Selfie number 3

In this series of short posts, I'm writing about my top ten selfies (including elsies and photobombs) with people who have inspired me or have influenced my thinking. Previous selfie posts can also be viewed on this blog.

This is me with Sugata Mitra in Oslo, in 2013, just after I had interviewed him for the EDEN Conference television channel. I first heard him speak at Online Educa in Berlin, Germany about 10 years ago. There, he presented his seminal (and many would say controversial) work on minimally invasive education. He set up computers with tracker balls in holes in walls in the slums of India and observed how the children taught themselves in small groups, in what became known as the 'Hole in the Wall' project. The results of this research led to his belief that children can learn independently of adults or experts if they have a) the tools, b) the support of peers, and c) the motivation.

At the time, when I first heard about this project, I was quite excited by the idea that education does not have to be content led, or expert led, but that learners can lead their own learning. This chimed with the work of a number of theorists I had studied during my teacher training, including Carl Rogers, Paulo Freire and John Dewey. But Sugata's approach added technology into the equation, and located self directed learning within a digital context, which interested me the most. Several questions entered my mind. Could the pedagogical role of the educator be redefined? How could school be transformed into a minimally invasive environment? What role might technology play in the future to support autodidacticism?

I have subsequently worked alongside Sugata in many contexts, and am fascinated by his concept of the 'School in the Cloud' where retired people who have some spare time can connect remotely through video tools to children in place where teachers cannot, or will not go. Sugata Mitra has been criticised and praised in equal measure and his ideas polarise the education community. He has received the brickbats as well as the bouquets. Some are quite vehement in their attacks on his reputation and work, and conversely, others are equally aggressive in their defence of his ideas. Many a heated exchange has been observed in recent years on social media and in the mainstream press about this controversial and catalytic academic. Just like many influential scientists in the past, he has upset the applecart, and now everyone has an opinion about his work, his premises, his conclusions. He certainly has us all talking.

I have to say on a personal note that whatever you think about Sugata Mitra or conclude about his research, I have found he is genuinely open and approachable, always has plenty of time for people, and he has inspired me to think differently about education, learning and technology.

Photo courtesy of the European Distance and E-learning Network


Selfie number 3 by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Selfie number 4

Me with Jay Cross and Graham Attwell, Salzburg 2008

In this series of short posts, I'm writing about my top ten selfies (including elsies and photobombs) with people who have inspired me or have influenced my thinking. Previous selfie posts can also be viewed on this blog.

In this photo I'm with Jay Cross and Graham Attwell, at a conference in Salzburg, Austria. I first met Graham at an event in the UK around 2006, just when I was becoming aware of the potential of social media such as wikis, blogs and social networking platforms as learning tools. My first impression was that he was something of a contradiction. He is a Welshman, but he speaks with a broad West Country accent, which belies everything that lies beneath. Tall and spare, and casually dressed, he is deceptively quiet - but then he lopes onto the stage, commands attention in the style of a trade union official (he was one and so was I) and everyone sits up and takes notice. He has some radical things to say about education, and he isn't always popular. But he caught my attention immediately, and we struck up a friendship.

With Josie Fraser, Helen Keegan and Cristina Costa in Utrecht, 2007

Graham invited me to speak in Utrecht the following year at an event called 'Show that you Share', which in retrospect became a pivotal point in my involvement in the open learning movement. The event was more than just a gathering of like-minded individuals from across Europe - it was a catalyst for change. I made my mind up around about this time that I needed to do a lot more research into this emerging field of openness, and decided that social media were the ideal tools to promote this concept. I then wrote and published a flurry of papers on the use of social media in education, about the same time as I started this blog. It transformed my professional practice. I have subsequently shared the stage with Graham on more than one occasion, and the sessions have always been laced with humour and lively debate.

Among his many projects, Graham was instrumental in launching the Personal Learning Environment (PLE) Conference, a global event that showcases research and practice in student centred pedagogy, and Sounds of the Bazaar - a live, internet radio programme that promoted open learning in all its forms. He also heads up the European research agency Pontydysgu (A Bridge to Learning). Whenever you hear him speak, you will be impressed by his passion for learning, and perhaps angered by some of the things he says. You can disagree with him, but you can't ignore him, because Graham is everywhere. I hope that continues for a long time.

Photo source unknown


Selfie number 4 by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Selfie number 5

In this series of short posts, I'm writing about my top ten selfies with people who have inspired me or have influenced my thinking. Previous selfie posts can also be viewed on this blog.

I first met Alec Couros among that amazing gathering of people at the inaugural PLE (Personal Learning Environment) conference in Barcelona, in 2010. Alec is Professor of educational technology at the University of Regina in Canada. I add him to my list of selfies and photos for many reasons (here we are larking about on the Barcelona Metro). Alec is very influential in the world of learning technology, and has a huge following on Twitter and other social media channels. Alec is what you would call a 'connected educator', and you can watch him talking about this in an interview with Howard Rheingold during a video webcast. Watch out in particular for his ideas around 'visualising networks' and how tools mediate connections.

When you hear Alec speak you realise just how passionate he is about openness in education. He is a true champion of web democracy, and he practising what he preaches by sharing all his content and resources freely. Time and time again he demonstrates how social media and personal technologies can be used to enhance learning, engage students, reach out to others and gain a deeper understanding of the world around us. He also has a wonderful sense of mischief, and makes you think deeply as he entertains you with his humour. I don't know anyone else in the field of learning technology who can pack so many fresh ideas into a keynote speech. Many of his talks and all of his slideshows are available online to download for free - and I admit to having used some of them in my own presentations over the years!

Photo by Joyce Seitzinger


Selfie number 5 by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Selfie number 6

In this series of short posts, I'm writing about my top ten selfies with people who have inspired me or have influenced my thinking. Previous selfie posts can also be viewed on this blog.

I met American teacher, artist and edupunk Amy Burvall last year. Our pathways crossed when we were attending different events in London and so we arranged met up for a few drinks. I was already familiar with Amy's work online, especially her excellent series of YouTube videos called History Teachers. If you haven't viewed them yet, you should do so - they are a must watch, even if you are not a teacher of history. Amy has taken popular songs, rewritten the lyrics about specific periods in European history, and has then created new music videos for educational purposes. Particular favourites of mine include the story of Martin Luther (to the tune of the Bangles' Manic Monday - in which she takes on three singing roles), Charlemagne ('Call Me' by Blondie), the classy Elizabeth I ('She's not there' by the Zombies) and the comical animated Henry VIII and his six wives (Money, Money, Money by Abba). The combined viewing figures for this collection of teaching videos is now in the millions. But History Teachers is just one of the many contributions Amy has made to digital learning in the past few years.

What inspires me most about Amy Burvall? She is quirky, unpredictable, creative, mischievous, and she is not afraid to take risks - all characteristics I recognise in myself. She is also a cancer survivor, which in itself should inspire all of us. She is tenacious and has boundless energy, and she never seems to stop. I believe this is because she has a burning desire is to help as many people to learn as she possibly can. She does this through her writing, videos, photography, artwork, live sketching (see Graffikon), keynote speeches and her very popular workshops on creativity, making and learning. Recently we collaborated for the first time on a project that is now known as #blimage which can be read about here (join in - it's fun!). I'm hoping that this is just the start of our collaboration, and that we will continue to bounce ideas off each other for some time to come. Watch this space!

Photo by Jeffrey Teruel


Selfie number 6 by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Selfie number 7

With Shelly at EduTech Australia, Brisbane, June 2015

In this series of short posts, I'm writing about my top ten selfies with people who have inspired me or have influenced my thinking. Previous selfie posts can also be viewed on this blog.

I meet a lot of people on my travels, many of whom are very expert in their specialism, but I don't believe I have met anyone who is as enthusiastic and passionate as Shelly Terrell. She is a live wire and an ultra-connected educator. She has been called a global netweaver and curator. Above all, she is an innovator.

I first met Shelly when she stood in at the last minute when one of my keynote speakers fell ill and had to withdraw from the Plymouth Enhanced Learning Conference (Pelecon). At the drop of a hat, Shelly flew in from Germany where she was living at the time, and gave a rip-roaring performance that had everyone enthralled. She talked about how social media was making a huge impact on learning, and gave some great examples from her own professional practice. It was the start of many subsequent encounters.

Shelly has been behind a large number of the high impact initiatives that have influenced education globally in the last few years. She was one of the founders of the Reform Symposium, a very popular 72 hour, follow the sun online event with facilitators on 3 separate continents. Along with Tom Whitby and Steven Anderson (sadly I have not yet met either of those gentlemen), she was responsible for setting up #edchat, a highly influential Twitter chat for educators across the globe and she also established the much respected Teacher Reboot Camp. She is also behind the 30 goals challenge (which can be viewed here) and NAPW voted her Woman of the Year for 2014. And of course, Shelly has a huge following on social media, and is a prolific speaker and presenter on the international circuit. She has an insatiable appetite for helping others to learn, and pours all of her considerable energy into supporting and developing teachers. Not only has she inspired me, she has had an impact on the lives of countless other educators across the globe.

Photo by Steve Wheeler


Selfie number 7 by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Selfie number 8

This is a countdown of selfies and photographs with people who have influenced my thinking or inspired me over the years. Previous selfie posts can be found here and here.

As a regular speaker on the international conference circuit, I am privileged to meet and work with some of the brightest minds in my field. It was a special pleasure to meet former head teacher Richard Gerver at a conference a few years ago, and as a added bonus, to spend time working together recording a video for the Saudi Ministry of Education. The video we made can be viewed on this website. I had already read Richard's first book, Creating Tomorrow's Schools Today, and had been challenged by his radical vision for the future of education. One of my favourite quotes from his book is a critique of the current school system and a clarion call for authenticity:

'To our children, learning is something they do at school. [..] it is a distraction from their real lives. When they look beyond the gates they don't see timetables, subjects, paragraphs and full stops. They see a huge, glistening, confusing world. They do not see how, by engaging in one, you can understand the other. They feel that they leave their real life at the gate. It is our job to move schools forward so that they are seen by our children as a development of their real lives.' (Gerver, 2011, p. 57)

Richard and I spent quite some time together during those few days, and I learnt a great deal from him. He has subsequently gone on to achieve best seller status with his follow up book Change, and has developed into one of the most sought-after speakers in education. When Richard wrote the foreword for my latest book Learning with 'e's, he told the yarn about how we first met while riding camels in the Saudi desert. It's almost true - we did ride around on camels in a Bedouin encampment, and I have memories of Richard doing the Arabic Sword Dance around an open fire (I declined, owing to my aversion to sharp objects) - but we really met while travelling from Riyadh airport in a lot more comfort via limousine to a very nice hotel.

