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Tag Archives: Learning Theories
Timelines, theories and technologies
This is a learning dilemma that will become increasingly prevalent. You have a stinker of a complex mass of resources and cobbled together ideas to compile into some kind of order only to find that it has been done for you. This is an activity of how understandings of the process of learning has changed over time.
On of our tutors offers a helping hand:
Take your time reading this through and then consider how these historical changes might affect
- the development of educational technologies
- ethical considerations in e-learning research
- research in your own discipline.
There’s quite a lot in there. If you want to start just responding to one of the bullet points above, that’s fine.
When these modules are designed is proper consideration really given to the students? Who they are? There levels of commitment and understanding? For all the personas I’m familiar with I do wonder.
And that’s not even the start of it. We are then asked to look back at week 3 (a month ago), and look for relationships and connections between the narrative we create (above). Then, as if this isn’t enough we need to rope in last weeks ethical considerations, and while we’re at at put in the ‘wider political and social changes’.
Already we have, in my estimation (and this is my sixth postgraduate module and the fifth in the MAODE series) a good 16 hours work to do.
But there’s more:
‘Consider how the subject you studied for your undergraduate degree has changed over time’.
Post your answers in your tutor group forum and compare them with others.
Across the five groups I think, so far two, sometimes three people, have given this a go. Each could write a chapter in a book (one nearly has)
2 Hours have been allocated to the task.
I repeatedly find that whatever time is given as a suggested requirement for a week’s activities that you need to add 50%. So 14 hours becomes 21.
Like a junior solicitor I’ve been keeping tabs on how long everything takes – and this is someone who is by now, evidentially, digitally literate and familiar with the OU VLE. If you can find 21 hours great. If not then what? If you can handle getting behind or strategically leaving gaps that’s fine, but if you feel obliged to get you money’s worth and want to do it all then what? And of course life goes on around you: kids off school, elderly relations fall ill, the workload ebbs and flows, the car breaks down … your Internet connection becomes about as vibrant as a mangle and it snows a bit.
A simple guide to four complex learning theories
http://edudemic.com/2012/12/a-simple-guide-to-4-complex-learning-theories/
I came across this from edudemic and can’t think of anything clearer.
The discussion offers some further thoughts, deleting the word ‘traditional’ and replacing with classical.
The ifs and buts of the people associated with each of these and how absolute any of them can be, especially connectivism. However, I see connectivism not as the end of a chronological chain, but rather a loop that has people connected and learning in their family, extended family and community. And the one component that has not changed a jot? The way the human brain is constructed during foetal development and the unique person who then emerges into any of some hundreds of thousands of different circumstances and from way they may or may not develop ‘their full potential’. Though I hazard a guess that this will always remain impossible to achieve. 98 billion neurons take a lot of connecting. It starts at around 4 months after conception and only ends with death – death being after the vital physiological supports have collapsed and like the self-destructing tape in Mission Impossible ‘all is lost’.
The infographic runs to and 12 rows. This is the last row. The rest you ought to see for yourselves.
Copyright 2013 © Edudemic
Powered by coffee, and a love all things education technology.
Simplistically the technologies I can add across this chronology are:
Books – Learning by rote > Literacy (writing, paper) – but then the Oxbridge Tutorial goes back over 750 years and that was and still is ‘Constructivism’ before someone came along 700 years later and gave it a name.
I’m reminded of the aphorism from Philip Larkin, ‘Sex started in the Sixities’ – about the same time as constructive learning. As for ‘connectivism’ what happens in a market, what has happened at religious gathering for millennia? Why do clever people have to come along and say these things have never happened before? Connectivism = discussions. Perhaps we’d be better off NOT writing it down, by going and finding people. I spoke to a Consultant the other week who for all the technology and e-learning swears by the conference. And for how many millennia have ‘experts’ like-minds and the interested (and powerful/influential) had such opportunities to gather.
In 1999 my very first blog post was titled ‘what’s new about new media, not much’.
