One of the favoured topics of all eLearning people is debating the future of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). The general consensus amongst those who particularly enjoy this topic is that the learning paradigm is changing to a social networking model rather than the current controlled content model as typified by Blackboard.
My thinking on this topic changes regularly, particularly in light of this most recent post on The Future of Learning: LMS or SNS by George Siemens [for those not up on the lingo these are "Learning Management Systems" aka a VLE eg Blackboard vs a Social Networking System eg Facebook or Elgg]
At the University of Brighton we can feel this change coming, so we run Elgg alongside Blackboard. The Elgg service is branded as Community@Brighton and available directly or through a tab in Blackboard. Instructors on Blackboard courses can link through to an Elgg community to provide the range of social tools within the framework of their Blackboard course - you can read more about the way we do things at Brighton in this background post.
Whenever I start thinking about the future I like to think about how all of this will be received by mature nursing students who can be slightly terrified of IT and their tutors who want to make things as easy for them as possible. Forget the 18 year old IT stduents, they'll be fine. At the moment, however, Blackboard is exactly the right solution for our nurses I believe. Everything is clearly structured, they go in, take what they want, contribute nothing. Elgg is still slightly terrifying for them and their tutors.
But Facebook somehow isn't terrifying. There's all those impressive stats about middle-aged mums spending hours on facebook playing complicated games. I guess this applies to my IT-phobic mature nurses too. If thats the case, maybe I shouldn't worry, maybe social will work for everyone.
I'm still not clear what role the tutors have to play in the social model. Do they help guide students through the rich mass of shared resources, or can that happen through user constructed routes without them? Is the tutor just another member, but one with a slightly louder voice who sets assignements from time to time? I think I'll go and ask George what he thinks...
2 comments:
Very interesting perspecitve. As somone who has studied, trained and worked commercially using VLE's there has been some resistence to the use of SNS for e-learning based on their perception as non-professional tools. My thoughts have been that this shift was coming; the popularity and prevelance of apps as simple as Twitter are case in point; on a bus into work recently I overheard a young lady I assumed to be a University student saying to her friend that their 9am lecture was moved - the lecturer had seemingly posted the note on Twitter in conjunction with email.
My scepticism in all this would be whether SNS end up tweaking themself to manage structured content in a bid to become the new VLE's; one would hope not - they do still fulfill a purpose for those who want to logon and play complex games during the afternoon. Having toyed with most of the popular SNS and VLEs of the last five years, I can see a shift happening in the short to medium term whereby SNS become a more active part of e-learning across many disciplines.
A great article, thanks for posting.
Hi 3n1gm4 - thanks for commenting.
I know what you mean about concerns about trying to force structure onto a social platform.
Currently we're trying to layer social tools over a structured platform, I don't know if we're better off layering structure tools over a social platform. Maybe there's a compromise - a true social learning environment. I have yet to see it though!
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