University of Reading
Keith Baker started his computing career in 1970 working as a Systems Analyst on real-time systems with the Plessey Company. Later he was with the Burroughs Corporation, Detroit, MI, as Supervisor of Software Engineering and Project Manager working in Seneffe, Belgium. In education he was firstly a Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Sussex, then Professor of Information Engineering Systems and Head of the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department at the University of Plymouth. In 1986 he moved to the University of Reading as Professor of Computer Science, later to become the Head of the Computer Science Department. He completed six years as Dean of the Faculty of Science at Reading and is now working on the development of networked educational services. He has worked as an advisor on several commercial projects associated with e-Learning including the work with PricewaterhouseCoopers on the UK e-University project. His recent work has been in e-learning standards and quality. He Chaired the Standards Working Group of the LCMS Council in the USA and is currently Chair of the Standards Group of the eLearning Industry Group in Europe.
Although much work has been done on the description and structuring of learning content e.g. the IEEE LOM Metadata and the SCORM recommendations, it remains difficult to construct learning experiences from granular learning objects. Metadata descriptions of content are required that facilitate the interconnection of content modules if we are to build on the work of others. A balance between the (overwhelming) low level detail of a learning object and the higher level description of a learning experience is needed. Analogies can be made with the development of programming in Computer Science during the evolution of system design from procedural to Object Oriented approaches. The reusable objects were replaced by components i.e. collections of objects to create higher level usable processes. Components then become the useful reusable interoperable modules from which to build systems. Could a similar approach be used to build learning experiences from learning modules stored in public repositories? Higher level descriptive metadata is likely to assist with this objective.
VP Product Strategy, Sentient Learning
B.Sc (Electronics) University of Southampton 1983.
John's career spans over 20 years in communication, marketing, business management and change management. Early positions in the 1980's included technologist for the Consumers Association, and head of publications for a Seismological Surveying company.
Throughout the 1990's John worked in the financial sector, with management positions at Datastream (global financial data) and Primark Investment Management (fund accounting and fund management software). Over this period he was responsible for many commercial functions including publications, marketing, training, communications and consultancy services. He was a key member of change management teams throughout regular cycles of major internal change (restructuring and downsizing) and in 2000 was a leader in the change management process to integrate software businesses when Primark was bought by the Thomson Corporation.
As an independent consultant, in 2001-2 John advised City software houses on cost effective marketing strategies, and managing the HR aspects of growth and change.
In 2002 John turned to the education and learning sector joining Talis Information. He was responsible for learning support systems (aimed at Higher Education and the lifelong learning/public sectors) and for community information systems.
Now at Sentient Learning, John is responsible for product strategy and planning - ensuring that the product portfolio meets the needs of the learner/lifelong learner, the academic and the institution throughout the ongoing and inevitable change occasioned by e-learning.
Around e-learning there exists the opportunity to make fundamental improvements to an institution's effectiveness and efficiency. I question whether many institutions are enabling themselves to realise the opportunity. Everywhere we see institutions busily engaged in seemingly significant changes, but it is not common to see institutions using powerful tools and techniques - e.g. someone with a clear remit, responsibility and authority to identify a strategic outcome, an institution engaged in carving up any existing structures and practises, or even an unambiguous and enforced information policy. Techniques like this are usually necessary to overcome the ability of fiefdoms to protect themselves and preserve (unjustifiable) existing practises. Their relative uncommonness is a concern.
As e-learning matures, divisions like faculty, registry, library, etc are increasingly irrelevant. Systems integrate/interoperate, and the multiple existing processes start to converge - "straight through processing" as it has been called. All stakeholders should see the benefit of a coherent environment. Single data sources, no redundant data entry, deliver efficiencies. But so long as the fiefdoms exist in their current states and structures, the quality of the overall process will be questionable. The institution needs to ensure that its resources are used in the most appropriate way - even if that means extensive reallocation of staff, or extensive retraining, at all levels. The impression is that this is "one change too many just now".
