It is always sad when lovers break up. especially close lovers with a growing relationship who suddenly fall out with each other. And the educational technology community has certainly has a long love in with Twitter. Twitter for teaching, Twitter for learning, Twitter for developing projects, twitter for maintaining communities and twitter just for nattering with each other. But I foresee a more tempestuous relationship ahead. Why? As the Guardian newspaper reports: “Twitter has amazed and outraged developers by warning them that it will severely curtail their ability to build apps that use its output.” The Guardian quotes Ryan Sarver, the head of platform and API at Twitter as saying:

Twitter will provide the primary mainstream consumer client experience on phones, computers, and other devices by which millions of people access Twitter content (tweets, trends, profiles, etc), and send tweets. If there are too many ways to use Twitter that are inconsistent with one another, we risk diffusing the user experience.

It was just because Twitter opened up its API to third party developers and applications which led to such rapid innovation and experimentation – in education as much as elsewhere. This looks to be over. Sarver might claim this is due to the desire to guarantee the user experience but few will believe that. fairly obviously Twitter want to make money out of their loss making application.  I suspect it is not so much apps they want to make money out of but advertising. and to control advertising they want to control the app market.

As Dave Winer (who has seen all this a few times before) says: “The Internet remains the best place to develop because it is the Platform With No Platform Vendor.” Winer goes on to say:

Facebook may have a huge installed base, but it’s dead to me. I can’t get there. The platform vendor is too active. Same with Twitter, same with Apple. Give me a void, something I can develop for, where I can follow the idea where ever it leads. Maybe there are only a few thousand users. Maybe only a few million. Hey, you can’t be friends with everyone.

And that I guess is the lesson for education. Follow our ideas. See where they lead. Don’t worry about how many users there are. And above all lets work on the platform with no vendor. Education is a public good, not a vendor platform.

But it was good whilst it lasted, Twitter.

… is about understanding people! This blog post has been written in the back of my mind for a couple of days now, but I still hadn’t managed to put it into words. Last week we had the a Technology … Continue reading →

I am ultra impressed by the idea behind the Declare-It web app. The site says

Declare-It is a tool that assists you in creating, tracking and being held accountable to your goals. For every declaration you make, Declare-It requires you to add supporters. Supporters are notified of your declaration and receive progress reports along your journey. If you start to fall off track, your supporters are sent an ALERT message. They can send you comments and even add incentives to help you stay motivated.

Sadly, Declare-It is a commercial site. Although it allows a ten day free trial, it then costs $9.99 per month. And I don’t honestly see enough people being prepared to pay that money for the site to gain critical mass. But the idea is simple enough and could easily be adopted or extended to other web tools.

Essentially all it is saying is that we set our own learning goals and targets and use our Personal Learning Networks for support. Then rather than just selecting friends to monitor our progress and receive alerts when we slip behind, as in the Declare-It app, we could select friends from our Personal Learning Network to support our learning and receive alerts when we achieve something or need collaboration.

Of course many of this will do that already using all kinds of different tools. My learning is work based, and most of this work is undertaken in collaboration with others – using email, forums or very often skype. Having said that I have  never really got on with any of the myriad task setting (lists) and tracking tools and astikll  tend to write my lists on the back of envelopes.

But rather than a separate web site like Declare-IT (which admittedly does have some Twitter and Facebook integration), I need some way of integrating Declare-It type functionality with my everyday workflow. A WordPress plug-in could be wonderful, particularly for project work.

Two discussions have been coming together recently – the use of mobile devices – especially tablet computers – and the provision of text books.

As more tablet devices are released – and the increasing functionality of smart phones – plus the rising availability and popularity of ebooks, there is an immediate attraction to the idea of giving students mobile devices pre-loaded with all the text books students need for a course. However, as Ewen MacIntosh has pointed out, mobile devices remain relatively expensive compared to the price of text books and it may be that the only institutions that can afford to distribute them to students for free are those catering for relatively wealthy students anyway.

That ebooks have made a limited impact in the education textbook market is not surprised. Remembering my own student days – and talking to friends little seems to have changed – there is a thriving market in second hand textbooks. Digital Rights Management software and prohibitive licensing have prevented such a market emerging in ebooks.

I wonder though, if the debate over text books and mobile devices has been overly limited in scope. The real qu8estion for me is if we still need textbooks. The development of Open Educational Resources would appear to potentially render many textbooks redundant. But even more, web 20 and multi media applications put the ability to produce and share materials in the hands of anyone. So text book publishers no longer have a monopoly on the production of (scientific) publications. And that of course, has big implications for what is considered as scholarly or what publications or artefacts have authority, approval or sanction as learning materials. to an extent that debate has already started with the widespread use of wikipedia despite the frequently ambiguous attitude of academic providers.

