1. CALRG 2012 Conference, Open U., June 2012
EnquiryBlogger:
Blog-based Learning Analytics for
Learning Power & Authentic Enquiry
Simon Buckingham Shum & Rebecca Ferguson
Knowledge Media Institute & Institute of Educational Technology,
The Open University, UK
Ruth Deakin Crick
Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol, UK
http://LearningEmergence.net/tools/enquiryblogger
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3. The story in 1 slide…
Education is not equipping citizens for a complex, uncertain world
Learning Dispositions: the appetite and capacity to learn at any
opportunity is vital
This can be assessed as a construct called “Learning Power” (LP)
An analytics platform hosts a web survey to build LP profiles, pools
data, generates real time analytics
An “Authentic Enquiry” (AE) methodology harnesses
personal curiosity/passion/values for self-directed enquiry
Blogging can support reflective personal and social learning
EnquiryBlogger Wordpress plugins add LP+AE visual analytics
Piloted at primary, secondary + tertiary levels
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5. It is time to hold up our hands and admit that
our education system just isn t working well
enough.
Our emphasis needs not to be on proving the
residual value of outdated curricula, tests
and league tables, but on inspiring and
challenging children so that they in turn can
inspire and challenge us.
Lord David Puttnam
Chancellor, Open University
Introduction to the Learning Futures Programme
www.learningfutures.org
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6. …adults and children alike see their worlds
as complex, changing, uncertain and
ambiguous, and are likely to get more, not
less, so.
The obvious question, then, is: what are the
epistemic mentalities and identities that will
enable people to thrive in such a world?
What do good learners do? What do they
enjoy? How do they react when the going
gets tough?
Claxton & Lucas, 2009 UK National Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning
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7. We worry about disengaged low achievers...
but we need to worry about the high achievers too...
Guy Claxton: Constant change is here to stay: why schooling will always be about the future. UK ESRC Futures Meeting, May 2011. 7
http://www.slideshare.net/edfutures/guy-claxton-esrc-futures-may11
8. Educational system (secondary+tertiary) fails to
equip learners for employment
In one survey after another, business leaders complain that the
majority of U.S. job applicants are ill-equipped to solve complex
problems, work in teams, or communicate effectively.
Hewlett envisions a new generation of schools and community
colleges … harness the deeper learning skills of critical thinking,
problem solving, effective communication, collaboration, and
learning to learn to help students develop a strong foundation in
traditional academic subjects.
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Hewlett Foundation – Deeper Learning: http://www.hewlett.org/programs/education-program/deeper-learning
9. Educational system (secondary+tertiary) fails to
equip learners for employment
CBI's 2007 report: Time Well Spent: Embedding employability in work experience 9
http://www.employers-guide.org/media/20848/time_well_spent_cbi.pdf
10. Widening disconnect between what engages many young
people, and their experience of school
§ English Department for Education: 10% of students
reported that they “hate” school, with disproportionate
levels amongst less privileged learners
§ Canadian Education Association: intellectual
engagement falls during the middle school years and
remains at a low level throughout secondary school
§ US study across 27 states:
49% students felt bored every day, 17% in every class
Gilby, N., Hamlyn, B., Hanson, T., Romanou, E., Mackey, T., Clark, J., Trikka, N. and Harrison, M. National Survey of Parents and
Children: Family Life, Aspirations and Engagement with Learning in 2008. UK Dept. Children, Schools & Families, London, 2008.
Willms, J. D., Friesen, S. and Milton, P. What did you do in school today? Transforming classrooms through social, academic, and
intellectual engagement. First National Report, Canadian Education Association, Toronto, 2009.
Yazzie-Mintz, E. Charting the Path from Engagement to Achievement: A Report on the 2009 High School Survey of Student 10
Engagement. Center for Evaluation & Education Policy, Indiana University, 2009.
11. To thrive and innovate in a complex world, we
need personal passion and lifelong learning
The Power of Pull
John Hagel III
John Seely Brown
Lang Davison
Summary article in Harvard Business Review blog: 11
http://blogs.hbr.org/bigshift/2010/04/a-brief-history-of-the-power-o.html
13. Dispositions to learn
“Knowledge of methods alone
will not suffice: there must be
the desire, the will, to employ
them. This desire is an affair
of personal disposition.”
John Dewey
Dewey, J. How We Think: A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to the
Educative Process. Heath and Co, Boston, 1933
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14. Dispositions to learn
“In the fixed mindset, people
believe that their talents and
abilities are fixed traits. They
become over-concerned with
proving their talents and
abilities, hiding deficiencies,
and reacting defensively to
mistakes or setbacks.”
