9 external links

From Strasbourg to final results 3: The WLP Manual takes shape ( WLP Manual on WLP Wiki at ITB website )

23-November-2006

[ WLP Web , project planning , Final run ]
The two previous postings have presented the discussions at the Strasbourg workshop and the conclusions concerning the development of the WLP Website. This posting shifts the emphasis to the final products that are to be presented as services for the users. The first final product to be discussed in the WLP Manual.
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

 


Pekka Kämäräinen; 23-November-2006 10:55:38 forum (0)

From Strasbourg to final results 4: The WLP Course takes shape ( WLP Course on WLP Wiki at ITB website )

23-November-2006

[ project planning , knowledge sharing , Final run ]
The third postings related to the Strasbourg conclusions discussed the WLP Manual. This text of the Manual presented briefly the WLP Course. The posting presents the underlying ideas, the draft framework and the related support tools.
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


Pekka Kämäräinen; 23-November-2006 13:32:40 forum (0)

From Strasbourg to final results 5: The WLP Web Resources take shape ( WLP Wiki in ITB site )

30-November-2006

[ WLP Wiki , WLP Web , Final run ]
The third and fourth posting in relation to the Strasbourg workshop have discussed the WLP Manual and the WLP Course. These two items have been indicates among the main products of the the WLP project. A third item among the main products has been the WLP Web. This posting presents the evolution of the work with WLP Web during the project and the final conclusions.
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






Pekka Kämäräinen; 30-November-2006 14:17:59 forum (0)

From Strasbourg to final results 6: The WLP Reports take shape ( WLP Reports on WLP Wiki page at ITB site )

01-December-2006

[ WLP Wiki , WLP Web , knowledge sharing , Final run ]
The fifth posting in relation to the Strasbourg workshop presented the the conclusions on the development of the WLP Web as "WLP Web resources". Among other issues the posting presented the newly established the newly established WLP Wiki as a central element among the WLP Web Resources. This posting focuses on the WLP reports (in particular the national reports) and demonstrates how the WLP Wiki (as a presentation medium) can bring separate national reports into a joint resource environment.
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






Pekka Kämäräinen; 01-December-2006 11:30:00 forum (0)

From Strasbourg to final results 7: The WLP Wiki also available on ITB website ( WLP Wiki on ITB site )

03-December-2006

[ WLP Wiki , WLP Web , Final run ]
In a recent posting I informed of the WLP Web resources. In this context I presented the new element - the WLP Wiki. Becaue of technical problems it has become necessary to have a backup. Therefore, WLP Wiki is also available on the ITB website.
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


Pekka Kämäräinen; 03-December-2006 17:02:00 forum (2)

2 comments.

Latest comment:
WLP Wiki; 06-December-2006 13:44:53 by Alan Brown

Milestones 7a: How to proceed to actual piloting with WLP Web ("Individual users") ( Guidance-Europe: Country Focus Groups )

24-May-2006

[ WLP Web , knowledge sharing , arenas for piloting ]
The previous posting focused on the possibilities to work with a "pre-piloting agenda" alongside the development of the WLP Web. Now it is time to shift the emphasis to actual piloting activities. However, there is a need to make a distinction between cases in which the piloting focuses on individual users and others in which the cooperation of organisational users is the focal issue. This posting focuses on possible piloting activities that are related to the cases in which individual learners and supervising teachers or trainers are using Klearn as support facility.
As the earlier blog postings on the prepration of the "KLearn" indicate, the aim has been to offer a light-weight instrument that combines certain features of "virtual learning environments" (VLE), "learning management systems" (LMS) and "personal learning evironments" (PLE) to each other.

From the perspective of supporting workplace learning (that is organised in partnership cooperation with training providers) it is important to get support facilities that create links between individual learners and supervising teachers and trainers. From the perspective of promoting partnership culture it is essential that the learning design and the use of support tools help the learner to make the learning situation a meaningful exercise In this respect it is essential that the learning arrangement and the use of supporting tools bring the supervising teachers and trainers in as resource persons and as coaches - not as controlling powers. 

