This first week has just been amazing.  We have had a great time connecting in our EVO Workshop.
It started with a very simple, yet quite intriguing ice-breaker activity Nellie Deutsch came up  with. It consisted on asking participants to connect to ours and discover what their birth order inside their family was. No instructions on how to do this were provided. After all it’s their learning and we wanted them to explore their creative side their own way. And boy, did they do it! After a couple of hours the activity in the ning was running at full speed. People created surveys, developed online forms, twittered about it, send private messages to their ning friends, used videos and their blogs… everything to answer to challenge #1!  What a blast!!! We were also learning with one another’s’ reactions and consequently trying out the toys that were being used during that first half of the week. There is nothing like learning in context. It’s not about learning the dry commands of a tool, but rather using something that might help you find your way inside your learning path. I am a true believer that contextualized learning is the way forward. If we create the conditions for a friendly, cosy environment, the interactive atmosphere grows much more meaningful, and from that context relevant content usually arises. The support of all those involved is the best information resources one can get to support his/her learning.
Five years ago I took a course at the University of Coimbra. At the time these tools were not available, but the course leaders were providing their own tool, which was a virtual space they shared with the rest of the members of the course. To our surprise not even one resource, one artifact was available there for us. ‘Man , they are not making this easy’ I thought at the time… and in fact that was not their purpose. If we were to inhabit a ‘part’ of that environment, it was up to us to decorate in our own taste and manner,  with our learning activity. And if the place were also for communal gathering, then it was up to us as a group to define and create the spaces we thought to benefit out joint online existence. Their point was to make that a totally constructivist approach. So we constructed. We were to work to be a the community and reach our goals. We were to make it as much a personal experience as well as a joint learning enterprise. And the fact is that we did, even though we did not even pay much attention to it at the time. We set up our personal space, decorating it as well as we could or wanted with resources, blog post, while contributing to the development of the communal spaces with groups discussions, group work, resources and also with a space dedicated to pure chatter – because we all are interested in more things than the disciplines that characterize our professional activity.
Somehow, this week reminded me of that experienced. This workshop seems to symbolize  what Bee Dieu wrote in the title of her former blog: Freedom to roam. How important is that in the learning context?
I have always enjoyed freedom and loved to be able to add something personal to the way I represent my learning. Creative freedom makes the journey to knowledge much more pleasant and enjoyable. I think we learn better when our heart is it it. At least, I am like that. I find it hard to follow someone who is incapable  of showing enthusiasm for what they do. I find it also difficult to get interested in dry information. I do enjoy my lonely moments of reflection – when I try to seek quiet, deep personalized understanding of the latest experiences and content, but what really triggers my activity as a learners is the people that surround me and which whom I develop joint conclusions.  That is why many times I end up publishing my personal reflections in my blog, as a way of sharing this more closed part of me with others. That is also a way of refining my thoughts. I think my blog is my Digifolio – the place where I condense the ideas and thoughts I acquire and develop from all the other places I so eagerly belong and contribute to. Consequently that sharing also helps define who I am and withwhom/ how I learn. It also helps the building of my professional ID as a Digital Learner…

Ok, and here the stories start. I believe in the power of telling stories.Story telling is an important aspect in our daily life. We learn with one another – there is no doubt about that – and we especially learn with the stories the others have to tell. Listening to is a very important activity in one’s learning. Somehow in online spaces this is more achievable than in face to face scenarios. Maybe because off-line we are always short for time; online it takes time! This is the only way we are able to present ourselves to the others and show evidence that we are ‘listening to’ what they say, also with the expectation they will also pay attention to our contributions. Then there is also the impact of the written word which is amazingly powerful in establishing learning connections. Through words we express ourselves better, we are able to go deeper in our beliefs and feelings – it allows us to open up more without being exposed to the naked eye of our interlocutor. In short, the process of expressing ourselves in words often concedes us the time to mature our message in a cohesive speech as well as to deepen our learning bonds …
For some reason books still haven’t disappeared, some of the best (love) stories began in epistolary format and blogs have increased the popularity of writing the the last decade or more.  The web as it stands today also enables us to develop stories in many other formats. What is important is that we don’t keep the narrative inclosed ourselves. After all, a good story is always worth telling. And who doesn’t like a good one?
The second half of the week when we started telling our own stories … sharing a bit more of ourselves. Once again creativity was welcome and the originality of people’s story formats as well and the genuineness of their narratives was just amazing.
I am not sure of what the others think, as I can only speak for myself, but I have learned a lot this week and been having a lot of fun talking to people and exploring the different spots that have created inside the ning.

