With this keynote for a seminar "Opening the school gates: building a culture of learning to tackle the attainment gap", I shared an overview of my findings from developing and researching place-based, technology-enhanced approaches, that looked to answer a common question, ‘how can we improve the life chances of children growing up in poverty?’.
Human Factors of XR: Using Human Factors to Design XR Systems
Raising attainment through place based, technology-enhanced approaches
1. The importance of place and community:
Raising attainment through place-based, technology-
enhanced approaches
Opening the school gates: building a culture of learning to tackle the attainment gap
September 2018
Gráinne Hamilton
grainne@weareopen.coop
@grainnehamilton
https://medium.com/@grainnehamilton
CC BY-ND
2. Gráinne Hamilton
@grainnehamilton
WE ARE OPEN
Discover Open Badges
Cities of Learning UK
Mozilla
Jisc
Open Badges in Scottish Education Group
Digitalme
Open Badge Network
4. Jamie is from Milton
Challenging family environment
As a young child, he enjoys playing with
lego and seeing how things work. At school,
he excels at maths
5. Jamie
● Financially insecure. Low income
area
● Father an alcoholic, loses job
● Local school = low expectations for
maths
● Friends expect him to take job in
local area. Other jobs are ‘not for us’
● Father wants him to get a job, not go
to university
Place: Challenging influences
● Grandparents, plays lego
● Mother’s example: work ethic
● Joins local Cadets, develops
discipline, endurance, teamwork
● New school =
○ High expectations in maths
○ Friends parents’ jobs: wide
range; financially rewarding
○ Friend says ‘I’m going to
university’ (lightbulb moment)
● Uncles tell him “You’ll do well son”
Place: Supportive influences
6. Cara is from Dennistoun
Low income household
She enjoys art and spends a lot of time
on social media. She gets average
grades at school
7. ● Low income household
● Mother is a hairdresser and works
evenings and weekends but struggles
to make ends meet. Feels stretched
and stressed
● Father absent from her life
● Low to average grades at school,
doesn’t apply herself
● Not encouraged by family or friends
to follow through
● Isn’t sure what she would like to do
● Has bouts of depression
Place: Challenging influences
● Mum encourages her to be happy
● Has good friends and social life
● Her gran and aunt provide
encouragement and suggestions on
job opportunities in local area
Place: Supportive influences
Cara
8. Jamie:
● Graduated with a 1st Class Honours degree and has added further postgrads
● Retired at 40 after a highly successful career in the energy industry, with a £million+ business
● Keeps fit and regularly runs half marathons
Cara:
● At 23, has tried various jobs but none of them ‘were for her’
● Started a college course, then a degree with the OU but dropped out of both
● Still doesn’t know what she wants to do
Where are they now?
9. ● Wide variety of roles and
jobs. NOT restricted by
place (new school
friends)
● From people he trusts and respects
● Going onto higher education (new
school)
● Perseverance and discipline (Cadets)
Opportunities to learn in a
variety of contexts to
develop hard and soft skills
● Home - lego, how
things work
● Informal - Cadets
(discipline,
endurance, team
work, health and
fitness, etc)
● School - maths
● Jobs to fund him
through university
Attainment - Jamie
SKILLS
DEVELOPMENT:
EXPECTATION:
EXPOSURE:
Attainment wheel: @GrainneHamilton, @BryanMathers CC BY-ND
10. ● Limited variety of jobs,
restricted to local area
● Informal - social media
● School - art
Attainment - Cara
SKILLS
DEVELOPMENT:
EXPOSURE:
● Focus on being happy in the
moment rather than applying
herself and achieving
● Mother provides example of work
ethic but Cara also sees strain
she is under
EXPECTATIONS:
Attainment wheel: @GrainneHamilton, @BryanMathers CC BY-ND
12. Common elements:
City-wide community
Provision of employment, learning and civic
opportunities
Open Badges
Badge Pathways / Playlists connecting to
opportunities
(Badge Profiles)
Approaches:
● Cities of Learning (playlists)
● Cities of Learning UK (pathways, skills
spines)
● Connected Spaces (exploring pathways
and playlists)
● Cities for Learning (pathways, beacon
technology)
Learning City approaches
13. ● Skills gaps / needs
● Support for skills development / expectations /
exposure
○ At home / family
○ Local
○ Informal
○ Formal
● Opportunities
● Job interviews
● Work placements
● Learning opportunities
● Civic opportunities
City-wide community
COMMUNITY:
● Employers
● Education providers: universities,
colleges, schools
● City council
● Voluntary organisations
● Youth groups
● Charities
