2008年12月11日星期四

翻译《在线学习的未来：十年期》


The Future of Online Learning: Ten Years On



在线学习的未来：十年期



Stephen Downes



唐棣芬







In the summer of 1998, over two frantic weeks in July, I wrote an essay titled The Future of Online Learning. (Downes, 1998) At the time, I was working as a distance education and new media design specialist at Assiniboine Community College, and I wrote the essay to defend the work I was doing at the time. “We want a plan,” said my managers, and so I outline the future as I thought it would – and should – unfold.在西元一九九八年夏天，七月的两个疯狂的星期里，我写下了一篇文章《在线学习的未来》（唐棣芬，1998）当时，我从事远程教育工作，是一名阿西尼博因社区大学的新媒体设计专家，我写这篇文章是为了捍卫我当时的工作。“我们需要一个规划，”管理层这样说，因此我规划出我希望能够——也应该——实现的未来。







In the ten years that have followed, this vision of the future has proven to be remarkably robust. I have found, on rereading and reworking the essay, that though there may have been some movement in the margins, the overall thrust of the paper was essentially correct. This gives me confidence in my understanding of those forces and trends that are moving education today.



在接下来的十年里，对未来的预见已经被证明是非常准确的。我发现，重读、修改这篇文章，虽然在细节上可能有所变化，但是这篇文章的总体推论在本质上还是正确的。因此，对于推动今日教育发展的力量和趋势，我对我的理解相当有信心。







In this essay I offer a renewal of those predictions. I look at each of the points I addressed in 1998, and with the benefit of ten year’s experience, recast and rewrite each prediction. This essay is not an attempt to vindicate the previous paper – time has done that –but to carry on in the same spirit, and to push that vision ten years deeper into the future.



在本文中，我对这些预测做了更新。我看了我在一九九八年讨论的每一点，结合这十年来的经验，改写或重写了每一条预测。本文并不打算证明上一篇文章——时间能做到这一点——但将本着相同的精神前进，并作出未来十年的预测。







New Technology



新技术







The development of new technology continues to have an impact on learning. While on the one hand, new technology allows schools and instructors to offer learning in new ways, educators nonetheless continue to face limitations imposed by technology, and sometimes the lack of technology. While access to the internet has increased greatly over the last decade, some schools continue to experience bandwidth shortages and most schools do not have enough computers for every student. Yet, this is changing, and the pace of this change will continue to accelerate.



新技术的发展将继续影响学习。一方面，新技术允许学校和教师以新的方式提供学习，但是教育者将继续面对技术带来的诸多限制，有时候是缺乏技术。虽然在过去十年里，对互联网的访问大大增加，某些学校依然带宽不足，而大多数学校也不能为全体学生提供足够的计算机。然而，这种情况正在发生变化，而且改变的步伐会越来越快。







Bandwidth带宽







As administrators struggle against the demands video streaming and bit torrent networks place on backbones, it is hard to imagine saying that bandwidth will be unlimited. But from a certain perspective, from the point of view of most users, bandwidth is already unlimited, as they are able to share text, images and video with ease. The limit of 28K from ten years ago now appears laughable to most urban internet users, as broadband access allows downloads almost a hundred times faster. Applets are now commonplace, a video sharing site (YouTube) is the most popular destination on the internet, and video conferencing (through services such as Skype) is mainstream.



由于管理员们坚决反对对视频流的请求以及主干网中的BitTorrent网络，要说带宽无限是很难想象的。但是可以肯定的是，从大多数用户的角度而言，带宽已经无限，因为他们能够轻易分享文字、图片和视频。十年前28K限制，对于现在绝大多数都市网络用户而言已然可笑，因为宽带访问允许的下载几乎是百倍快捷。网页小程序现已经随处可见，视频分享网站（YouTube）是互联网上最热门的网站，视频会议（通过Skype等服务）已成主流。







And access to bandwidth continues to improve. The employment of data compression technologies has almost been superseded by fibre-optics technology such as lightpath management. (van der Pol, 2007) Companies like Verizon are offering fibre-optics to the home. (Verizon, 2008) And while satellite internet did not revolutionize internet access, the spread of Wi-Fi and other wireless technologies created an essentially mobile internet, with Wi-Max, a long-range broadband wireless internet standard, poised to greatly extend that in the future. Bandwidth is in the process of becoming ubiquitous, and though we may complain about the price, it is already, relatively speaking, cheap.



接入带宽会持续得到改善。数据压缩技术的使用，几乎都已被光路管理等光纤技术所取代（范德尔·珀尔，2007）。Verizon 等公司提供了光纤到户（Verizon，2008）。虽然卫星互联网没有改变互联网的接入方式，Wi-Fi 以及其他无线网络技术的普及创造了一个基本上移动的互联网，加上Wi-Max，一种远距离无线宽带互联网标准，有望在将来极大的扩展无线互联网。带宽在这个过程中变得无处不在，虽然我们可能会抱怨价格，但它的确，相对而言，很便宜。







Despite set-backs – for example, the lobbies by private corporations to prevent the deployment of municipal Wi-Fi – it is not unreasonable to expect that inexpensive wireless broadband will be ubiquitous in most populated areas. We can think of it as a service analogous to the deployment of mobile phone services today (and indeed, the providers of tomorrow’s broadband wireless may well be today’s mobile service providers.



尽管有挫折——比如，某些私有企业的说客阻止城市Wi-Fi的部署——仍然有理由期待廉价无线宽带将会普及于大多数人口密集地区。我们可以想象这是类似于今天移动电话服务的一种服务（事实上，明天无线宽带的提供者，很可能就是今天的移动服务商）







Processing



处理







Computers have as well become more reliable. It is hard to believe that only ten years ago we were upgrading from 75 megahertz processors to 100 or even 130 megahertz machines. The computer this is being typed on, a MacBook Pro, runs a 2.33 gigahertz duo-core processor. And its 3 gigabtye memory dwarfs the 16 (upgradable to 32) megabyte memory we used with our Pentium computers. And while the deployment of these 64 bit computers took rather longer than one would expect, they are beginning to be seen in the home and the office today. (Norr, 2006) Today, 128 bit processors are not really on the horizon, but computer capacity is continuing to increase through the use of multiple processors.



计算机也变得更加可靠。难以相信十年前我们会从75MHz处理器升级到100或者130MHz机器。我现在正在录入的计算机，是一台MacBook Pro，运行一颗2.33GHz双核处理器。它的3G内存使得我们用在奔腾计算机上的16M（可以升级到32M）内存相形见拙。虽然64位计算机还没有如我们所愿那样部署开，单已经能在今天的办公室和家庭中看得见（诺尔，2006）。128位处理器还没有出现，但是通过使用多个处理器，计算机的处理能力不断得到增强。







As a result of the use of multiple processors, computers themselves are becoming what might be called ‘platform neutral’. Computer programs are being designed to run in ‘virtual machines’ which can be carried from one hardware platform to another without adaptation. The Java Virtual machine (JVM) is one example of this, but so also are the ‘images’ produced by virtualization software such as VMWare or Parallels. And specialized computer languages, such as Erlang, are designed to operate in multiple processor environments. (Ericsson Computer Science Laboratory, 2008) These systems manage the interface between the operating system – whether it be Apple, Windows or Linux – and the underlying hardware, thus allowing the same system to be run on varying hardware configurations. The operating system, to these systems, is depicted as a disc file (or ‘image’). As a result, it is not unreasonable to imagine people carrying their ‘computers’ around on ten (or hundred) gigabyte Flash memory drives.



由于使用了多个处理器，计算机自身正变得“平台无关”。计算机程序被设计运行于“虚拟机”中，使得可以从一个硬件平台迁移到另一个而无需调整。Java虚拟机（JVM）就是一例，但也有VMWare或Parallels 等虚拟软件产生的“映像文件”。有专门的计算机语言，比如Erlang，设计用来操作多处理器环境（爱立信计算机科学实验室，2008）。这些系统管理着操作系统——无论是Apple，Windows抑或Linux ——与底层硬件之间的接口，从而允许同一系统运行在不同的硬件配置之上。操作系统，对这些系统而言，被描述成一个磁盘文件（或者映像文件）。因此，可以想像人们利用他们的10（或者100）G闪存盘上携带他们的计算机。







Virtualization will occupy increasing attention in the future. Why? "We see a large number of customers spending less than 30 percent of their IT budget on business priorities, and growth initiatives, and 70 percent or more on management and maintenance. With virtualization and with these broader transformational initiatives, you can really flip the ratio around." (Gardner, 2008)



在未来，虚拟技术将会吸引更多眼球。为什么？“我们看到大量客户在其业务优先级，和不断增加的创新上花费不到他们IT预算的30%，而有超过70%用在管理和维护上。利用虚拟化和这些更广泛的革命性创新，你完全可以让这个比例倒过来。”（加德纳，2008）







The combination of ubiquitous broadband and the portable operating system will result in the widespread popularity of what is currently being called ‘cloud computing’. The idea is that your computer, as a set of data files, is stored online. As such, it may be access from any hardware environment, including mobile or portable devices. Consequently a person will access their single computing environment from different devices while at home, on the road or in the office. This computer will, in turn, access data and applications provided by remote online services.



无处不在的宽带和便携操作系统的结合，将导致目前所谓的“云计算”的广泛普及。这种概念是指，你的计算机是一组在线存储的数据。因此，可以从任何硬件环境访问你的计算机，包括移动或便携设备。因此，一个人可以通过不同的设备获取他的个人计算机环境，无论是在家里、在路上还是在办公室。反过来，计算机能够获取由远程在线服务提供的数据和应用程序。







Storage



存储







Storage is today widely available and relatively inexpensive. Once almost inconceivable, terabyte hard drives are now available in the local computer store for roughly two hundred dollars.



今天，存储设备已被广泛使用，且相对低廉。曾经无法想象的，TB级别的硬盘如今已经用于本地计算机存储，而且只要大约两百美元。







The rise of Flash memory – now available at 32 gigabytes and counting – and the minidisc used in some MP3 players will greatly accelerate the trend we have already seen toward specialization we have seen in the last decade. Flash memory is solid state, which means it consumes much less power and is much more compact than disc-based storage. Probably the most notable of the specialized computers, the iPod, has become one of the most popular consumer products of all time. Digital cameras have essentially replaced traditional cameras; Polaroid is ceasing production of instant film in 2009. (Winn, 2008) Other specialized computers, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), global positioning systems (GPS) and mobile phones, dominate the consumer electronics market.





闪存——现在已经有32GB的可用——和用在某些MP3播放器当中的迷你光盘的崛起，将会极大加速特殊化这种趋势，这，我们在过去十年已经见到过。闪存是固态的，这意味着它消耗的电力非常少，比光盘存储更致密。也许最引人注目的特殊计算机，iPod，会变成空前流行的消费产品。数码相机基本上取代了传统相机；宝丽来将在2009年停止生产即时胶卷（温，2008）。其他特殊计算机，比如个人数字助理（PDA），全球定位系统（GPS）以及移动电话，将占消费电子市场的主导地位。







Software



软件







Software has also become more reliable, even though this has been obscured to some degree by the decade-long dominance of the market by Microsoft’s Windows operating system. As web-based applications become more widely available, however, more specialized and customizable operating environments will be available to users. Online storage and processing represent yet another virtualization of the computing environment, with the result that personal systems are simpler and more stable. Simple devices – from the One Laptop Per Child computer to the Asus Eee to the Nokia internet tablet to Apple’s iPhone now allow people to run complex software with very simple devices. (Arrington, 2008)



软件也变得更加可靠，即使因为十年来微软的视窗操作系统把持市场，使得这个结论显得有些模糊不清。基于网页的应用程序日益普及，然而，更多的特殊化和定制操作环境将提供给用户，因而，个人系统会更简单更稳定。简单设备——从OLPC每个孩子一台笔记本计算机到华硕易PC到诺基亚网络平板到苹果的iPhone，现在允许人们在非常简单的设备上运行复杂软件（阿林顿，2008）。







Indeed, it is arguable that we have already reached the upper limit of the large single-system software environment. A report from Gartner Consulting, for example, suggests that Windows Vista is collapsing under its own weight. (Dignan, 2008) Microsoft needs to virtualize Windows, to create versions tailored to different devices, simplifying the operating system providing a similar user experience across a wide range of products. Already, Microsoft is reported to be working on an ultralight version of Windows for the OLPC project. (Smith, 2008) Meanwhile, Nintendo is making the Wii gaming system a web application that streams videos from the BBC. (Waters, 2008) The distinction between ‘systems’ that characterized the Linux-Mac-Windows battles of the 90s and 2000s will fade into the background.



事实上，我们已经触及最大单系统软件环境的上限，这个观点是有争议的。举个例子，一份来自加德纳咨询的报告称，声称Windows Vista 将会因其自身体积而崩溃（迪格南，2008）。微软需要虚拟化的Windows，为不同设备创建定制版本，简化操作系统为广泛产品提供类似的用户体验。有报告称微软已经在为OLPC开发一款超轻版本的Windows（斯密斯，2008）。与此同时，任天堂正在开发Wii游戏系统网页程序，其视频流来自BBC（沃特斯，2008）。九十年代和本世纪头十年发生的Linux-Mac-Windows战争所体现出来的“系统”之间的差别，将会淡出到后台。







The best example of this may be seen at the Flickr website. You use a digital camera – a specialized digital computer with an optical sensing device – to take a photograph. You then upload the photo (often wirelessly) to the internet, storing it in your Flickr account. You then, using the Flickr website, access a separate application called Piknik to edit the photo – your photo data is actually sent from Flickr to Piknik, and you use Piknik servers to perform the manipulations. After returning your photo to Flickr, you employ yet another application that will print the photo and, combined with a shipping service, send you a nicely framed enlargement.



最好的例子可以从Flickr网站上看到。你使用一台数码相机——具有光学传感装置的特殊计算机——照相。然后上传相片（经常无线上传）到互联网上，存储在你的Flickr帐户中。接下来你使用Flickr网站，进入一个单独的应用程序，称为Piknik，编辑相片——你的相片数据实际上已经从Flickr传送到Piknik，你使用Piknik服务器完成这些处理。等你的相片传回Flickr，你使用另一应用程序打印该相片，再加上运输服务，寄给你一副漂亮的相框。







Specialization



特殊化









Computers are becoming more specialized, and we are beginning to think of them as devices used for specific purposes – gadgets – rather than as computers at all. Pulse-monitoring devices, global positioning systems, toll system tags, e-book readers, writing tablets: all these and more are forming an increasingly large part of our landscape (for many many gadgets see websites such as gizmodo.com). Desktop computers themselves are shrinking as designers make them more portable and more energy-efficient. (Fried, 2008)



计算机正变得日益特殊化，我们开始把它们视作用于特定目的的设备——工具——而不是计算机。脉搏检测装置，全球定位系统，收费系统标签，电子书阅读器，书写板：所有这些以及其他，形成了一个我们身边景观越来越庞大的部分（想了解更多工具，请参阅gizmodo.com等网站）。桌面计算机本身日益缩小，因为设计者们让它们更加便携更加节能（弗雷德，2008）。







Computers – and more specifically, processors, storage devices and wireless communicators – are being embedded into everyday devices. Despite early hiccups, WalMart continues its drive to have RFID wireless transmitters embedded in all products it sells, for example. (Wailgum, 2008) These chips will be used to track inventory and facilitate check-out. Meanwhile, fads such as wearable computing come and go, harkening a day when our clothes will monitor our vital signs, keep track of where we’ve been, and function as camouflage or a computer screen. (Busari, 2008) Digital technology is becoming a part of our lives, embedded in everything, much in the way paper permeated the lives of earlier generations.



计算机——更具体的说，处理器、存储设备和无线通讯设施——正嵌入到日常设备当中。举个例子，尽管早期犯过小错误，沃尔玛将继续推动将RFID无线发送器嵌入到它销售的所有产品当中（华尔甘，2008）。这些芯片将用来跟踪库存，便于登记。与此同时，一些时尚玩意儿，比如可穿戴计算机纷纷亮相，终有一天，我们的衣物将会检测我们的身体状况，记录下我们去过的位置，起到伪装或者计算机屏幕的作用（布萨瑞，2008）。数码技术正变成我们生活的一部分，嵌入到所有东西当中，占据了早几代人生活中纸张的位置。







Widgets and Webtops



网络插件与网页桌面







In 1998 I wrote that computer programs of the future will be function based, that they will address specific needs, launching and manipulating task based applications on an as needed basis. For example, I said, the student of the future will not start up an operating system, internet browser, word processor and email program in order to start work on a course. The student will start up the course, which in turn will start up these applications on its own.



一九九八年我写到，未来的程序将会按照功能进行设计，它们将解决特定需求，基于运行和处理任务的应用程序，都是基于需求而产生。比如，我曾经说，未来的学生在开始工作或者课程的时候，将不再先启动操作系统、互联网浏览器、字处理器或者电子邮件程序。学生们将启动这门课，这门课程将启动相应的应用程序。







The 2008 instantiation of this idea is the widget. A widget is a piece of code – typically written in Flash or Javascript – that resides on a desktop or web page and performs a specific function. (WebProNews, 2008) Thousands of widgets exist and may be found on download pages at places like Yahoo! and Apple or from specialized content sources such as national Geographic. (National Geographic, 2008) A widget obtains content from one website and displays it on another website. Often user interaction is provided – the user might type a term into a search widget, for example – and often some form of processing is requested at the remote website.



在二零零八年能证明这一想法的是网络插件。一个网络插件是一段代码——多用Flash或Javascript写就——驻留在桌面或者网页中，并执行特定功能（网络专家新闻，2008）。已有数以千计的网络插件，可以从诸如Yahoo!、苹果的下载页面上找到，或者来自特定的内容源如国家地理（国家地理杂志，2008）。网络插件从一个网站获取内容并显示在另一个网站。多数提供用户互动——比如，用户可以向搜索插件输入单词——并且远端网站往往需要某种形式的处理。







Widgets can be combined as a collection of services through web sites called ‘webtops’. These websites, such as PageFlakes and Netvibes, import content and services and arrange them on a page according to user settings and preferences. (Oehlert, 2006) Ands we can see learning management systems such as Desire2Learn adopt the same approach to design, creating personalized course home pages out of a set of associated widgets. (Weiser, 2008) It does not matter what operating system is used to view such pages because they are displayed inside the web browser.



网络插件能够通过称为“网页桌面”的网站整合一系列服务。这些网站，比如PageFlakes和Netvibes，导入内容和服务，并将它们根据用户的设置和喜好安排在网页上（奥依雷特， 2006）。我们也可以看到学习管理系统如Desire2Learn采用相同的方法进行设计，通过一套相关网络插件创建个性化课程首页（韦泽，2008）。不管看这些网页用的是什么操作系统，因为他们是显示在网页浏览器当中的。









Embedding



嵌入







Computers – essentially, little processors with wireless access to the ambient internet – will be embedded in everyday products. I have spoken in the past about the fishing rod that teaches you to fish or the jar of strawberry jam that teaches you about jam, as well as the example from Bruce Sterling’s Distraction about the hotel that teaches you how to build it. (Sterling, 1999)



计算机——基本上，就是能够无线访问周围互联网的小处理器——将要被嵌入到日常产品当中。我过去曾谈到过能教你钓鱼的钓竿或者教你涂果酱的草莓酱罐头，以及来自《布鲁斯·斯特林消遣》关于教你如何修建酒店的酒店例子（斯特林，1999）。







New Technology in Education



教育中的新技术







While technology changes rapidly, people do not. People want to use tools that look and feel like tools they’ve always used, and will tend to adopt tools only if they see a clear benefit either in productivity or in savings. (Starr, 2003) Since education is a domain that inherently involves people as both practitioners and clients, it seems clear that when we think about the adoption of new technology in education, we need to think as much about what people will want and are likely to do as about the new technologies that will be available.



虽然技术变化很快，但是人们不会。人们希望他们使用的工具外观和感觉与他们用过的工具类似，并且倾向于只有在他们看到明确的利益，不论是在生产力还是在存款方面，他们才愿意使用工具（斯塔尔，2003）。由于在教育领域，实践者和客户两方面都牵涉到人，似乎很明显，当我们想在教育中使用新技术，我们需要详细思考，关于这种将要使用的新技术，是什么人需要使用，什么人喜欢使用。







In particular, education is fundamentally a process of communication (learning, by contrast, is fundamentally a process of growth). (Richter, 1995) As such, educators over the years have attempted to keep the use of tools to a minimum, and as invisible as possible, and to focus on the teaching. How many times have we heard the refrain that pedagogy should not be driven by technology?



特别是，教育从根本上教师一个交流的过程（相反，学习，基本上是一个成长的过程）（里希特，1995）。这样，教育工作者多年来试图将工具的使用降到最低程度，并尽可能视而不见，而把重点放在教学上。有多少次我们重复听到说教育不应该有技术驱动？







When we example the teaching process – one that remains largely unchanged even through the first decade of the internet – we see this emphasis on dialogue and communication. And it should not be surprising that the first major type of technology to be adapted, the learning management system (LMS), was originally named ‘World Wide Web Course Tools’ (or WebCT, as we later came to know) (Goldberg, 1996). Basic technology, such as the book, the notepad, the blackboard, and the teacher were all either emulated or facilitated within WebCT.



当我们举出教学过程的例子——甚至经过互联网的头十年也能保持大致不变的事物——我们知道要加强对话和交流。并且不应该惊讶于被调整的技术的第一个主要类型，学习管理系统（LMS），最初命名为“万维网课程工具”（就像我们后来知道的那样，或者叫做WebCT）（哥德堡，1996）。在WebCT当中，各种基本技术，比如书籍、笔记本、黑板，以及教师，都可以被模仿或者使之更方便。







The PAD (Personal Access Device)



PAD个人接入设备







In 1998 I wrote that ‘The PAD will become the dominant tool for online education, combining the function of book, notebook and pen.” The PAD, I said, would be “a lightweight notebook computer with touch screen functions and high speed wireless internet access.” I also said it would cost around three hundred dollars.



一九九八年我写下了“PAD将会变成在线教育的主导工具，融合了书籍、笔记本和钢笔的功能。”我预测，PAD将会是“一个轻便的笔记本计算机，具有触摸屏功能以及高速无线互联网接入。”我还表示，它的价格大约在三百美元左右。







By 2008, the prescience of that prediction has been proven. Early tablet computers produced by QBE won Comdex ‘Best of Show’ awards in 1999 and 2000. (Viherlahti, 1999) In 2002 Microsoft released the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition to support tablet technology. (Thurrott, 2002) It included handwriting recognition and voice commands. Today, arguably, the tablet computer has become so widespread.



到了二零零八年，这一预测得到证实。由昆士兰出品的刚上市的平板计算机赢得了1999到2000年度的Comdex计算机展的“最佳大会奖”（维和拉蒂，1999）。在2002年微软发布Windows XP 平板计算机版本以支持平板技术（舒洛特，2002）。其中包括手写识别和语音命令。可以说，现在，平板计算机已经非常普遍。







Of most significance, tablet computers have in recent years reached the price point predicted in my 1998 article. Probably the most notable of these is the XO Computer, but for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, which was sold for just under $200. (Bsales & Bsales, 2007) Other computers selling for less than $300 quickly followed, including the Intel Classmate and the Asus EEE. Meanwhile, Apple’s iPod touch, ostensibly a music player but in fact a small wireless computer, was widely popular.



最重要的是，平板计算机在最近几年内的价格达到了一九九八年文章中预测的价格。其中也许最值得注意的是XO计算机，但是对于每个孩子一台笔记本（OLPC）项目，售价不到两百美元（Bsales & Bsales，2007）。其他售价低于三百美元的计算机，包括英特尔学生笔记本和华硕易PC。与此同时，苹果的iPod Touch，表面上是一款音乐播放器，实际上是一款小型无线计算机，受到广泛欢迎。







With slim, lightweight technology, truly useful and portable PADs will be widely available within the next ten years. We have already seen significant improvements in screen technology, including slim touch-sensitive screens. Wireless access and cloud computing make bulky storage devices unnecessary; what local memory is needed will be more than adequately managed using tiny flash memory chips. Improvements in battery life and solar power will mean that these low-wattage portable computers will run for days. They will, as I suggested before, come in all shapes and sizes, from a slim pocket version (much like the iPod touch) to a notepad version.



利用轻薄技术，真正有用且便携的PAD将会广泛使用于下一个十年。我们已经看到包括超薄触摸式屏幕在内的屏幕技术的显著改进。无线接入和云计算使得笨重的存储设备显得多余；本地内存的需求多过对小型闪存芯片的适当管理。电池寿命的改善以及太阳能发电将意味着低功率便携计算机将能运行好几天。如我以前所建议的，它们将有各种形状和尺寸，从超薄袖珍版本（很像iPod Touch）到笔记本版本。







Display Technology



显示技术







The same technology that makes PAD technology possible will continue to proper improvements in large screen displays (devices I nicknamed WADs (Wide area Displays) ten years ago).



使个人接入设备技术成为可能的同一技术将继续逐步改善大屏幕显示器（十年前我喜欢称之为WAD（宽屏显示器））。







The age of wide area displays has already arrived; with the conversion to high definition digital television in February 2009 (Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 2008) manufacturers have been selling wide-screen plasma and light emitting diode (LED) monitors. These distinct technologies have in common not only the ability to support flat monitors (as compared to the bulky cathode ray tubes used in traditional televisions) they also consume less power and produce less heat.