The European Association of Education of Adults has recently released in their website that 2009 is going to be the European Year of Creativity and Innovation.
Well, that is about time Creativity and Innovation came hand in hnad with education, and also that it gained the recognition it deserves as part of one’s learning process and life long development. In my mind, attached to it is spontaneity, a wider diversity of contextual opportunities to learn and practice, hence, more value put on informal and reality learning approaches; learning spaces turned into environments where people really feel at ease to communicate and share… feel they belong to (all agents included), more choice and personalization, that is, voices emerging…
The hint is that ICT will have a decisive role in this approach, and that the learning activity becomes more connected and with a wider networked audience. 🙂
Now the questions are: how will participatory media finally be embedded (and not forced) as a fundamental part of institutions’ strategies and approaches towards teaching, learning, and research? How will creativity be regarded, supported and enhanced in formal settings? How will innovation happen … This really takes a lot of thinking, and a lot of courage too to take this forward.

This morning I was also reading the IPTS policy brief on ICT for Learning, Innovation and Creativity (2008), and their observations are not really surprising, but compared with what the Lisbon Strategy initially set forward, it’s almost shocking.
Ala-Mutka, Punie and Redecker (2008), point out that despite the fact of ICT have been increasingly taken up in educational settings in the last decade, it still hasn’t had the ‘transformative impact’ on teaching and learning inside the institutions. Nevertheless, it is progressively gaining more importance outside. The report also says that ‘while many education institutions all over Europe are currently experimenting with diverse digital tools, the approaches developed are not always creative or innovative’.
Who hasn’t come across cases like this? How many ICT projects are nothing but the replication of what has been done in face to face scenarios? What’s the added value in this? So why using technology, going through the hassle of learning new things if we just aim at replicating what we already do well? Technology is only useful when there is true added value to it. For that to happen new learning situations need to be created, the institutions (and all its agents – students, lecturers, tutors, researchers, librarians, etc) need to make the connection with the virtual world real. This takes an open and social approach in which participatory media can help tremendously not as a solution per se, but rather as a means to an end … as a platform for meaningful communication and development of learning networks and communal engagement.

As part of their recommendations, set of suggestions at different levels have been enunciated. In terms of pedagogical innovation, experimentation is encouraged – let people try, they say!!!! Only if we do it, will we know if it works. We ought to be a bit more daring in education – it kind of goes well together with the real life we are preparing our students for! Networking and exchange of good practices amongst educators seems to be a must. Thus teacher training and support are crucial.
As far as innovative organizations go, open and network institutions comes at the top of the recommendations in this category, alongside with the development and support of a favourable culture for ICT innovation and learning and the building of a strong vision of ICT and innovation for lifelong learning in Europe.
Finally, some ideas on how to support and take advantage of the technological innovation. That calls for Co-development of tools for learning and teaching – working closely with the users does seems a great idea. Research on how ICT impacts on learning is also seen as essential. To it, I can add another thought: research on practice, and how it drives change, creativity and innovation seems to be also as important.

If Educational institutions all around Europe are going to allow this to happen, that remains to be seem. But I certainly would like to see this as first item on every School’s/ university’s New Year’s resolution list…or is that asking too much?

I am still marveled by the Online Educa Berlin 08 experience. It mainly has to do with the fact that I was able to meet and talk to so many interesting people, and to learn what they are currently doing.

Like I already mentioned in previous posts, Online Educa unexpectedly become a webhead meeting too. It doesn’t take much to organize one. Webheads are quite spontaneous people and any place is good to host a get-together. Berlin, in this sense, was a stupendous meeting point. We had so much fun. I have been in closer contact with Heike Philp since the Training the Trainers Online Conference. Although she’s also an webhead, we hadn’t actively engaged in many discussions at the webhead’s headquarters…I am not even sure why… However we knew each other, and after the online event we started skyping more and talk about our projects. Once Heike learned Buth and I was going to be in Berlin, she decided to come too. That was quite a surprise and I am glad she came, because we sure had a great time.