Is it too big a step to imagine that in the future the ability to seek out and evaluate source materials will be seen as a key part of learning, rather than absorbing pre given material. And further, that student work can contribute to the body to learning materials, rather than being seen as just an exercise on the way to achieving accreditation?

As regular readers will know we have been doing some research lately looking at the use of technology for teaching and learning and the training of teachers and trainers. As always one o0f the problems is definitions – what do we mean by technology enhanced learning, what is

So Jenny Hughes has been busy writing a list of definitions. I think it is pretty good. But we would welcome feedback. Do you agree with Jen’s definitions? How could they be improved? What other terms do we need to define?

The use of technology for teaching and learning
We have used this as a preferred term for ALL activities relating to the management, organisation, design, implementation and support of learning and teaching which make of information and computer technologies. This will include institutional use of ICT as well as using ICT at the point of delivery.

e-learning
We have used e-learning to describe the use of ICT by learners and teachers at the point of delivery and, by implication, where the use of the technology is a dominant feature of the teaching or learning or where the pedagogy is dependent on the use of the technology. That is, it is a sub set of ‘the use of technology for teaching and learning’ but does not include organisational use of tools and processes to manage learning.

technology enhanced learning
This is used in preference to e-learning when the use of ICT is to add value to the learning process rather than the learning being dependent on it or where the technology is the basis for the design of the learning activity.

programmed learning and computer based learning
Both these terms have been used to refer to stand alone learning programmes, either web based or on a CDROM / DVD, which are designed to be used by individuals working autonomously or with a minimum level of support. They are often designed by commercial developers for a mass audience or may be heavily customised for a particular context. This was the predominant use of ICT across all sectors in the 1980s but cost of production, among other reasons, has seen a reduction in their importance in the education sector. However, they are still used extensively in the business sector.

blended learning
Learning programmes that combine e-learning methods with face-to-face delivery or traditional learning and teaching methods.

braided learning
A form of collaborative learning whereby online communities combine to answer a question or respond to a learning problem. The resultant ‘braided text’ is characterised by heterogeneity of style and multiple perspectives and it is left to individual users to construct their own meanings. That is, no effort is made by the learners to develop the kind of overall style that formal reports or academic research documents would traditionally demand.

distance learning
This is a term which is less commonly used and one which we have tried to avoid because of its ambiguity. Traditionally, distance learning has been used simply to describe a learning situation in which teacher and learner are geographically separated, often where the identity of one is not known to the other. It does not necessarily involve the use of ICT but may do. It is often, unhelpfully, set in opposition to face-to-face learning but the use of on-line synchronous learning technologies where learners and teachers may be ‘face-to-face’ in a virtual rather than physical space has blurred these boundaries.

formal learning
Learning which takes place within an institution or organisation or other context the designated purpose of which is to provide education or training. It is characterised by the existence of curricula, differentiation of role between teacher and learner and a prescribed relationship between them.

informal learning
learning which takes place in a context which is not externally structured by a learning institution, a teacher, a curriculum or by a particular relationship between teacher and learner. This typically includes learning occurring in the home, in a social context or in the workplace and embedded in activities which are part of a learner’s everyday life. The learning is more likely to be unstructured or structured internally by the learner and is continual.

non formal learning
Learning that occurs in a formal learning environment or context but is not formally recognised or determined by a curriculum or syllabus. It typically involves workshops, community courses, interest based courses, short courses, conference style or seminars and participation is usually voluntary rather than prescribed.

domain
Earlier definitions of formal and informal learning were based on the location in which learning takes place, that is, whether learning occurred in a ‘formal’ learning environment, such as a college, or an ‘informal’ one such as the home. However, this was limited because a lot of informal learning will also take place in institutions which are designed as formal learning environments. Domain is therefore a preferred term to describe the particular physical space in which learning occurs.

workbased learning / workplace learning
In further education these terms are often used interchangeably and refer to two different situations. Workbased learning (WBL) is more typically used to describe employer-led training which may include both on- and off-the-job learning. It is often used to used to distinguish that training sector from the FE colleges. Workplace learning (WPL) is an increasingly used term for teachers learning within their own institutions rather than on external courses. This is an imperfect definition as obviously colleges and adult education centres are employers as well as providers but we have maintained the distinction for convenience.

