'll explore in this blog the problems and projects used in the model and the supporting technologies that people find helpful in the real world and in learning.

Now, in 2009, I see a few more universities using a model like this, but most offer versions of the digital lecture.

I'd love to hear about other technologies and models that help push the frontiers of learning.

Social Learners

Learning starts social - the feeling of our mother holding us, feeding us, and the love response within. As we grow, our world widens to include the people who talk to us, who show us things, and make us laugh or cry. As we learn, the world around us learns about us and with us. Our wonder reflects in them.

We are social learners from the beginning. And it never ends.

Please join together to explore our ever expanding world, testing new social technologies and content, new relationships, and new models.