We said that digital content enables a new way to build our personal  knowledge. Technology allows us to enrich content in real time as our whims command.

Focusing on the education sector the digital content and the other technological instruments can bring a real revolution in teaching methods and in learning processes.

Teachers can deliver, for example, a history lesson visualizing the ancient map of Mesopotamia on the LIM (electronic blackboard), enabling a real time comparison with the modern map of the same region and its countries. Students can follow the lesson looking at the LIM but also on their personal devices, adding notes and links.   And it’s possible to add videos or photos or other materials provided by teachers or downloaded from specialized sites.

This is the scenario we are testing with the Future of Learning trial, but even if it’s possible from a technological point of view, it may be difficult to implement in the real world because of legal constraints.

The current copyright legislation forbids any modification of content covered by copyright. It’s also forbidden to select a chapter from a book and insert it into another book. It’s forbidden to pick up a photo from a book and reproduce it in another contest. Generally speaking it’s forbidden any  form of mash up of content if  the content is copyrighted.

This means that the state of the art of legislation is an obstacle to the future we imagine. In order to respect legal constraints it’s mandatory to protect with DRM every content covered by copyright. The digital content is “frozen” in its original state.

It’s clear that we are at the beginning of a new age and, as it often happens, technology steps ahead whilst habits, law and  culture follow.

The first followers are usually the stakeholders from a business point of view. It’s not a case that publishers are joining initiatives like the Future of Learning trial or other similar initiatives.

Legislation Is usually slower. The current copyright law in Italy dates back to 1941 and it is obviously centered on the traditional paper made book. We can’t say how much time it will require but we are almost sure that rules have to change to better fit the modern contest also taking into account the international dimension.

Any kind of content, text, video, music, images, from a digital point of view is simply a set of bit. Even if it may appear a nonsense, the Divine Comedy and the fast food menu are the same thing in this perspective.

Music was the first content to be transformed into files for a commercial use and now we can enjoy music from devices shaped as a cigarette lighter, and we can bring with us hundreds of songs in few grams package.

That was a true revolution in the music market: the way to produce, to deliver, to listen  and to buy music has radically changed.  The I-tunes model is now a reference model.

Now it is the time of books to face a great change. The ebooks diffusion is rapidly growing thanks to the availability of tablet pc and EBR.

We are at the beginning and it’s not easy to predict how this change will take form but we can surely take a look at the opportunities that the digital content opens to users and to all the stakeholders belonging to the publishing ecosystem.

Some advantages are easy to guess: you can buy on line in a few minutes, and publishers can save money since a significant part of the publishing costs are for printing  and stocking copies.

But there is a more interesting and, for me,more important implication that ebooks open.

Imagine that  you are reading the electronic version of the  last Ken Follet best seller, the Fall of Giants, on your personal Tablet and you are curious to know where are the specific places named in the novel, you can immediately satisfy your curiosity just touching the name of the place and visualize the map and all the other information related to that topic. And you could go more in depth, as much as you wish browsing on the internet .

You can enrich your knowledge in real time only following your inspiration without the physical limits of a physical book.

Can you imagine how this possibility could change our habits in building our personal knowledge?

There’s no more boundaries among the different disciplines in which culture is traditionally codified.

This new perspective requires a great change in the publishers product strategies  that will have to enrich their products with additional contents choosing the business model that they will consider as the most profitable. Users will decide if they prefer to buy the additional contents bundled with the ebook or at a second time.

All these elements are very relevant in all publishing market areas especially in the education one. In my next post I’ll try to clarify, leveraging on the first feedback coming from the Future of Learning trial,  the key elements that digital contents for scholastic use, should have.

The Future of leaning trial has been working at Junior High School  Valgimigli in Albignasego (PD) since September 2010 in one classroom. Students attend and study the topics involved,  grammar  history and anthology,  through  personal EBRs recently delivered by Onda Communication.  

Does the EBR represent the right choice for educational purposes? This is the question we want to answer with our experimentation.

Generally speaking the EBR diffusion is rapidly growing.  Many people prefer the EBR because size, weight, and price meet the wishes of those who like to have in their pockets thousands of book to take along wherever they go, without concern of battery.

Are these issues relevant if we move in the education environment?

As it is well known  EBR screens are  based on e-ink technology and not backlit. eInk devices provide a reading paper experience and are easy to the eye in daylight or in an illuminated ambient; this is clearly important if we have to study on that device for many hours. 

As a consequence of the not backlit screen the EBR has a low battery consumption; it is usually enough to charge it  once a week when used normally. In a stand by situation, once every two months will do.

