Praxis makes perfect

Praxis is not as commonly referred to in the educational field as it should be. It is a poorly understood concept, and not particularly well researched either. And yet praxis is (or should be) at the very heart of what we do, and who we aspire to be, as educators. What is praxis? My explanation is that praxis is at the nexus - the overlap - between theory and practice. It's the sweet spot of education in action. Praxis is the essence of what happens when theory is applied to practice, and can be simplified in this Venn diagram. But there is a lot more to understand about praxis.

My colleague Oliver Quinlan wrote a very thoughtful post about praxis. He argued that the theoretical models we learn, and the skills we acquire as teachers, are inextricably entwined. They influence each other, and in effect, become a part of who you are, your identity as an educator. He writes:

"...your theoretical framework influences your practice, but your experience in the classroom also continues to shape your framework; the two are not separate."

Others have also written eloquently about praxis. The Brazilian educator and theorist Paulo Freire for example, defined the gaining of praxis as a means to emerge from oppression and ignorance:

"One of the gravest obstacles to the achievement of liberation is that oppressive reality absorbs those within it and thereby acts to submerge human beings' consciousness. Functionally, oppression is domesticating. To no longer be prey to its force, one must emerge from it and turn upon it. This can be done only by means of the praxis: reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it." (Freire, 1970: 33).

Freire is concerned with liberty from oppression. This oppression takes on the form of ignorance as much as it does chains, or prison bars, or walls of a ghetto. He is saying that praxis gives us the awareness, or consciousness of where we are. A realisation of the predicament we are in. It is an awakening to the reality, and a call for action to do something about it. Knowing, and then doing something based on that knowledge, is a powerful response. But it's not as simple as that. Consider the following passage:

"We can now see the full quality of praxis. It is not simply action based on reflection. It is action which embodies certain qualities. These include a commitment to human well being and the search for truth, and respect for others. It is the action of people who are free, who are able to act for themselves. Moreover, praxis is always risky. It requires that a person 'makes a wise and prudent practical judgement about how to act in this situation' (Carr and Kemmis 1986: 190)."

Theory without action is just theory. Hot air. Action without theory can be just as hollow. How can you justify your actions and decisions in the classroom, if you have no theory to support you? The best equipped teachers are those who are best informed. The best way to use theory is to test it out in practice. The most effective teachers are those who not only innovate in their practice, but also know how to justify their actions through the application of appropriate theory. Praxis is the contextualisation of theory within action. It can, and should pervade every aspect of our professional practice and identity as an educator. It's time to stop thinking about theory and practice as separate concepts. It's time teachers began to meld the two together, so that thinking and action - theory and practice - combine to enable us to create, develop and maintain the best possible learning environments for our students. That's how important praxis is.

References
Carr, W. and Kemmis, S. (1986) Becoming Critical. Education, knowledge and action research, Lewes: Falmer Press.
Freire, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin Books.

Photo by Steve Wheeler


Praxis makes perfect by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Global conversations

Do you remember the days before the Web? I do. I'm talking about the period just prior to 1995. We would converse on a one-to-one basis using telephones (which were almost always tethered because there were also very few mobile phones before 1990, and they were the size of a house brick). We sent typed paper memos to each other, via the external postage or internal mail services, and we arranged face to face meetings that were frequent, tedious and time consuming. That was the way we got things done in the 1980s, and for the early part of the 1990s too. And then the technology innovations rapidly began to appear, one after another.

If someone from the 1980s was suddenly transported to today's world, what a difference they would see! Communication has been transformed beyond recognition. e-Mail is already embedded into the culture of most organisations, and is used by everyone without much thought. Mobile phones are also common place, giving us the ability to connect with anyone, just about anywhere. What's more, many people stare down at their mobiles, rather than holding them to their ear. This means that texting too, has become normal practice, as has our use of touch screens, social media and search engines. A lot has changed in less than two decades.