teachers
The word teacher has been adopted as a generic term that includes adult education tutors, lecturers, trainers and anyone whose core role is the design and delivery of learning experiences. We have used the specific terms where it is necessary to distinguish between them or if we are discussing a particular context where they are in common use.

trainers
We have used trainer in two different ways. Firstly to describe individuals who deliver initial teacher training or continuing professional development i.e teacher trainers. Secondly, to refer to individuals working in the private training or industry sectors when it is necessary to distinguish them from college lecturers or adult education tutors

educators
A broader term covering the all the individuals who have a direct responsibility for the learning of others, whether covered by the qualification framework or not. This may be all of their job (such as a private free-lance trainer or college lecturer) or a small part of their job (for example, a shop-floor craftsman who acts as a mentor.)

education professionals
An even broader term which covers teachers, trainers and educators (see above) but also includes managers (e.g training officers or college principals) and professionals from other disciplines who are working in the education service but who do not have direct responsibility for teaching and learning at the point of delivery

personal ICT skills
By this we mean the capabilities and the technical skills of individuals to use technology. A reasonable level of personal competence in the use of ICT is a necessary but not sufficient baseline for designing and delivering e-learning in the same way that the ability to read is a prerequisite of being able to teach someone else to read, which requires an additional set of skills.

continuing professional development
CPD is taken to mean the conscious process by which individuals update their professional knowledge and develop professional competences throughout their working life in order to respond to a changing work environment. It may be compulsory or voluntary, formal or informal, regulated or flexible.

It is also used to describe the provision of learning opportunities which are designed to maintain, improve and broaden the knowledge and skills of employees and develop the personal qualities required in their professional lives.

personal learning environments
An individual’s combination and use of tools for the purposes of learning. Personal Learning Environments are systems that help learners take control of, and manage their own learning. This includes providing support for learners to set their own learning goals, manage both the content and process of their learning and communicate with others in the process of learning.

learning management system
A Learning Management System (LMS) is a software tool, typically web based, which helps to plan and deliver learning events and to ‘manage’ learners by keeping track of their progress and their performance across a range of learning activities. It also facilitates interaction between teachers and students and among students themselves. Formerly called Managed Learning Environments (MLE)

virtual learning environments / learning content management system
A Learning Content Management System (LCMS) is a software system that supports teaching and learning by facilitating the development, management and publishing of the content that will typically be delivered through the LMS. It provides teachers and trainers with the means to create e-learning content efficiently and provides learners with the means to access it. Formerly called virtual learning environments.

In practice, it is normal to find software solutions that combine learning management and learning content management systems.

web 1, web 2.0, web 3.0, web X
These terms are used to describe paradigm shifts in the ways that people use the world wide web and also the changes in the technology that simultaneously drive and reflect those changes.

web 1
A retrospective label for the first stage of development of the world wide web which was based on linking information. Web users accessed that information and were essentially passive recipients of content and media products created by experts – as they would visit a library or watch television or go to see a film.

web 2.0
The term ‘2.0’ mimics the way developers label new versions of software. However, web 2.0 does not refer to an upgrade in the technical specification of the web, it is a metaphor used to describe how web designers and web users are moving in a new direction. Web 2.0 is based on linking people. A key feature of web 2.0 is the development of social networking software which promotes the development of online communities and allow people to work collaboratively.The other major change has been that web 2.0 applications allow users to generate and publish their own content rather than just being consumers.

web 3.0
The emerging paradigm, still in its infancy, based on linking knowledge. Also called the semantic web, it is enables users to combine data from different sources in innovative ways to generate new meanings.

social software
On-line tools designed to enhance communication and collaboration. These include social networking sites, blogs, wikis and user-generated taxonomies or ‘folksonomies’

communities of practice
Social networks of individuals who share common interests, purposes, artifacts and practice and are a rich source of learning for members of the community. Social software has provided the tools to facilitate the development of on-line communities of practice made up of dispersed users.

digital identity

the aspect of digital technology that is concerned with the mediation of people’s experience of their own identity and the identity of other people and things.

e-portfolios
A purposeful collection of digital items representing ideas, evidence, reflections, feedback, etc, which presents a selected audience with evidence of a person’s learning and/or ability.

pedagogy
We have used this as an umbrella term to cover the processes and practices of teaching, the strategies, methodologies and techniques that are used and also their theoretical basis.

scaffolding

Scaffolding is a term to describe those activities which provide structure and support for e-learners and can include both technical tools and processes. Acquiring and deploying the knowledge and skills to scaffold learning is one way in which e-learning is changing the role of teachers and trainers..

dispositions
Disposition is used [about teachers and learners] to describe the tendencies of individuals to behave and react in a certain way and to take up particular positions. Teachers’ dispositions toward e-learning will be be made up of their attitudes towards technology, their habits as teachers and as technology users, their state of readiness, level of preparation and previous learning history. This will be manifested in the way that they use technology for learning and teaching and the diversity of dispositions needs to be reflected in the design and delivery of teacher training.

