=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2712/paper8
|storemode=property
|title=Three cases of hybridity in learning spaces: towards a design for a Zone of Possibility (extended abstract)
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2712/paper08.pdf
|volume=Vol-2712
|authors=John Cook,Yishay Mor,Patricia Santos
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/ectel/CookMS19
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==Three cases of hybridity in learning spaces: towards a design for a Zone of Possibility (extended abstract)==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2712/paper08.pdf
Three cases of hybridity in learning spaces: towards a design
for a Zone of Possibility
John Cook, Yishay Mor and Patricia Santos
Email J.Cook@em.uni-frankfurt.de
Extended Abstract
Overview
Our work contributes to design discourse by drawing on Educational Design
Research (EDR) that has been conducted into what we call a Zone of Possibil-
ity (ZoP) over the past seven years. Specifically, this paper presents how our
initial research question (RQ1) has evolved (also provided below as RQ2).
RQ1 “In the context of socio-technical environments, how can the design pro-
cess and design thinking advance or bridge our social capital?”
RQ2 “In the context of hybrid learning spaces, how can the design process and
design thinking advance or bridge ‘successful communication’ and an under-
standing of social context in a ZoP?”
To describe this RQ evolution, the full submitted paper is presented as 3 cases
(Confer, ZoP Stokes Croft and Google Lens in HE) that have provided in-
sights to explore the concept of the ZoP and its implications for EDR. The real
world is a messy place and both RQs and the related cases attempt to reflect
this. For example, the second case (Stokes-Croft project), had it worked, was
clearly integrating both the questions of the messy political positioning of self
and the use of a tool. For us positioning practices are necessary for group in-
teractions with other humans in contexts like the work-place or higher-
education. What are the rules of engagement? What is the underlying game?
Do I want to play? As a learner, how do I realize my potential? Positioning
can be viewed as coping strategies for dealing with real world. Specifically,
we view positioning as being in a systematic relation to the distribution of
power and principles of control. Thus, social positioning underlies practices of
communication and gives rise to the shaping of identity. The implication is
that a ‘subject’ inhabits a space of possibility, thus a subject would be repre-
sented “by a socially structured zone of possibility rather than a singular
point” (Daniels, 2008, p. 164). How we design for positioning in a ZoP is an
under-explored area; both RQs and the related cases attempt to reflect this. A
key point is that we move to notions of ‘bridging’, which from a design
perspective is ill-defined, in RQ1 towards a Zone of Possiblity (ZoP)
Copyright © 2020 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Com-
mons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
57
which is central to RQ2. See Meta Design Principle 1 (MDP1) for more de-
tail: MDP1. Respect Learners' Zone of Possibility,
http://ilde.upf.edu/layers/v/brn
The full (submitted) paper has sections that describe the implications for
Educational Design Researchers and clarifies the main aspects covered by the
Zone of Possibility. Section 2 and 3 look at Meta Design Principles (MDPs)
for the ZoP. Specifically, section 2 outlines detailed work on the groupware
tool Confer which was developed for work-based learning using the guidance
of MDP1. In section 3, we go on to present an extension of MDP1 and clarify
some aspects by using the case of the ZoP-Stokes Croft community enterprise.
Section 4 further explores the ZoP in a Higher Education context. Preliminary
conclusions are then drawn. Below for this extended abstract we provide a
summary of the conclusions.
Preliminary conclusions and future work
One of the main conclusions is the importance of bridging positioning prac-
tices as ‘successful communication’ and an understanding of social context in
hybrid contexts (i.e. the ZoP).
Project software developers must not be allowed to lead us into an over-
blown system; in the end Confer, in the first case (Cook et al, 2016), became
overly complex and the users who had helped co-design it could not find the
time to help evaluate it. Furthermore, we must also heed the lessons from the
ZoP-SC project (Cook, Lander & Santos, 2016). The ZoP-SC project found
that users who trailed the ZoP-SC did shoot video clips and annotated them.
However, they did not go on to use the discourse tools, which may have been
regarded as an unnecessary overhead. An alternative approach to bridging
learners into a ZoP needed to be found and hence the Google Lens in Higher
Education case emerged. Google Lens has the potential to mediate hybrid
learning in the ZoP. However, there are many ethical and privacy concerns
related to the growing dominance of Google, Facebook and other organiza-
tions and the spread of related products and surveillance approaches. There is
also an attendant apprehension felt about the Artificial Intelligence that un-
derpins tools like Google Lens. This was surfaced by the Goethe HE case,
where one student group commented that Lens is both ‘awesome yet scary’
with one member reporting that after the activity they uninstalled Lens. This
has implications for data analytics and the use of recommender systems.
Future work will look for partners and funding for a new project with the
working title: Designing for the Zone of Possibility using Lens+. Specifically,
we will use the Participatory Pattern Design (PPD) methodology in a variety
of settings, e.g Higher Education (HE) and work-based learning, to feed into a
58
rethinking of how the use of Google Lens, plus other apps, can further learn-
ing in a ZoP.
Given the above considerations, the research question posed in the intro-
duction is modified as follows, on the basis of the previous experience, to
guide this future work:
RQ2: In the context of hybrid learning spaces, how can the design process
and design thinking advance or bridge ‘successful communication’ and an
understanding of social context in a ZoP?
What we mean by this, following on from Daniels (2008), is that where
power and control may be unevenly distributed to individuals or groups or
categories of professionals, this translates into principles of successful or un-
successful communication and understanding of social context. Bridging an
understanding of social context will include an undertaking to develop ‘low
flying’ or ‘low overhead’ meditational tools that address ethical and privacy
concerns of citizens but that also sit easily in users’ learning cultural and work
practices. We offer this extended abstract as an invitation to engage in a de-
bate on these issues.
Acknowledgments
Some of the work described in this paper was conducted as part of the EC
funded Learning Layers project (http://results.learning-layers.eu/). Thank you
to all the first author’s Learning Layers colleagues, and other colleagues, who
are all named on the cited papers. Thanks also to James Griffith, first author’s
then PhD student who assisted, and Professor Debbie Holley. Thanks also to
first author’s students at Goethe University Frankfurt. Finally, thank you for
the feedback from: the reviewers, the Shepherd and participants at the
HLS:D3 Workshop.
Acknowledgments
This is an extended abstract of a paper currently under review for the British Journal
of Educational Technology. The first author may be contacted for a draft of the full
paper.
Reference
Cook, J., Mor, Y., Santos, P., Treasure-Jones, T., Elferink, R., & Kerr, M.
(2016, June). Using the participatory patterns design (PPD) methodology to
co-design groupware: Confer a tool for workplace informal learning.
59
In EdMedia 2016–World Conference on Educational Media and Technology,
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. LearnTechLib (pp. 563-572).
Cook, J., Lander, R., & Santos, P. (2016). Urban regeneration within the
zone of possibility in citizen led ‘hybrid cities’. Paper presented at Digital-
Cultural Ecology and the Medium-Sized City
Daniels, H. (2008) Vygotsky and Research. Routledge, UK.