User:Leighblackall/Networked learning a biomass heat transfer system

This paper is now in it's second draft phase, after collecting feedback from my online network roughly within the period 9 - 17 June, 2011. In this second drafting phase, I am incorporating the feedback (logged on the discussion page) with the aim to complete it as a final draft for submission to editors and reviewers. This paper is intended for inclusion in my networked and open PhD Thesis, by iterative publication.

From 2008 to 2010 I casually studied Jean Pain composting, or the heating of water using compost. I built such a system, heating water in excess of 50 degrees Celsius continuously for a period of 3 months. This paper reviews my use of self directed and networked learning methods to study and develop a Jean Pain Compost system. From this review, I make an analysis of the effectiveness of the different platforms used in the process of learning.

To conduct this review and analysis, I gathered all the online resources and communications that I used to study and develop a Jean Pain composting system, and arranged them into a timeline. The major platforms used were identified, as were significant instances of tangible learning outcomes relevant to the focus of the study. Finally, I used those outcomes to establish a perspective on the value of each platform for learning.

From this initial study, I aim to develop a reusable method for analysing self directed and networked learning, and propose methods for groups and individuals to manage and document their learning, and how formal educational institution's might consider this in their assessment practices and formal recognition of skills and knowledge.

Networked learning

While I've come to know what I mean by the phrase networked learning, it seems I may be out of step with an agreed international definition. At this very moment I am working with a number of volunteers, researching and having to negotiate an acceptable definition of networked learning for Wikipedia. I find myself surprised that our small group of editors are debating whether Networked Learning is determined by the use of computers, computer networks and the Internet, or if it is a practice that can be found across multiple social spaces.

Wikipedia User Chris R Jones (Open University UK) believes there to be an existing authoritative and widely referenced definition from The Centre for Studies in Advanced Learning Technology, at Lancaster University in the UK, where they state that networked learning is:

"learning in which information and communication technology is used to promote connections: between one learner and other learners, between learners and tutors; between a learning community and its learning resources."

I find myself at odds with this definition, and so I must take the time here to clearly articulate what I mean by networked learning, and what I draw on to hold this position.

My position is that information and communications technology is not required for networked learning, and that a network is instead a more general approach to learning across multiple social spheres. What is important to networked learning is simply the ability to find and access other people and information in the same or similar topics of inquiry, whether they be found online or otherwise, and to communicate with them in such a way so as to achieve learning in that field. So while I agree that the Internet - social media platforms in particular, offer us remarkable opportunities to form such networks for learning, I include in my definition a variety of other platforms, such as common areas in libraries, retail outlets and markets, conferences and events, meetings and gatherings, associations and social clubs, etc.

I draw this position from a number of well known theorists and researchers, who I think generally come together around something of a Marxist-anarcho-situationist-constructivist world view on learning. That's quite a mouthful, and I can feel the frowns of doubt directed at me for trying to coin such a phrase, so let me explain further. They are Marxist in that they articulate a view that the societies in which they are considering learning are largely defined by class, with varying degrees of access to the means of production, self determination, and power. They are anarcho-situationist-constructivist in as much as they consider the innate ability of people to determine themselves, if given access to the right situations, without overly restrictive rules or regulations that might otherwise govern or restrict that access.

The work of Ivan Illich is perhaps seminal to this world view. Specifically relevant to this paper is his conceptions of "Learning Webs" found his 1971 book, Deschooling Society. The following quote from that book captures something of his meaning:

"Their knowledge of facts, their understanding of life and work came to them from friendship or love, while viewing TV, or while reading, from examples of peers or the challenge of a street encounter. Or they may have learned what they know through the apprenticeship ritual for admission to a street gang or the initiation to a hospital, newspaper city room, plumber's shop, or insurance office. The alternative to dependence on schools is not the use of public resources for some new device which "makes" people learn; rather it is the creation of a new style of educational relationship between man and his environment." (Illich, 1971)

In 1977 Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King and Shlomo Angel wrote A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, and they were suitably inspired by Illich's book 6 years prior. They formulated the 18th pattern they called, "Network of Learning", citing Illich explicitly. Their's was an attempt to create a range of principles for architects, builders and town planners to use if they were interested in buildings and spaces that might help establish learning networks for the people who lived and worked in those spaces:

"...work in piecemeal ways to decentralize the process of learning and enrich it through contact with many places and people all over the city: workshops, teachers at home or walking through the city, professionals willing to take on the young as helpers, older children teaching younger children, museums, youth groups travelling, scholarly seminars, industrial workshops, old people, and so on. Conceive of all these situations as forming the backbone of the learning process; survey all these situations, describe them, and publish them as the city's "curriculum"; then let students, children, their families and neighborhoods weave together for themselves the situations that comprise their "school" paying as they go with standard vouchers, raised by community tax. Build new educational facilities in a way which extends and enriches this network."

Similar in perspective, but 20 years later, Etienne Wenger and Jean Lave wrote their widely acclaimed book, Situated Learning: Legitimate peripheral participation, in which they renewed the idea that informal learning, that is - learning that takes place outside and around the institutions of learning, has a significant bearing on how people learn. They cited examples of "professions" that rely on situated and informal learning environments, from midwives to apprenticeship learning, and described the intricacies of their learning domains, including where they intersects with formally institionalised learning, and how.

So I primarily draw from Illich, Alexander and co, and Wenger and Lave to form my perspective on what networked learning is. As time goes on, I'm finding other authors that inform my position, and I'm attempting to document that ongoing exposure on the discussion page of the Wikipedia entry for Networked learning.

For now, and for the purposes of this paper then, I offer the following unauthoritative and so far uncited definition of networked learning:

"a process of developing and maintaining connections with people and information, and communicating in such a way so as to support one another's learning."

I am discovering several contemporary authors who I think would agree with this definition, and also draw a line at the exclusive use of computer networks. Yrjö Engeström gave an interview with Chris Jones in 2011, explaining his views and explicitly warning against thinking of networked learning in closed systems, but more as interactions wherever there is a social affordance. Manuel Castells also talks about networks at a social level. In his talk, Network Theories of Power, he argues that changes to the network form of enterprise predate electronic internet technologies.

Additionally, in my work on developing an ethical framework for a ubiquitous approach learning, I cite several current examples of projects that take inspiration from the likes of Illich, Alexander and co, as well as Situationism more broadly, including the Free University movement (strangely disconnected from Joseph Beuys work forming the Free International Universities in the 1970s), The 2837 University, and new situationist theatre such as Melbourne group One Step at a Time Like This, specifically their production En Route

I hope my contribution here helps strengthen mine and your understanding of networked learning, based on it being a social phenomenon, and not so much determined by computer networks alone, as to be right across social spaces more generally. May this work be compelling and strong enough to enter the authoritative discourse, so we may benefit from their considered responses.

Purpose of this research

To articulate an approach to networked learning and to initiate dialogue around the development of a reusable method for analysing and assessing learning that is gained in this way. This study aims to help individuals, communities and institutions of learning to reflect on their potential relationships in situations of networked learning, and consider who each may benefit the other.

Review of prior research

Below is my reading list, of research and theoretical work relating to the scope of the networked learning I am evaluating here... I will edit this list into more of a annotated bibliography, with comments and linkages, and ultimately highlighting anything new I might be bringing to the conversations.

Wikipedia for learning

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Academic_studies_of_Wikipedia#Journal_articles

Jordan, Chris & Watters, Carolyn. (2009). Addressing gaps in knowledge while reading. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology Volume 60.

Cress, Ulrike & Kimmerle, Joachim. (2008). A systemic and cognitive view on collaborative knowledge building with wikis. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Volume 3.

Tann, Chadwyn & Sanderson, Mark. (2009). Are web-based informational queries changing?. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology Volume 60.

Jr., Joseph M. Reagle. (2010). Be Nice": Wikipedia norms for supportive communication". New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia Volume 16 Pages 01/02/2011

Zeng, Honglei; Alhossaini, Maher A; Ding, Li; Fikes, Richard & McGuinness, Deborah L. (2006). Computing trust from revision history. STAR. Vol. 44 Volume 44.