Whenever I read it I feel the sentiment is the same – as people we have not changed one jot. Just because everyone has a ‘university in their pocket’ – if they are some of the few hundred million out of the 7 billion on the planet who have a Smart Phone or iPad does not change the fundamentals of what we are and the connectedness of our brains.
Thoughts on ethical issues surrounding studying younger students in virtual worlds and online
Who?
Young people
Why?
Their use of mobile phones and networked devices
What?
Immersive Virtual Worlds and virtual inhabitants (not everyone’s cup of tea)
-
Informal learning settings
-
Ethical challenges across the full range of contexts
Suggestion
- Keep ethical questions open given the changing environment.
- A participatory and iterative approach (Lally et al. 2012 : 02 )
- Assumption that ‘developments in mobile and networked technologies change young people’s culture landscape, allowing them to communicate, socialise and collaborate on their personal projects in new ways’. (Lally et al. 2012 : 02 )
- Indeed, outside the formal education system (Sharples, Graber, Harrison, & Logan, 2009)
Context
- Outside the classroom
- How to research
- New ‘ecologies’ of learning (Looi, 2001)
- Hanging around the changing rooms after a swimming session – banter that leaks out into the general public.
PROBLEM
- Integration of these platforms/worlds into learning design.
- Merging formal and informal.
- Bridging formal and nonformal/informal contexts (TEL-TLRP) projects – ‘Inter-Life’ and ‘Personal Inquiry’ (Lally et al. 2012 : 04)
‘The projects have to negotiate territory that by its very informal and collaborative nature requires ethical and educational processes to be negotiated and distributed amongst participants, rather than pre-determined by their institutional context’. (Lally et al. 2012 : 04)
Like bringing a game of British Bulldogs or ‘Kick the can’ into a teaching setting, like boy scouts … and killing it off in the process. Kids would run a mile if they spotted a teacher. Even at university, extracurricular that had nothing to do with the course … and faculty associations which did.
Ethics – and Aristotle and ‘phronesis’. (Unnecessarily pretentious or a valid grounding in ethics.
If we go back to Aristotle then why miss out all the philosophical thinking and development since, at least via humanists such as Hegel)
- Quest for external and universal truths
- Skills required to pursue a particular end
Elliot, (2006) ‘disciplined conversation in which reasons for action are scrutinised, critiqued and modified’.
Phronesis – underpins the argument for iterative and participatory research. (Lally et al. 2012 : 02 ) = practical wisdom (wikipedia).
Learning in informal and non-formal settings already constitutes the majority of educational interactions during a person’s lifetime (Livingstone, 1999)
Actually it starts in the womb as the brain forms in the foetus from around five months and never ends … a person continues to learn to the moment they die … possibly even moments after the heart has stopped and the brain finally shuts down and everything is lost.
I wouldn’t count on anything that is said by Marc Prensky (2005)
A more reliable source might be the OII Annual Survey for GB usage, Rebecca Eynon.
Emergent social network technologies (Selwyn, 2008)
Prohibition at school.
Skills learnt: online collaborative learning, development of skills in web-based social networking, occur almost entirely outside the formal education system. (Lally et al. 2012 : 04 )
- The perpetual consumer (Lawson, 2004) and the net savvy adolescent.
- Direct link between economic activities and consumption. (Lally et al. 2012 : 04 )
AdBlocker, scrambling facebook, if you get ads in blogs pay to exclude, tape over screen, block pop-ups, move platform (e.g . AOL).
Edutainment rarely competes with the games that have 100m invested.
Novel ethical issues (Lally et al. 2012 : 04)
The study of people’s personal use of digital technology for learning (Buckingham &Willett, 2009; Crook & Harrison, 2008; Sharples et al., 2009), and their engagement with digital technologies across formal and non-formal/informal settings for education (Vavoula, Sharples, Rudman, Lonsdale, & Meek, 2007), presents novel ethical issues.