Other important advantages:

-          The weight: even though we refer to 10” size the weight is around the half of a Tablet PC

-          The screens are flexible and with a high impact resistance.

Due to these reasons EBR seems to fit students needs but there are many and not trifling disadvantages: 

-          Without color, (e-ink color technology is still a prototype) the EBR provides a user experience very far from the one we are used to have. Also, keep in mind that today’s books adopted by schools are in 4 colors and exploit colors to highlight the various messages. Can we imagine a geographic map without colors?

-          The refresh page index is lower than the one we have on modern PC, so the perception is of a very slow device.

-          The e-ink technology doesn’t support videos so if you want to watch a video  the only way is to save it on the device and visualize it on an external screen via VGA.

These disadvantages are significant and may be that the state of the art of the EBR doesn’t meet the needs of learners today.

But e-ink colored technology is arriving and the refresh page time will surely improve.

A lot of producers of EBR are enriching their devices with Tablet PC functionalities, and there are now devices with two screens. On the other side many tablet are embedding the e-paper features. 

So the future is not yet written. With our initiatives we want to understand what students and teachers really ask of a personal device in their daily work.  The risk is to have devices  with hundreds of useless and expensive features and this is the reason why producers are interested in this kind of initiatives.

One of the requirements of the Future of learning trial, and in a wider perspective, of the Telecom Italia trials on education, is the availability of personal devices for all students.

At the moment there are several devices that could be adopted for education and that can provide a good user experience in studying and in the  learning processes. There are the traditional ones:  mobile PC like notebooks  and netbooks (the lighter brother of notebook), and the new  Tablet PC and Ebookreader (EBR)

In this post I will focus on the Tablet PC. Not to answer if it is the best choice for education but only to give evidence of the strenght  and weakness of  this kind of devices.

When we talk about tablet PC the first thought goes to the Apple IPad. It’s certainly the most famous and  it’s really very fashionable, but it is not the only one. There are a lot of new Tablets from the major manufacturers  in consumer electronics (Toshiba, Samsung…..).

These devices are portable computers, shaped as a flat tablet,  equipped with a touchscreen as a primary input device and a virtual keyboard. The general size is 10″ (iPad) or 7″ (used by many Android tablets). Many tablet PC makers propose  a 12″ and 13” widescreen form but larger size brings a higher power requirement.

These characteristics provide a good portability, with a very nice user experience in visualizing texts , reading  files, and so,  in reading and studying books. And their volume and weight is equivalent to  a single book. Their color screens are usually very brilliant and have  a high definition. Most  models  on the market today support connectivity to the internet (via wifi or 3g connection) .

To sum it up,  you have in your hand a portable PC but smaller, lighter and absolutely cooler, and with the opportunity to be always on. Why a student should prefer the old books papermade?

Let’s consider  the shortcomings. The battery is not so powerful . So you have to remember  to charge it  every day, and some students may forgot. Looking at pictures and  videos with high definition is pleasant  but if you have to study for many hours you can experience eye fatigue.

These kind of devices are not impact resistant and the screen doesn’t have a protection and we have to consider that an object like this is in the hands of a twelve year old boy.

Last but not least, there is another important element to consider: price. The tablet average price goes from 450 euros to 800 euros depending on the features embedded. 

At the moment there are many initiatives in the world that are experimenting  the tablet PC at school: in  a variety of places like Tennessee, Singapore, and also in Italy.

ipads-mandatory-at-webb-school-of-knoxville

We are convinced that there isn’t the best device in absolute way. These trials, would suggest, with concrete results,  which are the straightness and weakness of each kind depending on the new education process that teachers and students will adopt following the new possibilities enabled by technology

As I said in my previous post one of the pillars of the enhanced learning trial is the Telecom Italia web based learning platform. Developed by the Vertical Platform department, it consists of an integrated set of functionalities that enables teachers, students and others involved, to a different way of teaching and learning: a range of tools and services to support the different moment of education.

A learning platform generally provide functionalities such as:

· Content management

· Lesson planning and delivery..

· Communication and collaboration – emails, notices, chat, wikis, blogs

The content management functionalities are related to the storage and access to learning material and to face this this kind of requirements the TI platform has 2 important modules: the DRM module and the mash up module.

The first ensures that contents, covered by copyright, are protected from uncontrolled diffusion and copy. The level of restriction applied to the different content will follow the publishers direction. The Telecom Italia learning platform uses the Adobe DRM, so the personal device used by students and teachers must have the Adobe Digital Edition tool on. Otherwise the device cannot open the file.