Holley, R. (2010). Crowdsourcing: How and Why Should Libraries Do It?. D-Lib Magazine Volume 16

Aron, D. (2009). Dynamic collaboration: a personal reflection. Journal of Information Technology Volume 24

Mehler, Andrew & Skiena, Steven. (2009). Expanding network communities from representative examples. ACM Transactions on Knowledge Discovery from Data Volume 3

Judd, T. & Kennedy, G. (2009). Expediency-based practice? Medical students' reliance on Google and Wikipedia for biomedical inquiries. British Journal of Educational Technology

Moy, CL; Locke, JR; Coppola, BP & McNeil, AJ. (2010). Improving Science Education and Understanding through Editing Wikipedia. Journal of Chemical Education, Volume 87.

Duguid, P. (2006). Limits of self-organization: Peer production and laws of quality. First Monday Volume 11

Gibson, David. (2008). Make It a Two-Way connection: A Response to Connecting Informal and Formal Learning Experiences in the Age of Participatory Media?. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education Volume 8

Cho, Hichang; Chen, Meihui & Chung, Siyoung. (2010). Testing an Integrative Theoretical Model of Knowledge-Sharing Behavior in the Context of Wikipedia. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology Volume 61

Shachaf, P. (2009). The paradox of expertise: is the Wikipedia reference desk as good as your library?. Journal of Documentation Volume 65

Eijkman, H. (2008). Web 2.0 as a non-foundational network-centric learning space. Campus-Wide Information Systems Volume 25.

Munk, Timme Bisgaard. (2009). Why wikipedia: Self-efficacy and self-esteem in a knowledge-political battle for an egalitarian epistemology. Observatorio (OBS*) Volume 3

Bar-Ilan, J. (2010). Wikipedia - A New Community of Practice? Online Information Review Volume 34.

Youtube for learning

Juhasz, Alexandra. (2011). Learning from YouTube (Video Book). MIT Press (BK)

Snelson, C; Elison-Bowers, P. (2009). Using YouTube videos to engage the affective domain in e-learning. International Conference on Multimedia and Information and Communications Technology in Education 2009.

Chenail, Ronald J. (2011). YouTube as a Qualitative Research Asset: Reviewing User Generated Videos as Learning Resources. The Qualitative Report Volume 16 Number 1

Learning Analytics

Xu, B., and Recker, M. (2010). Peer Production Of Online Learning Resources: A Social Network Analysis. third Annual Conference on Educational Data Mining, June 11-13, Pittsburgh, PA.

Buckingham Shum, S; Ferguson, R. (2011). Social Learning Analytics. SocialLearn Project, Knowledge Media Institute & Institute of Educational Technology

Networked Learning

Brown, A; Joyce, K. (2009). Enhancing Social Presence in Online Learning: Mediation Strategies Applied to Social Networking Tools. The Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, Winter 2009 - Volume 12, Number 4

Goodyear, P. et al (2004). Advances in research on networked learning. Springer, 2004

Levy, P. (2004). A Methodological Framework for Practice-Based Research in Networked Learning. Kluwer Academic Publishers

See the discussion taking place on the Wikipedia entry for Networked Learning

Knowles, Malcolm S. (1975). Self-Directed Learning: A Guide for Learners and Teachers. Association Press

De Laat, Maarten (2006). Networked Learning. http://www.e-learning.nl/files/dissertatie%20maarten.pdf Universiteit Utrecht

Assessment of Prior Learning

Tose, P. (2006). Bateson’s Levels Of Learning: a Framework For Transformative Learning?. Paper presented at Universities’ Forum for Human Resource Development conference, University of Tilburg

Wenger, E; Trayner, B; de Laa, M. (2011).Promoting and assessing value creation in communities and networks: a conceptual framework. Ruud de Moor Centrum

Brings the notion of groups and networks together, sets out 5 cycles of value creation as a way to track learning in communities and networks: 1. immediate value, 2. potential value, 3. applied value, 4. realised value, 5. reframing value. Uses narrative to identify and validate the 5 cycles of value creation. Outlines a framework for gathering assessment evidence from that narrative.

Situated Learning

Holt, J. (1989). Learning all the Time. Addison-Wesley.