My wife and I were having a conversation with one of our daughters last night, via Skype, on an iPhone. We could see and hear each other perfectly, with no degradation of audio or video. It was as clear as watching the television, but it was there, in the palm of our hands, and we were mobile. For most of us, full motion video conferencing on a small touch screen device was science fiction 10 years ago. It's amazing to me how much we already take for granted, but probably the thing we take for granted the most, is our ability to have multiple, instantaneous and synchronous global conversations.

Consider how easy it is to have simultaneous conversations with several other people using e-mail, Twitter or Facebook. Think how easy it is to video conference using Google Hangouts or Skype. We already take these for granted, but they are the culmination of many years of technological evolution and convergence, resulting in devices that make communication across any distance a seamless experience. But what can we do with this ability that will transform education? How can these tools be harnessed for the benefit of our learners?

For me, the most important aspect of any global communication capability is the conversations we can have, sometimes at the drop of a hat. We can all learn a lot from each other, and the technology we have at our disposal can support that learning much more quickly than we could ever do in the past. Learning through conversation can involve many things: an exchange of ideas and views, discussion and argument, discursive activity resulting in the negotiation of meaning, reordering and repurposing of content, consensual organisation of knowledge. Such facets of global conversations not only enable us to connect with our peers worldwide to learn from each other, they can also facilitate exchanges that build bridges across language, cultural, ethnic and religious differences, political and social divides and gulfs in historical misunderstandings.

Now these are the kind of global conversations we simply cannot do without.

Photo by Stephen Janofsky

Global conversations by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Games for girls

I'm a big advocate of student publications. Many have some great ideas to share, and we encourage student blogging very strongly in Plymouth. There is nothing to stop students going farther and publishing their work in mainstream journals - if their work is good enough it should be shared widely. It's also very motivating for them. Some of my previous students have published in journals in the past few years. Check out this little gem from Dan Kennedy on the VLE/PLE debate. I'm therefore very pleased that we have another success. A 3rd year research assignment by one of my students Lucy Kitching (which I subsequently collaborated on and helped her re-write for publication) has appeared in the current issue of the prestigious and highly accessed online open access journal European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning. Congratulations Lucy! Here is the title and abstract:

Playing Games: Do Game Consoles have a Positive Impact on Girls’ Learning Outcomes and Motivation?

Games based learning is currently a hotly debated topic in education and is a fertile field of study (Holmes, 2011; Abrams, 2009). Many schools are exploring ways in which games can be embedded into the curriculum, to enhance learning through deeper engagement and higher levels of motivation (Miller and Robertson, 2010). This paper explores the use of game consoles to support learning for young students (ages 8-11) and evaluates their recent success in primary education. Over time game consoles and video games have been portrayed as a male oriented technology. This research investigated the current use of game consoles in learning and how it might positively affect a child’s learning and motivation, but focused solely on female students’ experiences. In the study we investigated the research question: ‘Do game consoles have a positive impact on girls’ learning and motivation?’ A semi-structured questionnaire was distributed to girls in Key Stage 2 (n=49) across three schools that have already incorporated game consoles into their curriculum. The study found that game consoles and video games can have a positive impact on girls’ learning and motivation and are key themes that have been raised by teachers. However, due to several limitations in this research some issues were not fully addressed, and we identify some future areas for research.

More student led research projects are in the pipeline for publication in the coming months. Read the complete article at this link.

Related Links
What is it about games?
The games we play

Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy


Games for girls by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Get it together

What can we learn from digital curation of content? Let's start with some theory: According to the revised Bloom's cognitive taxonomy by Anderson and Krathwohl, 'creating' is suggested as the peak of achievement. It replaces evaluation as the pinnacle in this revised model, but many have wondered why Anderson and Krathwohl suggested it in the first place. Why swap evaluation and synthesis in the taxonomy? I wrote about this new model question recently, and critiqued it in the context of emergent forms of digital learning. But all discussions need a reference point, a starting place from where the arguments can proceed. If we accept this premise, then it can be argued that activities such as curation should be placed at the apex at this 'creating' level.

