Cloudy with a chance of Change!

...in the way we provide online learning environments within our institutions.
...in the way we see and form our learning networks.
...in the way we become and continue to be lifelong learners.

In my previous post, Cloud Learning Environment - What it is?, I discussed how a CLE is different from a VLE and a PLE. This caused a lot of debate on twitter and on my post. Here is a summary of the main points as I see it.

Gauging the mood

Confusion in the use of terms: In the UK we call our institutional "walled garden" as the VLEs, where in the US people call it the LMS/CMS, ILE?. Some comments gave the impression that in the US the term PLE/PLN is synonymous with the term VLE in the US? On the whole the term VLE seems to have multiple meanings and causes confusion in what it actually means. While the term PLE is relatively better understood and is a term synonymous to informal learning and lifelong learning.

Poll and comments: Through useful comments from several people, it became clear that a vast majority of our students are still in the process of (to quote one comment) "developing digital citizenship", in other words, are still developing their personal online learning skills, networks and environment. It also became clear that what is in the way of all this is the "walled garden" approach to the "Institutional Learning environment". The poll results show this clearly (12% chose VLEs as what they would rather have for their institutions, most chose CLEs-46% and then PLEs-34%; at N=47). The poll asked about "what would I rather have for my institution?", with VLE/CLE/PLE/Chalk&Talk as 4 options.

What emerges from this is that a majority of the people are accepting of a new term CLE. It represent the openness, individual control and choice within an educational institution/formal learning. Some still argue that this open-ness is what a VLE should provide, no need to call it by another name i.e. CLE. Others in the US see no difference between a VLE and a PLE. No doubt there is confusion in the use of existing terms. Calling for a fresh start.

Even if we put together the votes for PLEs and VLEs, the votes for CLEs are still a greater percentage. This makes sense as with CLE we are talking about a system for use within our institutions AND one that accommodate/integrate PLEs of learners. A CLE is not like a PLE i.e. purely for informal or lifelong learning. It is also not like VLE/LMS/CMS purely for formal education.

What of PLE then?: PLEs are for lifelong learning and informal learning. 34% votes are in its favour. There are two issues here and I hope that at least one of these will resolve with time:

1. Integration of PLEs with the institutional LMS/CMS (US usage) / VLEs (UK usage). maybe PLEs dont need to be integrated - but I sense that people want to be able to do so. reasons?
2. Currently students seem to be still developing their online skills, networks and personal learning environments.

Finally I ask myself and others: Could a CLE (or an open VLE) help in the integration of student PLEs with the institutional system? Where a PLE is not already in existence could a CLE encourage students to use other cloud based tools and build their PLEs? (Setting our students up for life-long learning.)
Learning networks formed within a VLE/LMS/CMS may thrive and disintegrate from start to the finish of a course. Importantly, after the completion of a course, such systems do not always allow maintaining the networks for life. Creating barriers to lifelong learning opportunities within learning networks formed during formal educational years. Will a CLE change this by allowing PLEs to mix with and across institutional systems and with other cloud based inter-operable services? Such that when students graduate they can still access their learning network they formed during their course be it inside or outside of their institution.

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Formal and Informal divide

My year started with me making a guest post on Steve Wheeler's award winning blog which can be accessed at "Wisdom of Clouds". By the end of January, there had been a huge number of visits to the post on Steve's and my blog. This spurred a healthy debate which I analyse in another post -Cloudy with a chance of change!. The debate also highlighted this formal and informal divide once again.

 Maybe Graham Atwell misunderstood my stance on PLEs and to clear that I tweeted this on the 24rth of January:

I am not against the concept of #PLEs, in fact they are gr8 for lifelong learning: commented on @GrahamAttwell blog-post http://bit.ly/4quEEW

 

 my only concern is about when people come to universities do they already have a #PLE, does our VLE/LMS/CMS encourage creation of PLEs? 11:43 PM Jan 24th  

 

are PLEs easily integrated within formal education? 11:44 PM Jan 24th from TweetDeck   

why do we want to separate formal and informal learning? when we all know learning knows no boundary 11:44 PM Jan 24th  