Reference
Gerver, R. (2011) Creating Tomorrow's Schools Today: Education - Our Children - Their Futures. London: Continuum.

Photo courtesy of ELI Conference, Saudi Higher Education Ministry


Selfie number 8 by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Selfie number 9

Bill Rammell, Stephen Heppell and Steve Wheeler

OK, so this one's not really a selfie, but it caught your attention didn't it? This is the second in my short series on my top ten photographs with people who have influenced my thinking. Click here to see selfie number 10.

This picture was taken in April 2011 at the start of the Plymouth Enhanced Learning conference (Pelecon), which was an annual learning technology event I chaired at Plymouth University. Our opening keynote speaker that year was Professor Stephen Heppell, and our Deputy Vice Chancellor was Bill Rammell.

Professor Stephen Heppell has been a regular mainstay on the keynote circuit for some time, due to his wide ranging and innovative research around education environments and learning technology. He has influenced my own work, encouraging me to be more aware of the entire learning environment. Stephen's research has resulted in some very useful insights into how children learn and why they don't. Consider for example his claim that red lighting in the morning wake students up, while blue lighting in the afternoon calms them down after lunch break. He also suggests that the entire sensory experience of school, including odours and configurations of wall spaces can positively influence children's learning. What resonates most for me though, is his statement that 'everything technology touches grows exponentially'.

Before joining Plymouth University as Deputy Vice Chancellor, Bill Rammell served as Member of Parliament for Harlow between 1997-2010. Among his other roles in government was his tenure as Minister of State for Higher Education under Labour prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. During his all too short stay at Plymouth, Bill developed our student experience services and was also responsible for international developments. I will never forget his great spirit of service and his willingness to go the extra mile. He not only opened our conference that day, but also returned twice more during the 3 day event to see how we were doing. He left the university in 2012 to become Vice Chancellor of Bedfordshire University.

Coming soon: Selfie number 8.

Photo by Jason Truscott on Flickr


Selfie number 9 by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Selfie number 10

Recently, in the wake of the #blimage blogging challenge I've been thinking about the power of photos and images. Not only can they help us to think metaphorically, they can also emote memories. I have quite a collection of selfies and other photos (elsies) of me with people who have either inspired me or influenced my thinking in some way. I usually run into them at conferences, and of course, a good way to create a memory is to get a picture taken with them. So I thought - perhaps I should write a blog series about the top ten photos and selfies of people I admire, and who have contributed significantly to my own learning. So here it is, starting with this selfie of a gang of friends and colleagues, taken in June at the EduTech Expo in Brisbane, Australia.

On the left of the picture is Harold Jarche, who is chair of the Internet Time Alliance and a champion of social learning. I have followed his work for some time, but the first time I met Harold was at the Learning Technologies event in London in 2013. He specialises in work based learning and has made quite an impact with his work on innovative leadership, networked business solutions, and personal knowledge management. I often quote from his work or retweet his blog posts, because he thinks deeply, writes clearly and has a unique approach to workplace learning.

In the centre of the photo is Joyce Seitzinger. I first met Joyce at the first Personal Learning Environment (PLE) conference in Barcelona in 2009 and we have been friends ever since. We were sat just a couple of seats away from each other, and were already friends on social media. I quickly realised that Joyce and I had a lot in common, including our passion for great learning, technology integration and creative applications in higher education. I have subsequently worked with her in New Zealand and Australia. Joyce is best known for her Moodle Tools for Teachers model which has been translated into more than a dozen languages. She now runs her own consultancy - Academic Tribe -which offers training and professional development for educators.

Far right is George Couros. I also met George for the first time at the Barcelona PLE event. He works as a divisional principal in Canada and is a regular speaker on the international conference circuit. On his blog 'Principal of Change' George is constantly posting articles and videos about innovative learning, and is a strong advocate for change and reform in school systems. I often share and repost content from George on social media. As the younger brother of Alec Couros, George has a big shadow to emerge from, but he is very much a keynote speaker, author and scholar in his own right, and deserves his reputation as a key mover and shaker in the world of education.

You may also recognise the other people in this selfie. Answers below in the comments box please :)

If you have any selfies with people you value, I encourage you to share them in a blogpost of your own, and say how they have inspired you.

