Cook invited talk Uni of Bristol

Using Social Media and Mobile Devices to Mediate
Informal, Professional, Work-Based Learning
John Cook
Bristol Centre for Research
in Lifelong Learning and Education (BRILLE)
University of the West of England (UWE)
http://www.uwe.ac.uk/research/brille/
http://people.uwe.ac.uk/Pages/person.aspx?accountname=campusjn-cook
Invited talk: Centre for Learning, Knowing and
Interactive Technologies, Graduate School of Education,
University of Bristol
26th February, 12.30 to 13.45

Structure
Critical overview of key issues from the literature
on work-based learning, face-to-face and
technology-supported
Initial typology (Cook and Pachler, 2012) of
informal workplace learning in order to provide a
frame for understanding social (mobile)
network(ing) services in work-based learning
EC FP7 funded integrating project called Learning
Layers is briefly described
Design Research: Methodological Reflections

Cook & Pachler (2012)
 Contains critical review of literature
 This paper also outlines the conceptual basis from my perspective
 Based on a case study of MATURE People Tagging tool
 Personal learning networks (group or distributed self-regulation) to larger
clusters and networks = Scaling,
Cook, J. and Pachler, N. (2012). Online People Tagging: Social (Mobile)
Network(ing) Services and Work-based Learning. British Journal of Education
Technology, 43(5), 711–725. Link to paper http://tinyurl.com/8ktmuau

Critical overview
What is already known about this topic?
The importance of social networks and
associated technologies in everyday life and
commerce.
Some conceptualisations of learning through
and at work exist but they tend to be based on
the empirical study of professionals and
graduate employees.

Critical overview
 What this paper adds?
 A consideration of the use of social networks in learning in informal
and work-based context.
 An exploration of some of the affordances of social media for work-
located learning.
 A topology of factors in social network(ing) services and work-based
learning.
 An analysis of a case study of people tagging in relation to the
typology of factors.

Critical overview
Social media and mobile devices are under-researched in
work-based learning!
The very notion of learning in the work place is contested.
Work-based practice may be a better phrase?
Similarly ‘learning in informal contexts’ may be better than
‘informal learning’
Kraiger (2008) found that most ‘solutions’ in work-based
learning are targeted towards a learning model based on
the ideas of direct instruction in a formal manner, e.g.
transferring lectures and seminars from face-to-face
interactions to computer-mediated interactions.

Critical overview
 Work-based and informal learning are discussed at a range of different
levels in the literature.
 In Cook & Pachler (2012) paper we focus on literature that is
empirically founded.
 One key proponent of an empirical tradition of work-based learning
research is Michael Eraut.
 There are, of course, other important scholars in the field, such as for
example Sawchuck (2010), Evans et al. (2009), Illeris (2007) or
Livingstone (2006), to name but a few.
 Given the significance and internal coherence of Eraut’s work, as well
as its connectedness to other scholarship and research in the field, we
use it as a basis for our conceptual thinking here.
 Eraut’s work (2000, 2004, 2007, 2008) also has been derived mainly
from the study of professionals and graduate employees rather than
workers more widely.

Critical overview
Learning in workplace viewed as response to
complex problem or task
Embedded in meaningful and authentic cultural
contexts
Factors affecting learning in the workplace (Eraut, 2004)

Critical overview
 Table 1: A typology of Early Career Learning (Source: Eraut, 2008, p.
18)

Critical overview
 Eraut (2007, p. 406) posits that these features by-and-large play out in
the following four types of activities:
 Assessing clients and/or situations (sometimes briefly, sometimes
involving a long process of investigation) and continuing to monitor
them;
 Deciding what, if any, action to take, both immediately and over a longer
period (either individually or as a leader or member of a team);
 Pursuing an agreed course of action, modifying, consulting and
reassessing as and when necessary;
 Metacognitive monitoring of oneself, people needing attention and the
general progress of the case, problem, project or situation.

Critical overview
 What is of particular interest for our purposes here is the fact that the
majority of learning activities through and at work seem to involve other
people, e.g. through one-to-one interaction, participation in group
processes, working alongside others etc.
 This, for us, underlines the centrality of identifying relevant ‘others’ from
and with whom to learn – and the possible role of social media and
SNSs in it –, particularly given the documented problems in the transfer
of knowledge between people in the workplace (see Eraut, 2008, pp.
15-18)
 The art of discourse about practice then becomes one of establishing
affinity with colleagues through work-related discourse and giving the
appearance of being generally cooperative, without giving anything
away that might increase one’s vulnerability (Eraut, 2008, p. 16).

