The document discusses how new social media and Web 2.0 technologies are impacting education by changing learner and teacher roles and requiring new digital literacies, and both positively enabling greater access to resources and participation, but also risking social exclusion for those without access or skills; it examines case studies of using technologies for social inclusion and combating exclusion; and promotes the open sharing of practices on the Cloudworks site to transfer knowledge and philosophies around open and accessible education for all.

1. Social exclusion
or inclusion in a
Web 2.0 world
Gráinne Conole,
The Open University, UK
DeHub conference,
Sydney,
18th February 2011
http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/5040

2. Key questions
 How are new open, social and
participatory media changing
educational practice?
 What new digital literacies are
needed?
 How are learner and teacher roles
changing?
 How can we design learning
interventions and environments
to harness new media?
 What are the implications for
formal and informal learning?
 What social exclusion issues arise
and how can they be combated?

3. Outline
• Web 2.0 characteristic
• Positive and negative impacts
in education
• Social exclusion or inclusion?
• Case studies
• The changing nature of
community

4. New media
 Key characteristics
 Peer critiquing
 Aggregation of resources
 Collaborative
 Communicative
 Personalisable
 Networked
 Open practices
 Interactive

5. Evidence
• Horizon report, 2011
• NSF Cyber-infrastructure
report, 2008
• IPTS e-learning 2.0 report,
2008
• Review of Web 2.0 tools &
practices, 2010

6. Horizon report 2011
• Abundance of resources challenging
traditional educational roles
• People expect to be able to work &
learn anywhere, anytime
• World of work increasingly
collaborative
• Technologies increasingly cloud based
• Importance of digital literacies
• New evaluation metrics for new
scholarship and publishing

7. Technologies to watch
• E-books
• Mobiles
• Augmented learning
• Game-based learning
• Gesture-based learning
• Learning analytics

8. Conole and Alevizou, 2010
Effective use of new technologies requires a
radical rethink of the core learning and
teaching processes; a shift from design as an
internalised, implicit and individually crafted
process to one that is externalised and
shareable with others. Change in practice may
indeed involve the use of revised materials,
new teaching strategies and beliefs - all in
relation to educational innovation. Gill Clough
Giota Alevizou

9. Change +ve impact -ve impact
Access,
Free tools, resources Role of institutions,
personalisation,
& services lack of control
supports the long tail
Technology as core Narrower, but
Ubiquitous access
tool deeper digital divide
Multiple
Increased peer, tutor Fragmentation, no
communication &
and expert dialogue central repository
distribution channels
Rich media New forms of sense- Lack of new digital
representation making literacies
Increased variety of
User-generated
knowledge, learner Quality assurance
content
control

10. New digital literacies (Jenkins et al., 2008)
Play
Visualisation Performance
Negotiation Appropriation
Simulation Multi-tasking
Networking
Distributed cognition
Transmedia navigation Collective intelligence
Judgment

12. In or out?
• Voluntary exclusion -
freedom of choice not
to participate
• Involuntary exclusion -
lack of access or
expertise to participate

13. Social exclusion
Social exclusion is a
multidimensional process of
progressive social rupture,
detaching groups and
individuals from social
relations and institutions and
preventing them from full
participation in the normal,
normatively prescribed
activities of the society in Includes lack of access to:
which they live Earnings
Education
Technology
Community
Basic human rights

14. Social exclusion
Process whereby individuals are pushed to
the edge of society and prevented from
participating fully by virtue of their poverty
or lack of competences and lifelong learning
opportunities or by discrimination
http://ftp.jrc.es/EURdoc/JRC53578_TN.pdf

15. Social inclusion
Process that ensures that those at risk of
poverty and social exclusion gain the
opportunities and resources to participate
fully in the economic, social and cultural life
http://ftp.jrc.es/EURdoc/JRC53578_TN.pdf

16. Web 2.0
• Preventing digital
exclusion
• Exploit new
technologies for
better inclusion

17. Your signature counts
Social justice
Educational for all
Combating poverty
Amnesty International video
via Pambos Vrasidas
http://www.google.com.au/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=amensty
+international+your+signature
+counts&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=I5dYTbPoK4OucI6n7
ZwM
Education for a better
quality of life but is
education for all?