Heike has a new project starting soon about Second Life and Language Learning. Teaching and learning Languages in SL seem to have a big impact in environments like this. I personally like the fact that I can embody my presence through an avatar, and use voice activated speech to interact with others. The fact we can visit different places, and construct artifacts is also appealing to me… the way I see it it should make me feel I am part  of that environment in a rather meaningful and contextualized way. However, this is not what usually happens with me. I am still fascinated by the fact my avatar represents me in a more tangible way, and that I also get to go places while there, etc… but, at the same, time I usually feel frustrated by the fact I can’t figure out how to control my avatar’s movements, and body language signs, with proficiency. Constructing stuff in SL is even harder… Equally upsetting is the fact that when I don’t crash, someone else does. Even though this is becoming less frequent, it is still a reality for many people who are running on older computers or have a slower connection.
Nevertheless, I really want to learn more about SL, and hope to include it as part of my Personal Learning Environment and Network. I still see many limitations for it to work at a larger scale and for a wider group of people. As my dear friend Hala Fawzi says – she is not a Second Lifer – and she does not say that because she doesn’t see the learning benefits of being part of such environment, but simply because her internet connection is still not fast enough to ‘enter this world’.

However, it look things are changing. Heike’s project – Access to Virtual Action Learning live ONline (AVALON) seems to address some of this issues mentioned above, and she does talk about accessibility and usability. I hope you enjoy the video. It was recorded at the Xmas Market in Berlin, as you can tell from the background music.

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Also, if you want to be introduced to SL in a friendly, supportive environment, then you should consider the Virtual World Session Graham Stanley, Nick Noakes, Dennis Newson and  Nergiz Kern are going to offer as part of the EVO Sessions. They are totally free and a lot of fun! I will join them too. 😉

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.

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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 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.

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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.

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

We are at online Educa Berlin 08. It is my first time in this event. I have always heard wonders about it, and now I can see why. This is huge, hence impressive. But what I am enjoying the most is indeed all the fun and informal activities I have been able to take part in. And that was also the most popular arguments amongst experienced fellow researchers and practitioners who advised me about this conference – the networking opportunities. you are SO right. This is brilliant! 😉
And it started right after the moment I set foot in the intercontinental hotel yesterday evening. I met the ‘suspicions ones: Among them the Ponty dream (Graham Attwell and Dirk Stieglitz), Josie Fraser, George Robertx, Joe Rosa, Steven Warburton, Marga Perez, Dave white…and the lsit goes on. It’s great to touch base with these guys once in a while.
To my greastest surprise, a couple of days I heard Buthaina wisher …well twitter …she was coming to Online Educa. One more reason to keep me happy. A really amazing opportunity to meet my fellow webhead from Kuwait. The moment we met, we couldn’t stop talking about the webheads and the passion that keep us connected: the world of education, where the learner and learning are the most important variables. Buthaina really fitted well with the rest of teh JISC team (as any webhead would!) and off we went to the European Edublogger meet-up. Again a lot of fun and great conversations until late in the evening. More people joined in, and once again we welcomed that to broaden our networks.
Today was the official starting of the conference. we had the plenary sessions which counted with the presence of Mike Wesch. I really liked his talk as always and there were some ideas that I hope attendants will take with them. Among others, I would just like to stress some of the key points Wesch valued in his presentation:

Teaching hasn’t changed, but learning surely has – and this is just a simple sentence, but with such a deep meaning. is’t it true. We have changed the way we do things, basically because the society we leave in so requires. however, we keep insisting and teaching people the same way. Something has to give. we need to change attitude. We need to help moving to a 21st century culture, and above all we need to adopt a new approach. Changes only happen if we act.

Learning is not about acquiring information: it’s about sharing it, it’s about co-constructing it; it’s about critically analyzing it. And once again I couldn’t agree more. What is given doesn’t have half the value of what we create ourselves, because in it there is also something of us – the effort we put in it. And that is the added value of learning – to give information a personal touch.

Wesch mentioned many other important aspects, however I haven’t had a chance to capture them all, and hope there’s a videocast out there soon to be released. Nevertheless, I want to leave you with his last remark – a questions which he says to be the answer too:
‘How can we create students that can create meaningful connections’. To that thought I can add that to inspire others to lead us we have to try it ourselves too. So to create students who can create meaningful connections we need first as educators and mentors to re-create ourselves in the connected world and become connected people ourselves. The value of the participatory media is the fact it enables tangible participation in a virtual, yet really real and valuable world, where the interactions and relationships we establish is the true value of technology.

And on that note, I finish this post as it’s time to go and connect to another fellow webhead, Heike Philps, who I have been connecting online for a long time. Today we become f2f buddies as well. As Buthaina is here too, this is also a webhead party. 🙂

Dear All,
We are in Berlin and preparing to go live in less then an hour.
For those who want to join us either face to face or online, here are some deatails.

