Keynote at ITK07 in Finland. Abstract: Time Magazine has voted You as the person of the year.In this case, You means all the users of online services such as YouTube, mySpace, Blogger, Wikipedia or Flickr, which provide software services for user generated content. While the first generation of the Web in the early 1990s enabled more people to publish to a potential large audience than the old media, a mass adoption has been hindered by the technical complexity and the sheer costs to do so. Today a next wave of online services allow technical laymen to publish media rich content on the Web for free, and millions of people are creating their own content. But is this content relevant to education? User generated content has been the focus of progressive education approaches since the 19th century, just to be recently rediscovered and used in the constructivist educational technology movement since the 1970s, probably starting with Seymour Paperts seminal work on Logo. Despite all the work on cognitive tools, collaborative inquiry, writing hypertexts and anchored instruction since then, these approaches have yet to find their way into the educational mainstream. This presentation focusses on the potential of user generated content on education from three points of view: (1) Educational policy and practice Education has always been a matter of power, or as Schleiermacher pointed out, Education is about the question, what the old generation wants from the young generation. Therefore formal education has always been a very top-down approach, not unlikely the "old" mass-media approach with a few senders and mass reception. User generated content breaks with this hierarchical model. New questions emerge, such as effects on power balances, impacts on democracy, formal vs. informal settings, learning culture, privacy, subjectivism, and legal issues. One of the questions which will be discussed in more detail is the value of "open" vs. "closed" books and other learning content. Can user generated content improve the learning of all citizens? What needs to be taken into account? What impacts can be expected for schools and universities? (2) Educational technology The current state of web technology and user interfaces has developed tremendously in the last two years, resulting in a much more interactive and collaborative Web, often labeled as "Web 2.0". Also the use of mobile web access has grown starkly. But most of the applications focus either on information organization and sharing, entertainment, shopping or business applications. What are the potentials for using and combining these new services for education? Are there new ways to support online learning? Will they benefit the creation of open repositiories for learning content? (3) Pedagogics and Educational research As stated above, pedagogical theory is quite ready for the next generation of the Web and user generated content. A multitude of questions need to be answered, though. For example, is user generated content dependend on You or on We? More specifically: what is the role of collaboration and sharing to create a culture of online learning? How can we support learning communities? What are the learning impacts of creating learning materials?

1. YOU Learning –
the Impact of User Generated Content on Education
Karsten D. Wolf
Didactical Design of Interactive Learning Environments
interaktiivinen tekniikka koulutuksessa 2007
Thursday, 19.04.2007
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2. cc by Karsten D. Wolf 2007
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3. and !
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4. cc by Karsten D. Wolf 2007
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5. really lots of people
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6. really lots of people
171,502,194
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7. cc by Karsten D. Wolf 2007
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8. 171,503,220 friends!
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9. Blogs
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10. really lots of people
measures the „blogosphere“
„71 million blogs…
some of them have to be good.“
–Matt
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11. 70M
60M
50M
40M
30M
20M
10M
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.html
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12. 1,250,000/day
2004 2005 2006 2007
http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.html
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13. 1,731,000 569,000
474,000 367,000
353,000 288,000
283,000 251,000
222,000 221,000
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14. native speakers of language
Wikipedia article
articles ratio
Suomi 109,454 48
German 569,000 176
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15. native speakers of language
Wikipedia article
articles ratio
Suomi 109,454 48
German 569,000 176
Finnish speaking Wikipedians are nearly
four times as productive as the German speaking ones!
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16. statistics*
50% of all edits done by 0.7% of users (615 people)
72% of text written by 1.8% of users (1,500 people)
really old: October 2005 = 1.5 Internet years ≈ 10.5 years ago
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17. 100
cumulative % of content
75
50
25
0 25 50 75 100 125
% of authors ranked by contribution
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18. actual data
100
cumulative % of content
75
50
25
0 25 50 75 100 125
% of authors ranked by contribution
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19. rough estimation
100
cumulative % of content
75
50
25
0 25 50 75 100 125
% of authors ranked by contribution
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20. 100
cumulative % of content
75
very few people
50
25
0 25 50 75 100 125
% of authors ranked by contribution
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21. do very much
100
cumulative % of content
75
very few people
50
25
0 25 50 75 100 125
% of authors ranked by contribution
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22. 20% of people are doing 80% of the work
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23. I am doing all the work and everyone else is lazy!
