#Learning monitoring in Belgium - based on #LearningDoctrine #synchronous

Just this morning I got a link to a video representing a new learning technology used at IMEC. As I looking into synchronous learning technology, this is of interest. But as I was watching the video, I felt a bit uneasy. This synchronous learning solution WeConnect is offered by Barco and is implemented at IMEC (which is connected to KULeuven, which will in the years become the major university in Belgium, as it is good in gaining and keeping established power).

Monitor the learner to push them into good followers
In this synchronous learning solution, online learners attending the synchronous classroom are monitored (facial expressions), psychophysiological data is captured (using wearables), engagement is measured (based on body movements) and interventions (quizzes, polls) are embedded in the lecture in order to keep the attention of learners. But again, this is leading the biggest batch of learners, the 'normal' learners, those who have an attention span lasting a full lecture. And it is aimed at lecture-based content (university content mainly), with of-course a teacher dashboard indicating engagement of the overall student population.

It is not about instruction, it is about stimulating creative thinking on subject areas of interest
I can see the benefits of this system, but it just annoys me intensely that it is again about instruction (absorbing information), not about actual learning (creating). For instance, if you use challenge-driven education and learners are working on their own projects.... surely the engagement and learning will skyrocket through the roof?

Adults learners need a digital shepherd?
When a child is young (even up to 18 years old), I can imagine you want to learn how to learn, how to stay attentive and what it can provide you with... but once you are an adult, surely you will know your own way forward? Surely, there should be more ways for any intelligent young adult to open their own world and live it the way they feel fit?
Why are technologists so scared a learner wouldn't be attentive, stare outside, have something on their mind... and then zoom in again on the subject that is given? To me, if a learner is not interested enough in the lecture... so what? If a teacher cannot grab your attention, what of it? Should we pressure learners into learning patterns they

Learning comes naturally
When you consider MOOCs, learners learn them and take them in their spare time. There is no 'optimization of learner posture'. People learn because they like the content because they are intrinsically motivated because they have a personal goal. I would think that tailoring content and delivery to nurture intrinsic motivation and personal goals is more useful, more fulfilling from the learner's point of view? Learning is in our genes, which makes all of learning unique yet natural in its uniqueness. With all of these technologies, I would think that human satisfaction would become more interesting as a subject for innovative technologies, then creating humans that learn alike, do alike, and follow digital indicators?

GDPR
Can a learner - using this system - decline being monitored? While still following the course or the lecture? Surely this should be the case? I would immediately ask to be non-monitored. But then this could be me.

Quantum supremacy surely makes 'proper old-school learners' obsolete?
I would be very surprised if the future would be all about the best learners (which human society has never been about either), but for those who can actually fill their spare time with actions that make them feel confident, useful, creative and ... happy. Subtracting new knowledge from data can become a processing-power based activity done by e.g. computers having the sycamore chip though granted, it will still take some years before it becomes fully functional for day-to-day actions. But still.... shouldn't we focus on getting humans more actively involved in a less-school-like higher education?

What do you think? Below is the link to the movie that sparked my sighed-based eye roll resulting in this blogpost. I will try to get my hands on using it for innovative learning.

LECTURE+ from imec on Vimeo.

Liveblog @mathvermeulen #JustDoIt #vovpitstop @vovnetwerk

Liveblog Mathias Vermeulen Ode aan Angus

(Great keynote, capturing the audience first, coming to business with strong ideas)

Lang leve technologie!

Technologie is (ahem)

• ·       Ons LMS
• ·       Ons eLearningmodules
• ·       Onze course vending machine

MacGyver is biggest inspiration of @mathiasVermeulen

Fabulous learning is developed by thinking ‘What would MacGyver do?”

·       Find what is out there, and use it to your own advantage and needs!

·       L&D is a party for everyone: becoming best friends with IT. HR, L&D

·       “Ik ben een bricoleur”

Zwitsers zakmes

• ·       xAPI – LRS
• ·       VR/AR
• ·       Games (bury me my love – try it, text but serious game on Syria)
• ·       Mobile
• ·       AI and chatbots

Don’t worry be crappy (Guy Kawasaki)

Try out tools, set aside time (e.g. Friday afternoon) to test, think, come up with ideas on learning solutions.