Graham Attwell is broadcasting today (4Dec) a 40 minute show at 11:00 CET (check your local time here http://tinyurl.com/66amtz ) live from Online Educa Berlin. The show will feature a mix of interviews with speakers and live debates on emerging issues from the conference. The programme is streamed live and can be listened to in any MP3 application (link here http://tinyurl.com/6df6ar ). A chat room will also be available here http://tinyurl.com/sounds08 (no password required – just add your name, and hit log in, leaving th epassword field blank).
The show will also be subsequently available as a podcast (download will be available at www.pontydysgu.org ).
If you happen to be in Berlin, you can join the show live at the ICWE booth at stand B 54.
The shows are sponsored by the JISC Users and Innovation programme Emerge project.

To find out about all the Emerge activities at Online Educa go to http://tinyurl.com/5m9zf2

It’s been a really interesting opportunity, and we will be blogging more about it later.

Above all, it’s been a great networking opportunity! And like Mike Wesch said this morning: in the question ‘how can we create students that can create meaningful connections?’  is the answer. So, the way I see it, we, as educators, need to make those connections ourselves to be able to deeply understand what it takes and then be able to mentor others. And that’s exactly what we are doing here! 😉

The last two days I have been taking part of the 1^st Network Trainers in Europe open online conference.

It was quite interesting at different levels. It was an experienced different from the others I have been accustomed to. Still as enriching as the other, as if not more, for the diversity of people I was able to interact with.

I was also part of the team behind the conference, and helped organize it – keeping in close contact with all parties involved: participants, speakers and organizers it’s hard work, but also a lot of fun when you work as a coherent team.

It’s incredible how much has to be done beforehand to put an event of this dimension together. But it is equally amazing what a great experience it can also be, even if stress sometimes takes over. The backstage team much be recognized for the amazing supportive work. Thanks Dirk, Joe and Graham for all the hard work, and all the support in the back channel!

This was a conference opened to everyone, but we knew that our main target audience would be people whose familiarity with technology was not as quite advanced as in the groups and communities some of us move about. Most of them use only a working email and rarely ever consider the web for anything else. That seems to do the trick for them so far, as trainers, mentors and/or policy makers. However, but were (are) also up to trying something else, to see the landscape from another perspective. Isn’t that the greatest driver of learning: to want to?  Willing is what it takes to get us started.

Technology however often plays the trick on us. There were people who struggled to get into the conference room: institutional firewalls, computers that crashed, names with non-standard characters that the system peremptorily refused to accept, people who were continuously directed to the sandbox room, despite the fact they were clicking on the right link… we got a bit of everything! But in the end, through different back channels and with the effort of a silent team, who was working hard in the background, most participants were able to succeed and join us for two days of remote live interaction.

Contemporaneous issues were raised and well represented in practical examples. The educational concerns and wishes are common across countries: how do we engage people to learn differently? How do we innovate and comply with the assessment and outcome “rules”? How can we value, and recognise, work-based learning? How little impact informal learning still has in official recognition of skills and competences. How to change that? What should be the role of the trainer in the 21^st century?…. Many thoughts were added to these questions and many others that arose from the presentations.

The interactions increased as the technology became less of a stranger. The written chat was quite powerful in that sense, and some people were even brave enough to communicate with the speakers and the rest of the audience with audio. By the last two presentations, we had completely forgotten the formalities of the traditional question- answer format and were bouncing questions and comments at each other with enthusiasm. It became a big conversation. Wewent global right there and then, and all of a sudden all barrier (space, time, technology glitches, etc) seemed to ceasse. We were just taking part in a great conversation.

Above all we were just doing what the presenters had inspired us to do: to share, communicate and work together.

I think we can say we all learned something and we all had a bit of fun. It was a meaningful opportunity to power the connection and encourage people to come together, to consider a future which some of us are already part of.

As I had planned to quote in my last two slides, and which I missed to present because the conversation took us in different routes (and I am glad it was so):

We are standing at the threshold of a new era in learning approaches and itineraries where the greatest novelty of ICT resides in the full use of the C: C for community, communication and care. (Prof. Roberto Carneiro during Online Educa 2007)

And that’s the situation some have already embraced. It is also the future others are looking forward to making into their own present reality. Change takes time, but I have hope we will get there. We just need to want to and to be able to show we care through meaningful, personalized communication inside the community.

So a final thought:

The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet. (by William Gibson)*

* On the day of the conference professor Alan Brown sent me a paper he wrote. Coincidently he had finished his thoughts with this same sentence – the sentence I had planned to finish my slides with too. Maybe the future is getting more even than we think.

My slides here (recording coming soon)