A simple example - consider the process associated with resource lists/reading lists across an institution. In the e-learning world, these lists assume a higher value and usefulness. (Naturally major retailers spotted this years ago.) The institution would benefit from an efficient process in creating these, from unlocking the inherent value of aggregated resource requirements, and from delivering a consistent and quality service to the student. The student would benefit through any-time-any-place accessibility, real-time information, and the time and cost benefits of online buying straight off the lists. No-one can begrudge advancement in this area.
So why is such as straightforward activity proving difficult to achieve under current staffing models and attitudes at many institutions? Commonsense says distributed entry (by faculty) and centralised management (by library). Is it past practice and attitudes that encourage acadaemia (the owners) to believe that the library (someone else) should pick up the problem? The end result - bad practise and inefficiencies proliferate, the process stalls and an opportunity is lost. I have not encountered one institution really ready to tackle this innovatively.
Stephen Brown is Professor of Learning Technologies and Director of Knowledge Media Design at De Montfort University, UK and Chair of the Association for Learning Technology.
He works as a consultant to commercial and educational institutions on learning strategy and infrastructure reviews; technology forecasting and assessment; distance and online learning and tutoring strategies and techniques; learning materials design and production; and staff development.
His expertise in the application of technologies to learning and media design has been built up during a career spanning industry and education. This includes course design, research and tutoring for the Open University , Head of Distance Learning for BT Training, Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in Engineering Design, Senior Technology Adviser to the JISC funded Technologies Centre.
He has over 40 publications , mainly in the area of learning design and training technologies and delivered presentations to business and academic audiences on contemporary computing issues in education and training and on global issues in higher education in Austria, Australia, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland , Malaysia, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, the USA and the UK.
"The question before us now is the extent to which educational media can support the Conversational Framework and thereby assist the learning process." (Laurillard 2002: 89)
Issue
Central to constructivist ideas about learning (Duffy et al. 1993) is the concept of the 'Conversational Framework' as the medium through which learner and teacher exchange and negotiate meaning (Pask 1975:222, Laurillard 2002:86). Despite its growing popularity elearning is a poor substitute for face to face learning because online technologies have constrained the conversational possibilities.
Problem
First generation online learning exploited the powerful capabilities of the Web as a publishing medium, ie. essentially a one-way, one-to-many mode of distribution. In Laurillard's terms this model is essentially narrative (Laurillard 2002: 91ff), limiting the opportunities for 'conversation' to self reflection by the learner. Second generation online learning added asynchronous email and conferencing to create opportunities for dialogue between participants. While this greatly extends the range of possibilities for communication, the nature of the text medium is still relatively impoverished, and as such restrictive in conversational framework terms, compared with the richness of face to face exchanges (Brown and Ross 2002).
Opportunity
While we now know a great deal about real time face to face interactions in classrooms and asynchronous text based interactions online, we have a great deal to learn about the implications for elearning of new technologies such as camera phones and IP videoconferencing, virtual reality and avatars.
References
Brown, S., Ross R. (2002) 'The evolving classroom: Real time support for distance learners in the community and industry.' 3 rd International Conference on Information Communication Technologies in Education, INEAG Research and Training Institute of the Agean, July 17-19 2002, Samos, Greece . pp 83-90. ISBN 960-8313-03-1.
Duffy, T.M., Jonassen, D.H. and Lowyck, J. (eds) (1993) Designing Environments for Constructive Learning , Berlin: Springer.
Laurillard, D. (2002) Rethinking University Teaching: A Conversational Framework for the Effective Use of Learning Technologies (2 nd ed.), London: Routledge.
Pask, G. (1975) The Cybernetics of Human Learning and Performance , London: Hutchinson.
