Going to Online Educa Berlin really came as a surprise. I had never been there before, and never thought I would go either. However, things changed and when Graham Attwell told me I could go with the rest of the Sounds of the Bazaar team I was just thrilled. It was another great chance to host sounds of the bazaar live at a physical venue. It was also a great opportunity to network and be part of this major European Event. What I never thought would happen is that I would get to meet some webheads. That actually made this experience even more special. I learned via twitter that @buthaina was coming all the way from Kuwait to attend the conference. I immediately tweeted her back telling her I was coming too. We would obviously meet. And we did. And like Vance Stevens so rightly says a webhead is a kinda of a hippie, you know when you see one. And that was exactly what happened once we saw each other. We had never met face to face before and I hadn’t seen many pictures of Buth, but somehow we knew who we were when we looked at each other.
Buthaina Al Othman has been an inspiration for many language teachers for all the support as a member of the webheads and also for all the learning opportunities she has provided her students with. Furthermore, Buth has been using what she has learned about ICT to enable others to learn English as a foreign language. Like many language teachers know and practise, the teaching and learning of a language has more to it than the acquisition of words, grammatical structures and/or fluency. Languages are anchored in cultural aspects, and learning a language is also about learning about the world in which such language is spoken… and beyond. It’s about learning about the people, their history, habits, traditions, customs…the way they naturally express themselves or address certain issues also conveys their world. Buthaina has always been concerned with this and provided us all with eye-opening collaborative learning approaches in which the learning of a language was only a small pretext to something bigger: to expose her students to something bigger – to a new world. And online this is possible.
Buth has also been involved in other projects as a Peace activist. She has been using the same kind of technology and approach to reach out to people. I think I can say Buth believes in the power of people coming together and learning with other informally. That’s when the bonds become stronger and the affections and appreciation by other people deepen. Many have joined her in her cause and we definitely have a lot to learn with/from this brave lady. iPeace is one of her latest projects. It’s worth having a lot at it.

In the video below, Buth talks about the webheads and informal learning. She also provides her opinion about Online Educa, and tell us about her latest online Peace project.

[bliptv Ad%2B%2BCgI]

Continuing on our reporting from Online Educa Berlin, I have to say I was not particularly struck by any great innovation at this year’s conference. Maybe it was the recession which sobered everybody. Great people as always but the tech looked oh so the same. The one thing that did impress me was the growing maturity of projects working with MUVEs and especially in SecondLife. Leicester University from the UK presented a number of SL projects. Here is a YouTube video of their Media Zoo project.

Goerge Siemens has written an important post called ‘Systematization of education: Room for PLEs?’ Why do I think it is important? Because George tries to look at the relationship between the development and uses of technology and the societal organisation of education.

The crux of his arguement is: “PLEs are great. They’re just completely incompatible with the existing education system.”

George quotes Evetts, Mieg, and Felt who “suggest that expertise has as a significant sociological component. Power, authority, and validity all play a role. Focus on accountability, audits, and performance targets are now heavily intertwined with professionalism. Structures of control – such as education – are not solely about knowledge and the interaction of learners with academics. Education is a system based in a sociological context. Or, more bluntly, there is “no fundamental difference between the pursuit of knowledge and that of power.”

A PLE, in contrast, is a tool/process/concept that addresses the needs of learners. It is not, to date, integrated with the power structures of society. It is only – and perhaps even honorably – about knowledge. It’s entirely possible that an integrated power structure can be built at a grassroots level, thereby developing the capacity of PLEs to replace existing LMS tools (which again, find their strength in existing power structures of control and data organization under the umbrella of the institution). This transition will not, however, occur without a corresponding power shift that emphasizes networks as an alternative to hierarchical curricular control structures that begin with industry and government setting research agendas and often influencing standards and curricular needs.”

As George says: “The modernization of education: during the industrial revolution, education transitioned from a personal relationship between faculty member and learner to a systematized model of large instructional classes and numerous teachers.”

He concludes: “Education has ceased to be about the individual learner (the early university model) to being about the existing power allocation of society (today’s model as a by product of industrial techniques applied to education).

As a result, it makes perfect sense that LMS are popular. LMS’ speak the language of the current power structure in education: control, accountability, manageability.”

I agree with almost everything George says. But I am far less pessimist than him. I think George misses two things: the inherent contradictions in capitalist societies and the power of individual and collective agency.