Critical overview
 One of the early and often cited papers on social network(ing) sites is
that by (boyd & Ellison, 2008). In it the authors, in addition to charting
the history of social network sites (SNSs) and setting out some relevant
research questions, offer a definition of SNSs as
 web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a publish
or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of
other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and
traverse their list of connections and those made by others within
the system.
 Also, they make the distinction between social networking and social
network sites preferring the latter term as the former, according to
them, emphasises relationship initiation. The term social network, they
argue, reflects the fact that users are primarily communicating with
people “who are already part of their extended social network”, i.e. they
augment pre-existing social relationships and interactions.

Initial typology of informal workplace learning
Our typology of factors in Social (Mobile)
Network(ing) Services and Work-based Learning
are represented textually on next slide.
The derivation of the main nodes was made after
going through the literature variously over several
months and coming back to the simple focus
presented by Eraut (2004, p. 269)
‘Factors affecting learning in the workplace’ calling
them Context Factors and Learning Factors.

Initial typology of informal workplace learning
Initial typology of informal workplace learning (top 2 levels)
1. Contexts Factors
a. Work process with learning as a by-product
b. Learning activities located within work or learning processes
c. Learning processes at or near the workplace
2. Learning Factors
a. individual self-efficacy (confidence and commitment)
b. acts of self-regulation
c. cognitive load
d. personal learning networks (group or distributed self-regulation)
Table: Factors in work-based Social (Mobile) Network(ing) Services

personal learning networks (group or distributed self-regulation)
(Rajagopal, et al., 2012)
i. building connections (adding new people to
the network so that there are resources available
when a learning need arises);
ii. maintaining connections (keeping in touch
with relevant persons); and
iii. activating connections (with selected persons
for the purpose of learning)
iv. aggregated trustworthiness (perceived
credibility) = social validation + authority and trustee
+ profiles (Jessen and Jørgensen, 2012)

Key questions
How can we scale up meaningful learning activities
of
 individuals and groups so they become linked
together
 building confidence, commitment, performance
& progress?
Amplified by SNSs and mobile technologies?
Mediated by scaffolding and bridging activities?

Learning Layers
 A large-scale research project co-funded by the European
Commission’s 7th Framework Programme.
 The consortium consists of 17 institutions from 7 different countries.
 Total project budget over 4 years is 12 Million Euros (i.e. over 10.5
million GBP).
 The goal of the project is to scale up support for informal workplace
learning in regional clusters of small and medium sized enterprises.
 We will trial these innovations in two sectors that have been particularly
hesitant to take up learning technologies:
 health care in the North East of England and
 building and construction in North Germany.

Learning Layers
The Learning Layers project looks at how informal
learning in the workplace can be supported by new
technologies like mobile phone and tablet apps.
I lead a work package called 'Networked
Scaffolding – Interacting with People' that is taking
a Design Research approach to development.

Learning Layers
 One aim of Design Research (e.g. Bannan-Ritland, 2003&2009) is to identify
and model technology-mediated, social learning and behaviours in order to
design tools that support and promote the practices under investigation.
 For example, in Cook (2002) I proposed a Design Research approach
(although I never called it that) which revolves around evolutionary prototyping.
What this means in simple terms is that we need to consider repeated cycles
of: empirical work, theory/model development and tool/artefact refinement.
 I have extended this approach of ‘cycles for design’ to the Learning Layers
project so that it now has much in common with participatory design process.
 A "key characteristic of the participatory design territory is the use of physical
artefacts as thinking tools throughout the participatory design process, a
practice emanating from the research-led "Scandinavian" tradition" (Sanders
and Chan, 2007, my bold).

Learning Layers
Rest of talk will be to give snapshots of the extensive
cycles for design being undertaken in Learning Layers by
several work packages, including my own.
The starting point for my own work package is the initial
typology (Cook and Pachler, 2012) of informal workplace
learning;
this is used to provide a theory/model for understanding
social mobile network(ing) services in work-based
learning.
The talk will then go on to introduce on-going,
overlapping activities from across the project:

Learning Layers
 State of the Art review of scaffolding and related concepts
 Initial textual example to motivate design
 Design ideas
 Tools to inspire design, e.g. using the network section of the MoLE app from Tribal, a
technical partner
 Wire frames & story boards
 Analysis of Q&A Forums
 Ethnographic study and resulting user stories that describe current practices at the
workplace and personas
 Social Semantic Server to underpin interactions
 Application Partner Days, with co-design activities
 Integrated Model of Scaffolding
 Design Conference (a Month 5 milestone) which has a focus on mappings between the
multiple activities & design teams, held at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland, March 2013.

