Future of Learning

Notes from the Future of Learning Conference (Sydney, February, 2014)

Keynote: Mike Keppell: Understanding the Next Gen Learners

• PLN; UGC
• innovative pedagogical practices (diagram)
• components of dig lit "understand info no matter how its presented"
• Rheingold: 'mindfulness'
• Digital ID (get from slides - to be added)
• Mike has had important conversations on Slideshare; also provides a form of learning analytics

• your digital footprint more important that CV? (dig tattoo?)

SEAMLESS LEARNING

• continuity of learning across locations, times, technologies, social settings
• assessment as learning - includes forward looking feedback; students have input into assessment crtiteria (rubric)

• dig cams give you instant feedback!
• [note to self: get a Garmin gadget - exercise; Fitbit?]
• Desire Paths - enable?
• new mindsets required

EDDIE BLASS - the year of 2525

5 drivers of change:

1) Dig Tech

• BYOD
• learning analytics
• blend (student chosen)
• informal
• collaboration
• gamification

2) Democratisation of Knowledge

• privacy redefined
• others can create your social identity
• smart systems/machines (eg Fitbit)
• instant peer review
• crowd sourced innovation

Therefore, what is the future role of research at your org?

3) Contestable Funding (for Higher ed)

• the next gen will be poorer than the previous generation for the first time in history!
• Ph Ds are not defended orally in Oz (viva)

4) Global Mobility

• cross  - cultural
• service provision (Khan Academy; MOOCs)
• global accreditation

5) Integration with Industry

• by 2025 TAFE will be embedded in higher ed (assuming that TAFE will still exist)
• there will be 'pracademics'
• universe-cities - ed for the masses
• ac freedom superseded by Internet; ac id will be transient

TECH DEVELOPMENTS ACROSS THE UK

Richard Walker (Uni of York)

Julie Voce (Imperial College London)

• disruption v renewal [two sides of same coin?]
• key challenges: mobile tech; BYOD
• students don't want tech to undermine contact time on campus
• pre-MOOC: only 3% of courses offered fully online (2012)Future: students as partners in curric design (there it is again)greater use of learning analytics (see Smart Sparrow)
• Sean Gallagher (uni of Sydney)
• Future of learning = future of jobs (is a second machine age coming?)
• many desk sitting jobs (screen) will disappear
• grads need to be creative problem solvers

• MOOC business model: worth it?
• good for marketing
• those who complete MOOCs tend to be higher ed grads already

• Using Big Data to Inform Pedagogical Innovation (Big Data has become obvious from MOOC phenomenon)
• MOOCs are personalised learning technologies

**Flipped Learning Design enables academics (researchers) to teach students the skills they already have!!!! Researchers are 'creative problem solvers'**

PANEL SESSION

What will influence learning outcomes in the next 5 years?

• Sandra Wills: HE will increasingly have to fund itself > open and free ed?
• Melinda Waters: changing skill needs of the workplace; industry want lit skills AND higher order skills (innovation, entrepreneurial. problem solving, global, mobility)

How will institutions change to cope with the changes?

What can we learn from other places?

If you were Minsister of Ed what would you do?

Ken Udas: free up information and content

Sean Gallagher (Uni of Sydney) : NBN!

Why bother having a degree at all? Any point?

• Ken: can you get 'knowledge' via the Internet? (Yes IMO); are we getting confused between the diff betw ed and training?
• Sandra: many unis have already changed and are NOT just delivering lectures; many offer applied learning as part of a qual
• Sean: go to uni for the social experience! (in US - residential college experience)

How do we re-engage the disengaged youth?Ken: produce 'caring' people!

• Melinda: current funding makes it difficult to be community focused
• Where do we find these 'pracademics'?
• Sandra: break down the silos

How to support academics through this change?

• Sandra: it's a complex system

Is it legit to speed up quals?

• Melinda: 'tick and flick' and 'time serving' are both issues!

FLIPPED LEARNING Mel Edwards - U of Sydney

• groups students accordng to interest/industry; sometimes ability
• uses Ken Robinson talks to inspire and explain to students; empowers them; talks about diff betw 'knowledgeable' and knowledge-able
• 1600 students: a team of staff who have been trained in the same system!
• not for all students all of the time - students complain about it being too hard ("she asks us to do too much")
• uses Survey Monkey to track student behaviour in relation to pre-work
• has been running this course for 3 yrs
• Freire quote about authority and freedom!

Dror Ben Naim - Smart Sparrow can provide personal learning analytics

Steve Wheeler

• MOOCS have been hijacked by companies and big data
• we are heading for the meta-web (web X.0)
• fitbit is part of the quantified self phenomenon
• believes all content shd be open (resigned from closed journal)
• (need to check the slides for the rest)
• transliteracy - ability to understand, and present yourself, equally - all media

DAY 2

Andrew Vann (VC, CSU) 

• Putting People First (not the market)
• most Aust unis state that teaching isoce their first priority! (Adelaide and ??
• Game: Peacemaker (Israel v Palestine)
• we've adopted the worse characteristics of the corporate world
• John Seddon (book) : targets are a distraction; focus on process is more beneficial
• maintain a sense of soul
• accept constraints and imperfections!!
• US unis don't seem to be as obsessed by global rankings
• CSU has a 'narrative' , not a mission statement
• TAFEs that have become unis are teachng focused

Helen Beetham (link from UK; adviser to JISC) bit.ly/jiscdigilit

Learning in the Digital University (@helenbeetham)

• digital capability is contextual (not always best)
• students are divided on use of tech (my take: depends a lot on teacher)
• has been involved designing dig lit program for JISC
• check pyramid (similar to Laslow's hierarchy) on dig lit (with Sharpe, 2010)
• "student learning is hybrid and pushing boundaries"
• recruit students as mentors! get  them to produce resources in gps "feed forward learning" (some students cd be paid!!)
• student solutions are 'better' - quicker, dirtier, need refinement, but WORK!