University of Twente
Prof. dr. Betty Collis, Shell Professor of Networked Learning at the University of Twente in The Netherlands, is a researcher, educator, and consultant in applications of network technology for strategy, learning, and change. She also has considerable experience in topics as diverse as educational software development, leading change initiatives, and teacher support for technology use. Her major activity during the years 1997-2000 was being Chair of the TeleTOP Project , ( http://teletop.utwente.nl ) at the University of Twente in which her faculty re-designed its way of organising the learning process through the use of a combination of innovative pedagogies and technology. She also regularly works with multinational companies to advise them on similar change initiatives. One of these collaborations has resulted in a major project with Shell International Exploration and Production. This collaboration includes Shell establishing a chair at the University of Twente and Prof. Collis being the first chair holder. At Shell, she is focusing on new forms of blended learning, including blends of knowledge management resources with new pedagogies. For more information, see http://users.edte.utwente.nl/collis/.
In the corporate setting, learning has typically been segmented, among courses taught by trainers in a training setting. e-modules made available via some kind of networked "learning management system" and many forms of informal learning, including coaching and mentoring, and global forums, communities of practice, access to best-practice databases and document repositories supported by knowledge management tools and systems. I believe that a convergence of these forms, away from being alternatives each managed by its own group toward all being part of a productive learning environment in the corporation, is desirable. This is particularly so in the context of better knowledge sharing throughout the organization. In order to make such an integration concrete, many elements must be taken into account: the organizational mission and learning strategy, engagement of key persons, a pedagogical model based on principles of adult learning and on research, an implementation plan, an on-going evaluation process, a strong support team, and transparent, powerful technology.
At the Shell EP Learning & Leadership Development Organization, we have been evolving such an integrated approach. In a schematic way, the integration is shown by a set of gears revolving around the central idea of work-based learning activities.
CLIR
Richard A. Detweiler is a fellow, and also currently interim president, of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR); he also holds an appointment as a foundation fellow at Oxford University's Harris Manchester College. CLIR is a foundation funded organization that works to create transformational change to ensure that humanity's knowledge is increasingly available to scholars, students, and every citizen, now and in the future.
Born and raised in California, Dr. Detweiler is social psychologist with degrees from California Western University (B.A., 1968) and Princeton University (M.A., 1972 and Ph.D. 1973). Formerly a professor of psychology and vice president at Drew University in New Jersey, and president and professor of psychology at Hartwick College in New York, he came to CLIR with an appointment as Fellow in the summer of 2003.
In his presidential and vice presidential positions his focus has been on planning that links the institution's fundamental values with long term plans; from this approach has come change such as the growth of international programs, institutional leadership in the role of information technology in support of education, and improvements in recruitment and retention among other initiatives. He has been particularly active in newly developing efforts to bring education in the liberal arts and sciences back to the center of American higher education and to extend it internationally, and it is this work that brought him to CLIR.
He has also been an active researcher, consultant, and author in intercultural relations and international education, adoption attitudes, and attributional processes. He has made many presentations on the future of higher education, including the impact of the new realities, and the role of information systems in education; he has also authored articles on information systems and education, and has consulted with colleges and universities on information technology strategies. He has served as a committee and board member of many college and university organizations.
The university as a physical place originated centuries ago as a place to gather together books and manuscripts and scholars (all of which were scarce) with people who wanted to learn. The library was, therefore, a central component of this organization. While the printing press altered the scarcity equation, the central role of the library continued as the place where extensive and specialized collections of materials were managed. Today digitization has begun to change this equation yet again, although only a small proportion of the vast accumulation of human knowledge is currently available electronically. While a massive amount of information is available on the Internet the largest proportion is of limited value for education because of its quality; in addition educational publishers have not, overall, moved to digital formats nor do they allow the no-cost borrowing for which libraries are noted.
Thus, there is no digital library that support e-learning in the way that physical libraries have supported traditional education. As a result e-learning has grown most substantially in subject areas and using pedagogy that does not require learner access to libraries to be effective (technical, fact-based or "right-answer" areas of study). E-learning is less developed in areas of study which are based on modes of inquiry and disciplines of thinking rather than correct answers (history, philosophy, literature, psychology, etc.). In these disciplines there is a dependence on learner research utilizing authoritative books, journals, manuscripts, and primary materials. The global nature of e-learning adds to the complexity of this issue: one cannot assume that a local physical library is available to learners and, even where digital materials may be available, for most of the world's population bandwidth to effectively deliver such digital materials is unavailable or very expensive.