When you curate you are actively seeking content, but you are also creating, organising and adding value to the content you have found. You may also have dialogue with your personal learning network as you discuss that content. During curation, you are synthesising content, concepts and contexts from disparate sources, and uniting them together in one place. You are creating a shop window for that content through synthesis. 'Synthesis' in the old model is replaced by 'Creating' in the new, revised Bloom model.

Let's look at this from the beginning: At the start of the process, organising it is not the most important task. Simply finding it and making sure that it is in the correct category, and is accurate is enough. This is a fairly low level cognitive process, but it does require some discernment and decision making ability.

The second stage, integrating your content within your repository, relies on a similar level of decision making. Where is it best placed? The default mode would be to place your most recently discovered piece of content at the top of the stack, and indeed in most cases that is where it sits. However, if you want a more defined display of content, sometimes you have to deliberately place it within a chronological, historical, cultural or alphabetical sequence. Some tools such as Storify will naturally sequence content chronologically. Others such as Scoop.it provide the flexibility to promote or demote content.

The third stage, also a choice for the curator, is to add extra value to the content already within your repository. You could add notes (annotations) or highlight sections with colour for example. Diigo is a tool that offers these options. Learning often emerges as a result of the writing, rewriting and editing of this content.

Finally, aware of the social context, you have the capability to share your content (or indeed your entire repository) with your professional learning network. The dialogue that ensues can in itself be quite powerful but unpredictable, because no-one can be sure which direction the conversation will take, or what conclusions might be made.

All of the above components demand specific ability and skills from the curator. Some are more critically reliant than others, but all of the stages as part of a process, have learning possibilities. It's not difficult to see why curation is becoming a very popular knowledge management activity, and with the recent introduction of ready to use tools, it has never been easier. It is up to us, the users, to organise content on the Web, and we learn while we do it. It may look simple, and anyone can do it, but don't be deceived. When done extensively, and at the highest level, curation of content can be a complex and deeply engaging process, providing rich learning opportunities for curator and readers alike.

Photo by Julia Frost


Get it together by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Courses, or learning episodes?

During a recent Learning Pool Live event in London, I posted the following message on Twitter:

Move away from courses, towards events, experiences, challenges.

It was the result of a conversation and some thoughts during one of the presentations. It was retweeted several times, and one or two people asked for clarification. It's difficult to say too much in 140 characters, so here is a brief blog post to explain the thinking behind that tweet.

We were discussing a range of digital provisions for learning and development in the corporate world. It's universally accepted right now in this current economic climate that stringency and cost cutting are hitting the training budgets of just about every organisation. Courses can be very expensive to deliver. They also take a lot of time to develop, and as Don Taylor recently wrote, organisational training suffers from bad reputation. The perception of training courses being delivered didactically within a classroom or via e-learning as a 'just in case' provision, is far from the ideal human development many companies wish to aim for. What can the learning professional do to ameliorate this situation without compromising the integrity of the learning development offered in their company? Someone at the conference showed a cartoon which depicted two managers discussing the training budget. One complains about the cost and asks: 'What if we train them and they leave?' The other counters 'What if we don't and they stay?' Clearly, eliminating training is not an option, but modifying the offer might provide some solutions. That idea was reflected in my tweet.

It was argued that 'full course' delivery was no longer a viable option for many organisations. This was not simply because of cost, but also because of lack of efficacy. Compliance training, for example, is routinely presented as a short course, made up of a sequence of information presented as electronic page turning. The prevalent format is for learners to read the content, occasionally answer multiple choice questions to check their understanding, and then conclude with a summary and final test of memory. The 'next page' button is a constant feature of this kind of e-learning course, and is hated with a passion by many employees. Not a great deal is remembered from these training packages, and they are completed in a prefunctory manner with little thought about the meaning of the content. This is not just because they are presented with rather uninteresting packaging, it is also because learning is fairly passive.