Method

I have reviewed my own efforts to learn about and implement a small scale Jean Pain Compost System, technically known as a biomass heat transfer system. To begin with, I wrote a text recalling as many of the steps I could, in discovering, studying and implementing and testing the system. Then I categorised the text into different "platforms" for learning, and marked out the significant instances of learning. For example, under the platform titles Youtube for search and discovery or My local university for trouble shooting, I describe the study done on those platforms, and identified key points of learning where I felt that without them, no progress could have been made in the implementation of the project. I identified these points of learning as "learning outcomes" and no other method was used to attempt to validate, or determine the quality of those learning outcomes.

I hope this research will illustrate a range of contemporary study techniques used by some networked learners today, and show the strengths and weaknesses of each platform based on their ability to support learning.

Revision of studying Jean Pain Composting

Below is my account for the period April 2008 to June 2010, of studying Jean Pain Composting. It draws on evidence of online and offline work including: collaborative research and note taking, practical exercises and discussion, documentation, refection and review.

This revision of study is broken up into sub headings based on the platform used and for what type of study, such as Youtube for search and discovery, or My local university for trouble shooting.

Along the way, I attempt to extract tangible learning outcomes from the text, and consider the collected range of learning outcomes as some form of comparative measurement of the platforms for learning. There would be several more outcomes than the ones extracted in this study, such as what formal education refers to as “generic skills” or “core competencies”, but for the purposes of this research, I am not including any reference to such outcomes.

Youtube for search and discovery

In April 2008, I was browsing Youtube videos for different approaches to waterless toilet systems, when I came across the video How to Make a Compost Shower uploaded by Youtube user permascience (Darren Doherty) on Feb 27, 2008. The description on the Youtube page for the video read:

"http://www.permacultureplanet.com A short demonstration on how to build a compost powered hot shower. For more information please visit; http://www.permaculture.biz".

At 33 seconds Darren introduced the compost heated hot water system, and credited a man named Jean Pain for developing it. In the rest of the short video, Darren describes his attempt to reproduce Jean Pain's model on a smaller scale, as a voice over footage that was recorded during his build. Darren and his team succeeded in generating hot water for several weeks, but failed in extracting combustible methane gas.

Google search for more information

Interested in learning more about Jean Pain composting, I used Google's Search to find more information directly after watching the video, but could only find two other references at the time:

1. a copy of a Reader's Digest article called Jean Pain: France's King of Green Gold By Nicolas Poulain, November 1981, pages 76-81.
2. an illustrated account of Jean Pain's method on daenvis.org simply called, Jean Pain Composting, first published on their site in February 2005.

Wikipedia to start networking the information

As neither the English or French Wikipedias had entries for Jean Pain or his method, I started an English entry at 22:56 on 20 April 2008. My intention was to use this entry as a place to structure notes on what I was finding, as well as to get help from other Wikipedia editors in finding and verifying more information than I could find by myself.

After starting the page, I left the following comment on Darren's video, in the hope of attracting people to the new Wikipedia entry, and joining me in studying Jean Pain further:

• nice one. I've started a wikipedia article about Jean Pain if you could help :) leighblackall 3 years ago
• Sounds like a great idea, please visit the URL in the video description for more information. Good Luck! permascience 3 years ago

All Comments (accessed 5 June 2011)

In less than 1 hour, Wikipedia users Countrymike (an online friend of mine since 2006) and JasRay had made edits, correcting spelling, grammar and punctuation (see Difference between revisions 23:36, 20 April 2008 and 23:40, 20 April 2008). Countrymike stayed with the editing for another day, adding a new reference to an article written in 2000, Another Kind of Energy or ComPost-Modernism by Peter Bane for Permaculture Activist magazine.

At the same time, I was also gathering new information and adding it to the Wikipedia entry. I negotiated copyrights from Mother Earth News to use their photo collage of Jean Pain and his compost system, loading it to Wikimedia Commons and embedding it into the Wikipedia entry at UTC23:16, 20 April 2008. (This image was later deleted in 2011 when a Wikimedia Commons reviewer found that I had not satisfied copyright permissions correctly, or possibly a new policy rendered my original permission inadequate. My attempts to obtain an updated permissions from Mother Earth News went unanswered).