For e-learning to grow into broader areas of human knowledge a coherent digital library to support e-learning needs to be developed. If it is to be useful, creating such a system will be a complex challenge, including finding answers to questions such as:
It seems apparent that we have the technical and information resources available to create a digital library that is small and transportable – a digital "book locker."
Scientier
Claudio Dondi, born in Modena in 1958 and an industrial economics as a university background, is the President of SCIENTER - a non-profit research organization based in Bologna and active Europe-wide in the field of innovation of education and training systems - since its establishment in 1988. In this position his main activities are the co-ordination of large national and European projects, as well as policy advice and evaluation at regional, national and international level. His other positions include: Professor of Human Resource Development at the College of Europe in Bruges - (1099-2003), Member of the Board of the MENON EEIG in Brussels, Member of the Editorial Boards of the British Journal of Educational Technology and of the European Journal of ODL, Vice-President of the European Institute for e-learning, Vice-President of EDEN - European Distance Education Network.
According to the work conducted in the L-CHANGE Observatory Project (European Observatory on Information Society Technologies - Related Change in Learning Systems, co-founded by the European Commission - DG INFSO - IST Programma) the speed and the shape that eLearning and eTraining developments will take in the different arguments of education and training systems will not depend so much on infrastructure and available technology as on the attitudes of the different stakeholders towards the place of ICT in the learning process. Depending on their sector, role but -above all - visions of the worlds their individual, collective, organisational and strategic-policy views will condition not only - as it is obvious - the pace of eLearning development, but also the "adoption model" of ICT within the eLearning process: the shift from distributive to collaborative elements occurred in the last four years in the discourse on and practice of eLearning is just a sign of this different balance of visions of the world among the "newcomers groups" in the eLearning scene.
Chief Executive of NHSU, Vice-Chancellor Designate
Professor R.H. (Bob) Fryer CBE is currently Chief Executive of NHSU and took up post on the 1 st February 2002. Before joining NHSU Bob was Assistant Vice Chancellor at the University of Southampton and Director of New College, a post he occupied from 1998. Between 1999 and 2000 he was on secondment to Ufi Ltd as an Executive Director, and before that was Principal of the Northern College for Residential Adult Education for 15 years.
Bob is a member of the national Learning & Skills Council and a Director of Investors in People UK Ltd. He was Chair of the National Advisory Group for Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning, a member of the 'Moser' Committee on Adult Basic Skills and of the Policy Action Team on Skills for Neighbourhood Renewal.
Bob was awarded a CBE for services to Community Education in the 1999 New Years Honours.
In this short paper and presentation, I wish to attempt to bring together three different strands of thinking and operationalisation. They are, first, conceptions of the form late modern societies appear to be moving towards, especially the notion of ‘risk society’; second, visions for a learning society; and, third, enablement for individual, organisational and societal ‘readiness’ for e-learning. In my contribution, I want to suggest that, in the UK at least, despite considerable progress and achievement on all three fronts, we are far from securing alignment between these three elements and, perhaps even more importantly, from understanding the implications of bringing the three elements together. What is more, we seem not yet to have begun to track the potentially inherent contradictions entailed within each of the three elements and between them. These are issues I wish to raise for discussion in my contribution to the seminar and presentation.
University of Oxford
University of Edinburgh
Helen Hayes (BA ALIA FALIA) was appointed to the position of Vice Principal for Knowledge Management in 2003. In this role Helen has responsibility for developing all aspects of the knowledge infrastructure heading up the Information Services Group of the university which includes libraries, IT and e-learning support. The appointment is part of the Principal's senior executive team which provides strategic leadership to the whole of the university. Prior to this appointment Ms Hayes was in the following positions, Vice Principal (Information) for the University of Melbourne from 1999 to 2003 responsible for information strategy, University Librarian at the University of Melbourne and Chief Librarian at the Melbourne College of Advanced Education. Mr Hayes has been involved in many professional bodies in the capacity of director, president and member, including four years as president of the council of Australian University Librarians. Ms Hayes is a Fellow of the Australian Library and Information Association, and was awarded State and National Telstra Australian business woman of the year in 1999 for the Corporate and Government Sector.
