=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=None
|storemode=property
|title=Seeking and Scaling Model for Designing Technology that Supports Personal and Professional Learning Networks
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1047/paper4.pdf
|volume=Vol-1047
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/ectel/CookBS13
}}
==Seeking and Scaling Model for Designing Technology that Supports Personal and Professional Learning Networks==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1047/paper4.pdf
ECTEL meets ECSCW 2013: Workshop on Collaborative Technologies for Working and Learning, Sept. 21, 2013, Cyprus
Seeking and Scaling Model for Designing Technology that
Supports Personal and Professional Learning Networks
John Cook1, Brenda Bannan2, Patricia Santos1
1
Education Department, University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Bristol, UK
{john2.cook@uwe.ac.uk,Patricia.Santosrodriguez}@uwe.ac.uk
2
Division of Learning Technologies, College of Education and Human Development,
George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA
bbannan@gmu.edu
Abstract. This paper contributes a new model for Design Research that extends
existing approaches by taking into account the neglected areas of design
seeking and scaling in the underexplored area of workplace informal learning;
we place an emphasis on design that is based on a new empirically base. We
use PANDORA as an exemplary case study to identify and illustrate the
research benefits of the Design Seeking and Scaling model. PANDORA
explores, amongst other things, designs for collaborative technologies for
processes surrounding a Significant Event Audit (SEA) in UK Health Sector’s
General Practices. We claim that the model is useful as a tool for improving
collaboration through Personal Learning Networks.
Keywords: Design Research, Workplace learning, Learning in informal
contexts, Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), Scaling TEL, Personal
Learning Networks
1 Introduction
This paper contributes a new model (Fig. 1) for Design Research [1] that extends
existing approaches by taking into account the neglected areas of design seeking and
scaling; it is specially oriented towards guiding research in the underexplored area of
designing technology for supporting workplace informal learning across contexts. We
claim that our approach is new particularly with respect to the scaling of TEL in
workplace informal learning and its emphasis on design that is based on a new
empirically base in this context. However, another purpose of this paper is to engage
the community in debate that tests our claim and uncovers other research related in
our area.
The model takes as a starting point Rogers’ [2] notion of diffusion of innovation.
However, we extend it by drawing on the PANDORA design team case study from
Learning Layers1, a project which investigates scaling in workplace informal learning.
PANDORA explores, amongst other things, designs for collaborative technologies for
processes surrounding a Significant Event Audit (SEA) in UK Health Sector’s
1 http://learning-layers.eu/
Copyright © 2013 for the individual papers by the papers' authors.
ECTEL meets ECSCW 2013: Workshop on Collaborative Technologies for Working and Learning, Sept. 21, 2013, Cyprus
General Practices. SEA is an increasingly routine part of General Practice that can
discuss events that range from an unexpected death to an unforeseen response by a
patient to a prescription. “It is a technique to reflect on and learn from individual
cases to improve quality of care overall” (http://tinyurl.com/lfh5qpj). Our model has
five related phases; each phase is characterized by internal iteration. Due to space
limitations, the focus of this position paper is on phase one (Prior conditions) and five
(Diffusion at scale) and phase two (Agreement). These phases are selected because
they relate directly to the workshop theme of scaling workplace learning. We use
PANDORA as an exemplary case study to identify and illustrate the research benefits
of the Design Seeking and Scaling model; furthermore, we claim that the model is
useful as a tool for improving collaboration through Personal Learning Networks.