 As it happens on twitter, this started a discussion between a few of us who were up that late and joined in:

nlafferty: @manmalik they maybe don't have a #PLE when they come at the moment but another year or two or three and I think they will

me: @nlafferty all the more a reason for our VLEs to change and become more "open" as @sputuk would add :)

 nlafferty:@manmalik I agree they should be more open, do you think current VLEs are really learning environments or admin/management environment envt?

 me: @nlafferty I think they R gd as LMS/CMS & thr is potential 4 these 2 provide formal learning but not informal-not obvious atleast #ple #cle

 jamesclay:@manmalik once you integrate informal learning, it becomes formal learning. You can't plan or design informal learning.

 jamesclay:@manmalik once integrated they are no longer PLEs. You can add institutional systems to your PLE, but not the other way.

 me:@jamesclay re planning informal...I think U can collect stats on wht R the most commonly used informal ways students learn & integr8 some

 creativetallis: @jamesclay @manmalik No, but you can help to create conditions in which it thrives

 me:@jamesclay I do like wht U said abt both informal & PLEs...however there R ways 2 include & benefit from some informal approaches

 nlafferty: @manmalik LMS/CMS can deliver learning content & some tools can support formal learning - I'm interested in what students think of VLEs tho'

 nlafferty: @manmalik I'm using VLE as teacher & student - as a student I would say my learning is happening in my PLE. Agree with @jamesclay comments

 me:@nlafferty a PLE is gr8 for life-long learning, I take it you are a one :)

 nlafferty: @manmalik Yep, at least like to think of myself as one, partly why think important for students not just to use VLE but to develop their PLE

 nlafferty: @manmalik Maybe #CLE will speed up, interesting that OU have opted for google apps

 me:@nlafferty exactly my point, students need to develop a #ple they do not always have one, a #CLE introduces will perhaps speed this up :)

 me:@jamesclay re: adding instl syst 2 #ple & not the other way: I think if u have a #CLE U cn add PLE 2 an institutional #CLE too, nt with #VLE

 jamesclay: @creativetallis @manmalik exactly

 jamesclay:@manmalik as soon as you include it it becomes formal. Create environments for informal, but you can't make informal happen.

I am looking for some answers.

1. Is mixing a PLE with the institutional system a one way process ("You can add institutional systems to your PLE, but not the other way")?  Or is this just a technical limitation of PLEs and existing Institutional systems (LMS/CMS/VLEs)?
2. Is it true that educational institutions can just facilitate/create environments for informal learning and not make it happen?
3. Is there a grey area between the formal and informal that needs attention of the academics? Especially with online learning environments and tools.

Some more interesting read on this I found through @C4lpt http://goodpractice.com/blog/planning-to-implement-informal-learning/

 

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Examopedia for all students

'myExamopedia' is a wikipedia style, collaborative exam revision site for students anywhere in the world.

The success of Examopedia in my own practice is evident from the Google search for the term "Examopedia". See below, a wonderwheel on the term, links to University of Portsmouth, where I work. It also links to "Exam Revision" related search results, basically showing that it has made its place in the Google Search results. These are the main ones.

I know you are not convinced by its success yet! Now thats perfectly normal. Take look at the report written by Engineering Subject Centre's Associate Phil Barker or read his blog post on Examopedia. For this work I was awarded 1 of 4 National Teaching Awards by the HEA's Engineering subject Centre. This work has also been reported in several JISC projects and report.

Some student voices and usage stats to my site are also avilable for you to see.

Now, if you are convinced and want to use it for your students or if you are a student want to use it with your friends before your exam the visit the free to all Examopedia site.

Figure: Examopedia - Conceptual diagram.

 Exam revision is isolating and stressful, blurred boundaries through the use of web 2.0 technologies (like wiki etc) is shown to have helped. Many student prepare using past exam papers, Examopedia helps form a community around this informal activity students engage with. Its also provided opportunity for academics to gauge student confidence prior to exams on different topics and deliver relevant 'Just-in-time' teaching and encourage deep learning via guidance and feedback given on the site.

To keep you up-to-date with any further developments and future innovations follow @myexamopedia on twitter.

Lastly, if you liked the site or have a suggesstion, please drop a line or two here :).

Thanks for you time.

