Informal learning in the workplace:

Opportunities for educators

Keynote CELebrate16, Bournemouth University

John Cook, CMIR, UWE Bristol

John2.Cook@uwe.ac.uk

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Structure

1. Introduction

2. Zone of Possibility (ZoP)

3. ZoP app

4. Confer

5. Questions & Discussion

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1. Introduction

• A recent PEW publication (PEW, 2014) drew on expert

predictions to report on the impact of the Internet over

the next 10 years; one pessimistic claim:

– “Our educational system is not adequately preparing us for work

of the future, and our political and economic institutions are

poorly equipped to handle these hard choices”.

– http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/08/06/future-of-jobs/

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35968423

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http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/16/meet-your-new-boss-mr-algorithm/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b075pm43

• Issues: social side / reputation / power dynamic between

worker and platform / cogs in the algorithmic machine …

• One small response is our development social web

technologies to mediate – Readiness for digitally mediated work-based practice

– Use of entrepreneurship and culture in city regeneration

– In what we term the Zone of Possibility (ZoP)

• Tools

– Confer

– ZoP app

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• Work coming out of the EC funded Learning Layers

project (http://learning-layers.eu/)

• Worked with the Health sector in UK & Construction in

Germany

• NEW: Creative Industries and HE in Bristol

• Co-designing Open Source hybrid realities in a Zone of

Possibility (ZoP)

• Design and Research Challenge: – In the context of socio-technical environments, how can the design

process and design thinking advance or bridge our social capital?

• For more details http://goo.gl/AX3vsR

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2. Zone of Possibility – our concept

of informal learning

• Helping citizens participate with each other in groups (a Zone) calls

for orchestrating social supports (via navigation and bridging aids)

so that citizens can benefit from the ideas of others (Possibility).

• The generic ZoP app allows you set up a Digital Public Space using

Android devices

• Users can record video clips, annotate points of interest at a specific

time and location in a frame, share and discuss

• In this way interesting findings and events at work or in a community

project can become the focus of situated conversations

• The ZoP app allows users and groups to operate in what we call a

Zone of Possibility or ZoP

• Co-design peer-to-peer tools that engage with a wide range of

challenges from social regeneration, to work place problem solving,

heritage and culture, smart cities and urban data

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• Zone of Possibility

• Social enterprise

• Co-designing Open Source hybrid realities

• Developing readiness for digitally mediated

work-based practice

• Use of entrepreneurship and culture in city

regeneration

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zop.space

Social Enterprise

http://tinyurl.com/z48dxjv

• Stubborn, not a people person (hence his OS

management system is called Git)

• "I am not a visionary. I do not have a five-year plan. I'm

an engineer."

• Likes good taste in code

• Gave us Linux, Git and some of code on Androids

• ... if you like Open Source worth a watch

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Linus Torvalds

http://tinyurl.com/h8xl2ve

3. ZoP app

The ZoP app is currently Andriod based, features

• Capture video

• Play video

• Annotations at key moments in video

• See video details

• Tag video i.e. genre selection

• Upload video to Cloud

• Share video with group

• Discuss video and annotations with group

• Achrails back end web server, soon to be hosted UWE

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ZoP app

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Generic Zone of Possibility (ZoP) app

Based on Ach So! app,

developed for the

Construction Industry by

Aalto Univerity

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ZoP app being

used to develop

Cinefest app with

Sarah Sparke

ZoP Cinefest

Developing readiness for digitally mediated work-based practice

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ZoP Stokes Croft

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Use of entrepreneurship and culture in city regeneration

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4. Confer

• Online tool that supports working groups

– Maintains focus and flow of work

– Structuring the task

– Supporting discussion

– Aiding consensus

• Co-design work in the Health Sector in the

NE of England

– Used to support group work for professionals

working in different locations 18

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• Supports working groups that may have been

set up to devise a way of dealing with a new

problem that may have arisen

• Practice-demand driven

– Providing bridging between face to face meetings

through ‘scaffolded support’ to keep tasks on focus

and moving forward

– Offering easy, early engagement in collaborative work

• Opportunities for educators to harness the tools

and use in their own contexts?

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5. Q&A / Discussion:

Potential for collaborations?

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