seeK: the first three weeks

As you may know, we launched an all new version of our student intranet last week. At the same time, we also unveiled a brand new student area called c_live. The launch went as smoothly as could be expected, there were some small issues (broken links etc) but no major problems in application logic.

There is a lot to be said for how to best manage a transition between systems, our school of thought is to flip the switch and see how it all works out, trusting in our robust design. This, to a large degree was the correct decision as few students struggled with the new system although there was much discussion on the system in our forums.

When we did 'flick the switch', it was with a sense of personal trepidation as included in the upgrade was a web application called seeK. seeK is a twitter/facebook style status sharing application designed to provide students with the social networking & collaborating functionality they crave whilst ensuring it takes place in a secure and managed environment. I was nervous, as it can easily been seen as a chat application with no benefit to teaching and learning.

This is a similar argument that was levelled at the internet when it was first offered as a resource, however it is my thinking that unsupervised or unmanaged any resource can be a distraction (doodling in a text book is a good example).

So what happened?

From uploading the application to the live server, it took under a minute for the first seeK status to be posted, that in itself is a record. The thing is seeK isn't on the main page of seeNet, it's a completely different section called c_Live, which means:

• The students recognised a new version of seeNet
• Realised there was a new section called c_live and clicked the link
• The Student was presented with a range of new applications they hadn't seen before 
• Posted a status update

All within a minute and with no guidance from us.

Say what you want about the term digital natives, the students took to the concept of seeK like ducks to water.

So all went well?

When I first unveiled the system to the team for testing, we messed around and posted silly status updates, if we did that, I wouldn't expect anything less from our students. Students will test the boundaries of the system they are given and boy howdy did they do exactly that. The one that stands out from the rest was a student  using an harmless css injection attack to change the background image of c_live to a picture of himself!

The Scunthorpe issue

To protect our students from inappropriate status updates I've created a simple regex function that parses the status checks for certain words. My opinion is that swear filters are an exercise in futility, in that it a machine cannot detect (at the time of writing) the intent of the sentence. That means that the system can only check for a range of string values and execute the correct response based on the validation of the string. We can easily create a sentence that will pass through the swear filter, but can still be offensive. Better yet we can legitimately use swear words in a sentence e.g. Literary students can discuss the character of Phillip the Bastard from Shakespeare's King John. The system won't know of the play, let alone the character, all it will see is a word that is in the list of banned words and block the update.

It begs the question, if users can circumvent the system and the system itself can block legitimate discussion is there any point to a profanity filter?

Leaving the censorship debate aside, seeK has given us unparalleled access to the learner voice and their opinion of the changes on seeNet. I think that seeK gives us access to a previously unheard majority within the College as not everyone uses the Forums or emails us with feedback.  In fact I've spent the last week modifying seeNet based on the feedback received via seek including swapping the two column layout for a three columns and making it fixed width. Alongside feedback, I've set up a default MyseeNet account that is auto associated with all student feeds, it allows us to ask questions, give answers and in some cases help students find lost memory sticks!

The bottom line is that we need to find new ways to communicate with students, whatever your thoughts are on e-learning, web 2.0, digital natives etc. Social networks and the internet aren't going to disappear just because some in education are afraid of change, students are expecting their learning experience to match their social one.

Students want it, if we're not listening to our learners we're not being good educators.

At the time of writing 793 seek profiles have been created,  3048 status updates have been posted and 1085 friends have been added since the launch of seeNet 2.0 on the 25/11/2009.

The ICT Bill of Rights

I've been thinking, well scratch that the team has been working flat out on the finishing touches to c_space, our staff and student vle/intranet.

If you're a regular reader of this blog you'll know I've been working on a section (once known as seeSpace), called c_live which is a brand new concept for the College. c_live is a new area on our vle that is the first step in changing how our students view what a vle really is and gives educators an idea of what can be created in browser.

For those who don't follow this blog (shame on you!), c_live gives all students persistent, pervasive access to a range of tools and services they have not had available to them before.

For too long the answer to many of educations problems has been to grab a box off the shelf and make it fit the need, this is not only a self defeating exercise but it also makes it harder for the learner to use. I say this as that more often than not the user will have to click through to find the system, log on and only then get to do what they aimed to do in the first place!

So what should we be doing?

Make the system easier to use and ensure that its provides the information that students want.

Simple eh?

To this end, when our new VLE seeNet launches the VLE will be broken into four main areas:

myInformation:

• The current week view of their scheme of work
• A weekly view of their tutorial
• Upcoming assessments reminders
• Up to date attendance data
• Timetables
• Email with 25 gigabytes of storage
• Most recently set targets in their ILPs

Learning Resources:

• Online databases of curriculum resources
• Library catalogue and resources
• Key skills and functional skills materials
• Study skills, literacy and numeracy resources
• Interactive learning resources
• The Learning Resources Pool, which currently contains over 3000 staff authored curriculum resources

Student Information:

• Student policies and procedures
• Equality and diversity resources
• Health and safety information
• JobShop vacancies

C_space:

• Online forums, (in which last year students and staff posted over 25000 messages in 1023 topics in 24 forums)
• Student Blogs, that can be shared with all student and staff with a click of a button.
• A student noticeboard that allows students to inform students and staff of events
• A feature to allow Student Council members to publish their own content that is shown direct to all students via c_live
• seeLinks - a pervasive bookmark creator that will enable students to bookmark key websites and have them available where ever they are
• seeK - a tool modeled on Twitter which will allow students to share updates regarding their work and collaborate both with staff and students
• seeNotes - an in browser notepad providing students with a personal space for them to post notes, reminders or even a shopping list to seeSpace
• An RSS feed aggregator allowing students access to the latest news and information
• Weather updates! (one of the largest requests from students)

All that from just a browser, available inside and outside of College.

So how does the ICT Bill of rights come into it? (Apart from being a rather catchy title...)

VLE's have in one form or another been around since the early nineties and yet they're still finding their feet, I suppose, you could say that they're running to stay still. I feel that this is in part to do with how they came to be and the damaged that caused, the hyperbole created inflated user expectations and the resultant dismay has had lasting repercussions.

And the fact that application and service development within education was in its nascent form.

It's not been possible with the available technology to give students what they need.

The ideas have been there, blogs, wiki's, collaboration, sharing, giving students the ability to talk back; but the technology has always been the millstone dragging the system down.

Until now...

With c_space we can guarantee the following:

• Students can know what is happening with their College life at any time, day or night
• That every student will be able to have a blog, just by opening the browser
• That students can have bookmarks, and take them with them
• That students can share links with their friends and peers
• That Teachers can share important documents without having to use email
• That students can get to the information and resources quickly and easily
• That students can access all of this via a single sign on process

It sounds simple, but think about it, this isn't miriad of different applications, this is one system.

And this is just the beginning.

Vive La Revolution!

Doctor in the House

Whilst at ota09, one of the sessions I joined was hosted by the NHS and discussed how they wanted developers to create web apps/widgets that use NHS data. Examples that were thrown around included suggest a medication, in conjunction with a major pharmacy or store, so far so good.

But following on from my discussions yesterday of how to make a VLE more relevant to Students, could we reposition the VLE as not just a learning tool but one to help in general?

We've already started with the creation of seeSpace onto our VLE, which gives Students access to Forums, personal blogs, Notepads, Twitter Style communications tools that give Students the ability to comment and a whole lot more.

But lets take it a step further, what if we could enhance our VLE by creating an application/service that could help Students find answers to questions they'd rather not ask someone face to face?

It may be slightly pie in the sky at the moment but if we could create an application such as that, it would really change how we view VLEs.

I'm hoping to meet with the session leaders in the next month to discuss what we can do, my first, my first idea is a postcode search based 'Find my GP/NHS Clinic'.

Exciting times.

Don't believe the hype?

So many questions and so few answers....

How indispensable is the VLE? Or more the point, how can we make VLE the defacto tool for education? Do we really need to, will it happen organically or will another platform march in and change the game? Are we reinventing the wheel once again?

What's the solution?

In all honsety there is not a silver bullet that will make a VLE essential for everyone as by its very name it's a learning tool and we all learn differently. Which leads me to 'Personalisation', this is the latest buzz word in education and I'm a big fan.

I should say I'm a fan of the concept and not the name, in that as it is a current ICT buzz word, it will be forever be perceived as another in a long line of fads within education and thus enthused, rubbished and abandoned in fairly short order.

But if we ignore the hype surrounding personalisation and look at what it wants to achieve:

• Moulding the tool or the environment around the user,
• Making the users experience unique
• Giving users the ability to share and comment

We can see that it is something to get excited about

Catch 22 then? we can't get excited about something, without damaging it? (Perhaps an e-learning observer effect?

Well, not quite what we can do is work damn hard to ensure that we under promise and over deliver. Whilst observing current trends, but at the same time not being restricted by them.

More than one way to joint a chicken

The BBC visited the College yesterday to look at the increased enrolment in education and how we're using award winning technology to really enhance the Student experience:

The BBC were particularly impressed with our innovative Kitchen Recording System developed in conjunction with Impact that creates video resources to aid Catering Students. Ron Wyatt-Goodwin (the chef featured in the video), Head of Commercial Catering & Operations Division said that the new system helped Students who are reluctant to ask the lecturer to repeat parts of lesson, allowing them to work through the technique at their own pace.

The other major benefit Ron identified for the system is that the resources produced are videos, meaning that they can be replayed and reused as many times as the Student or Lecturer needs, ensuring that learners get more out of a session and Lecturers can spend more time supporting Students in class.

Ron also said that giving the Students the option of watching and reviewing videos before, during and after a session gives them the ability to visualise and practice techniques, leading to a demonstrable increase in first time pass rates.

It also saves quite a lot of chickens.

Leading from the front

Most VLE's aren't what you'd call aesthetically pleasing, I suppose the best way to describe them would be.... functional.

I believe that this is mostly due to the way that the VLE has developed, incrementally and with a great focus on keeping it the same. I feel that a lot of VLE developers stick the mantra that 'Big change causes big problems', in that making radical shifts in design or functionality can alienate users and make the transition period hellish, forever tarnishing the reputation product.

And whilst that is true, we must remember that the first bite is with the eye or to modify an another cliché, all users judge a book by its cover, Students are even more design focussed than ever before.

So how do we respond as developers? With Varying shades of grey.

If the aim of ICT is to engage the user, why is it that most educational software looks so bad?

Of course the function of the software is paramount but we also need to realise that our user has changed and that their expectations of what software should look like have radically altered.

I'm not advocating BOLD FLASHING COLOUR SETS THAT MAKE YOUR EYES BLEED, instead we should focus clean looking, intelligently designed layouts that enhance the content.

Are we missing a trick by designing the way VLE's look?

Who are we developing for? Students

Who develop the VLE? Staff

Who provides feedback? Staff

Seeing a pattern here? If VLE's are for students why are staff designing them? I'm not talking about a simple student consultation process, I think we should get students designing the look of our intranet.

Where else but in education can you have access to hundreds of developers, graphic artists and designers chomping at the bit for industry experience?

Students get a VLE that looks good, the designers get experience and accreditation and we as developers can ensure that we have the best VLE possible as it led not just by students ideas but by their actual hard work.

Now this isn't just a flowery idea, I'm actually putting this into practice. A games development student has come forward wanting to work on our new version of seeNet and so he is going to design the look and feel for seeSpace.

That's how we at South East Essex College aren't just talking about changing ICT, we're pioneering the use of student led design over large scale projects.

VLE's for Students, By Students.

Independent opportunities for learning?

It’s conceivable that someone may not be able to hold a laptop (even a low weight Netbook weighs in at 1kg), so how can we provide what they need in a format that they can readily use each and every day with minimal setup and weight? As we know, last week I had a cold; however via my device I could still keep up with news, technical websites, events, work emails and meeting requests, I could respond to queries and discuss upcoming projects with colleagues. In short I could perform well over 50% of my tasks as an employee of the College without actually having to be in the building, with a laptop with a install of Visual Studio I could pretty much do everything (save training) at home.

So if I can do it, would it work for learners?

I hear you scoff: “Yeah Tom you’re talking about Distance learning, welcome to the late 1990’s!” but hear me out. We have often talked about the success of distance learning, but I don’t think that it’s really gone the distance for learners.

To access course information, you always use laptop or find a full size pc on which to dial into your institution. For any learner who works in a hazardous environment or where power is not readily available must wait until the end of the working day before starting coursework, what happens if the learner has an evening job as well (all the more likely in a time of economic hardship)? When are they going to find the time? Distance learning should make things more convenient for the learner, not harder.

Inspiration as we all know is a curious beast and it can hit at the oddest of times; during a meeting, whilst working on a site, commuting to work, tending the garden (I’ve had coding epiphanies whilst baking), we’ve all been there doing some other task when bang! You’ve worked out the answer to that question, solved a bug in your code, found a better way to present your findings. The question is how can we capture this charismatic enigma that is creativity? That all too fleeting moment where you need to write down before it’s gone, your laptop is in the other room, you don’t have a pen and paper handy and the clock is ticking!

Phones for learning?

Recently I had to help my Grandfather choose a new mobile phone; his twelve year old Motorola had finally given up the ghost. Its feature set was the ability to have a phonebook and to make and receive both calls and text messages. It weighed a ton, was over 6 inches in length, had a huge keypad and best of all it came equipped with an external aerial! Compare that functionality with his new mobile: 5mp Camera, Video recording, video messaging, FM Stereo, High Speed Internet access, Email support, Mp3 ringtones etc. It’s important to note that his new phone is a relatively old design (about 1-2 years old), but shows how mobile telephones have transitioned from providing mobile telephony access to full on communications solutions.