Coming up: Selfie number 9

Photo by George Couros


Selfie number 10 by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Tipping the balance #blideo

I only ever saw the movie Equilibrium once, and it was a long time ago. I thought at the time what a dystopian picture it portrayed of the future. It's a world where all citizens are required to take drugs that repress their emotions. Now I've been #blideo challenged by Amy Burvall to interpret this clip from the movie. I don't remember seeing it when I watched the film, so I guess I'm approaching it with fresh eyes.

My first reaction after seeing this was that Preston, a member of the elite law enforcement agency, is steeped in the traditions of his society. He is fully invested in the requirement to repress his emotions, and knows all of the 'reasons' why this is demanded by his superiors. And then, during a house search, he discovers an old recording of a Beethoven symphony and in an unguarded moment, he decides to play it - on an old gramophone. As he waits for the music to start, he toys with a snow globe - a piece of trivia which holds his attention briefly. Then the music starts. Preston has an epiphany. In surprise, he drops the snow globe, which shatters on the floor... and he begins to weep as the music washes over him.




This speaks to me of the trivia of life, the irrelevant objects that grab our attention and within which we invest so much of our energy. We often we waste precious time on the less important things in life, when in reality we should be seeking the creative and emotional experiences that might forever shape our characters and define our lives. How many hours do children waste in school, studying subjects or content that will be useless or irrelevant when they finally leave school? How much content do schools deliver that resemble the snow globe? How much is a Beethoven symphony?

Another thought is that the record and the gramophone were old technology, from a bygone age. And yet, the music it produced was able to reduce a man to tears. Music has the power to reach deep down into our very souls and does so because it bypasses our intellect and aims directly for our hearts, our emotions. Regardless of the technology used, powerful experiences can be life changing. This is what all educators should seek to facilitate. It's a tipping of the balance for better learning experiences.

Photo by NCinDC on Flickr


Tipping the balance #blideo by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

"Everyone remember where we parked..."

The title of this post is a somewhat comedic quote from Captain James Kirk, as the crew leave their invisible starship parked in a public municipal park, somewhere near San Diego. (You couldn't make this up... but in this case I guess someone did). Where technology is concerned, it's important that we remember where we came from. 

Unlike the crew in the movie Star Trek IV The Voyage Home, we don't need to go back to our origins, but it's nonetheless key to our future success that we recognise our history and our trajectory. The long evolution of communication technologies has brought us to the point where we now carry universal devices in our pockets. If we compare what we are now capable of to say, 30 years ago, we have to concede that smartphones are a powerful disruptive innovation. Smartphones have utterly transformed the way we interact with each other, access information, entertain ourselves and conduct business. But is education being left behind in these advances? Have we forgotten where we parked?

Certainly smartphones can be used inappropriately, for example in cyberbullying and for other nefarious purposes. These are problems that would not have occurred without mobiles. But imagine 30 children in a classroom, each one with a smartphone. What is to stop teachers encouraging kids to use their smart phones in a controlled way, for example to vote, or as a tool for peer messaging, or to connect with media that they cannot normally access in the classroom? How about showing kids how to use their personal devices to improve their learning, rather than to create mischief? And yet smartphones are still banned from many classrooms.

Mobile phones were first designed as a tool for communicating to others while on the move. They were the next natural step up from the car phone. But today's smartphones have evolved into much more: You can send text, gain access to the Web, capture images and video with your camera, orientate yourself by using GPS systems, measure and document your daily routine, engage in augmented reality experiences. In effect, today's smartphone is a mobile office. As educators we would be very foolish to ignore this hugely disruptive potential. Other technologies have similar potential for positive disruption, and yet are largely ignored or forbidden in formal education contexts

Wikipedia, as I mentioned in yesterday's post, is a disruptor. It has its opponents, many of whom vociferously attack those who espouse it. It is a threat to conservative notions of knowledge and has the potential to undermine elite expertise. The basic philosophy behind Wikipedia and the general practice of user generated content is that everybody can be an editor and a commentator. This sways the balance of power between experts and non-experts, between teachers and students everywhere, because it rejects the privileged role of former knowledge mediators and contradicts the traditional idea that knowledge can only be generated by certified experts. People who take an interest in a certain subject are able to generate knowledge about it - and consider themselves capable of doing so. In an educational context, the more students generate their own content, the more they are likely to learn. 

There are many reactions to disruptive innovation. There are those who willingly embrace change, in the educational and academic sectors and also in corporate learning. But there are other who put their heads in the sand and don’t want to see what happens around them. Others don’t accept the idea that students have the same status as lecturers. They don’t like the idea of Wikipedia being referenced (in academic assignments) because they don’t trust anything which has not been through a formal process of peer-review. Of course, what I write on my blog is not formally checked, a departure from publications in scientific journal which will normally be subject to two or more peer reviews. But in fact my readership reviews and comments on my writing, and for me, this is more valuable to me than a formal peer review. There is more immediacy to this form of peer review and there is also a personal connection between me and my readers. 

The use of learner centred technologies such as social media, smartphones and cameras will be vital in the future of education. The personal nature of handheld technologies, coupled with the immediacy of content discovery, production, remixing and sharing, ensures that smartphones will have an important part to play in the future of learning. The extent to which we succeed in breaching the barrier of resistance to change will decide just how such tools will be employed in formal educational settings.

