WLP Project Development

The Strasbourg workshop confirmed (in accordance tothe original work plan) that the project should prepare two European reports. The first one - "European synthesis report" - should focus on the results and achievements. The second one - "Process development report" - should focus on the evolution of the project and on the related learning experiences.

I have attached the current draft versions for comments and suggestions.

Pekka Kämäräinen

In the beginning of the project the WLP project was focusing on one central tool (Learing Potential Analysis) for identifying the learning potentials at workplaces. The main interest was to link (with the help of the tool) that analyses of parallel enterprises to each other.  By identifying the distributed learning potentials the project sought to provide the basis for partnership cooperation between training providers and partner enterprises. Therefore, the project wanted to have a web tool that could link such analyses to each other.

As we know, the work with the LPA tool gave rise to develop a complementary tool (Learning Achievement Review) that was also brought into discussion at an early stage of the work. Later on I started to outline a bridging tool (Learning Provision Review) to stimulate mutual awareness and dialogue between training providers and enterprises.

With our last week' effort we (the Knownet and myself) have prepared a joint resource area for all these tools (with a common introduction). We hope to be able to add more cases. In this respect we invite the WLP partners to use the tool and to add more cases to be presented on the web page.

Pekka Kämäräinen

Last week we introduced the WLP Wiki on the WLP website. After an intensive working period we have discovered some technical problems that need attention. In order to keep the work going we have set up a backup page on the ITB website (see the attached link).

In the next postings the web links to WLP wiki will be given to both websites.

Pekka Kämäräinen

So far the contributions of the national partners have been produced at different phases of the project. Firstly, the national partners have produced background information on the preconditions for developing workplace learning partnerships (national maps). Then the partners have produced analyses on the learning potentials at workplaces. These analyses were based on the use of common tools (the LPA tool). However, in differnt contries the interpretation of the results was linked to the critical question "how to proceed". In this respect the national partners found themselves in very different positions and there was no common working perspective that could be followed jointly.

At this phase the project developed a differentiated concept of 'piloting agendas' that took into account the following working parspectives after the LPA-analyses:
a) continuation of the work on the basis of pre-piloting agendas that include further studies and/or measures to disseminate the experience from other European contexts,
b) continuation of the work on the basis of actual piloting agendas that include creation of new partnerships and learning designs (or organisation of partnership-oriented micro-piloting via small steps in developing workplace learning),
c) continuation of the work on the basis of post-piloting agendas that include retrospective analyses on prior pilot activities and transition to working issues that can enrich the original piloting aproaches.

As a consequence, the role of further national contributions became less transparent. In the work of the project the discussion  on the development of joint web resources and multimedia resources was given the main priority.

At this point the introduction of the WLP Wiki has made the idea of developing joint European knowledge resources more transparent. As the different resource areas take shape, it becomes clear that the national reports are part of the mosaic of European knowledge resources and that they have to be presented accordingly.

In this respect I have developed uploaded the current contributions from national partners and re-purposed them as components of the final National Reports. The contributions to 'national maps' have been redefined as the first part of the National Report ("Background and context") . The reports on the LPA-analyses and of related case studies (or on related tool development) have been repurposed as the second part of the National Report ("Analyses of learning potential"/"Specific cases"). Then, according to the national piloting agenda, I have included a component that presents the piloting activities or the further analyses as the third part ("Analyses on piloting"/ "Further studies"/"Knowledge base for national and European dissemination activities").

As the documents stand now (01.12.2006) in the WLP Wiki, the process of integrating the earlier inputs into the national reports is not yet completed. Yet, I have chosen to make them available so that the final editing can profit of the awareness of other partners' contributions.

Pekka Kämäräinen

One of the basic tasks of the WLP project has been to develop a working concept for "WLP Web" that supports the users of the WLP results to get access to the ideas, tools and services that they need. In this respect - as we have learned it during the project - the development of the "WLP Web" has not been a separate extension element to the 'main project' but an integral part of the whole project. However, in order to get this idea, the project has had to get a clearer idea of its own objectives and how to link the "WLP Web" to these objectives. This has required many phases and many revisions to the original ideas.

