Learning in the Microcosmos

1. Learning in the Microcosmos Standards for Microcontent-based Working & Learningin New Digital Media Environments Stuttgart, Open Forum, September 5, 2008 Martin LindnerResearch Studios AustriaStudio Microlearning & Microinformation EnvironmentsInnsbruck/Salzburgwww.microlearning.org

2. Marshall McLuhan (1967): “There is a world of difference between the modern home environment of integrated electric informationand the classroom.” (In 2008, the gap is bigger than ever.)

3. “e-Learning is dead!”

4. “Did you hear? e-Learning is Dead. That's right... dead. Shot down in the prime of its life.Six feet under. Kaput.“ Jay Cross (2003)

5. Jay Cross had coined the term„e-learning“ in 1998, fascinated by the possible impactof the Internet onhuman-centered learning. He got frustrated when the term was misused in the following years, When it became just a new buzzword label for „Computer-based Online Training“& the transfer of courses & classrooms into virtual „Learning Management Systems“.

6. „The Ideal Classroom“ (presented as such in the Web)…

7. … the matching ‚Ideal Office‘ …

8. … and a model for „eLearning 1.0“ US Airforce

10. Macro-organizational Learning Adapted from Edward Tufte‘s famous graphic about MS Powerpoint

11. Emergence: The connected lives of ants, brains, cities, and software

12. „Google Learning“

13. ?

14. New Learner

15. Micro-Information Workers:Point of Presence, Continuous Partial & Peripheral Attention OPEN SPACE OPENNESS (After getting connected, mainstream workplaces do not feel that much different from this geek cockpit.)

16. E-Learning 2.0: Early vision of a „Personal Learning Environment (PLE)“ Scott Wilson (UK), 2005

17. Jay Cross now prefers to speak of „Informal Learning“. 2007 (But the concept has close connections to Stephen Downes‘ „e-Learning 2.0“-meme.)

18. In Web-driven digital media environments, people are in fact already practicing (informal) microlearning.Willingly or not.How can we design for this situation?

19. A Global Digital Climate Change

20. David Weinberger, 2002Small Pieces Loosely Joined “[The Web is ] a collection of ideas, none longer than can fit on a single screen.… small nuggets pointing to more small nuggets.”

21. Anil Dash, 2002Introducing the Microcontent Client “We've discovered in the last few years thatnavigating the web in meme-sized chunksis the natural idiom of the Internet …“

22. Anil Dash, 2002Introducing the Microcontent Client “Microcontentis information published in short form,with its length dictated by the constraint of a single main topicand by the physical and technical limitations of the software and devices that we use to view digital content today. “

23. This causes new dynamics within the „Semiosphere“ „Semiosphere“: a term coined by Jurij M. Lotman, referring to „Biosphere“.

24. Circulation of microinformation is heating up.

25. This will fundamentally affect our future lives! (This is somehow more than just a metaphoric illustration – since the 1980s, Al Gore has actually been botha prophet of Global Warming and an evangelist of the Internet.)

26. Glaciers are melting.

27. Glaciers are melting.

28. Deserts are growing.

29. Deserts are growing.

30. Creatures are driven from their habitat.

31. Microsoft Office FILES & DOCUMENTS DESKTOPAPPLICATIONS MICROSOFT OFFICE FIXED-LINE TELEPHONY

32. MS Office devastated EXPLOSIONOF THE E-MAIL INBOX GOOGLE & THE WEB SHREDDERINGMACROCONTENT MICROCONTENT MOBILE PHONES.SHORT CALLS discovered in 2001 WLAN, LAPTOPS& MOBILE DEVICES.

33. The Microcontent Office MICROCONTENT discovered in 2001

34. A System of Microcontent Circulation clouds drops pools trickles & flow

35. “Media is no longer something we do, but something we become part of.” (It is not tools anymore …)

36. People working and living with digital micromedia are swimming, rather than navigating, in a sea of microcontent and streams of microtasks. This also changes the way Information Workers learn.

37. Microcontent.The stuff the Web is made of.

38. Anil Dash, 2002Introducing the Microcontent Client “We've discovered in the last few years thatnavigating the web in meme-sized chunksis the natural idiom of the Internet.“

39. … memes: self-replicating units of cultural information

40. Microcontent is a virus

41. Dash‘s microcontent definition (paraphrase): Human processed information self-contained the smallest units of meaning and attentionthat can stand for itself elementary individually addressable to be easily re-used and re-mixed appropriate media format appropriately formatted to work as building block in different cultural patterns and individual mindsets

42. appropriate media format STANDARD appropriately formatted to work as building block in different cultural patterns and individual mindsets Dash‘s microcontent definition (paraphrase): Human processed information self-contained the smallest units of meaning and attentionthat can stand for itself elementary individually addressable to be easily re-used and re-mixed appropriate media format appropriately formatted to work as building block in different cultural patterns and individual mindsets

43. Dash‘s microcontent definition (paraphrase): Computer processed information self-contained [some relation to object-oriented programming] elementary individually addressable to be easily re-used and re-mixed appropriate data format appropriately formatted for integration in different applications and services

44. Dash‘s microcontent definition (paraphrase): Computer processed information self-contained [some relation to object-oriented programming] elementary individually addressable to be easily re-used and re-mixed appropriate data format appropriate data format STANDARD appropriately formatted for integration in different applications and services

45. The evolution of microcontent is a complex feedback phenomenon – it can not be reduced neither to software nor to humans (Microcontent is about circulation, not just transmission.Standards have to be built for enabling feedback and emergence.)

46. The Micro-Web is about emergent patterns ofuser-generated and user-enriched content

47. appropriate data format for computers Emergent standards:microformats, RSS/Atom,tagging APIs… appropriately formatted for integration in different applications and services Emergent standards:blog posts, microbloggingtemplates, delicious items … appropriate media format for human attention appropriately formatted to work as building block in different cultural patterns and individual mindsets

48. But for now e-Learning primarily is formatted neither for humansnor for the Web, but for macro-organizations & -institutions. appropriate format for organizations Formatted to stabilize macro-organizational frameworks:- macro-organizational training (formal, top-down)- macro-organizational calculation of costs- macro-organizational management control

49. If we want to design standards for “Next-Generation eLearning”, we have to understand & bear in mind the nature of microcontent-based information work.

50. Thomas Van der Wal, 2005 “Personal Info Cloud” www.vanderwal.net In micromedia environments, knowledge takes on the form of clouds. (Microcontent being something like small drops of vapor.)