At 03:55, on the 9 August 2009, User A1 challenged the notability of the Wikipedia article, stating that,

”Notability -- The single reference states "The author admits to no great familiarity with either the production or use of biogas" So it is not WP:VERIFIABLE.”

In response, I contacted Countrymike to assist in finding more references that would help verify the existence of Jean Pain and his composting experiments, and ensure the entry met Wikipedia notability guidelines. At UTC04:19 on the 30 September 2009, Countrymike referenced a German documentary video about Jean Pain, copied to Youtube by Youtube user TaranakiFarm on Jul 15, 2008.

Finally, at UTC04:56 on the 20 February 2010 anonymous editor "59.108.17.75" (IP Address) added a link to a pdf copy of a book about Jean Pain called A New Kind of Garden, by Ann Pellaton.

Wikipedia editing has since slowed, returning to the correction of spelling and typos, minor restructuring and linking, as of my last check in July 2011.

Learning outcomes update

• A comprehensive theoretical understanding of Jean Pain's design
• A basic understanding of the process of composting and how high heats are achieved
• That Jean Pain's system was reasonably well known in alternative energy circles in the late 70s early 80s internationally, and that his early death in 1981 suggests why there is a shortage of information online about him, and subsequently why few people have replicated his work.

Delicious to share and find information

I used the online social bookmarking service, Delicious.com to store and find online references. As I found a reference, I would save it to my Delicious account and categorise it “Jean Pain Composting”, and check to see if other Delicious users had saved that same reference. If they had, I would look at their Delicious account and see if they had saved any other related information along with it. If they had, I would save it back to my account, and repeat the process.

This functionality is how Delicious has come to be known as a social bookmarking service. Delicious can at times, be a powerful research tool.

A local training institution for a practical study

Once I had done all the theoretical research I thought was needed, I was looking for a place to conduct a replica build. At the time, I was working for an institution for vocational training and education in the town I was living. They were just starting an Education for Sustainability project, where they aimed to use the gardens and buildings of the main campus to build demonstration food forests, and market, medicinal and Maori produce gardens, while adjusting curriculum at the same time. This institution was also managing a nation wide sustainable architecture competition, and was preparing teams for entering that competition. Additionally, in my work for this institution, I was helping to develop a new introductory course in permaculture design. At the time, I thought these three projects presented an ideal basis and best opportunity for proposing the building of a replica of Jean Pain's system, but I was unsuccessful in inspiring interest in my proposal.

SecondLife to illustrate the concept in 3D

During my attempts to establish a build of a Jean Pain composting system at my local educational institution, I was contacted online by Konrad Glogowski in Toronto, offering to teach me 3D drawing skills using the virtual world platform, Second Life, if I committed to using those skills to render a depiction in Second Life, of my ideas for an ideal classroom, in the Virtual Classroom project Konrad was running. I took the opportunity to learn Konrad's skills, and to render a building design that was not only an ideal learning space (based on other research I had been doing on such a topic) but one that incorporated many of the sustainable building and energy methods I'd been researching as well. My plan was to use these drawings as an entry into the Sustainable Architecture project being managed by my local educational institution, and hopefully succeed in realising a build of Jean Pain's system.

While I did finish the drawings in Second Life, and enjoyed an even more dynamic networked learning space as written about in my blog post Virtual Classroom project coming to a close, I was not given the opportunity to present or enter the competition. It turned out that the entries had already been decided, and that the invitations for "community involvement" were more about volunteer work to support existing entires. The next year however, the architect initially contracted in one of the entries used some of my ideas in a personal business venture. I left Dunedin and moved to Canberra.

The local arborist for materials

Within a few months living in Canberra, an arborist came to chip a large pine tree in our street. I asked if he could leave me firewood and woodchips. He left me several tone of woodchips. This considerable pile of woodchips sat in our front yard for a week. I dug away a section of the pile to inspect the heat levels and found very high temperatures, in the vicinity of 60-70 degrees Celsius, but inconsistently distributed in the pile. I found that heat was being generated where there was a higher level of green leaf, or nitrogen rich mass, mixed with the woodships that were predominately carbon mass. Internet research on composting explained that the heat is a bacterial reaction when the right ratios of nitrogen and carbon mass are mixed in an aerated pile, allowing the bacteria to thrive, producing heat as they decompose the mass. I now had enough biomass to consider building a replica of Jean Pain's hot water system.