宽屏显示器的时代已经到来。随着二零零九年转换到高清数字电视（联邦通讯委员会FCC， 2008），制造商们开始销售宽屏等离子与发光二极管（LED）显示器。这些特有技术通常不仅能够支持平板显示器（相对于传统电视机中使用的阴极射线管），他们也消耗更少的电能，产生更少的热量。







In the future, it will be common to see these large-area displays hanging on living room and classroom walls. Instead of being the size of small windows, they will be the size of large blackboards. They will be touch sensitive (or if not, connected to a pointer tracking system device similar to the ones being cobbled together for less than $50 by Wii enthusiasts (Lee, 2007)) or included with any of a number of children’s educational webcam games today (such as Camgoo, among many others).



在未来，将会习见大屏幕显示器挂在客厅或者教室的墙上。不是窗户那么小的尺寸，而是黑板那么大的尺寸。他们将能感应触摸（如果没有的话，也会连接到一个指针跟踪系统设备——由Wii爱好者使用不到五十美元拼凑出来（李，2007）——进行模拟）或者包括了一些现在的儿童教育网络视频游戏（比如Camgoo，诸如此类）。







Projection technology is also coming down in price and improving in power and portability. It is now not uncommon for people to build home movie theatres using computers or DVD plays along with a digital projector and wall or screen. And projection technology, combined with mobile phones, is touted in some circles as a wave of the future. (Tran, 2007)



投影技术的价格也正在下跌，并且功耗和便携性也得到改善。在人们利用计算机或者DVD播放器建立家庭影院时，使用数码投影仪并不少见。并且投影技术，加上移动电话，在某些圈子中作为未来的浪潮受到吹捧（特兰，2007）。







Portable, Personal, and Global



便携化、个性化与全球化







The combination of portable and affordable computing devices, combined with widely available digital presentation tools, will make education genuinely personal and portable.



结合了便携与廉价的计算设备，再加上广泛使用的数码展示工具，将会让教育真正个人化、便携化。







Imagine having in your hands a device on which you can not only write or type content, but which takes photos and records videos. Imagine further that this device contains easy-to-use but powerful photo and video editing software, and is additionally connected to a massive library of content made available through ambient broadband internet connections.



想想你手上有一个设备，利用它你不仅可以书写录入内容还可以照相录像。进一步想像该设备包含了易于使用但很强大的相片及视频编辑软件，并且还通过无线宽带互联网连接设备连接到一个巨大的内容库。







Moreover, imagine that any environment that contains a flat surface can become a teaching environment, one where your friends’ faces (or your parents’ or your teachers’) can appear life-size on any old wall or on a table surface as you converse with them from the next room or around the world. We have already seen how the availability of mobile telephones has transformed society in less than a generation. (New Media Consortium, 2008) Having much more powerful, much more expressive, communications technology available everywhere will have a similar impact.



此外，想像具有扁平表面的任何环境都能变成一个教学环境，在你与你隔壁或远方的朋友（或者父母或者老师）交谈的时候，他的面孔按真实大小显示在墙上或者桌面上。我们已经看到移动电话是如何在不到一代人的时间里改变社会的（新媒体协会，2008）。随处可用的功能更强大、更具表达力更便于交流的技术，也会有类似影响。







It is important to think not simply about how these technologies will operate individually but rather about how they will operate in combination. A person will move content online and offline with ease. Software and multimedia will no longer be associated with hardware or other devices but will rather be associated with individuals and will express their personal preferences. We are already seeing this as people can download and carry their own portable applications around with them. (PortableApps.com, 2008)



重要的是不能简单的认为这些技术如何单独运作，而是要考虑他们是如何共同作用。一个人将能够轻易的在线或离线操作内容。软件和多媒体不再和硬件或者设备有关，而是与个人及其将要表达的个人喜好有关。我们已经看到，人们已经在自己身边下载并使用他们自己的便携程序（PortableApps.com, 2008）。







Each person will have what may be thought of as a ‘profile’ of their own art, music and other media, which they have created themselves or with friends, along with records of their activities in various games and simulations (we see things like this already with applications like Launchcast) that take place both on and off line. (Breeding, 2005) They will be able to be in constant audio and video contact with family and friends, meaning that families and groups will never really be separated unless one of them chooses to be.



每一个人都将有一个被视作他们自己的艺术、音乐及其他媒体的“形象”，这将由他们自己或者他们的朋友创建，通过记录他们在各种竞赛和模仿秀中的活动（我们已经看到这样的应用程序，如LaunchCast），这将同时发生在线上和线下（布瑞林，2005）。他们将能够不断与家人及朋友进行音频或视频联系，也就是说，家庭和团体将不会完全隔离，除非有一方选择如此。







Presentation Software



演示软件







The term ‘presentation software’ can be used to refer to applications designed to display learning material to students. (TechTarget, 2005) In the past, these learning materials were confined to physical media such as video tapes or CD-ROMS. And a lot of educational material continues to be presented in such formats today; any parent can describe the wide array of children’s titles available at the local software store.



“演示软件”一词可以用来表示旨在向学生显示学习素材的应用程序（TechTarget, 2005）。过去，这些学习素材被限制于录像带或者光盘等物理媒体。并且现在仍然有大量素材以这些格式呈现；任何父母都能说出当地软件商店各种各样的儿童书籍。







Learning materials are now available online as well. Probably the most representative (and most saturated) market is the language learning market, where providers market audio and video clips, flash cards and memory aids, study guides, and much more. Additionally, numerous applications are marketed to parents of small children; these vary from quiz applications to games to online communities.



学习素材现在也开始上线了。也许最具代表性的（也是最饱和的）市场就是语言学习市场，在这里提供商销售音频和视频剪辑、闪存卡和记忆教具，学习指南，诸如此类。另外，还有面向幼儿家长的无数软件；类型各式各样，从问答程序到游戏到在线社区。







That said, the presentation software market has divided itself roughly into two parts. On the one hand, sophisticated tools have been placed into the hands of instructors and non-professionals to facilitate the creation of multimedia presentations. To name just a few, we could point PowerPoint, which allows instructors to create slides; to Audacity, which facilitates audio recording and editing, Adobe Premiere Elements, an inexpensive and accessible video editing tool; Camtasia, a screen-recording and video editing tool; and Second life, which enables people to create three-dimensional objects.



尽管如此，演示软件市场大致分成了两部分。一部分，面向教育者和非专业人员的复杂工具，促进创建多媒体演示。仅举几例，我们可以使用PowerPoint，这可以让教育者创建幻灯片；Audacity 可以简化音频录制和编辑；Adobe Premiere Elements，一款便宜、方便的视频编辑工具； Camtasia，屏幕录制及视频编辑工具；二度人生，允许人们创建三维物体。







On the other hand, even more sophisticated tools have been placed into the hands of professional designers. In addition to professional versions of the content creation tools, programming studios and integrated development environments enable developers to create sophisticated games, simulations and other educational applications. Thus there is, at any given time, a professional educational content community that creates high-end and custom educational content and a non-professional community that creates (relatively) low-end and more personalized educational content.



另一部分，更加复杂的工具落入专业设计师之手。除了专业版本的内容编辑工具之外，编程工具和集成开发环境允许开发者创建复杂的游戏、仿真技术和其他教育软件。因此，在任何特定时间，由专业教育内容社区创造高端、定制教育内容，非专业社区创造（相对）低端以及更加个性化的教育内容。







This is a trend that is likely to continue, though it is also likely that the line dividing the professional from the non-professional community will become increasingly elusive over time. Generally, as a domain of software design becomes well known, sets of tools for content creation are developed, which in time become widely accessible. Several recent waves in technology are reflective of this trend.



这是一个趋势，很可能会持续下去，尽管随着时间的推移，专业社区和非专业社区的区别愈发模糊。一般而言，当一个软件设计领域变得众所周知，就会开发出一系列的内容创建工具，并很快广为使用。最近几个技术潮流就是这个趋势的反映。







The first of these is the notion of the ‘software object’. (Sun Developer Network, 2008)This concept, which in education became the idea of the ‘learning object’, emerged as a result of the idea that reusable software objects could be created. These objects – a ‘menu’ item, for example, or a ‘task bar’, were made available in drag-and-drop programming environments, such as the Windows .Net environment. (Downes, Learning Objects: Resources for distance education worldwide, 2001) The idea that educators could assemble learning materials out of predefined components has never been abandoned.



第一个概念就是“软件对象”（升阳开发者网络，2008）。作为能够创建可重用软件对象的结果，此概念在教育中变成“学习对象”的理念。这些对象——比如，选单项，或者任务栏，在可拖放编程环境如Windows dotNet 环境中可用（唐四，学习对象：全球远程教育资源，2001 ）。利用这个理念，教育者可以利用预先确定的组件，组合出新的学习资源而不用抛弃。







The second is the concept of ‘Web 2.0’ that has recently swept the internet. (O'Reilly, 2005) Web 2.0 is actually a cluster of technologies that combine to allow web sites to become interactive. At the heart of these technologies – things like Asynchronous Javascript and XML, for example – are collections of software applications called ‘frameworks’ that automate the way web software handles the storage and retrieval of data and contents. Early frameworks included Cold Fusion, WebObjects and J2EE. Web 2.0 emerged with the release of lightweight open source frameworks such as Ruby on Rails. (Poteet, 2008)



第二个概念就是“Web2.0”，最近席卷整个互联网（O'Reilly, 2005）。Web2.0实际上是一些技术的组合，使得网站变成交互式。在这些技术——比如，像异步Javascript与XML（Ajax）——的核心，是一组称之为框架的应用程序，它自动化网页软件控制数据和内容的存储与读取。早期框架包括Cold Fusion、WebObjects和J2EE。Web2.0的出现，与轻量级开源框架如Rails 上的Ruby有关（破题特，2008）。







Games and Simulations



游戏与仿真技术







A great deal has been written in the last few years about educational games or, as they are sometimes called, ‘serious games’. (Eck, 2006) In 1998 I wrote that “educational software of the future will include every feature present in video games today, and more.” Though this hasn’t proven to be strictly true, it is largely true, and probably no more true than in the domain of games and simulations.



大量教育游戏，或者有时候被称作“严肃游戏”，是在最近几年内编写的（埃克，2006）。一九九八年，我写下了“未来的教育软件将包括今天视频游戏的所有甚至更多功能。”虽然还没有被证明是完全真实的，但大致上是真实的，可能没有比在游戏和仿真技术领域更真实的了。







Though there are different types of games, including quiz-games and branching games, the sort of games I felt most appropriate to educational use were learning environments such as were to be found in games like Sim City or Sim Earth. These games, now known as ‘spreadsheet games’, involve the creation of a large body of interacting data sets. Players manipulate both data sets and interactions, and resulting data states create the gameplay. (Aldrich, 2005) (Kapp, 2005)



尽管有不同类型的游戏，包括问答游戏和分支游戏，我觉得最适合在教育用途中作为学习环境的游戏，比如模拟城市或者模拟地球。这些游戏，现在被称为“电子表格游戏”，涉及到创建大量互动数据集。双方玩家操纵数据集并互动，并导致数据集创造出游戏活动（奥尔德里克，2005）（卡普，2005）。







While the last ten years have seen a fair amount of attention paid to such games, through the development of modification kits for gaming engines such as Civilization, even more attention has been paid to another class of educational software, the simulation. Once used only for high-end training, such as for aircraft or helicopter pilots, simulations have become in recent years cheaper to produce and hence more accessible. These can be built from stand-alone programming libraries, but can also be developed from modified gaming engines. This, for example, is what the Canadian Forces did, modifying the popular SWAT ‘First Person Shooter’ into a collaborative training simulation. (Mahood, 2007)



虽然过去十年，通过开发游戏引擎如《文明》的编辑工具，对这些游戏投入了大量的关注，甚至对另一类教育软件——仿真技术——也投入了更多关注。仿真技术一度曾仅用于高端如飞机或直升机飞行员的训练，最近几年仿真技术变得更便宜，因此也更容易获得。这些可以从独立程序库中创建，也可以通过修改游戏引擎进行开发。打个比方，加拿大军方所做的，就是将流行的《SWAT特警》第一视角进入到一个合作训练仿真技术当中（马虎，2007）。







The tools that we use today were in development in 1998 – multimedia or content engines such as PowerPoint or Director, development environments such as .Net, programming languages such as Java or Ruby, rendering systems such as VRML or SMIL. These now are disappearing into the background, while practitioners are working directly with content creation tools, both on the desktop and on the web.



我们今天使用的工具是在一九九八年开发的，多媒体或者内容引擎如PowerPoint或者Director等，开发环境如dotNet，程序语言如Java或Ruby，渲染系统如VRML或SML。这些现在已经退隐到后台，而从业者正直接使用内容开发工具进行工作，同时包括桌面和网站。







The World Wide Web today contains millions, and maybe billions, of (what used to be called) presentations, ranging from blog posts to wiki entries to videos posted on YouTube to Flickr photographs to SlideShare slide shows. As complex multimedia presentations become more modular, as they come to be based more on things like objects and frameworks and modification kits, we will see the same phenomenon for game and simulation content, where millions of resources will create complex and rich materials where, formerly, everyone would have to make do with a relatively simple offering from a publishing company. (Downes, Places to Go: Apolyton, 2005)



万维网今日包括了数以百万计甚至数以万亿计的（曾经被称作）演示，范围从网志帖子到维基条目到YouTube的视频到Flickr的相片到SlideShare的幻灯片。由于复杂的多媒体演示文稿变得愈加模块化，由于它们逐渐依赖更多东西如对象、框架、编辑工具，我们将会看到与游戏和仿真技术内容同样的经历，在那里，数以百万计的资源将用来创建复杂而丰富的素材，在那里，以前，所有人都凑合使用出版公司制作的相对简单的作品。







In 1998, I wrote the following: “To give a student an idea of what the battle of Waterloo was like, for example, it is best to place the student actually in the battle, hearing Napoleon's orders as they become increasingly desperate, feeling the recoil of one's own musket, or slogging through the mud looking for a gap in the British cannons.” (Downes, The Future of Online Learning, 1998) Today we can say that the creation of such simulations will not be simply the domain of large production houses, but will rather be more and more the result of massive collections of small contributions from individual players. And that the creation of content – any content – needs to take this phenomenon into account, or be seen as abstract and sterile.



在一九九八年，我写了以下文字“为了让学生了解滑铁卢之战是什么样子的，最好让学生置身真实的战场，听命于拿破仑，他们变得越来越绝望，感受到自己步枪的后座力，或者在泥泞中跋涉以寻找英国大炮的间隙。”（唐棣芬，在线学习的未来，1998）今天，我们可以说，建立这样的仿真技术将不仅仅是大型生产车间的事情，相反，越来越成为大量个别玩家微小贡献的合作结果。内容的创造——任何内容——都需要考虑到这种变化，否则就会被视作空谈和空中楼阁。







Interaction and Online Conferencing



交互与在线会议







In recent years educators have come more and more to believe that the presentation of educational content is but a small part of the learning process. To paraphrase the Cluetrain Manifesto, which came out roughly the same time as the Future of Online Learning, “all classrooms are conversations.” (Levine, Locke, Searls, & Weinberger, 1999) To that end, online conferencing in education has become important, not simply as a means to advance our knowledge of the subject area, but as a means to advance our understanding of communication using online technologies.



最近几年教育工作者越来越相信，展示出来的教育内容只是学习过程中的一小部分。为了解释与《在线学习的未来》同时产生的《线索列车宣言》，“所有教室都是交流”（李文、洛克、希尔斯，温伯格，1999）。为此，教育中的在线会议变得很重要，不仅仅作为一种提高我们课题领域知识的手段，而是一种提高我们使用在线技术进行沟通的认识的手段。







That said, online conferencing technology has become, for the most part, cheap and ubiquitous. The purchase of large-scale interactive television suites is largely a thing of the past, and while enterprise conferencing technology remains at a relatively high price point, effective and inexpensive technologies are bringing conferencing to the masses. The future will see a continuation of this trend, to the point where there will be little difference between taking part in an online conference and being in the same room.



也就是说，在线会议技术已经变得，在大多数情况下，廉价而无处不在。购买大型交互式电视套件基本上已成过去，虽然企业会议技术仍然处于相对较高的价位，有效而低廉的技术已经走入寻常百姓家。未来将看到这一趋势继续发展，以至于处在在线会议之中与处在同一房间区别甚小。







Synchronous Conferencing



同步会议







Though I stated in 1998 that interactive television “will be obsolete within five years” there is still a great deal of love bestowed on the technology at the corporate and governmental levels. The World Bank spent millions of dollars building ITV labs in developing nations, while companies invested additional millions in Polycom units. (Veldanda, 2003) Even as I write, development of high-bandwidth videoconferencing technology continues; we have an ‘Advanced Collaborative Environments’ in our own building. (National Research Council Canada, 2005)



虽然我在一九九八年宣布交互式电视“将在五年之内被淘汰”，仍然在企业和政府层面大量使用这项技术。世界银行花费数百万美元在发展中国家建设ITV实验室，同时许多公司向宝利通单元追加投资数百万美元（维尔丹达，2003）。甚至就在我写这篇文章的时候，高带宽视频会议技术的开发仍在继续，我们有了一个我们自己建设中的“高级协作环境”（加拿大国家研究协会）。







These are slowly being replaced by desktop videoconferencing. Probably the most important aspect of this is the deployment of web cameras (or computer interfaces to video cameras, such as provided by Pinnacle) of suitable quality for large screen images. As well, software, such as XMeeting for the Macintosh, has been developed to allow computers to access the H.323 standard used by videoconferencing units.



这些将逐渐被桌面视频会议所取代。也许关键在于部署用于大屏幕图像相应质量的网络摄像头（或者数码摄像机的计算机接口，比如品尼高产品）。同时，软件，比如Macintosh的XMeeting，已经开发出来让计算机访问用于视屏会议的H.323标准。







We have also seen in the field of education the development of conferencing suites such as Elluminate or Centra Symposium. As I noted in 1998, people will want a system that transfers data as well as video signals. These applications do that, providing audio and video communication while also allowing application and desktop sharing, whiteboards and notes, polling, text messaging, and more.



我们也看到，会议套件在教育领域的发展，比如Elluminate或者《中央专题会议》。正如我在一九九八年所说，人们想要用同一个系统传输数据和视频信号。这些应用程序能做到这一点，提供音频和视频通信，当然也允许应用程序和桌面共享、白板与笔记、投票、文字信息，以及其他。







While the systems typically used in an educational environment are commercial applications involving some cost, similar applications are rapidly becoming available for free to the average user. Launched in 2003 (and acquired by eBay in 2005), Skype provides free audio communication (and as of 2006, free video communication) to users around the world. (Skype, 2005) Moreover, open source conferencing suites, such as Dim Dim and WiZiQ, are emulating the function of commercial applications.



虽然这些用于教育环境和商业环境中的系统一般都需要一些开销，但类似的应用程序对普通用户而言，正快速变得免费可用。创始于二零零四年（二零零五年被电子港湾收购），Skype 为全世界的用户提供了免费的音频通信（Skype，2005）此外，开放源代码会议套件，比如Dim Dim 以及WiziQ ，基本赶得上商业软件的功能。







However promising it may be, the field of synchronous conferencing remains fraught with tensions between the conferencing community and the commercial providers of conferencing services. Telecom companies, especially, are concerned about losing toll traffic to free alternatives. Companies continue to offer proprietary (and non-interoperable) conferencing protocols. Even something as simple as an instant messaging standard has eluded the domain for many years.



虽然希望这是真的，在同步会议领域，在会议参与者与会议服务商之间，仍然充满了紧张。尤其是电信公司，担心因为这些免费替代物而失去长途话费。公司继续提供收费（以及不能互通）的会议协议。甚至是很简单的实时通信标准，也躲避了很多年。







Asynchronous Conferencing



异步会议







If there is a contrast with the synchronous mode of communication, it is the asynchronous, which has blossomed in recent years. There is today almost no end to the conferencing options available to web users, with the result that the web is now an unparalleled richness of content.



如果同步通讯模式有一个对比物的话，那么就是异步模式，在最近几年蓬勃发展。今天这几乎就是网页用户的会议不二选择，因为今天的网络内容空前繁荣。







Two major trends have characterized the last ten years of asynchronous conferencing.



近十年来异步会议的两大趋势如下。







First, as was easy to predict in 1998, the dominance of text-based content has given way to a much wider range of formats. Audio content became popular with file sharing and music content services, as well as with the rise of podcasting in 2003. Video content became widely available following the development of Flash video services and of sites like YouTube, which allowed users to upload and convert their videos. (Knowledge@Wharton , 2006) Flash has also been instrumental in the provision of other forms of content, such as slide shows, games, animations, and more. (Lamb & Johnson, 2006)



首先，正如在一九九八年很容易预测的那样，文字内容的优势已经让位于更广泛的格式内容。通过文件共享和音乐内容服务，以及二零零三年音频日志的崛起，音频内容已成流行。随着Flash 视频服务的发展，以及向YouTube这类网站的发展——这允许用户上传并转换他们的视频，视频内容变得广泛使用（沃顿知识在线，2006）。Flash也能提供其他格式的内容，如幻灯片、游戏、动画等等（兰宝强生，2006）。







Second, and less obvious, was the evolution of asynchronous communication. In 1998 most people were still using traditional web conferencing systems such as the email mailing list or Usenet news systems. Early web conferencing systems followed the same format, taking the form of threaded conversations on web bulletin boards. This system was followed in just a few years by blogging. Messages were sorted chronologically by author, instead of by subject, and each person managed his or her own blog. Groups of people, meanwhile, congregated on content management systems such as Drupal or Plone. But as people drifted back to centralized sites, and as linking to other people became more important, sites that support social networks rose to prominence and people began to spend less time on places like Blogger and LiveJournal and more time on places like MySpace and Facebook.



其次，不那么明显的，是异步通讯的发展。在一九九八年，大多数人们仍然使用传统的网页会议系统，如邮件列表或者新闻组系统。早期的网页会议系统遵循同样的格式，使用网页公告牌的线索会话形式。该系统在随后短短几年发展成了网络日志。信息分作者按照年代排序，而不是主题排序，而且每个人都可以管理他自己的日志。与此同时，通过内容管理系统——如Drupal或Plone ，聚集起来形成团队。但是由于人们都迁回中心网站，以及链接到他人网站变得日益重要，支持社会网络的网站崛起，人们在Blogger和LiveJournal上花费的时间减少，在MySpace和FaceBook上花费的时间更多。







There is clearly a role for hosted conferencing systems in the future, if only because people do not want to take the time and trouble to set up media processing software. But there will continue to be an evolution of the model as developers search for the right balance between social function and individual identity, between the common software platform and individual control. (White, 2006)



如果仅仅由于人们不想花时间烦于设置媒体处理软件，那么对于未来的会议系统，很显然需要一个主持人。但是，开发者寻找社会功能与个人身份之间的平衡，在公共软件平台和个人控制之间，这个模式将持续演进（怀特，2006）。







Conferencing Standards and Protocols



会议标准与协议







In conferencing we see a trend that has been resisted as must as it has been inevitable: that once content standards have been widely adopted for some type of medium, content expressed in that medium has become commoditized (that is to say, widely available at prices that approximate zero).



在会议当中，我们看到一个曾被压制的趋势，它是不可阻挡的：对于某些类型的媒体而言，一旦内容标准被广泛采用，利用媒体所表达的内容就会变得大众化（也就是说，广泛使用在价格上趋向于零）。







The first clear example of this is what we not think of as ‘plain text’ – the ASCII character code. It rapidly became the standard medium of communication online, in both email and message boards. In very few cases was ‘ASCII content’ marketable. Subsequently, HTML content was also widely (and freely) available. More recently, with the widespread adoption of the MP3 audio format, file sharing became widespread and the value of audio recordings online became negligible. (Przywara, 2008)



第一个我们没有想到的明显例子就是，纯文本——ASCII字符编码。它很快变成在线交流的标准媒体，出现在电子邮件和电子公告板中。在极少数情况下，“ASCII内容”是可以出售的。随后，HTML内容也广泛（并且免费）使用。最近，随着MP3音频格式的普及使用，文件共享变得普及，在线录音的价格也变得微不足道（皮兹瓦拉，2008）。







Efforts to monetize content have, in turn, typically involved the creation of proprietary content formats. Thus we saw, in the earlier days of the internet, the creation of locked PDF files. Or the development of Real Audio’s Proprietary Real Media format (backed by the Real Media store). Or the proprietary Skype audio format. Or, more recently, proprietary iTunes audio formats, and iPhone applications. Or even the proprietary text format used by Amazon in the Kindle, a device it intends to use to sell electronic books. (Gruber, 2007)



相反，致力于让内容赚钱，通常涉及专有内容格式的创建活动。因此，我们看到，在互联网的早期，建立加密PDF文件。或者开发瑞尔音频的专有Real媒体格式（由瑞尔媒体商店销售）。或者专有的Skype音频格式。或者，最近的，专有的iTune音频格式，以及iPhone应用程序。或者甚至有亚马逊在Kindle——用来销售电子书籍的设备——中使用的专有文本格式（格鲁伯，2007）。







These two tensions come to a head in the domain of computer conferencing. The very act of communication requires a set of communication standards that anyone can use – a language, like English, or a medium, like paper. For people who wish their message to be heard (or read, or seen) these need to be widely available and easily accessible, to be (for all practical purposes) open standards. Thus, the push toward online conferencing is at the same time a push toward commoditized content. (Rossi, 2003)



这两种紧张关系在计算机会议中达到了极致。通讯的同时要求一系列每个人都能使用的通讯标准——语言，类似于英语，或者媒体，比如纸张。对于希望信息被听到（或者读到、看到），以及需要信息得到普及以及便于获取的人们，成为（应用于各种实际目的的）开放标准。因此，在推进商业化内容的同时，也在推进在线会议（罗西，2003）。







In the end, the standards win, because, in the end, the people win. Societies – or groups, or communities – that sustain effective communication are more robust than societies that control it. There is a significant loss of efficiency in environments of closed, controlled communication. Thus, although artificial constraints will continue to be used maintain proprietary communications formats, the standards will win out.



