1.
Social exclusion
or inclusion in a
Web 2.0 world
Gráinne Conole,
The Open University, UK
DeHub conference,
Sydney,
18th February 2011

2.
Key questions
 How are new open, social and
participatory media changing
educational practice?
 What are the implications for
formal and informal learning?
 How are learner and teacher roles
changing?
 What new digital literacies are
needed?
 How can we design learning
interventions and environments
to harness new media?
 What social exclusion issues arise
and how can they be combated?

3.
Outline
• Web 2.0 characteristic
• Positive and negative impacts in education
• Social exclusion or inclusion?
• Case studies
• The changing nature of community
• Recommendations and reflections

4.
New media
 Key characteristics
 Peer critiquing
 Aggregation of resources
 Collaborative
 Communicative
 Personalisable
 Networked
 Open practices
 Interactive

5.
Evidence
• Horizon report, 2011
• NSF Cyber-infrastructure
report, 2008
• IPTS e-learning 2.0 report,
2008
• Review of Web 2.0 tools &
practices, 2010

6.
Horizon report 2011
• Abundance of resources challenging traditional
educational roles
• People expect to be able to work & learn
anywhere, anytime
• World of work increasingly collaborative
• Technologies increasingly cloud based
• Importance of digital literacies
• New evaluation metrics for new scholarship and
publishing

7.
Technologies to watch
• E-books
• Mobiles
• Augmented learning
• Game-based learning
• Gesture-based learning
• Learning analytics

8.
Conole and Alevizou, 2010
Effective use of new technologies requires a
radical rethink of the core learning and teaching
processes; a shift from design as an internalised,
implicit and individually crafted process to one
that is externalised and shareable with others.
Change in practice may indeed involve the use of
revised materials, new teaching strategies and
beliefs - all in relation to educational innovation.

9.
Change +ve impact -ve impact
Access,
Free tools, resources Role of institutions,
personalisation,
& services lack of control
supports the long tail
Technology as core Narrower, but
Ubiquitous access
tool deeper digital divide
Multiple
Increased peer, tutor Fragmentation, no
communication &
and expert dialogue central repository
distribution channels
Rich media New forms of sense- Lack of new digital
representation making literacies
Increased variety of
User-generated
knowledge, learner Quality assurance
content
control
Social profiling Knowledge sharing Inappropriate digital

10.
New digital literacies (Jenkins, et al., 2008)
Play
Visualisation Performance
Negotiation Appropriation
Simulation Multi-tasking
Networking
Distributed cognition
Transmedia navigation Collective intelligence
Judgment

11.
In or out?
• Voluntary exclusion - freedom of choice
not to participate
• Involuntary exclusion - lack of access or
expertise to participate

12.
Social exclusion
Social exclusion is a
multidimensional process of
progressive social rupture,
detaching groups and
individuals from social
relations and institutions and
preventing them from full
participation in the normal,
normatively prescribed
activities of the society in Includes lack of access to:
which they live Earnings
Education
Technology
Community
Basic human rights

13.
Social exclusion
• Process whereby individuals are pushed to
the edge of society and prevented from
participating fully by virtue of their poverty
of lack of competences and lifelong learning
opportunities or by discrimination
http://ftp.jrc.es/EURdoc/JRC53578_TN.pdf

14.
Social inclusion
• Process that ensures that those at risk of
poverty and social exclusion gain the
opportunities and resources to participate
fully in the economic, social and cultural
life.
http://ftp.jrc.es/EURdoc/JRC53578_TN.pdf

15.
Web 2.0
• Preventing digital exclusion
• Exploit new technologies for better
inclusion

16.
Your signature counts
Social justice
Educational for all
Combating poverty
Amnesty International video
via Pambos Vrasidas
http://www.google.com.au/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=amensty
+international+your+signature
+counts&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=I5dYTbPoK4OucI6n7
ZwM
Education for a better
quality of life but is
education for all?

