SocialLearn update - Mar 18, 2010

KMi Seminar, 18 March 2010

SocialLearn Project
update

Simon Buckingham Shum
Knowledge Media Institute
Open University UK

1
© Simon Buckingham Shum

1969 “open” 2010

2

“Open”: 1969

People Places

founding principles…
Methods Ideas

3

“Open” in the world of Web 2.0+

Open IP Open Economics

Open Communities Open Data Standards

4

“social
learning”
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“Social Learning” has many intellectual traditions

Computer-supported
Group learning collaborative learning

Communities of practice
Apprenticeship

“Social Learning is a
Wicked, social problems fundamental epistemological
shift, beyond participation.
Encompasses both
understanding and practices.”


New OU reader on

Social Learning
Systems &
Communities of
Practice

Chris
Blackmore

7

“social learning”
SocialLearn Project working definition: social
learning can take place when users can…
clarify their intention – learning rather than
browsing
ground their learning – by defining their question or
problem
engage in focused conversations – increasing their
understanding of the available resources.
8

“social learning”
trust • affirmation • challenge

9

shifting
educational
landscape
10

The industrial-era university (school/college)

Nation building
Builds national Benefactors pay
industrial strength
Repository of
knowledge
A canon of (libraries)
knowledge
Scholars
Knowledge
development
Objective
Disciplines
truth, facts
and subjects
Teaching

Students Examination:
subordinated – pass or fail

Monopoly: Elite professional
– access to knowledge and social class
– granting degrees

Figure: Hardin Tibbs

The emerging learning model

Globally connected
Builds free- Nation/state and
market industrial market-based
strength
A knowledge funding
Participatory saturated
learning environment
Lifelong
discourse
learning
Facilitating and
guiding the Subjective,
Modules and
development of qualitative,
competencies
the whole person
meaning

Students as Flexible delivery
customers, and assessment
learner-centric
Vocational focus,
Branding in a competitive career-ready
environment, eroded accredited, everyone
monopoly
‘learning or earning’

Figure: Hardin Tibbs

How do we make the future learner-centric
(but not an echo chamber where you’re never out your comfort zone)?

Personalised information Learner-selected
feeds and mobile tools peer network

Personalised Learner-selected
resource archives mentors

© Simon Buckingham Shum 13

Learner-centred universe

Chat, My real-world
conferencing, learning
blogging, context
posting My identity
My learning record
My privacy settings My online
Share, learning /
network, join, How far teaching
participate My learning and how reputation
My learning
buddies fast I want
space
(richly resourced,
rewarding, safe, Find a
Create, offer My in control of my
and find learning teacher /
own learning) tutor, or a
learning projects My devices
materials student,
& platforms or a co-
My learning needs, learner
my aspiration,
Share /
my curriculum
publish my
My choice of
learning
online tools
Learning /
Knowledge
maps


designing for
online social
learning
15

Social learning technology:
candidate dimensions of the design space
everyday social media social media tuned for learning?

“friends” like me + learning peers/mentors who both
affirm and challenge

1-many from the start + 1-1 mentoring

rapid information exchange + learning conversations

no reflection required by the UI reflection encouraged by the UI

tag clouds + meaningful connections

generic web analytics + learning analytics

recommendations based on + recommendations based on
navigation, ratings, purchases… learning profiles and activities

myriad activity traces in the cloud + a secure e-portfolio to evidence
learning

informal personal endorsements + verifiable accreditation by trusted
platforms 16

social, improvable,
conceptual artifacts
beyond sharing media documents, what is
special about learning that motivates digital
support for shareable, improvable,
CONCEPTUAL artifacts?
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Mediating social artifacts for sensemaking
cf. Engeström’s wildfire learning activities: we need inquiry, trails, history, consolidation,
argument, landmarks, places, exploration

  Learners and educators can make many levels of contribution…

Ask a Question

18

…inquiry, trails, history, consolidation, argument, landmarks, places, exploration


Ask a Question

Answer a
Question

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Ask a Question
Post a
comment
Answer a
Question