Fig.1. Design Seeking and Scaling Model
2 Prior conditions phase (with reference to Diffusion at scale)
The Prior conditions [2, p. 170] phase recognizes the need to look at previous
practice, felt needs/problems, innovativeness and the norms of the social system. We
extend this notion of prior conditions and also ‘agenda-setting’ [2, p. 421] by making
an explicit link to ideas surrounding design creativity and seeking and the question
‘how do design ideas arise’? Design seeking is a key concern here, and this draws on
the concept of problem seeking [3] rather than mere problem solving. In the early
design process (Prior conditions) we can say that “knowledge is essentially
problematical: it is not just a question of solving a problem, it is more a question of
seeking out the nature of the problem and then devising an approach to solving it”
[3]. A key problematic issue that we have encountered when analyzing ethnographic
research (conducted by Learning Layers partners) is that there is a need to consider
scaling from outset when design seeking. ‘Designing for scale’ needs to consider
ECTEL meets ECSCW 2013: Workshop on Collaborative Technologies for Working and Learning, Sept. 21, 2013, Cyprus
three key aspects: (i) Diffusion of innovation, (ii) Systemic pain points and (iii)
Clusters. ‘Diffusion of innovation’ [2] is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and
at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. A key notion for us is
that for technology to be adopted on a large-scale it needs to seek empirically based
‘Systemic pain points’ that, if addressed, have the potential to attract significant take
up by other groups of professionals who face the same problem (see below for an
example taken from UK Health Sector). Scaling through ‘Clusters’ involves a
“geographically proximate group of interconnected companies and associated
institutions in a particular field, linked by commonalities and complementarities
(external economies)” [4]. It is important to distinguish managed from unmanaged
clusters or agglomerations/lumps with no organisation or team working on behalf of
the cluster members to get them to move in the same direction. The Learning Layers
project is working with clusters in Healthcare and Construction by building
sustainability beyond project horizon by promoting a network of Education
Innovation Clusters to serve other clusters with services and technologies to speed
uptake of new learning methods and technology. Key additional concepts (which link
this phase in a double headed arrow to the fifth phase) are organisational cultures and
contexts; this work is pertinent here in terms of drivers and barriers. The ‘learning
theory’ for one aspect of the PANDORA Design Team involves the objective of
designing to support the construction of locally trusted Personal Learning Networks
[5]; an environment where clinical staff can seek collaborative support by interacting
with their peers about a SEA by using relevant guidelines, and the outcomes of the
Practice; the outcome is a local SEA document which needs to identify any ‘learning
needs’ and ‘actions to be taken and changes to be made’ and ‘agree how these will be
progressed’. As a worker’s or group’s connections and confidence grow, they then go
on to build what we are calling a Shared Learning Network. Thus the first stage of
collaborative work for us is the building, maintaining and activating Personal
Learning Networks. The second stage is where professionals move from local trusted
personal networks out into wider networks that can potentially include anyone; thus
the SEA living document from stage one has the potential to be shared more widely
(cascading); this is what we are calling Shared Learning Networks. We consider
interactions of people and the resources in the Shared Learning Network as an
emergent distributed cognitive system. Grounding acts in networked community serve
like internal scaffolds, which help to establish common ground in cognitive and
metacognitive domains and the collaborative scaffolding situation emerges.
3 Agreement phase
Our second phase is called Agreement and is based on Roger’s notion of
Persuasion [2, p. 170]; this relates to the perceived characteristics of the innovation as
well as the need to keep large heterogeneous research project teams (like Learning
Layers) ‘on board’. ‘Redefining’ in Fig. 1 [2, p. 421] is a key notion here, whereby
the “innovation is modified and reinvented to fit the organization, and the
organizational structures are altered”. Other key concepts for us, based on our
experience, are as follows. ‘Co-design’, e.g. designing with Health professionals in
ECTEL meets ECSCW 2013: Workshop on Collaborative Technologies for Working and Learning, Sept. 21, 2013, Cyprus
NE England. ‘Team negotiation’ in is also required, especially with larger projects,
namely there is the need for a shared theoretical concept ([6] is the first outcome of
this process). ‘Interdisciplinarity’ (Fig. 1) and different cultures are an issue in larger
projects – we are evolving the notion of the use of artifacts as tools for design
discourse. In particular, by engaging the wider community and assisting scaling via an
innovative Open Design Library (ODL), a collaborative environment that captures the
design-based research process followed in PANDORA. The ODL is a collaborative
wiki-space where the main design artefacts derived from PANDORA are shared with
the community in order to obtain feedback and more iteration with the redefining
stage.
