We have had some great ideas submitted to the competition so far, with six (count ‘em) new ones published today.

You can find them all here. Don’t forget to rate and comment on those that catch your eye!

You also have just over a week to submit your ideas on how informal adult learning could be improved by having an online directory of learning opportunities and open spaces where learning activities could be held. Visit our idea submission page now and be in with the chance of winning a share of a £25,000 development fund!

Idea submitted by Jon Bounds of We Share Stuff

A website that allows people to link remotely and continue learning with and from each other (or to form learning groups) away from the class room.

The mentoring would be done via video call — or audio call if required — over the internet in one-to-one or group discussions.

Web service would use the Skype (free to use online phone/video service) API (programming interface) to host the calls — but would broker the calls, arranging times and matching skills without any participant having to reveal their contact details.

Groups could be administered by tutor, or could be formed online by users “advertising” for mentors.

It would work especially well for ESOL groups, or others where written literacy is a barrier to studying away from a learning environment.

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Idea submitted by Samantha Bail & Tim Dobson

The idea:

Motivation

With the internet providing access to vast amounts of information, informal learning beyond established structures has become easier and more popular than ever. No longer do people only learn in the classroom, but also peer to peer, friend to friend, online and offline.

Throughout Great Britain like minded people interested in technology and digital media get together at regular events to share ideas and skills, discuss new developments and extend their personal network.

In the North West of England alone, there are almost daily events ranging from informal meetings (such as “Girl Geek Dinners”), programming workshops (such as “PHP User Groups”) to weekend long conferences (such as “Barcamps”). Most events are organised by the communities themselves and aim to be free, open and accessible to all. This is a great way of keeping up to date with modern technology, developing new skills and sharing knowledge, while not being constrained to formal learning environments.

However, whilst these events are widely attended, a lot of the information and knowledge shared is simply lost after the event, preventing those who were unable to attend from participating.

Aims

We aim to create a platform that offers access to information and content presented at such events whilst also encouraging attendees to discuss and share ideas afterwards.

This will preserve the knowledge for both the attendees and those who could not be there, combining it into a pool of information and making it accessible to anyone who is interested in the topic – beyond regional boundaries.

In addition, this will also encourage people who are not aware of the offerings provided by a particular community to learn and benefit from past and future events.

This platform will combine different types of information such as event summaries in written form, presentation slides, as well as audio and video recordings to create a multimedia “mash up”. We will also encourage users to interactively participate through discussions and microblogging integration (such as via “Twitter”).

Method

We will develop a website in the form of a multimedia knowledge base that is centred around a calendar type structure. We will include information on upcoming and past events that combines content from various internal and external sources – such as image, audio and video, microblogging, attendance lists, slides, discussion boards and hyperlinks to related web content. We will allow for editable text content (based on a “Wiki” structure) that summarises and reviews the event in an objective form. Data (including event dates, which are mainly obtained from an already existing event calendar) can be added and edited by registered users and is retro-actively moderated.

The technology used will be based upon an existing open source content management system (CMS), adapted to purpose. By utilising existing plug-ins as well as developing bespoke modules where required, we will efficiently create an open platform that can be easily extended. This makes the project cost-effective and easy to maintain. As a result of community contribution, the cost and effort of creating content and keeping it up-to-date will be minimised – as opposed to a single organisation being the “content provider”.

Sharing and reusing of content will be supported by users licensing their content on the platform under a “Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0” license.

As this project is a prototype, we will initially focus on events in the North West of England, with a view to expanding in due course. Whilst basing the platform on technology related events, the general concept and structure clearly allow for use by other interest groups, such as the cultural and voluntary sector.

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Idea submitted by Jeremiah Alexander of Ideonic

Social Study is an online application that pulls together information about learning opportunities, resources for group study and details about local activities; but most importantly, it connects people with similar interests, empowering them to take control over their learning while increasing motivation through an engaging visual interface.