I have been in Cardiff for the last three days, attending a workshop organised by the EU funded Politics project. Pontydysgu are a partner in the project which aims to use Web 2.0 and social software tools for people to learn about politics. Although the subject is great there are as ever problems. How can we get young (and not so young) people to communicate between different cultures and different languages. Some of the partners are schools or working in the school and vocational learning sectors. As such the teachers are using the politics resources and (under development) platform to scaffold learning for young people. Other partners, like Pontydysgu, wish to develop the platform and tools for self directed learning by young people. Is it possibel to develop resources, tools and an overall platform which can cater for such different approaches to learning. In some ways it is more difficult to develop the platform for self directed learning, as the resources and platform need to at least assist in scaffolding the learning. And despite progress in such areas as recommender systems and the provision for supporting peer based learning, I think our understanding of how to use technologies for scaffolding learning is still inits early stages.

Anyway, and changing the subject, yesterday morning we moved the workshop to the Wales Assembly, where we met our Regional assembly Member, Leanne Wood and went for a tour of the Assembly. It was a surprisingly good experience in allowing an international group of project partners to relate the work we are doing on education to the broader field of politics as a whole. And I was impressed by the Assembly building. None of that old fashioned privilege and tradition associated with Westminster. Instead it is a modern, energy efficient building (no need for artificial lighting and heated through geo-thermal energy), based on the idea of transparency. Young people were wandering around, interviewing the First Minister for a BBC programme. The sun may have helped to provide a feeling of hope, starkly contrasting to the gloom an despair t5ha Westminster politic engenders today.

Anyway that was the first three days of this week. If you were at the meeting, please feel free to add your comments on what you thought about our work together and the visit to the Wales Assembly.

This is the first of a two part blog looking at future and emergent technologies and their implications for learning and teaching and the training of teachers. In this part we look at emergent technologies, in the second we will examine a number of key issues arising from these trends.

Technologies are rapidly evolving and although there is evidence to suggest education lags behind in its adoption of new technologies for teaching and learning  emerging technologies will inevitably impact on education.

This raises a whole series of issues, including how we can train teachers for the emerging technologies they will use in the future rather than those technologies presently in common use. Furthermore, as new technologies are implemented in work processes, this will change curricula demands. We have already commented on changing ideas of digital literacy and the possible impact on pedagogy and student expectations.

The emergence of new technologies cannot be separated from wider issues impacting on education and training. The present economic crisis is leading to new demands in terms of education and at the same time is likely to lead to financial restrictions for institutions.

Emergent technologies also have implications for future infrastructure requirements and may be expected to impact on institutional organisation.

Rather than focus on technology alone, it is more useful to examine the possible social effects of technologies – the socio-technical trends.

Given the fast changing evolution of technologies there is difficulty in predicting future trends and developments within the education sector. This is exacerbated by an increasing tendency to appropriate technologies developed for other purposes for teaching and learning, rather than develop bespoke educational technology. There are many possible future trends and in the literature review accompanying this study we provide an extensive overview. Here we mention but a few.

Each year since 2003, the New Media Consortium, in conjunction with the Educause Learning Initiative, has published an annual report 2002 identifying and describing emerging technologies “likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative inquiry on college and university campuses within the next five years.”

In the 2010 report (Johnson, Levine, Smith, and Stone, 2010) they identify four trends as key drivers of technology adoptions for the period 2010 to 2015:

• The abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as educators in sense-making, coaching, and credentialing.
• People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want to.
• The technologies we use are increasingly cloud-based, and our notions of IT support are decentralized.
• The work of students is increasingly seen as collaborative by nature, and there is more cross campus collaboration between departments.

As well as trends they also report on key challenges:

• The role of the academy — and the way we prepare students for their future lives — is changing.
• New scholarly forms of authoring, publishing, and researching continue to emerge but appropriate metrics for evaluating them increasingly and far too often lag behind.
• Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession.
• Institutions increasingly focus more narrowly on key goals, as a result of shrinking budgets in the present economic climate.

They look at three adoption horizons for new technologies in education “that indicate likely time frames for their entrance into mainstream use for teaching, learning, or creative inquiry.”

On their near term for the next twelve months are are mobile computing and open content.

They predict that in the next two to three years out, we will begin to see widespread adoptions of electronic books and simple augmented reality.

In the longer term future, set at four to five years away for widespread adoption are gesture-based computing and visual data analysis.

Steve Wheeler (2010) says we are moving from Web 1 where the web connects information web 1 to social software connecting people with Web 2 and to the semantic web connecting knowledge with Web 3. He predicts the metaweb will connect intelligence in what he names as ‘Web x’.

The technologies which will enable this include

• distributed cloud computing
• extended smart mobile technology
• collaborative, intelligent filtering
• 3D visualisation and interaction (Wheeler, 2010)

In this vision learning content is not as important as knowing where or who to connect to to find it. Such a move is facilitated by the growing trend towards federated repositories of Open Educational Resources (OERs), which can be freely reused and re-purposed.

A further trend, in part based on these emergent technologies, is the possible move away from Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) towards Personal Learning Environments (PLEs). PLEs are made-up of a collection of loosely coupled tools, including Web 2.0 technologies, used for working, learning, reflection and collaboration with others. PLEs can be seen as the spaces in which people interact and communicate and whose ultimate result is learning and the development of collective know-how (Attwell, 2010). A PLE can use social software for informal learning which is learner driven, problem-based and motivated by interest – not as a process triggered by a single learning provider, but as a continuing activity.

It is notable that predictions of emergent trends for education tend to be more focused towards schools and higher education. There is limited analysis of their potential impact in vocational education. In reality, emerging, socio-technical developments could be mobilised to create widely divergent education systems.

Ceri Facer (2009) says “The developments in remote interactions and in disaggregation of content from institution; the rise of the personal ‘cloud‘; the diagnostic potential of genetic and neuro-science; the ageing population; all of these, when combined with different social, political and cultural values lead to very different pedagogies, curriculum, institutional arrangements and cultural dispositions towards learners.”
Facer (ibid) suggests that “the coming two decades may see a significant shift away from the equation of ‘learning‘ with ‘educational institutions‘ that emerged with industrialisation, toward a more mixed, diverse and complex learning landscape which sees formal and informal learning taking place across a wide range of different sites and institutions.”

Facer (ibid) says that rather than try to develop a single blueprint for dealing with change we should rather develop a resilient education system based on diversity to deal with the different challenges of an uncertain future. But such diversity “will emerge only if educators, researchers and communities are empowered to develop localised or novel responses to socio-technical change – including developing new approaches to curriculum, to assessment, to the workforce and governance, as well as to pedagogy.”

This approach, if adopted, would have major implications for the training of teachers in the use of new technologies for teaching and learning. Firstly it means a move towards an understanding of the social impact of technologies and of socio-technical developments, rather than a focus on technology per se.
Secondly it places a high value on creativity and and willingness to explore, model and experiment with new pedagogic approaches. In this respect competences cannot be based on prescribed outcomes but rather in innovation in process. Furthermore it implies a movement towards creativity and innovation in the training of teachers and trainers and freedom to develop more localised and novel responses to the socio technical change, rather than a standardised curricula response.

The approach also is predicated on an informed debate of educational futures and educational values. Teachers and trainee teachers need to be part of that debate.

References

Facer, K. (2009) Beyond Current Horizons: for DCSFBristol: Futurelab www.beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk

Johnson, L., Levine, A., Smith, R., & Stone, S. (2010). The Horizon Report. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Wheeler, S. (2010). Web 3.0: The Way Forward? http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2010/07/web-30-way-forward.html.