Just as there are contradictions in the capitalist economic system, so are there in the different superstructures which support that system. Yes, education has become systematised to deliver the education and training required by modern industrial societies. But at the same time, the system is unable to keep up with what is required. It is not just a question that curricula cannot keep pace with the speed of technological and social innovation. It is an issue that the skills and knowledge required by today’s technology cannot be delivered through a rigidly sytematised, market led educational system. Furthermore, globalisation, the rapid turnover in employment and occupations and the implementation of new technologies have led to pressures for continuing learning – what is being called lifelong learning. Present education systems cannot deliver this. Hence the never ending reforms of our schooling systems and the ongoing financial problems of universities. Putting it simply, it will cost too much to extend the present model of institutional education to deliver the learning required by the present phase of capitalism. PLEs and MOOCs offer alternative models – for better or worse. Although institutions may resist such models, they will have little alternative than to embrace change.

OK – that is the first argument. The second is based on individual and community agency. The education systems are powerful. But they are not hegemonic. There have always been spaces for individuals and groups to organise their own learning in their own way. In the UK in the 19th and 20th centuries workers organised their own education through the Mechanics Institutes, just as today we find an increasing wave of self organised and open learning available through the web. There are many innovative teachers experimenting with new technologies. Often this work is going on on the fringes of the system, where the control may be less strong. Language teaching is one such example. Most language schools are only interested in results and if the teacher chooses to use PLEs or Web 2.0 tools then they do no object as long as the results are good. Today I was talking with Maria Perifanou, an Italian language teacher in Tessaloniki in Greece. She told me how her students are using Edmodo, set up as part of their langauge course,  to communicate about what is happening in the riots. “They send messages, songs, links, express opinions… they used it these days to tell about  their situation…in Italian…so this brought them their need to share opinions…to become a community.”

It is not merely a question that the system has to change before we can adopt Personal Learning Environments. PLEs support informal and social learning. It is that informal and social learning which can change the system. It is notable that the uprising in Greece is being led by students – many of whom are still at school.

We all can have agency in changing the system and the use of social software and the development of peer networks is part of that process.

The web is not just about providing information.

Is there any news here? No, indeed there isn’t. We have been arguing that the web as it stands today is about enabling the individual to create and collaborate, to construct and to publish. It is also about participating and being included. And again this is also nothing that new, but what happened last week on Online Educa Berlin 08 surely was.

Sounds of the Bazaar were there and that definitely made a difference in the way these events run. It was practically the only open chance people were offered to join Online Educa online. Sounds of the Bazaar featured two special shows from Berlin (1 and 2) , and that was really one of the highlights of this conference, as far as I am concerned. Sounds of the Bazaar attempted, and succeeded, to bridge between the physical venue and a virtual audience who was as interested in taking part in it as the ones who were lucky enough to be able to be there face to face. And in an event that focus especially on Online Education, it starts to be hard to understand why is it organized solely for a face to face audience.

One of the other interesting aspects I observed while in Berlin, is that twitter, and microblogging in general, is becoming more and more relevant in conferences, as a fast way to feedback one’s experiences and perspectives. It has also proved to be one of the most efficient unofficial channels of communication and blended networking, as it allowed a wider audience to have a peek at what was going on during those tow days. Of course, this does not happen out of the blue. It rather happens as the result of team effort, and community engagement. And that’s true magic. 🙂

As a last remark, I would just like to refer to my experience at the plenary session. It was my first time at Online Educa Berlin, and also the biggest conference I have ever taken part in. I am aware it’s difficult to accommodate so many people to attend keynote presentations. ‘The best way’ seems to be to seat people in rows, get the speaker a good microphone and provide high quality speakers, so everyone can listen to the person presenting. Hopefully attendants will concentrate…well, at least, it will keep them quiet. And if  we get a room big enough to squeeze a huge number of conference delegates, than there’s nothing like using a bit more of technology and broadcast a video inside the room, so the rows at the back can, at least, see the speaker…on the screen. Well, this solution is not bad, but I am not sure how different it was from the keynote videos I access on YouTube. And indeed, I had already seen Michael Wesch in youtube before. 🙂 And why wasn’t this broadcast live to a wider audience? Wouldn’t that been a good idea?

I sure would like to see people sharing their thoughts and experiences about participatory and social media while applying the same philosophy they are preaching, that is, to make their sessions more interactive and hence reaching out to their audience in a more personal way. In this sense, I think Sounds of Bazaar fully achieved its purpose. We broadcast two shows, we approached the people on the physical venue – they had a main participatory role in the show – and we also welcomed contributions from the ‘outside’, by simultaneously hosting a chat room, in which people were welcome to interact with other listeners and also share their thoughts and questions. Long are the days where of simple webcasts. This is the age of participation and distributed presence of the self independently of where we are. Technology makes it possible. But more importantly are the people. They have to want to create and keep the channels of communication and participation wide open.

We are honoured to have been nominated for the Best Group Blog in the 2008 Edubloggers Awards. If you would like to vote for us just head over to the group blog award page.

Also please don’t forget the wonderful Bildung im Dialog who we have nominated for the best educational use of audio.

