ceti s c e t i s Report out from Personal Learning and Research Environments Oleg Liber, Sharon Perry, Phil Beauvoir, John Swannie, Tom Franklin, Sarah Davies, Dan Corlett, Hugh Davies, Sandy Patrick Carmichael, Sandy Leaton-Gray, Michael Sellway, Rob Crouchley, Rob Allan, Adrian Fish, Christina Smart, Maia Dimitrova, Marcello Allegri, Charles Severance, Wilbert Kraan

ceti s c e t i s Presentations VRE/VLE/IE Colloquia Interactive Log Teaching and Learning Portal TLRP - Teaching and Learning Research Program AERS ReDRESS - Resource Discover for Researchers in e- Social Science VRE Sakai Demonstrator GROWL - Grid Resources of Workstation Library VRE: Integrated Biology Demonstration CQeSS - Collaboratory for Quanatative e-Social Science

ceti s c e t i s Problem: Many personal environments Collaborative VLE/VRE/IE Requirements VLE Experts VLE Customers VRE Experts VRE Customers IE Experts IE Customers When we treat Virtual Learning, Virtual Research, and Information Environments as different, we end up developing divergent environments which satisfy similar requirements in very different ways based on the experts who are funded to produce the VRE, VLE, or IE solutions. Each expert group is often influenced by a different field of research: VLEs are influenced by Educational Technology experts, VREs are often influenced by Computer Scientists, while IEs are influenced by Library Sciences.

ceti s c e t i s End users are people too… Collaborative VLE/VRE Requirements VLE Experts Customers VRE Experts Customers IE Experts Customers As painful as it may be, the VRE, VLE, and IE experts must begin to coordinate so that some point in the future, users dont have environments with completely different approaches to the same problem.

ceti s c e t i s Why have a Personal in personal Learning/Research Environment Move from a provider or institution focused set of capabilities to an environment where users assemble their environment to suit their needs. System that maps to how I think and operate so that things are made easier for me. How do I bend this tool to suit the way that I work? Especially as my skills as a user improve. Move bits around arrange the way you like. This is both things like my own folder arrangements and things like accessibility (i.e. how I want to see these things)

ceti s c e t i s Requirements appear to be different…

ceti s c e t i s Traditionally, there are some differences Locus of control Existing versus emerging information Fixed versus fluid agenda Different tools in use Similarity and Differences VRE Physics VRE Chemistry IE Social Science Teaching Learning Visualization Grid Computing Annotation QTI Scorm Attendance Chat Discussion Resources Repository Shared Data

ceti s c e t i s Why not apply it all to learning and integrate it together? VLE Visualization Annotation QTI Scorm Chat Shared Data Computing IE VRE The Personal Learning/Research Environment (PLRE) effectively adds a productivity layer to the VLE/VRE/IE space which unifies the look/feel/usability across the multiple sources of information

ceti s c e t i s Todays PLRE is a Compromise Web browser with lots of bookmarks to many sites - each quite different Computer desktop with files, folders client Calendar client … All quite different - user figures tools out as best they can and to the extent they can

ceti s c e t i s Someday the PLRE will not be a browser a. pure html web page b. web page based, but with browser enhancements c. browser extension d. dedicated desktop network client e. extensible desktop application platform f. common desktop application Better user experience Increased productivity More complex to build Difficult to keep up with changing technology

ceti s c e t i s Promising Trends Standards based portals - JSR-168, etc. API standardisation Basic look and feel standardisation - CSS Federating portals - WSRP User control over assembly of many sources Ability to write portable full-featured tools Java Eclipse Flash MX

ceti s c e t i s High Level Recommendations Continue to invest in VLE/VRE/IE efforts, accepting the fact that for the moment they will not converge immediately Continue to invest in portals and WSRP activities to explore federation within current presentation technologies Invest in research into new technologies to federate information sources beyond the browser. Act to maintain communication between the VLE/VRE/IE and PLRE efforts so that common solutions can be shared and evolved over time.

ceti s c e t i s More Recommendations Investigate techniques for the learner/researcher to own their information over their lifetime and share it with institutions and groups at the appropriate time. Encourage projects which support flexible roles and structures (i.e. not just instructor can write and students can read or anyone can create groups) Investigate techniques where PLREs can operate in both connected and disconnected modes

ceti s c e t i s Thank you for your time…