20



Ask a Question
Post a
comment
Answer a
Question

Support/Challenge

21



Ask a Question
Post a
comment
Answer a
Question

Support/Challenge Add Resources
to enhance
contributions

22



Build a Learning path to help answer a Question

23




Add Reflection
points to help
consolidate
learning

24




Add Reflection
points to help
consolidate
learning

Add Resources Add Activities to
to enhance build/assess
any step learning
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Forge new Paths from existing Paths…

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Forge meaningful connections between any Question, Step, Path…

is inconsistent with

resolves
is a counterexample of

refutes

27



Questions

Activities
Answers Connections Assessment

Documents Learning
Paths

Data Reflection

Dialogue Argumentation
28

Social + Conceptual networks

29

sociallearn
beta 2

(for beta1 report see OU-internal Oct’09
eLearningCommunity webcast)
30

The SocialLearn Space provides the ‘glue’ to
connect diverse websites, providing friends,
analytics and recommendations

OU VLE PhD-Skills ORO

Interoperability via Google OpenSocial Gadgets/FriendConnect

1. Profile
SocialLearn Space 2. User Interface
3. Social Graph
4. Services 31

Google Gadgets & OpenSocial
http://opensocial.org / directory.opensocial.org

Major social
media players
are now
OpenSocial
Gadget
“containers”

The Gadget
Directory is
analogous to
the iPhone
AppStore –
thousands of
apps

32

Cloudworks People Recommender gadget in
an iGoogle portal (or any other OpenSocial container)

People
Recommender
gadget

33

Other candidate gadgets…
  SocialLearn
  PhD Skills Gadget
  Path Gadget
  I’m Stuck Gadget
  Mentor Gadget
  Plus…
  From KMi: eg. Flashmeeting, Virtual Microscope, ROLE…
  From OU: eg. Library
  From other educational institutions, eg. Moodle
  From SocialLearn developer community
  From e-science projects, eg. MyExperiment
  From Google: eg. Calendar; Gmail, Reader…
  From the global Gadget Directory: thousands more… 34

web apps
aggregating data from, and providing services to,
diverse OU and external platforms

35

web apps:
cloudworks
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Cloudworks: A social space to share/discuss
educational ideas/resources (IET) http://cloudworks.ac.uk

Seed your Cloud with
introductory text or
embedded media,
and then invite
discussion and links


Embedding Google Gadgets in Cloudworks

People
Recommender
gadget

Cloud
Recommender
gadget

Cloudstream
Recommender
gadget

40

web apps:
phd skills
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Embedding a Google Gadget in PhD-Skills website
http://phdskills.open.ac.uk

A generic PhD skill from the
national Research Councils
framework

Cloudstream
Recommender gadget
showing relevant activity
in Cloudworks (test
example)
42

web apps:
cohere
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Cohere: web annotation + semantic connections
http://cohere.open.ac.uk

44

Connections
filtered by Contrast


Connections
filtered by Lineage


Connections filtered
by Consistency


web apps:
ELLIment
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Embedding lifelong learning skills in SocialLearn
ELLI: Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory
  Bristol University School of Education: what makes some people
interested in learning throughout their lives, while others drop out of the
system early on?
  Web questionnaire generates a learning map with 7 dimensions
describing capacities to learn: basis for a mentored conversation

49

ELLIment (rapid prototype – Thomas Ullman, OU)

Choose your Editable ELLI
mentor profile accessed
from Learning Shared record of
notes, activities,
Warehouse
objectives, etc

Private or
Shared
reflections
AV channel of
choice


research
opportunities…
there are intruiging conversations now waiting to develop
with social learning researchers

opportunities for KMi research to synergise with
SocialLearn?...

51

R&D opportunities to test socio-semantic technologies in
an open source service infrastructure
Merging social graphs
Analytics and recommendation
from the cloud
engines working off content and
social networks?
SIOC for modelling
and merging identity?

Ontologies relevant to learning/
academic research?
Text processing to improve
automated user profiling based
on their online ?

Semantic web services?

Multimedia/semantic search
engines looking for a testbed? Relevant widgets/apps
for learners/
researchers?


SocialLearn update - Mar 18, 2010

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