18. IPTS case studies
Case study Description
Notschool Online school for drop outs
www.notschool.net Constructivist pedagogy, peer buddy system
Assistive technology wiki Supports knowledge creation around assistive
abilitynet.wetpaint.com ‘Routes of desire’ pedagogy model
Mundi de Estrellas
Aimed at young people in hospital, shared stories
www.juntadeandalucia.es
ALPEUNED Students with disabilities at the Open University in
adenu.ia.uned.es/alpe/ Spain
Conecta Joven
eSkills for at risk and excluded groups
www.conectajoven.org
MOSEP Self-esteemed through e-Portfolios, learning
www.mosep.org companions
Schome Park Gifted kids and those with autism, in SecondLife,
www.schome.ac.uk open pedagogy based on collaboration
BREAKOUT
Offending and drug prevention, a life-swapping model
www.breakoutproject.odl.org
http://ftp.jrc.es/EURdoc/JRC53578_TN.pd

19. Open Educational Resources
Part of the broader OER movement
Move beyond the creation of OER to
articulation of practices and community
Focus on better design and use
Olnet: an evidence-based approach with support for the
community and a fellowship scheme
OPAL: articulation of dimensions of OER practices and
associated guidelines for learners, teachers, managers and
policy makers

20. Combating social exclusion
 Open and free
 Education for all
 Easily accessible
 Means of transferring practice
 It’s also a philosophy...

21. Sharing and discussing practice
http://cloudworks.ac.uk

22. Quick language guide

23. Quick language guide
Cloud:
Anything to do with
learning and teaching

24. Quick language guide
Cloud:
Anything to do with
learning and teaching
Cloudscape:
A collection of
clouds

25. Quick language guide
Cloud:
Anything to do with
learning and teaching
Cloudscape:
A collection of
clouds
Activity stream:
Latest activities on a
Cloudscape or people

26. Quick language guide
Cloud:
Anything to do with
learning and teaching
Cloudscape:
A collection of
clouds
Activity stream:
Latest activities on a
Cloudscape or people Favourites:
Vote for things
you like

27. Quick language guide
Cloud:
Anything to do with
learning and teaching
Cloudscape:
A collection of
clouds
Activity stream:
Latest activities on a
Cloudscape or people Favourites:
Vote for things
you like
Follow:
Cloudscapes, Clouds
or people

28. Quick language guide
Cloud:
Anything to do with
learning and teaching
Cloudscape:
A collection of
clouds
Activity stream:
Latest activities on a
Cloudscape or people Favourites:
Vote for things
you like
Follow: RSS feeds:
Cloudscapes, Clouds For Cloudscapes, Clouds
or people & people

29. Quick language guide
Cloud:
Anything to do with
learning and teaching
Cloudscape:
A collection of
clouds
Activity stream:
Latest activities on a
Cloudscape or people Favourites:
Vote for things
you like
Follow: RSS feeds: Attend:
Cloudscapes, Clouds For Cloudscapes, Clouds Conferences &
or people & people workshops

30. Types of activity

31. Types of activity
Events

32. Types of activity
Events Virtual reading circles

33. Types of activity
Events Virtual reading circles
Open reviews

34. Types of activity
Events Virtual reading circles
Open reviews

35. Combating exclusion
• Completely open
• Easy to use
• Crosses boundaries
• Access to new knowledge
and expertise
• Aggregation of resources
• Sharing ideas and practice
• Facilitates the development
of networks

36. A focus on community
 New open, social and participatory
media enable new means of
communication, collaboration,
sharing and co-construction of
knowledge
 Want to focus on the nature of
community in these new online
spaces
 What is it and how can it be
fostered, supported?

37. The nature of community
 Complex, distributed, loose
communities are emerging
 Facilitated through different but
connected social networking tools
such as facebook, Twitter, Ning
 Users create their own Personal
Digital Environment
 Mix of synchronous and
asynchronous tools
 Boundary crossing via the power of
retweeting

38. So what is a community?
[Community does not] imply necessarily co-presence, a well-
defined identifiable group, or socially visible boundaries. It
does imply participation in an activity system about which
participants share understandings concerning what they are
doing and what that means in their lives and for their
communities
Lave and Wenger, 1991
Virtual communities are social aggregations that emerge
from the Net when enough people carry on those public
discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to
form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace.
Rheingold, 1993

39. Community as a process
 Constantly evolving and
changing
 Shifting groups and depths
of relationships
 Dynamic, evolving and
potentially transformative
 Both directed and
serendipitous interactions

40. Community indicators
Participation Cohesion
Sustained over time Support & tolerance
Commitment from core group Turn taking & response
Emerging roles & hierarchy Humour and playfulness
Identity Creative capability
Group self-awareness Igniting sense of purpose
Shared language & vocab Multiple points of view
Sense of community expressed, contradicted or
challenged
Creation of knowledge links
& patterns
Galley et al., 2010

41. Participation
 Three types of
hierarchical roles
 Veterans: support and
encourage groups and
newbies
 Trendsetters: make a
difference
 Posters: need to be
incentivised to turn from
lurkers to active
contributors