最后，标准胜出，因为，最后，人民胜出。社团，或者团队，或者社区，保持有效的沟通远好过控制它。在封闭的、交流受操控的环境中，效率会有重大损失。因此，尽管人为因素将继续习惯于保持专有交流格式，但标准仍将胜出。







Personalized Learning



个人化学习







We now have powerful and inexpensive computers we can sling over our shoulder or carry in our shirt pocket. (Yamamoto, 2006) These computers are connected wirelessly to the internet at bandwidths sufficient to allow instant multimedia communication anywhere on the planet. These computers will only improve in the years ahead, becoming faster, slimmer, and more affordable. And we are not at the point where we are seeing the possibility that education may be deeply personalized.



我们现在有强大而廉价的计算机，我们可以将其挂在肩上，放在口袋里（山本，2006）。这些计算机通过无线宽带连接到互联网，足以实现从世界任何一处进行实时多媒体通讯。这些计算机将在接下来几年继续改进，变得更快、更薄，更加便宜。我们也将迈过教育即将彻底个人化这种可能。







To date, much of our attention, even in the field of online learning, has been focused on a system of learning centered on the class or cohort: groups of students studying the same curriculum pace through the same set of learning activities. (Fenning, 2004) We continue to organize classes in grades, sorted, especially in the earlier years, by age. Time continues to be the dominant metaphor for units of learning, and learning continues to be constrained by time. As it was ten years ago, the model is that of a group of people starting at the same time, studying the same materials at the same pace, and ending at the same time.



迄今为止，我们大部分注意力，包括在线学习领域内的，都投注在以教室或者队伍为中心的学习系统：学生团体按照相同的学习活动、相同的学习步伐，学习相同的课程（芬宁，2004 ）。我们仍然按分数组织班级、排序，尤其是在低年级，按照年龄分班。时间仍然是学习单元的支配性划分方式，学习仍然受到时间的限制。就象十年以前，一群人开始在同样的时间按照同样的步伐学习同样的材料，并在同一时间结束学习。







And as I noted ten years ago, this model of education was adopted because it was the most efficient. (Hejmadi, 2006) While we want to provide personalized attention, especially to submitted work, testing and grading, learning is still heavily dependent on the teacher. But because the teacher in turn is responsible for assembling, and often presenting, the materials to be learned, customization and personalization have not been practical. So we have adopted a model where small groups of people form a cohort, thus allowing the teacher to present the same material to more than one person at a time, while offering individualized interaction and assessment.



正如我十年前指出的，使用这种教育模式是因为它是最有效的（黑基马蒂，2006）。虽然我们想要提供个性化关注，尤其是对提交的工作、考试和评分，学习仍然在很大程度上依赖于教师。但是由于教师在实际教学中需要组合并经常展示需要学习的素材，所以定制及个性化并不被采用。因此，我们需要采用一种模型，一小组人们组成一个队伍，从而使教师向他们同时展示相同的材料，而不是一次展示一个人，同时还能提供个性化交互和评估。







What we have begun to notice with online learning, however, is a decreasing emphasis on this formal style of learning, and an increasing emphasis on what has come to be called informal learning. (Chivers, 2006) In the case of informal learning, students are not constrained by the limits of the classroom model. They can set their own curriculum and proceed at their own pace. (Moore, 1986) Learning can thus be based on a student’s individual needs, rather than as predefined in a formal class, and based on a student’s schedule, rather than that set by the institution.



我们已经注意到在线学习，然而，是在减少对正是学习的关注、增加对所谓非正式学习的关注的基础上的（齐武，2006）。就非正式学习而言，学生不会受到课堂模式的限制。他们可以设置他们自己的课程安排，调整自己的学习步伐（摩尔，1986）。这样，学习就可以基于学生自己的个人需要，而不是正式课堂的预先安排；基于学生自己的计划，而不是某个机构的规定。







Groups Versus Networks



团队对网络







The continuing trend in formal learning to structure learning opportunities as classes and cohorts requires explanation. Underlying the transition from formal, structured learning to more informal and more unstructured learning is not simply a technological change but also a social change. It is this change I have attempted in recent years to capture under the heading of ‘groups versus networks’. (Downes, Groups Vs Networks: The Class Struggle Continues, 2006)



正规学习的持续趋势是结构化学习机会，正如课堂和队伍所要解释的那样。在正规学习、结构化学习转变到更加非正式、更加非结构化学习的转变的背后，这不是简单的技术改变，同时也是社会性改变。近几年我试图抓住“团队对网络”课题下的这种变化（唐棣芬，团队对网络：课堂仍在挣扎，2006）。







Traditionally, people have been seen to learn either as individuals or in groups. This characterization of organization is not unique to education; it is very common to talk of (say) the needs of the individual versus the needs of the state. This characterization, however, glosses over the possibility that there may be more or less cohesive ways of organizing people, thus allowing for a middle point between the individual and the group: the network.



传统上，人们认为学习不是在个人就是在团队中发生。组织机构的意义不仅仅是教育；非常流行的说法是，个人需求对国家需求。然而，这种意义掩盖了组织人们增加或减少凝聚力的方法的可能性，因此，需要允许在个性化和团队之间有一个中间点：网络。







Though networks have always existed, modern communications technologies highlight their existence and given them a new robustness. Networks are distinct from groups in that they preserve individual autonomy and promote diversity of belief, purpose and methodology. In a network, however, people do not act as disassociated individuals, but rather, cooperate in a series of exchanges that can produce, not merely individual goods, but also social goods.



虽然网络一直存在，现代通讯技术凸现了它们的存在，并让它们更加强壮。网络和团队的区别在于，它们保持个人自主，促进信念、目的和方法的多样性。然而，在网络中，人们并不像完全无关的个体那样活动，而是在一系列可处理的交流中合作，不仅对个人有益，也对团队有益。







Traditional learning composed of classes and cohorts operates more as a group than as a network. (Davis, 1993) Students pursue the same objectives employing the same methodologies. This is especially evident in corporate learning, where they are expected to share the same vision and to be pursuing the same outcomes. Learning in such classes is frequently collaborative, as students work in small groups to produce a common project or outcome. (Mohn & Nault, 2004) Interaction is structured and led by an instructor. Classes are closed; there is a clear barrier between members and non-members.



传统学习有课堂和集体操作组成，更像一个团队而不是网络（戴维斯，1993）。学生们使用同样的方法追逐同样的目标。这在合作学习尤其明显，这里要求他们分享同样的视角，得出同样的成果。在这样的课堂中学习多是合作学习，学生以小组为单位展开，处理共同的课题和结果（摩恩与那奥特，2004）。互动受到教育者的控制与领导。课堂是封闭的，在成员与非成员之间有明显的壁垒。







In the case of informal learning, however, the structure is much looser. People pursue their own objectives in their own way, while at the same time initiating and sustaining an ongoing dialogue with others pursuing similar objectives. Learning and discussion is not structured, but rather, is determined by the needs and interests of the participants. There is no leader; each person participates as they deem appropriate. There are no boundaries; people drift into and out of the conversation as their knowledge and interests change.



然而，就非正式学习而言，结构要松散的多。人们以他们自己的方式追逐他们自己的目标，同时与其他追逐类似目标的人们展开并持续对话。学习和讨论时没有结构的，而是取决于参与者的需求和兴趣。这里没有领导者，每一个人都以他们认为适当的方式参与。这里也没有边界；人们随着自己知识和兴趣的改变而进进出出这场会话。







Learning Management and Competences



学习管理与能力







The ‘educational delivery’ (ED) system I postulated in 1998 became what we now know as the learning management system (LMS). However, unlike what was projected then, the LMS was not based on personalized learning, but rather, preserved the course management structure that prevailed in schools and universities. (Jarche, 2006) Indeed, early incarnations of the LMS were seen as extensions to the classroom, as evidenced by the name ‘web course tools’ (Web CT). That said, even in traditional educational institutions, the trend is shifting away from courses and toward topics. This is seen in the development of competence-based learning designs, such as in the TenCompetence project. (Kraan, 2006)



我在一九九八年假设的“教育交付”系统现在已经变成众所周知的学习管理系统LMS。然而，不想当时所规划的那样，LMS 并不急于个性化学习，而是保留了中小学及大学所流行的课程管理架构（贾迟，2006）。事实上，LMS 的早期形式被视作课堂的延伸，正如名称“网页课程工具”（Web CT）所示。也就是说，即使在传统教育机构中，也在远离课程而趋向课题。这在开发基于能力的学习设计过程中很普遍，比如《十项能力》项目（柯冉，2006）。







The idea of competences is that they are based on identifiable skills or capacities, and hence are not rooted in a body of content but rather in a student’s personal growth. (Karampiperis, Demetrios, & Demetrios, 2006) As such, students are able to select their own track or achievement path through a competence domain, as informed by their own interests, employer needs, or in the case of younger students, parental guidance. Each competence, meanwhile, corresponds to a selection of learning resources (and specifically, learning objects). (de-Marcos, Pages, Martinez, & Gutierrez, 2007)



能力的概念是指，他们基于可确认的技能或才干，并且这种能力并不根植于内容本身而是伴随着学生的个人成长（卡软派配瑞斯，德米特里，德米特里，2006）。这样，学生们能够通过一系列能力，选择他们自己的成功之路，这一系列能力因为他们自己的兴趣、雇主的需求、或者就年轻学生而言是家长的指导而发现。每一项能力，同时也对应着对学习资源（特别是学习对象）的选择（德马科斯，裴急思，马丁内斯，古铁雷斯，2007）。







It is not clear that such a system will meet the needs of learners. Insofar as this is a form of autonomous learning, it is not clear that it supports collaboration or cooperation. Moreover, it is not clear that an outcomes driven system is what students require; many valuable skills and aptitudes – art appreciation, for example – are not identifiable as an outcome. This becomes evident when we consider how learning is to be measured. In traditional learning, success is achieved not merely by passing the test but in some way being recognized as having achieved expertise. A test-only system is a coarse system of measurement for a complex achievement.



目前并不清楚这样一个系统是否能满足学习者的需求。就自主学习的形式而言，并不清楚它支持合作或协作。此外，目前尚不清楚一个结果驱动系统是否学生所需；许多宝贵的技能与才华——比如艺术欣赏——并不能通过结果确认。在我们考虑如何衡量学习的时候变得非常明显。在传统学习中，取得成果不仅仅是通过考试，在某种程度上被确认为掌握专业技能。一个只有考试的系统是一个对复杂成就进行粗糙测量的系统。







Personal Learning Environments



个人学习环境







In the future, competences will be just one way (and an unusually employer-centered way) to select learning opportunities. What we will see, rather, is that the selection of learning opportunities will not be a stand-alone activity, but instead will be embedded in other activities. (e-Lead, 2008) One can imagine how players learn in the course of a game, for example. They do not first learn how to play the game, and then play it. Rather, they begin playing the game, and as they attempt to achieve goals or perform tasks, the learning they need is provided in that context. (Wagner, 2008)



在未来，能力仅仅是选择学习机会的一种途径（并且是不寻常的以雇主为中心的途径）。相反，我们将看到的是，选择学习机会，将不是一个独立的活动，而是嵌入在其他活动当中（e-Lead, 2008）。比如，我们可以想像，玩家在游戏课程重视如何学习的。一开始他们并不学习如何玩游戏，学好之后再去玩。相反，他们直接就开始玩游戏，当他们试图完成目标或者执行任务的时候，他们所需要的学习就已经在相关背景中准备好了（瓦格纳，2008）。







The ‘personal learning environment’ (PLE) is a collection of concepts intended to express this idea. (Liber, 2006) The PLE is not an application, but rather, a description of the process of learning in situ from a variety of courses and according to one’s personal, context-situated, needs. The process, simply, is that learners will be presented with learning resources according to their interests, aptitudes, educational levels, and other factors (including employer factor and social factors) while they are in the process of working at their job, engaging in a hobby, or playing a game.



个人学习环境PLE，是旨在表达这一理念的一组概念（李簿，2006）。PLE 并不是一个应用程序，而是一个对学习过程的描述，这个学习过程是根据学习者自身的、环境相关的需求，在现场对各种课程进行的学习过程。这个过程，简单地说，是学习者根据自己的兴趣、才能、教育水平，以及其他因素（包括雇主因素和社会因素），而获取不同学习资源的过程。这个过程同时发生在他们的工作过程中，业余爱好中，或游戏当中。







The environment that they happen to be in, whether it be a productivity tool, hobbyist web page, or online game, constitutes (at that time) the personal learning environment. Resources from across the internet are accessed from that environment: resources that conform to the student’s needs and interests, that have been in some way pre-selected or favorably filtered, and that may have been created by production studios, teachers, other students, or the student him or herself. Content – interaction, media, data – flows back and forth between the learning environment and the external resources, held together by the single identity being employed by the learner in this context.



他们正处在的环境，无论是一款生产力工具，爱好者网页，还是在线游戏，（都在这一时刻）构成了个人学习环境。在这个环境能够获得互联网资源：满足学生需求与兴趣的资源，已经以某种方式预选过或主动筛选过，并可能是由专门工作室、教师、其他学生，或者学生本人创建的。内容——互动、媒体、数据——在学习环境与外部资源之间来回流动，被学习者在这个环境中所使用的单一身份整合成一体。







In time, the learning management systems deployed by educational institutions will evolve into educational delivery systems usable by personal learning environments. They will, in essence, be the ‘remote resource’ accessed from a given context. Educational delivery systems will recognize the identity of the student making the request and will coordinate with other online applications (which may include commercial brokers, open resource repositories, or additional student records) to facilitate the student’s learning activity.



随着时间的推移，有教育机构部署的学习管理系统将会演变成可用于个人学习环境的教学运载系统。从本质上讲，它们将是某给定环境可存取的“远程资源”。教学运载系统将确认发出请求的学生的身份，并协调其他在线应用（可能包括商业经纪人、开放式资源库，以及其他学生记录），使得学生的学习活动变得轻松。







We might think that these educational delivery systems will be delivering learning objects. This is not entirely incorrect, although a learning object today has come to be seen as more like a unit of text in a textbook or a lesson in a programmed learning workbook. It will be more accurate in the future to say ‘learning resource’, since many such resources will be available that do not conform to the traditional picture of a learning object – and may be as simply as a single image, or as complex as a simulation or training module.



我们可能会认为，这些教学运载系统能够运载学习对象。这话不完全正确，虽然一个学习对象如今看上去更像笔记本中的一段文字，或者编写好了的学习教材中的一个课程。在未来，更准确的称呼是“学习资源”，由于有许多不符合传统学习对象形象的资源可用，可能仅仅以单一形象出现，也可能像仿真技术或者训练模型一样复杂。







Content Versus Conversation



内容对会谈







Our picture of learning technology today – whether it be an LMS like Blackboard or Desire2Learn, an authoring system such as Connexions, or a resource such as OpenCourseWare – is that learning systems are essentially content delivery systems. Hence, they are typically based on a publication model of storage and distribution, are institutionally based, and tend to focus on mass deliveries of common materials to classes or cohorts. We see this in the design of the system, the technical specifications (such as ‘content packaging’) and in their deployment.



今天我们对学习技术的认识——无论它是Blackboard、Desire2Learn之类的LMS，Connexions之类的开发系统，还是诸如开放式课件之类的资源——这些学习系统本质上都是内容交付系统。因此，他们的存储与分发在制度上，是基于典型的出版模型，并倾向于关注向班级或队伍交付大量共用素材。我们认为，这种制度存在与其系统的设计、其技术规范（比如内容包装技术），及其部署当中。







The personal learning environment, however, is not based on the principle of access to resources. It should more accurately be viewed as a mechanism to interact with multiple services. (Milligan, 2006) The personal learning environment is more of a conferencing tool than it is a content tool. The focus of a personal learning environment is more on creation and communication than it is consumption and completion. It is best to think of the interfaces facilitated by a personal learning environment as ways to create and manipulate content, as applications rather than resources.



然而，个人学习环境，并不是基于这种获取资源的原则。他应该被更准确地看作是一种与多种服务发生互动的机制（米利干，2006）。个人学习环境，更多的是一个交流工具而不是一个内容工具。个人学习环境所关注的，更多的是创新与传播而不是消费与结束。最好是通过个人学习环境创建并处理内容，轻易的把这种接口想象成应用程序而非资源。







In particular, that the various channels created by the PLE enable is for a student to form a set of connections with a collection of individuals at any given point. In 1998, I referred to this as the Quest Model, based on the idea of ad hoc collections of people grouping together to solve puzzles in online multi-user environments such as Multi User Dungeons (MUDs). This model has become much more widespread, but no less ad hoc, as people today connect with each other to have distributed conversations, to create wiki entries, to collect resources in discussion threads, and like activities.



特别是，因为PLE允许而创建的各种渠道，使学生与任何地点的个人形成了一套连接。在一九九八年，我将此称为探询模型，在此基础上，特定的人群分组一起解决在线多人环境难题，比如多用户地下城游戏（MUD）。该模型变得非常普及，但是也有很多变形，比如现在的人们彼此联系进行分布式会谈，创建维基条目，收集讨论线索中的资源，以及类似活动。







In the Quest Model, each achievement would become a part of a personal profile, a part of a learning record that would in turn inform future challenges. This idea is reflected today in the concept of the e-portfolio, where the products created through the process of engagement and interaction are stored and (digitally) mounted for display. We see today the idea of an e-portfolio taking hold outside traditional learning – people have their own blogs, their own Flickr photo portfolios, art projects on Deviant Art, game modifications, fan fiction, open source software, and much more.



在探寻模型中，每一个成果都变成个人档案的一部分，学习记录的一部分，并会反过来告知未来的挑战。此理念反映在今天就是电子学习档案的概念，在此概念中，通过参与与互动的过程创造出来的产品被保存下来，并为了显示而（数码化）加载。我们知道今天电子学习档案的理念已经包围了传统学习——人们有自己的网志，自己的Flickr影集，DeviantArt 中的艺术项目、定制游戏、同人小说、开源软件，以及其他。







The products of our conversations are as concrete as test scores and grades. (Ryan, 2007) But, as the result of a complex and interactive process, they are much more complex, allowing not only for the measurement of learning, but also for the recognition of learning. As it becomes easier to simply see what a student can accomplish, the idea of a coarse-grained proxy, such as grades, will fade to the background.



我们所谈论的产品就像考试分数和等级一样具体（瑞安，2007）。但是，正如一个复杂交互过程的结果一样，它们也相当复杂，不仅允许用于学习的测量，也允许用于学习的认知。因为它变得更易于简单看出一个学生能完成什么，粗糙标准，如评分等级，将淡出背景。







Connectivism



连接主义







The educational institution is unlikely to disappear, but it is unlikely also to remain the sole locus of student learning. Educational institutions will need more and more to think of themselves as part of a larger system, and as their offerings as entities that will become a part of, and interact with, the larger environment. Consider, for example, the photo editor that connects to Flickr, described above. Now imagine what an art appreciation resource would look like, how it would interact with Flickr photos. (Unattributed, 2006)



教育机构不可能消失，但也不可能作为学生学习的唯一场所。教育机构需要更多把自身当作一个更大体系的一部分，并且他们所提供的产品，将成为一个更大环境的一部分，并与大环境发生互动。譬如，考虑上面所描述的连接到Flickr的相片编辑器。现在想像一个艺术欣赏资源应该是什么样的，它应该如何与Flickr相片发生互动（佚名，2006）。







Educational technologists should additionally not only think of themselves as building systems that contribute to the network of resources, but also of systems that draw from that network to create value-added resources. For example, a recent TED demonstration saw an application that created a three-dimensional composite image of Notre Dame Cathedral composed from thousands of Flickr photos. (Arcas, 2007) Educational institutions can in the same way create pictures of our understanding of other – less concrete – concepts that can be found in the thousands and millions of bits of content created by people around the world.



教育技术不应仅仅被自身视作构建对资源网络有用的系统，还应把自己当作能利用此网络创造具有附加价值的资源的系统。比如，最近看到的TED应用示范，从数千Flickr相片合成了了一个圣母大教堂的三位合成图像（阿尔卡斯，2007）。教育机构同样可以将此办法应用到我们所知道的其他——不那么具体的——概念上，而这些概念都可以从全世界人们创造的，数以千万比特记的内容当中找到。







This is the fundamental understanding behind a learning theory developed to describe learning in networks, connectivism. (Siemens, 2004) The theory proposes that knowledge is contained, not merely in the bits of information transmitted to and fro as content and creations, but in the way these contents, and the people that create them, link together. Just as the activation of the pixels on a television screen form an image of a person, so also the bits of information we create and we consume form patterns constituting the basis of our knowledge, and learning is consequently the training our own individualized neural networks – our brains – to recognize these patterns.



连接主义，就是用来以网络的形式描述学习的学习理论背后的基本理解（西门子，2004）。该理论提出，知识是可包含的，不仅仅是信息来回传输过程中的比特，比如内容和创意，也是这些内容的方式，创造它们的人们，以及相互关系。正如电视屏幕上，一个人像的像素的激活过程，由于我们以我们的知识为基础所构成的模式创造、消费信息比特，因此学习是训练我们自己的个性化神经网络——我们的大脑——识别这些模式。







The purpose of educational institutions, therefore, is not merely to create and distribute learning opportunities and resources, but also to facilitate a student’s participation in a learning environment – a game, a community, a profession – through the provision of the materials that will assist him or her to, in a sense, see the world in the same way as an accomplished expert; and this is accomplished not merely by presenting learning materials to the learner, but by facilitating the engagement of the learner in conversations with members of that community of experts.



因此，教育机构的用途不仅仅是创造和发布学习机会与资源，也包括通过提供帮助学生以熟练专家的方式感觉、观察世界的素材，促使学生参与进学习环境——游戏、社区、职业。这里的熟练不仅仅是向学习者展示学习素材，也包括促使学习者参与到与专家团体成员的交流当中。







Learning Resources



学习资源








As discussed above, educational institutions will need to see themselves as providers of learning resources (and not merely learning objects). These resources will be online services that connect students with: learning content; games, simulations, and other activities; ad hoc communities of learners; and experts and other practitioners. They will be specialized multimedia content consumption, editing and authoring systems designed to facilitate a student’s ability to perceive and perform as modeled by experts in a community of practice.



如上所述，教育机构将需要将其自身视作学习资源（不仅仅是学习对象）的提供者。这些资源将通过在线服务连接到学生，包括：学习内容；游戏、仿真技术以及其他活动；学习者的临时社区；专家以及其他从业人员。他们将使用专门设计的多媒体内容浏览、编辑与开发系统，旨在促进学生认知能力，以及模仿社区专家的操作。







These resources will not be inert content objects, but rather, will need to be able to learn about the environment they are being offered in, be able to learn about the student, and to get this information not just locally but from wherever it may be on the internet. Thus, such resources must be able to communicate state and other information to and from other (authorized) systems and services. They may, therefore, be fully-fledged web services, but they are just as likely to be lightweight applications depending on other simple services to do much of this work for them.



这些资源将不是死板的内容，而是将需要能够了解它们所处环境、能够了解学生，并且不仅仅从本地获取信息，也能从互联网上任何地方获取信息。因此，这些资源必须能够与来自其他授权系统与服务的其他信息进行交流。因此，它们可能会是全功能的网页服务，但它们更像依赖于为它们做这些工作的其他简单服务的轻量级应用程序。







Today, institutions do not yet know how to deliver information to other systems. Beyond interlibrary loans, we have (at best) identity federation systems such as Shibboleth. Learning resource sharing networks, such as Globe, are small, ineffective, and exclusive. However, institutions are beginning to learn to prepare content for distribution through remote systems, such as the provision of lectures for delivery through iTunes University. Such systems will evolve over time into a mature system of open content distribution, facilitated through open access mandates, repository and other server software, and content and interaction standards.



今天，各个机构还不知道如何将信息传输到其他系统。除了馆间互借，我们有（最好的）身份联盟体系，如示播列。学习资源分享网络，如地球，体积小、效率低下，而且排外。然而，各个机构正在开始学习通过远程系统准备分发的内容，比如通过iTunes大学提供讲座视频。这些系统会演进若干次，直到成为一个成熟的开放式内容分发系统，轻松的通过开放式存取命令、仓库和其他服务器软件，以及内容与交互标准。







Flow and Syndication



流与聚合







Understanding learning as ‘conversation’ (Sharples, 2005) also allows us to look at the management and distribution of learning resources a bit differently.



