1. Betty Collis University of Twente, The Netherlands Copyright Betty Collis 2005. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

2. Some background From Detroit; degrees from University of Michigan, Stanford and University of Victoria (Canada) Faculty member 1975-2005; educational technology Pioneer user of technology to support learning and for strategic change in organizations Leader of team that developed the TeleTOP CMS Since 2000, associated with Shell EP; head of research for learning & leadership development Consultant

3. From context to tools to people… Why? Functioning in a Knowledge Society –Using digital workbenches How? Learning for a Knowledge Society –More than acquiring, also contributing With what? Technology and Learning –Digital workbenches, also for learning Who? What makes it complicated? What about research?

4. Why? The Knowledge Society Characteristics of a knowledge society include: –mobility of services, information, and workforce –globally-available information –working in multidisciplinary and distributed teams –on-going need to update and change one’s skills –using information technology for knowledge management, sharing, and creation

5. Productive Functioning

6. How? Using workbenches A platform, tools, customizable to the user…

7. People use digital workbenches to… Solve problems that are meaningful to them Create new processes for how they interact, communicate, organize and amuse themselves Build new communities in which they define themselves Fill their time Find what they need

8. How? Learning for a Knowledge Society

9. Learning as Participating and Contributing The focus of learning activities is not only knowledge acquisition, but becoming a member of a community of practice: not only learning from the community, but also contributing to it The interactions to which the learner contributes may serve to change the knowledge base of the community even as he or she participates in it

10. Co-Creation How? The Contributing Student

11. The Contributing Student Sharing & Reuse

12. With what? Two types of workbenches for contributions Discussion forum with archive Shared workspaces Mostly organized around questions and sharing experiences via online communications… Mostly organized around sharing resources or “stories”, like a library, but a library where each entry can grow…

13. Professional teams: Learners as co-constructors of knowledge in a community of practice The corporate sector: Shell EP Well engineers and geologists who work together on multidisciplinary teams Examples: Cross-course: Portfolio assessment to demonstrate relationships above the individual course

14. .. with a use outside of the course (link … ) Example: Designing and building a product for others, with others

15. Example: Jointly creating a resource for others At the Queensland University of Technology, students as their class assignment design and develop a new version of the public Brisbane Media Map…Brisbane Media Map…

16. Example: Digital portfolios, also as learning resources for others… (Link…)

17. Example: Using a shared workbench for team projects Teams keep a shared environment… For all, drafts, final versions and resources Where everyone can leave comments and ideas Where others can share your results….. an example …

18. Example: Use your experience to help others In the corporate setting, with multidiscipline teams…corporate setting

19. Thus, how? Digital workbenches, also for learning 1.Common application tools 2. Specialized tools and platforms, but not created especially for learning 3. Workbenches created for learning purposes 4. Educationally oriented workbenches for instructors and instructional designers

20. How? A CMS as a Workbench

21. From being on the receiving end of content delivery to co-constructing Transformations: Strengthening the processes Content Communicatio n Co-constructed content and meaning Pre-structured content, within a course Little or no human communication Within a course or programme Professional knowledge building, reflection Information repository Online course Blended (extended) course Communities of Practice Information

22. Who? The people involved will face challenges

23. How to help? Action Research …a family of research methodologies which pursue action (or change) and research (or understanding) at the same time… It is an iterative process which takes shape as understanding increases and converges towards a better understanding of what happens PlanAct ObserveReflect Participant(s)

24. Our Conclusion : For us, technology is not for “delivering” learning or for taking the humans out of learning, but is rather is a set of tools, a locally tailorable workbench, which offers affordances to empower people to share, build, support, and manage their learning together, in their common context

25. Prof. dr. Betty Collis Betty.Collis@Utwente.nl For more… Collis, B., & Moonen, J. (2005). An on-going journey: Technology as a learning workbench. Available via http://bettycollisjefmoonen.nl http://bettycollisjefmoonen.nl