Architecture of virtual spaces

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Architecture of virtual spaces the future of
VLEs

• Scott Wilson
• 04-10-2005

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Who am I?

• Assistant Director, CETIS
• http//www.cetis.ac.uk/members/scott
• Beklager, jeg snakker ikke norsk!

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What this talk is about

• Architecture of learning technologies - why this
  matters in LMS design
• Learning Management Systems and Personal Learning
  Environments
• Web 2.0
• Closed and Open Systems
• Control
• The future of e-learning vendors

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architecture

• The art and science of designing structures
• Aesthetics, structure, function
• Venustas, firmitas et utilitas

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E-learning architecture

• Designing structures in the virtual space for the
  functions of e-learning
• There is often an overlap - conscious or not -
  with a corresponding physical space
• Structures in this virtual space reify a model of
  e-learning

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E-Learning Models

• E-learning models emerge from knowledge of
  institutions
• The SCORM model emerges from an understanding of
  the military-industrial training institutions
• The LMS model emerges from an understanding of
  the public education institutions - schools and
  universities

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SCORM
From Slosser, S. (2001) "ADL and the Sharable
Content Object Reference Model." MERLOT 2001
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Origin of institutional models
Power-play
Norms and values
Missions
Invention
Informal Communications Network
Rumours
Fiefdoms
Personalities
Myths
Anxieties
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Divisions

• Structure in an e-learning system is based on the
  model
• The model may make assumptions about the proper
  division of activity
• For example, the model of courses, modules
  and semesters may be translated into virtual
  divisions

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Alexander on play 1

• Another favorite concept of the CIAM theorists
  and others is the separation of recreation from
  everything else. This has crystallized in our
  real cities in the form of playgrounds. The
  playground, asphalted and fenced in, is nothing
  but a pictorial acknowledgment of the fact that
  'play' exists as an isolated concept in our
  minds. It has nothing to do with the life of play
  itself. Few self-respecting children will even
  play in a playground.
• - Christopher Alexander, A City is not a Tree

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Alexander on play 2

• Play itself, the play that children practice,
  goes on somewhere different every day. One day it
  may be indoors, another day in a friendly gas
  station, another day down by the river, another
  day in a derelict building, another day on a
  construction site which has been abandoned for
  the weekend. Each of these play activities, and
  the objects it requires, forms a system. It is
  not true that these systems exist in isolation,
  cut off from the other systems of the city. The
  different systems overlap one another, and they
  overlap many other systems besides. The units,
  the physical places recognized as play places,
  must do the same

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Location

• The structural units of the system have to be
  located somehow in virtual space
• Location is almost as important in virtual space
  as it is in the physical world
• A common assumption of LMSs is that the location
  of units should follow the structural
  relationships within the model

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Location of units by structural relations

• Year 1
• Semester 1
• Module 1
• Module 2
• Semester 2
• Module 3
• Module 4
• Project 1
• Project 2

• Science Faculty
• Physics Dept
• Module 1
• Biology Dept
• Module 2
• Arts Faculty
• Anthropology Dept
• Module 3
• Fine Arts
• Module 4

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Why?

• Does a concert hall ask to be next to an opera
  house? Can the two feed on one another? Will
  anybody ever visit them both, gluttonously, in a
  single evening, or even buy tickets from one
  after going to a performance in the other? In
  Vienna, London, Paris, each of the performing
  arts has found its own place, because all are not
  mixed randomly. Each has created its own familiar
  section of the city. In Manhattan itself,
  Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera House
  were not built side by side. Each found its own
  place, and now creates its own atmosphere. The
  influence of each overlaps the parts of the city
  which have been made unique to it.The only reason
  that these functions have all been brought
  together in Lincoln Center is that the concept of
  performing art links them to one another.
• - Christopher Alexander, A City is not a Tree

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Closed vs. Open Systems

• We often talk of closed and open systems in
  e-learning these days
• Alexander talks of natural and artificial cities
• These have some similarities
• Artificial cities arent bad cities by
  definition, nor are closed systems necessarily
  bad systems

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Structure and Location

• In an open system, as in a natural city, units
  tend to be located close to one another for a
  variety of reasons, some of them idiosyncratic
  and accidental
• The connections between people and units overlaps
  in a way that cant be easily expressed within a
  closed system
• A closed system typically has less understanding
  of the role of external connections, and has
  difficulty with overlaps

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Connections are fundamental to the Internet

• The internet is very good at expressing
  connections via hyperlinks
• Links enable us to break out of tree structures
  and form semilattices of connections
• LMSs often attempt to stop this happening - why?