The documents that outline the development of  KLearn (the original script, the "User's Guides" and the framework of  the WLP Web) give a rough idea of the kind of interactive "learning and supporting process" that can be developed with the help of KLearn. Yet, currently we have only the skeleton of the instrument. We also know that we can hardly progress without looking at real cases in which the instrument can be used as a support for real practical training periods.

Therefore, we need a dynamic developmental process in which the development of tools is closely linked to real piloting contexts. At the same time we need to focus on the interactivity between learners and supervisors not to overloead the tool development with too many additional features.

From this respect I would assume that we have two country contexts in which we could make progress with this piloting agenda:
a) In Slovenia the Solski Center Velenje can pilot with applications for individual learners and supervising teachers in external traineeship placement arrangements and in the context of joint learning arenas (laboratories for learners from diverse workplaces). Furthermore, Solski Center Velenje can pilot with applications for foreign exchange students/trainees (in this case from Sweden).
b) In the UK the IER can link the development of tools for supporting/supervising individual learners to several parallel activities and to the follow-up of the partnership arrangements that have been reported in the countr studies. The parallel work with career guidance professionals provides opportunities for cross-project learning regarding the use of web-based support facilities (in particular to applications and services that are linked to blogs).

In this respect I am confident that we can enter soon an active developmental phase that contributes to some features of the KLearn instrument and to the usability of the WLP Web. At the same time I am confient that the challenge to develop the tools and instruments for a Web environment will support everyday-life innovations in the piloting contexts.

I guess this is enough for the moment. As a point of comparison I attach the link to the website of the country focus groups of the European Guidance and Counselling Research Forum. I hope that it is helpful to look a bit sideways and to learn from the different cases of using blogs to support learning communities. I am looking forward to your reactions and views on the way forward.

Pekka Kämäräinen




Welcome to the WLP project management weblog ( http://del.icio.us/mike_malloch )

10-November-2005

[ site features , project planning ]
This is a little message welcoming the WLP partners and management team to this weblog. I kick things off by posting some links to project-related bookmarking I have been doing in my del.icio.us account, and noting an email thread about developing skills-development diaries within the site.

This is a weblog for the partners in the WLP project to discuss the work we do to make the project as successful as it can be...

Below is an email which was part of a thread about developing skills-development diaries in the site. It also has some very useful links to some of mine and the NGRF's tags in del.icio.us which have been sued over the past few months to bookmark web resources of interest to the project.

Graham Attwell writes: Sounds very cooool - am well happy with timeline - I think this could   be launch of a great product. Portfolio in plone will have many, many   people interested.

OK - I will offer partners option of one day extension to meeting to   do basic training etc


Okie dokie!

I'll keep people posted.  As the issues come close to realisation I'll also post to Knotations blog, http://www.knownet.com/Members/mmalloch/blog ,  and will post bluesky planning to my main blog http://www.knownet.com/writing/elearning2.0

Graham just emailed with a food lightweight idea for getting started  - just give an interface for listing the learning-opportunities as potential categories - we'll get back on that when Steve is back ( he's off for the rest of the week cause his wife just had a little operation )

By the way, some tags I've been tracking related links into: ... I also include some NGRF tags that Alan et al have been tracking into

[ NB - there are a lot of other related links among my bookmarks, but I hadn't tagged them with wlp in mind so it would take some thought to extract all of the tags -- just have a look round my elearning bundle of tags for instance ]



Mike Malloch,
Software Architect,
KnowNet Ltd

post:   6 Menai View Terrace, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2HF, WALES
web:    http://www.knownet.com

weblogs:
      elearning2.0 : http://www.knownet.com/writing/elearning2.0
      KNotations (technical): http://knownet.com/Members/mmalloch/blog
bookmarks:
      http://del.icio.us/mike_malloch
      http://www.connotea.org/user/MikeMalloch
photos:
      http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_malloch
identity-commons:
        http://public.2idi.com/=Mike.Malloch




Mike Malloch; 10-November-2005 12:46:04 forum (0)

Welcome to the WLP project management weblog ( http://knownet.com/Members/mmalloch/blog )

10-November-2005

[ site features , project planning ]
This is a little message welcoming the WLP partners and management team to this weblog. I kick things off by posting some links to project-related bookmarking I have been doing in my del.icio.us account, and noting an email thread about developing skills-development diaries within the site.