What are the best support models for distance learning?
How can distance learning be synergistic with campus-based education and where is the line drawn between on campus and off campus?
What are the big technical and support issues that need to be addressed before launching courses online?
Centralisation vs decentralisation
Explore the tension between well-defined organisational standards and procedures against the freedom of individuals to optimise their use of IT for experimentation and innovation. Universities usually operate within a two-tiered model. In an e-learning environment what should be centrally provided and what should not to ensure some overall standards and coordination exists while ensuring that a great deal of decision making is made at the local academic unit level?
Teaching and learning infrastructure support
E-learning for both on and off campus students is placing much greater demands on infrastructure such as the need for fully equipped teaching spaces, 24x7 support for staff and students, and yet institutional planning is not yet joined up to the extent that developments such as e-learning impact on estates and other planning groups to deliver the desired outcomes.
Information literacy skills and staff training
Are we approaching IT skills training in the right way? Are we asking the right questions? What do we want people to be able to do rather than what do they want to learn to do? Why to is more important than how to. Some examples of good practice would be useful.
Head of the e-Learning Strategy Unit, Department for Education and Skills, UK
Diana Laurillard is Head of the e-Learning Strategy Unit at the UK Government’s Department for Education and Skills, and is Visiting Professor at The Open University. She is responsible for developing a coherent e-learning strategy for the Department across all the education sectors, including training, home-based learning, workplace learning, and partnerships with private suppliers.
Professor Laurillard previously held two terms of office as Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the Open University. During that period she was responsible for developing the appropriate use of learning technologies within the full range of learning and teaching methods in the University’s courses, and for the structural reform at the heart of its course production operations. By the end of her second term, over 160,000 students were connecting online to the OU for aspects of their study, and over half the courses had integrated e-learning with more traditional methods. Her academic work spans more than twenty-five years of research, development and evaluation of interactive multimedia materials and internet services in education and training, covering a wide range of discipline areas. Her book ‘Rethinking University Teaching’ (Routledge Falmer, 2nd edition 2002), has been widely acclaimed, and is still used as a set book in courses on learning technology all over the world. This work has been recognized through her honorary degrees from the University of Abertay, and the Open University of the Netherlands. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Honorary Fellow of University College London.
BBC Worldwide Interactive Learning
Andrew leads the group responsible for the BBC's commercial e-learning service (BBC Worldwide Interactive Learning). This group supply e-learning products and services to a range of clients around the world. This year their work has included production of the LMS based e-learning components of a major UK teacher training programme, basic skills materials (financial literacy and citizenship) on CD-ROMS for the UK's Basic Skills Agency, and consultancy services for the UK's Department of International Development (concerning the use of ICT/e-learning in sub-Saharan Africa).
Andrew has worked on e-learning within the BBC for the last 5 years. Prior to this he had worked for 10 years in TV production for BBC (producing popular science programmes as well as educational video and audio). Before joining the BBC he was an undergraduate Developmental Psychologist and briefly a post graduate Artificial Intelligence researcher.
Motivation: In presentational terms, e-learning increasingly now has the opportunity to deliver multi-modal, media rich experiences equivalent in production quality terms to that of TV or broadband video. Unlike most TV, e-learning can also offer highly interactive and responsive formats with opportunities for social communication, personalisation, and adaptability.
In my (admittedly limited), experience, whether within formal or informal e-learning domains, it still seems rare to find truly 'wow' factor e-learning. E-learning that is highly motivating or begins to approach the norms expected of other more limited media in terms of the user's emotional engagement or commitment still seems relatively thin on the ground.
Is this
CEO, The Interactive University
Roy Leitch is an academic with a lucid strategic view of the development of higher education and, in particular, opportunities for delivering education globally. He has a strong commitment to modernising educational delivery: making it more flexible, student-centred and inclusive to all who could benefit. He believes passionately in the potential for global educational partnerships to promote international political stability.