REFERENCE
Davies, C., & Eynon, R (2013) Teenagers and Technology (Adolescence and Society)
Eynon, R (2009) Mapping the digital divide in Britain: implications for learning and education.
Kelly, D (Forthcoming 2011) ‘Karaoke’s Coming Home: Japan’s Empty Orchestras in the United Kingdom’, Leisure Studies 30.
Lally, V; Sharples, M; Tracey, F; Bertram, N and Masters, S. (2012). Researching the ethical dimensions of mobile, ubiquitous,and immersive technology enhanced learning (MUITEL) in informal settings: a thematic review and dialogue. Interactive Learning Environments, 20(3), pp. 217–238.
Livingstone, D.W. (1999). Exploring the icebergs of adult learning: Findings of the first Canadian survey of informal learning practices. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 13(2), 49–72.
Looi, C.K. (2001). Enhancing learning ecology on the internet. Journal of Computer Assisted
Learning, 17(1), 13–20.
Prensky, M. (2005). Don’t bother me mum – I’m learning. St Paul, MN: Paragon House.
Selwyn, N. (Ed.). (2008). Education 2.0?: Designing the web for teaching and learning. London: Institute of Education, University of London, TLRP-TEL.
Sharples, M., Graber, R., Harrison, C., & Logan, K. (2009). E-Safety and Web2.0 for children aged 11–16. Journal of Computer-Assisted Learning, 25, 70–84.
Related articles
- The story of education (apurvab.wordpress.com)
- E-Portfolio for Living and Learning in the Digital World (natslearning.wordpress.com)
- How Self Education helps accomplish greater things in life than Formal Education (despicablewonderfulyou.wordpress.com)
- Using iPads to engage Year4 children in science (mrchurchblogs.wordpress.com)
Visual expressions of Open Learning
PART ONE
Sequence showing my conceptions of the shift in learning.
From traditional top down, to horizontal and collaborative and what’s goes in in the human brain – the interaction between different parts of the brain.
However, whilst this might be an expression of traditional classroom based teaching, through to collaborative Web 1.0 and the semantic Web 2.o as I have illustrated before, the reality is that all of these approaches are going on simultaneously: we still have, and benefit from top down learning – being told or shown stuff, there is collaborative learning, more so in certain subjects.
The second line suggests how things are changing: traditional learning being tipped on its head and on its side or at various angles as an institution, or policy changes, due to the influence of the teacher or because of the subject.
Horizontal learning from siblings, friends, family and extended family – always there in the past goes into hyper-mode as we can connect with ease with many of these people making every day like a family event if you so choose, following and joining in with the antics of others or sharing thoughts on school and life. I should add unconscious learning too – asleep, that sorting process we go through when we dream.
I doubt, from what I am coming to understand about neuroscience, that activity in the brains is greatly different or increased courtesy of the Internet or that stimulation has increased – this is for various reasons: our brain gets bored with the familiar, we turn off, we filter, we select. There is a limit to how much can be process. We give up other things to engage online – though I wouldn’t think giving up ogling at the TV all evening is any loss – the average viewing in the UK is 4 hours a day? Really!!
Open Learning is the last image in the bottom right hand corner – a lot going on, a good deal of connectivity.
But not less perhaps than living in a close, frenetic, village community – more akin to how we lived thousands of years ago with the world at our doorstep rather than our being squirreled away as we now are.
Traditional learning
Informal learning (circles look good, or a hub)
Neuroscience for Dummies (a great intro to the subject, I recommend it!)
Put it all together – as your brain does in sleep, and as occurs anyway as you daydream in class or have a parent help you with homework …
Open Learn is kindle in the fire … it stokes it up, motivating, demotivating and distracting. Key is the continued connectivity to friends and family wherever they may be. That ‘hub’ of activity you may get after a family holiday or gathering can be with you in your pocket to support and advise.
Is this what Open Learning looking like? More of what we’ve always had, but now, if you want him, your grandfather can sit on your shoulder all day – in our family my brother would have been asking advice on car maintenance, I would have been quizzing him on first hand detail of the war. Cousins often get briefings from my father-in-law a retired Oxford Philosophy Tutor.