Just what are the options? Can we do better than the course? Some might argue that events, experiences and challenges (which I call 'episodes') are all components of courses. True, and there's the rub. What would stop organisations from extracting these from courses so that they become stand alone learning activities, or learning 'episodes'? Nothing at all, and some companies are starting to do just that. The bite size learning experience is sometimes all that is needed to raise productivity, raise awareness or improve safety within the workplace. Also, such disaggregation of learning content provides learners with a greater choice of learning and development possibilities, where smaller and more focused experiences take less time to complete away from the job, and 'just enough' learning is achieved. Such bite sized learning could also be pushed directly to employees' smart devices if the company wished.

Often, goes the argument, courses contain simply too much content (harking back to the 'just in case' curriculum Don Taylor talks about), much of which is not needed at that point in time. Presenting a menu of activities, including challenges, quizzes, problems, experiences, and other learning 'episodes' does not preclude learners eventually completing 'courses'. It simply means they can take their time, at their own pace to accrue a portfolio or gain an open badge containing their achievements, whilst their learning is delivered at the point of need. Learners direct their own decision making, choosing from the menu exactly what they require as they work, and over time, they gain accreditation if it is required. Building more challenges and problems into the events would also encourage more active, and deeper forms of learning.

I therefore suggest that learning episodes rather than courses could be the way forward for 'just in time' and 'just enough' learning that is personalised, and delivered at the point of need.  Ultimately, it's a matter of granularity, and an idea based on making all of the components of a course available separately, in any sequence, and deliverable on any platform. Such flexibility is now both achievable and desirable. But how many organisations have the vision to make it happen?

Photo by Paul Clarke


Courses, or learning episodes? by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Mobile learning and blended interaction

Veteran education theorist Michael G. Moore once wrote about three types of interaction. Learners interact, he said, with content, with their teachers and with each other. Other theorists subsequently expanded on this interactional triumvirate. Leslie Moller suggested a fourth kind of interaction - interaction with the interface. His proposal reflected not only the proliferation of computer technologies but also a growing interest in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and cognitive science.

The advent of mobile communication has expanded this taxonomy still further. In this post I explore how the use of mobile (cell) phones is liberating learners to interact in many new ways and in many different contexts. These are initial thoughts and I value your comments in shaping them into something less nascent.

Consider the benefits of learning while on the move. Once this could only be achieved using books. In previous posts I have argued that personal, handheld technologies such as smart phones, e-readers, tablet computers and games consoles enable mobile learning at the pace of the individual, in any place and at any time. Let's assume for the moment that we can connect to the Web from anywhere we are, and that everyone has a mobile device (This is far from reality, but humour me). This would represent a paradigm shift for education and a personalised learning revolution for every student.

Learners would not only be able to learn whilst traversing any environment, they would experience continuous, seamless delivery of content, interaction with their tutors and connections with their fellow students, or interpersonal interaction. They would also be able to interact with their environment and objects within it, known as extrapersonal interaction, and also with objects within their personal space such as the interface of their device - peripersonal interaction. What is inevitable is intrapersonal interaction. This happens in all learning contexts, because it is the internal dialogue students have with themselves as they assimilate knowledge, reason, analyse, evaluate and reflect on their experiences. The difference here though, is that mobile learners will be in a place of their own choosing, and will continue the internal self-talk whilst in total and perpetual contact with others. We can speculate that this internal interaction has the potential to be amplified through the mobile device to the network of others, across multiple interactions. What I am arguing for here is that the power of thinking (intrapersonal) can be amplified across the network provoking dialogue (interpersonal) while each member of that network interacts with their devices (peripersonal) environments (extrapersonal). What's more, I believe when using mobile devices, it is possible that these multiple interactions can be both blended and simultaneous.

I should also add that the advent of the smart phone brings with it the ability to transcend many of the previously insurmountable barriers to good interpersonal communication, including language and distance. There's a mobile app for everything, or if not, there soon will be. We are only just beginning to appreciate and comprehend the disruptive and transformational potential the mobile phone brings to learning.

Graphic by Steve Wheeler


Mobile learning and blended interaction by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

'Always on' learning

This is a continuation of my series on mobile learning.