The local horse racing track for materials

In preparing to build the pile, I relocated a large quantity of the biomass to the backyard, and in doing so discovered that the heat in the pile was so unevenly distributed that I doubted it would be effective in heating water stored in the pipe within the pile. So I gathered a tonne of free horse manure from the local race track and mixed it with the pile to raise the level of nitrogen based mass. The season being still late summer, early Autumn, this attracted a considerable number of blow flies, but it did evenly distribute the heat through the pile. I determined that next time I would either use a better pile of biomass that contained higher quantities of green leaf nitrogen mass, or if using manure, build it in the Winter when flies would be less of a problem.

The local and hardware store for materials

While visiting a local supermarket style hardware store that week, I noticed normal garden hose selling very cheaply. I bought enough length so as to store 10 Litres of water. I connected these hoses and coil buried them in a pile of the biomass, following the pictures in German documentary that had been loaded to Youtube by TaranakiFarm. and built a mini replica of Jean Pain's design, but without the methane gas chamber. This test proved without doubt that the pile did indeed transfer heat to the water, and at scalding hot temperatures, with a recharge rate of 5 minutes! The water however, was being contaminated by the toxic chemicals being released from the heated polyethylene garden hose. The heat transfer was still working a week later, so I decided to build a bigger replica, using what I thought was better suited hardened polyethylene pipe.

The local farm supply and plumping shops

I called around a couple of local farming irrigation shops, and discovered a significant price difference in 2 types of pipe, green and blue stripe. In talking to the retailers, and looking at the manufacturer's websites, all I could determine was that the blue stripe was stronger. I determined that the green stripe was strong enough for my purposes.

To fit the pipe to the garden tap outlet, and then back into the bathroom plumbing, I needed fittings. The local plumber's shop provided me with fittings and advice on water pressure management, and non return valves to prevent warm water returning to mains and potentially contaminating neighbourhood water supplies with water born bacteria that could thrive in the warmer water. I took all precautions advised to me, but no one I spoke to locally had ever heard of compost heated hot water systems, and all were very cautious in speaking to me too much.

Learning outcomes update

• Basic understanding of the chemical toxicity of polyethylene garden hose
• Basic understanding of mains water pressure
• Basic understanding of common plumbing fittings

Youtube and Blogger to document my practical

It was increasingly apparent local my ability to find a supportive local learning network would go wanting. That is to say, the places that and people who I might have thought would have a professional or amateur interest in the work I was doing, were not likely to be all that interested, nor able to help much with specific information, unless I was prepared to invest considerable amounts of time developing a relationship with them.

For this and other reasons to do with posterity and reflection, I decided to document and publish my efforts incrementally to Youtube and Blogger, where I thought it would be easier and more likely to make contact with interested and knowledgeable people online (while at the same time motivating me to document my work), and so have a higher chance of reflecting on my learning and forming new ideas, as well as receiving suggestions, directions and comments.

When my brother-in-law and I completed the first build, I recorded a series of 1 minute video reports on my phone, and uploaded them to Youtube. The family enjoyed hot water from it for a week or two, but then the heat began to drop quickly. Through a comment to my blog as well as further research and reflection, I concluded that the heat loss could have been due to a rain storm water logging fthe biomass and taking away the oxygen needed by the bacteria, or that the ingredients of the mass where not suitable for a longer term generation of heat.

On the 13th of April 2010, Youtube user Wobbler1972 commented on my 6th video report, and soon after contacted me through Youtube's private message facility to make himself known as local, offer help in researching hardened polyethylene, and to offer the use of his shredder to process the pile of woodchips more in line with Jean Pain's prescriptions. Wobbler1972 Came around that week, and we rechipped a couple of tone of the mass, and talked over beers about our perspectives and interests to do with alternative energy. This was a very uplifting contact with someone 'real' and local, motivating me to continue the experiments. A visiting friend and I rebuilt the pile with the newly chipped mass, trying to get a better hose coil and mass biomass coverage.

