E-learning Debate 2010: Musings on the motion - by Naomi Norman
Just in case you have yet to hear, or know nothing of it, on Wednesday 6 October there is to be a second E-learning Debate held at the Oxford Union. The motion this time around is ‘This house believes that technology-based informal learning is more style than substance’.
In many ways it seems like a thoroughly modern debate to be holding at one of the World’s oldest and most formal educational establishments. However, one could argue that Oxford University, with its small tutorials, comfy common room chairs, long dining tables, and numerous quads, is better than most working environments at creating the right conditions for informal learning. Capturing and sharing those gems of wisdom, passed on in the many discussions held in these informal settings, is what has always been the challenge. And that’s where technology just may be making the difference to modern-day learning.
But, if it sounds like I am coming down on one particular side of the motion, then please read on...
One ‘gem’ captured at Oxford many years before there was any of the technology to video, share and then comment, is the mathematical jottings of Albert Einstein – equations chalked on a blackboard during one of his lectures and then preserved, and now exhibited in Oxford’s Museum of the History of Science – see below.
But like in many of the discussion forum posts, blogs, tweets etc (and even to a mathematician, in this extract, as it stands, in isolation) there is nothing new and truly insightful. Instead, reiterated thoughts, perhaps written in a slightly different format, offer very little to enhance my existing knowledge or my understanding. And, like the 140 characters in a tweet, it is somewhat brief with no space for analysis – after all, there is only so much one can fit on a blackboard of a defined size!
In the modern-day of technology-based informal learning it seems we have ‘blackboard’ upon ‘blackboard’ upon ‘blackboard’, so to speak! I get short update after short update after short update on who said or pondered on what, on this forum or that twitter account, perhaps in different words, but only a small percentage is of pedagogical value to me.
So perhaps I fall on the other side of the motion?
As Professor Diana Laurillard, who spoke at last year’s E-learning Debate, said to me recently when she heard this year’s debate motion: “Oh my goodness! Yet another motion that one could see going either way. Interesting!”
So, of course, at the E-learning Debate 2010, it will be up to the speakers to define the terms in the motion as they deem fit, and up to those who wish to in the debating chamber audience to defend or deprecate the motion when the debate is opened up to the floor. And then it will be up to all of us that are present on the 6 October to listen carefully, decide where our opinion falls and cast our vote by walking through the door of our choice: noes or ayes.
(And for those unable to make it, to cast their votes online afterwards at elearningdebate.com)
If you have yet to register your interest in attending the debate in Oxford, then do so now at http://www.epic.co.uk/debate/register-interest.html , as places are limited. I have no doubt it will be as thought-provoking, insightful and entertaining as last year’s E-learning Debate. And if you arrive early, then make time for a quick visit to the Museum of the History of Science, on Broad Street Oxford – a short walk from the Union – to see Einstein’s blackboard. It may not offer you anything in terms of your mathematical understanding, but perhaps it will get you thinking about the tools we use to communicate (see http://jfgauvin2008.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/einsteins-blackboard/ for more on this particular blackboard!)
Epic counts - by Naomi Norman
For years, when in social situations and asked what I did, I'd avoid telling people I was a mathematician. I was fearful I'd get the comeback I once received: "Oh maths (pause) I had a calculator once!"
How do you respond to that?
The problem with maths is that people are all too happy to admit to being bad at it. This attitude, in my view, is the single biggest barrier to tackling the UK's numeracy skills.
Still, it seems, it has never been more 'fashionable' to be numerate at Epic! We are being approached more and more for our maths learning expertise. Last year, we won an award for the numeracy games we made for young soldier recruits in the British Army, and recently we've delivered over 300 GCSE maths e-resources to publisher, Harper Collins. Meanwhile, the opportunities to help clients with their numeracy and maths learning problems just keep on adding up!
Therefore, it is without shame, I share with you my favourite mathematics story (yes I do indeed have one!), which also serves to remind me about the different ways that people learn.
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| G H Hardy | Srinivasa Ramanujan |
The Cambridge mathematician, Hardy, on visiting his friend, Ramanujan, in a London hospital recounts:
"I had ridden in taxi cab number 1729 and remarked that the number seemed to me rather a dull one and that I hoped it was not an unfavourable omen.