Education in the future will demand much from the smart phone. It is personal and portable. It is versatile and easy to use. It will be the platform for many future developments, such as context-aware technology and augmented reality. Potentially, these are hugely disruptive innovations. Soon you will begin to see more virtual content around you - overlays on billboards, in airports, on sightseeing venues. If you take your students on a visit to an art gallery, the virtual information about the exhibits, the artists and other details will be embedded into the frame of the paintings you are looking at. At the end of the visit you will be able to return to your classroom to download all of the information about what you have seen and decide what you are going to do with it. Education is notoriously conservative, but with some application, over a period of time, technologies can and will disrupt old, outdated practices, so we can change them for the better. 

It's useful to remember where we came from, to gain a perspective on just how far we have travelled. If we grasp every opportunity as it occurs, we will go far.

Photo by Laitr Keiows on Wikimedia Commons

"Everyone remember where we parked..." by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Resistance is futile

I'm fascinated by the psychology of educational technology. I enjoy learning about the ways people behave with technology, how they perceive technology, and how they use technology in teaching and learning. I'm also intrigued by resistance to change. I have learnt from my research that there are - and always will be - people who are resistant or reticent, because new technologies have the potential to disrupt and challenge the social and professional roles into which they have habituated. Naturally, people don't relish being outside of their comfort zones. 

This reflects my own experience, from the time I introduced BBC computers into nurse training in hospitals in 1982. It took a great deal of effort to introduce the new computers into such a conservative learning culture. Colleagues resisted the presence of computers, because they were worried about the potential effects, and some also questioned their validity. I had to ensure that the computers were deployed appropriately and in a manner that would demonstrate their effectiveness. I had to carefully evaluate their use. This was difficult, because nothing similar had been previously attempted. Although it wasn't easy, over time, as the student nurses used the computers and began to demonstrate how their learning had improved, so the new technology became tolerated, and eventually accepted as just another learning tool. 

Such technologies are game changers. They are disruptive, fundamentally changing the way we do things. One contemporary example is the digital camera. Few places remain today where you can still buy an analogue camera. They are now very specialist. Digital technology has advanced photography into areas that were previously considered impossible. Another area that has been disrupted is music. The shift from vinyl records through compact disks to digital downloads has been relatively quick. There is now hardly any demand for analogue recordings (hey, remember the compact cassette tape?), unless you are interested in collecting memorabilia. Television has also been transformed by digital. We now enjoy access to more content than any of us could ever hope to view in our lifetimes. 

We have moved from atoms to bits. Our lives, our work, businesses, and entertainment have been disrupted by digital technology, many would argue for the better. 

The same can be said for the participative Web. Blogging has evolved into a very expressive and social form of writing, and clearly exploits the immediacy of interaction that was unknown before social media. Blogging is disruptive in that it changes the way we construct and present our ideas, and the way we interact with our readership. Take a look at the #blimage and #blideo challenges and you'll see that many teachers are willing to express themselves and their ideas in new ways, and to develop dialogue within their communities on the basis of a personal invitation.

Wikipedia is yet another example of disruptive innovation. Technically it is a collaborative online work space for creating and sharing content. Culturally Wikipedia has thoroughly disrupted the idea that you need to consult a printed encyclopaedia to get expert information. If you discover an error, you can instantly correct it yourself. You don't have to wait for the publishing house to decide to release an updated version. The read/write Web has changed our lives by disrupting our perceptions of what we can do with technology.

Should we, in the same way, seek to disrupt education? Increasingly, people think we should. Many are realising that the way teaching is conducted in many schools and universities is outdated. Much of mainstream education fails to align to the culture of our young people and its traditional methods no longer fully addresses the needs of society. If we want education to be effective, then some things need to change. And because of technology, change is inevitable. 

In tomorrow's post I'm featuring what I consider to be the ultimate disruptive innovation of our age. 

Photo by Steve Wheeler


Resistance is futile by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The #blideo list

Hot on the heels of the popular #blimage blog challenge Amy Burvall and I created (See here for almost 200 posts), where people send each other images and write learning related blogs about them, we now have #blideo (my idea but I think Alex Bellars should be credited with coining the phrase). This is a new challenge where people send each other short video clips and challenge each other to write learning related blogs. The trick is to then choose another short video clip, and pass it on to others as a challenge. In this way, we can encourage each other to blog to share our ideas and thoughts. It's video. It's a blog. What's not to love? It's a moving experience. The entire learning community benefits, people discover new sites, think more deeply about their professional practice, and (hopefully) creativity is unleashed. Below are some of the first #blideo blog challenge responses.

This will be a growing list, and as each post is published under the #blideo hashtag it will be added. If you notice one that's missing, do let me know. So go on, get blogging!

Sue Beckingham - Building confidence takes time: Learning from elks and Aesop's fables
Terese Bird - #blideo - Hang on a minute lads, I've got a great idea!
Amy Burvall - #lingerlust: A #blideo (meta) response

James Clay - #blideo - You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!
Pascale Colonna - #blideo challenge

Inge deWaard - Blogphilosophy - a #blideo and our learning frequency

Simon Ensor - Road rage

Sarah Honeychurch - wysiwyg
David Hopkins - Hang on a minute lads, I've got a great idea!

