Is all now calm in the VLE world?

Pearson LearningStudio is the product/service that has emerged from the "big beast" of publishing's purchase of Fronter and eCollege. This leaves the public education VLE world - bar future acquisitions - split between three commercial products (Pearson, Blackboard, and Desire2Learn) and two Open Source (Moodle and Sakai).

Pearson dwarfs Blackboard and Desire2Learn. It has a large catalogue of text books, some of which already give their owners access to an array of online learning content. It is an educational publisher with an international marketing infrastructure. It owns awarding bodies such as Edexel. 

Alongside this, both Fronter and eCollege have concentrated from the start on running hosted services rather than on selling software for learning providers to run themselves. (Sure, both Blackboard and Desire2Learn offer hosted services too.)

A supplier of hosted services gains a mass of data about learner behaviour. Google and Amazon are not the only companies that have learned how to extract meaning from such data. So my current "intuitive tip for the next ten years" is that the next phase of VLE development will involve the provision of automated and semi-automated tools that draw on the mass of data about user behaviour and about user performance that hosted VLEs hold (or can access), combining it with data about the individual learner. 

Such tools could provide help and guidance for learners, teachers and others involved in the support of learning (parents, e.g.). Perhaps they could also shape the content, activities etc., that the VLE provides the learner, based on the learner's characteristics, and on factors like the learner's previous behaviour in the system.

The selling point for VLEs that use data in this (dystopian?) way will be improvements in effectiveness and efficiency - nothing wrong with either; but the approach described also raises many issues, some concerned with privacy and data-ownership (it would certainly be interesting to see what the privacy policies of hosted VLEs say about the use to which user data can be put), and others with the continued transfer of "knowledge mediation" from the public to the private sphere. And the technical challenges are formidable. The amount of data is much smaller than is held by really mass systems like Google, and it is more nuanced and multi-dimensional. As my friend David Jennings pointed out when commenting on a draft of this post:

"One reason I can think that your predictive hunch might not come to pass is that VLEs are a different context from Amazon, Google or (for the most part) libraries. In the latter, the data collected is person <--> resource. In VLEs it's person <--> mediator (tutor, peers, group dynamics) <--> activity <--> resource, with lots of scope for unpredictable interactions between these to create 'noise' that drowns out clear statistical associations. In other words, the numbers are a hell of a lot harder to crunch."

Last July the US National Academy of Engineering identified "advance personalised learning" (along with "provide energy from fusion") as a grand engineering challenge for the next decade.  Google now influences what you find. Will hosted VLEs, applying automated statistical analysis to data about users and user behaviour, start to shape what and how students on formal courses learn?

This piece was influenced by David Jennings's 30/1/2009 Web 2.0-style resource discovery comes to libraries - the TILE project.

Posted on 23/12/2009 in Lightweight learning, News and comment | | Comments (0)

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Desire2Learn and Blackboard settle their patent dispute

[Updated 19 December]

Blackboard and Desire2Learn have settled their patent dispute, with details of the settlement undisclosed. Two anodyne quotes from John Baker and Michael Chasen are included in the media release that appears on both Desire2Learn's and Blackboard's web sites:

Chasen: "We are pleased to have resolved our differences with Desire2Learn. Bringing this matter to resolution is in the best interests of both of our organizations, our respective clients and the broader education community."

Baker: "We're pleased to enter this agreement, and believe it is in the best interests of the educational community. We will continue to focus our attention on our clients, as well as the development of our products and services."

There is more from John Baker on Desire2Learn's blog, and [19/12/2009 update] this 15 December 2009 piece in Campus Technology by Dave Nagel has a reasonably clear potted history. Meanwhile Ray Henderson, ex boss of Angel Learning (acquired by Blackboard earlier this year), and now a senior Blackboard executive, writes a long and carefully crafted post that gives some insights into what looks to have been Blackboard's welcome decision to change its stance somewhat. Excerpt:

"The LMS software category is the result of many things, including plenty of community collaboration over a period of many years. Blackboard both contributed to and benefited from this history just as every other commercial software company or commercial open source services firm does today. While many others had patented specific innovations, the first case played out in public was bound to precipitate a great deal of concern both about the specific patent and the controversial area of software patents generally. 

I’ve now had the benefit of reviewing the overall IP portfolio. To my eyes there are unique contributions in what I’ve seen. And so we face an important question: what business conduct best balances our various obligations and aligns with the values of the client community we serve?

Pondering the balance in this case, I came to the view that it was best for us to bring the matter with Desire2Learn to a close. This dialog has distracted attention from the many positive contributions to the industry that Blackboard has made and can continue to make."

Note. Here is a not very systematic list of other posts related to the Blackboard patent:

Posted on 16/12/2009 in News and comment | | Comments (0)

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The Digital Economy Bill's "copyright infringement provisions" - analysis by Frances Davey for the Open Rights Group

"The Bill's proposal goes far beyond what we have seen attempted in other countries such as France and New Zealand."

Via Martyn Bailey I found that the Open Rights Group has published a
fairly detailed assessment of the copyright infringement provisions of the Digital Economy Bill, by Frances Davey, a barrister who specialises in technology and media law.

Here is the "summary of the problems" from the piece:

  • "The key question of who will be disconnected from the internet and for what reason is subject to no democratic control and requires no consultation to be made.

  • Although the codes must be objectively justifiable, non-discriminatory, proportionate and transparent this most important question will be decided by order of the Secretary of State who is not required to be adhere to any principles of proportionality etc.

  • Some decisions (such as whether there has been a copyright infringement) that affect individuals will not be subject to appeal; those that are may not have an adequate route of appeal.

  • Many of the important details are left to codes of practice which will not be subject to sufficient parliamentary scrutiny - in some cases there need be no scrutiny at all.

  • The Bill has an inflexible and stereotyped view of the way in which access to the internet is provided which ignores many useful and important business models: many business from Weatherspoons and McDondalds to the British Library and local community access projects will be affected and may have to cease to provide internet access."


Posted on 09/12/2009 in News and comment | | Comments (0)

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Economist special report on climate change

Greenhouse_gas_emissions_per_person_2007_economist
Image from Economist 5/12/2009

This week's Economist has a 26 page (14 if you ignore the adverts) special report about climate change, to coincide with the Copenhagen summit, and from which the chart above is taken. Here is the report's introduction. You can also download a personal copy of the whole report as a PDF from the Economist's web site. (Here is a Gapminder animation of similar data to that contained in the chart.)

Posted on 06/12/2009 in Nothing to do with online learning | | Comments (0)

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Net piracy: 1. New Scientist piece by Paul Marks; 2. Critique of disconnection provisions by Liberty

Here are two interesting documents relating to so-called "net piracy".

The first is this plain English piece by Paul Marks in the 3/12/2009 New Scientist about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA, an international treaty) currently under discussion in the G8, and which internet service providers are getting increasingly anxious about. Here, for example, is a comment on ACTA by Andrew Heaney, a senior executive at TalkTalk, the third largest UK ISP:

"This is the kind of snooping you'd expect in China, not a modern western democracy. It raises huge questions over privacy invasion and freedom of expression."

The second is the the civil liberties campaign organisation Liberty's critique of the Digital Economy Bill's anti file-sharing measures [86 kB PDF], which it argues are disproportionate and liable to infringe citizens' human rights.  Long excerpt:

Continue reading "Net piracy: 1. New Scientist piece by Paul Marks; 2. Critique of disconnection provisions by Liberty" »

Posted on 05/12/2009 in News and comment | | Comments (0)

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Young people's writing: Attitudes, behaviour and the role of technology - report from the National Literacy Trust

Thanks to Doug Gowan at the Open Learning Partnership for this link to the Executive Summary of the UK National Literacy Trust's report (by Christina Clark and George Dugdale): Young people's writing: Attitudes, behaviour and the role of technology [55 kB PDF]. The report echoes the US Pew studies on the role of ICT in the lives of young people. Some big snippets:

  • 56% of young people said they had a profile on a social networking site, such as Bebo or Facebook. 24% said that they have their own blog. While frequently vilified in the media as ‘dumbing down’ young people’s literacy, this research shows that technology offers different writing opportunities for young people, which is seen in a link between blogging and (self-reported) writing ability and enjoyment of writing. For example, young people who write on a blog were much more likely than young people who do not write on a blog to enjoy writing in general (57% vs. 40%) and to enjoy writing for family/friends in particular (79% vs. 55%). Young people with a blog (61%) as well as young people with a profile on a social networking site (56%) also displayed greater confidence, believing themselves to be good writers. Blog owners and young people with a social networking profile were also more prolific writers than their counterparts. They held more positive attitudes towards writing and computer use, and viewed writers more favourably.
  • Owning a mobile phone does not appear to alter young people’s enjoyment of writing, their writing behaviour or their attitudes towards writing.
  • Most young people said they used computers regularly and believed that computers are beneficial to their writing, agreeing that a computer makes it easier for them to correct mistakes (89%) and allows them to present ideas clearly (76%). Overall, nearly 60% of young people also believe that computers allow them to be more creative, concentrate more and encourage them to write more often.
  • The relationship between enjoyment of writing, writing behaviour, attitudes towardswriting and socio-economic status, assessed by proxy using free school meal (FSM) uptake as an indicator, is complex. Pupils who receive FSM in the present study were not more or less likely than their more privileged counterparts to enjoy writing or to write regularly. There was also no relationship between socio-economic background and enjoyment of writing, writing behaviour, linking writing to success, views of writers, computer use, or attitudes towards computers. However, pupils who do not receive FSMs rated themselves as better writers than pupils who receive FSMs.

In summary, this research provides us with an up-to-date insight into young people’s attitudes towards writing. Most young people write regularly and young people write technology-based materials, such as text and instant messages, most frequently. While owning a mobile phone does not appear to alter young people’s writing behaviour, having a profile on a social networking site or having a blog is connected to enjoyment of writing and confidence in writing. Young people today use computers regularly and believe that computers are beneficial to their
writing.

We believe it is paramount that the school curriculum reflects and utilises writing forms that young people enjoy and engage with, in order to demonstrate that writing is more than a compulsory task: it is an essential life skill.



Posted on 04/12/2009 in News and comment | | Comments (0)

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"Into something rich and strange" - making sense of the sea-change: call for proposals for the 2010 ALT conference

Next year's Association for Learning Technology conference will be in Nottingham, England, between 7 and 9 September 2010. Keynote speakers will be Barbara Wasson, Sugata Mitra, and Donald Clark.

Last week ALT (for which I work part time) published the calls for papers and abstracts. Links to these are as follows: The submission system will open in mid December, and will close on 15 February 2010.

Posted on 30/11/2009 in News and comment | | Comments (0)

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Google Wave - revolutionary tool for computer supported collaborative work, or overestimated hype?

The former, says Johanna Hane in a snazzy 10 page study [32 kB PDF] undertaken as part of a course at Gothenburg University.

[Via Dick Moore and Phil Candy.]

Posted on 26/11/2009 in Resources | | Comments (0)

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2007 report - How the world's best performing school systems come out on top

A report from McKinsey [10 MB PDF] more or less builds its brief conclusions into the titles of its three main chapters:
  1. The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers - therefore get the right people to become teachers;
  2. The only way to improve outcomes is to improve instruction - therefore develop them into effective instructors;
  3. Delivery for every child - therefore ensure that the system is able to deliver the best possible instruction for every child.
There is a striking table at the end of the report "Key questions and parameters in system development".

Question Best in the world
Getting the right people to become teachers
What is the average academic calibre of people who become teachers? Among the top 10% of each cohort
How is the teaching profession viewed by university students and recent graduates? One of the top 3 career choices
How rigorous are selection processes into teacher training? Rigorous checks designed to assess teaching potential: e.g. teaching practice, literacy and numeracy tests
What is the ratio of places on initial teacher education courses to applicants? 1:10
How does starting compensation for teaching compare to other graduate salaries In line with other graduate salaries
Developing effective instructors
What is the total amount of coaching new teachers receive in schools? >20 weeks
What proportion of each teacher's time is spend on professional development? 10% of working time is used for professional development
Does each teacher have an exact knowledge of specific weaknesses in their practice? Yes, as a result of everyday activities occurring in schools
Can teachers observe and understand better teaching practice in a school setting? Yes, teachers regularly invite each other into each other's classes to observe and coach
Do teachers reflect on and discuss practice? Yes, through both formal and informal practices in schools
What role do school leaders play in developing effective instructors? The best coaches and teachers are selected as school leaders
How much focused, systematic research is conducted into effective instruction and then fed back into policy and classroom practice? Research budget equivalent to $50 per student each year focused on improving instruction
Ensuring every student performs well
What standards exist for what students should know, understand, and be able to do? Clear standards appropriate to system performance
What system-wide checks exist on the quality of school performance? All schools are aware of their strengths and weaknesses
What action is taken to tackle under-performance? Effective mechanisms to support all failing students, minimal performance variation between schools
How is funding and support organised? Funding and support are focused where it can have most impact

Posted on 25/11/2009 in Resources | | Comments (0)

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Google Translate - new "live translating" interface. Stunning and transformational.

You must try the new version of Google Translate, which provides machine translation in real time (between over 50 language pairs) as well as the "old" capacity to translate a web site, a new document upload and translation feature, and, for translations into English, a "now hear it spoken" button.

The Google Blog has more.

I'm interested in whether users submit "better" translations, and if yes to what extent; and, spam permitting, whether such better translations are integrated into the body of data from the which the translator derives its output.

Posted on 17/11/2009 in News and comment | | Comments (1)

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