James Cross

Social learning, online video and disruptive innovation

This is one of my favourite TED talks. Mark Pagel discusses how social learning, and the language skills that enable it, are responsible for all human achievement - from our rapid expansion across the planet, to the iPhones and iPads that we carry. It's our ability as a species to learn from each other, and to adapt and improve upon the ideas of others that sets us apart from other species - and he briefly touches on how the internet is starting to add fuel to the social learning fire.

One of the learning technologies that I'm most excited by is online video, and I'm convinced that our new-found ability to quickly share video (as broadband speeds grow and online video tools evolve) will lead to a tipping point in online learning. 

Of course, learning online has been possible since the internet was in its infancy - but up until now, it's been almost entirely a text-based affair. Now, I'm not decrying the power of text as a learning tool - it's always going to be a key part of our sharing and retention of knowledge. But for most of us, learning is a visual thing. It's also a human process, and we've adapted to learn best by watching other people do stuff, and imitating it.

Asking students to learn a concept by copying out of a textbook is considered to be 'bad teaching', and explaining a concept in an engaging and interactive way is considered to be 'good teaching' - and it's the human element of the latter that makes the difference.

From YouTube to the Khan Academy, we're starting to see great examples of people sharing their knowledge using online video. If I want to learn to play the piano, I can jump onto YouTube and pick from the 100,000+ videos that 'normal' users have uploaded. If I want to grasp the concept of multiple dimensions, this video explaining it through animation does the job very nicely.

As this network of user-generated knowledge, and the ability of everyday users to personally contribute to it grows, it'll be interesting to see if Clayton Christenson's model of disruptive innovation will play out - with on demand, student centric learning slowly creeping up on, and taking traditional education systems by surprise.

Online learning in many schools at the moment resembles the text-based internet of the past, with a few token Powerpoint files and Word documents uploaded after lessons. We often hear the phrase 'back to basics' in education, and that's exactly what schools need to start doing with their online provision - going back to the 'basics' of humans showing humans how to do stuff. And online video, at the moment, is the best way of them achieving that.

What do Musical Futures and the Atkins Diet have in common? How ideas spread.

Chances are, you've heard of the Atkins diet. 

And if you're involved in education in the UK, you're probably also aware of Musical Futures, an approach to music education that's now in over half of Britain's music classrooms.

They're two ideas that very quickly spread far and wide. This wasn't down to savvy social media marketing, and it wasn't down to intensive advertising. The reason that these two ideas spread so effectively is because they're what Seth Godin would call 'virus worthy'. Seth argues that ideas can be engineered to spread quickly through word of mouth - and that's exactly what happened with these two approaches.

They both had a 'sticky' initial phase that gained attention.

Musical Futures starts with a phase called 'In at the Deep End', where students form groups, are given space, and are asked to prepare a cover version of any song they choose. Ask somebody about Musical Futures, and this is the part they'll probably remember.

Atkins starts with a severely restrictive phase, during which fatty foods are encouraged. Ask somebody about Atkins, and this is the part they'll probably remember.

Now, both ideas have far more to them than just this initial phase. Musical Futures is a diverse collection of approaches and ideas, and there are a number of phases that follow 'In at the Deep End' - and the Atkins diet is only so restrictive for a small amount of time. But in both cases, it's still this initial phase that caused their ideas to spread. Why these phases, and not any of the others?

These initial phases both went against conventional wisdom.

Classroom music, by conventional wisdom, should be highly structured and teacher-led.

Weight loss, by conventional wisdom, should be done through a low fat diet.

The initial phases of these two approaches turn conventional wisdom on its head, and that's why they're so sticky. They're a talking point in themselves - they encourage people to discuss the approach, and to have an opinion. People will disagree, and people will be polarised - but that's where their power lies.

Crucially, these initial phases weren't artificially added as shock tactics to aid publicity - in both cases they're true to, and are a distillation of the entire approach.

But having heard of an idea isn't they key - it's the 'conversion' of those who've heard the idea to those who actively apply it that matters. How did these ideas 'convert' so well?

The core ideas were freely available and easily understood

Musical Futures is a non-profit organisation, and Atkins is a commercial one - but they both followed the same path. Want to try Musical Futures in the classroom? Go and download the PDF book and watch the videos. Want to try Atkins? The entire plan is on their website, for free. Both offer their main idea as easily digestable chunks that can be quickly understood.