The second module consists of a set of functionalities that enable users to integrate in a unique file content from different sources adding links to videos, photos, notes or entire chapters of a book. In this way the users can build a personalized environment of learning content mashing up information coming from different sources.

Of course the platform supports also lesson planning and delivery, managing the interaction between the teacher and the students and the interaction among the personal computer of students and teacher and other devices such as LIM (Lavagna Interattiva Multimediale: Multimedia Interactive Blackboard). The learning platform has been developed to support the use of every type of connected device:

§ Teachers can upload every type of content and link them together with school e-books

§ Students can access to didactic content, always updated, from classroom, home, …

§ Students can submit content to teachers

§ Content can be accessed from any connected device supporting the required multimedia format

The homework can benefit from the communication and collaboration tools: students can reach, through internet, the platform and their personal folder, can interact with the teacher and also with the other students using community tool such as blog, chat, wiki..

At the moment there are three different ongoing trials, lead by Telecom Italia, and the learning platform is now used in 3 classes: in Trento, in Napoli and Albignassego (PD). Napoli and Trento are leaded by the Vertical Platform department of Telecom Italia while the last one is lead directly by the Future Centre.

There is a close collaboration among the project managers of the three initiatives because the goal is the same: to refine the platform features using the trial feedbacks coming from students and teacher. We are sure that only involving those that are inside the education sector we can develop a tool able to fit the real needs of a modern school.

And, of course, let’s not forget the students. Understanding how they react to the new technology, beyond the initial enthusiasm (or rejection), and if that makes the study more effective or not.

Yesterday it was the closing day of the BETT 2011 event , the biggest UK (it’s held in London) trade show for education. Over 600 exhibitors displaying the latest educational technology : Web interactive board, tablet PC, robot for homework and many other things that let you think that the future is too close.

Take a look at the videos on BETT on YouTube to get a glimpse on the many innovations presented there.

I liked this one on Lego Mindstorm, because it emphasizes how playing and manipulating can enhance the learning process.

But how much close is that kind of future?

It’s now clear that ebooks, and the availability of devices that enables a good user experience in reading and studying are fundamental elementsfor an evolution in learning processes .

Ministries, publishers, teachers, device and technology vendors well understand this concept and all over the world initiativeswith the objective to understand how to use these technologies and the ones coming in the next future to improve the learning processes and to foster the evolution of school through new paradigms are mushrooming.

The Future of Learning project goes in this direction and want to understand in advance how future will definitely transform education and learning, by exploiting the opportunities offered by the web and new technologies in an increasingly pervasive way .

At the Future Centre in collaboration with the major Italian publishers in the school sector we are working on a trial in some Italian schools to experiment advanced learning : how could the school of the future look like. The publishers involved up to now are Zanichelli, D’Anna, Loescher and Pearson.

The trial is based on three pillars:

-The availability of digital contents: ebook, videos and other multimedia contents (provided from publishers)

-The availability of one device per each student (provided by the school)

-The availability of a web based learning platform that enables the courses’ management, the delivery of the lessons , other classroom activities and, last but not least the interaction, inside and outside the classroom between the teacher and students and the ones among students, using collaboration tools such as chat blog wiki andvirtual classroom.

The trial involves four classes belonging to the Cl@ssi 2.0 cluster in agreement with MIUR – document in Italian-  (http://www.istruzione.it/web/istruzione/piano_scuola_digitale/classi_2_0)

Our goal is not to force the introduction on new technologies in the education processes but to understand how these technologies can improve these processes and enable a better way of learning.

At the Future Centre we study the economics of Ecosystems and how Ecosystems can be fostered. Part of this involves the setting up of a methodology. What I want is to share some parts of it with you to get feedbacks and generate a discussion.

The first step to model a business ecosystem is to identify the perimeter and constituent parts of the ecosystem that is being studied.

The content of this step can be divided into two different logical phases:

1. Identification of the “seed” on which the ecosystem is based. Business ecosystems grow around a seed, around something which in itself has the potential to attract the interest of different players who can leverage it for doing business. Considering that, it is necessary, first, to identify and define the seed. 

The seed is important because it empowers a new market space, where actors, which may even be working in another markets or in a niche, begin to become interested in connecting to other players and to establish relationships that change the ecosystem and enable new business.

Following there are some questions whose answers can help identify the seed:

a)       Which element feeds the interest from the players to enter and / or  build an ecosystem? It is clear that the ultimate goal is always to “make money”. The seed is the enabling factor.

b)       What factors users / customers recognize as having an economic value and how can they be combined to create a service or goods that the market is willing to pay for?

c)       What elements’ absence would hamper the ecosystem growth?