When looking back to the earlier stages of the project, the ideas on the "WLP Web" can be related to tool-centred assumptions on the role of "Web tools"as technologies for pushing through certain WLP-related ideas. Roughly we can reconstruct  the following variants of such tool-driven approaches:
a) Using traditional Web tools as 'push technologies' to disseminate the use of WLP tools (notably LPA) as means to support paretnership creation and related cooperation,
b) Using social software as 'learning technologies' to enable reflective learners to shape their own personal learning environmentts and related uses of portfolios,
c) Using specific 'management technologies' to support local learning designs and networked learning arrangements or
d) Using 'home-made applications' (KLearn) that try to give a minimalistic support kit for further piloting (that may take different courses)

As the project had completed the preparatory analyses, it became clear that the national partners were not in similar starting positions. Therefore, the above listed tool-centred approaches could not give support for bringing the whole project forward. In this respect the project took the following measures to review the role of web resources within the WLP project:
1) Opening the discussion on different piloting agendas that respond to the national circumstances;
2) Bringing into picture the use of national and joint multimendia resources,
3) Putting a new emphasis on partners' own areas, on linking WLP website to external resources and on different ways to access and use web rsources.

At the end this brings us to a concept or "WLP Web" as "WLP Web resources".  To me the architecture of "WLP Web resources" is based on different structural elements that help the users to access WLP-related knowledge resources:
i) Web resources for file management (WLP  folders that make original documents available as they have been submitted)
ii) Web resources for communication and sharing ideas (WLP blogging system)
iii) Web resources for presenting the accumulated results (WLP wiki as a joint presentation medium),
iv) Web access points for providing gateways to country-specific or theme-specific resources (WLP Partners' areas/profiles).

In the Strasbourg workshop we discussed primarily the first point (file management) and the last point (gateways). The use of web resources for communication (blogging has taken its own course in the meantime). The new element after the Strasbourg workshop is the WLP wiki that completes the architecture of the WLP web resources. As things stand now, I would see the WLP wiki as the main instrument for presenting the WLP results. However, we do need the solutions for the gateways and for the index folders as well.

Pekka Kämäräinen

As has been the case with the WLP Manual (see my previous blog entry), the role of the WLP Course has been reconsidered in the light of the experiences of the WLP project. In the original plans the WLP Course was given the task
1) to disseminate the use of WLP tools (notably the Learning Potential Analysis)
2) to facilitate the use of the analyses in partnership-building,
3) to disseminate examples of good practice.

As the experiences of the project have pointed out, the WLP project had to encounter a more complex Europan landscape regarding the creation and further development of partnership cooperation. In this respect neither the "Groundwork tools" nor the web-based support  facilities can be seen as universal keys to successive partnership cooperation.

From this perspective the concept of the WLP Course has been developed with a relatively open architecture that enables local adjustment to the needs of users and to their action contexts. In a similar way the concept makes it possible to use the "WLP Course" either as a basis for an ordinary training course or as a suppot framework for self-directed explorations.

The WLP Course is based on four Learning Areas:
Learning Area 1: Partnership Creation and use of basic analyses,
Learning Area 2: Planning of partnership-based learning arrangements,
Learning Area 3: Support for partnership-based learning activities,
Learning Area 4: Making use of web services and web platforms.

The WLP Course concept is presented and explained with the following documents (see the attachments to this blog entry):
The Introduction document (2 pages, presents nutshell information)
The Framework document (5 pages, outlines the structure and presents the learning tasks for the ),
The Planning tool document (5 pages, presents the underlying pedagogic principles),
The Customisation tool document (5 pages, presents questions and remarks concerning the adjustment of the course),
The Tutorial tools (short documents, to be presented with a later blog entry, support the work on specific Learning Areas).

The general aim of the WLP Course is to promote continuing professional development of teachers, trainers and other interested professionals in the related learning areas. The  learning tasks start with issues that have been discussed in the WLP project, offer a perspective to deepen one's knowledge and open prospects for further learning. In this respect the course links the results of the WLP project to some parallel developments.

I have submitted this blog entry to make the preparation of the WLP Course more transparent (and open for feedback). In the course of the week I try to submit the above mentioned documents as attachments. I hope that the process of giving shape for the WLP Course is completed very soon.