● Mentors
● People with the same
backgrounds
● Support for family and
community learning
A core stakeholder group will map across the city:
17. Open Badges
● Provide RECOGNITION
of skills and learning
wherever it happens
Open standards-based technology
Badge Pathways
● EXPOSE and aid
DISCOVERY of
opportunities
● CONNECT skills to an
opportunity / goal
Badge Profiles
● Aid SELF AWARENESS
and identification of
INTRINSIC
MOTIVATORS
18. Discovery of
pathways
stemming
from interests
start here
Discovery of
pathways
stemming
from goals
start hereConstruction
labourer
Lego
(Pattern oriented,
mechanics)
Cadets
(Endurance
discipline, team-
work, leadership)
Children’s
University
Passport
Fixing
Machines
(Maths, mechanics)
Entrepreneur
(Running business
while at school,
initiative)
Senior
Drilling
Roles
Goal
Oil Industry
Consultancy
Goal
Retail worker
School
Maths
Security guard
Mech Eng
University
Degree
Goal
Jamie’s Badge Pathway
19. ● Map skills
gaps/needs
● Provide
learning,
employment,
civic
opportunities
● Open Badges
○ Skills
recognition
● Badge Profiles
○ Self
awareness
● Badge Pathways
○ Connect
skills to
opportunities
TechnologyCity
Learning City approach
Attainment wheel: @GrainneHamilton, @BryanMathers CC BY-ND
20. Learning City approach
Exposure: seeing a wide variety of employment, learning and civic
opportunities connected to badges earned
Expectation: seeing that badges earned, form pathways that lead to
a variety of life-enriching opportunities
Skills development: seeing what badges or skills are needed to
follow a pathways towards an opportunity or goal
Construction
labourer
Lego
CadetsChildren’s
University
Passport
Fixing
Machines
Entrepreneur
Senior
Drilling
Roles
Goal
Oil Industry
Consultancy
Goal
Retail worker
School
Maths
Security
guard
Mech Eng
University
Degree
Goal
21. People from the following organisations have
expressed interest:
● Universities of Glasgow, Strathclyde and
Glasgow Caledonian University; City of
Glasgow College
● Glasgow City Council
● MCR Pathways
● Children’s University
● Snook
● EDF
● Cisco
● We Are Open
Interested in:
● Closing the attainment gap
● Developing the Young Workforce
● Lifelong learning
● Widening participation
● Pathways; articulation
● Digital skills
● Community and family learning
● Helping care-experienced young people
● Smart cities
● Talent pipeline
● Application of We Are Open members’
work
Learning City - GLASGOW
22. Badge Wiki. (2018). Badge Pathways. [Wiki post]. We Are Open.
Bateson P., Martin P. (2013). Play, Playfulness, Creativity and Innovation. Cambridge University Press.
Blair, L (2014) Tell us your story [Blog post]. Open Badges Blog.
Casilli, C. (2013). Pathways trilogy - Badge pathways: part 0, the prequel. [Blog post]. Persona.
Connected Spaces (Rotterdam). (2018). Connected Spaces Rotterdam. Connected Spaces.
Digital on Ramps (2013). Digital on Ramps. DML Competition
Digitalme (2017). Sussex Downs College. Digitalme
Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Random House.
Freeman, K. (2004). African Americans and College Choice. Suny Press.
Hamilton, G. (2017). Cities of Learning in the UK: a place-based approach to enhancing lifelong learning and access to enrichment opportunities.
Pascal International Observatory.
Hamilton, G. (2016). Building skills-awareness, resilience and pathways to employment using Open Badges. [Blog post].
medium.com/@grainnehamilton
Hamilton, G. (2014). Career Discovery – Horizon Scanning and Possible Selves [Blog post]. Grainne's Blog.
Hamilton, G. (2014). Discovering pathways [Blog post]. Grainne's Blog.
Kane, H. (2014). Discover a career you’ll love and map the skills you need with #MozillaDiscover. [Blog post]. Mozilla.
Open Badges. (2014). Community Call - Open Badges [Blog post]. Open Badges Blog.
Painter, A., Shafique, A. (2017). Cities of Learning in the UK Prospectus. RSA.
Rose Markus, H., Nurius, P. (1986). Possible Selves. American Psychologist. 41. 954-969.
Ryan, R., Deci, E. (2000). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology 25, 54–
67 (2000)
Savitz-Romer, M., Bouffard,S. (2012).Ready, Willing and Able. Harvard Education Press.
Vanacker, D., Demedts, L., & Van Puyenbroeck, H. (2018). Cities for Learning–Gentlestudent. The City as a Medium for Acquiring 21st Century
Skills. Artevelde University College Ghent
Varelidi, C. (2014). Legendary lands and the design of learning pathways. [Blog post]. Chloe at Play.
References
24. ● Could a Learning City approach be helpful in Glasgow?
● What organisations / individuals should be involved in a core stakeholder
group?
● What services or opportunities exist already that could be connected together
via a Learning City approach?
