E-Learning 2.0: The “whole product” for a market of one
Instead of moving among discrete applications in courses, learners in the near future will be accessing “hybrid applications” or “mashups” in which data will be mixed together from many different sources, in a unique blend for that learner at that moment. The “content” for educational experiences will be based on distributed applications and data sources. This is all possible because of an explosion of innovation in information and communications technologies (ICT) applied to helping individuals and collectives to learn.
It is, according to Downes, “A shift from the idea of the Web as medium to the idea of the Web as platform.” The unique traits of this emerging e-Learning platform include the following:
- Increasing speed of computers: Photonic, genetic, and quantum computing will make today’s computers seem like dinosaurs in five years.
- Interactivity beyond clicking on links: As we develop computer interfaces that involve all the senses and programs that truly allow individuals to make differences in their own learning landscape and to contribute to the learning of others, interactivity will morph into real engagement and involvement in the networked world.
- Dynamic learning: With new forms of interactivity and innovative uses of the possibilities inherent in this new platform, content will shift from something that is static information for an individual to absorb, to the creation of dynamic educational experiences that will involve all the senses and engage thinking minds. Users interacting with each other will generate much, but not all, of the available content, and they will be able to post their content to networked repositories. Distributed content will loosely couple so that it can be reconfigured in a myriad of ways depending on the context and the personal profile of each learner.
- Aggregated content: The use of content “feeds” (such as Really Simple Syndication, or RSS) will increase, and to manage the huge amount of content that will be available, content aggregators will gather what each learner needs on an individualized basis.
- High-speed networking to anywhere in the world: Countries that have traditionally been unable to afford the level of computer technologies enjoyed in North America and Europe will be brought online with the laying of fibre optic cable, wireless wide area networks, and inexpensive computers (under $100).
- Real-time collaboration: All of the above changes will allow people to organize and work together via computer networks, whether they are in the local area or halfway around the world.
- Digital representations and transformations: As more and more of the world’s assets are digitized, they will be available in new flexible formats.
- Increasingly sophisticated algorithms: Algorithms, or repeatable computer procedures, are the key to innovation. Thousands of companies and research organizations around the world are engaged in a frenzy of research and development activities to develop better algorithms for any human process that a computer can replicate.
- Huge storage and retrieval capacity: Storage of digital information has become massive, and extremely cheap. It is now possible to keep everything being produced on the world’s computers.
- Individualization, customization, flexibility, adaptability, personalization: With new personalization software able to make recommendations for what learners need next, a dynamic learning profile for each person in the world, based on their learning preferences, interests, and abilities, will influence search results and the learning experiences offered.
- Constant availability: Ubiquitous embedded computing is already here. Cars, roads, homes, businesses, etc., all have computing capacities that are always available, and which are often embedded in the environment. The computer is truly becoming invisible and mobile.
- Improved simulations and visualization of complex data: The most startling change for learning in the near future will be the simulation and visualization of very complex phenomena, in order to understand and change the world.
- Support for collective human endeavors through digital technologies:
This means an increase in the practice of “collaborative cognition” (as David
Bearison and Bruce
- Multiple channels for learning: While some individual learners will want to find their way through the maze of information, educational materials, and experiences available to them in the new “learning landscape,” many others will want (or may be required) to be guided in their online learning. Learning experiences will be multi-channel, sometimes in one direction, and other times in two or more directions.
With all the possible variation in content, there is a need to coordinate workflows in e-Learning and to produce a unique personalized multi-channel mix of both push and pull educational experiences for each learner. With configurable platforms each user can, in effect, have a “private label” application that serves up the optimal educational material for his or her needs.
E-Learning 2.0 requires flexible, configurable software that can manage and track learning while coordinating and delivering a wide range of information resources and educational experiences. Advocates for e-Learning 2.0 are trying to piece together such a system from a wide variety of open source initiatives, including virtual learning environments, personal learning environments, wikis, blogs, and content repositories. We believe that a more effective way to create a dynamic educational environment is to use the collaborative strengths of SharePoint and Live Communications Server from Microsoft, supported by a configurable Learning Management System (LMS) such as LearnFlex™. In the sections that follow, we’ll show you how we and our colleagues did this using SOAP protocols and a set of service-oriented technologies that connect the loosely joined pieces of the Web together.
(In the interest of full disclosure, LearnFlex™ is a product of our company, Operitel.)
SOAP and Web services
The Web is made up of an extremely large collection of software objects, all expressed in binary code. Many of these objects are software programs, which can range from a single statement to massive amount of computer code. Programs can be “stand alone,” that is, run all by themselves, or they can be dependent upon other programs to supply data or specific functions. In order for two or more programs to talk to each other, they need to have an agreed set of rules or protocols of how to communicate with each other. For example, HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) is the set of rules of how a request for a specific Web page can be made to a Web server. Similarly, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) provides the rules for sending files across the Internet.
SOAP originally stood for Simple Object Access Protocol, the set of rules for accessing a software object on the Internet. The meaning of SOAP has since broadened to include rules on how two software programs can communicate and work with each other, also called “object interoperability.”
Using SOAP, programmers can build programs that communicate across the Web and exchange data with other programs. Such programs can “expose” their functions or data to other programs, and be “consumed” by them. The programs that do this are called “Web services,” and the organization of software to facilitate these arrangements is called “Service Oriented Architecture” (SOA). (See Thomas Erl’s book on SOA, listed in the References at the end of this article.)
Some Web services are public, and can be linked to by any software with the knowledge of how to read the information from the Web service, while other Web services require authorization through the use of security procedures. When a Web site takes data from several Web services, and perhaps mixes it with its own data, such a site is referred to as a mashup or Web hybrid application.
Any Learning Management System (LMS) with built-in Web services can be part of a mashup. By integrating data and functions from other types of programs, such as those for collaboration, document management, communications, etc., the LMS becomes capable of tracking the formal aspects of learning, while simultaneously providing an informal collaborative environment.
We have taken this approach in several cases, using a combination of LearnFlex™ and Microsoft SharePoint. These hybrid sites have a single signon for learners, instructors and administrators, making them powerful e-Learning portals. A mashup can be extended to add features through the use of Web services. For example, in one project we added Microsoft Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software into the mix.
It should be noted that Web services provided by an LMS will work with any other Web program that “consumes” Web services, and that SharePoint also can provide Web services to be consumed by external applications. The combination we have chosen to use offers a number of advantages. SharePoint offers many useful functions that support personal and collaborative learning, while LearnFlex™ is highly adaptable, changing its presentation of graphics, features, languages, and business rules based on the personal profile of each user.
Uniting the two programs allows us to develop personalized collaborative learning management systems (PCLMS) that meet the unique set of requirements of each client for the functions of e-Learning 2.0, while maintaining the ability to register, track and report on formal learning transactions.