Whitney Kilgore - It's not about the destination so you better enjoy the journey

Teresa MacKinnon - #blideo challenge

Steve Wheeler - #blideo: Tipping the balance
Gabi Witthaus - Yes, technology can lead pedagogy

Photo by Ste Grifo on Wikimedia Commons


The #blideo list by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

#blideo - a new blogging challenge

As something that started out simply as a bit of fun between a few Twitter friends, the #blimage challenge has been a surprising success. For the many people who have participated to date, it has been an exercise in creative thinking, and an experience of extending social connections within their personal learning networks. Check out the #blimage hashtag and you'll see what I mean. The challenge was simple - you shared an image with a friend (or three) and challenged them to write a short, learning related blog about it. They then posted their contribution along with another image, and challenged a few more people within their social network. Blog + image became #blimage.

Those who have participated in #blimage have reported that their visitor traffic has increased, their writing has improved, and they have engaged in a little additional creativity. Essentially, they have become more enthused about the practice of sharing their ideas within their community. Some have returned to blogging after a long time away, and others have been encouraged to blog for the very first time. Interestingly, several have also told me that they have discovered new bloggers they never knew existed, and are enjoying reading their work. Clearly, this approach has many applications for schools, colleges and universities. Many of the blog posts from the challenge can be found here on the #blimage list.

So let's start a new challenge.

This time it's not an image - more like a series of images. In fact it's a video. Let's call it #blideo. Yep, you know the rest. Same guidelines apply. You share a short video clip on your blog and challenge 3 people in your personal learning network to write learning related blog posts about it. When they post their response, they include another short video clip of their choice and challenge 3 other people within their network... and so on. Are you up for the challenge? Don't forget to tag your post with #blideo.

Here's a video clip to get you started...



Photo by Phil Roeder on Wikimedia Commons


#blideo - a new blogging challenge by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

I know what I like

'We live in a rapidly changing world that requires people to have the ability to adapt much more quickly than in previous times, where events moved much more slowly. Education is not immune from these changes even though it is an inherently conservative system. In the face of significant innovation in educational practice and as espoused in self-determined learning (heutagogy) and other perspectives, there are new skills to adopted by learners and learning leaders alike.' 

With these words, Stewart Hase outlines the manifesto for heutagogy, an emerging theory of learning that espouses self-determined study, where 'people have the agency with respect to how, what and when they learn'.  Hase argues that people are naturally predisposed to self-determined learning from birth, and that the principles of heutagogy are focused on creating optimal experiences and environments in which this can be supported. There are many other chapters in this self-published volume that echo these tenets, and all are grounded in professional practice and case studies. Heutagogy has been criticised as an ugly and problematic term, but if you are able to move beyond the cosmetics of nomenclature and thoughtfully consider the arguments presented, you will gain some valuable insights into how this theory emerged.

Throughout this book, the contributors generally argue for change in education, and provide examples from their own experiences as to how those changes might be effected. Jackie Gerstein writes about the contrast between learning in traditional environments, which is generally passive (Education 1.0) and learning that is self-determined (Education 2.0), where students connect, communicate and collaborate. She argues for the importance of active, experiential, authentic and socially rich experiences, and shows how networked learning through technology is a vital mainstay of self-determined learning.

The technology theme is sustained across other chapters. Lisa-Marie Blaschke discusses the use of social media such as Twitter to open up new possibilities for learners. She advocates shifting the role of teachers to create safe and open environments in which learners can explore and freely discover for themselves, especially through social media. She acknowledges that stepping back to allow learners to do this can be threatening for teachers - they will need to relinquish the control to which they are accustomed - and also for students, particularly those who are not naturally confident in directing their own learning. Although she offers examples of heutagogy in practice there is no specific counsel on how to address these issues.

Robert Schuetz continues the social media theme with a chapter on how blogs create learning legacies. His narrative gently persuades of the need to tell our stories in order to reflect and deepen our learning, while reaching out to our own personal network of co-learners. It is more a recipe on the art of blogging though, than a considered treatise on how the practice can enhance the learning experience. More heavy weight in its approach is the chapter by Thom Cochrane and Vickel Narayan which tackles the impact heutagogy might have on creativity in education. Melanie Booth strongly contends that self-determined approaches to learning fit neatly into continuous assessment, where measurement of learning becomes flexible and negotiated and hence a crucial component of critical reflection. Ronan O'Beirne persuasively argues that technology is a key driver of self-determined learning, because it is changing the relationship between learners and content, and empowers them to engage in new ways with knowledge. And there is more, much more. In total there are seventeen chapters, each offering additional voices to the growing narrative of heutagogy.