1. Once identified the objects to observe and the ecosystem boundary, it is essential to identify the constituent elements of the ecosystem and then create a list of relationship existing among them.

For the ecosystems focussed by the Future Center, we deem advisable to pursue the following approach:

Ø       Players: must map all categories of actors and their role in the ecosystem including those not directly related but having an interest to join. The actors identification has two levels: the first level is to identify the categories (e.g. telecom operators, vendors, etc.) and the second level for those who are already inside the ecosystem, is to identify the players separately (e.g. .Hp , Telecom Italia, etc.) on the specific ecosystem we wish to target or aggregate.

Ø       Enabling technologies;

Ø       Products and services: list of the key products and services that already exists and are part of  the ecosystem in its current configuration.

Ø       Legislative and regulatory assets of reference.

At the end of this first step we should be able to build up a connections matrix: it’s a matrix to map the relationship among the constitutive elements:

In this matrix the vertical and the horizontal axes show the list of the constitutive elements and for each couple of constitutive elements is indicated if there is or not a link.

It is also possible to qualify the links in order to have more information on the relationship.

Of course there could be several possible links classification depending the purposes of the matrix.  One could be the following:

·         “0” – No relation.

·         “1” – Intangible Relation

o       All activities that are contracted, mandated or expected that directly generates revenue. E.g.: Goods, Services and Revenues. (Source: Allee, 2008)

·         “2” – Tangible Relation.                                

o       Def: Intangible knowledge and information exchanges flow around and support the core product and service valeu chain, but are not contractual and unpaid. E.g.: knowledge, benefits. (Source: Allee, 2008)

·         “3” – Possible Future Relation.          

o       Def: A possible relation can be formed in a near future (5 years)

Let me have your feedback.

The ecosystems that the Future Center aims at studying represent all the potential areas of business for Telecommunication Operators (as far as they can play a role and create a profitable business model). We are using as starting point the main streams of technological innovation as significant potential enablers of new business models.

To enter and act in an ecosystem one has to rely on an in-deph knowledge of the referenced ecosystem.

It requires identifying and describing the ecosystem components, describing the relationships and balance of power among them. This balance is actually the thing that guarantees their existence. All these elements together define the shape and behavior pattern. In other words they tell us how the ecosystem “lives.” We must also consider the time variable: time flow is not neutral to an ecosystem because it involves changes in the relationship among the constituent elements, henceforth it may change the ecosystem structure.

So, understanding an ecosystem means not only describing the shape and relationships among the constituent elements at a certain moment in time, but also to understand how it can evolve by monitoring the evolutionary trend considering all involved variables .

These analyses, therefore, cannot be left to a simplistic reasoning based on logic; they have to be carried out with appropriate tools and methodologies.

It’s important to have a methodology to provide a theoretical and operational framework for modeling the business ecosystems, to support the identification and understanding of the Business Ecosystems, to provide the criteria to define the appearance and behavior of an ecosystem.

A possible methodology structure could be the following:

This is the amount asked by Legacy Locker to assure your beneficiaries the access to all your digital life. Passwords, logins and access codes will be available to a restricted number of relatives and friends after our real life will be over. The site will contact the persons you indicated few days after the decease, also delivering the last wishes and messages for friends and relatives. There are several service providers that offer this kind of service such as Deathswitch, YouDeparted, Slightly Morbid. They meet a real need. When a person dies nobody can access his mail and after 2 or 3 months all data are deleted. Nobody can access your social network account such as Facebook. In this way, photos , videos, thoughts are irreparably lost. All your digital life is lost. 
Our life is progressively adding to the physical layer a virtual layer creating an alter ego that often lives only in the digital life. Legacy Locher and the others have simply taken up one of the business opportunity  generated by this process that represents only the natural consequence of the “digital era”. 

 What other aspects of the real life will be mirrored in the virtual reality and what other will live only in the digital world? What other biz opportunities can stem from this process?

The broadband deployment, the upgrading of the network in order to enable the ultrabroadband is something considered essential for the economic growth.

But who will support the required investments?

Telcos operators, governaments, firms?

And if the answer would be….. Customers?

A new business model has been proposed as a new way to encourage broadband deployment: consumers purchase and own fiber connection, the “last mile” that run from their homes. This allows them to connect to a variety of service providers, including internet television, phone services, ultrabandwidth services.

Fiber would form part of the property right in the home

The proposal, called “Homes with tails” comes from Dedrek Stater , Policy Analist for Google, and Tim Wu  professor of Law at Columbia Law school in a working paper of the Wireless Future Program of the New America Foundation http://www.newamerica.net/publications/policy/homes_tails

What do you think about?