Mobile devices represent a tangible step-change for learning. They facilitate personalised learning while we are on the move, and enable us to access the Web. Just these two factors alone would be enough to tip the balance and convince most people that some kind of revolution is taking place, but mobile learning goes so much further. Consider the idea of being 'always on'. This is often used as a derogatory description of younger users of mobile devices. From a negative perspective the 'always on' generation is seen as shallow, easily distracted and lacking in any critical reasoning abilities. This may be true for some, but it's a big generalisation. In a recent post entitled A Quiet Invasion, I proposed that users of mobile devices are breaking the mould of traditional learning formats, bypassing and short-cutting conventional modes of learning, and maximising the affordances of their personal devices to support their learning, and they are doing so in impressive ways.

In my own professional experience, younger students are generally thoughtful, critically aware and reasoned in their learning. Sure, there can be frivolous use of mobile devices. But consider the benefits too. Students can use their personal technology to interact with, and gain a purchase on content at a much deeper level than we were able to do in the days before we had such tools. What's more, their learning can be built upon at any time, and in any place, because the student takes all their content with them wherever they go. 'Always on' should therefore also be seen as a positive phenomenon, in which learners can access content, interact with their peers and tutors, and create, organise, repurpose and share content at any time.

Look at this quote, which is taken from 12 Principles of Mobile Learning: "Always-on learning is self-actuated, spontaneous, iterative, and recursive. There is a persistent need for information access, cognitive reflection, and interdependent function through mobile devices. It is also embedded in communities capable of intimate and natural interaction with students."

Any organisation that refuses to support this kind of learning is myopic. They also put themselves in danger of being left behind. All the contrived arguments that are thrown against the integration of personal digital devices in the classroom, the school, the workplace or the training room fall by the wayside when we become committed to promoting self actuated learning. It is difficult to argue against the trend of personalised, mobile devices and their positive impact on learning. The 'always on' trend in particular offers huge potential in the workplace and in traditional education spaces. If mobile devices can be freely harnessed, we can expect to see exciting new developments in education and the emergence of new forms of learning.

Photo by Jiten Vaghela


Always on learning by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Mobile content curation

This is a continuation in my series on mobile learning.

What is digital curation? For those who visit museums or galleries, curators are those who are expert in a specific genre of exhibit, and who ensure that the displays are kept up to date, accurate and relevant to the viewing public. Curation is at the very heart of the success of any museum or art gallery. Digital curation is similar in many ways. It is becoming more important as content increases. Mitch Kapor once declared 'Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.' It does feel like that sometimes. We are experiencing a tsunami of content, and we are in danger of being swamped by it, every minute we are online. Finding what you want is usually quite simple. Google and other advanced search engines ensure that. Organising it and managing it is another matter.

Curation of content is one specific response to the problem of information overload. Curation is more than mere aggregation of content. Curation involves organising and adding value to that content once it is aggregated. There are many tools and services now available to users to help them curate content. Some are fairly easy to use, enabling users to share content they find in an organised and highly visual manner. Scoop.it and Pearltrees are useful for this purpose. Others allow you to create a sequence of content, perhaps stuff that you have gathered from a conference or other event. Storify is very useful if you want to do this kind of curation. In my personal opinion, perhaps the most useful and versatile curation tool is Diigo, which enables you to do all of the above, and also take snapshots of websites so you can revisit them, even if they suddenly disappear. Watch the video on the front page of the website and you'll see what I mean.

Mobile device users can capitalise extensively on the many features of curation tools. As has been previously written in this article, mobile devices are ideally suited for the task of curation on the move. They can adapt to the style and personal preferences of users, to 'store files, publish thinking, and connect learners, making curation a matter of process rather than ability.' One more thing - mobile content curation also enables users to interact with their environments more meaningfully.