Much of the contents will undoubtedly cause progressive educators to nod their heads sagely in agreement, perhaps without overly challenging their thinking, because many will already practise some of these principles. Much of it is common sense. For many traditionalists on the other hand, heutagogy may be a steep and tortuous pathway, a step too far, one from which many will shy away. Traditionalists should read the book with an open mind, but sadly I suspect it won't reach that audience. Teachers in compulsory education may find this a particularly steep hill to negotiate, arguing that many of the key principles of heutagogy are based upon adult education (andragogy) rather than the education of children. Although this is a problem acknowledged by some of the authors in this volume, a great deal more effort will need to be exerted if teachers of children are to be convinced that heutagogy is a universal theory.

Generally, the book is well written and professionally presented, and comes complete with the welcome feature of coloured illustrations. The chapters are argued well enough for the book to sit comfortably in an academic context, featuring sound research and adequate referencing. It is a valuable compendium of themes and perspectives around heutagogy, and is a much needed contribution to the support this movement. I am sure other publications will follow, and they will need to. As a theory, heutagogy will need further development and a great deal more supporting, empirical evidence, before it is accepted into the mainstream of pedagogical thinking.

Reference
Blaschke, L. M., Kenyon, C. and Hase, S. (Eds: 2014) Experiences in self-determined learning. Self publication. Available here. Book synopsis.

Photo by Dragan Brankovic on Flickr


I know what I like by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Falling prophets

“Books will soon be obsolete in the schools. Scholars will soon be instructed through the eye. It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture. Our school system will be completely changed in 10 years.”

So wrote the celebrated American inventor Thomas Edison in 1913. It's a well known quote, and is more representative of his fervour for the moving picture than it was of reality. His enthusiasm for the fledgling motion picture industry was justified however. It took the world by storm, but not at the expense of books. Motion pictures also failed to revolutionise school systems by the way.

Another well known quote from the Hollywood mogul Darryl F. Zanuck in 1946 reveals more about our tumultuous romance with technology:

"Television won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night." 

Like Edison, Zanuck had a personal vested interest in the future success of the motion picture industry, and viewed the introduction of the television as nothing more than an aberration. Yet just as Edison had grossly underestimated the power and appeal of the book, so Zanuck was proved wrong with about the demise of television. What can we learn from these earnest but erroneous predictions? Firstly, we need to be careful how we predict the future. We should pay more attention to context than content. Technology trends are capricious but our need to access information is a constant. We should understand that people are inherently curious, and will use whatever medium is available to satisfy their hunger for news, entertainment, and social contact.

The advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web has gathered all media together in one 'place'. The convergence of text, audio, video, and the emergence of hypermedia provide us with the ultimate playground. We no longer need to ask whether books are dead. If we like reading, then books will survive, whether they are paper based or digital. The same applies to any other medium.

Photo by Robert Parvlainen on Flickr


Falling prophets by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

At the end of our tether

What does mobile technology have to do with academic freedom? Read on...

'A person's freedom of learning is part of his freedom of thought, even more basic that his freedom of speech.' This remark from John Holt epitomises progressive education. Holt could easily have gone on to argue that freedom of learning should also include choice of location. He died in 1985, before the era of the Web and mobile technology, but the thought was undoubtedly already there. Being able to choose when and where to learn is part of the freedom to learn. It is not just about freedom of thought and freedom of speech, but also freedom of space and place. It is about choice. The is academic freedom.

We have no excuse now. We are living at a time in our history where the small device in the hand of the student is able to provide opportunities for any time, any place learning.

The fact is, untethered learning is evident all around us. Increasingly, people are learning informally through their mobile devices. Tethered technologies such as fixed line telephones are on the wane, while for the first smart phones are now outstripping those from personal computers and are have overtaken laptops as the most popular means of going online. Many are grasping the opportunity to go mobile, using their smart phones, tablets and e-readers to learn while on the move, at a time and pace that suits their lifestyles.

Traditional, formal education is playing catch-up... or in many cases not playing at all.

The significance of the mobile device cannot be underestimated. In the last decade personal, mobile technology has gained a dramatic purchase on western society. It has driven many social, economic, political and, yes - psychological changes. The relative benefits and limitations of these changes can be debated elsewhere, but fundamentally, educators need to recognise something significant. In comparison to other sectors of society, where mobile technology adoption is concerned the world of formal learning is lagging so far behind, if it were an Formula 1 racing driver, it would be in danger of being lapped.

Should education go completely mobile? No, and in most cases it won't. Should schools ignore mobile completely? Definitely not, but many do. A blended approach is needed, where the optimum mix of mobile and tethered learning can be supported. Yes, there is a place for tethered learning, as can be evidenced in many subjects such as science and the arts. But so much more can be learnt outside the four walls of the traditional classroom.  Here are just three strategies teachers can adopt to promote this mix:

1) Create opportunities for learners to use their personal, mobile technologies inside the classroom. There are endless examples already available of teachers who have incorporated mobile technologies into their classrooms, for voting, collaborative learning, capturing data, creating content and interacting with specific environments.

2) Provide content that can be accessed by learners both in the classroom and outside of the classroom. This provision should be seamless, and should be accessible and usable on tablet and phone screens. The mobile content should be interactive and (at the appropriate level) challenging, and learners should be able to interact with their teachers and peers too.