42. Cohesion
 Through support,
tolerance, reciprocity
and trust
 Language and tone are
critical factors in the
development of an
online community
 Emotional and peer
support

43. Identity
Central to the notion of
community are issues of
membership and exclusion.
Some people are in, others are
out. Communities range from
being open to anyone who
shares particular ideas or
interests to communities
accessible only to those who
meet certain criteria of
geography, ethnicity, gender,
etc

44. Framework for sociality
 System needs to accommodate both evolution of
practices and inclusion of newcomers
 Both individual and group identity are important
 People more likely to use systems that resemble
their daily routines, languages and practices
 Metaphors that mimic real life practices are likely to
be more successful
Bouman et al., 2007

45. Creative capability
 Importance of conflict,
disagreement and
negotiation in the
process of collaborative
knowledge creation and
developing
understanding
 Social discord as a
catalyst for knowledge
construction and
expansive learning

46. Can Web 2.0 support social inclusion?

47. Can Web 2.0 support social inclusion?
Rich multimedia representation of content
Multiple communication channels
Accessible anywhere, anytime
Abundance of free tools and resources

48. Can Web 2.0 support social inclusion?
Rich multimedia representation of content
Multiple communication channels
Accessible anywhere, anytime
Abundance of free tools and resources
Digital divide narrower but deeper
Increasingly complex landscape
New digital literacy skills needed
Access issues

49. Wisdom of the crowds

50. Wisdom of the crowds

51. Wisdom of the crowds

52. Wisdom of the crowds

53. Wisdom of the crowds

54. Implications
• New digital literacies
needed
• Changing roles of
teachers and learners
• New institutional roles
and structures
• Balance of institutional
vs. free systems

55. Recommendations
 For learners
 Provide support to development of new digital literacies
 Facilitate more learner-centred approaches
 Encourage communication and collaboration
 Shift from a focus on content to activities
 For teachers
 New approaches to design, support and assessment
 Adopting more explicit and reflexive teaching practices
 Technology immersion – learning through the technologies
 Encourage a networked educational community of teachers and
learners

56. Recommendations
 For institutions
 Strategies/policies that reflect the changing context of learning
 Resources and support to facilitate the shift in practice needed
 Strong leadership with an understanding of the issues
 Re-visioning structures and infrastructures
 PD/incentives for teaching staff to implement
 Nationally
 Free educational resources - Open Educational Resources
 Promote case studies of good practice
 Appropriate strategies and policies and funding
 Professional networks and communities
 Ongoing horizon scanning of technology trajectories
-

57. Reflections
 Open, participatory and social media enable new forms of
communication and collaboration
 Communities in these spaces are complex and distributed
 Teachers and learners need to develop new digital literacy
skills to harness their potential
 We need to rethink the design of learning interventions,
support and assessment
 Sites like Cloudworks can provide a mechanisms for teachers to
share and discuss learning and teaching ideas
 We are seeing a blurring of boundaries: teachers/learners,
teaching/learning, content/activities and real/virtual spaces

58. References
 Galley, R., Conole, G. and Alevizou, P. (submitted), Community Indicators: A
framework for building and evaluating community activity on Cloudworks,
Interactive Learning Environments. Conole, G, and Alevizou, P. (2010), A
literature review of the use of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education, HE
Academy commissioned report, http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/
EvidenceNet/Conole_Alevizou_2010.pdf
 Galley, R., Conole, G. and Alevizou, P. (2010), Case study: Using Cloudworks
for an Open Literature Review, An HE Academy commissioned report.
 Alevizou, P., Conole, G. and Galley, R. (2010), Using Cloudworks to support
OER activities, An HE Academy commissioned report.
 Conole, G., Galley, R. and Culver, J. (2010), Frameworks for understanding
the nature of interactions, networking and community in a social
networking site for academic practice, The International Review of Research
in Open and Distance Learning.
 Conole, G. and Culver, J. (2010) 'The design of Cloudworks: applying social
networking practice to foster the exchange of learning and teaching ideas
and designs' Computers and Education, 54(3): 679 - 692.
 Conole and Culver (2009), Cloudworks: social networking for learning
design, Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 25(5), pp. 763–782,
http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet25/conole.html.

59. Images
 Web2.0 city - http://www.flickr.com/photos/4everyoung/313308360/
 Digital divide - http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrysti/2337913120/
 One world-oneweb http://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/2731067095/
 Network http://www.flickr.com/photos/seeminglee/2053060997/
 Logos http://www.flickr.com/photos/mandymaarten/503716476/
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/tristaemlet/4089225446/