"No," Ramanujan replied, "it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways."
This is what he meant:
1729 = 13 + 123 (one sum of two cubes)
OR
1729 = 93 + 103 (a different sum of two cubes)
This story amazes me particularly because Srinivasa Ramanujan had almost no formal training in mathematics. It also serves to remind me of the importance of providing several routes through learning – to cater for both those who 'instantly get it' and those that need some assistance along the way. And we must also remember that learners may find many different meanings in the same things – while for Hardy the number 1729 meant nothing, for Ramanujan it was very significant.
A final note: now in social situations, I have no problem confessing to what I do...I find being Director of Learning for Epic, or indeed a mathematician, somewhat more favourable to certain other professions. For example, have you recently been at a party with a banker or a politician?
Economic storms and the age of cloud learning - by Ishmael Burdeau
Spend some time in a city centre shortly after the shops close, and you may be lucky enough to spot a special breed of urban guerilla. So-called "freegans" seek to live off the products that our society throws away. Contrary to our preconceptions about these revolutionaries who forage from skips, freegans are typically young, well-educated and employed. They see their way of life as a logical response to the extravagant and wasteful culture around them. It's a sensible way of helping the environment and saving money at the same time.
So now you are probably wondering what all of this has to do with e-learning. Who of us does not feel threatened by the twin spectres of financial meltdown and environmental catastrophe? We all feel our budgets being squeezed, yet we are also aware that the quest for unrelenting growth cannot solve our grave environmental predicament. For anyone working in learning technology, these themes have also been repeated. We have all witnessed the demise of technologies which promised much but delivered little. We are often led to believe that the introduction of a new gadget will lead to improved learning, only to be let down with a bump months or perhaps years later, after having spent many thousands on expensive hardware and software.
Recent changes in my family circumstances have meant that I have had to spend a lot more time working from home. At first, to-ing and fro-ing between between home and office meant juggling a complicated and cumbersome combination of USB sticks and VPN connections. Sharing data between two or three different machines is a painful and awkward struggle, even for a seasoned web professional, and led to a few lost files and dropped connections. It did not take me long to see the benefits of cloud computing, so much so that nearly all of my data is "out there", almost a complete reversal of where I was five short years ago. I have collected a great suite of tools, and these days Google Docs, Prezi and ZumoDrive have replaced Word, PowerPoint and file servers.
Jolicloud, a small company started by Tariq Krim and based in Paris, takes cloud computing to the next level, as its small but beautifully formed OS relies almost entirely on cloud-based applications such as Google Docs, Evernote, DropBox and Spotify to create, store and deliver information. Specifically designed for low-end netbooks, Jolicloud takes a freegan-like approach to technology, assembling a cohesive set of free tools brought together from various cloud-based sources. Readers of the Jane Hart's Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies blog will no doubt be aware that the index of Top 100 Tools for Learning, which is compiled yearly by readers of the site, is increasingly being dominated by web apps.
In fact the 2009 top 10 was dominated by cloud-based tools such as Google Docs, Google Reader, Delicious and SlideShare as well as very strong performances by up-and-coming web apps such as Prezi, Evernote, Screenr, Animoto, DimDim, Yammer and Udutu. For the "traditional" desktop players, things don't look so healthy. The past two years have seen Outlook plummet from 17th to 67th, Word sliding from 10th to 36th and PowerPoint dropping from 5th to 13th. It seems very likely that in 2010 Prezi will overtake PowerPoint and catapault its way into the top 10.
As our new "age of austerity" begins to bite for real, learning technologists seem even more likely to adopt a DIY, freegan approach to delivery of course material and collaboration. The recent launch of Google's CloudCourse is an interesting development in this area. Along with its cloud-based rival, HootCourse, CloudCourse marks a significant shift in the LMS space, using a learning-as-a-service model rather than the more typical download-and-install LMS that we are more used to. As we all get more comfortable with the idea of both our data and applications moving to the cloud, we will no doubt soon see this type of learning becoming the norm. Now that so many fantastic cloud-based tools are available, it certainly makes sense to invest time and effort in exploring the enormous potential of learning in the cloud. The biggest challenge for learning technologists will be about what to keep and what to throw away.
