cetishttp://www.cetis.ac.uk
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Report out from Personal Learning and Research Environments
Oleg Liber, Sharon Perry, Phil Beauvoir, John Swannie, Tom Franklin, Sarah Davies, Dan Corlett,
Hugh Davies, Sandy Patrick Carmichael, Sandy Leaton-Gray, Michael Sellway, Rob Crouchley, Rob Allan, Adrian Fish, Christina Smart, Maia Dimitrova, Marcello Allegri, Charles Severance, Wilbert Kraan
cetishttp://www.cetis.ac.uk
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Presentations VRE/VLE/IE• Colloquia
• Interactive Log
• Teaching and Learning Portal
• TLRP - Teaching and Learning Research Program
• AERS
• ReDRESS - Resource Discover for Researchers in e-Social Science
• VRE Sakai Demonstrator
• GROWL - Grid Resources of Workstation Library
• VRE: Integrated Biology Demonstration
• CQeSS - Collaboratory for Quanatative e-Social Science
cetishttp://www.cetis.ac.uk
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Problem: Many “personal” environments
CollaborativeVLE/VRE/IE
Requirements
VLE “Experts”
VLE Customers
VRE “Exp
erts
”
VRE Cust
omer
s
IE “Experts”
IE Customers
When we treat Virtual Learning, Virtual Research, and Information Environments as different, we end up developing divergent environments which satisfy similar requirements in very different ways based on the experts who are funded to produce the VRE, VLE, or IE solutions.
Each expert group is often influenced by a different field of research: VLE’s are influenced by Educational Technology experts, VRE’s are often influenced by Computer Scientists, while IE’s are influenced by Library Sciences.
cetishttp://www.cetis.ac.uk
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End users are people too…
CollaborativeVLE/VRE
Requirements
VLE “Experts”
Customers
VRE “Exp
erts
”
Custom
ers
IE “Experts”
Customers
As painful as it may be, the VRE, VLE, and IE experts must begin to coordinate so that some point in the future, users don’t have environments with completely different approaches to the same problem.
cetishttp://www.cetis.ac.uk
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Why have a “Personal” in personal
Learning/Research EnvironmentMove from a provider or institution focused set of capabilities to an environment where users “assemble” their environment to suit their needs.
System that maps to how I think and operate so that things are made easier for me. How do I bend this tool to suit the way that I work? Especially as my skills as a user improve.
Move bits around arrange the way you like. This is both things like my own folder arrangements and things like accessibility (i.e. how I want to “see” these things)
cetishttp://www.cetis.ac.uk
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Requirements appear to be different…
cetishttp://www.cetis.ac.uk
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Traditionally, there are some differences•Locus of control •Existing versus emerging information•Fixed versus fluid agenda•Different tools in use
Similarity and Differences
VRE Phys
ics
VRE ChemistryIE Social
ScienceTeaching Learning
VisualizationGrid Computing
Annotation
QTIScormAttendance
ChatDiscussionResources
Repository
Shared Data
cetishttp://www.cetis.ac.uk
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Why not apply it
all to learning
and integrate it
together? VLE
Visualization
Annotation
QTIScorm
Chat
Shared Data
Computing
IE
VRE
VRE
The Personal Learning/Research Environment (PLRE) effectively adds a “productivity” layer to the VLE/VRE/IE space which unifies the look/feel/usability across the multiple sources of information
cetishttp://www.cetis.ac.uk
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Today’s PLRE is a CompromiseWeb browser with lots of bookmarks to many sites - each quite different
Computer desktop with files, folders
E-Mail client
Calendar client
… All quite different - user figures tools out as best they can and to the extent they can
cetishttp://www.cetis.ac.uk
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Someday the PLRE will not be a browser
a. pure html web page
b. web page based, but with browser enhancements
c. browser extension
d. dedicated desktop network client
e. extensible desktop application platform
f. common desktop application
Better user experienceIncreased productivity
More complex to buildDifficult to keep up with changing technology
cetishttp://www.cetis.ac.uk
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Promising TrendsStandards based portals - JSR-168, etc.
API standardisation
Basic look and feel standardisation - CSS
Federating portals - WSRP
User control over assembly of many sources
Ability to write portable full-featured tools
Java
Eclipse
Flash MX
cetishttp://www.cetis.ac.uk
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High Level RecommendationsContinue to invest in VLE/VRE/IE efforts, accepting the fact that for the moment they will not converge immediately
Continue to invest in portals and WSRP activities to explore federation within current presentation technologies
Invest in research into new technologies to federate information sources beyond the browser.
Act to maintain communication between the VLE/VRE/IE and PLRE efforts so that common solutions can be shared and evolved over time.
cetishttp://www.cetis.ac.uk
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More RecommendationsInvestigate techniques for the learner/researcher to “own” their information over their lifetime and “share” it with institutions and groups at the appropriate time.
Encourage projects which support flexible roles and structures (i.e. not just instructor can write and students can read or anyone can create groups)
Investigate techniques where PLRE’s can operate in both connected and disconnected modes
cetishttp://www.cetis.ac.uk
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Thank you for your time…
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