Voting is open until December 21 and the awards ceremony will be held in Second Life on the Islands of jokaydia in Second Life at midnight Saturday 21 Central European Time.

And remember Pontydysgu is a group blog. Besides regular bloggers, Graham Attwell and Cristina Costa (plus Dirk Stieglitz on twitter), we welcome guest postings. Today we feature a blog post by our friend Maria Perifanou on the uprising in Greece. We hope she will be telling us more on the background to this in coming days. And if you would like to write on the Pontydysgu site just get in touch.

Photo of last nights riots in Athens by Michalis Kiriazis

We are proud to post this story by our friend and colleague, Maria Perifanou from Thessaloniki.

“Athens, 6/12/09 …a 15 years student is dead…a police officer killed  Alexandros Grigoropoulos without any reason at all! As witnesses sustain it was a direct hit but the officer who fired contends it was a ricochet from a warning shot . The question raised is how this can be happen in the birth land of democracy in 2008??‘There is no excuse’…’we will take revenge’ ‘state has forgotten us’ are some of the messages students left at the place where the boy died….

Greece is mourning, students protest, we all do but there is another side too!! There are people who destroy, steal and burn everything! These are no students, are no people with ideologies but they are people desperate who have nothing to loose. They scream NO to this inequality and injustice! There is a serious social and economical crisis! The answer is not violence but well organised protests!!
Students show that they are here, they understand, they fight they want to change this bad situation, they have VOICE!!

In democracy there are no dead ends, no anger only dialogue and will to do changes! The solution will be given by the nation, by each of us! We must fight for a better future.  New generation rebel and their message is clear PROTEST FOR DEMOCRACY AND RADICAL CHANGES WITH NO  VANDALISMS!!

Today 9/12/09 at 15:00 we say goodbye to Alex…”

Fabulous internet radio broadcast from the Online Educa Berlin conference. Don’t miss interviews with people from the Moose project, Ton Zijlstra, Jean Miller from Linden Labs, Hank Horkoff from China Pod, Heike Philp and many, many more.

Full programme listings to follow. Many thanks to all who helped on the programme especially our technical team, Joe and Dirk and Cristina who ran the chatroom.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

We are still at the Online educa, and there is loads to report about about. I will try to write a more detailed post once i get back to the Uk – I need sometime to reflect and digest all the expereinces and emotions. Meanwhile, I wil just jot dow some of the highlights of this amazing event, which hosts extraordinary opportunities for real networking.

Yesterday late afternoon Heike Philps, another webhead, arrived all the way from Freiburg. She wasn’t even supposed to come but once she learned Buthaina and I would be here, she decided to come. That really made our day! It was a small, yet fun webhead party. In the evening it was microblogging talk, and man did we twittered. We are natural twitters and we twitter as esaly online as we d face to face. Above all it was a quite relax gathering of people who were already follwoing each other via microblogging. We provided our opinions and ways in which we use microblogging, and we even counted with the presence of Wolfgang Reinhadt who came all the way from Potsdam just for this 2 hour discussion. That was indeed impressive.

Today, as i write this, and I sat here at the Marlene bar with Steve Wheeler, from the University of Plymouth, who kindly has agreed to give us an interview on his presentation about web 2.0 tools and collaboration. He also shares his thoughts about Online Educa. The interview finishes with Steve talking about the Conference he is organizing at the Plymouth next year. The conference is entitled Boundary Changes:Redefining Learning Spaces, and seems to be an event NOT to miss. There is still time to submit your paper, and the interview is worth listening to. Check it out in the link below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Today during the plenary sessions I heard about elearning Africa. The fully got my attention after that phrase!

And I found out that Senegal is a leading country in Africa when it comes to use ICT in education. There was no way I was going to let this chance escape. You all know how passionate I am about Africa and how people engage there with this kind of things. They make a conversation out of everything and my latest experiences have been that teachers over there really welcome participatory media do communicate. After all, that’s what they do better.

And so, this afternoon I set mind to go and meet Dr Mor Seck. I thought they would never let me talk to him, but that at least he would send someone to talk to me. When I got to the Senegal stand, Dr Mor Seck himself was there, and kindly accepted to talk a little bit about the Elearning Africa conference which will take place this coming May in Senegal. The call for papers is out and if you have a change do submit something. You will learn so much with these people. Their enthusiasm is just contagious. If you don’t believe me, just watch the video below. That’s just a glimpse to the whole story of course!

More info about the conference can be accessed here.

[bliptv Ad6uPwI]

If you can’t see the video, please link here.

We are at Online Educa Berlin, organising a series of fringe activities. This morning we produced a half hour radio programme. Lots of fun and if you want a quick impression of the conference just download the podcast.

Photos to follow.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS