Future Learning Environments

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A look at where we are currently with learning environments and what is likely to happen over the next few years.

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Future learning environmentsand what they tell us

Martin Weller

Outline

What are VLEs like now? How did we get here? What are future VLEs like? What does it mean for us?

Current state of play OECD/OBHE 2004 survey in 13 countries All had VLE 37% have institution-wide VLE 90% expect to have single VLE in next 5 years 52% use commercial system Rest use combination of in-house and open source No institution had just OS 31% had portal 6.6% had CMS

Democrats vs revolutionaries

staff development

aca

dem

ic s

taff

innovationtradition

critical mass

cottage industrymainstream

Robustness

Reliability

Ease of use

Flexibility

Excitement

Technological flair

Rigour

Usabilty

New tools

New approaches

What’s wrong with VLEs

They are content focused They have no strong pedagogy They are based around a teacher-classroom model They combine a number of average tools, but not the

best ones They do not feature a particular tool They operate on a lowest common denominator

approach They do not meet the needs of different subject areas It is difficult to exchange content between them,

despite claims to interoperability

Why have VLEs been adopted?

Because they do not require big changes in practice

A content management system requires: Most content is available digitally Content is in appropriately sized chunks Reuse of material is encouraged E-learning plays a significant role in the overall educational

strategy

Plant succession

Technology succession

“technological environments are not merely passive containers of people but are active processes that reshape people and other technologies alike” (McLuhan 1962)

Future LE – why?

A proxy for social and technological change Reflect changes in HE Engage learners New models of learning New audiences?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pyjRj3UMRM

Students inhabit the online world

Possible dimensions

Future LE

Open contentiTunesUOpenlearnSlideshare

Social NetworkFacebookLastFM43Things

PLEStringleBlogPageflakesLearning design

LAMSCompendium

Virtual worldsSecondLifeWorld of Warcraft

Virtual PresenceGabblyMediumUser generated content

WikiversityYouTubeFlickr

DevicesMobile techMS SurfaceNintendo Wii

What does it mean?

Not educational tools We need to go out to them Mixing and mashing Usability is high After centralisation – decentralisation! Content isn’t everything – but it’s not nothing They don’t come to us for content anymore

– need to add more

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