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gi es lo no ch Id en tit y Te Beyond Flexibility: flexible distributed learning (FDL) and e-portfolios Pe e-Learning Regions and Cities 3 Oxford 22 June 2005 groberts@brookes. ac. uk rs on al George Roberts Development Director Off-campus e-Learning Oxford Brookes University

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

Life before and around Brookes Education • • • 1968 - DEC PDP 8 & FORTRAN 1972 - BA (English Lit) 1986 - MPhil (Historical & Comparative Linguistics) 2001 - MA (Education w/Open and Distance Education) 2004 - Ph. D study at U of Southampton • Actor networks: the extent to which beliefs (ideologies) about learning and teaching are embedded in the artefacts of learning technology Work & Related • 1987 PEP Preparatory Education Project • 1988 ACE adult community continuing education tutor • 1989 College of Petroleum and Energy Studies • 2000 Brookes • 2003 Open University • ALT • Writing Tools • Wordprocessing • Spreadsheets • e-Mail 3 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

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

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

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

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

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

Lifelong Learning Records Susie’s Journey http: //www. jisc. ac. uk/index. cfm? name=pub_inform 6 Susie’s goes down for bringing drugs to prison After 10 years and 3 attempts, Susie gets out gets clean & finds community learning Susie’s boyfriend is banged up Susie leaves school MLEs Susie gets Pregnant for Lifelong Don’t want Must get job. Learning employer http: //www. jisc. ac. uk/mle 10 to know my past e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

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

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

The Learner and Identity • “Weak” identity issues • associating an identifier (name, id number) with data • “Strong” identity issues 1. associating an identifier with flesh 2. gender, race, age, social class, embodiment, ethnicity, friendships, family, community, nationality, vocation, pleasures, beliefs, religion, style, education, attainment, employment, hobbies, language (dialect/ideolect), etc • who am I, really? • reflective learning is entirely concerned with strong identity issues 13 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

e. Portfolio and Virtual Identity • Considerable amounts of personal information may be included in an eportfolio, including • small and personal details • “mummy goes to work at 8. 30 every day” • photographs which may locate the candidate geographically • “me with Emma and Kitty at the park by my house” • • Young people Vulnerable adults • What is security? • no one really knows • but some of us know how to implement some parts • result: hammers in search of nails • or: sledgehammers in search of nuts 14 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you! George Roberts Development Director, Off-campus E-learning Oxford Brookes University groberts@brookes. ac. uk +44 (0) 1865 484871 +44 (0) 7711 698465 http: //www. brookes. ac. uk/virtual/ http: //www. alt. ac. uk/altc 2004/ 27 e-Learning Cities and Regions Conference 22 June 2005