He trained as an Electrical Engineer, specialising in Control Engineering, and worked in the Petrochemical industries. During his academic career he established and directed the ‘Intelligent Systems Laboratory’ at Heriot Watt University, which was internationally recognised as a centre of research excellence in the fields of process control and diagnostics and industrial training systems. He is a Fellow of both the Institution of Electrical Engineers and the British Computer Society. He has consulted for the UK Government and Research Councils, EU research programmes and the Indian and Italian governments.
As Deputy Principal at Heriot Watt University he was responsible for developing and implementing a distinctive learning and teaching strategy that has placed the University at the forefront of educational innovation both nationally and internationally. In particular, the SCHOLAR programme is delivered in partnership will all Scottish secondary schools and is considered to be the largest accredited e-learning initiative in the World.
The success of these initiatives led to the establishment of The Interactive University, of which he is the founding Chief Executive Officer. This is a significant development for the whole of the Scottish Higher Education sector. It has the dual remit of establishing a flourishing global education business for the Scottish universities and being a National Centre of Excellence in innovative e-learning. The Interactive University now has more than 60,000 students worldwide with more than 40 partners in 23 countries.
The most urgent challenges facing the successful development and deployment of e-learning, at least within the academic market sector, is how existing educational practices can be re-engineered to utilise the power of e-learning materials and environments in an effective and cost efficient way. E-learning has been driven by technological developments for too long. We now need to pause and re-consider and classify the learner’s needs and develop an appropriate educational solution, which may or may not have an e-learning element. This leads to a methodological approach that explicitly recognises that no one solution fits the needs of all learners and that various combinations of human interaction and automated systems will be required for different sectors, backgrounds, cultures and learning outcomes. E-learning is NOT a panacea but is a fundamental catalyst for educational reform recognising the many diverse needs and learning styles that students have.
The Open University
Professor Mason is a specialist in the research and practice of online teaching and learning. She was one of the early pioneers in developing the medium of computer conferencing for distance education, and completed her PhD on the subject in 1989. Since then she has published prolifically on the web, in journal articles and in five books. Her research interests centre around online learning communities, assessment methods using the web, and the globalisation of education through new technologies. She is Professor of Educational Technology at the UK Open University, where she recently developed a new course in learning objects for the Masters Programme in online education. She has carried out a wide range of evaluations of online courses and technologies both for the UKOU and as consultant for many other projects worldwide. She is currently finishing a book called Learning in the Connecticon, about the impact of the internet on learning.
Pedagogical Innovation: The idea of institutions being learner-centred has been current for years, but if taken up at all, it has been more as window dressing than as root and branch responsiveness. As we are driven more and more towards a market economy in higher education, it is time we tried to understand what appropriate learner-centredness could actually mean. For example, we could allow students much greater say in determining the curriculum that is developed and online course developers should be able to develop courses quickly using learning objects and VLEs. In fact, we could be offering students opportunities to participate in creating the content - through making videos, websites, investigations, presentations and projects. We should encourage much more peer assessment and peer commenting on work. Student-led seminars are now easily facilitated by synchronous tools, and student reflection, research and comment are ideally supported by blogging software.
In short, instructors need to move on from seeing their role as content developers and begin to appreciate the online environment as a vehicle for learners to act, interact, reflect, research and generally control their own learning experience. Real time tools which support student-initiated contact need to be fully integrated with asynchronous tools and with course resources, such as library materials, weblinks and course information. Learners should have the tools to configure their environment to their needs, but more importantly, they need to be given choice and support in making choices about what to study. In the Institute of Educational Technology, we have put many of these principles into practice on a masters level course called Learning in the Connected Economy. A paper about these features is available from http://iet.open.ac.uk/pp/r.d.mason/projects.html
Director, CETIS (the JISC's Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards) Bolton Institute
Since May '98, Bill has represented UK HE and FE on the IMS Technical Board, and has worked in several IMS specifications, including Content Packaging, Enterprise, Learner Information and most recently Learning Design of which he was also co-editor.