There is a design issue. It's important for teachers and learners that tools are transparent. That is, tools should be so simple to use that the user thinks more about learning, than how to operate the tool. It's a complete waste of time if a student spends more time trying to work out how to navigate around a website, than they do focusing on the content of the website. In a recent interview I was asked a question about what impact I though mobile devices will have on learning. I replied that the proliferation of mobile devices is only going to drive user generated content in one direction - upwards. Content will always increase rather than decrease. If we all became mobile curators, content could be organised in such a ways that learning would be enhanced, extended, enriched and engaged, rather than detached, confused and diffused.

Photo by The Society Pages


Mobile content curation by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Self actuated mobile learning

This is a continuation of my short series of blog posts on mobile learning. In previous posts I have argued that mobile learning is increasingly popular as an informal activity, and that personalisation of learning is an important characteristic of smart phone use. We are a now mobile, itinerant society where tethered computing is becoming increasingly anachronistic.

I read a blog post recently called 12 Principles of Mobile Learning, which gave a useful, brief overview of  12 key characteristics of learning on the move using smart phones. Yesterday in Mobile learning and personal metrics I tried to expand on some of the principles mentioned in the article. Here are two more:

"With asynchronous access to content, peers, and experts comes the potential for self-actuation. Here, learners plan topic, sequence, audience, and application via facilitation of teachers who now act as experts of resource and assessment."

Self actuation is all about having control over your own learning. It is about personal agency. A time is coming when people will no longer be told what to learn, when to learn it, and in what environment. Now, and in the future, we can expect that time, place and pace will no longer be prescribed. Learning of the future will have a 'just for me' and 'just enough' capability, relying on each learner's access to personal mobile devices. Workplace learning will never be the same again.

Another extract from the post suggests an agility and flexibility of learning that can be achieved through the use of mobile devices:

"With mobility comes diversity. As learning environments change constantly, that fluidity becomes a norm that provides a stream of new ideas, unexpected challenges, and constant opportunities for revision and application of thinking. Audiences are diverse, as are the environments data is being gleaned from and delivered to."

Diversity is clearly one of the most important attributes of mobile learning. One size does not fit all, and everyone has different expectations for their learning. Adaptability too, is an important affordance learners demand, and mobile devices can provide the impetus for this. Mobile devices also have a similar provisionality to their bigger cousins, the laptop and desktop computers. Provisionality is the state of being temporary, non-permanent. Things can be recorded, captured or written, and then deleted, repurposed, added to, adapted or shared in a variety of formats. This is an important aspect of personal mobile devices, because life is never straight forward and human thought processes are rarely linear. As a tool that can be used to extend and enhance the capabilities of the human mind, mobile devices can offer users endless possibilities and alternatives. Learning on the move has never been richer or more diverse.

Photo by Derek Olsen


Self actuated mobile learning by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Mobile learning and personal metrics

On the back of yesterday's #learningpoollive related blog posts from myself and Andrew Jacobs, and having just read the blog post entitled 12 principles of mobile learning, I was prompted to write some further thoughts:

Mobile learning is becoming one of the most prevalent forms of learning in the western industrialised society, due to a number of trends including smaller, more affordable devices, ubiquitous (more or less) universal connectivity, an increasingly itinerant work force, and the desire to connect with communities on a global as well as local basis. The rise is also due to people's desire to develop their learning informally. There are formal contexts for mobile learning, but it is in the leisure time/travelling/down time that mobile learning still comes to the fore. The first principle in the article above relates to access, and states:

"A mobile learning environment is about access to content, peers, experts, portfolio artifacts, credible sources, and previous thinking on relevant topics. It can be actuated via a smartphone or iPad, laptop or in-person, but access is constant-which in turn shifts a unique burden to learn on the shoulders of the student."

I couldn't agree more with this, but would add that there are also other elements that influence access, including the ability to download apps holding content that can be used in situations where there is no access to connection. Mobile devices also afford users the ability to annotate, organise and share content once they have found it, within their community of interest.

The second principle is perhaps even more interesting and relates to personal metrics:

"As mobile learning is a blend of the digital and physical, diverse metrics (i.e., measures) of understanding and 'performance of knowledge' will be available."

