Beyond Flexibility: flexible distributed learning (FDL) and e-portfolios

1. Beyond Flexibility:flexible distributed learning (FDL) and e-portfolios Personal Identity Technologies George Roberts Development Director Off-campus e-Learning Oxford Brookes University e-Learning Regions and Cities 3 Oxford 22 June 2005 groberts@brookes.ac.uk

2. Beyond Flexibility: FDL and e-Portfolios Outline … never quite sure where to start • Why am I here? • Projects • Why are portfolios significant • Flexibility • Institutions learning in and with technology-rich environments 2 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

3. Life before and around Brookes Education • 1968 - DEC PDP8 & FORTRAN • 1972 - BA (English Lit) • 1986 - MPhil (Historical & Comparative Linguistics) • 2001 - MA (Education w/Open and Distance Education) • 2004 - PhD study at U of Southampton • Actor networks: the extent to which beliefs (ideologies) about learning and teaching are embedded in the artefacts of learning technology Work & Related • 1987 PEP Preparatory Education Project • 1988 ACE adult community continuing education tutor • 1989 College of Petroleum and Energy Studies • 2000 Brookes • 2003 Open University • ALT • Writing Tools • Wordprocessing • Spreadsheets • e-Mail 3 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

4. Projects Summary COMPLETE Personal e-Portfolios for Teaching and Learning (PETAL) • Software development and 1 pilot (CMALT) • 5 partners • OSPI developments Wider Opportunities for Reflection, Learning and Development (myWORLD) • Wide scale regional trial • 8 partners • 12 case studies, 5 servers • RDCEO • Localisation Personal Learning Portal Project (PLPP) • Alliance with Kent Wide-scale regional pilot • u-Portal Petal 2 • Software enhancements • 4 case studies • REST • Threads 4 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

5. ALT Server 1 - ALT CMALT 2 - Abingdon and Witney College 3 - CILIP Webconnections Tomcat Hosting Service 4 - CIPD 5 - Blackbird Leys IT Hub Knowledge Integration Server 6 - Brookes SHSC 7 - Brookes New Staff University of Brighton Server 8 - Plumpton College Wine Studies 9 - Sussex Downs multimedia 10 - Brighton, Arts and Music 11 - CUPP Refugees 12 - CUPP Access to Art University of Kent Server 13 - PLPP PGCE Primary Post Compulsory Education Further Education Abingdon & Witney College Sussex Downs College Plumpton College Higher Education Oxford Brookes University Brighton University Adult Community Learning Community University Partnership Project Blackbird Leys IT Zone Professional Institutes TVPIP CILIP CIPD ALT 5 Servers, 13 sites, 4 sectors 5 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

6. Certificate Teaching in HE Social Care Travel required CMALT Access to HE in FE Professional CVs for Recruitment Professional Pathways HND Multimedia Access to Art Refugees in HE Arts Foundation Wine Studies PGCE Primary 6 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

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8. my WORLD Case Studies Abingdon & Witney College: Induction tool for Access to HE students Plumpton College: Wine Studies Programme Sussex Downs College: HND Multimedia course Brighton Community University Partnership Project (CUPP): • Refugees into Higher Education project • Access to Art Oxfordshire Community Learning Support Unit (CLSU): ePortfolio for CV Oxford Brookes University: • Practice-Based Learning Supervision in Health and Social Care • Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education Brighton University: Undergraduate Arts & Music Foundation TVPIP • Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), Thames Valley branch, CPD pathways • Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) Thames Valley branch, CV builder Kent PLPP: PGCE Primary 8 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

9. Why are portfolios significant? Pedagogical significance • Portfolios are collections of objects that attest to claims • transitional events: school-university, TSW, professionalisation • assesssment • Reflective learning and practice; professionally authentic • Depend on underlying explicit and implicit theories of learning and teaching; learner centred Wider social significance • Portfolios make explicit and facilitate the representation of identity • Similarly depends on underlying beliefs/ideologies about relationships (power/empowerment) between people • With the advent of the Lifelong Learning Record in the UK e-portfolios have become part of the national identity card strategy • politicised and contested 9 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

10. Lifelong Learning Records Susie’s Journey http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=pub_inform6 After 10 years and 3 attempts, Susie gets out gets clean & finds community learning Susie’s goes down for bringing drugs to prison Susie’s boyfriend is banged up Must get job. Don’t want employer to know my past Susie leaves school MLEs for Lifelong Learning http://www.jisc.ac.uk/mle Susie gets Pregnant 10 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

11. Exclusion “Estate Culture” • Adverse social effects of disadvantage are linked • neighbourhood crime and vandalism • drug trafficking • poor educational attainment • family breakdown • disaffected young people • Residents identified as 'vulnerable to social exclusion’ • poorly educated • low skilled • demotivated • low aspirations and expectations • unstable family life BUT • The norms and values of this group are perceived as defining an estate culture which dominates common areas of housing estates, and colours their reputation in the neighbourhood • An estate's reputation does not automatically improve as the estate improves • Stigma impoverishes all areas of residents' lives 11 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

12. Transition points Between episodes • of education • School to College • College to University • of employment • New Job • of work and education • Continuing Professional Development • Career Change But, what about • Inside to outside (Prison to wider society) • Drug-dependent life to “socially acceptable pleasures” • International travel • Without documents • from oppressive regimes • from poverty 12 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

13. The Learner and Identity • “Weak” identity issues • associating an identifier (name, id number) with data • “Strong” identity issues • associating an identifier with flesh • gender, race, age, social class, embodiment, ethnicity, friendships, family, community, nationality, vocation, pleasures, beliefs, religion, style, education, attainment, employment, hobbies, language (dialect/ideolect), etc • who am I, really? • reflective learning is entirely concerned with strong identity issues 13 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

14. ePortfolio and Virtual Identity • Considerable amounts of personal information may be included in an e-portfolio, including • small and personal details • “mummy goes to work at 8.30 every day” • photographs which may locate the candidate geographically • “me with Emma and Kitty at the park by my house” • Young people • Vulnerable adults • What is security? • no one really knows • but some of us know how to implement some parts • result: hammers in search of nails • or: sledgehammers in search of nuts 14 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

15. Implications for People Trust • Shared ownership and stewardship • whose identity is it anyway? • Access • Data Protection • Freedom of Information • Authentication • who are you for these purposes? • Authorisation • can/should you do that? • Validation • is that what it purports to be? • Non-repudiation • should you deny you did/didn’t do it Sensitivity • It’s people, not data subjects or system entities or use cases 15 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

16. Lifelong Learner Records:Centralised Profile Service • Public or Private? • Trust? • Who pays? If private, what happens if fee unpaid? Lifelong learning record destroyed? • National? What about internationalised learning? Learner Provider A Provider B Provider C Centralised Record 16 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

17. Lifelong Learner Records:Decentralised – Learner integrates • Each Provider holds records of learner’s activity • Each Learner keeps their own integrated record • Reflects existing institutional record & private CV • Learner controls who gets what information • e.g. Presenting to employer grants authority to check Provider A Provider B Provider C Record Record Record Learner’s Record Learner 17 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

18. and another levelPolicy: the Big Picture • Globalisation • Liberalisation • Participation • Innovation QAA Code: collaborative and FDLprovision, wherever and however organised,should widen learning opportunities • Education and training policy replaces industrial policy as the means by which governments seek to make regions economically competitive 18 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

19. A 21st century education system Personalisation & Choice Flexibility & Independence Staff Development Partnerships Opening up Services Objectives of Current DfES Strategies Raising Standards Improving efficiency Removing Barriers Preparing for employment skills Widening Participation children Primary Secondary 14-19 Skills Post-16 HE Contributions from e-Learning Personalised support, Online communities, Flexible Study Virtual Environments, Individualised Study, Collaborative Learning, Tools for Innovation, Quality at Scale Strategic Actions Leading Sustainable e-Learning, Supporting pedagogical innovation, Staff development, Unifying Learner support, Aligning assessment, Building a better market, Assuring tech and quality standards 19 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

20. Learning Technologies Afford • Flexibility with respect to time • Flexibility with respect to place • Flexibility with respect to sequence • Tutor directed learning • Student directed learning • Enhanced communication • Distributed collaboration • Access to resources • Simulations 20 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

21. Widening participation Widening participation policies are focused in two conflicting directions: • emancipatory and empowering for the individual • stimulate the growth of autonomous, entrepreneurial, IT-literate, multi-skilled individuals capable of creating and taking advantage of the flexible opportunities inherent in a post fordist economy • ensuring a supply of appropriately skilled workers • create a compliant low-expectation labour force inured to the demands of flexibilisation in order to attract inward investment not on the basis of high skills available but on the basis of low costs 21 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

22. FDL Precepts are themselves flexible • Overall, the revision [to the QAA precepts] may be characterised as moving from the 'process-based' style of the earlier version to a more [flexible] 'outcome-based' approach. • The focus now is on ends rather than means. Institutions … will see that the basics remain in the content of the revised version but will, it is hoped, appreciate the flexibility now offered by the greater attention to outcomes. Flexibility has become an epi-phenomenon, part of the meta-curriculum 22 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

23. Covert [meta] Curricula The less obvious--but more important curriculum--is the covert curriculum, which is composed of the skills and characteristics the student develops as a result of successfully completing the overt curriculum. (Appleby) http://www.psichi.org/pubs/articles/article_59.asp Industrial era • Overt “3 Rs”: reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmatic • Covert punctuality, subordination, repetition Postmodern era • Overt flexibility, community, personalisation • Covert piecework, normalisation, surveillance see Roberts (2004)http://www.shef.ac.uk/nlc2004/Proceedings/Individual_Papers/Roberts.htm 23 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

24. What is flexibility • Contingent depends on context • Inherent part of systems • Relative v. inflexibility • Political power differentials 24 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

25. When flexibility is modelled & theorised, taught and learned… • The Empty Centre? • community • identity 25 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

26. Good Learning based on reciprocity authenticity credibility Good Teaching sets ground rules provides alternatives exemplifies models gives access to experience Independent of the mode of engagement… Good Practice encourages • contact • co-operation • active learning • gives prompt feedback • emphasises time on task • has high expectations • respects diversity Good Design • Permeability • Variety • Legibility • Robustness • Visual appropriateness • Richness • Personalisation 26 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

27. Thank you! George Roberts Development Director, Off-campus E-learning Oxford Brookes University groberts@brookes.ac.uk +44 (0) 1865 484871 +44 (0) 7711 698465 http://www.brookes.ac.uk/virtual/ http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2004/ 27 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005