This is a weblog for the partners in the WLP project to discuss the work we do to make the project as successful as it can be...

Below is an email which was part of a thread about developing skills-development diaries in the site. It also has some very useful links to some of mine and the NGRF's tags in del.icio.us which have been sued over the past few months to bookmark web resources of interest to the project.

Graham Attwell writes: Sounds very cooool - am well happy with timeline - I think this could   be launch of a great product. Portfolio in plone will have many, many   people interested.

OK - I will offer partners option of one day extension to meeting to   do basic training etc


Okie dokie!

I'll keep people posted.  As the issues come close to realisation I'll also post to Knotations blog, http://www.knownet.com/Members/mmalloch/blog ,  and will post bluesky planning to my main blog http://www.knownet.com/writing/elearning2.0

Graham just emailed with a food lightweight idea for getting started  - just give an interface for listing the learning-opportunities as potential categories - we'll get back on that when Steve is back ( he's off for the rest of the week cause his wife just had a little operation )

By the way, some tags I've been tracking related links into: ... I also include some NGRF tags that Alan et al have been tracking into

[ NB - there are a lot of other related links among my bookmarks, but I hadn't tagged them with wlp in mind so it would take some thought to extract all of the tags -- just have a look round my elearning bundle of tags for instance ]



Mike Malloch,
Software Architect,
KnowNet Ltd

post:   6 Menai View Terrace, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2HF, WALES
web:    http://www.knownet.com

weblogs:
      elearning2.0 : http://www.knownet.com/writing/elearning2.0
      KNotations (technical): http://knownet.com/Members/mmalloch/blog
bookmarks:
      http://del.icio.us/mike_malloch
      http://www.connotea.org/user/MikeMalloch
photos:
      http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_malloch
identity-commons:
        http://public.2idi.com/=Mike.Malloch




Mike Malloch; 10-November-2005 12:46:04 forum (0)

Welcome to the WLP project management weblog ( http://www.knownet.com/writing/elearning2.0 )

10-November-2005

[ site features , project planning ]
This is a little message welcoming the WLP partners and management team to this weblog. I kick things off by posting some links to project-related bookmarking I have been doing in my del.icio.us account, and noting an email thread about developing skills-development diaries within the site.

This is a weblog for the partners in the WLP project to discuss the work we do to make the project as successful as it can be...

Below is an email which was part of a thread about developing skills-development diaries in the site. It also has some very useful links to some of mine and the NGRF's tags in del.icio.us which have been sued over the past few months to bookmark web resources of interest to the project.

Graham Attwell writes: Sounds very cooool - am well happy with timeline - I think this could   be launch of a great product. Portfolio in plone will have many, many   people interested.

OK - I will offer partners option of one day extension to meeting to   do basic training etc


Okie dokie!

I'll keep people posted.  As the issues come close to realisation I'll also post to Knotations blog, http://www.knownet.com/Members/mmalloch/blog ,  and will post bluesky planning to my main blog http://www.knownet.com/writing/elearning2.0

Graham just emailed with a food lightweight idea for getting started  - just give an interface for listing the learning-opportunities as potential categories - we'll get back on that when Steve is back ( he's off for the rest of the week cause his wife just had a little operation )

By the way, some tags I've been tracking related links into: ... I also include some NGRF tags that Alan et al have been tracking into

[ NB - there are a lot of other related links among my bookmarks, but I hadn't tagged them with wlp in mind so it would take some thought to extract all of the tags -- just have a look round my elearning bundle of tags for instance ]



Mike Malloch,
Software Architect,
KnowNet Ltd

post:   6 Menai View Terrace, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2HF, WALES
web:    http://www.knownet.com

weblogs:
      elearning2.0 : http://www.knownet.com/writing/elearning2.0
      KNotations (technical): http://knownet.com/Members/mmalloch/blog
bookmarks:
      http://del.icio.us/mike_malloch
      http://www.connotea.org/user/MikeMalloch
photos:
      http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_malloch
identity-commons:
        http://public.2idi.com/=Mike.Malloch




Mike Malloch; 10-November-2005 12:46:04 forum (0)