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24. 100
equal
participation
cumulative % of content
75
50
25
0 25 50 75 100 125
% of authors ranked by contribution
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25. equal
100
participation
cumulative % of content
gap
75
50
25
0 25 50 75 100 125
% of authors ranked by contribution
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26. as of February 2007
Datasource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Wikipedia:List_of_Wikipedians_by_number_of_edits
# of edits
authors ranked by # of edits cc by Karsten D. Wolf 2007
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27. Wikipediholism
#1 159,825
#10 79,162
#30 53,500
# of edits
#50 46,529
#100 36,608
#500 17,305
#1,000 11,101
#2,500 5,300
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28. Wikipediholism
#1 159,825
#10 79,162
#30 53,500
# of edits
#50 46,529
#100 36,608
10 edits a day
#500 17,305
for 3 years
#1,000 11,101
#2,500 5,300
authors ranked by # of edits cc by Karsten D. Wolf 2007
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29. as of February 2007
# of edits
logarithmic scales
authors ranked by # of edits cc by Karsten D. Wolf 2007
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30. as of February 2007
# of edits
Long Tail of Authors
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31. having thousands of people*
editing an online text
collaboratively
for free
accessed by hundred of millions**
is a major success…
* 63,000 active editors in November 2006 (English)
** 43 million unique visitor in USA in January 2007
source: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1214
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32. Wikipedias today
Wiktionaries
Wikiquotes 2 years
Wikinews
Wikibooks 5-10 years
Wikisources
20-40 years
Wikiversities
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33. thousands of user generated content tools & communities
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34. user generated content
is here to stay!
but does it change education as we know it?
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35. You
vs.
We
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36. You do it for yourself,
but all have benefits
You
vs. We do it together
to reach goals
We too large for each of us
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37. educational policy didactics
& practice & design
user generated content
educational educational
technology research
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38. didactics &
design
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39. R.I.P.
Mass adoption of
Constructivism in the Classroom
Idea born multiple times
Never received in practice
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40. Web 2.0 services cc by Karsten D. Wolf 2007
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41. literally thousands of „Web 2.0“ tools
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42. cc by Karsten D. Wolf 2007
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43. build
public
entities
Seymour Papert
Father of Logo
Constructionist
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44. (networked)
apprenticeship
environments:
see how experts
work and solve problems John Seely Brown
Xerox Parc
Cognitive Apprenticeship
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45. culture of participation
recreation to become a form of re-creation
(remix, tinkering, sharing) based on productive
inquiry situated in communities of co-creation
learning about ➙ learning to be
http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/419/
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46. educational
research
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47. What is the role of collaboration and sharing
in successful online learning?
How can we nurture learning communities
and a culture of sharing?
What are the learning impacts of creating learning
materials by students themselves?
How do we influence swarm/hive/collective motivation?
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48. Ã not only abundance, but better quality, too
vs.
Πthe hive mind is for the most part stupid and boring
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49. educational
technology
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50. Does Web 2.0 makes Learning 2.0?
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51. mashup = combing services + adding some usefulness
re-mix = re-using material in a novel combination
symbiotic relationships and
rich learning ecosystems
Google Maps*
*http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/
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52. re-mixes and mashups
mashup = combing + adding some usefulness
re-mix = re-using material in a novel combination
symbiotic relationships and rich learning ecosystems
Google Maps*
*http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/
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53. challenges
robust and usable learning environments to
support remixing, re-creating and mashups?
Personal learning environments helping me to
learn, find, collect, organize, collaborate etc.
Traditional Learning Management Systems
are mostly dead
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54. user generated content
ideas from Sony‘s
„Little Big Planet“
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58. educational policy
& practice
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59. What is the value of "open" vs. "closed" books / content
Can user generated content improve the learning
of all citizens or just a few?
What impacts can be expected for schools and
universities?
Will universities be old school and do
informal learning settings take over?
Does user generated content improve
or undermine education?
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60. from content wasteland
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61. to content jungle
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62. open content for open education
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63. open content for open education
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64. controlling the jungle again?
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66. (Source: Atkins, Brown, Hammond 2007)
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67. sounds like experts
generated content access ≠ education
focus on
repurposing
(Source: Atkins, Brown, Hammond 2007)
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68. Faculty educational science
Didactical design of
interactive learning environments
What does it mean to me?
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69. me T T T
tutors
ST ST ST ST ST ST
student 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
tutors 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
student 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
students 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
© Prof. Dr. Karsten D. Wolf 2006
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70. www.everlearn.eu © Prof. Dr. Karsten D. Wolf 2006
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71. www.everlearn.eu © Prof. Dr. Karsten D. Wolf 2006
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72. www.everlearn.eu © Prof. Dr. Karsten D. Wolf 2006
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73. www.everlearn.eu © Prof. Dr. Karsten D. Wolf 2006
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74. www.everlearn.eu © Prof. Dr. Karsten D. Wolf 2006
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75. before: my average course had 30 pages
today: 250 - 350 pages, ~90% done by students
higher motivation & deeper learning
much smaller participation gap
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76. hopefully!
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77. © Prof. Dr. Karsten D. Wolf 2005
http://www.karsten-d-wolf.de/
wolf@uni-bremen.de
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