Social Study will be developed as a Facebook application with the potential for a location aware iPhone/mobile version. Using Social Study users will input a summary of what they are currently studying or interested in studying. This information along with their social network data is used to create a virtual mapping of the available opportunities for them to learn in their location; it also provides suggestions for new courses they may be interested in and potential study partners based on their shared interests with other users.

By using Facebook Social Study can collate feedback and prioritise learning options based upon the recommendations of trusted friends or people with the most similar interests. Social Study can also increase motivation to study by making the organisation of it playful, for example, high score tables of the most active or diverse interest learners.

An exciting prospects for Social Study is the ability for people to form clusters of learners interested in an unavailable subject and take action to create new learning arrangements. These clusters can be provided access to the necessary information and resources to facilitate them in organise a new opportunity or forming a self study network, for example, a large enough cluster of people in Middlesbrough interested in learning Japanese may source an instructor in Newcastle to setup weekly classes .

Social Study is about connecting users with learning opportunities and likeminded people and providing them with the tools they need to make the best choices.

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Idea submitted by Paul Bradshaw of Birmingham City University School of Media

A dynamic learning directory that allows learners of all kinds to tap into academic expertise by creating a sustainable and flexible resource out of the byproducts of ongoing research. In a nutshell the ‘process’ of ongoing learning and research that an academic does on a daily basis, becomes a ‘product’ in its own right.

This project involves training academics in using social bookmarking tools to make visible what have so far been invisible processes of research and monitoring information – and using the resultant information feeds to make that invisible expertise visible for anyone.

In practice, this means that, as an academic, everything I read and find interesting in my subject area is published in a way that provides a useful learning resource and archive, without me having to do any extra work (and hopefully saving me work in the long run).

The benefit for the academic is a more effective work process – as they ‘tag’ everything that they read with keywords it makes it more easy to access that information again at future dates. If they are teaching a class on methodology, for example, they can direct students to their bookmarks tagged ‘methodology’; if they are specifically looking at the use of methodology in studies of biology, they can point people at ‘methodology+biology’. The academic has control on what they choose to bookmark and tag.

The same advantages apply when writing books, research papers, or fielding media enquiries.

The benefit for learners is that this collection of information is public, and can be cross-published automatically onto a staff or department blog, email newsletter, Facebook page or any other platform. This requires no effort from the academic.

So a student interested in discourse can visit the BCU Media School website and search or browse through staff bookmarks, providing a ‘pre-filtered’ web on a particular topic.

Beyond this very simple beginning there is enormous potential for combining the bookmarks of all staff in a particular field, building a valuable database of interests and specialisms, or across fields, and making new connections which would otherwise not be obvious. It would also highlight the most-used resources within academia and in the process build flexible and constantly updated ‘reading lists’. There is also potential to incorporate the bookmarks of learners into the site.

Technically the project would require very little work: staff would be shown how to place a ‘bookmarklet’ on their web browser (this takes 30 seconds at most) and a website would be created to pull and publish feeds from those (this could be done in a day). Additional material should be produced to show people how to pull feeds onto other platforms such as Facebook, blogs, MyGoogle, etc. and how to tweak the website when required. Open source technologies could be used at all points if required, although the free platform Delicious would be the best option for the initial bookmarking stage. The main focus of the project is one-time training that in turn creates a sustainable model for a dynamic learning resource.

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Idea submitted by Guy Giles of Looking Local

There is a range of e-learning portals and online education services which cater to the wide spectrum of learning levels, requirements and capabilities; this is a situation one would expect in light of the maturity of the Internet and with around 70% of the population having access to the web.

However a significant minority of people, in fact 30% of adults in the UK (around 17 million in total) and 35% of families have no to the web access at home. These are often the people who need government services the most, people who would welcome additional support in learning whether informal or more formal.

Whilst there is often Internet access in local libraries and via UK Online centres and Internet cafes/shops, this may not be the ideal setting to undertake education programmes. Online learning can be involved in nature, require multiple and ongoing access, benefit from being undertaken in a peaceful setting and preferably at the learners’ preferred choice of time.