This rebuild did reignite the heat generating bacteria, this time considerably hotter, but with a cold spot, and a smell in the water very similar to that of the compost pile. I tested the system for leaks by monitoring the water metre over a period of 24 hours, but found none. The smell in the water was perplexing. The system was sealed, and I could only think of one possible reason for it. The hose was under the the maximum amount of pressure it was rated at, as well as high temperatures of heat. Either the hose itself was decomposing, just enough to allow gas from the biomass pile to penetrate through to the water, or the chemicals that make up the hose were off gassing into the water. I reported the problem with a Youtube video, as well as on my blog, and awaited advice.

In late April, Patrick Blampied found me on Youtube after I left a comment on his video about a compost water heater at the Permaculture Research Institute. He used Youtube's private messaging facility to ask if he could prepare a press release about my project, and send it to local media as part of his volunteer work for the Institute. In a subsequent phone conversation with Patrick, he confirmed that a smell as in the water of the system he experienced at the Research Institute, but at the time put it down to the quality of the water coming from the dam.

Within a week of the press release, I was interviewed by a local radio station and featured in a local newspaper, as well as Partick's story posted to the Permaculture Research Institute's website. Some people at my place of work saw the newspaper article and made passing comment about it to me, and a venture capitalist came to see me, but on learning I was neither prepared for, or even interested in developing a product for market, left me alone.

On 28 May 2010 Marc Torrades left a comment on my blog, advising that in his experience, horse manure reaches very high temperatures but loses the heat quickly, while cow manure reaches moderately high temperatures but lasts much longer. I haven't investigated this advice further.

In January 2011, Youtube user KB8OOE left a comment on one of my 10th Youtube report, advising that that Hardened Polyethylene commonly found in the type of pipe I was using, becomes chemically unstable under the composting conditions, and that I should use a more stable type known as B-Pex, commonly used in the plumbing trade in hot water works. This advice confirmed enough of my suspicions that the smell was due to the pipe I was using.

I will in the future, undergo a 3rd build that either uses B-Pex (quite expensive), or a smaller metal heating coil, such as copper or reused radiator, that passively cycled the hot water into an insulated tank. Remembering the heating rate achieved with the garden hose test, a coil of similar diameter to that should work well. As for the heat source reliability, I will use biomass more exactly as Jean Pain did – shredded greenery, to achieve a better nitrogen/carbon mix and ratio. Alternatively I will experiment with and compare other types of biomass, such as eucalyptus, which as a reputation for high heat generating reactions, or different manures, to test the suggestion made by Marc Torrades that horse manure and cow manure generate different temperatures and for differing amounts of time (see notes on Blogger).

Learning outcomes update

• Experience in composting for heat generation
• Basic appreciation of the different types of Hardened Polyethylene
• Appreciation for more scientific testing needed for different set-ups and biomass mixtures

My local university for trouble shooting

When I encountered the smell in the water, I approached the local university for responses to my hypothesis. I meet with people in the ecology department, hoping they had a kit or method for analysing water. They needed to know what to test for, so I said Hydrochloric Acid Gas, remembering having read that hardened polyethylene gives off this gas when burned. They couldn't tell me what that gas might smell like in such conditions, but told me that simply adding bicarbonate soda to the water would quickly tell me if an acid was present in the water. Unfortunately, I did not do this test due to the system loosing heat again, and damaging my motivation to continue. I had decided that even if I did confirm or not the presence of an acid (which was based on a very vague assumption in the first place) it would change the status of the project – a 3rd rebuild, and one that was not going to use the same hardened polyethylene pipe.

Learning outcomes final

Below is a list of the outcomes of learning that directly relate to Jean Pain Composting, and biomass heat transfer. Next to each listed outcome is the method use to obtain that outcome.