Conceptual model of face-to-face scaffolding (Pol, Volman, & Beishuizen,
2010, p. 274)

Initial textual example to motivate design
Scaffolding examples from medical domain (by John Sandars and John
Cook)
A GP called Susan at the Diabetes Clinic has a PC dashboard with NHS
data base icon and Layers icons (including one for a scaffolding informal
learning networks). Susan has just used the NHS data base to diagnose
a patient and wants to see what her trusted colleagues think. Susan
enters the diagnosis through the Layers interface asking her network
"was I right, what do you think?" She goes on her afternoon rounds and
whilst walking to her third visit checks her mobile phone Dashboard. The
Layers icon is flashing, when she clicks she has a 4 line answer to her
question from her network; there is also a prompt from Layers to raise
this at the next team meeting and to enter this into the notes of her
patient (she accepts both). How Susan set up this informal learning
network in the past could be a form of scaffolding based around ideas of
...

Design ideas
Tribal: MoLE (Mobile Learning Environment http://www.mole-project.net/research

http://htk.tlu.ee/layers/MW/images/thumb/2
/22/ReachOutTo.jpg/200px-
ReachOutTo.jpg
By Tribal

Ethnographic study and resulting user stories &
personas that describe current practices at the
workplace
Actors
Peter
(GP running the
Diabetic Clinic)
Richard
(Business Manager)
NHS trainer Tina
(Diabetic Nurse Specialist)
Jane
(GP of Diabetic Clinic)
Douglas
(GP, not involved in
Diabetic Clinic)
Patient Staff from
other GP practices
Situation / Trigger · New Pathway Guidelines
The NHS has produced new pathway guidelines on how to manage a certain diabetic condition.
· Training Invitation
The Diabetic Clinic at Rowland Green Medical Centre (GP Practice) receives an invitation to attend local
training on the new guidelines.
Tools / Physical Objects / Locations
Information on new guidelines
NHS, NICE Pathway website
NHS training rooms
USER STORY 1: CASCADING LEARNING
Sequence of Activities
Peter Richard
NHS trainer
Staff from
other GP practices
Attend local training
on new guidelines
Training Session and discussion
on new guidelines
Reflection and urge
to spread the
information
Peter
Richard
Delay due to time
intensive day-to-day work
Peter Richard
Email
Email folder for education material
Private communication facilities
(Coffee room)
Presentation and training tools:
powerpoint, video, written
material
Transportation and facilites
By
University
Innsbruck

Application Partner Days, with co-design activities
Tribal and Aalto University go into action

Integrated Model of Scaffolding
Brainstorming!

Design Conference
A Month 5 milestone
which has a focus on mappings between the multiple
activities & design teams,
held at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland, March 2013
Criteria for Selecting Design Ideas
Learning and Scaffolding
Networking and Peer Production
Meaning Making
Potential to scale and be sustained beyond the
immediate context of interaction

Design Research: Methodological Reflections
Bannan-Ritland, B. (2009). The integrative learning design framework: An illustrated example from the domain of instructional technology. In T. Plomp & N. Nieveen (Eds.), An Introduction to Educational Design
Research. Enschede, Netherlands; SLO Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development.
In Year 1
we are
looking at
these
areas

ILDF Phases Informed
Exploration
Enactment-
Detailed Design
Local Impact Broad Impact
Sub-phases · Needs analysis
· Survey Literature
· Theory
development
· Audience
characterization
· Research
Systems design
· Articulated
prototype
· Detailed design
· Formative
evaluation
· Theory systems
refinement
· Implementation
· Evaluation
results
· Publish results
· Diffusion,
adoption &
adaption
· Consequences
In Learning
Layers not as
linear as ILDF.
We are
working in
parallel on
these in year 1
· Needs analysis:
textual
examples, WP7
Application
Partners
generate ideas
· Survey
Literature:
many of the
work package
are developing
their own
perspective
· Theory
development:
Integrated
scaffolding
model
· Audience
characterization
: ethnographic
study, co-
design, new
empirical work
on existing
online fora
We are trying to
understanding the
problem space and
moving forward on
multiple fronts.
· Articulated
prototypes:
wire frames,
story boards,
mock-up,
semantic
server, other
design ideas
· Research
Systems design:
The design
conference will
use ‘design
criteria’ to
evolved distinct
design teams.
·
· Diffusion,
adoption &
adaption: we are
trying to think
about this now,
particularly how
we will scale via
networks and
clusters

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