将学习理解为“谈话”（沙普尔斯，2005）也让我们看到对学习资源的管理和分发上的不同。







Today, as noted above, we tend to think of such resources as static and bibliographical, like books in a library, where contents are ‘published’ and then ‘stored’. This view is evident in much of the discussion that surrounds learning technology today. We think of work as being stored in a research repository, indexed and archived, in such a way that we can search for them, typically through a catalogue (or metadata) system, and retrieve them. (Barker, 2007) The major concerns of educators in this environment are things like persistence and provenance, copyright and reproduction. (Jantz & Giarlo, 2005)



如上所谈，今天我们倾向于认为这类资源是静态的、可以编写目录的，像图书馆里的一本书一样，在这里，内容先要“出版”然后“存放”。这种观点在今天围绕学习技术而展开的很多讨论中显而易见。我们认为，存储在研究资料库中，一般通过一个目录（或者元数据）系统，以这样一种我们能够检索到他们的方式，索引、存档，并获取它们（贝克尔，2007）。在此环境中教育者主要关注的问题是，保存时间和出处、版权和复制（剑刺、吉奥罗，2005）。







In the networked learning environment, however, learning resources are best thought of not as content objects about a discipline that are retrieved and studied, but rather as words in a multimedia vocabulary that is used by students and teachers in an ongoing conversation within a discipline to engage in projects and activities. (Downes, The New Literacy, 2002) Content and learning resources, rather than being thought of as static objects, ought to be thought of as a dynamic flow. They are more like water or electricity and they are like books and artifacts.



然而，在网络化学习环境中，最好不要把学习资源当作有关获取及学习的规则的内容对象，而是当作媒体库当中的一小部分，供参与到项目和活动中的师生在按某种规则进行的谈话中使用（唐棣芬，新的文明，2002）。内容与学习资源，与其被当作静态对象，倒不如被视作动态的流体。它们像书籍像工具，它们更像水流或者电流。







The technology of learning – and of the web generally – is evolving to accommodate flow. (Jarche, Learning is Conversation, 2005) Probably the most significant development in the last ten years has been the deployment of the Rich Site Summary standard – RSS – that allowed content creators to syndicate their writings and other creations. Using RSS feed readers, web users do not go to web pages or search for content, but rather, subscribe to RSS feeds and let the content come to them. (Downes, An Introduction to RSS for Educational Designers, 2003)



学习技术——通常都是网络技术——正在进化以适应信息流（贾奇，学习就是交流，2005 ）。也许过去十年最重要的发展就是富网站摘要标准RSS得到了部署，RSS 允许内容创建者将其文章与其他创作进行聚合。使用RSS订阅源阅读器，网络用户不需要打开网页或者搜索内容，相反，订阅RSS源，让内容走向读者（唐棣芬，想教学设计师介绍RSS，2003）。







Most educators, and most educational institutions, have not yet embraced the idea of flow and syndication in learning. They will – reluctantly – because it provides the learner with the means to manage and control his or her learning. They can keep unwanted content to a minimum (and this includes unwanted content from an institution). And they can manage many more sources – or content streams – using feed reader technology.



多数教育者，以及大多数教育机构，还没有接受学习中流和聚合的理念。他们将——不情愿的——因为这种学习技术向学习者提供管理和控制他自己学习的方法。他们将不需要的内容保持到最低水平（这也包括了来自机构的非必要内容）。利用订阅源阅读器技术，他们可以管理更多资源——或者内容流。







RSS and related specifications will be one of the primary ways Personal Learning Environments connect with remote systems. To use a PLE will be essentially to immerse oneself in the flow of communications that constitutes a community of practice in some discipline or domain on the internet.



RSS 与相关规范将成为个人学习环境联系远程系统的主要途径之一。就本质上讲，使用PLE使得自身沉浸到通讯流中，从而在互联网上构成了在某种领域或规则内的实践社区。







What It Isn’t



它不是什么







When people think of personalized online learning, they frequently think of adaptive systems, learning programs powered by artificial intelligences that test a student’s competence, formulate customized lesson plans based on those pre-tests, and then measure a student’s performance though a series of online activities. (Boticario & Santos, 2007)



当人们想到个性化在线学习，他们常常想到自适应系统，有人工智能操控的学习程序可以测试学生的能力，基于这些预测试可以制定出个性化的课程计划，然后通过一系列活动测量学生的表现（博迪卡里奥、桑托斯，2007）。







While people will no doubt pursue solo learning activities (just as they, by themselves, read books today) this will not constitute the core of the learning experience in the future (just as reading books does not constitute the core of learning today).



虽然人们不会担心独自进行学习活动（就像，今天他们自己看书）。这将不会构成未来学习体验的核心（就像读书并不会构成今天学习的核心）。







Even though learning systems will be able to auto-grade tests, will be able to track progress through a set of learning activities, and will be able to facilitate a wide variety of measures, these results will not constitute, by themselves, ‘evidence’ of learning. Students will demand that there be a human element to evaluation, as they realize that their own performance is varied and complex, and may not be measured accurately by a machine, and employers and others will require a human element, because they will understand that humans devise endless schemes to ‘game’ or otherwise trick automated systems.



即使学习系统能够自动评定考试，能够通过一系列活动跟踪学习过程，也能够促成各种措施，但这些结果并不会由学习的“证据”自己构成。学生会要求评估人的因素，因为他们体会到他们自己的表现是多样而复杂的，并且不大可能被机器精密测量。而雇主和其他人也将要求考虑人的因素，是因为他们明白人类设计无穷尽的策略来“戏耍”或者其他方式来愚弄自动化系统。







In the end, what will be evaluated is a complex portfolio of a student’s online activities. (Syverson & Slatin, 2006)These will include not only the results from games and other competitions with other people and with simulators, but also their creative work, their multimedia projects, their interactions with other people in ongoing or ad hoc projects, and the myriad details we consider when we consider whether or not a person is well educated.



最后，将要评估的是学生在线活动的复杂档案记载（赛沃森、斯莱廷，2006）。这不仅仅包括与其他人、模拟器进行的游戏和其他竞赛的结果，还包括他们自己的创造，他们的多媒体项目，他们与其他人在当前或临时项目中的互动，以及我们考虑一个人是否受到良好教育所考虑的各种细节。







Though there will continue to be ‘degrees’, these will be based on a mechanism of evaluation and recognition, rather than a lockstep marching through a prepared curriculum. And educational institutions will not have a monopoly on such evaluations (though the more prestigious ones will recognize the value of aggregating and assessing evaluations from other sources).



虽然将继续使用等级制度，这将是基于评估和认定机制基础之上的，而非照本宣科的执行事先准备好的课程。教育机构将不再独占这些评估（但是有一个更有声望的机构会认可来自其他地方的合并与评定评估的价值）。







Earning a degree will, in such a world, resemble less a series of tests and hurdles, and will come to resemble more a process of making a name for oneself in a community. The recommendation of one person by another as a peer will, in the end, become the standard of educational value, not the grade or degree.



在这样一个世界里，获得一份等级评定，类似于减少一些测试与障碍，并会更多的类似于是自己在社区中出名的过程。某人作为同行建议，最终会变成教学价值标准，而不是评分或等级。







Time and Place Independence



时空独立







The dependence of online on the computer over the last decade has masked the fact, but online learning is at heart a form of distance learning, and therefore offers as one of its primary advantages a form of time and place independence for the learner. Cloud computing and mobile computing will offer these forms of independence. They can, indeed, be thought of as offering a third, equally important, form of independence: device independence.



在线学习依赖于计算机在过去十年掩盖了事实，但是在线学习实际上是远程学习的一种形式，因此为学习者提供了时空独立这种主要的优点。云计算和移动计算也将提供这些形式的独立。事实上它们可以被认为是第三种同样重要的独立形式：设备独立。







Time Independence



时间独立







We are well used to the idea that students, whether working in traditional online courses or independently through informal learning, will access their materials and activities at any time of the day. They can work any day of the week, or if they are employed in agriculture or some other seasonal occupation, any time of the year.



我们将这个理念很好的用于学生身上，无论是在传统在线课程中，还是独自进行非正式学习，在一天的任何时候都能访问他们的素材和活动。他们可以在工作周的任何一天工作，或者一年的任何一个季节——如果他们从事农业或其他季节性职业。







That said, many institutions have, for administrative reasons, maintained the traditional schedule. Online classes still start in September, synchronous sessions are held once a week at a set time, and students are expected to maintain a traditional work schedule. But there is no academic or technological reason to stick to such a schedule, and we see learning events scheduled outside the institution, such as those run by Ed Tech Talk, run any time of the year and any day of the week.



尽管如此，许多机构出于管理原因，保持着传统课程表。将从九月开始在线班级，每周在规定时间举行一次同步课程，并且要求学生保留传统工作安排。但是坚持这样一份安排并没有学术或技术上的理由，并且我们看到，学习活动安排在教育机构之外，比如有教育技术论坛运作，在一年中的任何季节、一周中的任何一天举行。







It may take a larger cultural shift to shake the traditional institution’s understanding of, and dependence on, time. Classes and courses are still represented in calendars as ‘credit hours’, as though the ‘hour’ were a unit of knowledge or learning. Perhaps the most inventive way to escape this limitation is Google’s invention of the ‘Knol’, which it represents as a ‘unit of knowledge’. (Manber, 2007) Others identify the ‘smallest unit of learning’ with the ‘learning object’. (Christiansen & Anderson, 2004) Either way, time is ceasing to be an objective standard of learning.



要撼动传统机构对时间的理解和依赖，需要更大的文化转变。在日历中，课堂与课程仍然以“学时”的形式表示，仿佛知识或者学习的基本单元是“小时”。也许摆脱此限制最具创意的途径是Google 的发明“Knol”，它被当作“知识的单元”（曼波，2007）。其他人将“学习对象”视作“最小学习单元”（克里斯蒂安森、安德森，2004）。无论采用哪种方式，时间都不是学习的客观评价标准了。







That said, the possibilities inherent in the independence of time have yet to be explored to any significant degree. Learning today is presented either as scheduled – in which case the institution sets the time – or static, in which there is no scheduled time. The use of syndication technologies, however, creates many more alternatives. A learning resource, for example, can be defined either as an ongoing syndicated service – such as my own newsletter, or the audio feeds distributed by SpanishPod – or as a staggered distribution of resources, such as have been designed by Tony Hirst of the Open University. (Hirst, 2006)



尽管如此，在时间独立固有的可能性还有待于探索其重要程度。在今天，学习要么是按计划的——在这种情况下有机构来设置时间——或静态的，在这种情况下就没有做时间安排。然而，聚合技术的使用，创造了更多选择。比如，一份学习资源，可以被定义为同步聚合服务——比如我自己的新闻，或者由《西班牙网络广播》发布的音频订阅源——或者定义为交错分布资源，比如托尼赫斯特开放大学所设计的那样（赫斯特，2006）。







Being able to time the distribution of resources is a significant advantage. It allows for presentations, interactions and other activities to be encountered dynamically during the course of days or weeks. This space can be used to pedagogical advantage in addition to meeting the student’s scheduling needs, facilitating ongoing practice and recall. Dynamic scheduling does not guarantee success – students may simply delete the material as it arrives. But having this level of control makes it more likely students will be able to attend to the material when it arrives.



能够按时间分配资源是一项巨大的优势。这允许在每周或每天的课程当中灵活运用演讲、互动以及其他活动。这一可用于教学优势的空隙，除了满足学生课程安排的需要，还能促进持续的实践与回顾。动态安排并不能保证成功——因为素材来的很轻松，学生可能会简单删除素材。不过这种程度的控制更有可能让学生能够在素材到达的时候注意到。









Self-pacing in online learning, therefore, isn’t simply the learner picking up the work from time to time whenever he or she feels like it. It is rather the employment of various mechanisms that will enable work to be scheduled. Pacing continues to be important, even in instances of self-pacing. Being free to set one’s own schedule does not mean setting no schedule at all. Nor does it mean that the release of learning activities and content is not scheduled at all. It is, rather, a meshing of schedules.



因此，在线学习中的自我调速，并不是学习者简单的在他们有兴趣的时候时不时的拾起工作。相反，它是运用多种策略，使得工作能如期进行。即使在自我调速的情况下，速度仍然很重要。自由设置某人的时间安排并不意味着完全没有时间安排。也不意味着放弃学习活动和内容就是完全没有计划的。相反，这，暗合计划。







One of the major reasons Microsoft Outlook continues to maintain a high level of use and acceptance is that it combines content – email messages – with calendaring. Products like Google calendar, Thunderbird, and evolution are slowly eroding Microsoft’s monopoly, and the employment of standards like iCal mean that events, like contents, may be syndicated. (Shah, 2005) This allows events and syndicated contents to circulate within the same network, creating an association between time and content that is dynamic, fluid, and distributed. It will allow students to plan their days, and it will also allow them to participate, on impulse, in learning activities, via their RSS Events Reader.



微软Outlook仍然保持高水平使用率和认可的一个主要原因是，它能结合内容——邮件信息——与日程安排。其他产品如Google Calendar、雷鸟以及Evolution，正在缓慢侵蚀微软的领地，iCal 等标准的运用，意味着各种事件，如内容，是可以被聚合的（沙阿，2005）。这使得事件和聚合内容在同一个网络内循环，在时间与内容之间建立动态的、易变的、以及分布式的关联。这将让学生计划他们的日期，也将让他们通过他们的RSS事件阅读器，积极参与进学习活动。







Place Independence



空间独立







Online learning still suffers from the misperception that it is about having students sit in front of their computer screen for extended periods of time. As a consequence, the idea that online learning might foster independence of place has been missing in much of the discussion of the field. Nor is current practice likely to change this, as we see online learning used to support in situ classes, and online learning consisting of long sequences of computer-based lessons.



在线学习至今仍被误解为，就是让学生长时间坐在计算机屏幕前。结果，在该领域内诸多讨论中，关于在线学习能够培养学生的空间独立的理念都被遗忘了。当前的做法也并不能改变这一点，正如我们所见，在线学习用来支持现场教学，并且在线学习都由长时间的计算机相关课程组成。







This is unlikely to be the case in the future. “Students are no more likely to sit in front of a computer for all of their instruction than they would be to sit with one of Skinner’s programmed learning machines.” (Morrison & Lowther, 2007) With the recent development of smaller and lighter wireless-enabled devices, we are approaching the era when online learning will also be seen as mobile learning. Students will be freed from the classroom, and freed from the stationary desktop computer. And as I said last time, true place independence will revolutionize education is a much deeper sense than has perhaps been anticipated.



这种情况在未来不大可能出现。“学生不会坐在一台斯金纳程序化学习机器面前，当然也不会坐在一台计算机前面上所有的课程。”（莫里森、劳瑟，2007）。随着最近更小更轻无线上网设备的出现，我们已经到了将在线学习也可视为移动学习的时代。学生可以从教师解脱出来，从台式计算机前面解脱出来。正如我上次所说，真正的空间独立将会变革教育，其深刻意义将会超过预期。







In order to realize this potential, educators will once again need to get past the idea that learning is something (usually content) that is delivered to people. This is the model that prevails in traditional distance education, and in contemporary online learning. (Herrington, Reeves, & Oliver, 2005) Content is delivered as a quantity of reading and browsing material. Teacher presentations are delivered as audio or video recordings or lectures. And even other students are delivered through some sort of conferencing systems. This model – of delivery – has had the effect of binding the student to the delivery platform, whether it is a computer, telephone, teleconferencing facility or ITV classroom in order for instruction to occur.



为了实现这一潜力，教育工作者们需要再一次丢掉学习就是把什么东西（通常是一些知识内容）教给人们这一理念。这是传统远程教育很普遍的模式，在当代的在线学习也是如此（亨灵顿，里弗斯，奥利佛，2005）。内容可以通过可阅读和浏览的材料交付一部分。教师的讲授可以通过音频和视频或者讲座的方式交付。甚至其他一些学生可以通过某种形式的会议系统获取。该模型——交付模型——有效的将学生限制在交付平台上，无论那是计算机、电话、远程会议设备，还是ITV教室，只要是用来教学的。







As we are now beginning to see, personal access devices (ranging from mobile phones to lightweight laptops) are highly portable. And this has the effect of changing the behavior of people who use these devices. Consider how the mobile phone revolution has shaped a generation. (The Guardian, 2005) People remain highly connected, perhaps more so than ever, but now any location can be used to connect (so much so that we actually require legislation or social norms requesting that people not connect in certain circumstances, such as while driving or while watching a movie). (Ferguson, 2008)



正如我们逐渐所见到的，个人接入设备（从移动电话到轻便笔电）是高度便携的。这影响并改变人们使用这些设备的行为。想想移动电话革命是如何改变一代人的（卫报，2005）。人们保持高度联系，甚于以往，但是在现在任何位置都能进行联系（以至于事实上我们需要法律或者社会规范来要求人们，在特定环境下不进行联系，比如开车或者看电影的时候）（斐古森，2008）。







As the capacity – and functionality – of mobile devices increases, the activities they support also become highly mobile (and much more widely distributed across society). People now listen to music or audio recordings wherever they are. They take photographs more than ever, so much so that ‘no camera’ bans in museums and rock concerts are unenforceable. Video recording is now commonplace, and video cameras, it seems, are everywhere, recording everything from baths in restaurant sinks to a teacher mooning the judges at a debate.



由于移动设备的容量和功能在不断增加，它们所支持的活动也变得高度流动性（以及广泛分布在全社会）。现在，人们在任何地方都能听音乐或者录音。比以往任何时候都照更多的像，以至于博物馆和流行音乐会的“禁止照相”禁令形同虚设。如今视频录像已经非常普遍，而数码摄影机，似乎到处都是，记录了从在餐馆洗物槽中洗澡到教师在辩论会中调戏法官等一切东西。







There is, of course, no reason why learning cannot be one of the many mobile activities now possible, but this transition will occur more slowly, as designers realize that, instead of delivering content to the student, they can require the student to go out and get it – or even better, to go out and create it. (Sener, 2007) Once we understand that learning can and should occur outside the classroom, it will become commonplace to see students engaged in learning activities throughout the community. Instead of being rare events – such as the way student create newsletters at teacher conferences in Saskatchewan – these will be commonplace events.



当然，现在没有理由学习不能成为这些诸多移动活动中的一种，但是这种转变将会发生的很缓慢，因为设计者认识到，不应该将内容推送给学生，他们应该让学生走出去主动获取知识——甚至更好的是，走出去创造知识（谢内尔，2007）。一旦我们理解了学习能够也应该发生在教室之外，看到学生在整个社会中参与到学习活动终将成为很普遍的事情。不同于罕见事件——比如在萨斯喀切温省的教师会议中学生创建新闻报纸的做法——这都是一些很习见的事情。







And it is important to understand that place independence means that real learning will occur in real environments, with the contributions of the students not being some artifice designed strictly for practice, but an actual contribution to the business or enterprise in question. We sometimes think of people today ‘learning on the job’. In the future we should also think of students ‘working at school’. We are already seeing cases of this, from the business Teemu Arina built in Finland to the Chaos Pilots in Denmark to the Collaborative Open Environment for Project Centered Learning (COOPER) project in Holland.



重要的是要认识到，空间独立意味着真实的学习将发生在真实的环境中，而学生的创作并没有使用严格按照实际操作设计的技巧，但实际作品则是商业或企业正在试图解决的问题。我们有时候认为今天的人们“在工作中学习”，在未来，我们也应该认为学生“在学校工作”。我们已经看到一些这样的例子，从芬兰的企业 Teemu Arina 建筑，到丹麦的混乱飞行员，到荷兰的《以项目为中心的学习而设立的协作式开放环境（COOPER）》项目。







It is worth mentioning at this juncture a different sort of place-independence: cyber place-independence. Current online learning efforts are based on the idea that learning will occur in a certain online place – a learning management system, say – or will be conducted using certain software tools. This is a trend that will erode as students’ capacities increase and web resources and services are available inside other website or applications. Independence of online place will be as important to the future of online learning as will be independence of physical place.



在这里值得一提的是一种不同类型的空间独立：网络空间独立。当前在线学习工作都是基于学习将发生在一个具体在线场所——学习管理系统——或者具体使用一些具体软件工具。这种趋势将会损害学生的能力增长，也会损害其他网站和应用程序内可用的网页资源和服务。在线空间的独立，对于未来的在线学习，将和现实空间独立一样重要。





The School of the Future



未来的学校







Today’s school, even now, is dominated by classrooms. True, some of those classrooms now contain computers, but the design remains essentially one where students assemble in a room to focus on dedicated learning activities, usually in the form of some sort of content delivered by a teacher. Though there have been challenges to curriculum over the last ten years, the basic structure of curriculum has not changed, and indeed, has in some places become more entrenched, as schools focus on a return to basic subjects.



甚至今天的学校，依然采取班级制度。诚然，其中一些教室现在已经有了计算机，但所蕴含的基本构想，学生聚集在教室专心完成专门的学习活动，通常采用某种教师传递知识的形式。虽然在过去十年中课程遭遇挑战，但课程的基本结构并未改变，事实上在某些地方还变得更加牢固，例如学校重新关注基本科目。







The school of the future depicted ten years ago therefore remains rooted in the future, a vision toward which some educators may aspire, but today something that we can only anticipate.



十年前所描述的未来学校仍然存在于未来，某些教育工作者所渴望的一些设想正在成型，但某些事情我们今天仍然只能设想。







That said, much of the learning that is happening in today’s schools is beginning to resemble the sort of learning that one might expect in a connected environment. Student-centered methodologies are becoming widely accepted in many nations. In particular, constructivist pedagogies are being implemented in some e-learning technology, such as Moodle (Moodle, 2008) and adopted by some systems, such as in the province of Quebec, Canada. (Cobb, 2005)



也就是说，发生在今天的学校里的多数学习已经开始类似于这样一种学习，即预期在连接环境中所发生的学习。以学生为中心的方法学在许多国家得到广泛承认。特别是，建构主义教学法正应用到一些电子化学习技术当中，比如Moodle （Moodle，2008），并为某些体制所采用，比如加拿大魁北克省（柯布，2005）。







As learning evolves slowly from a classroom-based and deliver-based type of instruction, and toward wide-ranging learning activities that are largely selected and managed by the students themselves, the dedication of space in schools to classroom instruction will be reduced. Instead, schools will be converted into meeting facilities, workrooms and laboratories, multimedia studios, and more. Specialized equipment, such as sound-proof recording studios and high-speed video editing equipment, will be made available. Libraries will evolve (in a transition that is happening today) into multimedia studios, where students engage with interactive media, games, and other types of content. VR rooms, such as the CAVE, will be constructed, emulating the simulation environments that police and military use today. (Jones, 2005)



正如学习正在从基于教室和基于传递的教学缓慢演进，演进到主要由学生自己选择并管理的广泛的学习活动，学校场所对教室内教学的贡献将会减少。相反，学校将会变成会议设施、工作间和实验室，多媒体工作室，诸如此类。将会提供专门设备，诸如隔音录音棚和高速视频编辑设备。图书馆将会发展（今天正在发展中）为多媒体工作室，在这里，学生参与到交互式媒体、游戏和其他类型的内容当中。将会建造虚拟现实房间，比如CAVE，模拟一个虚拟环境，也是今天警察和军方正在使用的（琼斯，2005）。







Schools of the future will change and diverge; where once we saw identical red-brick schools in every community, now schools of every size and shape will be developed, as public school boards begin to recognize that diversity and choice are strengths. A good example of this already is the Edmonton school board, where learning opportunities vary from the traditional large school, Harry Ainley, in the suburbs, to the alternative downtown Central High, to schools based on culture and faith and even hockey. (Downes, Options and Opportunities, 2008)



未来学校的功能将会发生改变和偏离；我们的一度在每个社区都看到相同的一间房学校，在线将产生各种规模和形状的学校，因为公立学校的董事会开始认识到多样性和选择的优势。一个好的范例就是埃德蒙顿学区教育委员会，那里的学习机会不同于传统大学校，郊区的哈利·安雷中学，是市中心高中的替代学校，学校建立在文化和信仰甚至曲棍球的基础上（唐棣芬，2008）。







Convergence



融合







The changes we will see in learning will not occur as a result of one type of learning replacing another, but rather, will result from a gradual convergence between the different forms of learning.



我们在学习中所见到的变化，并不是一种类型的学习取代另一种，而是在两种不同形式的学习之间逐渐融合的结果。







This has already begin to be seen in what is today called blended learning, which is essentially traditional in-class learning supplemented by online activities and resources. A blended learning opportunity, for example, may consist of one in-person class per week instead of three, with online conferencing and reading replacing the rest. Or it may consist of a capstone conference session following several weeks of online work.



这在今天被称作混合式学习之上能够看到，基本上是补充了在线活动和资源的传统教室内学习。打个比方，一次混合学习机会，可能包含了每周一次而不是三次的教室学习，加上课余的在线会议和阅读。或者也可能包括数周的在线工作之后的一次核心会议活动。







As convergence takes root, and as learning becomes more distributed, the focus of such learning opportunities will change. Blended learning is typically rooted in, and centered on, the in-person activity, making it difficult and less-satisfying for people in remote locations to participate. (Dziuban, Hartman, & Moskal, 2004) Improvements in conferencing will make actual in-person meetings less necessary, and the ‘blended’ aspect of blended learning will come increasingly to reflect the in-person activities people undertake in their own workplaces or communities.



由于融合发生在底层，由于学习变得更加分散，这些学习机会所关注的对象也将发生改变。混合式学习是典型的来源于并围绕着亲身活动，很难也不方便让远方的人参与进来（迪祖班、哈特曼、莫斯卡尔，2004）。会议技术的改进将会使得亲身会议不再那么必要，混合学习的“混合”方面将会越来越多的反映在人们在其工作场所或社区中所从事的亲身活动。







The convergence of digital life with in-person life is not, therefore, a mere addition of a digital dimension to the in-person life we lead today. It transforms and reshapes that life, removing from it elements that could be done more efficiently (or more pleasantly) in a digital environment, and opening up opportunities for new and more types of in-person activities. While before, for example, a field trip to a local stream or forest would be seen as a once-a-semester activity, because it would otherwise consume too much class time, it could now become (for some students) a once-a-day activity, with what used to be classroom activities designed around the field trips.