What can we learn from this?

I'm really interested in the way that ideas spread in education. Musical Futures stands up as a great example of how a great idea, that has the power to enrich the creative lives of millions of students, can spread so quickly and so cheaply (the whole project was undertaken with surprisingly little funding and staff hours).

I'm especially interested in what we can learn from educational ideas that have spread effectively under their own steam, and how this can be applied to other worthy ideas - especially at a time of immense change and pressure in schools. As well as looking at successful educational ideas, we also need to look at great examples from outside the education world.

There was another set of materials that were released around the same time that Musical Futures started to gain traction - the snappily titled Secondary National Strategy for Music. Although it was produced by a Government body and had lots of authority, funding and man-hours behind it, the lasting impact it had in classrooms was dwarfed by Musical Futures. I'm going to blog soon with a comparison of these two approaches.

 

We Are The People We've Been Waiting For - full video

At at time when the UK is doing a lot of soul-searching, it seems a good time to post this video again. Following the lives of a cross section of young people, this film is a powerful reminder of the incredibly important role of education in shaping young lives. The introduction alone is well worth watching.

"The world is facing huge challenges, and they're growing daily in severity, in scale and in complexity.

It's no exaggeration to say that they're not going to go away - indeed, they will get worse, unless we can start to find solutions, and find them soon.

If we're going to survive, we desperately need the next generation to be smarter, more adaptable, and better prepared than any that have gone before."

Teachers and hackers

A while ago, I stumbled across David Hargreaves' article for the Demos think-tank, in which he argued that teachers need to be more like hackers. On the surface, there's a huge difference between the work that teachers and hackers do - but Hargreaves argued that there's much that teachers can learn from the way that hackers operate.

Hackers are hyper-connected. Innovation and knowledge spreads quickly - they quickly share what they've tried, what worked, and what didn't (as an example of this speed, many software bugs are exploited with incredible speed). There's also a huge amount of professional pride and peer-granted kudos that helps to fuel their contributions.

Hargreaves wrote about this idea in 2003, when user generated content and collaboration weren't a huge feature of the internet. Eight years later, we're actually fairly close to the model he envisaged, thanks to tools such as Twitter, blogs, and informal idea sharing and networking sessions such as TeachMeets that have arisen from these networks.

Some features of these educator networks that are similar to the hacker world: they're completely de-centralised and independent, with no encouragement from third parties (in teachers' case, government and other bodies). It's fuelled purely by teachers' love for sharing ideas and connecting with each other, along with peer gratitude and relationships. - Ideas are being shared quickly by teachers, and they're also being built upon and re-shared as adapted iterations by other educators. - Thanks to these networks and shared ethos, the way that many teachers approach their professional development and learning has changed. For these teachers, CPD is no longer a single school training day per term. It's now ambient. It's always-on, it's constantly evolving, and it's two-way.

Link to David Hargreaves' full article (the 'hackers' section is from page 53)

Now *this* is personalised learning.

 

This is Sal Khan, who founded the site khanacademy.org. Khan Academy is an organisation which aims to teach the world for free - through high quality videos on YouTube. It's disruptive, it's effective, and we're going to be seeing a whole lot more of this style of learning in the future.

There are now tools and networks in place which allow people to share, teach, and learn from each other - and they're starting to realise the potential and joy that this brings. Personalised learning and differentiation, in many schools, simply means the teacher making a few extra worksheets and putting some largely meaningless differentiated learning outcomes on the board. This kind of online teaching and learning on the other hand, allows students to choose their teacher, the pace at which they progress, and the order in which they learn material. It is truly personalised in every sense of the word.

Of course, real-life relationships will always be at the heart of education. But we need to start thinking about how we can blend these new types of teaching and learning with them, based upon what works best for the different parts of the learning process. Of course, online learning really comes into its own for students who aren't in mainstream education - and as a disruptive innovation, this is where its growth is likely to begin.

Doing nothing vs doing something

At the moment, I'm reading Clay Shirky's new book

'Cognitive Surplus'. The main idea of the book is that the internet is enabling people to use their free time in ever more creative and valuable ways, by allowing them to connect, share and participate more easily. He gives two examples at different ends of the 'value' scale - LOLCATS and Ushahidi.

