facebook in the classroom: can web 2.0 work policy miracles? · vodcasts), flickr (photos),...

Vilnius October 2nd 2010

Facebook in the classroom: Can web 2.0 work policy

miracles?

Joe Cullen,Arcola Research,Tavistock Institute


This presentation covers

• Factors driving the use of Web 2.0 in the classroom

• Teachers needs

• How Web 2.0 is responding to teachers needs

• Some examples of the use of Web 2.0 in the classroom

• What has been learned


Key Drivers

New teaching roles

Seamless learning –school; home; society,

Personalisation of learning: PLE’s

NEEDS

Over-arching:

User Groups

Technical skills Pedagogic Support

Drivers

EU 2020Changed learning

paradigmsNMLs

New identitiesWeb 2.0


iLANDS

Learning

&

Achieving

Prim

ary Educatio

nSecondary Education

Higher Education T

eachin

g

Pra

ctice

Personal Development

Society

Diversity

NetworkingTeacher

Training

Voc

atio

nal

Tra

inin

g

i n n ov a t i on


What is Web 2.0?

• Social Networking services – Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn. • Syndication and notification technologies - RSS (Really Simple Syndication)

and Atom • Weblogs or blogs - Twitter • Wikis - collaboratively add, remove and edit content e.g. Wikipedia• Tagging, Social Bookmarking and Folksonomies – recording (bookmark) of

web pages, and tagging with significant words (tags) e.g. del.icio.us• Media-sharing devices - YouTube (movies), iTunes (podcasts and

vodcasts), Flickr (photos), Slideshare (presentations), DeviantArt (art work) and Scribd (documents).

• Podcasts and Vodcasts• Virtual and immersive environments – e.g. Second life• Online office and discussion applications - Microsoft Office or Open Office

• Web 2.0 Tools for learning – e.g. Moodle = LEARNING 2.0


The increasing ubiquity of Web 2.0

45% of teens aged 12-14 have online profiles

9-17-year-olds spend more time social networking than watching TV- (Attwell, 2009)60% of young people

focus on education-related topics; 50% discuss schoolwork (Childnet International, 2008).


New Millennium Learners

• Post 1982 – 1st generation to grow surrounded by digital media

• ‘Hardwired’ to use multiple web-based participatory media (Baird & Fisher 2006 )

• Technologically savvy

• Multi-tasking

• Technology shapes social values

• Changed cognitive patterns and learning styles – no linear thinking: ‘Grasshopper mind’ (Pedro, 2006)

• Egocentric and individualistic

• NML ‘will become mainstream’ (OECD, 2008)


NML Learning Styles

PersonalisedUse of variety of tools simultaneously,

to suit individual needs

AdaptiveUse adapted to purpose

OrganisedSophisticated information management

IntegratedMixing and matching different tools

New working patternsComplex thinking,

evaluation & synthesis

Time/space boundariesContinuous & immediate support; multitasking, multiple resources

Transferableskills and knowledge are transferred to other aspects of private and professional life

PervasiveSupporting all aspects of study

To find, manage, produce & share resources

Student Use and Perception of Technology (Conole et al,

2008)


Who uses ‘Learning 2.0’?

Source: IPTS database (Cullen et al, 2009)


Why is Learning 2.0 used?

Source: IPTS database (Cullen et al, 2009


Web 2.0 tools

Source: IPTS database (Cullen et al, 2009


What do teachers use Web 2.0 for?

• Build repositories of re-usable material that can be distributed for teachers to use in their lessons

• Support networking and on-line knowledge-sharing.

• Deliver and share both content and also interactive discussion and learning on teaching practice (co-production of knowledge and content)

• Sometimes involves collaboration and co-production with students


Example: Protovoulia

• Umbrella’ site of innovative online services for teachers and pupils in Greek primary and secondary schools

• Collaborative learning through LMS combined with blogs, wikis, forums

• low drop-out rates of participating schools and teachers (approx. 8%);

• Increased digital competences of teachers


Nettilukio

• Teacher Training i.e. Adult Learning & Secondary Education -Otava Folk High School, Finland

• Complete online study programme of Finnish upper secondary school level using a learning platform; Virtual classroom technology, wikis and blogs