Carol Dweck
Interview with Carol Dweck: 14
http://interviewscoertvisser.blogspot.co.uk/2007/11/interview-with-carol-dweck_4897.html
15. Dispositions to learn
“In the growth mindset, people
believe that their talents and
abilities can be developed
through passion, education,
and persistence … It’s about a
commitment to … taking
informed risks … surrounding
yourself with people who will
challenge you to grow”
Carol Dweck
Interview with Carol Dweck: 15
http://interviewscoertvisser.blogspot.co.uk/2007/11/interview-with-carol-dweck_4897.html
16. What do we mean by “disposition”?
§ a relatively enduring tendency to behave in a certain
way
§ but there are varying conceptions as to how fixed or
malleable dispositions are
Our focus is on malleable dispositions
that are important for developing
intentional learners, and which,
critically, learners can recognise and
develop in themselves
Deakin Crick R. (2011) Student Engagement: Identity, Learning Power and Enquiry - A Complex Systems Approach. In: 16
Christenson S, Reschly A and Wylie C (eds) The Handbook of Research on Student Engagement New York: Springer
17. What are these dispositions that
equip you for lifelong learning?
And how would we measure
these in order generate a
“dispositional profile”?
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18. Live crowdsourcing…
Think about the most effective learners
you’ve met/mentored/taught
Not necessarily the highest grade scorers,
but the ones who had a desire to learn
What qualities/dispositions/energy did they bring?
Tweet some key words/
phrases now on #calrg12
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20. ELLI: Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory
See the paper for examples of questions loading onto each dimension of Learning Power
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21. Learning to Learn: 7 Dimensions of Learning Power
Being Stuck & Static Changing & Learning
Data Accumulation Meaning Making
Passivity Critical Curiosity
Being Rule Bound Creativity
Isolation & Dependence Learning Relationships
Being Robotic Strategic Awareness
Fragility & Dependence Resilience
22. ELLI: Changing & Learning
§ Effective learners know that learning itself is learnable.
They believe that, through effort, their minds can get
bigger and stronger, just as their bodies can and they
have energy to learn.
§ Opposite pole: ‘being stuck and static’
§ Example ELLI items:
§ I expect to go on learning for a long time.
§ I like to be able to improve the way I do things.
§ I’m continually improving as a learner.
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23. ELLI: Meaning Making
§ Effective learners are on the lookout for links between
what they are learning and what they already know.
They like to learn about what matters to them.
§ Opposite pole: ‘data accumulation’
§ Example ELLI items:
§ I like to learn about things that really matter to me.
§ I like it when I can make connections between new
things I am learning and things I already know.
§ I like learning new things when I can see how they make
sense for me in my life
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24. ELLI: Critical Curiosity
§ Effective learners have energy and a desire to find
things out. They like to get below the surface of things
and try to find out what is going on.
§ Opposite pole: ‘passivity’
§ Example ELLI items:
§ I don’t like to accept an answer till I have worked it out
for myself.
§ I like to question the things I am learning.
§ Getting to the bottom of things is more important to me
than getting a good mark.
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25. ELLI: Creativity
§ Effective learners are able to look at things in different
ways and to imagine new possibilities. They are more
receptive to hunches and inklings that bubble up into
their minds, and make more use of imagination, visual
imagery and pictures and diagrams in their learning.
§ Opposite pole: ‘being rule bound’
§ Example ELLI items:
§ I get my best ideas when I just let my mind float free.
§ If I wait quietly, good ideas sometimes just come to me.
§ I like to try out new learning in different ways.
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26. ELLI: Learning Relationships
§ Effective learners are good at managing the balance
between being sociable and being private in their
learning. They are not completely independent, nor are
they dependent; rather they work interdependently.
§ Opposite pole: ‘isolation and dependence’
§ Example ELLI items:
§ I like working on problems with other people.
§ I prefer to solve problems on my own.
§ There is at least one person in my community who is an
important guide for me in my learning.
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27. ELLI: Strategic Awareness
§ More effective learners know more about their own
learning. They are interested in becoming more
knowledgeable and more aware of themselves as
learners. They like trying out different approaches to
learning to see what happens. They are more reflective
and better at self-evaluation.
§ Opposite pole: ‘being robotic’.
§ Example ELLI items:
§ If I get stuck with a learning task I can usually think of
something to do to get round the problem.
§ If I do get upset when I’m learning, I’m quite good at
making myself feel better.
§ I often change the way I do things as a result of what I
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have learned.
28. ELLI: Resilience
§ Dependent and fragile learners more easily go to
pieces when they get stuck or make mistakes. They
are risk averse. Their ability to persevere is less, and
they are likely to seek and prefer less challenging
situations.
§ Opposite pole: ‘fragility and dependence’
§ Example ELLI items:
§ When I have trouble learning something, I tend to get
upset.
§ When I have to struggle to learn something, I think it’s
probably because I’m not very bright.