因此，数码生活与真实生活的融合，不仅仅是为我们今天所使用的真实生活添加一条数码维度。它是变革并重塑整个生活，去除掉那些在数码环境中能够更加高效（或更加快乐）的元素，为新的其他类型的亲身活动发展机会。打个比方，虽然在以前，实地考察一条河流或一片森林将被视作一个整学期的活动，因为它会消耗太多的课时，现在利用围绕实地考察设计的课堂活动，这将变成（某些学生的）一日活动。







Additionally, education will be increasingly supported through multi-use community centers. These will be available to students and parents alike, there being no need to limit community learning to the young. Facilities such as the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga, where students of all ages can create pottery and sculpture, practice ballet, work on glass blowing, and many other arts, will become commonplace.



另外，教育将会从多用途社区中心得到越来越多的支持。将一视同仁的提供给学生和家长，没有必要限制年轻人的社区学习活动。例如密西沙加市现代艺术中心的设施，在那里，各年龄段的学生都可以创作陶艺和雕塑，练习芭蕾，吹制玻璃工艺，以及其他艺术，都将变得司空见惯。







We should also look toward the development and deployment of learning facilities in traditional working environments. Students of all ages will be able to learn about law in learning facilities made available at courtrooms. Galleries at legislatures and town council meetings will be equipped with internet access (of course) and supported with installed facilities for learning and visualization (such as, say, a zoomable hologram of the city, allowing members and visitors along to see zoning changes and planned construction). Farms and greenhouses will employ student workers, who will study and catalogue plant and animal life as they work with it.



我们还应该期待传统工作环境中学习设施的发展和部署工作。各年龄段的学生都能够在法庭学习有关可用学习设施的法规。立法院的座位和议会大厅都将接入互联网（理所当然），已有设备支持学习和视频（比如说，城市的可缩放全息图，允许成员和访客浏览分区变化和计划中的工作）。农场和温室将雇用学生工人，他们将学习并分类他们所负责的植物和动物。





Learning Communities



学习社区







Education is not merely the acquisition of new information and skills. To become educated in a discipline is to learn the habits, patterns, ways of thinking and ways of thinking characteristic of that discipline. (Ramaley & Zia, 2005) Consequently, learning is a social activity, wherein we immerse ourselves into what Etienne Wenger called a community of practice (Wenger, Communities of Practice: Learning, meaning and identity, 1999), learn what Michael Polanyi called tacit knowledge (Polanyi, 1962), and be able to complete, as Thomas Kuhn famously summarized, the problems at the end of the chapter. (Kuhn, 1962)



教育不仅仅是获取新的信息和技能。要获得某一学科的教育，要学习其习惯、方法、思维方式和该学科的思维特点（拉马雷、翟亚，2005）。因此，学习是一种社会活动，其时我们沉浸到爱亭尼·温格称做实践社区的环境当中（温格，实践社区：学习、意义与身份，1999），学习迈克尔·波兰尼所说的沉默知识（波兰尼，1962），并如托马斯库恩所总结的那样，能够完成本章最后的问题（库恩，1962）。







Although we learn what we learn from personal experience, we usually learn what we learn from other people. This learning is ongoing, from the day we open our eyes as a baby and see our parents, through school as we play in clusters on the playground, in college or at work not merely in the classroom but also (and mostly) through social activities, clubs, the local pub, and our friends. It is typically a social activity, where knowledge and skills are demonstrated, criticized, or merged.



虽然我们从自己的个人体验学习知识，我们更多的从他人学习知识。学习是一个过程，从我们一生下来看见父母，到在小学我们在操场上一起玩，在大学或在工作中，不仅仅是在教室中学习，也还（基本上）通过社会活动、俱乐部、当地茶馆、以及我们的朋友进行学习。演示、评价或合并知识和技能，是典型的社会活动。







Ten years ago, I argued that online learning in the future will emphasize community much more than is perhaps imagined today. At the time I was thinking of discussion communities, as described by Cliff Figallo (Figallo, 1998), and portal websites, as described by Hegel and Armstrong. (Hegel & Armstrong, 1997) The internet more than delivered, sustaining not only these but a wide array of online communities and social networks, the significance of which is just beginning to be understood today.



十年前，我认为未来的在线学习远比今天所能想象得更强调社区。当时我所能想到的，如克里夫·费加罗所描述的（费加罗，1998）讨论社区，如黑格尔和阿姆斯特朗所言门户网站（黑格尔、阿姆斯特朗，1997）。现在的互联网远大过以前的，不仅仅包括这些，也包括各种各样的在线社区和社会网络，其意义直到今天才开始被人理解。







At the time, I emphasized two major types of communities relevant to online learning: interest-based communities, and peer-based communities.



当时，我强调主要有两种社区与在线学习相关：基于兴趣的社区和基于伙伴的社区。







Interest-Based Communities



基于兴趣的社区







Today we would use the label ‘communities of practice’ to label ‘interest-based communities’, or as I also called them, ‘topic-based communities’. And while that would be an accurate description, to a certain extent, it is also a bit too narrow for the concept I had in mind.



今天我们将使用“实践社区”来标记“基于兴趣的社区”，或者如我所称，“基于主题的社区”。虽然在一定程度上这是一个准确的描述，但对于我头脑中的这个概念又太过狭义。







Interest-based communities were and are relatively easy to identify on the internet. Erin Brewer described a prototypical interest-based community when she described the community that formed around the activity of bee-keeping on Yahoo groups. (Downes, Principles of Resource Sharing, 2004) Such communities, especially in the earlier days of the internet, were the dominant form of organization online.



无论过去还是现在，基于兴趣的社区在互联网上都很容易确认。艾琳·布鲁尔在描述雅虎小组中养蜂业活动所形成的社区时，描述了一个基于兴趣的的社区的原型（唐棣芬，资源共享的原则，2004）。这些社区，尤其在早期互联网中，是各机构在线的主导形式。







Wenger’s characterization was informative. Communities would form around a topic of interest – the ‘domain’. They would engage in community activities – “members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information.” And they would share a practice – a repertoire of resources, a vocabulary, common stories, common methodologies, common ways of approaching a problem. (Wenger, Communities of practice: a brief introduction, 2004)



温格所言特征是丰富。社区围绕感兴趣的主题“领域”而产生。他们会禅遇到社区活动——“成员参与到共同活动和讨论，彼此帮助，分享信息”。他们也分享实践——资源目录、词汇表、常见故事、通用方法、解决问题的常见方式（温格，实践社区：简要介绍，2004）。







Learning in the community of practice takes the form of what might be called ‘peer-to-peer professional development activities’. Rather than formalized learning, members help each other directly. We discovered this in Alberta when we studies how professional town managers learn: we discovered they call each other up on the telephone. (Stefanick & Lesage Jr., 2005)



在实践社区中的学习采用称做“点对点专业发展活动”的形式。与正规学习不同，成员彼此直接帮助。在我们研究专业市区管理人员如何学习的时候，在加拿大亚伯达省发现这个：我们发现他们彼此通电话（斯蒂凡妮克、小勒萨日，2005）。







And as Wenger says, “From this perspective, the school is not the privileged locus of learning. It is not a self-contained, closed world in which students acquire knowledge to be applied outside, but a part of a broader learning system. The class is not the primary learning event. It is life itself that is the main learning event.”



并且如温格所说：“从这个角度看，学校并不特别关注学习。它不是一个独立的、封闭的世界，学生从中获取可用于外界的知识，而是一个更广泛的学习体系的一部分。课堂并不是主要的学习活动。生活本身才是首要的学习活动。”







Although the communities themselves didn’t develop along the model postulated by Hegel and Armstrong, communities did nonetheless form. The use of search tools such as Google made this inevitable, as any person interested in a given topic would search for it at some time or another, thus encountering the online presence of any other person who was also interested in the subject. Today, for just about any given topic, some community of some form exists.



虽然这些社区本身并没有沿着黑格尔和阿姆斯特朗所假定的模型发展，但是社区依然是这种形式。Google 等搜索工具的使用让这无可避免，因为任何人对某个主题感兴趣都会在某个时候去搜索它，从而在网上遇到对此主题感兴趣的其他人。今天，几乎任何主题，都存在有某种形式的某些社区。







Peer-Based Communities



基于伙伴的社区







People have friends in the physical world. Such friendships are arguably necessary, and they are certainly common. They form the basis of romance, the seed of personal relationships. They are the touch, the part on the back, the shoulder to lean on, the drinking buddy, the opponent on the golf course. They are the people we know, as we would say now, “in RL” - in real life.



人们在现实世界中都有朋友。这些友谊可以说是必需的，也很寻常。在这些友谊的基础上产生爱情，形成人际关系的基础。这些友谊包括点头之交、熟人、密友、酒友、羽毛球课程上的对手。这些都是我们认识的人，就像我们现在说的，在现实生活中认识的。







As I noted in 1998, peer-based communities are almost the polar opposite of interest-based communities. They are not based on some common interest; one member may be an artist while the other may be a scientist. In the first instance, they are created through proximity, being composed of people who live in the same neighborhood or who go to the same school. Over the longer term, we may say, they are just people who meet by happenstance, and find an affinity for each other.



正如我在一九九八年指出的，基于伙伴的社区几乎与基于兴趣的社区完全对立。他们并不是基于某些共同兴趣，某成员可能是一名艺术家而另一名可能是科学家。首先，他们因为临近而创建社区，由同一小区或同一学校的人组成。从长远来看，我们可以说，他们仅仅是偶然相遇，然后建立亲密关系。







Such communities were almost non-existent on the web ten years ago, and at the time I treated them as almost entirely offline communities, characterizing them as the circle of friends you would meet at the local learning center or the local recreational center where you took your online courses or engaged in some other activities.



十年前，这样的社区几乎不存在，当时我把他们完全当作离线社区，把它们描述成你在本地学习中心或娱乐中心遇到的朋友圈子，在那里你能完成你的在线课程，或者参与到一些其他活动当中。







Thus I cited the community learning centers I worked at at the Canadian north - the learning centre in Fort St. Jean, in northern British Columbia, shown to me by the people at Open Learning Agency, or the fishers' retraining centre, a block away from the urban aboriginal training centre, fostered by the New Westminster School Division. Or the South West Indian Training centres in Sioux Valley and Waywayseecappo, in rural Manitoba.



因此我援引了我工作的加拿大北部的社区学习中心，该学习中心位于不列颠哥伦比亚省北部的让城福特街，向我展示了人们在开放学习机构，又称作渔夫再教育中心，距离市民培训中心一条街区远，由新韦斯特敏斯特教育司负责。或者位于马尼托拉农村的苏谷和外外洗卡普的西南印第安培训中心。







But it was perhaps inevitable that these communities would also establish themselves online. Indeed, the secret to the rise of Facebook, which rose to prominence in a short time, and which now has the most traffic of any site on the internet, is that it formed connections between friends based on their common origins and common schools (when it launched, it went so far as to block members who were not members of these community groups). (Stutzman, 2006)



但是，无法避免的是，这些社区也将建立他们自己的网站。事实上，Facebook 网站在很短时间内异军突起，如今拥有互联网上最大的访问量，而Facebook 崛起的秘密，正是人们因为相同的生活地点、相同的学校而形成的联系（在其运行期间，甚至禁止那些不是真实社区团体的成员加入）。（司徒自满，2006）







The rise of social networks on the internet is a reflection of this pattern, the creation of communities online based on affinity rather than on commonality of interest. Friendster, Tribe, Orkut, MySpace – they all walk that fine line between brokering relationships online and establishing some sense of exclusivity, of clubbishness. In this way they achieve some of the sense of personal connection that existed in earlier, non-professional, online communities, such as The WELL.



社交网络在互联网上的崛起反映了这一模式，基于亲缘关系而非共同兴趣而建立在线社区。Friendster, Tribe, Orkut, MySpace ，他们都介于在线中介关系和建立某种程度的排他性小圈子之间。这样，它们实现了某种程度的早已存在的、非专业性的人际关系，在线社区，比如WELL。







People will continue to use the internet to connect not only with the people in their professional lives, and not only with people who share topics and objects of interest, but also people in their personal lives, people they see every day and could talk to across the room if they wanted. But because of the problems with social networks – the lack of privacy, the lack of control over identity – we may see a return to the more private and exclusive online community. The trick, though, will be to allow people in these communities to communicate with each other across communities.



人们将继续使用互联网进行联系，不仅与他们工作圈子里的人联系，也不仅和别人分享感兴趣的话题和东西，也和他们生活中的人们联系，也和他们每天见到的人、只要他们愿意穿过马路就能交谈的人联系。但是因为社交网络的问题——缺乏隐私性，缺乏身份认证——我们可能会看到更多私有和排他性在线社区的回归。但是，关键在于允许社区中的人们通过社区彼此沟通。







Learning Communities



学习社区







Strictly speaking there is no such thing as a ‘learning community’ – save, perhaps, the strained and artificial creations of educational institutions that try to cram classes into collectives, creating personal relationships where none naturally exist. Rather, people learn in communities, and what would make any given community a ‘learning’ community or otherwise is whether people in the community learn more or less well.



严格地说，没有一个叫做学习社区的东西，拯救教育机构大概紧张的矫揉造作的创造，试图分化集体，创建非自然存在的个人关系。相反，人们在社区中学习，这就令任何特定社区成为学习社区，否则无论人们在社区学到多少。







It is probably a truism today (though there still remain exceptions to be observed online) that communities are grown rather than constructed, and that (therefore) they are owned (and managed) by their members rather than by some external agency. Sharing and learning cannot be “legislated into existence.” (Dube, Bourhis, & Jacob, 2006) The desire for autonomy comes part and parcel with some of the perceived benefits of learning and growing in a community: safely, security, and privacy.



社区需要成长而非建立，它们由其成员所有（管理）而不是外部机构，这在今天几乎众所周知（虽然仍然存在例外网站）。分享和学习不能“通过法律强制”（杜贝、博睿思、雅各布， 2006）。自治的愿望和一些被当作是在社区中学习和成长的好处，诸如安全、保护和隐私，一同出现。







In the field of learning especially, there is a great deal of attention paid to what it is members have in common that facilitates the creation of a community – whether it be common educational needs, common age or locale, common sets of values, or even more theoretical entities, such as common objects, domains of discourse, or understandings.



尤其在学习领域，有大量注意力投放到有利于社区建设的成员身上的共同特征，无论是共同的教育需求、相同的年纪或场所，通用的价值观，甚至更多理论实体，比如共同对象，话题领域、或者对事物的理解。







The value of a community, however, and especially of a learning community, comes from the diversity in the community. Students gather around an instructor precisely because the instructor has knowledge, beliefs and opinions that the students don’t share. They gather around each other because they each have unique experiences. Fostering a learning community is as much a matter of drawing on the differences as it is a matter of underlining the similarities.



然而，一个社区，特别是一个学习社区，其价值来源于社区内部的多样性。学生围绕在教师周围正是因为教师有学生之间分享不到的知识、信念和见解。他们彼此聚集是因为他们有彼此唯一的经验。培养学习社区，既是一个强调求同的问题，也是一个允许存异的问题。







It is probably most accurate to say that there is no single design of a community that works best for every group of learners and for every domain of learning. The sort of community that you would want for an eight-man rowing crew is very different than one you would form to create a philosophy discussion circle, and different again from the sort you would create in order to learn a new language.



有一个可能最准确的说法，对于任何学习者团体和任何学习领域，都没有一个结构唯一的社区。你想组织一个八人赛艇队伍的社区，和你想组织一个哲学讨论圈子的社区，是非常不同的，同样和你为了学习一门新语言而创建的社区一样不同。







What will work best online, therefore, will not be a process of community building, but rather, a process of community enabling. The transition in community is therefore analogous, and parallel, to the transition in content. Just as people no longer need publishers to create content for them, they no longer need organizers to create community. Rather, just as, with access to powerful content-creation tools, they can create their own content, in the same way, with powerful community-building tools (such as, say, Ning) they can create their own communities. (De Rossi, 2007)



因此，是否能在线运作良好，并不能成为社区建设的一部分，相反，是社区功能的一部分。社区的转变也是如此，同时还包括内容的转变。正如人们不再需要出版社为他们制作内容一样，人们不再需要单位为他们创建社区。相反，正如得到强大的内容制作工具，他们能够创建他们自己的内容，同样，得到强大的社区建设工具（比如说Ning），他们能够创建他们自己的社区（德罗西，2007）。







This is what we have seen online thus far. The tools people have used have been varied, ranging from the complex and powerful, such as Second Life, to the simple and almost ephemeral, such as Twitter. In all cases, the role of the tool was to create a space – virtual or otherwise – in which people can communicate, and then the members built the rest.



这就是迄今为止我们所见到的网络。人们曾经使用过各种工具，从复杂而强大如二度人生，到简单而几乎简陋如Twitter。在所有例子中，工具的作用就是创造一个人们可以在其中进行交流的空间——虚拟的或其他方式——然后成员们为之添加内容。







The creation of learning communities will work in much the same manner. Despite the efforts of educators and individuals to create (often lavish and complex) learning environments for students, this will in the long run not be necessary. Learners will create their own communities, their own environments. At most, the educator needs to ensure that the tools are there for students to use, and that the channels of communication, from student to student, from community to community, are open.



学习社区的建立将会以大致相同的方式进行。尽管教育者和其他人努力为学生创造（通常奢华而复杂的）学习环境，从长远来看这是没有必要的。学习者会创建他们自己的社区，他们自己的环境。在大多数情况下，教育者需要确保学生所用工具在那儿，以及学生间、社区间沟通的渠道畅通。







Identity-Building



建立身份







It is worth noting that theorists of both professional and social networks speak of one’s interactions within the community as a process of building, or creating, one’s own identity.



值得指出的是，这两个专业和社交网络的理论家都谈到，个人与社区的交互都是建立或者创建他自己的身份的过程。







Wenger, for example, writes, “Having a sense of identity is a crucial aspect of learning in organizations. Consider the annual computer drop at a semiconductor company that designs both analog and digital circuits. The computer drop became a ritual by which the analog community asserted its identity. Once a year, their hero would climb the highest building on the company's campus and drop a computer, to the great satisfaction of his peers in the analog gang. The corporate world is full of these displays of identity, which manifest themselves in the jargon people use, the clothes they wear, and the remarks they make.” (Wenger, 1998)



比如，温格写到，“拥有自我意识是在机构中学习至关重要的方面。考虑某同时生产模拟和数码电路的半导体公司，有一个年度摔计算机活动。摔计算机活动成为模拟社区主张其身份的仪式。一旦有一年，他们的英雄打算爬到公司园区的制高点扔下计算机，让他的模拟一派伙伴得到极大的满足。公司的世界充满了身份标志，通过人们所使用的行话、所穿着的衣物和他们的言论，来标明自己。”（温格，1998）







And meanwhile, danah boyd, studying the social community, writes, “The dynamics of identity production play out visibly on MySpace. Profiles are digital bodies, public displays of identity where people can explore impression management. Because the digital world requires people to write themselves into being, profiles provide an opportunity to craft the intended expression through language, imagery and media. Explicit reaction to their online presence offers valuable feedback. The goal is to look cool and receive peer validation. Of course, because imagery can be staged, it is often difficult to tell if photos are a representation of behaviors or a re-presentation of them.” (boyd, 2006)



同时，研究社交社区的达纳·博易德，写到：“在MySpace 上，身份的动态处理产生了明显作用。个人简介是数码身体，身份的公开形象，人们可以用它来管理自己的形象。因为数码世界要求人们写下真实的自己，个人简介提供了一个通过语言、肖像和媒体精心表达的机会。外界为他们的网上活动提供有价值的反馈。其目标是看上去很酷，并得到伙伴的认同。当然，因为肖像是可以修饰打扮的，所以很难判断相片是行为的体现还是重新展示他们本人。”（博易德，2006）。







In both of these we are seeing aspects of the same phenomenon. To learn is not to acquire or to accumulate, but rather, to develop or to grow. The process of learning is a process of becoming, a process of developing one’s own self.



在这两处我们看到了同样的现象。学习是无法获得或者积累的，而是发展或成长的。学习的过程是变化的过程，我们自身发展的过程。







Accordingly, what we know of the communities of the future where learning will actually occur is that they will be communities in which learners can immerse themselves and grow into something new. Previous experience suggests that these will be places where they can create and where they can project – not “serious games” but “modding communities”, not “reading groups” but “fan fiction”, not “educational simulations” but “LAN parties”.



因此，在我们所知道的未来社区，学习将会确实发生，在这些社区中，学习者能够沉浸在他们自身当中，并发展出新的东西。以前的经验表明，这将是一个场所，可以让他们创造，让他们展示，不是严肃游戏，而是流行社区，不是阅读小组，而是同人小说，不是教育模拟，而是网络聚会。







The Triad Model



三元模型







The model of community described in the previous section suggests a natural organization of services and resources, one I tried to capture under the heading of ‘the triad model’.



上一节所描述的社区模型提出了一个服务与资源的天然组织，我尝试以“三元模型”来描述他。







The Triad



三元







The idea of the triad model is that in any given learning situation, there are three major participants: the student, the instructor, and a local coach or facilitator. The concept was current in 1998 and was being fostered by organizations such as the Oregon community college network. The idea was that the instructor would be online, a member of the interest-based learning community, while the coach or facilitator would be more a member of the peer-based community. (Baker, 1998)



所谓三元模型，是指在任何特定学习情况下，都有三个主要的参与者：学生、教师以及本地辅导员或服务人员。此概念流行于一九九八年，并得到诸如俄勒冈州社区学院网络等组织的资助。再次概念中，教师应当在线，作为一名基于兴趣的学习社区成员，这时候辅导员或服务人员有可能不止一名基于伙伴的社区成员（贝克，1998）。







These elements have persisted and will persist in any description of online learning, though over time their description may be refined to reflect actual practice.



这些因素已经存在，并将存在于任何对在线学习的描述当中，但随着时间的推移，这些描述可能会更准确地反映实际行为。







Online, for example, we would expect not only to find the instructor and any administrative services, but also resource libraries, other students, and digital tools or platforms on which distributed work may be performed. The online component of a person’s learning environment will tend to me more distributed, based on communications and connections of a cognitive nature.



比如，我们在线的时候不仅会希望能找到教师和各种管理服务，也希望找到资源库、其他学生，以及能够执行分布式工作的数码工具或平台。个人学习环境的在线部分，在通讯和连接的基础上，将使得我的认知更加分散。







Offline and locally, by contrast, we would expect to find not only coaches and facilitators but also one’s immediate friends and family. We would also expect to find local facilities, along with facility managers and other support staff. The offline component of a person’s learning environment will tend to be more localized and immediate, based on personal relationships, support and emotional attachment.



相比之下，在离线和现实中，我们不仅希望找到辅导员和服务人员，也希望找到某人最近的朋友和家人。我们还希望找到各种设施，以及这些设施的管理人员和其他支持人员。个人学习环境的离线部分，在个人关系、支援和情感依赖上，将使得我更加真实而可接近。







Typically, the role of the online environment is to inform and assess, while the role of the local environment is to reaffirm and to advocate. These, obviously, are generalizations, and crossovers are likely – we may take some tests in person, and we may form some emotional attachments to online groups. But these will be the exception rather than the rule.



通常情况下，在线环境的任务是通知和评估，同时现实环境的任务是是再肯定和倡导。这显然是泛泛而谈，更多的是两者的任务发生交叉——我们可能会亲自参与某些测试，我们可能对网上团体形成情感依赖。但这些都是特殊而非普遍。







Probably the most significant (and as yet unrealized) aspect of the triad model is the idea that some local authority figure will act as an advocate for the student.



也许三元模型最显著的（也是至今为止仍未实现的）方面是，某些现实中的权威人物将会在学生面前承担起倡导者的身份。







The Online Host-Provider Framework



在线宿主提供者框架







Societies continue to work out the process of managing digital and physical resources. That said, the framework described here remains probably one of the more accurate – and more likely – descriptions.



社会继续努力解决管理数码和现实资源的过程。也就是说，这里所描述的框架可能会留有一个比较准确——或比较类似的——描述。







The ‘host’ in this framework corresponds to the local and (mostly) non-digital component of a learner’s environment. This would be the agency that managed the physical facilities, connectivity, coaching or mentoring, and other local services.



此框架中的“宿主”对应于学习者环境的现实、（绝大多数）非数码部分。这将是管理现实设施、连通度、训练或者指导，以及其他现实服务的机构。







These are roles that are typically undertaken by a community, school board or a local government. In the corporate world, this will be the learner’s company or department. These are the agencies that focus on provisioning and supporting, the agencies that would have the most interest in fostering learning.



这个任务通常由社区、学校董事会或者当地政府承担。在企业界，这将由学习者的公司或部门承担。这些机构应把重点放在后勤和支持上，这些机构对于促进学习有着非常大的兴趣。







The provider framework, however, is a network of agencies and services that manage the distribution of software, content and services to a wide area. The provider typically operates at a remote location, and might be a national government, university or institution, telecom company, software company or publisher. These agencies provide services, but act based on interests of their own, the government having social polities it wants to fulfill, the institutions seeking to satisfy their board members, funders or shareholders.