‘First cut innovation decision’ in Fig. 1 represents the point where the innovation is
modified to fit the organization. The PANDORA Design Team emerged from the
Layers Open Design conference in Feb 2013 and has subsequently engaged in
iterative Design Seeking/Redefining using a participative, co-design approach. Focus
groups, part of Layers ethnographic study, and expert interviews have confirmed that
engaging interactions among professionals to cascading ‘local living’ SEA documents
can be a problem (it represents a Systemic pain point). More recently (June 2013) a
consortium meeting, that included application partner representatives, has concluded
that innovation design decisions in Layers should take the form of Use Cases and
Research Questions around the SEA scenario. For us the Seek Support Use Case is
key area in PANDORA (see Fig. 2). After several co-design meetings with clinical
staff in Leeds (UK) the problem identified in the Prior Condition phase was redefined
with the staff: When clinical professionals are immersed in clinical and management
work, they do not have much opportunity for discussion around topics of interest (e.g.
cascading SEA) or time to exchange questions. The Use Case (based on feedback
obtained in the co-design meetings) envisaged usage is as follows: a General
Practitioner (GP) uses an app to seek support in the course of her/his activities; asks a
question by recording herself, annotates the type of problem and selects her group of
trusted colleagues for the question to be circulated to. Automatically related
guidelines for SEA, meeting notes and questions are ‘flagged’ for her, the GP checks
the information and authorship and adds a new person to her network as appropriate.
After some minutes, some colleagues provide short responses. In order to redefine the
use case, wireframes (e.g. Fig. 2) and interactive prototypes are developed. As first
cut decision we proposed to use mobile devices to support collaborative seek support
basically due to the lack of time and mobility issues of staff (i.e. GPs work in
different spaces during the same day). From this Use Case one of the main research
question is: Trust has been found to be key aspect when seeking support [5] (e.g.
finding responses about a problem treated in a SEA), but which are the specific
aspects of Trust that need to be considered when individuals move from local trusted
personal networks out into Shared Learning Networks? We specifically hypothesize
that:
[H1] New connections (trusted contacts) will be established by suggesting related
people and learning resources created by professionals who are not included in the
user’s trusted Personal Learning Network (metadata and semantic analysis is used to
support this action).
[H2] By facilitating new connections, the system will increase the opportunity of
solving problems.
ECTEL meets ECSCW 2013: Workshop on Collaborative Technologies for Working and Learning, Sept. 21, 2013, Cyprus
[H3] Notifications of well-recommended resources and promotion of ‘hot-topics’
(those which have high rates) and ‘topics of interest’ (those which are related with
‘tags’ of interest) to motivate and engage discussion and Trust across many General
Practices.
Fig.2. Seek and Support wireframe (Select format of question, Create a question and select
priority, Share with your Shared Learning Network circles, Obtain support)
4 Future questions
Do the model and case illustrate key seeking and scaling issues that other projects
may wish to consider?
If scaling is to work, does the model and case drive us to think about how to
engage and build up trust and relationships in Professional Learning Networks?
Acknowledgments. Learning Layers is a 7th Framework Large-scale integrating
project co-funded by the European Commission; Grant Agreement Number 318209.
The authors would also like to thank the reviewers and the members of clinical staff
involved in co-design.
References
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seminar conducted at the East China Normal University, Shanghai, (China), (2007).
2. Rogers, E. M.: Diffusion of Innovations. Fifth Edition. New York: Free Press (2003).
3. Cook, J.: Cooperative Problem-Seeking Dialogues in Learning. In Gauthier, G., Frasson, C. and
VanLehn, K. (Eds.) Intelligent Tutoring Systems: In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference,
ITS 2000 Montréal, (Canada), p. 615–624. Berlin Heidelberg New York: Springer-Verlag (2000).
4. Porter, M. E.: Clusters, Innovation, and Competitiveness: New Findings and Implications for Policy.
Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness Harvard Business School. Presentation Stockholm,
(Sweden), (2008).
5. Cook, J. and Pachler, N.: Online People Tagging: Social (Mobile) Network(ing) Services and Work-
based Learning. British Journal of Education Technology, 43(5), 711–725 (2012).
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Sandars, J., Santos, P. and Schmidt, A. Scaling Technologies for Informal Learning: A Multilevel
Theoretical Analysis of Scaffolding at the Workplace. EC-TEL (European Conference on Technology
Enhanced Learning), 18-20 Sept., Paphos, (Cyprus), (2013).