§ When I’m stuck I don’t usually know what to do about it.
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29. Immediate feedback enabling timely reflection and
interventions, via a mentored discussion
ELLI profile showing pre/post change
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31. Authentic
Enquiry
Energise learning by connecting it to
personal curiosity/values/passion
An approach to personalising the curriculum
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32. Where does Learning Power fit pedagogically in
the journey from Personal Self, to Publicly
certified, competent learner?
Self Competent
Agent
Personal
Identity qualities Competent
Desire Skills learner
Motivation Dispositions Knowledge Citizen
Attitudes Understanding Mathematician
Values Artisan
etc
Personal Public
34. In detail…
Pedagogical challenges for
personalisation:
Integrating the personal with the public
through context-driven enquiry.
Special Issue (Editor: Ruth Deakin Crick),
Curriculum Journal, 2009, 20 (3), 185-306
http://bit.ly/CJissue
35. Authentic Enquiry:
example of how the questions get ‘bigger’, starting from the focal object
15 yr old ‘NEET’ girl Violent young offender
Focus: Cheddar Gorge Focus: My Dog
§ What will be there in 15 years? § My dog and why he means a
§ What was there before? lot to me
§ How many people have been § Why do animals end up in
there? shelters?
§ How was the gorge made? § Why do they lock people up?
§ Have any famous people been § Does locking people up make
there? a difference?
§ What kind of people used to § How have they got the power
be there? to lock people up?
§ Why do relationships matter? § What are their rights?
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39. Blogging for learning
(from the project proposal)
Blogs offer learners opportunities to incorporate many
perspectives, develop carefully crafted contributions,
reflect and make considered responses to others
(Ferguson et al., 2007). This medium provides an environment in
which people can observe, articulate and refine practices
(Efimova et al., 2004).
At the same time, by making use of the comment facility, bloggers
are able to share thoughts, ideas and opinions (Du and
Wagner, 2005). In order for students to engage effectively with this
emerging genre, they need to be able to experiment and take
ownership of their writing, learning to develop a blog as a
space for personal learning, reflection and interaction
(Bryman and Burgess, 1994).
41. Composing and categorising a blog post
Categories relating to
authentic enquiry, which
are visualized by the
plugins
Standard blog editor,
including option to
embed multimedia
58. Primary School EnquiryBloggers
Bushfield School, Milton Keynes
“I find it helpful to blog. You get to tell everyone what
you’re feeling, what you’ve been doing. They get a picture
of what you’re doing. They might have a link to include.”
“I think it actually really helps because you need to
look back - could I have used that ELLI dimension,
could I have used that one? So it sort of helps you
think about what ELLI dimensions you could use in
the next day, so it’s almost like revising every day,
and it makes you think about which ones you have
used and how you've used them.”
“I like blogging. It gets all the hard work out of my head
and then I just go home and relax.”
60. Summary and future work
(there’s at least 1 PhD in this!)
Summary of pilot observations
§ All Yr6 pupils were able to conduct Authentic Enquiries but
required significant mentor input: to be sustainable we could
reduce cohorts with longer projects
§ All of the Yr6 pupils interviewed (N=5) gave positive reasons for
keeping blogging in future projects
§ More able Yr6 pupils were able to use the ELLI and Authentic
Enquiry categories, but more time needed to introduce them
Future work
§ School could introduce reflective writing for learning as a genre
§ We need a more gradual process for introducing blogging (eg. Yr5)
§ We need to do detailed analysis of the blogs, coupled with learner
and educator interviews
§ We need to explore assessment criteria for authentic enquiries:
process + product / personal—public continuum
61. To join the global community…
LearningEmergence.net
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62. Ferguson, R., Buckingham Shum, S. and Deakin Crick, R. (2011). EnquiryBlogger: using widgets to support awareness and reflection in a
PLE Setting. 1st Workshop on Awareness and Reflection in Personal Learning Environments. PLE Conference 2011, 11-13 July, Southampton,
UK. Eprint: http://oro.open.ac.uk/30598
Ferguson, R. and Buckingham Shum, S. (2012). Social Learning Analytics: Five Approaches. Proc. 2nd Int. Conf. Learning Analytics &
Knowledge, (29 Apr-2 May, Vancouver, BC). ACM Press: New York. Eprint: http://oro.open.ac.uk/32910
Buckingham Shum, S. and Deakin Crick, R. (2012). Learning Dispositions and Transferable Competencies: Pedagogy, Modelling and
Learning Analytics. Proc. 2nd Int. Conf. Learning Analytics & Knowledge. (29 Apr-2 May, 2012, Vancouver, BC). ACM Press: New York.
Eprint: http://oro.open.ac.uk/32823
http://LearningEmergence.net/tools/enquiryblogger