Metrics, or in common parlance, measurement of data, is going to be increasingly important not only for organisations who want to track their employees' performance, but also for schools, colleges and universities who want to maintain records of student achievements. We can go further than this and assume quite confidently that most people who interact with their mobile devices each day want to keep a record of the best content they have found, and also have an idea of how that content is impacting upon their daily lives. With the advent of augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality, the introduction of mobile apps such as Layar and Wikitude World Browser enable mobile device users to interact more with their physical environments.

Metrics gathered from these kind of interactions will be quite valuable, not only to retailers who want to harness direct marketing ("forget your problems John Anderton...") based on personalised identifiers such as your mobile device, but also for individuals who are monitoring their health, fitness or consumption of calories, for example. Gathering 'big data' from learning analytics is perhaps the motherlode for most large scale course providers such as EdX, Udacity and Coursera (MOOC platforms). Such large data sets can conceivably be sold on for a sizeable profit to companies who are interested. However, looking past this approach to monetisation and regarding the long term prospects of personal metrics, I see a bright future for those learners who wish to monitor how well they are doing, and to what extend they are able to perform their knowledge within their communities of practice.

More on this tomorrow.

Photo by Steve Wheeler


Mobile learning and personal metrics by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Mapping mobile learning

Mobile technology is a game changer. For many that is already a reality. I have previously written on this blog about how mobile technology can give the edge and also about some of the social implications of learning on the move. All we needed was to reach a point in society where a critical mass of users was reached. That occurred in my estimation somewhere around 2010, and growth of ownership has been exponential since. That critical mass of users has driven a number of changes, including innovations in design of hardware and software. As I write, news is breaking of Samsung's release of the first curved display screen smartphone. Other innovations are coming, faster and faster. Prices are coming down as customer bases rise. The power of the network increases as numbers rise and more connections are made. We see this happening on a global scale through increasing mobile phone subscriptions. The Mobile World Congress predicts that as early as 2014, mobile phone subscriptions will outstrip the global population (~7.9 billion accounts). Bearing in mind that many people in poorer countries don't yet have access to mobile telephony, this means that many people will have at least two separate subscriptions, and in some cases more. This is already a trend and it is now accelerating

Mobile technology is disruptive, changing irrevocably the common, every day things many of us do. Whether it is navigating your way around the streets of an unfamiliar city or communicating with work colleagues, mobile devices provide an added, and almost always, new dimension to daily routine. What will happen if your organisation, or university fails to capitalise on these trends? What will happen if your school or business ignores the huge potential of these tools to promote learning? Recently, Lambeth Council's Andrew Jacobs, Parliament's Denise Hudson-Lawson and I got together at #learningpoollive to mindmap some of the more familiar attributes and affordances of mobile learning, and attempted to connect concepts together. We were simply playing with mobile learning ideas, seeing where the links were, and watching for what emerged. In just a few minutes of 'brainstorming' the mobile learning concept, we were quite surprised by what we witnessed taking shape on the paper.

The image above is the evidence of our random scribblings and more considered workings, showing some of the links we think are important. Who knew that there was a link between GPS, geocaching, bumpsharing and airdropping? Well there is, or at least we are hypothesising that there is. The simple ability to seek and locate others through the GPS service on your mobile phone will also allow you to bumpshare content or personal contact details using another app. Airdropping will also allow you to share content such as videos, photos or locations with your mates. Knowledge can be spread faster now that ever, through such handheld, accessible applications. Mobile devices are clearly a boon for collaborative learning, especially for those who find themselves constantly on the move. There is also no stopping BYOD (bring your own device) which is on the rise, with many organisations now trying to harness the potential of employee/student owned devices.

Here's the bottom line: We know that nomadic learning is on the increase as more and more organisations cut back on office space and encourage their employees to work from home or on the move. We know that untethered learning and working offer up a whole new world of freedom. Will the use of social media increase as a result? We think it will. Will there be a rise in user generated content, and the subsequent repurposing, sharing and organisation of this content among professional learning networks? Undoubtedly. Will we see a greater emphasis on communities of practice as a result of mobile tools and technologies? It is likely that we will. There is so much more to unpack, which we will all do over the next week or so. Watch out for the other companion blog posts by Andrew and Denise, and in the meantime, please share your own views on mobile technology and its future impact on learning! The comments box awaits....

