Eduserv Symposium 8th May 2008

I am attending the symposium today in London and I’m writing this as the train bumps and meanders its way down the track. Apologies for any typos along the way.

The title of today’s event is:

Inside Out: What do current Web trends tell us about the future of ICT provision for learners and researchers?

The programme and list of speakers looks interesting. I’ll post my thoghts in here after I’ve attended the event…..probably on the return train journey.

I’m particularly interested in what Gráinne Conole (OU) has to say about Web 2.0 V Institutional systems.

Here is the link to the Symposium information. Link to the programme and speakers.

UPDATE: I found this event very useful and interesting from a technological perspective:
A. The first speaker was Larry Johnson who talked about The Horizon Project. This is a project that looks at emerging technologies and applying their uses to learning and teaching. From this project the Horizon Report is produced on an annual basis. The current report from 2008 (which covers developments in 2007) outlines six main development areas:

1. Grassroots Video - Anyone can create, edit and share short video clips. Emmergence of YouTube, Video Jug and other similar channels. Main reasons for their use, inexpensive, ease of use and intuative to access.
2. Collaboration Webs - For example, wikis of all types, Google docs. Similar to point 1 easy to use and inexpensive to set up. Educationally used in a variety of ways, especially useful at a global level to collaborate across different time zones. Use a browser to access them and many API’s open source or free at use.
3. Mobile Broadband - Rapidly developing area. Mobiles are becoming the most cost effective way of staying networked on the move. Technology is evolving and developing at a rate of knots. The must have device at the moment is the Apple iPhone. In fact anything you come across tends to be fashionably marketed and prefixed with an “i” , IMO.
4. Data Mashups - Customised applications are created from one or more other applications. Typically many use Google maps, but it can be a combination of several different types of data. One of my favourites I visit regularly is a mash-up between Google Maps and the UK Land Registry Database, http://www.houseprices.co.uk
5. Collective Intelligence - As the name suggests, knowledge gained from groups of people. I’ve also heard this referred to as the “wisdow of crowds”. I’ve been recommended a book by the same title but haven’t read it yet! Intelligence gathered by repetitive actions, movements and recommendations.
6. Social Operating Systems - Bottom up (Community) evolving systems that are created around people rather than content. Examples, Elgg, Facebook, bebo, Myspace…

B. Bobbie Johnson (journalist) - How Web 2.0 has changed things at The Guardian  and Jeremy Stone BBC.

These two presentations were very interesting, in part because they are such “large players” in the media world, especially within the UK. Bobbie’s presentation was a historical look at where The Guardian was founded, what it’s principles are and how in essence those principles are still the same. It is now a digital media corporation that sells a few newspapers but reaches far more via the web.
Jeremy Stone talked about some of the tensions at the BBC and what they’ve learnt over the years from being a broadcaster. He talked about the BBC blogs, iPlayer and the “new” iGoogle look to the home page. At the BBC always a trade -off between the public funded licensing arrangement and open acces for all to, for example, web content. Some i,mage links used in his talk:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrlerone/2298188525
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ester68/920395176

C.Geoffrey Bilder talked about trust metrics and the web. A very engaging presenter, gsoh and I feel this area will gather greater importance in the coming months and years. Here is a link to his blog. He talke about the ability to trust what you read on the web. How credible is it? How can you verify it? You’ll trust something based upon a reccomendation from a friend/colleague but beyond that it is guess work? Should a standard be devised for the web?….almost like a kitemark or BS/EU/ISO quality mark. Some good ideas from him.

D. Chris Adietalked about managing the risks of web 2.0 for HEIs. He works at Edinburgh Uni and has devised a set of guidelines for Universities to follow or adopt. A lot of them seem common sense to me….but as the saying goes “it aint that common”! Ba - bum!

E. David Harrison is Assistant Director of Information Services at Cardiff University and holds several other posts including being the chair of UCISA.

Here are some of his thoughts about the event: Just thoughts… Cardiff is undertaking a radical re-think about how it delivers and uses it’s teaching and learning environment. The acronym this all fits under is the MWE (Modern Working Environment). The diagram used to depict this looks quite frightening at first….this is a huge task for any institution of this size to undertake. Good luck to them in doing this….one step-at-a-time.

F. Gráinne Conole was the last to present at the Symposium. She is  Professor of E-Learning in the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University in the UK. The slides from her presentation can be viewed on slideshare. Useful to see the emphasis on the reasons-for and what we would like to doin teaching and learning, rather than the features VLEs and other technology can offer. Useful matrix produced for individuals and institutions:

A very informative talk. Gráinne has plenty of data sets to work with at the OU and it is interesting to see how they approach the evaluation of the proliferation of web 2.0 tools. A shame she wasn’t given longer to present and field questions. BTW she has posted a comment on this blog, which was heartening for me to read….and she has a sense of humour….which is always a good trait in my book!