Think ahead

• ·       New people (we are good in this)
• ·       More (what can we do to train our people)
• ·       Apply (e.g. performance support when they need it: just-in-time learning)
• ·       Solve (again, take time to learn what is out there)
• ·       Change (produce a lean learning approach)

Diagnosis in limbo: don’t eLearn now! Use time #blogphilosophy

Where a month ago I felt strange becoming 50, right at the moment of turning fifty I heard that I had malignant cancer in one of my breasts, possibly both. Well, let’s just say I was no longer worried about age, but about life in general. At this point in time I am still in limbo on what the next steps are, but an answer is soon to come.

Learning is the highest of life achievements

In my family (all sides) learning is considered the highest form of living. I live, therefor I learn. Without learning life has no meaning. Or, at the end of your life, a human being is considered to have obtained new knowledge that can be taken to the realm beyond or simply has to be used in this life (depending on the view of what death is).

However, the learning which makes up life is mostly informal learning, as most of my family (including me) are not that well equipped to learn formally. However, since a few weeks I now know that informal learning is not always an option. This is why: as the first indications started to point to cancer, I did not know that the eventual plan of action to tackle the disease would take so much time. And time – to me – is mostly spend on learning anyway. So, after hearing the bad news, I referred to my natural plan of action: learn … learn online. But, for first time in my life, learning was not the best option. Not in this case. It turns out that cancer, even a specific cancer like breast cancer is treated in many different ways, has multiple possible outcomes and each person’s body reacts differently to the chosen operations. Reading up on the subject, just gave me too many options, unclarity and anxiety. So… any type of learning I have ahead of me now, will be experimental learning, and on a highly personal note. And it would not be learning to be prepared, but learning to cope.

Change is gonna come

No matter what happens next, it is inevitable that change is happening more rapidly than in ordinary life: possibly coping with a new body, with a new timeline, with a new condition. I learned from my diabetes that it does not make any sense to linger for the past. That is gone, but can be a happy part of the new me. I guess, this change is going to be even more manifest now. So, the only thing for me to do is to find out what I can do, to at least make this transition more rewarding. I am scared, scared that I will no longer be able to add to anything related to online learning. I will write some long overdue papers (distilled from my phd), but I feel weary on whether I will be able to add anything relevant. The time to read everything that is happening might be scarce. I do have a small plan, but not sure if I can realise it. Apart from online learning, what else is there?

No bucket list, but a bucket (well one single) idea: Time

Most people seem to have a bucket list, I searched for mine, but did not find it. So, there is no list of things I want to do… I seem to be more of a person who just does it, or simply does not come up with large projects and certainly nothing high risk.

So, I wondered whether I had a bucket idea? I actually have, what is explored so little, yet enough to make a comfortable complex idea to tamper with for (possibly) the next few months? Time, time itself, for time to me is not linear, which has always intrigued me. Maybe, this is a good time to focus on Time. I will have to gather more information on this: what is time, how much has been mathematically analysed for linearity, multiplicity, …

So, not sure what online activities I will keep doing. But I sure hope to have ample time to enjoy thinking… learning and thinking for the coming weeks or months.

Stephen Downes on a model of personal learning #learningtechday

STephen looks great while he takes the stage, and delivers an authentic, humorous talk with lots of ideas to reflect upon, while all the time simply sharing his experiences and thoughts. I must admit… I have a lot of speaking flow to learn.

Streaming life from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnI5NBo13y4 see the full talk there.

A model is somethign that seems to always be a defined object, but research and life shows that the application of a model predetermines what comes out of a model. You practically determine what comes out at the other end… how well does this approach increase learning … the conclusion is built into the model. You always find what you are looking for and a model does just that.

If a model comes into play, i twill only be at the end of the journey. Stephen refers to old age, the moment where you have the idea that ‘I get it, finally!’.