Pekka Kämäräinen

In the original plans the idea of a "WLP Manual" was closely linked to the assumption that the use of the WLP tools and to certain organisational models for partnership cooperation between training providers and and partter enterprises. However, the work of the WLP project has brought into picture a more complex European landscape regarding partnership creation and needs for support. Therefore, the role of the WLP Manual has been reconsidered in the London workshop and I have prepared a draft version on the basis of the London conclusions.

In the light of the above the current version of the WLP Manual is not an extensive guide to the WLP tools (with many examples on the uses of tools). Instead, the revisited concept provides a "brief guide" to the knowledge resources, working instruments and support facilities theat have been developed by the WLP project.

In five pages the WLP Manual covers the following themes:

a) Value of workplace learning and partnership cooperation in different countries,
b) Use of the results of the WLP project in the development of partnership cooperation,
c) Understanding the diversity of partnership concepts and different evolutionary stages,
d) Identifying different patterns for promoting networked learning,
e) Changing role of web-based support for workplace learning and for related piloting,
f)  Use of case stories and multimedia products as means to promote nowledge sharing,
g) Making targeted use of the WLP Course and of related tools and facilities,
h) Conclusions and recommendations for further activities.

The sixth page should contain a list of web links - both to WLP pages and to external resources. This page can be finalised when the necessary changes have been made in the architecture of the WLP website.

In this context it is essential to note that the WLP Manual should be translated into all national languages. Therefore, it is important that the final text will be agreed jointly and that the partners can produce the national language versions.

Pekka Kämäräinen

 

As has been indicated in the first report, the Strasbourg workshop analysed what has been achieved in the project. This examination was prepared by prior working notes that drew attentin to the attainment of the goals and to the relevance of the results.

In the discussion the partners put a great emphasis to the need
1) get an overall picture of the achieved results and to
2) transform the project-internal thinking on the results towards a user-centred approach.

Therefore, the Minutes of the Strasbourg workshop are very detailed and follow closely the course of the discussion. Also, the conclusions were very closely related to the tasks that the partners took to themselves to bring the proect into the final results. (See the Minutes of the Strabourg workshop as attached dopcument.)

Pekka Kämäräinen

The discussion of the website was opened with my proposal on reshaping the website on the basis of four Product Areas and five Resource Ereas. The four Product Ereas (WLP Manual, WLP Course, WLP Web and WLP Reports) would provide different starting points for examining the work of the WLP project. The joint Resource Areas would present preparatory tools, tutorial tools, case stories and multimedia resources. The fifth Resource Area would contain the Partners' Areas (Piloting forums or Dissemination forums that would serve the partners' purposes).
(See the attached document Website-revision 1)

The subsequent disussion was highly critical led to fundamentally different direction:

• Firstly, the WLP partners apreciated the proposal and considered that it linked in a coherent way to each other the materials and resources that had been produced in the project.
  
• Secondly, the partners pointed out that this overview could only be based on insiders' experience or  evaluators' analysis on the process and the outcomes.
• Thirdly, the partners' emphasised the necessity to address users' perspective to the producs and resources as the starting point. This would have implications for the opening page, for the architecture and for the navigation.

Therefore, the partners started to construct the proposal for the new architecture from the perspective of users in different national contexts. The main entry to the website should be given via thenational  Partners' Areas. The Partners' Areas should then give further links to resources in national language or to joint resources in English language.

Based on this reasoning, the products and resources should be presented with the help of a box on the left-and side. The tabs of the box should give drop-down menus for exploring the resources under the main heading. This idea for revision was developed together and it reached a high degree of consensuality.
(See the attached document Website-revision 2)

However, when having returned to Bremen I had to work with the texts for the  final product that had not been thoroughly discussed by the project (WLP Course). It struck me that the Learning Areas of the course will integrate some of the resources that had been to some extent disconnected to others. This gave rise to a slight modification to the joint result that was achieved in the Strasbourg workshop.
(See the attached document Website-revision 3)

With this posting I have tried to summarise the progress with this issue and give the starting point for the final steps for transforming the WLP website from a project-internal construction site into a users' website.

Pekka Kämäräinen

Dear Graham,

I am sending you the last set of photos from Sam Marco - car company in Abruzzo.

Best Regards

Elmo