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Control anxieties

• LMSs typically present a model of the institution
  as expressed as a form of control
• The LMS actually tends to be more controlling
  than the physical environment of the institution
  (which tends to let students wander around campus
  however they like)
• The LMS is an opportunity to exercise control -
  this could be pedagogic, but is more typically
  exercised by IT administration

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Fear 1

• The adoption of an LMS might (cynically perhaps?)
  be regarded as having more to do with fear than
  desire
• Fear of the internet
• Fear of technology in the wild
• Fear of chaos and loss of control
• Fear of being left behind

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Fear 2

• The main point is computers and the internet are
  treated as strange dangerous animals that have to
  be carefully controlled or they will destroy
  students, schools and society.
• http//www.incsub.org/wpmu/bionicteacher/?p35

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Open Systems

• Open systems may be defined as simply systems
  that have greater awareness of, and less
  anxieties towards, the wider ecosystem within
  which they exist
• Open systems afford idiosyncratic semilattices of
  connections to spring up between all kinds of
  units
• Open systems dont fear chaos, and manage overlaps

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Personal learning environments

• A PLE is a type of e-learning system that is
  structured on a model of e-learning itself rather
  than a model of the institution
• PLEs are concerned with the coordination of the
  connections made by the learner with units and
  agents across a wide range of systems
• PLEs are envisaged primarily as open systems

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LMS vs PLE

• In an LMS, the architecture of virtual space is
  derived from the model of the institution
• Functions are institutional functions
• Divisions are institutional categories
• In a PLE, the architecture of virtual space is a
  web of connections centred on the learner
• Functions are learner tasks
• Divisions are a mix of learner-created and
  acquired categorisations

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PLE Reference Model Project

• Identify patterns that emerge from systems of
  personal learning(e.g. Email, chat,
  aggregators, media tools, social networking,
  groupware)
• Relate these patterns to a web 2.0/SOA technology
  model

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Technology Web 2.0

• Web as ecosystem
• Small pieces loosely joined
• Emergent behavior from connections
• Stable linking reduces the need of co-location
  for stability
• Web as conversation
• Read/write web
• Blogging
• Content is continuously created, remixed, and
  rediscovered

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Content eLearning 1.0
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Content eLearning 2.0
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The Web 2.0 Checklist

• Structured Microcontent
• Data outside
• Licenses
• Feeds galore
• Web APIs

• Desktop integration
• Single identity
• Microweb
• Wild microcontent

http//www.sivas.com/aleene/microcontent/index.php
?idP2205
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Social networks and community

• Social networks have taken to the Internet
• Community is a fluid concept, and doesnt always
  sit well with institutional ideas of community
• Wenger Negotiation of mutual relevance
• LMS vs PLE approaches

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Control

• Chaos and freedom are all very well
• but we have responsibilities too
• Unfortunately, these have been so far expressed
  in a very simplistic fashion which creates
  alienation
• We need a more sophisticated set of models for
  providing guidance and protection

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What could be controlled?

• Connections?
• Motivation?
• Transparency/visibility?
• Conversations?
• Content?
• Publishing?

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Exercising responsible control

• Control should be flexible, negotiated,
  personalized - not simply imposed
• Institutions have found the control provided by
  the LMS more of a burden than a joy
• In any case, learners can simply find ways around
  it, and form their own connections

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The future for e-learning systems

• Web 2.o favours open systems, not closed ones
• Long-term, the web is moving faster than
  e-learning, and will simply render some kinds of
  e-learning systems irrelevant

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Future 2

• The value of e-learning systems is increasingly
  going to be in their ability to form and manage
  as diverse a set of connections as possible and
  to handle overlapping concerns - especially as
  e-portfolios begin reshape the landscape
• This means the learning aspects of an LMS may
  shift away from the institution as the locus of
  concern

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Future 3

• An LMS typically doesnt interact with Flickr,
  Google Maps, Amazon, WikiPedia, Yahoo, 43,
  Plazes, GTalk, LiveJournal etc.
• This immediately limits their potential value,
  and the value of the content stored in them
• Increasingly, this type of added value will be
  expected of e-learning systems

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The future for vendors

• Web 2.0 favors providers of services, and of
  personal tools, rather than enterprise solutions
• Potential market for PLE-type software (and
  e-portfolio tools), but typically this is of the
  small, cheap-or-free variety requiring large
  numbers of units sold
• Potential markets for value-add web services such
  as Flickr, but business models are a problem
• Increasingly, open systems are open source too
• Need for training, consultancy, support are
  ongoing - but increasingly product-agnostic in
  nature

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The future for vendors 2

• The commercial LMS is not going to remain in its
  current form - it will need to change to survive
• Open source software has achieved competitive
  capability in stability, quality, and support
• LMSs in the future may also have to choose
  whether to compete with - or cooperate with -
  PLEs
• There is also a conversation about what exactly
  public education institutions ought to be
  providing - should they provide e-learning
  systems, or just provide basic wi-fi network
  access and expect students to have their own
  systems?

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The future for vendors 3

• A solution for institutions that helps them
  leverage Web 2.0 services (e.g. content
  enrichment), support communities of practice
  within and without the organisation, and provide
  coordination and support PLE-type systems for
  learners may find a niche
• In the short-term, there may be markets for tools
  integrated into the LMS. It may be the case that
  the LMS market post-Sakai/Moodle starts to
  resemble the Java IDE market post-Eclipse
• There will be a demand (by publishers) for
  DRM-enabled LMSs, until consumers actually start
  interacting with them. Beware the backlash!

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Thanks!

• s.wilson_at_bangor.ac.uk
• http//www.cetis.ac.uk/members/scott