What is missing in the standards based approaches and the models-based approaches is what we used tot hink of as BAD (Bricolage, Affordances and Distribution). Technology should be build for affordances… not predicting what people will do with that technology (Inge: think Iron Bridge approach).

(

A day in the life of Stephen…. Tech selections and purposes

Sharing what I do, looking for similarities and then having a laugh at what we do.

The tech we are introduced to, is the tech that we will absorb to use, that is the ‘real point of reference’.

(everycloudtech.com is used to filter out spam, but still a lot is still).

Postlayer.com

The starting page is an overview of all he does.

Using RSS feeds to get information from others (feedly).

Stephen does not care about too much information, but to make sure he is getting enough of a snapshot of the world. IN a sense the feeds are random, as they multiply as the information is written.

OPML is then shared by entering it into feedly.

From there, he selects (from getpocket.com) the content he wants to have a closer look at. A searchable list.

Social media: twitter, linkedin (Microsoft acquired it, so now they might go to expensive learning quite quick – 30 dollars a month), plus.google.com (baseball)

Newer, distributed social networks Stephen currently uses: joindiaspora.com , app.net and what works still mastodon.social/@downes  (inge: check out mastodon!)

Learning:

codecademy.com/learn (learned basic python on it)

Stackoverflow.com is great, you type a question into google on programming and you choose the stackoverflow page.

Learning through webinars: CIDER and elearninggguild.com

The harvest of these informations is saved on gRSShopper http://grsshopper.downes.ca

Open coded, creating library (now database of others), 280.000 posts in the last 20 years… WOW! These focused posts drive you to be consize and brief.

Reflection of the talk

What has come out of all of that: the concept of the personal learning environment

No one actuallyhas been able to build it … yet.

The PLE connects to all the stuff you need or at least think is important.

The big question is: how do you pull this off?

This is completely distributed, not within one single online entity

Internet is capricious at this point in time, as things started frequently get deleted as well (in terms of software built by corporates)

Decisions to be made: what information should it record, who owns the data, how private, what should it do, what would a person do with it, where exactly is a PLE located?

So all of us should have a PLE.

So where do we connect with to do stuff with people.

There are millions of ways to connect with each other, but the network is currently broken as a lot of software cannot communicate with each other.

Properties of the network: how do people find each other? Services? How do they communicate? Is it secure? What do they share? How does a single PLE work with services? Do we need centralized registries?

We need to work decentralized for these PLE, as this will prevent total shutdown.

Why a personal learning environment?

What is the value proposition for a PLE?

Note: value is not what you can do, it is how you benefit

This is usually stated in financial terms (earn more, cost less)

Can also be stated in terms of quality: faster, bigger, better

And can be non-financial goods: satisfaction, happiness, memories… that is what is going to matter more than the financial benefits… but also different for all the people.

Education is not a search problem

It is not about finding, curating the best resources. Quality really matters only if you really did not want that learning resource anyway. If you are really engaged, you will make due with marks on a rock, … if it solves your problem…

Education is to a large extend a making problem - making

Lightroom.adobe.com (pictures), affordable because it is now in the cloud

Audacityteam.org/download (for recording as well from radio or audio sources 😊

Docs.google.com sharing documents, commenting…

Rebus community or open textbook library…

Movies: for this live stream on YouTube Stephen used  xsplit.com  combining slides with video.

Sharing

www.downes.ca/edradio.htm (from selected podcasts)

slideshare.net/downes for slides, sometimes combined with audio (also from this talk).

New learning paradigms

See carrie Paechter, metaphors of space in educational theory and practice
http://www.tandofline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14681360400200202

The original MOOC was a map, where the collective learners explore and map

Personalisation are currently: rules-based events, user models, adaptive learning… Stephen sees two approaches to this. Personalised learning is serendipitous, you do it for yourself, it is creating your own learning experience. The outcomes are not certification, but present inner network, your own persona, which manifests your interactions, experiences… extended cognition, including the network.