Cloud Learning Environment - What it is? (shorter version)

What is a CLE or Cloud Learning Environment? - The cloud can be seen as one big autonomous system not owned by any educational institution/organisation.
Let the Academics or Learners be the users, of some cloud based services, where both share the same privileges like control, choice, sharing of content etc on these services. This control is different from that in a PLE, a VLE or a PTE. If needed, the academic and the learner can have same rights to the shared content. For example, each "Google Site", can be owned by an academic or a Learner and both users be given the same rights/control by one another (depending on who creates first). Likewise Google Docs can be owned and shared between learners themselves or learners and academics under their own control.
This clearly has potential to enable and facilitate both formal and informal learning for the learners in an institution. Both the academic and the learner are free to use the tools the way they wanted and with anyone they wanted. This would not have been possible if the tools used were chosen / managed by either the academics (PTE) or the learners (PLE) or for that matter the institution (VLE). Google Apps was not designed just for institutions or for individuals, it was designed for collaboration both within and across institutions (CLE).
CLEs also make it very easy to generate content and share it with the rest of the world in a DERPable (Discoverable, Editable, Repurposable and Portable) manner, in the spirit of the UKOER programme.

Lastly, students at my institution love the Google Apps interface, which makes it very easy to get them to engage with their work using online tools. This can be seen from the crazy usage statistics of Google Sites where I now host my Examopedia.

Cloud Learning Environment - What it is?

I have been meaning to write this for quite some time now. To be honest, at some point in the run up to the ALT-C 2009 conference, I got this idea. There is a shorter version of this post too. There were many people at a session titled  "the VLE is Dead" hosted by James Clay, Josie Frase, Graham Attwell, Nick Sharrat and Steve Wheeler aka Timbuckteeth :).
Martin Weller blogged about the death of VLE/LMS too in Nov 2007. Scott Leislie coined a term Loosely coupled teaching a month before that. Martin's prediction about a move towards loosely coupled teaching tools has examples in practice today. However, there is more to it. Let me exaplain

PLE...a set of tools that the learners enjoy full control on and choice of.  The tools within a PLE are most likely not used for the purpose of formal education of all learners within an educational institution. Each learner may use a different set of tools to support/enhance their informal learning.

VLE...a set of tools that the learners enjoy very little control over, if any, or choice of and is an institutional system that is mostly likely for formal education. Academics and the institutions have the most control on this learning environment. Learners may have a say in it to some extent.

Loosely coupled.....to quote Scott, "course taught using contemporary social software/web 2.0 tools outside a course management system." - again these tools the learner may have little control over but the academic is the owner and has most control/choice. As its non institutional learning environment, it is most likely to support informal teaching and learning but may be used for formal teaching and learning too. I have blogged on this type of tools as my own personal teaching environment.

CLE or Cloud Learning Environment....The cloud can be seen as one big autonomous system not owned by any educational institution. Let the Academics or Learners be the users, of some cloud based services, who all equally share the privelages like control, choice, sharing of content etc on these services. Then this is different from a PLE, a VLE and a PTE. For example Google Apps for universities is hosted on the cloud, not fully controlled by any educational institution and certainly not owned by one. The tools on it are to a great extent academic or learner controlled. Each "Google Site", for example, can be owned by an academic or a Learner and both users be given the same rights/control by one another (depending on who creates first). Likewise Google Docs can be owned and shared between learners themselves or learners and academics under their own control.

This gives all parties the same rights on same set of tools. This clearly has potential to enable and facilitate both formal and informal learning for the learner. Both the academic and the learner are free to use the tools the way they wanted and share and collaborate with anyone they wanted. This would not have been possible if either the academics or the learners or for that matter the institution designed and developed the set of tools or bought it from any one supplier. Google Apps was not designed just for institutions or for individuals, it was designed for collaboration both within and accross institutions.

CLEs also makes it very easy to generate content and share it with the rest of the world in a DERPable (Discoverable, Editable, Repurposable and Portable) manner, in the spirit of the UKOER programme. With a bit of search engine optimisation it could work magic in terms of making the educational material that sits on a CLE visible and usable by the rest of the world.

Lastly, students at my institution love the Google Apps interface, which makes it very easy to get them to engage with their work using online tools. This can be seen from the crazy usage statistics of Google Sites where I now host my Examopedia.