A New View on the European Knowledge Society

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Vision for future learning with ICT and Social
Computing by Kirsti Ala-Mutka, Marcelino
Cabrera and Yves Punie IPTS, DG JRC, European
Commission
EDEN Conference, Naples, 13-16 June 2007 The
views expressed by the authors are not
necessarily those of the EC
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Outline

• JRC IPTS, e-Applications
• Learning Spaces vision for future learning
• Emerging technologies
• Social computing supporting future learning
• Challenges
• Conclusion

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JRC Institute for Prospective Technological
Studies
IPTS Part of DG JRC of the EC 7 Research
Institutes across Europe
Mission to provide customer-driven support to
the EU policy-making process by researching
science-based responses to policy challenges that
have both a socio-economic as well as a
scientific/technological dimension
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e-Applications 2007
Lisbon i2010 Policy goals Inclusive
IS Quality of life Better public
services Innovation and RD
E-Government
ICTs for Inclusion and Quality of Life
ICT for Health
The future of eServices
E-learning
E-Inclusion
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Learning spaces vision

• Trends and drivers challenge existing learning
  and institutional models
• Lisbon and ET 2010 need for modernisation and
  fundamental transformation of ET in Europe
• Need for a new vision of Learning in the
  Knowledge-based Society
• ICTs have a particular role to play in realizing
  these changes

• gt A joint DG JRC/IPTS DG EAC Workshop held in
  Seville, 20-21 October 2005
• An overview of trends and drivers shaping the
  future of learning in Europe
• The defining elements of the learning spaces
  vision
• A discussion of the impacts for inclusion and of
  the realization of the vision

The learning spaces vision is a holistic
attempt to envisage and anticipate future
learning needs and requirements in the KBS -
It puts learners at the centre of learning -
It conceives learning as a social process -
It sees learners as co-producers in the learning
process - It recognises that guidance and
interaction continue to be very important. -
It is acknowledges that thinking about the future
of learning is not just about instrumental
changes but also about fundamental/normative
visions on the meaning of learning and knowledge
in the society
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Dimensions of ICT supported future learning space
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ICT potential for learning spaces

• Connecting and social Wifi, VOIP, P2P,
  Videoconferencing, MySpace, Orkut, Facebook,
  Flickr, Twitter, Bebo
• Personal RSS, ATOM, Newsreaders, Google
  interfaces, future PLEs?
• Trusted peer rating and accreditation, bookmark
  sharing, collaborative content (Wikipedia,
  Wikiversity, Amazon, Ohmynews, Rate-my-Teacher )
• Pleasant and emotional Second Life, Habbo
  hotel, gaming, allowing choice!
• Dedicated for learning mLearning, simulations,
  pedagogical design is important!
• Creative and flexible Podcasts, Vodcasts,
  43Things, YouTube, modularity of curricula!
• Open and reflexive Server based tools and
  platforms, wiki tools, discussion boards, open
  resources, blogging
• Certifying the learning results ePortfolios,
  LMSs, competence definitions, references to blogs
  in news and scientific works
• Managing knowledge resources Searches,
  metadata, tagging (specialized searches,
  del.icio.us, CiteULike, page/topic suggestions
  collected from user behaviour, )
• Inclusive eAccessability approaches, different
  delivery and presentation media, interest-based
  communities (ConnectViaBooks), accommodating
  different learning styles!

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Emerging Social Computing Applications

• Connectivity
• 180 million Skype users
• P2P represents 60 of all Internet traffic
• Increasing number of wifi hotspots, wifi
  sharing
• 45 of total web users visit social networking
  sites
• /- 1.8 billion web pages viewed/month in EU
  sites gt57 million every day!
• YouTube 120million clips viewed daily
• MySpace 116 million users in 3 years, More page
  views/day than any site on the web
• 57 Million blogs already exist, 100.000 blogs
  created per day (/- 1 each sec).
• 12 internet users contribute to blogs, 10 of
  blogs updated weekly
• Top blogs are amongs most referred news sites
• Wikipedia available in 112 langs with at least
  1000 articles (229 overall)
• 300 000 authors, 1.4 million articles in
  english, 15th most visited site worldwide.
• Collaboration platforms and tools
• Wikis and blogs increasingly utilized also
  inhouse
• Free server-based applications for emailing,
  chatting, calendar, discussion, office
  applications, personalized searches and
  interfaces
• Users participate in producing services,
  ratings, taste eBay, Ohmynews, Amazon, patent
  reviewing, monitoring bikelane offenders
• ? Increased role of the user in supplying
  content, services and innovations
• ? New models for businesses, work, leisure time

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Social computing provides new potential for
learning related tasks, such as

• Searching for information (wikipedia, tagging)
• Following topics of interest (personalized
  selection of RSS feeds coming from news, blogs,
  bookmarks, topic sites...)
• Producing content (open source projects)
• Building new knowledge in collaboration
  (wiki/discussion tools)
• Personal reflection and getting feedback
  (blogging)
• Reaching experts and fellows for discussions,
  advice (topic specific sites)
• Showing tacit knowledge (people who read this
  article, also chose)
• All of these are relevant both for learners and
  teachers
• Provide new possibilities also for collaboration
  between them, and for people to act as both
  learners and teachers
• Opening new connections between educational
  institutions and outside world
• Can be used for both organized and informal
  learning

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Challenges

• Question of trust
• Shift from trusting the teacher to trusting
  communities
• Question of information quality
• Need for new skills
• Skills for learning to use the tools and to use
  them for learning (both for learners and
  teachers!)
• Importance of digital information literacy!
• Attitude for lifelong and lifewide learning
• Implementation of the promises
• Interoperability of tools, resources, databases,
  education providers
• Pedagogical models to utilise the opportunities
  of technologies
• Relevant and available resources for learning and
  developing it
• Use of social computing in the ageing society
• Acknowledging learning outside formal education
• eInclusion
• Digital, social (language, education, money),
  regional divides
• Addressing exclusion (immigrants, marginalised
  youth, )

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Conclusion

• The unexpected and massive take-up of SC tools
  cannot by ignored by research and policy and has
  important implications for learning
• Moreover, ICT and social computing for learning
  has a strong potential to contribute to EU social
  challenges and the renewed Lisbon objectives,
  such as
• Innovative and participative learning approaches
  can improve the learning results, and contribute
  to wider participation of people in society
  (social cohesion)
• Improved access to learning and updating skills
  in all phases of life and by communicating with
  experts improves workers skills, contributing to
  more and better employment
• New collaboration models in learning inspired by
  SC models fits stronger with the interactive
  model of innovation and could lead to more
  innovation skills in Europe
• Networked communities provide new possibilities
  for participation, taking up learning again for
  e.g. ageing people, unemployed, immigrants
  (social inclusion)
• Future learning needs to be considered more
  holistically
• Learner-centred view of combining different
  resources, situations and types of learning, also
  from the viewpoints of different policies
• Need for skills and access for tools and for
  using them for lifelong and lifewide learning!
  
• Social computing in education has a strong
  potential for addressing EU social challenges and
  to improve learning and skills in the KBS

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• Thank you!
• kirsti.ala-mutka_at_ec.europa.eu
• http//www.jrc.es