• A comprehensive theoretical understanding of Jean Pain's biomass heat transfer hot water system, and methane gas production – Viewing youtube videos, Wikipedia collaborative editing, text based discussion on Youtube, wider Internet readings
• A basic understanding of the process of composting and how high heats are achieved – Youtube video, Wikipedia readings, wider Internet readings
• Basic understanding of the chemical toxicity of polyethylene garden hose – Wider internet readings
• Basic understanding of mains water pressure – Conversations with local plumbers and plumbing supply shops
• Basic understanding of common plumbing fittings – Conversations with local plumbers and plumbing supply shops
• Experience in composting for heat generation – A practical experiment in my backyard
• Basic appreciation of the different types of Hardened Polyethylene – Text discussions on Youtube
• Introductory operation of a 30 horse power shredder – Local business demonstration
• Appreciation for more scientific testing needed for different set-ups and biomass mixtures – Text discussions on Blogger
• Bicarb soda can be used to test for the presence of acid – Conversations at the local University
• Water cannot be tested for broad spectrum contaminants – Conversations at the local University

Analysis

The use of Youtube and Wikipedia to find and network with people and information, was instrumental in the discovery, research, study, and comprehension of Jean Pain Composting. Youtube was particularly valuable for documenting my attempts at building a system, as doing so generated wide exposure, which lead to important feedback and even a face to face meeting for machine and labour sharing. Blogger also played an important part in this process of documentation, exposure feedback from people. To a surprising extent, Second Life, was valuable for illustrating the system in 3D, and using those images to explain the system to people. Like the other social media platforms used, Second Life facilitated meetings with people who were also interested in the ideas and information, giving me a forum for voice based discussion about the system. The use of these social media platforms to find and network initial information, and then to make contact with people who shared interest and knowledge in the topic, was a valuable method for learning, especially for maintaining motivation for study, where as the absence of local connection may have impacted on that motivation.

Local retail outlets served as important 'just-in-time' learning venues. They offered brief but valuable access to people with product knowledge and terminology, including tradespeople who happened to be in the store picking up orders.

The local newspaper and radio coverage did not clearly provide any connections useful for further learning, but both were significant motivational cues for continuing the study, in terms of the interest and recognition they showed.

In contrast to the social media platforms, and the affordances of retail outlets, a local education and training institution with expressed interest in supporting people studying sustainable technology and alternative energy, along with a community engagement effort to do with sustainable building design, was not a supportive venue for studying Jean Pain Composting, or for connecting with others who might be. Likewise, while the local university afforded some information pertaining to a specific issue, it was also not a useful venue for wider research or practical study on this topic, nor was it a place for connecting with others who might have been interested in this study.

Concluding remarks

In this particular case study, it is interesting to note the relatively rapid response to questions and queries, as well as support in researching the topic, and the practical tips and feedback that the various social media platforms afforded. In some ways, it could be said that these platforms offered me the ability to situate my learning with people who shared an interest in, or had experience with the topic. It is an extension to Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger's observations described in their 1991 book, Situated Learning: Legitimate peripheral participation, where the social media platforms afford access to loose communities of practice.

It is also interesting to note how the social media platforms technically facilitate such connections between people with a shared learning interest. Ivan Illich envisioned something of the kind in his 1971 book, Deschooling Society, where in chapter 6 he described the use of advanced technology to support "learning webs".

"The operation of a peer-matching network would be simple. The user would identify himself by name and address and describe the activity for which he sought a peer. A computer would send him back the names and addresses of all those who had inserted the same description. It is amazing that such a simple utility has never been used on a broad scale for publicly valued activity" Ivan Illich, 1971.

Illich could not have known the Internet would be developed, and that commercial models would be built on it that would indirectly support activities that are almost exactly as he described.

In many ways, this research echoes Illich's challenge to educational institutions, but I'd like to propose a number of questions for consideration, rather than challenges to the foundations of these institutions:

1. Could educational institutions play a role in offering educational recognition services, or in helping to facilitate research and learning relations more broadly in its community, particularly for self directed learners and researchers?
2. What might an educational institution do, as the most productive response possible, if formally enrolled students start networking with informal researchers and learners, including collaborating on assignments and practicals, and otherwise going beyond the scope of the prescribed curriculum?
3. What is the relationship or potential relationship between the local educational institution, and the Internet platforms that facilitate such networked learning?

There could be many other questions, but for someone who works inside an educational institution, and practices networked learning as described here, these are the most obvious questions I would want to ask and investigate further.