然而，该提供者框架是一个管理着分布广泛的软件、内容和服务的机构和服务商的网络。该提供者通常位于远处，可能是一个国家机构、大学或公共团体、电信公司、软件公司或出版商。这些机构提供服务，但都围绕他们自己的兴趣而动，政府有它需要执行的政治功能，公共团体力求满足他们的董事会成员、资助者或者股东。







We are seeing increasing activity on the ‘provider’ side of the equation, as institutions and agencies set up repositories and online services. Projects such as MIT’s OpenCourseWare and Rice University’s Connexions are examples of this. Commercial media are also in the mix, with services such as CiteSeer providing front-end search results for institutional access into publication archives.



我们正看到“提供者”提供越来越多的活动，如公共团体和机构建立资料库和在线服务。比如麻省理工的开放课程项目和赖斯大学的“连接”项目都是这种例子。商业媒体也参与进来，比如CiteSeer 为公共团体访问出版物档案而提供的前端搜索结果服务。







Significantly less work is being done at the ‘host’ level, partially because it’s more difficult and partially because the services provided require little more than passive consumption of learning materials. Over time, local agencies will become more pro-active, seeking out and supporting more interactive and more engaging forms of learning. No longer content to be a passive recipient of learning and culture from distant places, the local community will expect to be an active participant in the learning experience of its young.



显著减少“宿主”层面上的工作，部分因为他更困难，部分因为提供的服务对学习素材的需求稍多于被动需求。随着时间的推移，各种机构将会变得更加积极主动，寻找并支持更加互动、更吸引人的学习形式。不再满足于当一名远处学习和文化的被动接受者，本地社区也希望他的年轻人积极参与到学习体验当中。







Accreditation



认证







In 1998 I wrote that “The mishmash of host institutions, provider institutions, and umbrella organizations is going to result in an increasing debate over standards and testing. It is going to get worse before it gets better. It probably won't get better.”



在一九九八年我写下了“宿主机构、提供者机构和伞状机构的混合，将导致对标准和测试越来越多的争论。在好转之前就会变得更糟。很有可能不会变得更好。”







In 2008 we finish a decade that has seen controversial legislation such as No Child Left Behind, the rise and fall of numerous ‘virtual universities’, ongoing debates about the results of independent testing (such as OECD’s PISA tests (OECD, 2008)), commercial educational ventures (including the controversial Edison schools in the U.S. (Saltman, 2005)), charter schools, vouchers, digital diploma mills, off-shore institutions, and more.



在过去十年里，我们见到了富有争议的立法如不让一个孩子掉队法案，众多虚拟大学的兴衰，正在进行之中的对独立测试（如经合组织的国际学生评价实验测试（经合组织，2008 ））结果的争论，商业教育事业（包括在美国有争议的埃蒂森学校（索特曼，2005）），特许学校，凭证，数码文凭工厂，海外机构，等等。







In the years to come, we will say that it was a quiet decade, with the existing system having remained largely unchanged, almost unsuspecting even, of the major changes that were to follow. And as it stands, the monopoly on degree-granting status largely remains in the hands of traditional institutions. But nobody can expect it to remain there.



在接下来的岁月里，我们会说，这是一个平静的十年，现有体制保持大体不变，甚至发生的变化也毫无意外。按照目前情况，授予学位的权力很大程度上被垄断在传统机构的手中。但是没人希望他一直留在那儿。







The Divergence of Learning and Testing



学习与考试的分歧







It hasn’t happened yet in any large scale and formal way, but it is probably inevitable that the domains of ‘learning’ and ‘testing’ will separate. In the future it may even be thought of as quaint that those responsible for the fostering of learning were also those responsible for evaluating whether or not learning actually happened.



学习和考试领域的分离，目前还没有大规模正规途径发生，但这有可能是无法避免的。负责促进学习的也有责任评估学习是否发生，这种情况在未来甚至可能被认为是古怪。







The model of assigning testing to independent testing agencies is already the norm in some industries. Car drivers and airline pilots are evaluated by independent agencies, as are lawyers and accountants. Software engineers are certified by software agencies, not their teachers. And of course anyone involved in professional sports or entertainment is evaluated in competition in the arena or the marketplace.



将考试委派给独立考试机构这种模式，在某些行业已经形成规范。汽车司机和飞行员就是有独立机构评估，还有律师和会计师。软件工程师有软件机构认证，而非他们的教师。当然，从事专业体育或娱乐的人，由同行业或市场上的竞争对手评估。







In traditional learning there is slow acceptance that people may be tested without first having been taught. Colleges and universities are investigating ‘PLAR’ (Prior Learning And Recognition) systems. (CICIC, 2008) People who are in some way able to demonstrate their ability – through a portfolio system, for example, are able to circumvent the need for testing altogether.



在传统学习中，人们慢慢接受不需要先教学就接受测试。高校正在调研PLAR（未学习认知）系统（加拿大国际资历认证信息中心，2008）。人们能够通过一个文件夹系统以某种方式展示他们的技能，比如，不需要进行全面测试。







This is a trend that will continue. As it becomes more and more possible to teach oneself online, and even to demonstrate one’s achievement through productive membership in a community of practice, there will be greater demand for a formalized system of recognition, a way for people to demonstrate their competence in an area without having to go through a formal program of study in the area.



这种趋势将继续下去。因为它变得越来越有可能教会自己在线，甚至通过实际社区中的积极成员展示某人的成就，这将更加需要得到正规体制的认可，人们在一个领域内不经过正规学习就能够展示他们的才干的途径。







The university degree is a designation of considerable weight and cachet, and so it is probably going to remain in use. What a degree stands for, however, will change, as institution become more willing (after much arm-twisting) to recognize educational achievements from a wide range of providers, including testing agencies, as constituting part, or even all, of the degree.



大学学位是能力与声望的重要标识，所以可能会继续使用。然而，学习的意义，将会改变，因为机构（经过多次压力与影响之后）变得更加愿意从更加广泛的提供者——包括考试机构——那里认证教育成就，作为学位的组成部分，甚至全部。







What will spur this sort of development is an 'open achievements API' - that is, a way to syndicate qualifications information. Qualifications will be displayed by the institution granting them - but only (?) with the permission of the person being granted the qualification. This is one of those innovations that would have wide-ranging consequences, as institutions would (very suddenly) come to be evaluated according to the students they qualify. It's a space a tough independent testing agency could make a name for itself. (Hirst, Time to Build Trust With an “Open Achievements API”?, 2008)



推动这类发展的是“开放成就API”，即，聚合资格认证信息的一种途径。认证资格将由颁发机构公开——但必须（？）得到获得资格的个人的许可。这是能产生广泛的重大意义的诸多变革中的一个，因为机构（会很突然的）评估学生的资格。这是一个完全独立的考试机构让自己出名的机会（赫斯特，利用“开放成就API”建立信任的时代，2008）。







Education as a Service



教育是一种服务







As the provision of educational services becomes more commercialized, the representation of education as a service will become more pronounced. The idea is that the student will be viewed more as a client than as an apprentice, a person to be served more than an acolyte to be judged. (Knight, 2006)



由于教育服务的提供变得越发商业化，教育也会越来越明显的表现为一种服务。这种理念是，学生将被更多的视作一名客户而不是一个徒弟，一个被服务的人，而非被分配的学徒（凯特，2006）。







The emergence of education as a service will accelerate some of the trends highlighted above. One of the major drivers for independent (or ‘standards-based’) testing is the expected diversity of educational providers. Commercial services need governmental oversight, and that is the sort of service independent testing provides. Moreover, service-based education will push the emergence of the ‘provider framework’, as described in a previous section, and consequently the more community-based host framework, as a balance to that system.



教育以服务形式出现将加速上述某些趋势。独立（或者基于标准的）测试的主要驱动之一就是教育提供者的预期值多种多样。商业服务需要政府监督，并且这是一类独立测试提供者服务。此外，基于服务的教育将会推动如上节所述的提供者框架的出现，因此，更多基于社区的宿主框架，是对此体系的平衡。







Why would we move in such a direction, given that it creates such a complex structure, and carries with it so many risks? Why not keep the system we have, where government agencies, such as schools, provide the bulk of teaching and testing?



为什么我们要朝这个方向发展，即使他创造了如此复杂的结构，并带来这么多风险？为什么不使用我们手头上的系统，在各个政府机构比如学校提供大量的教学的系统？







Economic pressures will prevail. On the one hand, providing education through schools is an expensive process, requiring a great deal of staff labour. Even today, some governments resist the sort of expenditures that would be required to fund all students equally, and for less wealthy nations the idea of a fully-funded school system is just a pipe dream.



经济压力将会胜出。一方面，通过学校提供教育是一项昂贵的过程，需要大量的人力物力。即使在今天，一些政府也不愿意为所有学生提供相同的待遇，对于不太富裕的国家，全额拨款学校体制的想法仅仅是一个梦想。







On the other hand, online learning offers an inexpensive alternative – but only if it is deployed using less labour-intensive practices. Simply replicating the offline experience online does not save money; rather, we see reports that it becomes more expensive. (Twigg, 2000) (Carr, 2001) Online learning, if it is to offer economic advantage, must be based on the idea that learners are able to provide for their own learning, using both resources provided by educators, and by assisting each other through collaborative networks.



另一方面，在线学习提供了一种廉价的替代，但前提是他仅用于较少实际操作的活动。将离线体验简单的复制上线并不省钱；相反，我们看到报告称这将变得更加昂贵（特维格，2000 ）（卡尔，2001）。在线学习，如果有经济优势，肯定是基于这样一种观点，即学习者能够利用教育者提供的所有资源，为其自身的学习做准备，并通过合作网络彼此协助。







Consequently, educators, rather than engaging in the traditional practice of directing education, will instead focus on providing educational services into self-directed networks of learners.



因此，教育工作者，与其进行传统的直接教学，还不如将重点放在为自我导向的学习者网络提供教育服务。







Accreditation and Reputation



认证与声望







The purpose of accreditation is to ensure that the statements asserted by credentials – that a person, for example, has mastered the art of dentistry – are true. (Holmberg, 1997) To this end, the institutions that issue such statements are vetted. Accreditation agencies examine the process employed in the production of such statements, and if the process meets a set of standards, we can be reasonably sure that the statements are true.



认证的目的在于确保证书的声明——比如，某甲，掌握牙科技术——是真实的（霍姆伯格， 1997）。为此，颁发证书的机构需要受到审查。认证机构审查颁发证书的过程，如果这一过程符合标准，我们有理由相信证书是有效的。







A more informal process governs the selection of institutions by students, that of the reputation of the institution. The reputation is influenced by a large number of factors, including brand recognition, word of mouth and proximity. The mechanism employed by prospective students is much less reliable, especially insofar as it is informed by advertising.



学生选择机构的不那么正式的过程是，根据该机构的声望。声望受到大量因素的作用，包括品牌认知、口碑与亲近度。将来的学生采用的机制更加不可靠，尤其是受到广告的影响。







Neither process will be effective in the new environment of distributed educational resources. If the delivery of learning is separated from testing and certification, there will be a proliferation of learning agencies (and, potentially, a proliferation of testing agencies). Because the barriers to entry in the market are low, the consolidation of the industry will be slow, if it occurs at all. We see this in less rigidly regulated markets, such as Bogota, where there is more than a hundred universities (Wikipedia, 2008).



过程从不会受到新的分布式教育资源环境的影响。如果学习与测试、认证分离，学习机构将会增多（并且，很有可能，测试机构也会增多）。由于市场准入壁垒很低，业内合并将会缓慢进行——如果能够发生的话。我们认为这发生在不那么规范的市场中，比如波哥大，那里有超过一百所大学（维基百科，2008）。







What will emerge for learning institutions, as for most other services, is a system of reputation management that is integrated into the search process. Recommender systems, as such systems are now called, will employ pattern-matching software to find resource providers for potential clients. (Herlocker, Konstan, Terveen, & Riedl, 2004) The software will draw information from a wide range of other services, including information about the institution that produced the resource.



学习体系中将会出现的东西，对于其他各种服务，是一种纳入到搜索过程中的声望管理体制。推荐人体制，就是现在对这种系统的称呼，将会使用模式匹配的软件为潜在客户寻找资源提供者（和洛克，康斯坦、特文、雷德尔，2004）。该软降将会从来源广泛的其他服务中抓取信息，包括生产该资源的机构的相关信息。







The Google search algorithm is an early example of a recommender system (Zhang, Medo, Ren, Zhou1, Li, & Yang, 2006), employing as it does information about what people link to in their web pages and what people talk about in their mail to give each resource a ranking. Google additionally tailors those rankings to profiles it creates of its customers. Personalization is at the core of recommender systems; what counts as ‘the right resource’ varies from person to person, from time to time.



Google 搜索算法就是一个推荐人系统的早期例子（张、梅朵、任、周1、李、杨，2006），他根据人们在其网页中的链接和邮件中所谈论的来给每个资源一个排名。Google 还根据这些资源的访问者的资料调整这些排名。个人化是推荐人系统的核心，什么是“好的资源”，因人而异、因时而异。







In the same way, testing agencies will also acquire a reputation over time, this based largely on assessments of people it has tested. People seeking to establish a set of credentials for themselves will likely rely on a number of different testing agencies in order to mitigate the risk of being certified by a poorly ranked agency.



同样，随着时间的推移，测试机构也能获得声望，这主要来自被试者的评价。人们寻求建立一套他们自己的凭证，可能会依赖于许多不同的测试机构，以减轻被排名靠后的机构评估的风险。







But that said, as more and more of a person’s life becomes available online, the need for certification will diminish, as people acquire reputations of their own. A person’s standing in a community can be recognized by members of that community, and is acquired through months and years of participation in the work of that community. Where certification is granted, people presenting certification without having acquired a reputation for work in the community will be viewed with suspicion.



也就是说，随着越来越多人的生活被记录到网上，认证的需求将会减少，因为人们会为自己争取声望。一个人在社区中的地位可以被社区成员确认，并且需要参与到社区工作数月甚至数年。在授予认证的地方，一个人展示认证而拿不出为社区工作所获得的声望，就会受到质疑。







We are seeing today how people can acquire a reputation without having achieved formal credentials. Some of these reputations are fleeting, such as the fame that accompanies the production of a popular YouTube video. But some are more permanent, such as those of the people who built Firefox (and were later hired by Google). We are also seeing the same phenomenon with institutions. Some sources – Internet Movie Database, say – are widely trusted. And others, such as Brainbench, are working to establish a name for themselves.



我们看到今天人们是如何没有达到正规认证就获得声望的。某些声望时短暂的，比如制作一部流行的YouTube 视频带来的名声。但是某些更为持久，比如编写Firefox 的人（后来被Google雇用了）。我们也看到在机构内的同样现象。一些资源——比如说，互联网电视数据库IMDB——受到广泛信任。其他一些，比如Brainbench，还在为自己树立名声。







As we have seen, though, with search engine optimization (SEO) and other attempts to mislead reputation systems, there will continue to be a tension between the trust we put in such systems and the degree to which they can be infiltrated or corrupted. (Wu, Goel, & Davison, 2006) Reputation systems based on data that can’t be replicated or imitated will acquire the most trust, and these will most likely be based on verifiable identity and interactions within social networks.



正如我们所见，虽然搜索引擎优化（SEO）和其他欺骗声望系统的试图，将会继续在我们信任该系统和相信该系统会被渗透或损坏之间造成紧张局面（吴，戈尔、戴维森，2006）。基于不可复制或假冒的数据的声望系统，能够获得最大的信任，而这极有可能基于身份认证和社会化网络互动。







Modularity



模块化







A History of Modularity



模块化的历史







When the concept of the 'learning object' was proposed, a large part of the idea was based on the idea that these small chunks of content would be fitted together to form larger entities. "Like Legos," said some proponents, describing the way the objects would use a universal interface to fit together. (Wiley, 2002) In 1998 I described this idea under the heading of 'modularity', the idea that an entity we consider to be a single unit is in fact composed of separate and independent parts.



当“学习对象”概念产生以后，在很大程度上基于这样一个想法：小块内容可以组合成大的物体。“就像积木一样”，某些支持者这样说，以这种方式描述下的物体需要使用通用接口组合起来（威利，2002）。一九九八年，我是在《模块化》这一标题下描述此概念的，这一概念我们认为应该成为单独一节，因为事实上就是有不同或者独立部分构成的。







As Legos demonstrate, modularity works very well in some contexts. Most complex objects are composed of separate - and exchangeable - parts. Computers, electric trains, aircraft - all of these are modular to a degree. But the interface is hardly universal. As David Wiley noted after a few years of practice with learning objects, other analogies might be more appropriate - that of the atom, for example, where some parts may fit some other parts, but not all parts fit all other parts.



如同积木一样，模块化在某些情况下会工作的非常好。大多数复杂对象都是由不同的——并且可更换的——部分构成。计算机、电动火车、飞机，所有这些，都有不同程度的模块化。但是接口却很难统一。正如戴维·威利在对学习对象的几年实践之后所指出的那样，其他比喻可能更加合适——比如，原子，某些部分与另外某些部分适合，但并不是所有部分都与其他部分适合。







In the years that have passed, specifications, such as Content Packaging and Simple Sequencing, were designed to facilitate the creation of larger entities out of smaller entities. But the idea of making large content entities out of smaller and reusable content entities began to be challenged. In 'the reusability paradox', Wiley questioned the idea. (Wiley d. , 2003) For content to be usable, he argued, it must be very specific to a context. But if context is very specific to a context, it is not reusable.



在过去的几年里，各种规范——比如内容封装和简单排序——的产生都是为了促进从小物体创造出更大物体。但是，从小物体和可重用物体中创造出大的内容物体，这种思路开始受到质疑。在“可重用悖论”中，威利对该思路表示质疑（戴维·威利，2003）。他认为，对于可用内容，必定与环境紧密相关。但是如果环境与环境与非常大的不同，那么内容就不可重用。







It is too early to suggest that the idea of reusable modular content is incorrect, if indeed it ever was incorrect. But Wiley's observations, along with a deeper look at the analogy from mechanical parts, shows that reuse is rather more complex than the mere connection of digital objects together. For even in the physical world, where reuse is common, different types of parts fulfill specialized roles. Screws, for example, are generally reusable, if you want to attach things, but come in various sizes and shapes, for different purposes.



要说可重用模块内容是不正确还为时尚早，即便他真的是不正确的。但是威利的意见，以及更深入的观察机械零件这个比喻，结果显示可重用性远比数码对象之间简单的连接在一起复杂多了。即使在现实世界，可重用都很常见，不同的零件各司其职。比如，如果你想拧上什么东西，一般可重复使用螺丝，但是处于不同目的，有各种尺寸和形状。







In the world of digital content, too, the concept of 'fitting together' proved to be more complex that a mere plugging of one bit of content into another. It became clear that the learning management system would need to be able to exchange information with the learning object – to send to the object, for example, the student's name or grade, and to retrieve from the object, for example, test or quiz results. In the Sharable Courseware Object Reference Model (SCORM) this was defined by means of what was called a 'wrapper' - some computer code that accompanied the object and facilitated this interaction. In practice, interactions tended to be specific to the system the learning object was defined for, so the objects, while technically SCORM-compliant, could not always be reused on other systems.



在数码内容的世界，也是如此，“组合”的概念被证明更加复杂，不仅仅是将一块内容插入到另一块当中。显然，学习管理系统需要能够与学习对象交换信息——向对象发送，比如学生的姓名或者评分等级，然后从对象获取反馈，比如考试或测验结果。在共享课件对象参考模型（SCORM）中，这被所谓的“外包装”的工具——某些带有对象并能促进互动的计算机代码所定义。在实践中，互动倾向于具体于学习对象所定义的系统，因此这些对象，虽然在技术上兼容于SCORM，但不能总是被其他系统所重用。







Using Modular Content



使用模块化内容







To support the use of modular content, I argued ten years ago, we would need two types of technology: first, distributed design, which would allow courses to be made up of components located all over the internet; and second, educational object repositories, which would facilitate the creation and storage of digital content for later reuse. Though we saw the educational community develop the latter, instructional technologists did not embrace the idea of distributed design.



要支持对模块化内容的使用，我十年前认为，我们还需要两类技术：首先，分布式设计，这将使得组成课程的组件遍布互联网；其次，教育对象库，这将促进以后可重用的数码内容的创建与存储。虽然我们看到后者有教育社区在开发，但教育技术并没有认可分布式设计这项理念。







Several technologies emerged to support resource repositories. Most formally, institutional or enterprise content management systems, such as SiteScape, were used to support collaborative development. Proponents of open access developed the open Access Initiative (OAI), which defined a set of protocols for uploading, searching, and retrieving resources. The MIT DSpace project built on and expanded the OAI protocol. (Branschofsky, Lubas, Smith, & Williams, 2003)Meanwhile, more or less public archives sprang up on the open internet, sites such as the internet Archive, Flickr, YouTube and box.net.



支持资源库的几项技术已经出现。最正式的机构或企业内容管理系统，比如SiteScape，曾用来支持合作开发。开放存取的支持者们开发了《开放存取倡议（OAI）》，该倡议定义了一系列上传、搜索和获取资源的协议。麻理DSpace 项目以此为基础并扩展了OAI协议（不兰斯可夫斯基、路巴斯、斯密斯、威廉姆斯，2003）。同时，在互联网上出现了或多或少的公共档案馆，这些网站比如互联网档案馆、Flickr、YouTube和box.net。







The educational community, however, saw the repository as something that would be housed and managed locally. This led to the development of the Learning Content Management System, which combined the functions of the LMS with those of the CMS. (Nichani, 2001) The idea was that learning resources might be obtained remotely, but would be stored locally, in what was essentially an institutional library. Proponents of this model argued that local storage was necessary to ensure reliable access, consistency and persistence. (Chapman, 2007)



然而，教育社区，把资源库视作本地存储与管理的东西。这导致了学习内容管理系统的出现与发展，这东西结合了学习管理系统和内容管理系统的部分功能（Nichani, 2001）。当时的观点是，学习资源可能会从远程获得，但一定会存储在本地，这是公共图书馆的基本功能。该模型支持者称，为确保可靠、一致、持久的访问，本地存储是必要的（Chapman, 2007）。







This is an argument that makes sense when reusable content is being used to construct static and asynchronous courses. As the use of learning resources becomes more dynamic, however, the extra steps required in order to obtain and store locally external content become more onerous. In the long run, a mixture of approaches will be used. Material will be sourced externally – it won’t make any sense to restrict one’s search to a local library – and insofar as local copies are created, this will be done automatically.



当可重用内容被用来构建静态和异步课程时，这个论点是有意义的。然而，随着学习资源的使用越发动态，为了获取和存储本地额外内容所需的额外步骤也越发繁重。最终会混合使用这些方法。素材都将来自外部——也不会限制你搜索本地资源库——并在本地创建副本，而这是自动完成的。







For this reason, much of the work on learning objects has been based on indexing and discovery. Some repository specifications require support for a search function, and cooperating repositories typically support what has come to be known as a search federation – a single search will be executed simultaneously across a number of different libraries all at once. Such searches were supported and assisted through the use of metadata data and keywords – an instructor, say, could search only for ‘history’ texts, or only for material at the ‘grade 8’ level. (OSTI, 2008)



出于此原因，多数针对学习对象的工作都是基于索引和发现。一些资源库规格需要得到搜索功能的支持，并且协作资源库一般支持被称为搜索联盟的功能——执行一次搜索将同时运行在许多不同的图书馆中。通过元数据和关键词来支持和辅助这样的搜索——也就是说，一名教师只要搜索“历史”字样或者只要在“八年级”当中搜索资料就能找到资料（OSTI, 2008）。







Educational Object Protocols



教育对象协议







It is worth saying a few words about educational object protocols, which I predicted ten years ago would play a major role in educational technology. While this prediction has come to pass, the evolution of such protocols – now known as Learning Object Metadata (LOM) and associated standards – has not been smooth.



关于教育对象协议，值得简单说几句，十年前我预言他将在教育技术中发挥重大作用。虽然该预言已然实现，但这些协议——现在被称作学习对象元数据LOM，以及相关标准——的发展并非一帆风顺。







As I later argued in my paper Resource Profiles (Downes, Resource Profiles, 2004), LOM should not attempt to be all things to all people, and should focus solely on the educational properties of a resource. Moreover, I argued, these educational properties are not identifiable a priori in the resource itself, but rather, are defined over time through use. Consequently, instead of designing LOM as though it were a bibliographic record – which was the practice of the educational technology community – LOM should be integrated with and used with other specifications and standards, forming part of a larger, and more dynamic, resource profile.



正如我后来在我的论文《资源规范》（Downes, Resource Profiles, 2004）中所说的，LOM 不应该妄图解决所有人的所有问题，而应该仅仅关注资源的教育属性。此外，我认为，这些资源中的教育属性并不能事先确定，相反，是随着时间的推移，在使用中定义下来的。因此，设计好的LOM 反而像是一份书目目录——这是由教育技术社区完成的——LOM 应该与其他规范与标准集成、一起使用，成为一个更大的、更加动态的资源规范的一部分。







What we have seen of web technology as a whole suggests that this is the course that will be taken. A single metadata file – a Dublin Core resource description, for example – now links to external vocabularies, rights declarations, and other metadata. Moreover, metadata created through use, sometimes called attention metadata, is now being merged with bibliographic metadata. And global search sites, such as Google, use their own internally created contextual metadata (such as link information) to organize search results.