W tym semestrze prowadze na Universytecie Beuth, na którym pracuję, zajęcia z zakresu “socjologii techniki” (prosze bardzo o pomoc w tłumaczeniu – po niemiecku dziedzina ta nazywa się Techniksoziologie – po polsku?). Kurs, który prowadzę nosi tytuł “Web 2.0 i społeczeństwo” i ma za cel wprowadzienie w świat Web 2.0 oraz uświadomienie zakres wpływu technologii sieci socjalnych na różne obszary życia społecznego, dotyczących m.in. form pracy, nauki, komunikacji medialnej i organizacyjnej, zarzadzania organizacjami, wiedzą i projektami, procesów politycznych oraz aspektów prawnych związanych z używaniem narzędzi sieci społecznej. Kurs oparty jest na zasadzie wirtualnych wykładów gościnnych, które są nagrywane i udostępniane studentom i wszytkim innym zainteresowanym. Raz w tygodniu pojawia się wpis na blogu kursu z krótkim streszczeniem oraz linkiem do nagrań wykładów gościnnych (Seminar-Blog). Oprócz publicznego bloga stworzyłam w ramach tego kursu przestrzeń do pracy dostępną tylko dla studentów biorących udział w kursie. Jest ona zbudowana na bazie wiki i umożliwia wspólną pracę w grupach oraz dokładną dokumentację przebiegu kursu (Seminar-Wiki). Głównym wewnętrznym kanałem komunikacyjnym jest mikroblog (Edmodo), w którym zapowiadam wykłady gościnne, przeprowadzam krótkie ankiety dotyczące oceny zajęć oraz dowiaduję się od studentów o ich aktualnej aktywności w ramach kursu (Seminar-Microblog). Wymiana ciekawych linków dotyczących tematów poruszanych w ramach zajęć odbywa się w otwartej grupie do zarządzania zakładkami internetowymi założonej w serwisie Diigo (Seminar-Bookmarks).

Kurs podzielony jest na dwa etapy. Pierwszy etap (04.10.10 – 01.12.10) poświęcony jest teoretycznemu i praktycznemu poznaniu sieci społecznej, tzn. iej zasad funkcjonowania, narzędzi i procesów, oraz zmian jakie oberwujemy w społeczeństwie. Drugi etap (01.12.10 – 14.02.10) obejmuje pracę w grupach mającą na celu opracowanie konceptu na rozwiązanie wybranego konkretnego przypadku (case study). Praca w grupach będzie obejmować wymianę ze studentami z Monachium we wspólnej społeczności internetowej (Seminar-Community).

Aktualne informacje dotyczące kursu można znaleść również na Twitter pod hasłem #aw448

Jakie są Państwa doświadczenia związane z wpowadzaniem sieci społecznych w ramach wykładów uniwersyteckich?

This presentation by Steve Wheeler has been causing some comments around the edubloggers networks. George Siemens responded saying “The development of the semantic web, linked data, and open data, coupled with location-awareness, recommender systems, augmented reality, data overlays, and similar developments is having a dramatic impact on how people interact with information and each other”.

I’ve just read a neat article by John Popham on “How to amplify your event“. I actually didn’t realise what the word amplify meant in this context. But Pontydysgu is working with the European Education Research Association to ‘amplify’ the European Conference on Educational Research this year. The conference, as far as I know the largest Educational Conference in Europe with some 2200 delegates, in being held in Helsinki from 25 – 27 August. The theme of the conference is “Education and Cultural Change.”

One obvious question is what do we want to achieve? Basically we have three aims. One is to enhance the confernce experience for those attending. ECER is run by some 27 or so networks and with so many attending, it can be difficult to keep in touch with everything going on – or even to just find old friends. We hope the use of technology will help get people together, find old and new friends and allow discussion of ideas – before, during and after the conference. Secondly we hope to start to open the conference outwards – to involve those not able to attend face to face and to enhance connections with the wider communities of education research. And thirdly we are trying to build a small history of the conference – not just through papers – but through recording people’s reflections of their experiences and learning.

Now down to the technology – what are we doing?

Firstly we have agreed a hashtag – #ECER2010 and are encouraging delegates to use the hashtag.

We have set a twitter account – EERA_ECER – and are sending out regular tweets (followers very welcome). We have also added a plug in to the ECER web site to accumulate our tweets – http://www.eera-ecer.eu/ecer/ecer2010/twitter-news/?no_cache=1

We have also set up an ECER2010 group on Flickr and are asking delegates to add their photos to that group. Just go to http://www.flickr.com/groups/ecer2010/ and join the group.

We are planning to stream a number of the keynote sessions – more details soon.

We will be making short videos with twelve of the different network conveners as well as vox pops with conference delegates.

And finally, we will be broadcasting 3 special issues of the Sounds of the Bazaar LIVE internet radio programme from 1300 – 1330 Finnish time (12-12.30 Central European time) on 25, 26 and 27 August. Point your browser at http://radio.jiscemerge.org.uk:80/Emerge.m3u and this will open the LIVE radio stream in your MP3 player of choice. You can also send us your questions and comments by Twitter using the #ECER2010 hashtag. And to follow Sounds of the Bazaar LIVE events throughout the summer join the SoB Facebook group.

So this is our idea for the European Conference on Educational Research Amplified. But what have we left out? What else could we do? All ideas very welcome.