And now, courtesy of all learning online, open and formal, the action really gets going. Or does it? Is it not simply replacing something else? The very active person in clubs, societies, in a large extended family and so on would be getting this anyway?
PART TWO
This second A2 sheet works with Vygotsky and Engestrom and the idea of how we construct knowledge in a context.
The second image shows the familiar Activity System, an expanded version of how Vygotsy expressed how we learn. The activity system has six interacting components: subject and object, mediated by tools or artefacts, rules, community and division of labour. Enegstrom’s next generation expression of the Activity System is to show two systems interacting, the key here being the interaction of two objects or outcomes to produce a third.
This model is manageable, with set links between the components.
‘In the field’ it is possible to allocate roles to people or departments, to kits and guidelines but then on the second line you start to consider how many activity systems are connected. However, it is no longer simply the case that there is one point of contact – this drive to an outcome or objective.
Already authors wonder if Activity Theory (I have the reference I’ll dig it out for you) can no longer apply, that it has melted.
The middle image in the middle of the bottom row circumvents the set connections to indicated that everything can interact with everything else. Feed this into a multitude of Activity Systems (the final diagram in the bottom right) and you see what complexity is created – the suggestion being that the there is more direct connecting between people with no mediation factors or systems. This assumes that there are no gatekeepers or other barriers, but increasingly, in tertiary education you may find yourself in a discussion alongside the biggest names in your field, whether you are an undergraduate, postgraduate or doctoral student, no matter what institution you are signed up to.
In fact, it is far more open than that of course – by chance or because of an enthusiasm or wish to connect anyone in theory can connect with anyone else – or at least with those who are taking part.
Some 4% of the population in Great Britain who by all accounts should be digital residents don’t event visit – there lifestyle choice is not to use the Internet, just as in the past people may have chosen not to have a TV. Another13% don’t have access at all – no connection, no kit, no space or place to use kit that is shared. And this is the UK. So Open Learning, though not exclusive, cannot be called universal.
Of course, being a purist, if you’re interested in Vygotsky you need to study him in Russian. Now where is there an Open Learn course on Russian?
Models work, as do metaphors, but with the digital world are all such models melting like sheet ice in a warming climate? Merged and blurred like so much ink dripped into a digital ocean?
Though Engestrom sees this as things and institutions, I like to see two people here, say an Art Director and Copywriter working together to solve problems. Two heads better than one and all of that. Any psychologists out there might offer me person to person models as alternatives.
And how many institutions can and do interact? Think of a $100m movie. Think of planning the Olympics. Think of six people with different skills and experiences working together.
Is this what Open Learning looking like?
At what point does the model break down?
Become redundant? Even ideas of ‘learning from the periphery’ (JS Brown and Duguid) falls apart if there is no centre, and no periphery, if everyone is equally ‘linked in’ with no degrees of separation at all, where you are anyone else’s father, brother or son. (mother, sister or daughter).
Engestrom ends up using the metaphor of a Mycorrhizae fungi growth such as this. I also found this rather beautiful image. But can art therefore fool? Something beautiful that is attractive and persuasive may not acutally be representative of the ‘truth of the matter’ – but what is?
Mycorrhizae = the real thing (apologies to the originator, when I can find the reference I will add it)
Which has me thinking of something more fluid, like the water cycle (think digital ocean into the could, then back again)
And in a system, as something more dynamic, with patterns behind the chaos.
In which case, to my mind, Open Learn and e-learning is like global warming to the climate – it is simply putting more energy into the system. Just re-annotate the above (which I will eventually get round to doing).
And if this doesn’t make your brain hurt or your jaw drop take a look at this:
and click on ‘Powers of Ten’ which is, I feel, evocative of Open Learning too – scalable from the micro to the infinite.
