Talk by Peter O’Sullivan from IBM
What will the future learner look like? – apparently:
Very motivated
Driven by interaction and trust
Time sensitive
Global Disposition (Think and Act) – don’t understand this
Information savvy (resistant to overload)
Technophilic – don’t think this is quite right – they don’t ‘love’ the technology – they just accept it
Established brand, individuality
Virtual and physical (Cyber children)
Diverse
Comparison Shoppers
24% of urban tweens globally use the internet as primary communication
21% find the Internet the easiest way to make new friends (this rises to 44% in China)
OK – so this is a picture, but I think it saying that they will in some way like or love using the technology. This doesn’t quite ring true to me – it is important to realise, that they don’t see this as a choice they are making – they just do it. We need to get ourselves into this mindset. Think about things that you use naturally – e.g. telephone – but do you regard yourself as someone who ‘loves’ the telephone? I don’t – it just doesn’t occur to me that there is a different way of doing this, in the way it would have to my grandparents.
I think it also paints a picture of a particular type of student. Although some may be true, I don’t think we are going to see a change in 18 year old undergraduates suddenly becoming a lot more motivated than they are at the moment. However, perhaps the truth is that this section of students will become less important to the HE market?
So – the future shape of e-learning – seeing some common themes coming up here –
Collaborative learning
Learner empowerment
Embedded Learning
Enabled via a blended approach
Learner starts to be at the centre of the process
Shame I can’t reproduce the slide up at the moment – an interesting breakdown of the IBM working environment ‘desktop’ – looks like a kind of portal, bringing together different aspects of a project/job. Interesting to compare this to e-learning delivery.
IBM have developed a 4 tier learning model:
Learn from collocation
Learn from collaboration
Learn from interaction
Learn from information
This seems a very interesting way of breaking down the structure of how we learn. What PO says then is that this means the lesson planners (which could well be these self-motivated students) control the delivery – looking at which of the 4 tiers suits a particular learning objective…
PO is just showing us some little visionary examples of the future of e-learning. Some of it rings true, and some of it not, but the general vision is embedding learning into life – using technology.
PO now talking about something called the ‘IBM Learning Alignment Model’ (some stuff here http://www-1.ibm.com/industries/education/ doc/content/bin/LAExecutiveBrief11-24.pdf)
PO now name checking various projects – Merlot, Sakai, University of Phoenix online, eArmyU. Also mentioned Middlesex University as having a vision related to the use of IT.
Emphasising you can’t be successful if you are completely IT driven (e.g. UKeU)
PO now talking about the need of Industrial Strength information and communications technology – this comes back to recent discussions locally about needing a robust network and IT infrastructure as a pre-requisite of e-learning. Also identifying the need for full lifecycle content management.
PO now saying we have to recognise the context for us is global – covering different levels of education, and all other aspects of life.