1 Executive Summary

From Stellar Deliverable 1.1

This First TEL Grand Challenge Vision and Strategy Report aims to: • provide a unifying framework for members of STELLAR (including doctoral candidates) to develop their own research agenda • engage the STELLAR community in scientific debate and discussion with the long term aim of developing awareness of and respect for different theoretical and methodological perspectives • build knowledge related to the STELLAR grand challenges through the construction of a wiki that is iteratively co‐edited throughout the life of the STELLAR network • develop understandings of the way in which web 2.0 technologies can be used to construct knowledge within a research community (science 2.0) • develop strategies for ways in which the STELLAR instruments can feed into the ongoing development of the wiki and how the they can be used to address the challenges highlighted in this report.

The report uses as a starting point the STELLAR Description of Work (DoW), which identified three major research themes, and draws on a number of other sources to develop and problematise issues arising within these themes. A key priority was to represent the perspectives of all interest groups within STELLAR and hence all members were invited to make contributions in face to face discussions and on a wiki set up for this purpose. The report can therefore be seen as adopting a ‘bottom‐up’ approach which draws on the ‘wisdom of the crowds’. Other sources included reports of the two previous Networks of Excellence, Pro‐learn and Kaleidoscope; deliverable 7.1 (State of the Art in TEL report); reports and research papers in the public domain.

STELLAR has identified that it is important to develop understandings of the ways in which Web 2.0 technologies can be used to construct knowledge within a research community, and this report includes reflections on the use of the wiki as an instrument for co‐construction of knowledge. The wiki will continue throughout the life of STELLAR and it is intended that it will grow and develop in order to inform further Vision and Strategy documents (D1.4 and D1.8). It can be found here: http://www.stellarnet.eu/d/1/1/Home

The report begins with an introduction which sets the scene for the report. It suggests that technology has the potential to enhance learning and outlines a number of ways in which it can do so. It goes on to suggest that STELLAR recognises that research into the intersection between technology and learning (‘Technology Enhanced Learning’) is underpinned by a diversity of perspectives; in other words the research community can be seen as fragmented. It provides evidence of this fragmentation in terms of the research foci of different ‘silos’ within the TEL research community, taken from D7.1.

The second section of the report focuses on the three research sub‐themes in the DoW and suggests emerging research questions.

Connecting learners. This section is concerned with the potential of ICT to connect people with others who may be in some way relevant to their learning. It includes using ICT for knowledge building and sharing, communication and collaboration. The focus in the first part of this section is the use of Web 2.0 tools both within educational institutions and in the world of work. An important part of the discussion addresses the concerns arising from the ‘democratisation’ of knowledge which is considered to be a key value underpinning Web 2.0. The second part of this section suggests a range of enabling success factors for learner networks, which include factors related to the tasks being carried out using the network and the organisation of the network. The questions emerging from this section focus on new ways of understanding knowledge and the building of knowledge and ways in which to design and organise the use of technologies that make new ways of communicating possible.

Orchestrating learning. TEL learning situations can be very complex and it is important to understand how they are organised and how they work. This section uses the metaphor of orchestration to conceptualise the role of the teacher or more knowledgeable other in organising learning situations and making them productive. The roles of the teacher and assessment are considered in detail. The section also considers learning outside of formal educational institutions and practices, such as learning though gaming. Questions raised in this section concern ways in which to support teachers and more knowledgeable others in orchestrating TEL and ways in which the use of digital technologies challenge understanding of, and current practices in, orchestrating learning.

Contextualising virtual learning environments and instrumentalising learning contexts. This section discusses the importance of recgonising the role played by context in TEL, and suggests that technologies for learning should be designed to take into account the ways in which the settings where they will be used are mediated by the cultural context. It discusses how digital technologies, and mobile technologies in particular, can provide learners with novel experiences by exposing them to a wider range of contexts than was previously possible and by individualising the complex interplay of the technologies they use. It also addresses the issue of representing knowledge in an interoperable manner among various TEL systems. The questions in this section focus on understanding how novel experiences affect teaching and learning and the ways in which technology should develop in order to support novel experiences.

The report goes on to suggest strategies for using and developing the Grand Challenge Vision and Strategy by using the STELLAR instruments. Examples include • using podcasts within the meeting of minds and to engagethe stakeholder community, and to link these to the Grand Challenges wiki • finding mechanisms for people involved in theme teams, incubators and the stakeholder community to continue to develop the Grand Challenge wiki • using the Alpine Rendez Vous as a forum for further discussion of this document and to find mechanisms for the discussion to feed into the Grand Challenge wiki • making the Grand Challenge wiki a central part of the Doctoral Community of Practice and requiring all doctoral academy events to contribute to the wiki • working together with Work Package 6 to develop understandings about the social issues related to using Web 2.0 tools to construct knowledge and making explicit links with the Open Archive • using this report and the wiki to inform choices and decisions within STELLAR such as focus themes for theme teams, doctoral academy events, and the mobility programme .

Finally the report considers the ongoing challenges. The important point made in this section is that ‘aggregating’ the wisdom of the crowds is complex and difficult to understand; it suggests that searching for ‘the’ truth is a misguided notion and that (honest, not artificial) aggregation should be seen as the intertwining of multiple voices. It suggests that the Grand Challenge is not to reveal a specific research agenda, but to recognise the value of all the voices in STELLAR and to acknowledge that they all contribute to the ‘truth’. Part of this Challenge is to develop a culture in which researchers work together within clearly understood theoretical and philosophical perspectives (which do not have to be agreed, but they do have to be explicit as far as possible). In structuring this report around the three sub‐themes of the STELLAR Grand Challenge it is inevitable that there are some important research areas that have been overlooked. In particular the issue of the digital divide is not currently foregrounded within the work of STELLAR. The report concludes by suggesting that this could be an important aspect of the work of STELLAR, that is understanding how issues of the ‘digital divide’ permeate all aspects of the STELLAR Grand Challenge.