form learning over e learning to my learning

From Learning over E-Learning to MyLearning

Wim Van Petegem K.U.Leuven – AVNet, Kapeldreef 62 – bus 5206, B-3001 Heverlee (Belgium)

[email protected]

Abstract. Lifelong learning is the new adagio for modern European citizens preparing our knowledge-based society for the next decades to come. Therefore, we need open and flexible learning systems, enabling individual learning pathways for all citizens, suitable to their needs and interests at all stages of their lives.

This paper will address the question how universities should support the individual citizens in their lifelong learning trajectory, by transforming learning into e-learning with the help of modern ICT, and further into a personalized way of learning, MyLearning.

Keywords. Lifelong learning, e-learning, virtual learning environment, personal learning environment, MyLearning

1. Introduction: Lifelong Learning

That learning is not only happening at school, is an understatement. Young children learn to crawl, to stand, to speak, to eat, and so much more, all at home, on their own, with the help of parents and other family. And this learning process gets more formalized when they go to school: mathematics and languages, science and technology, etc. are nicely packaged into 'learnable' objects learners need to digest with the help of teachers and other educational support staff. Once they graduate and obtain their (formal) degree, they can start a professional career. Needless to say that at the same time a new learning phase starts in their life: to keep their employability safe for the future, learning should go on, on the workplace, in dedicated educational institutions, with friends, and in many other occasions. Lifelong learning is the new (or old?) adagio for modern European citizens actively participating and taking up responsibility in preparing our knowledge-based society for the next decades to come.

The European Commission defines Lifelong Learning as: „all learning activity undertaken throughout life, with the aim of improving

knowledge, skills and competence, within a personal, civic, social and/or employment-related perspective.“ [1]

All forms of lifelong learning are equally valued, whether it is formal, non-formal or informal learning. Learning opportunities should be therefore made available to all European citizens on an ongoing basis. In practice this means that we need open and flexible learning systems, enabling individual learning pathways for all citizens, suitable to their needs and interests at all stages of their lives.

This paper will address at least partly the question how to support the individual citizens in their lifelong learning trajectory, by using all kinds of ICT possibilities for transforming learning into e-learning, and further into a personalized way of learning, MyLearning. Especially the ever changing role of universities in this new world of teaching and learning will be analysed and suggestions to deal appropriately with future challenges will be developed.

2. From Learning to e-Learning

2.1. Learning with e-technologies

Figure 1. Learning anywhere, anytime, anyhow

For ages teachers and learners have been using ’technological tools’ to enhance

27Proceedings of the ITI 2008 30th Int. Conf. on Information Technology Interfaces, June 23-26, 2008, Cavtat, Croatia

Authorized licensed use limited to: BEIJING UNIVERSITY OF POST AND TELECOM. Downloaded on October 27, 2009 at 05:07 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

communication, collaboration and information distribution. The tools used are ranging from blackboard and chalk, paper and pencil, printed books and photo copies, radio and television, to modern information and communication technologies (ICT). With the introduction of ICT into education, we moved the predefined times, places and ways of teaching into the new paradigm of learning anytime, anywhere and anyhow.

It is beyond the scope of this paper to elaborate on all e-technologies and the history of their introduction to support lifelong learning. Nevertheless, the major breakthrough was the emergence of Internet and especially the World Wide Web (WWW). Indeed, in the mid 1990’s, the Internet was booming, first in North-America and later in Europe. Universities were developing their first websites, merely as source of academic information. Teachers – early adopters – were experimenting with own websites to support their courses. They were offering extra learning material on-line, including self-tests, simulations, etc. and in some cases even dealing with all organisational aspects from student registration up to automatic evaluation. While in the beginning those websites were concentrated on individual courses, later on a broader and more complete spectrum of teaching and learning needs were handled.

Figure 2. Digital learning environment, called Toledo, at K.U.Leuven, with different actors

and activities supported

As more and more functionalities were integrated into the systems, the terms virtual learning environments (VLE) and learning management systems (LMS) became popular around the millennium, to determine a digital

environment in which the teacher and the learner are separated by space and/or time and where the gap between the two is bridged through the use of on-line technologies.

At the same time and together with the management of the learning process, it became apparent that also the management of all learning content (documents, presentations, simulations, tests, graphics, audiovisual material, multimedia, etc.) needed a more systematic approach allowing the (re-)use of the resources over individual courses. This resulted into the development of a learning content management system (LCMS). Linked with the learning resources provided e.g. by the library, the VLE turned into a complete digital learning environment on institutional level to provide integrated access to all resources and activities related to teaching and learning [2].

2.2. e-Learning and hybrid learning

In this way teaching and learning transformed into their e-equivalents, almost together with the Internet hype around the millennium. Contrary to the Internet bubble, e-learning is still apparent in (higher) educational settings. Though, we see that in most cases e-learning is not replacing traditional (face-to-face) learning, but is mostly considered as an add-on. This combination is referred to as ‘blended learning’, the mix of virtual and physical learning resources and activities. It simply means that the total learning experience is enhanced and enriched by a digital environment, which is smoothly integrated in the physical world of teachers and learners.

