Web 2.0 and the personal learning experience of the net generation

1. Web 2.0 and the personal learning experience of the net generation Scott Wilson Publisher’s Note: This presentation was given at ALT Spring Conference: New connections, new challenges, Leiden, NL , 6 April 2006.

2. Topics • Net-gen: Some very conservative predictions • Net-gen tools and the web 2.0 architecture • Personal Learning Environments

3. Net-gen • Net-gen learners and teachers are only the vanguard for a set of general technology trends that are crossing the adoption chasm • What can we predict about the near future? I’ve looked at a few sources for ideas: • Pew Internet Project, DataMonitor, CriticalPath, UK NSO, DigitalCenter.org, SmartInternet, Various other websites

4. Access • UK Mobile phone ownership already over 100% in 2005 • Broadband in 8m households and rising. Expected to peak at 60% in 2008 • Computer ownership to peak at 70% in 2008 • Trend is firmly towards laptops with Wi-Fi

5. Access • iPod/MP3 portable ownership at around 12% in 2005, heavily skewed to 18-28 age group. • Typical capacity of MP3 players grown from 64Mb to 20Gb since 2001

6. Access • Current mobile phone data services are primitive • However, strong indications of demand for mobile-based email, and full mobile internet access [Skype Mobile] • Products like Nokia LifeBlog indicate a shift away from perception of content delivery as prime driver of data traffic to SOSO

7. Access • Sensor technology such as GPS, combined with web services for weather, traffic, are already experiencing heavy adoption • This trend is likely to continue with more devices being location and context aware and adaptive

8. Prediction #1 • By 2010 at the latest, all learners accessing education will already possess a portable network device with substantial storage capacity, wireless/mobile internet access, processing capacity, and context adaptability. They will expect ubiquitous wireless/mobile access.

9. Media Psychology • Existing trend of timeshifting media • Examples: podcasts, TiVo/Sky+ • Trend is towards personal scheduling of media instead of adopting the broadcasters schedule • Note also trends of shuffle control and playlisting of music, and channel-hopping • Aggregation vs. Portals - personal instead of personalized

10. Time • Gap between action and effect in social networks is rapidly contracting with 24-hr timeshifted activity taking place across the world • Demands increasing across all aspects of electronic activity for immediate feedback and 24-hr access

11. Prediction #2 • Learners will expect education services and resources to be capable of being timeshifted to suit their schedules, rather than the other way around. They will expect the ability to mix, re-arrange, and otherwise adapt educational offerings to suit their needs.

12. Media Participation • The “write” web is matching the “read” web • Web now established as a communications medium, not a media delivery platform • Rise of citizen journalism, citizen science, cyberactivism, the pro-amateur

13. Media Participation • Participatory culture seeping into other media, such as TV (Big Brother, X-Factor, TV gambling, TV pornography) • 2-way channel between maker and audience becoming the norm • Increasingly, individuals acting as agents as a result of internet disintermediation

14. Media Participation • Blogging and Moblogging a cultural phenomenon experiencing hyperadoption • Dramatic rise in uptake of social software • Personal presence mechanisms still basic, but potential for development • Community features and collaborative filtering becoming an expected component for any online services

15. Prediction #3 • Learners will be increasingly media-aware, and will be immersed in participatory culture through TV, radio, and the internet. They will be more experienced communicators in a range of media, and will expect a high degree of participation. They will already have their own publishing channels

16. Free and connected • Internet culture favours free (as in beer) products, services, and communities • Wikipedia, open-source, free email, free weblogs, free instant messaging, are just the beginning • Barriers between internet services and applications collapsing as web service provision expands [RSS/Atom/APIs]

17. Prediction #4 • Learners won’t expect to pay for technology, if anything they’ll expect to be paid for using it. • Educational services will be expected to integrate with leisure and work services, just like everything else does • Learners will already be part of several online communities when they enter education, and will continue to operate in these networks, and rely upon them for peer recommendations and reputation

18. Net-gen Today • What are net-gen learners using right now? • What are net-gen teachers doing right now?

19. Net-gen Technology • Community-oriented blogging and identity formation networks: • MySpace, Bebo, LiveJournal • Community-augmented sharing networks: • Flickr, YouTube • Matchmaking and goal-pursuit services: • 43Things, online dating

20. Net-gen Technology • Collective collaborative filtering: • Del.icio.us, Technorati • Shared applications: • Writely, BaseCamp • Free ubiquitous communication services: • AIM, MSN, Skype, Yahoo, Gmail, Gtalk • Collective knowledge management: • Wikipedia, other wikis

21. Net-gen technology: Infrastructure • Interconnection between services to add value: • RSS, Atom syndication • FOAF • Service APIs • “Picture-in-Picture”

22. Net-gen technology: Infrastructure • Common services across services: • Contextualized commerce services • Contextualized search services • Distributed Identity management

23. Net-gen teachers • There is an emerging group of educators who are exploiting web 2.0 technologies to innovate in their practice • Blogging, use of wikis and collaboration spaces, social bookmarking, Flickr etc. • Anxieties abound about the connections these make with the community outside the school/college/university/company

24. The PLE Project: Concepts • Multiple-context learning • Formal and informal learning networks • Role-switching • Asymmetric spaces • Self-organisation • Integrated identity

25. PLE Project: Approach • Top-down: Scenario development, theory-driven analysis (Heidegger, Winograd & Flores, Beer) • Bottom-up: Pattern analysis grounded in current and emerging applications and services, examination of existing models • Exploratory: Prototype development, service specification and development

26. Theory • Viable systems and organisational cybernetics • The standing reserve of the learner • Power of instruments - are they a “transparent medium”? • Conversation for action - Flores and Winograd on work and commitment

27. Patterns • Wide choice of systems examined that have characteristics of interest • From the systems we emerge common patterns into a pattern language • The pattern language is applied to the development of prototypes

29. Models

37. Constructing a model

49. Prototypes • PLEX (Eclipse) • PLEWeb (Liferay) • HOWEVER, the PLT solution is not necessarily “a solution”: • Interrelated desktop tools (e.g. Thunderbird+OpenOffice+NetNewsWire+Trillian) • Network of interrelated online personal tools (e.g. del.icio.us+MySpace+Flickr+GMail (etc))

50. That’s All Folks! http://www.cetis.ac.uk/members/ple http://www.cetis.ac.uk/members/scott s.wilson@bangor.ac.uk