Editor's Notes
How we can improve the life chances of children growing up in poverty is the question we’re considering today and is a question I’ve been exploring over the last few years through work on a number of technology-based projects. I would like to share lessons gained from that work and take a look at how place, community, and open-standards based technology can be brought together to help address this question
I’m a member and Director of We Are Open. We are a co-op of people who work in the field of open standards development and open practices and our members have contributed to conceiving and developing some of the ideas I’ll discuss today, including Open Badges, Open Pathways and Cities of Learning UK
I’ll start by relating stories about a couple of people I know, who provide examples of the kind of people we’re trying to reach. I’ll explore what made the difference in helping them attain successful life outcomes and consider how place and technology can help to support these. *Point to note, when I’m talking about skills, it’s in the widest possible sense, eg what might be referred to as hard or soft skills, employability skills, aptitude, character traits, etc
Let’s start with Jamie. I’ve changed the names and the locations of one of the following people but they are real.
Taking a closer look at his environment...
Family is financially insecure. Low income area
Father an alcoholic, loses job
Mother works 2 jobs
Strong example, survivor, high standards
Excels at maths; loves lego
Joins local Cadets. Enjoys that and learns discipline
Local school does not provide highest level of maths exam
Discusses jobs of parents of new friends: include engineers, physicists (different jobs from local parents)
Identifies he would like to be a Mechanical Engineer, discovers he’ll need a university degree
Father wants him to get a job, not go to university
Local friends expect him to do job in local area. Mechanical Engineering is ‘not for us’
Must pay rent if he goes to university.
Has aunts, uncles and grandparents live locally and provide expectations and encouragement:
‘You’ll do well, son’
Space to work
What made the difference that led to Jamie’s ability to attain successful outcomes, whereas Cara is drifting? My experience of working in this area, and relevant research, has highlighted the importance of 3 things, which seem to be core in helping young people to succeed: expectation, exposure and skills development.
Let’s recap on how Jamie experienced all of these elements
If we look at Cara’s experience, she is lacking support in all of these areas…
Over the past few years I’ve worked on place-based approaches to learning that are enhanced by technology and believe that these could help young people build confidence in their skills, widen their horizons and embark on pathways to meaningful learning, civic and employment opportunities.
There are a few placed-based, tech-enhanced approaches that are currently being piloted and last year, I worked with the cities of Brighton, Manchester and Plymouth, to create and pilot the Cities of Learning UK approach. All the approaches have some things in common ... Although they feature less in an explicit way in any of the approaches, I have included badge profiles as I think they are important, particularly with helping young people in poverty to realise they have skills and to build a picture of their intrinsic motivators.
Open Badges is a global system of recognition, which enables individuals and organisations to evidence and share learning and achievements across the web. - Since its inception 7 years ago, 15 million badges have been issued, and this open standard is used by employers like Microsoft, IBM, EDF, Siemens, and Barclays; universities, colleges, schools; voluntary organisations, youth groups, and charities
Open standard
Open Badges can be created and issued by anyone
Features of Open Badges, such as the ability to include digital evidence, gain evidence-based endorsement, and develop a portfolio of skills with badge profiles, allow a rich picture of a person’s skills to become visible, including things like character attributes, interests and values
Badge profiles can help to surface patterns and aid the identification of interest and skills based intrinsic motivators
This badge profile is of Brian Brennan, Chief Architect of the OBI and shows the mix of interests and skills that he has, gained mostly through informal means.
Badges can be connected in pathways and linked to opportunities, enabling:
Individuals to discover, take badges and follow pathways to opportunities across a city
Employers and other opportunity providers to set out what is essential to them
Kevin Jones at Sussex Downs College: Local businesses told the college that reliability, teamwork and passion were critical to their business. The college created badges for them and if students earn all 3, it will unlock at interview with a local employer
Open Badges
Provide user-controlled, verifiable and shareable RECOGNITION of skills
Bring learning to the learner
Recognise learning wherever it happens
Badge Profiles
Prove to ourselves and others that we have skills
Enhance articulation of skills
Collate badges that recognise all forms of skills
Aid SELF AWARENESS and identification of INTRINSIC MOTIVATORS
Badge Pathways
CONNECT badges gained in a variety of contexts to an opportunity / goal
Widen horizons by enabling DISCOVERY of new opportunities stemming from interests, values, skills
EXPOSE opportunities and associated learning, providing motivation to gain new skills
With a Learning City approach Jamie’s pathway might have looked something like this…
Connect lego to Mech Eng degree, skills to goals
Cara doesn’t know what she wants to do but pathways stemming from badges issued for her interest in art and creative subjects could help her to see how they connect to various learning, employment and civic opportunities. This would increase her exposure to a variety of possible goals. By taking the badges along a pathway, she would visibly see her progress, which in turn could increase her confidence in her ability to succeed.
In summary, place-based approaches, coupled with technology can provide:
Learning City approach provides and supports
Exposure can arise from seeing a wide variety of opportunities connected to badges an individual has earned
Expectation can be enhanced by seeing that they have already started on pathways that could lead them to a variety of life-enriching opportunities
Skills development can be supported by seeing what badges or skills they would need to gain to follow a pathways towards an opportunity or goal