2.3. e-Learning and lifelong learning

As a specific mode of attending a course or programmes of study where the students rarely, if ever, attend face-to-face classes or need on-campus access to educational facilities, e-learning is of tremendous importance to lifelong learning. Indeed, e-learning is naturally suited to distance learning or flexible learning. Professionals with learning needs can easily access courses from their home or work space, and turn it into a private e-learning environment. Examples could be found in the models of the Open University (e.g. in the UK, Germany or the Netherlands – a good starting point for further

28


information is the network of distance teaching universities, called EADTU [3]).

In these models flexibility exists in the fact that learning could happen anywhere, anytime and anyhow. Or, as the Open University of the Netherlands says [4]:

Interactive CD-ROMs and DVDs, plus the possibilities of the Internet, enhance the educational process. Many students make use of an electronic learning environment to organize their personal work location. Course sites, newsgroups, e-mail and conference facilities make distance learning even more appealing. This enables people to combine their study with work and private life and to determine where, when and at what pace to study.

In this way this university profiles itself as a prime university for lifelong learning.

3. From e-Learning to MyLearning

3.1. The concept of ‘multicampus’

With the introduction of ICT, and with the emphasis on internationalisation in higher education, it is clear that learning is no longer happening on one single campus (and certainly not if that campus is your own working space). Universities have agreements or contracts with various other institutions worldwide to enable and support a growing number of teaching and learning activities taking place at and between different campuses.

Figure 3. Videoconferencing and live streaming to support multicampus education

Several names have been used in the past or are still in use to define this type of collaboration: virtual university, virtual campus, virtual mobility or multicampus education. We

will not go into detail, though, for more information, we refer to the Re.ViCa project, in which a review is made on past research, development and implementation projects related to this subject, with the aim to redefine the concepts in order for them to be applicable to the educational needs of today [5].

In the challenging way this ‘multicampus’ idea leads to online networks of individual learners, student groups and/or teaching staff – sometimes linked to but often independent from the institution – called learning communities or communities of practice. Each participant in these networks can be considered a small virtual ‘campus’, learning from home, work or through a mobile device.

3.2. Towards MyLearning

The formation of such informal on-line communities responds to a need for individual learners to manage their own learning over the boundaries of institutions and institutional systems [2]. The closed and structured learning environments as commonly used and completely controlled by higher education institutions themselves is challenged by the parallel trend in society where individuals are willing to take over the control by their own and to develop and use the newer ICT systems and tools in an innovative way. Social software or ‘Web 2.0’ is part of this phenomenon. The term social software refers to computer-mediated communication and interaction tools and applications that may result in ‘community formation’, managed by the individuals. Social software systems allow links between users; the ownership and control of these links – who is linked, and who isn't; what kind of information is shared and what not – is in the hands of the user. There are many applications with social software characteristics that facilitate human connection and collaboration in specific contexts and education is considered just one of them.

In this way, social software challenges the boundaries of a closed digital learning environment by substituting a combination of a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) (referring to the personal control) with a Collaborative Working Environment (CWE) (referring to the community building and social networking). From here it is only a small step to call this MyLearning environment, in analogy with the well-known MySpace.

29


Figure 4. MyLearning environment

A similar trend is seen with respect to contents. The closed digital repositories and (e-) libraries linked into the digital learning environments are challenged by a strong tendency towards Open Educational Resources (OER). OER are teaching, learning and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing by others. OER include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials or techniques used to support access to knowledge for all. Different initiatives are taken nowadays in this domain, like OpenCourseWare @ MIT, Open Content Initiative @ OU-UK, the Open Archive Initiative, etc. For all learners wherever in the world it becomes now possible to have access to high quality educational content and tools freely available on the Web, next to the (more closed) repositories in the LCMS at the own institute. Again, the closed learning environment is heavily challenged by this new trend, turning part of the Web into one global resource of learning material [2], as part of MyLearning environment.

4. Final remarks

The concept of MyLearning in the social (digital) environment in which it is taking place

addresses exactly the needs of the modern lifelong learner. He or she is mastering the own learning process, absorbing and creating knowledge, digesting it into (new) learning objects, ready to share them with others, and this all happening at the time, place and pace that suits the best. Needless to say that MyLearning requires careful attention to new skills of both teachers and learners, in different areas, like technological, pedagogical or organisational competences. Appropriate training in these fields on individual and institutional level is condition sine qua non to implement successful MyLearning environments. Preparing teachers and learners to grow in e-competence is clearly a new and challenging role for universities, or better for networks of universities, higher education institutes, and their partners.

5. References

[1] EU Commission, DG Education and Training, 2006. http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lll/life/ what_islll_en.html [05/04/2008]

[2] Van Petegem W., Karaimo A.-K., Using and choosing new educational technologies. In: Boonen A., Van Petegem W., editors. European Networking and Learning for the Future. The EuroPACE approach; 2007; Garant Publishers (Antwerp, Belgium); 2007. p. 95-101.

[3] EADTU, European Association of Distance Teaching Universities, homepage. http://www.eadtu.nl/ [05/06/2008]

[4] Growing through lifelong learning. A profile of Open Universiteit Nederland in 2006. http://www.ou.nl/Docs/English/Corporate_brochure_2006_UK_def.pdf [05/06/2008]

[5] Reviewing (traces of) European Virtual Campuses. Re.ViCa project website http://www.europace.org/rdrevica.php [05/06/2008]

30