17.
Case studies
Case study Description
Notschool Online school for drop outs
www.notschool.net Constructivist pedagogy, peer buddy system
Assistive technology wiki Supports knowledge creation around assistive
abilitynet.wetpaint.com ‘Routes of desire’ pedagogy model
Mundi de Estrellas
Aimed at young people in hospital, shared stories
www.juntadeandalucia.es
ALPEUNED Students with disabilities at the Open University in
adenu.ia.uned.es/alpe/ Spain
Conecta Joven
eSkills for at risk and excluded groups
www.conectajoven.org
MOSEP Self-esteemed through e-Portfolios, learning
www.mosep.org companions
Schome Park Gifted kids and those with autism, in SecondLife,
www.schome.ac.uk open pedagogy based on collaboration
BREAKOUT
Offending and drug prevention, a life-swapping model
www.breakoutproject.odl.org
http://ftp.jrc.es/EURdoc/JRC53578_TN.pd

18.
Open Educational Resources
Part of the broader OER movement
Move beyond the creation of OER to
articulation of practices and community
Focus on better design and use
Olnet: an evidence-based approach with support for the
community and a fellowship scheme
OPAL: articulation of dimensions of OER practices and
associated guidelines for learners, teachers, managers and
policy makers
19

19.
Combating social exclusion
 Open and free
 Education for all
 Easily accessible
 Means of transferring practice
 It’s also a philosophy...
20

20.
Cloudworks
21

21.
Quick language guide

22.
Quick language guide
Cloud:
Anything to do with
learning and teaching

23.
Quick language guide
Cloud:
Anything to do with
learning and teaching
Cloudscape:
A collection of
clouds

24.
Quick language guide
Cloud:
Anything to do with
learning and teaching
Cloudscape:
A collection of
clouds
Activity stream:
Latest activities on a
Cloudscape or people

25.
Quick language guide
Cloud:
Anything to do with
learning and teaching
Cloudscape:
A collection of
clouds
Activity stream:
Latest activities on a
Cloudscape or people Favourites:
Vote for things
your like

26.
Quick language guide
Cloud:
Anything to do with
learning and teaching
Cloudscape:
A collection of
clouds
Activity stream:
Latest activities on a
Cloudscape or people Favourites:
Vote for things
your like
Follow:
Cloudscapes, Clouds
or people

27.
Quick language guide
Cloud:
Anything to do with
learning and teaching
Cloudscape:
A collection of
clouds
Activity stream:
Latest activities on a
Cloudscape or people Favourites:
Vote for things
your like
Follow: RSS feeds:
Cloudscapes, Clouds For Cloudscapes, Clouds
or people & people

28.
Quick language guide
Cloud:
Anything to do with
learning and teaching
Cloudscape:
A collection of
clouds
Activity stream:
Latest activities on a
Cloudscape or people Favourites:
Vote for things
your like
Follow: RSS feeds: Attend:
Cloudscapes, Clouds For Cloudscapes, Clouds Conferences &
or people & people workshops

29.
Types of activity

30.
Types of activity
Events

31.
Types of activity
Virtual reading circles Events

32.
Types of activity
Virtual reading circles Events

33.
Types of activity
Virtual reading circles Events
Open reviews

34.
Combating exclusion
• Completely open
• Easy to use
• Crosses boundaries
• Access to new knowledge and expertise
• Aggregation of resources
• Sharing ideas

35.
A focus on community
 New open, social and participatory media enable
new means of communication, collaboration,
sharing and co-construction of knowledge
 Want to focus on the nature of community in these
new online spaces
 What is it and how can it be fostered, supported?

36.
The nature of community
 Complex, distributed, loose communities are
emerging
 Facilitated through different but connected social
networking tools such as facebook, Twitter, Ning
 Users create their own Personal Digital Environment
 Mix of synchronous and asynchronous tools
 Boundary crossing via the power of retweeting
 Links between interests, rather than places

37.
So what is a community?
[Community does not] imply necessarily co-presence, a well-
defined identifiable group, or socially visible boundaries. It
does imply participation in an activity system about which
participants share understandings concerning what they are
doing and what that means in their lives and for their
communities
Lave and Wenger, 1991
Virtual communities are social aggregations that emerge
from the Net when enough people carry on those public
discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to
form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace.
Rheingold, 1993

38.
Community as a process
 Constantly evolving and changing
 Shifting groups and depths of relationships
 Dynamic, evolving and potentially transformative
 Both directed and serendipitous interactions

