1,721,342 research outputs found
Rich and personal revisited: translating ambitions for an institutional personal learning environment into a reality
No full textIs it possible to create an institutional personal learning environment? This question has triggered considerable debate amongst those concerned with implementing learning and teaching technologies within higher education, Rapid technological change is necessarily accompanied by matched evolution of individual practice amongst users. At universities, students arrive with a mix of sophisticated and naïve approaches to using technology in everyday life which can be shaped and harnessed to support learning. To respond to the changing capabilities and demands of available technology, the University of Southampton designed and is implementing a rich holistic learning environment radically different from the VLEs which gained widespread usage since the late 1990s. In the initial scoping of the environment, explanations of the proposed system were qualified: “its more than a system, it’s a mind-set”. The suggestion is that the power and value of the institutional personal learning environment resides in the ‘technology affordances’ which enable users to customise and personalise the system in a socially useful and educationally constructive manner. There are many different ways to remove the barriers to learning, some of which are not necessarily directly ‘educational’ or ‘instructional’. This paper considers the foundations and emergence of personal learning environments and the interplay of ambitions and requirements needed to support learning in a university context. It goes on to make a case for the creation of a seemingly paradoxical embodiment – an “Institutional Personal Learning Environment (iPLE). It considers emerging understandings of the role of ‘digital literacies’ and their associated challenges to universities - the role and challenges of ‘scholarly literacies in a digital age’. Presenting a case study of implementing the Southampton Learning Environment, this paper analyses the underlying rationale of the emerging system. It evaluates the architecture of the system to explain how it provides an institutional personal learning environment. It presents and reviews the first cycle implementation (due to go live in August 2011) from a pedagogic perspective assessing the technology affordances of the system. Finally it re-evaluates the evidence to consider whether it has indeed been possible to create an institutional learning environment that is also a personal learning environment
Data Integrity Problems in an Open Hypermedia Link Service
No full textA hypermedia link service is system which stores the information describing hypertext links in a database which is separate from the data content over which the links are intended to operate. One of the first open hypermedia link services was Microcosm, which takes this philosophy to the extreme, storing not only the links in a separate database, but also the information about the endpoints of the links. The most important advantage of such an organisation is that the system remains open so that hypertext functionality may be extended to third party applications. The first part of this thesis describes the background to open hypermedia link services and describes the Microcosm system, which was developed by the Multimedia Research Group at the University of Southampton. The major problem with storing all the information about links separately from the content is that such a scheme introduces many opportunities for the introduction of inconsistencies and the loss of integrity of the hypermedia data model. The second part of this thesis examines these problems, and proposes a number of solutions. It concludes that no one solution can resolve all the problems, and that in order to ensure integrity it is necessary to impose some conditions which limit the degree of openness
The justification for a new Learning Environment at Southampton
No full textFor the last year we have been working at Southampton on specifying what a new Learning Environment (The SLE) would look like and include. At the time of this seminar we will be making our first steps into building our new "Institutional Personal Learning Environment". In this seminar I will take a step back and recap the pedagogical, political and social justifications for this investment and attempt to paint a picture of where we have agreed we are trying to go, from a functional rather than technical perspective. This seminar will be of interest to anyone interested in how technology can support learning
The personalisation of a learning environment: student-led connections online and offline
No full textRapidly evolving technological change is necessarily accompanied by matched evolution of individual practice amongst users. In a connected world, the users are universal, and students entering universities may arrive with a mix of sophisticated and naïve approaches to using technology to support their learning. The University of Southampton has designed and is implementing a holistic learning environment radically different from the VLEs which have gained widespread usage since the late 1990s. Whist working with colleagues across the university we based our planning framework on the concept of a ‘rich learning environment’. In the process of transforming our aspirations into reality it was necessary to embody requirements and ambitions which matched our educational, organisational and technological requirements. At the same time it was essential that any system, fit for the twenty-first century was able to meet and exceed students expectations: it soon became clear that such a learning environment is "more than a system, it’s a mindset". This presentation considers the foundations and emergence of personal learning environments and considers the interplay of ambitions and requirements needed to support personal learning in a university context. It goes on to make a case for the creation of a seemingly paradoxical embodiment – an “Institutional Personal Learning Environment (iPLE). The argument is located in the context of emerging understandings of the role and challenges to universities today of ‘digital literacies’ or more precisely the role and challenges of ‘scholarly literacies in a digital age’
Significance of Semantic Web in Facilitating HCI in Mobile and Ubiquitous Learning
No full textMobile devices are being widely used in education for many purposes such as an instruction tool for learning. However, mobile devices suffer from the limitation of capabilities and resources. Potential solutions to this issue must consider the mobility and personal characteristics of potential education seekers. This paper theoretically describes how Semantic Web might be used to facilitate the interaction between mobile devices and learners in mobile and ubiquitous learning environments to provide mobile learners with the best learning experience
Institutional PLEs. Paradise or paradox?
No full textIs it possible to create an institutional personal learning environment? This question has recently triggered considerable debate amongst those concerned with implementing learning and teaching technologies within higher education, For some the argument lies in the fundamental (linguistic) paradox of claiming that the institutional can be personal. Others would derive from this a pedagogic perspective and argue that reliance and use of any institutional initiative and infrastructure would necessarily sabotage and undermine personal autonomy. Reliance on an institutional infrastructure would therefore detract from the inherent levers for independent learning which are cultivated by individually assembling and thus creating a personal learning environment. However, there is clear evidence of institutions attempting to build environments that will provide their students with some of the benefits of Personal Learning Environments. From a technological viewpoint one can argue that a technology provided for the individual by an institutional could never be personal. The institution has already decided upon the technical framework and thus may have removed or severely constrained the learner’s choice – for example in platform, software and mode of interaction. This symposium will encourage open discussion and debate around the technical feasibility and pedagogic suitability of Institutional PLEs
Letter from Hugh Davis, Hot Springs, Virginia, to Hugh Davis, Jr., July 25, 1860
No full textThis item is from the Hugh Davis papers. He was a successful attorney from Marion, Alabama who owned the Beaver Bend plantation along the Cahaba River
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