David Wiley discusses how openness and data can transform education. He argues that (1) open educational resources and open sharing of teaching materials allows for continuous improvement of curriculum and personalized learning, (2) capturing data from online interactions and coursework enables strategic tutoring and improvement based on analytics, and (3) openness is necessary for education to keep up with societal changes from isolated to connected and closed to open.

1. The Intertwingling of Openness and Data
in the Future of Education
David Wiley, PhD
Department of Instructional Psychology & Technology
Brigham Young University

2. About This Talk
http://slideshare.net/opencontent/
#gls2010

5. The Bible

7. If the Book Didn’t Change Schools
Can the computer?
Can the internet?

8. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gls-conference/4687537285/

9. Can Games?

11. Character Classes
Full: Designer, Developer, Researcher
Needed: Legislator, Superintendent,
Principal, Teacher

12. With Apologies to Allan Collins
“Education (reform) doesn’t work
unless you’re willing to take
responsibility.”

14. Openness… In Education?
Let’s begin by defining terms

15. Open, adj.
Describes educational artifacts

16. Open Textbooks
Open Educational Resources
Open Courseware
(Open Source Software)

17. Open, adj.
Teaching materials freely shared with
permissions to engage in the “4R” activities

18. The 4Rs
Reuse – copy verbatim
Redistribute – share with others
Revise – adapt and improve
Remix – combine with others

19. Communicate 4Rs Permissions
Since this overrides default copyright,
you must use a copyright license

20. Offers easy to use 4R’s licenses

22. 20092007 20082006200520042003
CC Licensed Items Online (Millions)
50
100
150
200
250

23. While Nouns Differ…
The operationalizing actions are the same

24. Open, adj.
Generous, sharing, giving

25. Open, adj.
Providing (1) access and (2) local control

26. Your Inner Two-year Old
Overcoming the impulse to scream
“Mine!”

27. Law and Policy “Enable” Us
To shout “Mine!” ever more loudly,
convulse ever more uncontrollably,
and hit each other with ever larger toys

28. Society’s Siren Song
“Be selfish. Keep it to yourself.
Sue your neighbor.
It’s legal. It’s ok.”

29. Education Is Not Immune
This kind of thinking is accepted

30. Educational Games Aren’t Immune
This kind of thinking is accepted

31. Role of Openness in Education?
A terrible, insidious question

32. Openness is the only means
of doing education

33. If There Is No Sharing…
There is no education

34. Education, n.
A relationship of sharing

35. Successful Educators
Share most thoroughly
with the most students

36. Expertise Is Nonrivalrous
Can be given without being given away

37. “He who receives
ideas from me,
receives instruction
himself without
lessening mine; as he
who lights his taper
at mine receives light
without darkening
me.”
Thomas Jefferson

38. Teachers Would Be Like Bees!
They could only teach once

39. Expressions Are Different
To give a book you must give it away

40. Expressions Are Different
To give a book you must give it away

41. Expressions Are Different
Digital expressions are nonrivalrous
n’t^

42. E.g., Online Book
We can all read simultaneously

43. An Indescribable Advance
The first time in human history

44. Expertise and Its Expressions
Give without giving away

45. Unprecedented Capacity
We can share as never before

46. Unprecedented Capacity
We can educate as never before

47. (Education Involves More)
(It turns out the Internet is pretty good
at facilitating these other things as
well.)

48. Sharing the Stage
Technology always plays opposite
it’s nemesis, policy

49. 15th
Century
Perhaps the greatest technological
advance ever

51. 15th
Century
Also the most draconian restrictions on
information dissemination ever

52. The Bible
Huge demand for vernacular editions,
but illegal (and expensive)

53. Instead of Obliging…
Ramped up production of “indulgences” and
stricter laws against vernacular editions

54. “Whosoever reads the
Scriptures in the mother
tongue, shall forfeit land,
cattle, life, and goods from
their heirs forever, and so be
condemned for heretics to
God, enemies to the crown,
and most arrant traitors to
the land.”
English Law, 1414

55. Collision
Powerful new technology,
huge demand,
outdated thinking reinforced by law

56. The Reformation
Powerful new technology,
huge demand,
outdated thinking reinforced by law

57. Alas
Our day isn’t that different

58. Learning Management Systems
Technology perverted against its own
potential, made to conceal and
withhold

61. “Lids Down, Please!”
Faculty refuse to compete for attention

62. 2008 Professor in Southern US
Claimed (C) of his class lectures, declared
student notes derivative works, and
asserted control over their use

63. Makes Me Wonder…
Can they ever become professors?
Can they ever be employed?

64. Soaring Demand for Education
120M in post-secondary education worldwide
150M more projected to enter

65. In India Alone, They Need…
2400 new universities in the next 25 years
One new university every two weeks

66. Collision
Powerful new media and technology,
ravenous demand,
outdated thinking reinforced by policy

67. Sound Familiar?
Education is on the edge of its own
Reformation

68. Will We Reform Internally?
Or will factions and sects have to split off?

69. What Does Reform Look Like?
We only need to look at society around us…

70. Analog ⇒ Digital
Music, Phones, TV, Newspapers,
Movies, Journals, Communications,
Intelligence, Defense

71. Tethered ⇒ Mobile
Phones, Internet Access,
Employment

72. Isolated ⇒ Connected
People, Content, Systems

73. Generic ⇒ Personal
Cars, Computers, Mobile Phones

74. Consuming ⇒ Creating
Radio / Podcasting, Newspapers / Blogs
Movies / Vodcasting

75. Closed ⇒ Open
Software (OSs, Applications),
Content (Blogs, Wikis)

76. Then vs Now
Analog ⇒ Digital
Tethered ⇒ Mobile
Isolated ⇒ Connected
Generic ⇒ Personal
Consumption ⇒ Creating
Closed ⇒ Open

77. Education vs Everyday
Analog ⇒ Digital
Tethered ⇒ Mobile
Isolated ⇒ Connected
Generic ⇒ Personal
Consumption ⇒ Creating
Closed ⇒ Open

78. “Daily Divide” Is a Huge Threat
And the wider the disconnect,
the less relevant higher education feels

81. What About E-learning?

82. What About E-learning?
Very innovative in 1995!

83. Characteristics of E-learning
Analog or Digital
Tethered or Mobile
Isolated or Connected
Generic or Personal
Consuming or Creating
Closed or Open

84. Connecting
You can’t connect to something if
you don’t have access to it

85. Personalizing
You can’t adapt or localize something
if you don’t have permission

86. Creating
You won’t be creative if there’s no
outlet for your work

87. Technology Already Enables
Policy, law, and tradition prohibit

88. Institutional Openness
Some examples…

103. Individual Openness
Some examples… on a budget

111. Character Classes
• Bard - Master of the lore, history, and
politics of the field, know what's “out there”
• Artisan - Has materials production skills in all
the necessary Web 1.0 and 2.0 tools like
HTML, video sharing, podcasting
• Monk Master of copyright and licensing
arcana and defender of the university brand
• Merchant Deals with short- and long-term
sustainability issues

112. • Level 1 – 22 XP
• Level 2 – 40 XP
• Level 3 – 65 XP
• Level 4 – 105 XP
• Level 5 – 160 XP
• Level 6 – 230 XP
• Level 7 – 365 XP
• Level 7 – A
• Level 6 – B
• Level 5 – C
• Level 4 or below - F
Leveling Up “Grades”

113. Let’s Talk Data

118. Each and Every Interaction
Recorded and stored for analysis
to improve quality of service / experience

119. If Only We Could Get It…
Education could engage in continuous quality
improvement, too!

123. Even the Grocer!
Almost every industry uses data
more effectively than we do

124. One More Experiment

125. Bloom’s 2 Sigma Challenge
Bloom, 1984

126. One-to-One Tutoring
And other methods compared to
30 students in the classroom

127. Average Tutored Student by 2 SD
In other words, the average student
is capable of much more

128. Tutoring is Expensive
So we teach class instead!

129. Bloom, 1984
If the research on the 2 sigma
problem yields practiced methods
(methods that the average
teacher or school faculty can learn
in a brief period of time and use
with little more cost or time than
conventional instruction), it would
be an educational contribution of
the greatest magnitude. (p. 5)

130. To Tutor Or Not to Tutor?
That is the (false) question

131. “Intelligent” Tutors
Have different scalability problems
Dehumanize learing

132. “Strategic Tutoring”
What if we could do one-on-one tutoring
just-in-time and just-on-topic?

133. How Can We Get the Data?
Follow Google, Amazon, Netflix, WoW, etc.

134. Do School Online
Where each and every interaction can be
captured and stored for analysis

136. What Kind of Data?
When they logged in, read, and worked
How long they logged in, read, and worked
Pathway information, Item-by-item
analytics,
&c.

137. OHSU Teaching Model
Online curriculum teaches as much as possible,
teachers do proactive “strategic tutoring”

138. Another Benefit of Data
Engage in continuous improvement of
curriculum materials

139. Can You Improve Curriculum?
Data aren’t sufficient – you need permission

140. Open Educational Resources
Give OHSU the permissions it needs to
engage in continuous improvement

141. “4R” Permissions
Reuse – copy verbatim
Redistribute – share with others
Revise – adapt and improve
Remix – combine with others

142. OHSU Charter Requires OER
Founders’ way of “burning the ships”

143. Conjoint Continuous Improvement
Student learning and curriculum effectiveness
grow simultaneously

144. Curriculum
Use
Curriculum
Redesign
Student
Performance
Data
Data
Describing
Curriculum
Performance
Data
Supporting
Strategic
Tutoring
Feedback
Loop

145. Capturing Out-of-Band Tutoring
Using customer relationship management
(CRM) tools

146. Thank You
david.wiley@byu.edu
801-422-7071
http://davidwiley.org/

147. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tudor/255272612/
How could he
fail the test? He
was online studying
all day every day
last week!!!

148. http://www.flickr.com/photos/combust/3593608524/
He must have
been playing
World of Warcraft,
because he only
spent 32 minutes
on Algebra.

149. Thank You
david.wiley@byu.edu
801-422-7071
http://davidwiley.org/

150. Visualizing Educational Data
Creating new visualization techniques to
support teaching and learning

152. Openness
• Increases access
• Gathers more data
• Improves sharing
• Creates local control
• Makes data actionable / CQI
• Permits alignment with societal changes
“facilitates the unexpected”

153. More Open We Are
The better education will be

154. Thank You!
david.wiley@byu.edu
http://davidwiley.org/