STREAM 1 - DIGITAL STRATEGY

Gilly Salmon (Swinburne) - The Future is Mobile

move to personalisation, authenticity

• [note to self: use CC badge on presentations]
• don't design for big screen anymore!!!
• 35% of world pop have Internet; 93% mobile penetration
• Aust: 81% Internet; 110% mobile; 57% FB
• Swinburne study (incomplete): 81% of students disappointed on how tech was used
• don't forget the role of assessment ----
• Flipped Learning Design requires mobile devices
• check apps that help develpent of UGC
• examples: field trip video diaries "learning in the wild"!!!
• possible resurgence of epfs with advent of multimedia channels????

MARK BROWN (National Inst for Dig Learning, Dublin)

Painting a Diff Version of the Future

The Contested Terrain

• tech is not just a tool (agree!!)
• tech favours  libertarians; decentralised, deregulated society - agree (ie values!)
• Shakespeare: "The web of our life is a mingled yarn - good and ill together"
• Books: To save Everthing Click, Against the Tide, Distrusting Ed Tech (Neil Selwyn)

The Discourse of Persuasion

• ed is NOT in crisis - WHO says it is???
• Einstein: "it is the theory that decides what we can observe"
• Deschooling Discourse
• badges, open, uncurriculum;  Mark thinks this is fundamentally flawed model
• eg P2P Uni, OER Uni, uncollege.com
• the flaw is...the state still plays an important role for reproduction of culture/heritage (weak defence IMO)

Who is telling the story? What is the story telling? what story isn't being told? (tick)

Ada and Elsie: Wacko-the-Diddle-oh

The characters Ada and Elsie were stars of Australian live radio in the 1940s. 'Live radio' played to two audiences - those out in radio land and those gathered together at a live venue. In Wacko-the-Diddle-oh the live audience gets to experience what it was like to help create the atmosphere for the radio audience. And what a hoot it is. You're encouraged to cheer and stomp as these two prissy ladies deliver their saucy humour. And it seems that sponsors insisting on naming rights is not a modern phenomenon. Then, as now, they need to be kept happy - not that easy in the 40s if you were 1) female and 2) wanting to push the boundaries. And then there's the sound effects: marvel at the ingenuity of a lost trade. Really strong performances from the three person cast, and  a fascinating, instructive journey into a genre that has faded into the past.

The Trials and Tribulations of Mr Pickwick

It's 1830 in Dickensian London, so it's the language, manners, and humour of another time. And that is a large part of the appeal of this production. How often do you hear such quaint phrases as 'a token of outward satisfaction' or 'murmured a bashful acceptance'? If as a contemporary citizen you can cope with utterances of more than 140 characters (!) you'll appreciate the richness of the vocabulary used here. Nigel Nevinson delivers a deft portrayal of multiple characters that is polished and entertaining. OK - some of the jokes which may have been very funny nearly 200 years ago now seem a bit twee, but there's a charm at work here that tells an interesting moral tale, and also has something to say about the slippery nature of lawyers - not everything's changed! A wonderful way of becoming familiar with the background to a classic of English literature. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Siem Reap/Angkor Wat

Siem Reap could easily be  a terrible place but it's not. So many thousands of visitors pour through each week en route to the ancient temples of Angkor Wat and surrounds that it could easily cave in to tourist tack and sell its soul, but so far its soul is intact. There are some tacky parts to Siem Reap, notably the loud and gaudy Pub Street, but for the rest it retains some integrity with a balance of fine cafes and classy guesthouses and hotels. The Siem Reap river winds its way through the town and if you follow it far enough at either end, provides easy release to the fringes of town  and the countryside beyond.

But the reason for being in Siem Reap is of course the superb World Heritage listed sites of Angkor Wat. The name Angkor Wat is used to refer to both the mother temple of the region - which is Angkor Wat, and the region that contains a series of other temples for several kilometres around - like Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm. I visited 5 different temples, and they are all magnificent, but Angkor Wat itself stands alone as the highlight. About 1.5 kilometres in length it is believed to be the largest religious structure ever built. Its location in deep forest, the majesty of its design, and the endless detail of the thousands of bas-reliefs and countless carvings on walls and roofs takes your breath away, keeps you entertained, and in a constant state of wonder.

There were a lot of people there the day I visited, and I imagine that is the same every day of the year, and herein lies a potential problem. The temple itself is big enough to absorb the crowds, but not so other smaller temples. (The lovely Bayon was a nightmare.)  The Angkor Wat complex must be a vast earner of foreign currency - every foreigner pays $20 a day to enter the complex. And now Cambodia is largely at peace with itself and the word is out that it is a superb place to visit, the world will continue to visit in droves and this is going to place a lot of pressure on the infrastructure around Siem Reap, and create growing congestion around the smaller temples.

I am not going to attempt to describe the temples in any detail here. Photos do a much better job of that. As in other places in Cambodia be prepared for constant requests to take a tuk-tuk or buy stuff you don't want. And if you say no try and be gracious about it.

When you're tired of the temples, and you still have the time, take a trip to the floating village of Chong Kneas about 15 kilometres away. It's one of those things you're never going to see in the average run of daily life, and it feels like a privilege to witness the intimate life of a community on water.