• Improved basic computer skills

• Students report about high motivation, especially in the beginning of the programme


MOSEP

• More self-esteem with my e-portfolio’

• Targets early school leavers by improving the skills and qualifications of their teachers and career counsellors

• Wiki, Moodle, FlashMeeting, blogs, Skype, bookmarking, tagging, RSS feeds, FlickR, SlideShare

• Tutors are ‘learning companions

Improved soft skills e.g. time-management and team-working. Improved student self-esteem. Advanced technical tools improved learning participation and outcomes


Schome

• Originally aimed at ‘gifted’students

• Now includes students who don’t do well in conventional school environment – ADD; autism; BEGMs

• explores potential and pitfalls of ‘Teenage Second Life’

• ‘open pedagogy’ based on collaborative learning involving students and teachers

• Second Life; Machinima; blogs; wikis

Supports active citizenship -students have say in who runs ‘Schome Island’Expands learning horizons through virtual field-trips e.g. Mayan temples; Virtual world builds confidence – safe environment.Develops high-level e-skills.


What did Web 2.0 contribute to learning?

• Radical technological or pedagogic advances limited – Schome

• Innovation in integration of tools and approaches

• Pedagogic innovation – new shared roles based on co-production of knowledge e.g. MOSEP; ‘open pedagogy

• More personalized and learner-centred environments (individual documentation of competencies; e-portfolios; personal learning plans, learning diaries)


Impacts for teachers

• ‘General’ teaching practices aimed at supporting professional development and better teaching practice; tutoring and mentoring;

• organization of collaborative and group-based work, for example linking classroom sessions and homework in the online environment;

• personalised and self-organised learning;

• Special Education Needs;

• promoting PLTS (Personal Learning and Thinking Skills) for teachers and students.


Problems and Issues

• Issue of assessment and formal certification of Web 2.0 experiences and knowledge gained by these means

• Acceptance and support by the organisation vs. bypassing of traditional institutional systems

• Costs and rapid obsolescence of high-tech solutions and content

• Accessibility in media-rich environments – penalises lower skilled teachers and students

• Resistance to change of educational enterprise – some schools ban You-tube and Facebook

• Globalisation/commercialisation of education

• The role of the teacher


Restructuring the enterprise –the new orthodoxy

• Education systems dysfunctional – not responding to societal demands (Attwell, 2008)

• Schools need to adopt creativity and networking students do outside

• Owen (2008) – personalisation of educational experience; death of school; ‘always on’students; integrated with family life

• Teachers become obsolete

• Digital competences integrated with normal and everyday behaviours


Peter Thiel Jim Breyer

Mark Zuckerberg

Substitution of real world ‘nature’ by virtual worldConsumer behaviours integrated in branding and marketingThru ‘collaborative social networking’


Which of these is a pedigree racing bicycle?

A

B

C


Which of these is a pedigree racing bicycle?

A


CivilisationalChoices

18th C Spanish Flintlock Blunderbuss Pistol


Conquistadores

• 1532 – Pizarro destroys 80,000 army of Atahuallpa with 168 Spanish soldiers

• Why? Because indigenous knowledge and culture considered uncivilised

• Led to economic, social and cultural decimation of most powerful New World civilisation

• 21st century legacy

• Peru GDP per capita: $2,300

• Spain GDP per capita: $20,150

• Contribution to current globalisation problems


Technical coding and civilisational choices

• Technical coding (Feenberg, 1996)

• Many possible innovation scenarios and trajectories –‘interpretative flexibility’

• But shaped by the powerful and the educated

• Educational Technology has ‘civilisational choices’

• Globalisation and neo-imperialism – 80% of e-learning exported to ‘developing countries’ in English and culturally compromised

• Learning 2.0 reproductive not ‘transformative’

• Untapped creative potential of billions of teachers and students


Summary

• Web 2.0 beginning to promote new learning paradigms• Supports acquisition of new digital competences for

teachers – and students • Requires broader range of e-skills for teachers: co-

producers of knowledge; learning companions• Promising results with hard to reach; early school

leavers• Problem of organisational resistance and school culture• Lack of evidence base on outcomes and impacts• Competing theoretical paradigms – the struggle for the

‘soul of education’• What is the role of the teacher?

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