LOLCATS allows people to make, share and view funny pictures of cats with captions. Ushahidi is a platform which allows for citizens to pool information during crises. Two platforms, completely different aims and values, but one thing in common - they allow anybody to quickly and easily participate. This allows people to jump the chasm of 'doing nothing' vs 'doing something', which opens the floodgates to the massive amounts collaboration and participation we're starting to see across the web.

I came across an iPhone app the other night which made me think about Shirky's ideas. It's the 'Glee' app (based upon the TV show), and it allows users to record songs, sing duets, and share their creations with the world. It's slick, quick, and easy - there are no barriers. All you need to participate is a mobile phone. Sure, the quality of much of the stuff uploaded isn't great, but that doesn't matter at all. Through this app, there are millions of people making music, and sharing it. I'd bet that this isn't something many of these people have done before. And that's amazing.

My first Teachmeet, and the power of teachers sharing

I attended my first 'Teachmeet' last Friday night, and was blown away by the experience. Teachmeets are informal idea sharing sessions, where teachers get together and sign up to present either two or seven minute talks on things they've tried in the classroom. Aside from the inspirational presentations, a few things struck me about the teachers that were present. They had a DIY attitude to teaching and learning, they weren't afraid to try new things in the classroom and take risks, and they found great joy in sharing their ideas and learning from others. Most importantly, there was no doubt that all of this stemmed from a genuine care for the learning of the young people they worked with. No posturing, no plugging, just great ideas, shared enthusiastically - informal CPD at its very best. You can check out the whole night, in two parts, here and here. Thanks to Doncaster South CLC for providing the venue, and special thanks to @damoward for filming and @dughall for leading the evening. Here's my presentation from the night:

Closing up shop

The high street has been a casualty of both the recession, and shifts in the way that people spend their money. We lost Zavvi because more and more people are now buying their music and movies online. We lost Borders because Amazon undercut them on price and convenience. When 'better and cheaper' is available online, bricks and mortar stores feel the brunt of this. The ones that don't adapt to this new landscape disappear. The ones that reconstruct themselves to amplify what the online stores can't offer have a better chance of survival.

Skip forward a few years into the future. Students can construct their own curriculum online, from blocks of content - either user or professionally produced. They can make contact with, and gain skills informally from others, through sites like School of Everything. They have most of mankind's knowledge in their pocket - along with any other new learning tools that might have emerged.

Are they still going to be coming into a Victorian building at 8am with their blazers on and top buttons done up?

Are they still going to be keeping their mobiles out of sight, and regurgitating information for high-stakes exams?

Are 'Sir' and 'Miss' still going to be in charge of what, how and when they learn?

Borders wasn't books - it was a shop that distributed them, until a more effective method of distribution came along. Similarly, schools aren't learning - they're institutions that deliver it en-masse. What happens when more effective and student-centric ways of delivering learning come along? Unless they start to transform themselves now, they might well find themselves being made redundant.

Compliance is easy to teach

A great post from marketing guru Seth Godin's blog, that rings true more than ever in the run-up to the coursework/exam season... "Compliance is simple to measure, simple to test for and simple to teach. Punish non-compliance, reward obedience and repeat. Initiative is very difficult to teach to 28 students in a quiet classroom. It's difficult to brag about in a school board meeting. And it's a huge pain in the neck to do reliably. Schools like teaching compliance. They're pretty good at it. To top it off, until recently the customers of a school or training program (the companies that hire workers) were buying compliance by the bushel. Initiative was a red flag, not an asset. Of course, now that's all changed. The economy has rewritten the rules, and smart organizations seek out intelligent problem solvers. Everything is different now. Except the part about how much easier it is to teach compliance."

Video to explain e-learning to school staff

Hopefully this is more engaging for staff than a powerpoint presentation! I'm hoping that 'try, share, learn' is a good way of promoting informal learning and development amongst staff - try something new, share what works, learn from each other. I'm aiming to make this different from the 'normal' way of launching initiatives at school. I want this idea to be 'sticky'. Hopefully by emphasising autonomy, adaptation of ideas and exploration, e-learning will be more exciting for staff, and they'll be more likely to give new ideas a try in the classroom.