This is where I think mobile devices can be the key in a distance learning environment, they are light, take next to no time to turn on, have low power usage , a long battery life and most of all are simple to use. WiFi/3g/Edge/ HSDPA ensure that the learner is connected 24/7 ensuring that they can access anything they need regardless of the location.

It doesn’t matter if the learner is on a building site, in bed at home, on a train to a meeting, or even doing their weekly food shop, with mobile learning we can provide a moldable learning solution that will offer a better fit to our students.

Long term illness and mobile technology

Last week I was sick, epically ill, so much so that getting out of bed was a feat comparable to climbing Everest.

So whilst stuck in bed with nothing but my mobile phone and my iPod touch I did what any web professional would, I surfed the web. I thought my first port of call would be ICTHorizons.com, as I hadn’t spent much time viewing the site from a mobile device (I realise that this is a crime but the site total time spent creating the web site was less than eleven days from first idea to the site going live, which didn’t leave much time for testing on multiple devices). On perusing the research section I noticed a duff link (horror of horrors) in the article about seeK, how it slipped by I’m not sure but that wasn’t the issue causing me to frown, no the problem was that:

I was ill
It was 9pm on a Friday night
My laptop was downstairs
It was dark and I was wearing Sunglasses.

In short I had three options, one forget about it and leave it until I was back at work (unprofessional), crawl downstairs and log into the server (in my then state, unlikely) or find someway of amending the issue with the tools available at my disposal. My mobile phone a (A Sony Eriksson W890i), is not the most advanced bit of kit in the world, granted it can surf the internet quite quickly thanks to HSDPA and has a somewhat decent web browser but that’s about it, so it would not be able to aid me in my quest, so I turned to my ipod touch. With its fully featured web browser, touch screen, WiFi connection and functionality provided by third party applications, surely I could not fail.

Initial confidence was soon shattered by the fact that I was unsure how I was going to even connect to the servers, let alone the problem of amending the aforementioned dodgy link. On my laptop I would use RDP to connect to the server and then edit the file Visual Studio, but my laptop was far, far away and all I had a was a mobile device running OSX which can’t download files or really edit text, not a good start. My only option was to bet it all that some intrepid developer has created an RDP app for the iPhone, that it would work on my iPod Touch and the demo version did not enforce ludicrous restrictions (like two minute sessions etc, or local sessions only).

It was with some trepidation that I browsed the Apple application store.

A light at the end of the tunnel?

On searching the store I found an app called RDPLite and best of all it was free! (what? in this economic downturn being miserly is in fashion!) , in a couple of seconds the application was downloading and auto installing, within moments I was entering connection information and in mere seconds I was connected to our web facing server, from my bed, via wireless technology on a mobile device, with no traditional input devices like a mouse or keyboard
And whilst I was ill in bed.

I then had one of those moments that geeks and techies get, the one where you say (or in with my sore throat squeak), “that’s so cool!” The sheer impossibility of achieving this 6 years ago (granted windows mobile probably had it back then, but using it is so infuriating that I would have thrown the PDA against the wall and gone back to sleep) is tantamount to what incredible devices mobile phones/mp3 players have turned into.

Out of the frying pan

So I had achieved step one, communication with the live servers, now what? The iPod cannot download files and it only supports one application running at a time dragging and dropping to edit would be out of the question, the application did not support multiple touch to move windows etc. So how was I going to edit that link? If I couldn’t edit the file on the iPod, it meant I had to edit the file live (yes a horrendously bad idea, but I was stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one), so how was I going to do it? What does a web teacher tell you to use to write HTML code on your first day on an entry level web developer course?

Notepad

I opened up notepad and navigated to the ICTHorizons.com directory, luckily the plucky little application had no issue opening up aspx pages and so I thumbed my way through the file (Even running RDP over WiFi it still takes some time for the window to refresh), luckily for me the broken link was right at the bottom, so it took a good minute or two to locate it. Once I’d found the link, it took about three seconds to amend it so that it pointed to the correct location and save. I checked the link to ensure it worked which it did, logged of the server and contemplated how far technology has come.

All in it took about eight minutes from finding the link to fixing it, not a great amount of time, but it did get me thinking, even in my befuddled state the possibilities of mobile devices to help those people and learners who are long term sick or are undertaking a course via Distance Learning.