Fusion Universal

On January 20, 2011 Fusion Universal held the inaugural meeting of our Virtual School Steering Committee.  Through the Virtual School we aim to revolutionise learning and address the significant challenges facing the education sector globally. We are hoping to improve the accessibility and quality of locally generated, student centric educational content; available for anyone, anywhere, regardless of their geographic or socio-economic circumstances.

The steering committee meeting taught me three things. One: We have a lot of committed, enthusiastic, brilliant partners. Two: Even they don’t have the answers. Just more questions. And three: Unequal and inadequate access to quality education is not just an African or a developing country problem. It is a global challenge and there is a need to start to think ‘outside the classroom’. In the US there is a massive programme around ‘Next Generation Learning Challenges’ trying to solve the issue of failure rates in college. In the UK there has been decades of debate on reform and increasingly we are looking towards academies and alternative school models.

All of these reforms are looking at reforming schools. Or building new schools. Or looking at new ways of teaching in schools. As we further develop the concept of the Virtual School and see the enthusiasm generated by this approach in every country, age group and subject-area, we have to wonder if the reforms currently being considered are revolutionary enough. Are we just patching up legacy infrastructure because we are comfortable with the current model of delivery and are afraid of revolutionary change? Or is there a really good reason for maintaining the 19^th Century Bismarkian school?

Innovation and revolution are often the result of necessity. In many countries in Africa, for example, telephone network infrastructure was not a possibility. Access to local branches of banks was not a possibility. What happened? Revolutionary changes to the telecommunications and finance sectors. Telephone networks in the traditional sense will never be built in Africa. Rural branches of banks serving small populations in remote areas will never be built. Instead we have the proliferation of mobile networks and MPESA, or mobile banking by SMS. There is a need for this kind of revolutionary change for Education.

Africa is in many ways in the ideal position for change and should take advantage of the opportunity posed by a lack of infrastructure to support access to quality ‘schooling’. Most African countries do not have an imbedded legacy of crumbling infrastructure like that being addressed through the UK’s ‘Building Schools for the Future Programme’. Instead, we can focus on ‘Building Education for the Future’.  Again, the question becomes, why reproduce what is failing?

Currently, in line with the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, many developing countries are building hundreds of thousands of schools and training millions and millions of teachers. Often badly. Take as an example the ‘Tanzania Beyond Tomorrow Project’. Tanzania has recently built thousands of schools. However, they do not have qualified teachers to fill the classrooms. TBT aims to capitalize on ‘new’ technology by allowing teachers in Dar es Salaam to have a ‘virtual’ presence in rural classrooms through video-conferencing.  While capitalizing on some new innovations in technology, the programme has, in many ways, fallen short of the revolutionary change necessary to fundamentally improve access to quality education in Tanzania.

This a neat idea. But why? Essentially you are building schools, training teachers AND building ICT access. I would argue it is the last component which is the most important, easiest and most effective method of equalizing access to quality education.

Is the internet not the greatest equalizer of information access of our times? Do we need schools? Why can’t we get the best teachers in every country to give their best explanations and create interactive, engaging, local and highly effective lessons and make them available to everyone, everywhere, at all times?

The answer from the committee seems to be, we can. We just need to work out the best way of doing it. As seems to have happened with everyone involved in the meeting, I am left inspired, and a bit confused.

I know the Virtual School is a great idea. I know there is a huge demand. I know there is a lot of enthusiasm to be involved.

What I don’t know is:

How do we find the best EDUCATORS on a given topic- are they  teachers? Students? Employers/practitioners?

How do we create a learner pathway that can motivate and prepare students for a future that we cannot possibly predict (Charles’ presentation)?

How do we reach the unreachable- how do we reach the kids who can’t get to school? How do we make this freely available?

If you have ideas, please let us know. Please get involved.

Contact: bronwen.mcconkey@fusion-universal.com

I believe social learning is poised to revolutionise learning within the corporate because the technology is finally available to turn the dream of the ‘learning organisation’ into reality.

There are a multitude of definitions of what social learning is floating around. For me, the most significant characteristic of social learning is that it enables anyone and everyone in a company to contribute their own expertise, and in turn to learn from the expertise of others. These two processes cut across all levels of the organisation (upwards, downwards and sideways) and can even reach beyond the organisation to include clients, customers and partners. In essence, social learning technology enables individuals and companies to create, share, contribute and access opinions, expertise and knowledge in a manner that has never been seen before.