39.
Community indicators
Participation Cohesion
Sustained over time Support & tolerance
Commitment from core group Turn taking & response
Emerging roles & hierarchy Humour and playfulness
Identity Creative capability
Group self-awareness Igniting sense of purpose
Shared language & vocab Multiple points of view
Sense of community expressed, contradicted or
challenged
Creation of knowledge links
& patterns
Galley et al., 2010

40.
Participation
 Three types of hierarchical roles
 Veterans: support and encourage groups and newbies
 Trendsetters: make a difference
 Posters: need to be incentivised to turn from lurkers to
active contributors

41.
Cohesion
 Through support, tolerance, reciprocity and trust
 Language and tone are critical factors in the
development of an online community
 Emotional and peer support

42.
Identity
Central to the notion of community are issues of
membership and exclusion. Some people are in,
others are out. Communities range from being open
to anyone who shares particular ideas or interests to
communities accessible only to those who meet
certain criteria of geography, ethnicity, gender, etc.
Erickson (1997)

43.
Framework for sociality
 System needs to accommodate both evolution of
practices and inclusion of newcomers
 Both individual and group identity are important
 People more likely to use systems that resemble
their daily routines, languages and practices
 Metaphors that mimic real life practices are likely to
be more successful
Bouman et al., 2007

44.
Creative capability
 Importance of conflict, disagreement and
negotiation in the process of collaborative
knowledge creation and developing understanding
 Social discord as a catalyst for knowledge
construction and expansive learning

45.
Can Web 2.0 support social inclusion?
Rich multimedia representation of content
Multiple communication channels
Accessible anywhere, anytime
Abundance of free tools and resources
Digital divide narrower but deeper
Increasingly complex landscape
New digital literacy skills needed
Access issues
35

46.
Implications
• New digital literacies
needed
• Changing roles of
teachers and learners
• New institutional roles
and structures
• Balance of institutional
vs. free systems

47.
Recommendations
 For learners
 Provide support to development new digital literacies
 Facilitate more learner-centred approaches
 Encourage communication and collaboration
 Shift from a focus on content to activities
 For teachers
 New approaches to design, support and assessment
 Adopting more explicit and reflexive teaching practices
 Technology immersion – learning through the technologies
 Encourage a networked educational community of teachers and
learners

48.
Recommendations
 For institutions
 Strategies/policies that reflect the changing context of learning
 Resources and support to facilitate the shift in practice needed
 Strong leadership with an understanding of the issues
 Nationally
 Free educational resources - Open Educational Resources
 Promote case studies of good practice
 Appropriate strategies and policies and funding
 Professional networks and communities
 Ongoing horizon scanning of technology trajectories

49.
Reflections
 Open, participatory and social media enable new forms of
communication and collaboration
 Communities in these spaces are complex and distributed
 Teachers and learners need to develop new digital literacy
skills to harness their potential
 We need to rethink the design of learning interventions,
support and assessment
 Sites like Cloudworks can provide a mechanisms for teachers to
share and discuss learning and teaching ideas
 We are seeing a blurring of boundaries: teachers/learners,
teaching/learning, content/activities and real/virtual spaces

50.
References
 Galley, R., Conole, G. and Alevizou, P. (submitted), Community Indicators: A
framework for building and evaluating community activity on Cloudworks,
Interactive Learning Environments. Conole, G, and Alevizou, P. (2010), A
literature review of the use of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education, HE
Academy commissioned report, http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/
EvidenceNet/Conole_Alevizou_2010.pdf
 Galley, R., Conole, G. and Alevizou, P. (2010), Case study: Using Cloudworks
for an Open Literature Review, An HE Academy commissioned report.
 Alevizou, P., Conole, G. and Galley, R. (2010), Using Cloudworks to support
OER activities, An HE Academy commissioned report.
 Conole, G., Galley, R. and Culver, J. (2010), Frameworks for understanding
the nature of interactions, networking and community in a social
networking site for academic practice, The International Review of Research
in Open and Distance Learning.
 Conole, G. and Culver, J. (2010) 'The design of Cloudworks: applying social
networking practice to foster the exchange of learning and teaching ideas
and designs' Computers and Education, 54(3): 679 - 692.
 Conole and Culver (2009), Cloudworks: social networking for learning
design, Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 25(5), pp. 763–782,
http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet25/conole.html.

51.
Images
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/tristaemlet/
4089225446/