我们将网页技术作为一个整体来看待，将看到这是一条必然之路。一个单一的元数据文件，比如，一份都柏林核心资源描述，现在链接到外部词汇表、权利声明以及其他元数据。更何况，通过使用所创造的元数据，有时候被称为注意力元数据，现在正在与目录元数据进行合并。并且全球搜索网站，比如Google，使用他们自己内部创造的环境相关元数据（比如链接信息）来整理这些搜索结果。







Additionally, specialized metadata and communications protocols are being developed to allow applications to communicate with each other. Web pages are able to send information back and forth to web servers using a set of protocols called AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) while web servers communicate with each other using REST (REpresentational State Transfer). (Garrett, 2005) These protocols form the heart of what is now called Web 2.0, and though it is likely that the specifications will evolve over time, the functionality created through the use of these specifications will persist. We have now, permanently, entered the age of the connected, distributed, web.



此外，开发出专门的元数据和通讯协议，以使应用程序彼此通讯。网页允许使用一组称为AJAX（异步Javascript及XML）的协议和网络服务器之间来回传送信息，而网页服务器之间彼此使用REST（表象化状态转换）传送信息（Garrett, 2005）。这些协议构成了今天我们称作Web 2.0 的核心，并且尽管这些规范很有可能会随着时间的推移而继续进化，但是通过使用这些规范所形成的功能将会长久存在。我们现在已经不可逆转的进入到了连接的、分布的、网络的时代。







Standards and specifications will continue to form an important and central role. They are the syntax of the web, defining how the parts – whether bits of content, or bits of applications, or people and content, or whatever – fit together. They will evolve dynamically, come into and fall out of currency, be constantly changing, constantly evolving. It is tempting to think of such a system as broken, and to attempt to try to fix it. But the system is not broken – this is how it works. It is a dynamic, flexible changing system that makes learning possible at all both in individuals, and in society as a whole.



标准与规范将会继续起到重要而核心的作用。他们是网络的语法，定义了各部分——不管是内容与应用，还是人与内容，或者其他——如何组合在一起。他们将动态发展，变得流行或消亡，不断变化、不断发展。很容易让人想到这个系统如果中断，然后尝试去修复它。但是这套系统并没有中断，他就是这样工作的。他是一个动态的、弹性的、变化中的系统，他完全让学习的可能性在各人和社会整体上均得以实现。







Modularity, Continued



模块化、持续性







The original picture of modularity resulted in a vision typified in SCORM, where an individual learning object would communicate simply with a learning management system. The learning object would thus become a part of the larger whole, and no other interaction would be necessary.



模块化的最初形象是由SCORM形成的，在这里，一个独立的学习对象可以与学习管理系统进行简单的通讯。学习对象因此变成更大整体的一部分，不需要其他互动。







There is still a lot of work being done in the area of modularity and to a certain degree - generally within a single enterprise or institution - some reuse is happening. Accompanying this work, however, is a general reduction of the size of a given unit of learning. Where a 20 or 40-hour course may be appropriate in an in-person learning environment, shorter courses are more appropriate online, as short as ten or fifteen minutes. (Kucsera, Zimmaro, & Trivedi, 2008)



在模块化这个领域还有许多工作有待完成，并且在一定程度上——通常在单独的企业或机构中——重用正在发生。然而，伴随着这项工作的，是给定学习单元的规模普遍缩小。二十到四十个小时的课程可能适合于个人学习环境，更短的课程更适合于在线学习，大约是到十五分钟（Kucsera, Zimmaro, & Trivedi, 2008）。







Various reasons have been proposed, from the shorter attention span of the student to the difficulty of reading text online. It is arguable that the shorter course becomes necessary online because the online learner wants and expects more control over his or her workload or schedule. Once we have the idea of dividing learning into self-contained units, it may be argued, there is no reason to arrange them in certain pre-defined ways. Why not allow the learner to arrange them in the ways that make the most sense to them?



已经提出各式理由，从学生的注意力时间缩短，到在线阅读文本更困难。更短的在线课程是否必需是有争议的，因为在线学习者希望能够更多的控制自己的工作量和进度安排。我们一度意识到将学习划分到自包含单元中，但有争议的是，没有理由以预先安排好的方式去安排他们。为什么不让学习者以对自己最有意义的方式去安排这些资源呢？







Modularity, as seen from this perspective, takes the idea of a learning object communicating with a single LMS, to form a single course, and multiplies it, allowing a single learning resource to communicate with multiple entities, to form parts of multiple courses, all at once. The same resource may be part of a game, part of a performance support system, part of a desktop. It is a tool, that is used by the learner where needed, or it may be something a learner has created using a tool (there is no logical distinction between them). It a library, referred to when wanted, or a work in the library, that the learner is currently authoring. It is a desk drawer, filled with notes, drawings, or whatever, or some of the contents of that drawer, to be pulled out and used – as a tool, a library, a drawer (our categories of ‘objects’ break down when we are thinking digitally).



从这个角度来看，模块化，使用学习对象与单个学习管理系统通讯的思路，来形成一门单独的课程，并允许单一学习资源与多个实体进行通讯，从而为课程增加内容，使之突然成为多项课程的一部分。同样的资源也能组成游戏，成为表现支持系统，成为桌面。它是一个工具，用在学习者需要的地方，或者它是学习者利用工具创造的东西（这两者之间没有必要的区别）。当需要的时候他就是一所图书馆，或者图书馆里的一样东西，学习者现在正在创作的东西。它是一个抽屉，塞满了便笺、图画，或者别的什么，或者其他抽屉的目录，被拉出来使用——当作一件工具，一个图书馆，一个抽屉（当我们用数码的方式思考的时候，我们对“对象”的分类就不复存在了）。







This is a different take on the idea of re-use. While the traditional conception of learning objects was that designers or instructors would assemble smaller chunks of content into coherent presentations of learning material, this is rather the idea that the management of re-use would be placed directly into the learner’s hands, so that reuse could occur, not simply within a course content, but in any context where re-use makes sense.



这不同于接受重用这个概念。虽然学习对象的传统概念是，设计师或教师可以将小块学习内容组合成连贯的讲座，这是对重用进行管理的理念被直接放到学习者的手上，这样，重用就会发生，不仅仅是作用于课程内容，对于任何环境重用都是有意义的。







In this way, the reuse of learning resources is consistent with the sort of reuse we see happening elsewhere on the internet. Rather than being structured to form larger wholes, individual bits of content are being remixed and repurposed to form new content objects, (Downes, e-Learning 2.0, 2005) and these content objects are being used in what amounts to a rich multi-media based conversation. From the perspective of the learner, the learning resource is like a YouTube video or a Flickr image or any other type of content: something to be shared with friends and used to express ideas and points of view.



通过这种方式，重用学习资源，就与我们在互联网上其他地方看到的重用相一致。与其组织整理形成更大的整体，不如混合独立内容并改变其用途，从而形成新的内容对象（Downes, e-Learning 2.0, 2005），并且这些使用中的内容对象等于是丰富的基于对话的多媒体。从学习者的角度而言，学习资源就像YouTube 视频或者Flickr 相片或者任何其他类型的内容：与朋友分享的东西、用以表达思想和观点的东西。







None of the metaphors, such as Legos or atoms, describe this version of modularity appropriately. I once used the metaphor of objects in an environment – like a horse and a palm tree – to describe modularity. Objects are not designed for each other, nor do they fit together in any particular way – they coexist in the same space, and each perceives the other in its own way. They share, if you will, the same information space – the palm tree reflects light waves, and the horse sees them. The objects function autonomously, connected, interacting, but not joined.



积木或者原子之类的隐喻，不能够恰当的描述当前版本的模块化。我曾经使用“环境中的物体”隐喻——就像一匹马和一棵棕榈树——来描述模块化。对象并不是为彼此而设计的，他们也不会以某种特定方式相适应——他们共存于同一空间，彼此以各自的方式相互感知。只要你愿意，他们就共享，同样的信息空间——棕榈树反射光线，马匹就能看见他们。这些对象能够做到自主、连接、互动，但不合并。







Technology of the future will consist almost exclusively of such autonomous objects; even our large systems, such as learning environments, are best thought of as autonomous objects that interact with other objects.



未来的技术将会包含几乎所有的自主对象，即使是我们一些大的系统，比如学习环境，也是自主对象与其他对象的互动的结果。







Copyright, Ownership and Identity



版权、所有权与身份





As expected, issues of copyright in particular and intellectual property in general have played a major role in online learning over the last ten years. This trend is likely to continue, but with a gradual easing of the sort of logjam that has stymied innovation and development in the field.



正如预期，在过去十年的在线学习，知识产权，特别是版权的问题一般都扮演了重要角色。这种趋势还将继续下去，但是在这个领域妨碍变革与发展的僵局正在得到松动。







Roadblocks



障碍







Probably the most visible impact of copyright on higher education over the last ten years has been the series of lawsuits launched against students (and concordant threats against universities) over the sharing of digital music files. (Bangeman, 2007)



过去十年在高等教育中，版权最明显的影响可能就是一系列阻止学生（同时也胁迫大学来阻止）共享数码音乐文件的诉讼了（Bangeman, 2007）。







What used to be an analog and inefficient process suddenly became easy and mainstream using digital technologies. And consequently, a private and non-commercial activity became the focus of business models for companies like Napster and Kazaa. At the same time, publishers sought greater control over distribution, seeking to license, rather than sell, content and software.



曾经被认为是模拟的无效的过程，用上数码技术以后，突然变得容易而流行。因此，私人的和非商业的活动变成Napster 和Kazaa 等企业的商业模式关注的重点。与此同时，出版商在发行过程中寻求更多控制权，对内容和软件，设法发放授权书，而不是销售出去。







This prevented instructors from replicating online practices common in the typical classroom. No longer could newspaper clippings, articles or textbook chapters be distributed as handouts. No longer could video clips be shown or audio recordings be played to the class. The digitization of academic content was, at every turn, challenged by publishers. (Guess, 2008)



这样阻止了教师在普通课堂复制在线资料。不能再将剪报、文章、教科书的章节作为讲义分发下去。不再能够在课堂上展示视频片段或者播放音频记录。学术内容的数字化，常常受到出版商的阻拦（Guess, 2008）。







In like manner, the use of educational software became a complex and expensive proposition for educational institutions. The cost of educational software rose, mergers and lawsuits limited competition, and customers were locked in to existing vendors by proprietary technology and the cost of conversion. “Many customers feel that these price increases are not warranted or feel that they would like to be more in control of the LMS functions they wish to offer on their own campuses.” (Reisman, 2006)



同样，对于教育机构而言，使用教育软件变成了一项复杂而昂贵的活动。教育软件成本上升，兼并与诉讼限制了竞争，并且客户被商业技术和转换成本限制在现有的供应商当中。“许多客户觉得价格的上涨是没有根据的，或者觉得，他们希望能在他们自己校园内，对学习管理系统的功能做出更多控制。”（Reisman, 2006）







And in some areas, innovation ground to a halt as a result of patents and lawsuits. Probably the most visible case is that of digital rights management itself. Holding a broad swath of DRM patents, ContentGuard stood poised to threaten any company trying to develop a rights declaration system. But in the absence of any actual lawsuits that might define the scope of the patents, and of any effective technology from ContentGuard itself, work in DRM has remained stalled. “So long as the relevance of ContentGuard patents is sustained in all standards environments, the effective monopoly of ContentGuard on DRM is achieved.” (Cover, 2006)



在某些领域，由于专利和诉讼，创新已陷于停顿。也许最明显的例子就是数字权限管理本身。由于持有大量数字权限管理专利，ContentGuard 准备威胁所有打算发展权限声明系统的公司。但是没有任何官司能够定义此专利的范围，而且ContentGuard 本身也没有任何有用的技术，数字权限管理相关工作陷于停顿。“只要在标准环境中还存在与ContentGuard 专利有关的，ContentGuard 对数字权限管理的有效垄断就还会继续。”（Cover, 2006）







The argument in favour of strong intellectual property protection is that it fosters innovation. But our experiences over the last ten years show the paucity of such claims. (Timmer, 2008) The areas in which innovation has been fastest have been areas in which no effective patents held sway – HTML, CSS and Javascript, content management and syndication.



该论点支持强有力的知识产权保护，称它促进创新。但是我们过去十年的经验告诉我们，此观点应者寥寥（Timmer, 2008）。快速革新的领域也就是没有受到专利实际支配的领域——HTML、CSS 以及Javascript、内容管理与聚合等。







Where strong IPR exists, in areas such as online textbooks, digital rights management and wireless technology, say, innovation has been agonizingly slow, with new products and services being unveiled at glacial speed, at significant cost. Sometimes – as we saw in the case of inexpensive laptop computers – the market opens up only in response to an open or non-profit initiative. (Goth, 2008)



凡是存在强有力知识产权的领域，比如在线课本，数字权限管理和无线技术，也就是说，其创新速度慢到让人痛苦，以龟速和天价推出新产品和新服务。有时候——在我们看到廉价笔记本电脑的时候——市场只有在响应开放或非营利倡议的时候才对外开放（Goth, 2008）。







Since rights holders are not likely to lose their influence over policy makers or over the market, this asymmetrical pace of development will continue. Over time, and as a general rule, non-encumbered products and services will gradually come to dominate the marketplace. However, this process will not be uninterrupted, as commercial developers are capable of considerable innovation themselves. For every Apache, we are likely to see an iPod. For every Firefox, we are likely to see a Spore.



由于权力所有人不大可能放弃对政策制定者或者市场的影响力，这种不对称的发展速度仍将持续下去。假以时日，作为一般规则，无担保的产品和服务将会逐渐占据市场。然而，这一过程不会是一帆风顺的，因为商业开发者能够对其自身做出重大革新。对于每份Apache，我们可能会看到iPod播放器。对于每份Firefox，我们可能会看到Spore游戏。







Responses



回应







While court cases, protests and defiance have garnered the headlines, the most overwhelmingly popular response to proprietary content and technology has been the fostering and creation of free and open alternatives. Free and open source software, as well as free and open content, have both been made possible through the development of licenses prohibiting the enclosure of such work in proprietary media. These licenses have been defended successfully in court. (Kirk & Montalbano, 2008) (Rowe, 2008)



虽然法院案例、抗议与蔑视充满报纸头条，响应专有内容和技术的绝大多数民众，一直在培养和创造自由与开放式替代产品。自由与开源软件，以及自由和开放的内容，都尽可能通过授权禁止这些成果进入专利媒体。这些授权已在法院获得成功保护。（Kirk & Montalbano, 2008）（Rowe, 2008）







As a result, proponents of strong intellectual property regimes have been forced to argue along two lines: first, against the sharing of existing commercial content, and second, against the development and sharing of alternative content. If the first case was difficult to make, the second has been proving almost impossible.



其结果是，强势知识产权制度的支持者们已被迫主张沿两条线路进行：首先，反对分享已有的商业内容，其次，反对开发和分享其替代内容。如果第一种情况难以做到，那么第二种情况已被证明几乎是不可能的。







This has had a significant impact on education. A growing tide of opinion has begun to support the Open Access movement, driven largely by the argument that scientific research and educational content produced through government investments ought to be freely available.



这已经对教育产生了重大影响。越来越多的舆论浪潮已经开始支持开放存取运动，主要是受到“由政府投资的科学研究和教育内容应当能够自由获得”这一论点的驱动。







In some cases, the freeing of such information have been voluntary, as in the case of agencies such as MIT, which created OpenCourseWare, and the Open University, which produced OpenLearn. (MIT OpenCourseWare, 2004) In other cases, such as at NIH, a government mandate has provided the impetus. (Suber, 2008) Meanwhile, a great deal of grass-roots work has been undertaken, such as resulted in the development of open access journals such as PubMed and open access software, such as OAI and DSpace. (Enrique Canessa and Marco Zennaro, 2008)



在某些情况下，开放这些信息是无偿的，在这个例子中的机构有麻省理工，它创建了开放课程活动，以及开放大学，他实施的是开放式学习（MIT OpenCourseWare, 2004）。在其他例子中，如美国国立卫生研究院，政府的命令为其提供了动力（Suber, 2008）。与此同时，大量草根工作已经展开，比如开放式存取期刊的工作成果，比如PubMed和开放式存取软件，比如OAI和DSpace（Enrique Canessa and Marco Zennaro, 2008）。







The public, too, has enthusiastically developed itself to the free content movement. Following the example of the groundbreaking Wikipedia, volunteers have been instrumental in creating resources such as Curriki, WikiEducator, and Wikiversity. Additionally, employing Creative Commons licenses, which grant people the right to reuse their work, web users have uploaded millions of photos, videos, web pages, and other digital contents.



公众也积极投入到自由内容运动当中。在维基百科这个开创性的例子之后，志愿者们用它来创建诸如Curriki, WikiEducator, 和 Wikiversity 等资源。另外，采用创作共用许可，这给予人们重用其作品的权利，网络用户上传数以百万计的相片、视频、网页和其它数码内容。







Even if commercial publishers win strong copy protections from policy makers and technology companies, the trend toward free and open content will overwhelm them. As it stands, content producers are beginning to understand that it is better to allow their content to circulate freely, without restriction. This is because such content offers unequaled marketing and promotional opportunities, especially for new and not well recognized acts. (Rainsford, 2003) Additionally, content syndication agencies, such as YouTube, are finding ways to recognize commercial content and allocate advertising revenue to the owners.



即使商业出版商从政策制定者和技术公司处赢得了强势版权保护，趋向于自由和开放的内容也将压倒他们。就实而言，内容生产商开始理解让他们的内容无限制的自由流通，会更好一些。这是因为这些内容提供了无与伦比的行销和促销机会，尤其是对于新的和不那么好识别的活动（Rainsford, 2003）。此外，内容聚合机构，比如YouTube，也正在寻找办法识别商业内容，向所有者分配广告收入。







The Learning Marketplace



学习市场







The proliferation of both learning materials and learning providers has created a renewed focus on ownership. Issues surrounding copyright, trademarks and patents have been central to the field of online learning over the last ten years. Simple questions about the ownership of course material have evolved into complex questions about the ownership not only of course content but of software systems, business process, and even the idea of online learning itself.



学习材料与学习提供商的增多，使得重新审视所有权。围绕版权、商标和专利的问题，在过去十年对于在线学习已经变得非常重要。课程素材的所有权这样一个简单问题，已经演变成不仅关乎课程内容的所有权，也涉及软件系统、商业过程，甚至在线学习这个理念本身的所有权，这样一个复杂问题。







What used to be a market dominated by large institutions and large publishers is beginning to fragment. While large commercial players will remain in the field of education, volunteer contributions and small enterprise will play an increasing role. Through content distribution networks that recognize and retain authorship information over pieces of content, those who create work may be compensated – or not, depending on their desires – as the work is used in or outside commercial contexts.



曾经被大型机构和大型出版商支配的市场，正开始瓦解。虽然大的商家仍会留在教育领域，志愿者们所做的贡献和小型企业所扮演的角色会越来越重要。由于内容分发网络确认并在每一份内容上均保留作者信息，在商业环境中或者之外使用这些作品，创作这些作品的作者可能得到补偿——得到与否取决于他们的愿望。







What should be understood, however, is that the bulk of educational content online will be free to access and reuse. It will be created by governments, foundations, companies and individuals, and will be permitted to freely circulate, used by students and instructors worldwide to support their own learning.



然而，应当如何理解，大量在线教育内容将自由获取以及重用呢。它们将由政府、基金会、企业和个人创建，并将允许自由传播，有全世界范围的学生和教师用于支持其学习。







As with the market in open source software (and perhaps even more so) the commercial presence will be seen most of all through the provision of services. There are two major criteria for any educational good to obtain financial return in the marketplace: first, it cannot be something that can be digitally duplicated, for then the effective value per unit approaches zero; and second, it cannot be something that the users of that good or service could easily produce for themselves, for once again, the effective value per unit approaches zero.



与市场中的开源软件一样（也许更多），将会看到大多数商业产品都会提供服务。对于任何教育商品要在市场上获得财务回报，有两个主要标准：首先，它不能是可以被数字化复制的，否则其每单元有效价值就接近于零；其次，他不能是由用户自己轻易就能生产出来的，否则，同样，其每单元有效价值就接近于零。







Today, much of the value derived from the learning marketplace is based on an artificially imposed scarcity – a scarcity of seats in classrooms, a scarcity of credentialing agencies, and a scarcity of educational publications, for example. These scarcities will disappear as governments prefer to fund education directly, and at cost, rather than support such business models.



今天，从学习市场派生的多数价值都是基于人为强制匮乏造成的——比如，教室里缺乏座位，缺乏认证机构，缺乏教育出版机构。这些缺乏将会随着政府直接向教育成本加大投资，而不是支持那些商业模式，而消失。







That is not to say that no money may be made on content, or collaboration, or any other educational product or service. Just as the odd YouTube video is able to sell thousands of dollars worth of advertising, some educational content will also find a commercial niche – Randy Pausch’s Last lecture is a good case in point. (staff, 2008)



这并不是说没有钱用于内容开发、开展协作，或者其他教育产品或服务商。正如少数YouTube 视频可以卖出上千美元的广告费，某些教育内容也能找到其商业价值——在这一点上兰迪·博许的最后一课就是一个很好的例子（staff, 2008）。







But in general, educational enterprises will have to be more creative in finding opportunities. Content providers will discover there are much larger markets to be had when they help people create their own content. This will be the basis for the educational marketplace of the future. In general, helping people provide for themselves – helping them, in other words, save time and money – will provide the best opportunities. Selling people cameras instead of pictures, for example. Course content creation kits instead of courses.



但一般而言，教育企业在寻找机会方面需要更多的创造力。内容提供商将会发现在他们帮助人们创建他们自己的内容时，会得到一个更加巨大的市场。这就是未来教育市场的基础。一般而言，帮助人们为自己提供内容——帮助他们，换而言之，节省时间和金钱——就能提供最好的机会。比如，向人们销售相机而不是相片。课程内容创建工具包取代了课程。







Instructional Technology



教育技术







The Platform



平台







As mentioned above (in the section on personal learning environments) the major shift in instructional technology will be from systems centered on the educational institution to systems centered on the individual learner.



如上一节（个人学习环境一节）所述，教育技术的重大转变将是从以教育机构为中心的体制转变到以个体学习者为中心的体制。







As a result, rather than the employment of a single system to accomplish all educational tasks, both instructors and learners will use a variety of different tools in combination with each other. These tools, as described above, will communicate with each other, and will support the acquisition and creation of learning content, as well as activities such as games or real-time collaboration.



结果，与其说是使用单一系统完成所有教学任务，不如说是教育者和学习者同时使用各种不同的工具彼此配合完成任务。如上所述，这些工具将相互沟通，并支持获取及创建学习内容，以及诸如游戏或实时合作等活动。







As described in the section on virtualization, these tools will operate in a portable environment. Operating systems, rather than being tied to a particular type of machine, will become more like portable data files that can be plugged into one type or hardware environment or another as needed.



如虚拟化一节所述，这些工具将能在一个可便携环境中运行。操作系统，与其说被特定类型的机器所束缚，不如说将变得更像便携式数据文件，这些数据文件可以根据需要插入到某一类型硬件环境或其他环境中。







As this sort of model gains currency, designers will pay more attention to the concept of the platform. We have seen this already in discussions of ‘facebook as platform’ or of ‘second life as platform’. In general, a platform is a software environment in which third party applications may be loaded and run. We are on the verge of experiencing a proliferation of platforms – software platforms like facebook, mobile platforms like the iPhone, appliance platforms like your fridge or stove, and more.



由于这种模式开始广为传播，设计者们将在平台这一概念上投入更多关注。我们已经在“Facebook 是一个平台”和“二度人生是一个平台”的讨论中看到这一点。一般而言，一个平台就是一个软件环境，使得第三方应用程序能够被加载并运行。我们正体验到平台在逐步增多——软件平台如FaceBook，移动平台如iPhone，设备平台如你的冰箱、火炉诸如此类。







In a sense, the platform of the future will do exactly the job assigned to the instructional management system of the past: “an instructional management system is the backbone motherboard into which all educational components are plugged.” This analogy remains apt today. However, with a proliferation of platforms, a central question emerges: who manages the platform?



从某种意义上说，未来的平台完全能够完成过去的教育管理系统所布置的任务：“教育管理系统是所有教育组件能够插入的主干。”这个比喻今天仍然适用。然而，随着平台的增多，出现了一个重要问题：谁管理这些平台？







It used to be the case that, if the platform was a web server – such as a university LMS – then it was managed by the organization that owned the server. And if it was a local system – such as a personal computer – is was managed by the owner of the computer. As platforms depend more on external services, however, the question of management becomes more vague.



以前这个情况是，如果平台是一个网页服务器——比如一个大学学习管理系统——那么就有拥有服务器的组织进行管理。如果它是一套本地系统——比如一台个人计算机——那么就有这台计算机的所有者进行管理。然而，由于现在的平台更多依赖于外部的服务，管理的问题变得更加模糊。







Just recently, for example, it was revealed that Apple has an ‘off switch’ it can use to disable any application on a user’s iPhone. (Slattery & Moren, 2008) In this it joins the tradition of the telephony industry, which has always retained control over the hardware, control over the handset. In the computer and software industry, such control is found under the heading of ‘trusted computing’ – parts of your computer that are managed by software companies, and not computer owners. (Stallman, 2007) Once might cynically say that the trend is toward licensing hardware in the same way as we have started licensing software.