Online video is the big game changer for me. Short, sharp, concise video has completely redefined the way people choose to learn in the online world. Indeed, because it is easy for anyone and everyone to produce and consume, online video is fast becoming the format of choice for a curious and knowledge hungry audience. The meteoric rise of sites like YouTube and Lynda.com are proof that the concept works. Cisco estimates that video will account for 90% of Internet traffic within a few years. I believe that, given a choice, the same pattern will appear with organisational learning.

Typically, internal L&D departments are engaged in cascading top down knowledge to areas of the business that have been identified as ‘in need of training’. Unfortunately, they often don’t have the manpower or budget to reach other areas of the business that could really benefit from peer to peer learning, such as operations, sales and product marketing. Social learning technology enables the accelerated development of all staff because anyone is able to tap in to the experience of the organisation’s experts 24/7.

I predict that the use of social learning technologies within corporate will overtake the use of formal learning within 3 years. The companies who adopt the concept the quickest will enjoy a major competitive advantage.

To sum up, social learning offers a competitive advantage because:

• it closes the gap between starters and experts: experts model best behaviour, capture it and then make it available for instant access
• it allows for multi-skilling of staff: staff in one area can access the “know how” of staff in another one
• it increases operational efficiency: the time taken to distribute right knowledge is reduced, and hence so are errors, while “right first time”
• it allows staff to refresh their knowledge at the moment of need or to increase their product knowledge through access to byte size information

Although social learning will without doubt have the most significant impact, it should not be seen as a panacea or a replacement for existing methods. I view it as complimentary to related technologies such as mobile delivery and performance support. Social learning technologies and platforms will also have to sit side by side with Learning Management Systems and the management of formal learning. They will have to integrate for optimal performance, as there is still a need for more formal models of learning within areas such as compliance. Although these models should no longer be allowed to define the model of learning for everything else as they have done to date.

Click either video to hear our experiences of how we are using one public and one private social learning tool within Fusion:

21st Century Learning Skills on LinkedIn

Social Learning- See it in action

I met Jeremiah by chance on a bus ride to elearning Africa in Lusaka, Zambia this year. Despite our very different backgrounds, we shared a common passion: to improve lives through digital literacy.

Jeremiah’s story is endearing, he is so passionate about educating the people of the villages around him that he created the most innovative solution to solve 2 access issues. The first issue is that the villages he wanted to take ICT education too was off the power grid. Jeremiah, solved this by charging an old car battery and creating mobile power.

His second issue was that although he had a car battery, he had no car, so every time he taught a remote village, Jeremiah would put his mobile power solution into a wheel barrow and wheel it to the remote village to deliver his ICT education solution.
Jeremiah has educated over 200 students through his innovative approach. Jermemiah states “The community members have opened e-mail accounts, signed up on social networks, access educational sites and has greatly impacted on e-govern ace since most of the government services are now done online e.g. PIN registration, examination registration, online results, job application and e-curriclum which is at its development stage in Kenya”.
Jeremiah, having himself endured hardship and poverty, founded One Touch Youth Initiative in 2004 to “build a bridge between labour market needs and young people whose capability make them ideal candidates to fill the ICT skills gap“. He believes this is one of the main ways to curb youth unemployment in Kenya.

However the working conditions are still far from being optimum. The organisation particularly lacks capital to buy modern computers and equipment, while it has to pay high local council rates. This does not impede Jeremiah in his ambition of unlocking youth and gender imbalance and making realise the new generations that they embody the future and the wealth of their nation. That is why he plans to start a local business outsourcing centre to create job opportunities to the already trained youths and push them to start up their own businesses.
We have assisted Jeremiah by providing our digital curriculum and donating a mobile solar charger but if you wish to assist in any way, please email myself or Jeremiah-  Youthinitiatives05@yahoo.com , bronwen.mcconkey@fusion-universal.com.

Jeremiah is great and such passion should be encouraged and assisted.

For 90% of learning within a corporate environment, Gagne’s 9 rules and the list of other rules created before the Internet was invented are now irrelevant and a barrier to learning with the world of technology enabled corporate learning.

Let’s take a real example. I bought a MacBook Pro and as a PC user it feels like I have gone back five years. I know in theory that the machine and operating system I have now is far superior but I was lost in unfamiliarity. I didn’t know how to do many of the basic things, never mind the advanced things. I had a couple of options for learning – go to the Apple store and get training there or buy an online 15-hour course from someone (which I will never finish as they are sooooo boring and I know none of my friends who I have given free access to over the years for similar coursers have ever finished, although they probably all followed Gagne’s rules perfectly and left the Instructional Designer proud and all the learners in Pain!).

However, three weeks later I am proficient with my Mac, making better presentations, shortcutting across the desktop and preferences, making holiday movies using iMovie and I created my first website in two hours with iWeb. This is not because I am particularly smart or Apple’s products are particularly easy to use but because Apple also offers a more intuitive option to learn.