Related blog posts:
Everything Counts by Andrew Jacobs
Mobile Learning and Personal Metrics by Steve Wheeler
Self Actuated Mobile Learning by Steve Wheeler
12 Principles of Mobile Learning by Teachthought

Photograph by Andrew Jacobs


Mapping mobile learning by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Your personal brand

The job market is increasingly competitive. Now more than ever, graduates need something more than a good degree to be hot candidates, to make employers sit up and take notice. Once you could expect to be invited to interview for your dream job if you presented your certificates, a resume of your past experience and some glowing references from the good and the great. Now that's probably not enough. You may not even be shortlisted if you don't stand out from the crowd. The selection process is increasingly unforgiving. Employers have such a choice of well qualified but unemployed young people right now, new graduates often don't even get a look in. So what exactly will tip the balance and get you noticed?

One way to improve your chances of being employed is to develop your own personal brand. There are several tools and services that will help you to do this, and unsurprisingly, they are all digital. Here are just 5 simple ideas on how to develop your personal branding:

1) Make your own personal web site. A few years ago it was very difficult (and costly) to make your own personal web page. You would either need to be able to program in HTML or have access to FrontPage or Dreamweaver and know how to use them, or have a mate who was ace at making websites. Now it's very easy and very quick indeed. You don't need to spend a single penny. One option is to use about.me - a free service with which you can create a simple web page. You can include a photograph as a background, write a short CV and also create links to your e-mail account, other websites and contact details. Here's one I made earlier. Alternatively, write a blog. You never know who might read it.

2) Set up a presence on a professional social network site. There is nothing quite as powerful as good connections if you want to make some career progress. As they say 'It's not what you know, it's who you know that matters'. Currently the most popular professional social network service is LinkedIn - which touts itself as 'The World's Largest Professional Network'. With over 225 million members worldwide, LinkedIn will increase the likelihood that you might link up with other people who have a similar interest or background to you - and who might, just might - be able to connect you with someone important who might influence your future career.

3) Get yourself a Twitter account. It's a much simpler idea that LinkedIn and a lot more fun. Twitter is a large social networking tool (with almost 500 million regular users) on which you can send messages or 'tweets' of up to 140 characters. This may not sound like a big deal, but if you connect with the influencers in your specific field of expertise, you will be surprised at how powerful Twitter can be in getting your message out there. If you work at it, you can build up quite a sizable following by tweeting the right stuff. And most importantly, you get to have live conversations with some of the leaders in your field.

4) Consider putting yourself out there on the Web on video. Set up your own YouTube channel. YouTube is the world's most popular video sharing tool (other brands are available) with hundreds of millions of visitors every day. Many people have found that their ideas and talents have been very widely showcased through YouTube. If you are a musician, artist, or simply trying to get noticed, and can make a connection with your audience, YouTube might just be the perfect channel for you. Take care though, because YouTube audiences are notoriously caustic and can make very cruel comments, and don't expect to achieve success over night - it almost never happens like that. Finally, make sure you have total control and ownership over what you 'broadcast', because once it's out there, it's there for good.

5) Get yourself a personal logo - this could be your name in a specific typeface, or an image that represents you, or a combination of these and some other unique feature. Make it memorable. Give it impact. Add it to everything you do on the Web so you maintain consistency of your personal brand. Whatever you use, just make sure it's yours, and you're not breaking copyright in some way.

There are many, many other options open to graduates who want to get themselves noticed by potential employers, and employers are increasingly trawling the Web to find out what and who is out there. Gone are the days when you could send off your CV and expect a phone call. Now you will need to work harder to be heard over the clamour of all the other graduates out there who are seeking that perfect job. I bet there are loads of other ideas people have on how to develop a personal brand. If you have an idea, please share it with us in the comments box below.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons


Your personal brand by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.