He advises the JISC (UK F/HE's Joint Information Systems Committee) on its development strategies on learning architectures and interoperability. He also advises the UK government's eGIF initiative on learning technology standards.
Over the last three years he has been responsible for developing CETIS into a leading player in learning technology specifications and standards. Under his direction CETIS has created a globally recognised web site on learning technology standards (http://www.cetis.as.uk/) and established eight Special Interest and Focus Group, each addressing particular communities of interest, practice and expertise and supports JISC interoperability programmes. CETIS also supports developers deliver interoperable implementations of specifications through 'plugfests', and has developed several specification 'profiles' to meet specific sector (FE systems integration), UK (UK LOM core; BSI UKLeaP, learner information) and European (European Diploma Supplement) needs.
Bill is also the software architect/designer of Colloquia, an innovative distributed, peer-to-peer, Personal Learning Environment that has for three years been successfully used as the main vehicle for the delivery of an online degree. More recently, he co-developed the successful RELOAD and advises on standards and architecture. This open source project is developing flexible editors and run time systems for IMS Content Packaging and Metadata, ADL SCORM, and IMS Learning Design specifications. RELOAD has been adoption by ADL as the basis for their SCORM 2004 editor, and has also been integrated by Harvest Road into their Beehive learning content repository product.
A consequence of the 'stateless' browser is that learners are left with no trace or record of their learning.
Any such records are maintained on the learning provider's systems.
However learners move across many learning providers over their lifetime, Lifelong learners also need their own integrated record of their activities, current work and future plans if they are to successfully co-manage their own learning.
Learners will need a Personal Learning Environment to compliment education and training providers learning environments. This in turn will require new models for how learners engage with learning, and new supporting architectures.
These have to inform, and be informed by, agreements, both national and international, on the ownership and control of learner information.
Catholic University
Pier Cesare Rivoltella (Treviglio, 1964), Philosophy Doctor, collaborates with the Pedagogy Department at the Catholic University of Milan. Here he gives courses of Methods and techniques of Educative Interaction (Science of Education Faculty), attends to the methodological and evaluation standards of e-Learning at CEPAD (the University Centre for Distance and Life Long Learning) and is Scientific Director of a master in Media Education . His research, from starting interest (semiotics, theory of cinematographic and dramatic representation), nowadays concerns Media Education and Education Technology from three main points of view:
He's written a lot of books and essays and takes part to the scientific committee of several Education reviews.
A key-problem in e-Learning, according to me, is that of monitoring teachers and students activities providing a real time feed-back for the teachers and the chance for the management of the course of reprojecting itself . Monitoring activity prepares the process evaluation, very important in order to check the quality of process itself.
Monitoring needs on line tutors with specific competences and can consist of activities like:
These activities can support the evaluation process. According to my experience at Catholic University, it can be done by:
The strategic value of these activities in e-Learning is that they make possible:
I think that e-Agenda can define (and certificate) a monitoring and evaluation standard. With my staff, in these last years, I've done a lot of researches about e-Learning monitoring and evaluation. The most important of them is the Monitoring Project commissioned by our Ministry of Education about the e-Learning National Training Plan of the teachers.
London School of Economics
Steve Ryan is Director of the Centre for Learning Technology, London School of Economics.. His main responsibilities are to provide strategic direction and pedagogical and technical leadership for E-learning and the use of technology in teaching in the LSE in accordance with the School Strategic Plan. He is lead author of the book “The Virtual University, the Internet and Resource based learning”, has published and presented widely on topics relating to the use of ICT in HE and has led many staff development activities. He has contributed to or led a range of projects including TLTP, JTAP and European funded projects and has undertaken consultancies for a range of organisations including the Home Office on the use of IT in Police training and the Community and Criminal Justice NTO on “E-enabled learning”. He is a Director of the JISC/NSF Digital Libraries in the classroom project DART and is member of the JISC InfoNet Steering Group.