These are the two-minute itutorials, easy to access on everything and unlike elearning courses, they are amazingly accessible and they destroy modern-day learning theory, especially old theories like Gagne’s. I am far more proficient on my Mac than I have ever been on a PC, so there is measurable behavioural change and benefit to my business because of it.

Here is a quick look at how modern informal learning, such as Apple’s iTutorials, or the movies created in informal tools at published instantly change modern learning theory forever. Practical example, I want to know how I can use the new presentation software in a Mac (Keynote) to make those cool transitions I have seen – let’s see how Gagne would approach this versus Informal learning tools.

Gagne says:

Rule 1 – Gagne says – Gain attention

This step would be a waste of my time and any designer’s time. Just show me NOW. You don’t have to get my attention when I know what I want. Please delete rule 1 for any informal learning activity where I know what I want to learn.

Rule 2 – Inform learners of objectives

Miss it out again – I know what I want but if I happen to learn something else in the two-minute tutorial then that’s great but I would prefer to spend my time learning than having my motivation to learn killed by telling me for two minutes what I am about to learn. I’ll get around to learning everything on offer if it is interesting, stimulating and beneficial but in my way and in my time.

Rule 3 – Stimulate recall of prior learning

Irrelevant to my need – I want to learn how to perform transitions in a piece of software I haven’t used before. Following Gagne means the Instructional Designer would have wasted more of my time telling me about what transitions I am familiar with in MS Office. Ahhh! Just teach me what I want, please !!!!!

Rule 4 – Present the content

At last I can learn something although I have probably lost all motivation to learn and maybe live if I followed Gagne’s model.

Rule 5 – Provide “learning guidance”

Relevant If I am seven years old maybe but how can the Instructional Designer possibly know how I want and need to learn? I love the two-minute tutorials that teach me how to use the software on my Mac. I can select an item that looks of interest, play the two-minute movie that shows me quickly and concisely, things I didn’t know (I chose the movie remember). When something is of interest that is new, I naturally stop and try it which has a natural some effect on long-term memory. Although long term retention is now far less relevant as I no longer need to store all knowledge in my long-term memory because if I want to access that knowledge again, it is stored electronically two clicks and a search away in a website. This makes Gagne’s “semantic encoding for storage long-term memory” redundant and irrelevant!!! If the learning point was relevant and useful then I will go back to it and I don’t have to waste learning time or instructional design time embedding the knowledge in long-term memory.

Rule 6 - Elicit performance (practice)

If the learning point is relevant I will practice it naturally and in context to the activity I am doing right now, which means the enconding will be stronger because it is contextualised in my world rather than the ACME world. You don’t have to tell me to practise anymore, when something pops up that is contextual to my needs then I will pause the movie and go and practice the function it context to the activity I am currently doing. The concept of asking me questions simply reduces my time learning new things and seeing what else is possible.

Rule 7 - Provide feedback - Reinforcement and assessment of correct performance

Is this really relevant in the world of adult learning? Do I need to be patted on the back (virtually) because I have now answered a multiple choice question correctly or finished spending a certain amount of time in a course. I just learned the cool transitions in Keynote and showed my girlfriend who said “wow, that’s cool how did you do that?” I tried getting her to go through the standard ECDL course for two months and like most people I encouraged who wanted to improve their IT skills, she did less than an hour and never touched an elearning course again but continually says I want to be better at Excel. Gagne failed her, you, me and the other friends who wanted to improve their IT skills. Too much padding and not enough learning made it so boring that only the most highly motivated people finish a Gagne-designed course.

Rule 8 - Assess performance - Retrieval and reinforcement of content as final evaluation

If I have found the learning I want and I have performed the task, why do I need to be tested? For whose benefit, yours or mine? This is just another way to waste my time, time I could have spent learning something else. It’s amazing how much training is designed for trainers rather than learners. 6 billion searches on Google shows the most popular method to learn today and no sign of Gagne in Google’s manifesto!

Rule 9 - Enhance retention and transfer to the job – Retrieval and generalization of learned skill to new situation

You don’t have to design this in as I am most likely accessing this learning because I have a specific requirement in my job and I want a more effective alternative to my normal options which are a) Ask the person next to me b) Find a course where 70% of the knowledge is irrelevant to me. Also time wise a course compared to effective informal learning (designed without Gagne) is akin to email Versus Postal mail, in terms of “time to effectiveness” C) An elearning course (locked away in the LMS vault) where the patience of a saint is needed to find the knowledge I need right now!