Looking Local specialises in publishing information on digital interactive TV, mobile phones and via consumer electronics that are popular and easy to use, such as the Nintendo Wii. By using these alternative channels we are able to reach into millions of homes and deliver useful, real time, end-to-end services.

Looking Local proposes that whatever ideas Teach Us a Lesson takes forward, that these applications, ideas, developments, initiatives be made available (where appropriate) via digital interactive TV, mobile and other consumer platforms, as well as online. This would allow for fair access to the new developments and allow people from across the digital divide – many who may not have English as a first language, who are technophobic or unable to use a PC for a variety of reasons – to access these services in the comfort of their own home, using a device they are comfortable with.

This sits squarely with BECTA’s e-strategy in terms of engaging hard-to-reach learners, particularly in the realm of giving them more choice as to how and where they learn. However DiTV in particular, and mobile to a lesser extent, could also offer more motivating ways of learning and use technologies that people are happy and able to use.

Already over 55% of homes have access to digital interactive TV, a figure that will increase as we head towards digital switchover completion in 2012. And with over 90% of the population owning a mobile phone, there is a huge opportunity – and need – to reach people with useful educational service, anything from revision reminders to local listings of informal adult education groups, by platforms other than the web.

DiTV and mobile have the ability to integrate video and text to offer a holistic and interactive approach to learning as well as examination. As DiTV boxes are connected by a phone line, broadband or cable, the opportunity for real time learning has already been investigated and a case proven. We are also currently seeing increasingly sophisticated set top boxes coming on to the market; hence the opportunities are constantly growing and need assessing.

Assessing the Opportunity of Multi Platform Delivery:

Digital interactive TV, mobile phones and alternative platforms offered by consumer electronics allow an organisation to widen their reach and include people across the digital divide. These channels should be part of any approach to ‘electronic’ service provision, particularly now in light of the digital switchover and pervasiveness of DiTV, mobile phones and the range of alternative electronic access devices.

How educational services would best be deployed on these channels is something that would need to be investigated, and the different capabilities and interaction that each device offers and encourages, would inevitably mean a different – but integrated and compatible – solutions for each platform.

Looking Local is well placed in the market having run a digital interactive TV portal for over six years and provided mobile services for nearly four years, focusing solely on government and public sector services.
Benefits of using a range of platforms to deliver educational services include:

• Attracting and engaging new learners by using familiar and widespread technology
• Keeping learners interested by using a mixture of media and tools
• Supporting outreach learning
• Providing consistent delivery to allow self-paced learning
• Knowing that learners are learning and completing learning activities via the management information (MIS) and feedback
• Aiding revision and testing
• Offering ongoing progress tests
• Providing personalised content
• Giving the educational providers constant feedback as to the value of their materials
• Link to other useful services such as job searches, video content and informational guides
• Marketing further training, organisations and courses
• Integrating third party learning modules/offerings

We would recommend a review of public facing, popular education applications and how they could work on alternative platforms, such as:

• Finding local courses
• A review of the most popular adult learning courses currently offered online with a view of implementing them on new channels
• A reality check as to what would migrate to DiTV and mobile well
• How schools could supplement their Home Access programmes, particularly for families where English is not the primary language
• How schools could offer information, prospectus information, school made films to parents and students
• Looking Local is already working on how to integrate online admissions with one large metropolitan authority and this is work we would like to widen to a national level
• Success stories of using alternative platforms to improve education and learning (such as Teachers TV) could be investigated to understand how they could be augmented to offer more interactivity and widen choice as well as if they can be replicated to inform and improve other areas of education provision

National Indicators:

Looking Local has reviewed the national indicator list and believes it can help organisations to meet over 50% of NIs, particularly in the realms of collating and providing access to information/ services as well as consultation. Already a number of local authorities that we are working with have implemented services and information to work towards increasing access to information and services to meet NI targets.