举个例子，尽在最近，据透露，苹果公司有一个“开关”，可以用来禁用用户iPhone 上的任何一款应用程序（Slattery & Moren, 2008）。在这里它结合了电话行业的传统，电话行业始终保留对硬件的控制，对电话机的控制。在计算机和软件行业，这样的控制可归于“可信计算”之列——你计算机的一部分由软件公司控制，而非有计算机的所有者（Stallman, 2007）。一个可能的冷笑话说，现在我们已经在销售软件许可，如今的趋势是即将以同样的方式销售硬件许可。







All cynicism aside, it remains that, in order to be successful, platforms will have to help people do the sorts of things they want to do. Issues of control will become secondary if people are not prevented from, say, communicating with each other or obtaining information. On the other hand, if the platform becomes an advertising vehicle or an instrument of censorship, it will be eschewed – eventually – in favour of more useful technologies.



冷笑话暂且不论，最起码，为了获得成功，各种平台都将帮助人们完成他们想做的各类事情。也就是说，如果人们不妨碍彼此交流或者获取信息，那么控制的问题将变得不那么重要。另一方面，如果平台变成一个广告载体或者审查工具，则最终将被抛弃，而转向更有用的技术。







Tracking



跟踪







Tracking and reporting are the major functions required of a learning management system today (and main reasons institutions want to keep using them). No matter what device a student is using, no matter where they access an online course, the LMS can report on what they have viewed (and reviewed), keep track of test scores and upload grades, and provide a secure, monitored location for in-class conversation and collaboration. (Moran, 2002)



跟踪与报告是一套今日的学习管理系统所必备的功能（也是让教育机构继续使用他们的主要理由）。无论学生用的是什么设备，无论他们在那里访问在线课程，学习管理系统都能报告他们在浏览什么复习什么，保持对考试分数和上传等级的跟踪，并为班级交流与合作提供一个安全的可监控的场所（Moran, 2002）。







Future learning technology will need to support such functions, at least to some degree. The recognition of learning, whether by institutional certification, third-part testing, or community reputation, is to a significant degree a matter of reporting activities and achievement.



未来的学习技术将需要支持这些功能，至少在某种程度上支持。对学习的认证，无论是由认证机构，第三方测试，还是社区声望，都是有关报告活动及成就的问题的认证度。







Understanding this function of future learning technology is critical to understanding its construction. Consider a bookmarking service such as del.icio.us, for example. Although its primary function is to allow a person to manage his or her bookmarks, it also becomes a record of what that person has read (or, at least, seen). Consequently, the bookmark as public performance and record becomes one of its primary functions.



理解未来学习技术的功能，对于理解其架构至关重要。举例说明，考虑一下诸如美味书签之类的书签服务。虽然其主要功能是允许某人管理他的书签，他也变成了这个人的阅读记录（或者，至少，是他看过的记录）。因此，该书签由于其公开表现，记录功能变成了它的一项主要功能。







Understanding such technology in this light highlights the issues that will have to be addressed. Such systems will need to be accurate and reliable; they shouldn’t report things that haven’t happened. At the same time, they need to be, to a certain extent, voluntary. People want to control the work they are offering for assessment, even it if is work as trivial as a browsing history. That is why the same people who turn off tracking systems and refuse to load images will at the same time happily fill pages of del.icio.us recommendations.



理解这种技术在这种情况下，凸显这些即将得到解决的问题。该系统需要准确而可靠，他们不能报告海尔发生的事情。同时，他们需要有一定程度的志愿服务。人们希望控制自己为评价所作的工作，即使是这份工作跟浏览器历史一样琐碎平凡。这就是为什么同样的人在关闭跟踪系统、不愿加载图片的同时，却在快乐的填写美味书签的推荐页面。







Tracking systems in the future will be more automatic – filling out forms loses its appeal after a while – but will remain in control of the user. One element of this will involve the user’s ability to assume different identities for different tasks. People will not find it fair or reasonable that their Second Life socializing be a part of their Ancient History class evaluation or part of the job interview process.



未来的跟踪系统将会更加自动化——填写转瞬即丢的表单——但是保留用户的控制权。其中一个元素将涉及到用户为不同任务使用不同身份的能力。当人们在二度人生里的社交活动成为其古代历史课评估的一部分，或者工作面试的一部分，他们并不觉得这公平或者合理。







As mentioned above, this process will create a trail of usage metadata – also called attention metadata – behind both the use and the resource. This metadata will be available for harvesting, and will be employed by aggregators in order to create a profile of the resource. Profiles will be created of different types of usage metadata, and different people will see different profiles of the same resource (or the same person) depending on what they think is important.



如上所述，该过程将会创建一份使用轨迹元数据——也称为注意力元数据——隐藏在操作和资源的背后。此元数据将会被收集，收集者将用来为该资源创建一份特征描述。特征描述文件将根据不同类型的用途元数据而创建，对于同一份资源（或同一个人），不同的人将看到不同的特征描述文件，这将取决于他们心目中什么是最重要的。







Conferencing



会议







The topic of conferencing and communication has come up several times in this discussion. That should be no surprise; it forms the core of any educational system, and particularly one in which learning consists of participating in a community, creating and sharing learning content.



会议与通讯的主题在本文已数次提及。这并不意外，它是所有教育系统的核心，尤其是社区多人共同学习、创建并分享学习内容的核心。







In the field of educational technology, conferencing systems are typically divided between synchronous and asynchronous, the former describing technologies where communication occurs in real time, and the latter where communication occurs at discrete intervals. But as conferencing technology improves, these terms will tend to be used to describe behaviours rather than types of technology.



在教育技术这个领域，会议系统通常分成同步和异步两块，利用早期的描述技术，通讯都是实时发生的，后来通讯可以发生在分散的间隔中。但是由于会议技术的改进，同步和异步这些词汇将趋向于用来描述行为而非技术类型。







Consider, for example, a traditionally asynchronous technology such as email. It has now increased in speed to the point where people can have real-time conversations in email. Such technology comes to resemble a common synchronous tool, instant messaging. But instant messaging can be used to have an asynchronous conversation, where messages are left for people to pick up later. The two systems eventually merge into a single, text-based communications technology that may be used either synchronously or asynchronously.



举例说明，考虑一下传统的异步技术比如电子邮件。现在增加了速度，人们在电子邮件中可以实时交谈。这种技术类似于常见的同步工具，即时消息。但是即时消息可以用于异步会谈，在这里人们可以稍后再打开留给他们的消息。这两套系统最终会融合成一套系统，使用基于文本的通讯技术而不论同步还是异步。







The same is true of other modalities, though we haven’t seen this so much yet because of the need for better bandwidth and storage. But a live video conversation may just as easily be thought of as a set of discrete video messages, where each person responds to the other in real time or delayed time. A broadcasting system such as UStream shows viewers the same content, whether they are viewing it live or after the fact.



其他形式也是如此，虽然我们还没有看到很多，因为需要更好的带宽和存储空间。但是实时视频会议已经很容易被认为是一组分散的视频信号，在这里每一个人都实时或延时回应其他人。诸如UStream等广播系统向观众展示同样的内容，无论他们是在观看直播还是事后观看。







Conferencing will increase in both size and flexibility over time. The difference in size will be the most obvious. Instead of postage-stamp sized videos, we will use wall-sized screens to depict each other at full size, with near-zero compression and latency (I have actually seen such systems; they require only the widespread deployment of very high capacity bandwidth).



随着时间的推移，会议的灵活性和规模都将增加。规模的不同将最明显。不再是邮票大小的视频，我们将用墙面大小的屏幕全尺寸显示彼此，几乎是零压缩和零延时（实际上我已经见到过这样的系统，他们的前提是需要广泛部署非常高的带宽）。







Such systems will not be used like televisions or telephones. They will be used more like windows, always on, always connected, where you can see other people and chat with them on a casual basis. Other windows will be used to display the local news or weather or a live feed from a favorite vacation spot (managing the sound levels between windows will require some interesting management technology).



这样的系统用起来并不像电视或电话。使用起来更像Windows操作系统，始终开着，始终连线，在这里你可以随心所欲地见到别人并与之聊天。其他窗口将用来显示本地新闻或者天气或者来自你感兴趣的度假胜地的实时新闻源（管理窗口之间的声音级别将会需要一些有趣的管理技术）。







But they will be more than windows, as we will be able to use them as digital portals, sending any of our data or applications over to the other side, or to use them as two-sided computer screens on which to work on the same document at the same time. And they will be placed not only on walls, but on desktops, in books, and even through tiny private screens beamed directly to a person’s retina.



但是他们将不仅仅是窗口，因为我们将能把他们当作数码门户，发送任何数据或应用程序到另外一边，或者把他们当作双向计算机屏幕以便同时处理同一份文档。同时他们不仅仅安放在墙上，也放在桌面上，在书本中，甚至通过微型私人屏幕直接投影到人的视网膜上。







People will learn to work with their conferencing system constantly turned on and with other people – as many or as few as they choose – just a glance or a nod away. Say someone’s name – “Stephen?” – and it appears as though you are knocking at their window, or poking your head through their door. That is not to say that privacy does not exist – people expect and want privacy – but rather that their environments will be more or less digitally porous depending on time and circumstances.



人们将学会在其会议系统永远开着的情况下工作，同时与其他人——根据他们的选择会或多或少——看一眼或点点头。叫出某人的名字——“老唐？”——就好象你在敲击他们的窗户，或者把头伸进他们的大门。这并不是说隐私不存在了——人们永远都希望有隐私——而是依据时间和情形的不同，他们的环境将会或多或少的被数字化渗透。







Content Filtering



内容过滤







Content filtering has become, for better or worse, a major part of educational technology today, and it has become, as I suggested ten years ago, clumsy and overbearing. Educators continue to complain about entire domains, such as YouTube – or entire technologies, such as Skype – simply being blocked by an institutional administrator.



无论好坏，内容过滤已经成为今日教育技术的一个重要组成部分，也如同我十年前所预言的那样，它已经变得笨拙而霸道。教育者不断埋怨整个网站，如YouTube——或整项技术，如Skype——被单位的管理员简单屏蔽。







This has been necessary because filtering technologies were, and are, largely ineffective. Email users continue to be set upon by spam, with the distribution of viruses and phishing attacks compounding the distasteful advertising messages. Objectionable content proliferates on the web as well, either in the form of direct advertising (such as pop-ups) or misleading content (such as spam blogs, or splogs).



这样做是有必要的，因为过滤技术过去现在都基本上没什么用。电子邮件用户继续与携带有病毒和钓鱼攻击的讨厌广告垃圾邮件作斗争。令人反感的内容也在网络上扩散，要么以直接广告（比如弹出窗口）的形式扩散，要么就是误导性内容（比如网络日志底下的垃圾留言）。







As a matter of practicality, as I suggested ten years ago, students in schools are not granted access to the entire internet, but rather, reasonably safe subset of it. Government legislation and school policy has mandated the blocking of sites that contain disturbing or controversial content. It is unlikely that such a system will change in the short term, largely because it has proven impossible to block such unwanted content on a case by case basis.



出于现实考虑，如我十年前所建议的，在校学生不允许访问整个互联网，相反，可以访问一个相当安全的子集。政府法律和学校政策要求屏蔽那些含有令人不安的或者有争议的内容的网站。这项制度在短期内不大可能改变，主要是因为已经被证明不可能基于这种发现一个处理一个的办法屏蔽那些不当内容。







The employment of content filtering in education sparks debate because the application of such technology is not limited to unwanted content. (Lipschutz, 2004) The wider internet has seen cases where an internet service provider has blocked the website of its union, and where telephone companies and cable companies ‘throttle’ content that competes with its core business. Ten years ago I suggested that filtering would be used to protect markets for vendors of educational content. Today such practices seem more possible, and are opposed by a widespread ‘net neutrality’ movement.



在教育行业部署内容过滤技术会引发争论，因为这项技术的运用，并没有限制到不当内容（Lipschutz, 2004）。在更广泛的互联网已经看到互联网服务提供商屏蔽联盟网站的例子，电话公司和电缆公司“限制”与其核心商业竞争的内容。十年前我预言过滤技术将被用于保护教育内容供应商的市场。今天这些做法似乎更具可能性，并受到“网络中立”运动的普遍抵制。







Probably, the only way forward will be to enable people to select what they want, rather than to force them to block what they don’t want. It is not possible to imagine the sort of thing that will creep into your in-box (believe me) but it is possible to create a content aggregation network composed of trusted suppliers, friends, and friends of friends. The popularity of social networks in recent years is only partially due to the desire to connect with others; it is also driven by a desire to shut out unwanted people and content. It is no coincidence that sites such as Facebook began as exclusive enclaves.



也许，唯一的出路就是让人民选择他们想要的，而不是强迫他们屏蔽他们不想要的。无法想象这些东西会悄悄爬进你的邮箱，（相信我）但是它可以通过由可信赖供应商、朋友和朋友的朋友组成的关系网络，创建内容。希望与他人交流，只是最近几年社交网络的流行的部分原因，也有排除不喜欢的任何内容这种愿望在驱动。Facebook 之类的网站开始将自己排除在互联网之外不是偶然的。







People wanting safe community standards will use the community as a filter. Alternative content will flow around such enclaves; there are many communities on the internet. As people become increasingly frustrated with unwanted content, the internet will resemble less a broadcast medium and more a person-to-person communications medium. Business models based on content distribution and especially advertising will have to take note.



人们希望安全社区标准把社区作为一个过滤器。不需要的内容将绕过这个独立世界。互联网上有许多社区。由于人们对于不当内容愈来愈失望，互联网上的广播媒体可能会减少，点对点通讯媒介会增多。基于发布内容的商业模式，尤其是广告业需要注意这个。







As communications networks come to be defined by sets of connections with contacts, rather than a smallish selection of channels, metadata and filtering will be more effectively deployed to personalize input. People will want to have as broad a network as possible, both to extend their own influence, and to stay informed. Adaptive filters will all people to monitor a wide community – all connected physicists, say – while focusing on a particular set of topics of interest. Other flags set by trustworthy people will propel content through these filters, creating, in effect, a notification network.



由于通讯网络逐渐由与联系人的联系点而非狭窄的选择渠道来定义，元数据和过滤技术将会更有效的部署在个人接收端。人们都想要一个尽可能广泛的社交网络，在扩展他自己的影响力的同时，并保持消息灵通。恰当的过滤器能帮助所有人监测一个广泛的社区——或者说所有有联系的人——同时还能关注一组自己感兴趣的主题。由可信赖的人做的标记可以帮助内容通过过滤器，然后建立一个有效的消息网络。







Content providers, such as governments, educators and news agencies, will be able to act as inputs into the communications networks. But they will have to reach people through intermediaries, who filter, fact-check, and interpret these communications. Many people will get their news from their friends rather than from CNN. (Outing, 2008) To have a voice, content providers cannot block file sharing. They will have to encourage it, because they are competing against many voices.



内容提供者，比如政府、教育者和新闻机构，将能够担当起投入到通讯网络当中的准备。但是他们也必须通过中介去接触人们，而这些中介则负责过滤、检查真实性，并对这些通讯作出解释。许多人是从自己的朋友而非新闻机构获取新闻的（Outing, 2008）。要有自己的声音，内容提供者就不能阻止文件共享。他们应当鼓励文件共享，因为他们通过竞争来对抗其他声音。







The Economics of Online Learning



在线学习的经济活动







The two schools of thought identified in my earlier paper can still be seen today. On the one hand, there is a body of opinion that states that online learning is more expensive than traditional learning, that the average online course costs thousands of dollars to produce, and that specialized systems, such as simulations, even more so. And there is the other voice that points to the economics of reuse and suggests that online learning, in the long run, will save money.



在我早期论文中所言思路的这两所学校，今天仍然能够见到。一方面，有大量观点，指出在线学习比传统学习更昂贵，平均花费数千美元才能产生一门在线课程，而且还需要专门制作的系统，比如仿真技术，甚至更多。也有其他观点指出重用的经济学意义，并且预言，从长远来看，在线学习，将节省资金。







Both perspectives contain an element of the truth. Where online learning involves the development of courses, simulations, and other advanced software, development costs are very high. Such investments can only be justified by significant need. Flight simulators, for example, are expensive, but are cheaper than jet aircraft. Military and police tactical simulations recreate conditions that cannot otherwise be experienced, except in live and potentially dangerous situations.



两种观点都说的有理。的确在线学习涉及到课程的开发、仿真技术，以及其他高级软件，开发成本的确很高。这些因为重大需求而产生的投资是有意义的。比如，飞行模拟器，是很昂贵，但是比喷气式飞机的要便宜。军队和警察战术模拟重现那些其他途径不能体验的、生活中不存在的以及以及有潜在危险的场面。







On the other hand, if the work done to develop an online course serves merely to duplicate an in-person course already available to students, the expense seems questionable. Replicating classroom conditions is not the cheapest way to conduct learning online, and we become more experienced with the internet, alternatives emerge. A model of learning that puts much of the organization into the hand of students – such as is the case with the Massive Open Online Course being taught by George Siemens and myself – may prove to be much more cost-efficient.



另一方面，如果开发在线课程的工作仅仅是重复学生已经得到的现实课程的话，那么这种开销就很成问题。复制教室条件并不是处理在线学习最便宜的途径，当我们在互联网上越来越有经验的时候，替代物自然会浮现出来。将各种组织交友学生管理——例如乔治西门子和我教授的巨大开放式在线课程这个例子，这种学习模型可能被证明更具成本效益。







Automation



自动化







All other things being equal, automation offers the potential to produce considerable savings, in cases where automation is possible and desirable. We have already seen teachers save a lot of time using online grade entry systems, for example. Tasks that would have been a long involved chore – such as creating a slide presentation – are now easily accomplished with tools such as PowerPoint.



所有其他条件都相等，自动化能够提供大幅度节省开支的可能性，在很多情况下自动化都是可行的、令人满意的。譬如，我们已经看到教师使用在线成绩登记系统节省了大量时间。那些需要花费很多时间的工作——比如制作一份演示文稿——现在已经可以使用PowerPoint 等工具轻松完成。







Automation does not mean the end of teaching careers, though. What automation allows is (as I said ten years ago) a ‘deep personalization’ of learning. Automation allows us to more easily create and present content, to more easily form groups and collaborate, to more easily give tests and take surveys. This frees instructors to perform tasks that have been traditionally more difficult and time consuming – to relate to students on a personal basis, to offer coaching and moral support, to learn about and analyze a student’s inclinations and understandings.



但是，自动化并不意味着教师行业的终结。自动化允许我们更轻松的创建及展示内容，更轻松的组织小组和合作，更轻松地举行测试、开展调查。自动化可以让教师更轻松的执行在传统方式比较困难比较耗时的工作——与学生的个人基础相关的，提供训练和更多支持，了解并分析学生的偏好和理解程度。







These are specialist tasks, and as suggested ten years ago, it is likely that different educational professionals will fulfill different roles. Some will become testing and evaluation specialists, others will become coaches and advocates, still others will become content creators and presenters. As these disciplines evolve, tools will become more specialized, and practice will become more professional.



这些都是十年前所预言的专家工作，可能是不同的教育专业人员扮演不同的角色。某些将会变成测试和评估专家，其他的可能会变成教练和倡导者，还有些人将变成内容开发者和演说者。由于这些学科的发展，工具将变得更加专业化，而且实践也将变得更加专业。







Savings



节省开支







The first significant economic impact of online learning will be in the savings it offers over the traditional model.



在线学习的第一个重大经济影响是它能比传统模式更加省钱。







In the wake of 9-11, and again with the more recent increase in the cost of fuel, many have begun to employ online learning – and other forms of computer conferencing – in order to save on transportation costs. As time goes by, parents and policy makers will begin to question the wisdom of employing fleets of buses and cars to move students to places where they sit and work on computers.



随着九一一的刺激，以及最近燃料费用再一次走高，许多人开始着手实施在线学习——以及其他形式的计算机会议——以节省交通费用。随着时间的推移，父母和决策者们开始质问租用大巴车队和轿车运送学生到机房使用计算机是否明智。







And although governments continue to build legacies in the form of brick-and-mortar schools, construction costs will decline over time, and the buildings that are constructed will, like the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga, serve the entire community.



并且，尽管政府不断地为实体学校修建设施，建筑成本将逐年下降，而这些建筑物也将如同密西沙加现代艺术中心一样服务于整个社区。







Finally, as more and more educational resources are digitized, the enormous sums of money spent on things like text books and even wall maps will be reduced to a trickle. The need to maintain physical libraries will be obviated through the distribution of entire libraries of digital content on keychains or necklaces.



最后，随着越来越多的教育资源数码化，巨大的资金用在诸如教科书上，甚至挂图会减少到微乎其微。将来不再有保持实体图书馆的需求，因为整幢图书馆的数码内容可以通过钥匙扣或者项链分发。







This is the advantage projects such as One Laptop per Child are attempting to realize. Despite critics who say that money in developing countries is better spent on books and teachers, placing such devoices into the hands of children is a worldwide diffusion of knowledge for a cost so low the savings are scarcely imaginable.



这就是每个孩子一台笔记本OLPC 项目所要试图实现的好处。尽管批评者称，发展中国家的这些钱更应该用在书本和教师身上，给孩子们这些设备是全球性的知识传播，其开销在储蓄如此之低的地方是无法想象的。







Finally, savings in staff costs per student will be realized when the traditional teacher-and-class model is abandoned. Much of the work of the traditional teacher – such as content presentation – will be done by computers, or by students for each other. As discussed above, the role of the teacher will be evolve into a set of specialized professions. But while we are spending more money on each educational professional, the cost of education per child will be reduced dramatically, offering us – at last – a chance to offer an education to all our citizens, for a lifetime.



最后，当传统的教师加班级模式被抛弃的时候，就能够做到节省每个学生的人力开支。传统教师的许多工作——比如展现内容——都将有计算机完成，或者由学生彼此之间完成。如上所述，教师的角色将会进化成一系列专门职业。但是，虽然我们在每一个教育专家身上花费更多金钱，每个孩子身上的教育成本将会戏剧性的减少，最终为我们提供了一个为我们所有公民提供终身教育的机会。







The largest savings will be realized by students (with the result that these will be the slowest to realize, since students to not have the economic or political means to hasten the onset of these efficiencies). The cost of learning texts will diminish to near zero. Transportation costs will be eliminated. Opportunity cost – such as the four years of work and experience foregone in order to attend school – will be limited. Students will be able to begin working and earning early in their educational career, resulting in a longer period of productivity, and more wealth, opportunities and choices later in life.



最大的节约将由学生实现（结果是，这将是最慢实现的，因为学生没有提高效率的经济或者政治能力）。学习文本的费用将减少到几乎为零。运输成本将会消失。机会成本——比如为了上学而丢掉的四年工作和经验——将会变得很有限。学生在其教育生涯中将能更早开始工作赚钱，从而得到更长的工作生涯，更多的财富、机会和生活选择。







The Bottom Line



底线







As I stated ten years ago, and as we see today, even though savings will not be as great as anticipated, it will be necessary for institutions to offer their courses online - and sooner, rather than later - because the costs of not doing so are too great.



如我十年前所言，如我今日所见，尽管节省开支并无预期之多，但对于提供在线课程的机构将成必要——很快而非以后——因为不这样做的成本会很高。







Distance learning institutions, such as Athabasca University and the University of Phoenix, are beginning to cut into traditional student bodies. It is becoming necessary for traditional institutions to accommodate more students with existing resources, which means that the pressures to take advantage of the potential savings offered by technology, which were not so great before, are now mounting.



远程学习机构，比如阿萨巴斯卡大学和凤凰城大学，正开始抢夺传统生源。他已成为传统教育体制让更多学生使用已有资源的必选，这意味着由技术带来的节约压力，以前并不明显，现在却越来越大。







Even more to the point, all educational institutions are facing their greatest competition from their students themselves. This is especially the case in nations where college and university degrees can be obtained only by a moneyed elite. A determined population of ambitious, talented and self-sufficient students can educate themselves, creating their own community, their own professions, their own future. We are seeing this unfold before our eyes, if we would only look.



更重要的是，所有教育机构都面临着来自学生本身的最大的竞争压力。尤其是在那些大专院校学位只能由有钱的精英分子获得的国家里。雄心勃勃的人们，天才而自负的学生，能够自我教育，创建他们自己的社区，自己的职业，自己的未来。我们将看到这画卷徐徐展开，但我们不能只作壁上观。







The Future



未来







Today, and for the last century, education has been practiced in segregated buildings by carefully regimented and standardized classes of students led and instructed by teachers working essentially alone.



今天，以及上一个世纪，教育基本上都是在独立大楼里，由教师领导并教导下的，精心组织的、标准化的学生班级，独立完成的。







Over the last ten years, this model has been seen in many quarters to be obsolete. We have seen the emergence of a new model, where education is practiced in the community as a whole, by individuals studying personal curricula at their own pace, guided and assisted by community facilitators, online instructors and experts around the world.



在过去的十年里，我们看到该模型在许多地区都已过时。我们看到出现了一种新的模型，社区的教育实践以整体形式出现，个人按照自己的步伐设置自己的课程计划，由社区志愿者、在线教育者以及世界各地的专家进行指导和帮助。







Though today we stand at the cusp of this new vision, the future will see institutions and traditional forms of education receding gradually, reluctantly, to a tide of self-directing and self-motivated learners. This will be the last generation in which education is the practice of authority, and the first where it becomes, at has always been intended by educators, an act of liberty.



虽然今天我们还处在这新世界的门口，未来将看到教育机构和传统教育形式将被迫逐渐消失，学习者自我知道自我激励将大行其道。我们将成为经历权威教育的最后一代，也将成为经历教育者的意志变成自由行动的第一代。







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作者： Orca 于 12/11/2008 11:55:00 下午 0 评论

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