3) Ensure that learners are active in the creation on course content themselves. They know their own personal technologies intimately (they chose them) and don't need to be shown how to use them. They will need support though, in determining how best they can and should employ their mobile tools to discover, create, share, re-purpose and remix content.

In this way, we might see the end of tethered learning, as we move toward a more flexible, personalised, blended learning that is location agnostic.

Reference
Holt, J. (2012) The right to control one's learning. In J. W. Moravec (Ed.) Knowmad Society, Charleston, SC: Education Futures.

Photo by Steve Wheeler


At the end of our tether by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Over the handlebars #blimage

I vividly remember learning to ride a bicycle, even though I was quite young at the time. I remember Mum buying me some 'stabilisers', a small pair of extra wheels that were attached either side of my rear wheel to allow me to keep my balance. I rode around on these for quite a while before I eventually gained the confidence to ride without them. I wonder how much longer it took me to learn to ride because of those stabilisers?

To help my kids when they were learning to ride, I would run alongside them holding the frame, acting as their support until I thought they were ready to ride on their own without falling over. They learnt a lot quicker, partly because they were unaware when I had let go. When I was learning, my stabilisers were conscious scaffolding, and I knew when they were gone. It took me a lot longer to gain confidence and I tended to rely on those little wheels a lot more than I should have.

My kids on the other hand, gained confidence in riding because they assumed I was there supporting them, when in fact I had already let them go. Acquiring skills is like that. Students are often more capable than we think they are. Providing too much scaffolding can be counter productive, and learners can take a lot longer to gain their confidence. The quicker a learner becomes independent, the more confident they will become. Provide them too much support, or intervene too frequently, and they will take longer to discover their own balance.  
No amount of scaffolding or support could have prepared me for the incident that occurred when I was 18 years old. My mother had asked me to take a carton of fresh eggs to her friend, who lived a few streets away. I cycled over holding the eggs in my left hand while steering my bike with my right hand, which also controlled the front brakes.

As I approached the lady's house, a sudden gust of wind blew hard, and I veered into the kerb. Automatically, I grasped the front brakes with my right hand, and the bike stopped. I however, continued, over the handlebars, and both I and the egg carton went up in the air.

Oh the irony. My fall resulted in a fractured collar bone and I spent 24 hours in hospital while the doctors observed me for concussion. The eggs however, were unharmed. Make of that what you will, and then, if you are up for it, write a blog using this image for the #blimage challenge:

Photos by Darren Johnson (courtesy of David Hopkins) and Steve Wheeler


Over the handlebars by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England as a part of the #blimage challenge and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

A lot of balls

Three things.

Firstly, if you tried to pick these balls up, you might do yourself a mischief. They are heavy, because the sculpture is a whole load of tennis balls bonded together, and they are fixed to a solid wooden plinth. If they were individual tennis balls, you could pick them up more easily (a few at a time, like the tennis players do).

If they were separated they probably wouldn't look as impressive, because clearly, this structure is attractive, whereas a pile of tennis balls are... well, just a pile of tennis balls.

If you tried to bounce it, you wouldn't be successful. Individual balls have a certain freedom that this cube does not. They can be hit or thrown in any direction, and you can put a spin on them. These balls have been glued together, forced into a configuration. Personal learning is not something that should be ordered. Learning is always personal, and messy .... and occasionally chaotic. This cube of tennis balls represents anything but personalised learning.

Secondly, the balls are tethered to a surface. They aren't going anywhere soon. Immobility has been imposed upon them. This is important to maintain the integrity of this sculpture, but tethering is increasingly a problem in education. Tethered learning may be convenient for schools to manage, but it's not optimal. Having students sat in orderly rows or tiers (tears) may be easier for the lecturer or teacher to manage, but for the students it's not always a good scene.

I never liked having to sit at my desk and face the front for hours on end. I wanted to get up, get out, and explore. I still think more clearly and solve problems faster when I'm pacing around, wandering through libraries or moving across uncertain terrain (literally or metaphorically). I am not comfortable in meetings when I have to sit for long periods at a table.

Tethered devices are not much better. The desktop PC keeps you in one place, and limits your posture. Mobile devices allow learners to take their connection with them, discover for themselves, and to learn on the move. That is situated learning, where what is being learnt is in its context, and it's a lot more effective for many students.

Thirdly, this configuration of balls is not a network, it's a cube. If it were a network, the nodes would be more separated, but there would also be more connections. In its present configuration each ball can be connected to no more than 6 other balls. In a network, connections are virtually infinite.

The power of the network is in the exponential nature of the connections that can be made, and thence in the amplification power this affords. Learning networks find their power in the number of connections, as can be demonstrated by the way neurones within the human brain connect to each other. This cube of balls is absolutely the antithesis of a network, because connection is so limited.

The future of learning is where all learners are connected to as many other learners and teachers as possible, so that learning is mobile, personal, limitless and unconstrained by configuration. The future of learning is connected, social, mobile and personal.

Photo by Steve Wheeler


A lot of balls by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England as a part of the #blimage challenge and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.