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Idea submitted by Gemma Hughes of S-cool Ltd

Searching for formal and informal learning can be time consuming and complicated with potential learners having to search individual provider websites or contact tutors directly to find out more about what they are looking for. This creates barriers for those with a tentative interest who might, with a little encouragement and easily accessible information, be ready to take the plunge.

Successful websites are based on a simple working logic that caters for a high level of traffic and return visits from previous users. For this to work in the informal learning arena and to be relevant the solution must be capable of local relevance and national coverage. There has to be both organic growth supported by individuals and groups as well as wider publicity and involvement of local and regional third sector and business networks.

A simple idea would be to create a telephone directory type site that is constructed to be user friendly with easy to navigate pages and journeys. There will be a number of search facilities which will cater for everybody’s needs and requirements making the search facility comprehensive and intuitive, these may include provider name, location, postcode, course, activity etc. The results returned will be easy to understand and direction will be offered for prospective learners at every stage of the process. The beauty of this approach is that a single platform can cater for individual needs in their community or in another region (e.g. if they work out of town). As more groups and organisations come on board so the directory can grow on the platform rather than have separate or linked sites.

An effective directory should provide users with a variety of management tools enabling a wide range of organisations that offer learning with a simple way of adding the relevant course details and adjusting course details as appropriate. Organisations will need to have space where they can upload short clips, and collect feedback and enquiries; this information will need to be available to prospective learners and providers in real time.

To enhance the standard directory and strengthen the personalisation of the directory, core functions would be provided for each learner, these would include the opportunity to sign up for alerts to new courses and activities within a specified mile radius of their postcode or subject area, a personal page to create a learning profile (including interests, building a CV, previous informal learning participation etc.). There will also be options to progress from informal learning into more formal learning, access to information, advice and guidance services and an events diary for their home postcode/area.

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Idea submitted by Paula Briggs of AccessArt

Although social networking is helping connect like-minded learners across geographies, when it comes to attending a physically-based learning session, “local” is where it’s at. But learners are willing to travel, and want to be joined up with, and inspired by, like-minded learners.

So can we create a model which works like this:

Each website focusses on a particular type of learning, e.g. visual arts and crafts, music and drama, sport, etc etc.

1) Once at a theme-based website, the user (or prospective learner), then accesses info by locality – they click on their nearest town/village.

2) The user is then taken to a page which begins to be relevant to them. It is a map, but not a google type map – its more like a london tube map – a symbolic map. The map radiates from a centre (the centre being the themed area e.g. visual arts and crafts learning). Radiating out from the centre are the courses, place of learning etc which offer a facility in that geographical location. These can be clicked on for further details.

3) Crucially, information can be added by providers to build the hubs and spokes. All information would be moderated. Information would not have to be added by the provider – but could also be added by learning peers, in the form of recommendations.

4) Additionally, experiences which would widen the learning experience could also be added, for example, suggestions for visits, or suppliers of materials etc, could also be added, again always relevant in terms of location and theme.

5) Learner feedback could also be added, to expand upon the providers descriptions of courses.

6) Towards the periphery of the spokes radiating form the hubs, links could be made to orls which would take users to other locally-based, themed hub sites, which share similar interests. For example, the visual arts and crafts site make link with a parallel site exploring local history. In this way potential learners horizons will be expanded.

7) the hubs will not only enable learners, but also connect providers, and facilitators.

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Idea submitted by: Kristian Still of Hamble College

My first thought turned to our wireless network and our community use in the evening.

What if schools also opened their wireless connectivity to their local communities? Open internet access where learners can learn for themselves.

Local authorities could post wireless access edumap with control passed over to the school network manager. Its not like most schools are not screening the internet usage of the students and barely a drain on the network out of school hours.

It is a shame that we have fantastic connectivity – disconnected.

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Idea submitted by Stephen Lockyer

Slate allows a digital page to be shared in real time. A teacher gives out a web address to the pupils, who have computers or PDAs. They can all add images, text or video to the shared page, rather like a digital brainstorming page. This tool would be fantastic to generate ideas and examples from pupils, demonstrate learning and empower collaborative work.

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