The Open University
Dr Gilly Salmon is an academic member of the Centre for Innovation, Knowledge and Enterprise at the Open University Business School (OUBS). She chairs the OUBS's large online Professional Certificate in Management. She is also Visiting Professor at Caledonian Business School, Glasgow where she is involved in innovative online developments, e-strategy and change processes. She is also founder Director of All things in Moderation Ltd, an international online training company ( www.atimod.com ).
Gilly has been involved in online teaching and learning since the 1980s. She researches, writes and speaks internationally about e-learning and educational change. She has two research degrees- one in change management and one in online teaching. She says she needs both in the e-world! Her interests are in the experience of online learning and teaching, harnessing networked technologies in the service of educational objectives and the key role of online teachers, trainer or facilitators- a role she calls 'e-moderating', A new edition of her book 'E-moderating' has just been published ( www.e-moderating.com ).
The use of Information and Communication Technologies to support easy access to learning or flexibility of all kinds is often a central tenet of educational missions for organisations, even countries, in the 21st Century. However, the allure of the technology has received the lion's share of attention in policies and resourcing to date. Although the ideas of increasing access, participation, skills and competencies for new forms of societies of the 21st Century are at the heart of many intentions, the investment in the role of human intervention and support to harness the technology for efficiency, effectiveness and engagement has been meagre by comparison.
Many educationalists are excited that networked technologies provide a new kind of window on the world of information but feel uncomfortable that they also may serve to reduce the social and collaborative aspects of learning. The debate about how to fully engage students online continues and about what kinds of technologies, provided by whom, create the right kind of environments for what! Thinking has moved on a little from believing technology may do away with teachers and trainers and towards how they can be trained and supported to work online. However, as yet largely unresolved, are ways of scaling up the e-moderating task force beyond the early adopters in an affordable and effective way.
Ref : Salmon, G. (2003) E-moderating: the key to teaching & learning online, 2nd edition, Taylor & Francis, London
Head of Consulting, Si Group
Andy Wolfe is a Learning Architect who believes in creating approaches to learning that maximise the benefits to the business.
Having developed a career with British Gas and Calor Group he became group vice president for the technology assets of Groupe Suez (formerly Lyonnaise des Eaux) between 1990 and 1995.
Between 1995 and 2000 Andy was pro vice-chancellor (development) for TVU from which he founded OLC, the Open Learning Company and worked with clients such as ICI, PwC, IBM, HM Treasury and Department for Education and Skills.
Andy joined SI Group in January 2003 and heads up the SI Public Sector business stream and the SI Consulting approaches to sustainability and blended learning. His client engagements have been with GSK, Barclays, BT, Shell, Schlumberger Sema, Dublin Bus Company, Acorn Life.
Andy says:
"People are the centre of all that is successful. Developing people through active learning approaches adds true value to the business. No partner does that better than SI"
Sustainability of learning through blended solutions is now achievable in certain academic and commercial learning applications. An approach to assisting organisations design the right blended solution and build an architecture is being developed at SI Group, known as "Learning Architects".
Professor (Chair) and Head f the English Department (University of Innsbruck, Austria)
Visiting Professor/Research Fellow at several universities (University of Münster, Mansfield College Oxford, University of Trieste, National University of Singapore, University of Nigeria, Doshisha University Kyoto, University of Halle-Wittenberg etc.). Former Vice-President of the International Association for the Study of Anglo-Irish Literature and of the European Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. Hosted several international conferences and received national and international awards for his scholarly work.
(Co)editor of three journals and three series of monographs.
Main areas of research: English Literature of the 18th Century, Anglo-Irish Literature, Post-colonial Literatures in English (esp. transcultural aspects), Literary Theory. Current research projects: Aboriginal Australian Drama, Ethnic Relations, esp.Slavery, Language Policy.
E-Learning: Study of E-learning at the Logan Campus of Griffith University (project: interactive teaching of poetry), Supervised E-learning projects at Innsbruck University (esp. E-learning courses on English literature, terminology)
Two questions: