Fortnightly Mailing

Data visualisation - many methods, neatly categorised

Ralph Lengler and Martin Eppler come up with this elegant if a bit contrived periodic table of visualization methods. The methods are organised into six broad (and to some extent overlapping) categories, and according to whether they help:

• visualise a structure or process;
• give overview or detail (or both);
• "divergent" or "convergent" thinking (quotes added).

Server-side data visualisation tools from Google

I do not pretend to understand the detail of this, but Fortnightly Mailing reader Rob Hindle definitely does, and saw fit to send me a link to this 3/11/2008 posting on the Google Code Blog.

Community Perspectives on Digital Inclusion - October 2008 "Research Report"

Thanks to Caroline Poland for sending me a link to this October 2008 report [51 pages 400 kB PDF], written by the Office for Public Management Ltd for the English Department for Communities and Local Government. The report, which was surprisingly silent on schools, FE colleges, family learning, employment, and unions as vehicles for digital inclusion, describes itself as a "qualitative research to support the development of the digital inclusion strategy". Here is what is, in effect, its abstract:

"This report summarises insights and experiences from community and third sector organisations involved in initiatives aimed at opening up digital technologies to excluded communities. The report is based on conversations with staff and service users, collected through one-to-one interviews and visits to specific initiatives, and on two workshops (Nottingham, 26 June 2008; London 30 June 2008). Additional evidence was provided by studies carried out by third sector organisations, Ofcom and UK Online Centres.
The objectives of this project were to:
1. identify community experiences of digital exclusion
2. identify a taxonomy of need/opportunity
3. outline pathways to digital inclusion for different communities
4. highlight messages and potential building blocks for the Digital Inclusion Strategy."

What makes some Wikipedia articles better than others?

Thanks to Frank Rennie for pointing out Collaboration in context: Comparing article evolution among subject disciplines in Wikipedia, by Katherine Ehmann, Andrew Large, and Jamshid Beheshtihmann at McGill University, from the 6 October 2008 issue of First Monday. Abstract:

"This exploratory study examines the relationships between article and Talk page contributions and their effect on article quality in Wikipedia. The sample consisted of three articles each from the hard sciences, soft sciences, and humanities, whose talk page and article edit histories were observed over a five–month period and coded for contribution types. Richness and neutrality criteria were then used to assess article quality and results were compared within and among subject disciplines. This study reveals variability in article quality across subject disciplines and a relationship between Talk page discussion and article editing activity. Overall, results indicate the initial article creator’s critical role in providing a framework for future editing as well as a remarkable stability in article content over time."

e-learning in UK Higher Education - summative report from large-scale benchmarking process

77 UK Higher Education Institutions took part in the Higher Education Academy/JISC Benchmarking and Pathfinder Programme between 2005 and 2008. The Academy has just published the summative Challenges and Realisations from the Higher Education Academy/JISC Benchmarking and Pathfinder Programme: An End of Programme Review by the Higher Education Academy, Evaluation and Dissemination Support Team. The Review is available from the Academy's web site [54 page 200 kB PDF].

Donald Clark on David Crystal's txtng (the gr8 db8)

Here is a detailed review by Donald Clark of David Crystal's txtng (the gr8 db8), published earlier this year by the Oxford University Press. The review (and the book, by the tone of the review) is a strong counter to those who claim that the spread of texting degrades language rather than improves texters' writing (and other) capabilities. Crystal's blog is worth keeping an eye on.

John Seely Brown's talk at the OU's 2007 OpenLearn conference

In 2000 I was much influenced by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid's 1999 The Social Life of Information. You can watch and listen to a web-cast of John Seeley Brown's talk at last year's Open University OpenLearn conference from this page on the OU web site.

Seely Brown's focus in his talk is on the nature of learning, and the nature of professional development, and on the impact of i) human networks and ii) the widespread availability of open (one way or another) content on learning methods.

e-learning in the Ofsted "Handbook for inspecting colleges"

Ofsted has published a revised version of its Handbook for inspecting colleges.

"This version of the handbook has been updated following the formation of the new Ofsted, which incorporates the former Adult Learning Inspectorate and the former Ofsted. It also reflects the outcomes of the consultation on the future of further education inspections conducted in January 2007. The supplement (September 2006) to the previous version of the handbook (May 2006) has been integrated into this document."

Here is the short section relating to e-learning, unchanged since at least 2006:

"E-learning

257. E-learning is learning facilitated and supported through the use of technology. It may involve the use of computers, interactive whiteboards, digital cameras, the internet, the college intranet, virtual learning environments and electronic communication tools such as email, discussion boards, chat facilities and video conferencing. E-learning should form part of the overall teaching and learning strategy for courses. There should be appropriate references to e-learning in schemes of work, lesson plans, assignments, course reviews and staff development plans. An overall strategy for e-learning should be supported by senior managers. Effective e-learning should:

• improve learners’ understanding of topics or activities that are part of their academic or vocational programme;
• improve their skills and their knowledge of the technology being used;
• help to maintain their interest in their programme.

258. In particular, inspectors will evaluate whether:

• staff and learners have the relevant IT skills to make good use of e-learning facilities;
• there are adequate resources for e-learning;
• the quality and effectiveness of e-learning is well monitored;
• there are appropriate opportunities for learners to use e-learning facilities outside scheduled lessons."

There is a pretty striking mismatch between what inspectors will evaluate (in paragraph 258) and how e-learning is described (in paragraph 257); and I'd love to read an explanation of how, in formal terms, inspectors "evaluate whether the quality and effectiveness of e-learning is well monitored". Finally, there is a traditional emphasis on "IT skills", alongside silence on anything like "Internet literacy".

[With thanks to Marion Green of St Helen's College for highlighting this.]

Fostering Learning in the Networked World: The Cyberlearning Opportunity and Challenge, A 21st Century Agenda for the National Science Foundation

The US National Science Foundation's Fostering Learning in the Networked World: The Cyberlearning Opportunity and Challenge, A 21st Century Agenda for the National Science Foundation [1.5 MB PDF - 62 pages], was published in June 2008, but it passed me by. Its authors include Hal Abelson, Clifford A. Lynch, and Diana G. Oblinger.

I dislike the term "cyberlearning", defined in the report as "learning that is mediated by networked computing and communications technologies", but the report's recommendations have plenty of ambitious, we-do-not-do-anything-by-halves, bite.  (I've included them in full in the continuation post below. )

The striking thing for me is the report's recognition, which echoes the US National Academy of Engineering's selection of "advance personalized learning" as a Grand Engineering Challenge, that there is plenty of hard development and research to be done in the learning technology field. This contrasts with a view that is quite prevalent in the UK that with a bit more determination (discipline?) amongst teachers, the right kind of institutional leadership, and some improved coordination between agencies, the benefits of technology in learning will be easily realised.

How colleges improve - new Ofsted review document

Amended 19/9/2008

Ofsted inspects and regulates a whole swathe of English public sector education including schools, colleges, and work-based learning provision. How colleges improve [150 kB PDF, 32 pages], published on 12/9/2008, lists the characteristics of further education colleges that improved their performance between the first and second cycle Ofsted inspections, and describes the factors impeding change in those colleges judged by Ofsted to be satisfactory but not improving in second cycle inspections. Some of the descriptions of specific college weaknesses (and strengths) are instructive and authentic. There is one reference to personalisation (serving to show maybe that policy priorities flow slowly around the system), and the treatment of ICT, e-learning, and online learning, is very limited. (The latter is probably a consequence either of ICT in learning not really being on the radar of Ofsted or its inspectors, or of ICT in learning being too specific an issue to reach into a general review of this kind.)