REFERENCE
Engestrom, Y Various. I recommend ‘From Teams to Knots’
Vygotsky, L (1926 if you want it in Russia, 1974 for the first translations into English)
Rebecca Eynon from the OII for ‘Mapping the Internet’ stats on GB Internet use.
(I’ll flesh this out in due course. There are a dozen references related to the above. But this is Open Learning. You get my thoughts on this in all its various drafts).
Related articles
- Openness in Education WK1 MOOC (mymindbursts.com)
- Inter-life, Young People and Activity systems (mymindbursts.com)
- OLD MOOC 2013 – Why Activity Theory needs to be seen, not itemised, to have any chance of being understood (mymindbursts.com)
- “More Complex Than the Milky Way?” –Project ‘Blue Brain’ and New Insights into the Biochemical Makeup of the Human Brain (dailygalaxy.com)
- Martin Weller and the MOOCers (mymindbursts.com)
- Has education come full circle? (jmajor.org)
- Who would you invite to an e-learning dinner party? (mymindbursts.com)
How to design learning using activity cards
Fig. 1. Activity Cards for curriculum planning downloaded from JISC
I’m very glad to be doing this OU hosted Massive Open Online Course on Learning Design
I have a couple of weeks in hand and desperately wanted to make and do stuff. I’ve joined one Cloudscape where the aim is to design learning on DIY Multimedia. I have three projects of my own too – not takers from others as they’re rather ‘out of the box’ – ideas around lifelogging, augmented learning and virtual companions.
This exercise I recommend. Indeed, I think getting away from the screen and using bits of paper, getting on the phone, not relying on webinars … and meeting face-to-face all makes sense.
OLD MOOC WK 3 Activity 2 Course Cards
Getting off the computer and into an activity, ideally a collaborative one, is always productive. A carefully moderated workshop can reveal the unexpected, more importantly it is an informed way to prioritize issues and to use a the combined expertise of a variety of people. From the OU Course B822 Creative Innovation and Change I learnt the value of constructing a team of people to address a problem – from different backgrounds, with different responsibilities and outlooks, even someone to rock the boat. No one person’s voice is allowed to override the views of others. Such a group would achieve a lot with this OULDI pack. Though game-like it is a valid and valuable tool.
Working alone there were a number of hurdles to overcome:
A black and white printer.
The sheets were printed off then painted. Not liking the look of the purple these cards all become yellow.
Ideally they would all be spray-glued to backing card to make them more robust – at least so that they don’t curl up at the edges.
On the first sweep I got the 38 number of cards down to 26. This was gradually reduced in 2s and 3s until there were the requisite 16.
Fig.2. Used a pairs table the 16 cards were ranked
Using a paired-sets in a table I was able to rank these 16 – clearly the exercise of discussing these with colleagues would have been extremely useful and the process of deliberation brought up issues of budget, resources and time-scale, and even refined the project as it is conceived and visualised as a certain number of activities.
Fig. 3. In rank order a diamond was created with the chosen cards.
- Problem Based
- Applied Concepts
- Mentoring in work-place
- Collaborative
- Scaffolded learning
- Practice based
- Student generated content
- Day Schools
- Blended approach
- Authentic resources
- Practice placement
- Professional community
- Portfolio or e-portfolio
- Peer-support
- Active discovery
- Step by step instruction
Choose a maximum of 12 cards from the pack which define the key features of your course or module.
| Step by step instructions | Guidance and Support |
| Scaffolded learning | |
| Mentoring in the workplace | |
| Applied concepts | Content and Experience |
| Authentic resources | |
| Problem-based | |
| Practice-based | |
| Collaborative | Communication and Collaboration |
| Practice placement | |
| Day schools | |
| Student generated content | Reflection and Demonstration |
| Portfolio or e-portfolio |
In terms of the module DIY Mutlimedia I become very aware of the value of learning alongside an expert, of being with skilled practitioners even – and very much the need to have a project brief to work to. So very much a hands on learning experience with authentic tools to create a real object or digital asset, or activity. This would also take the learners away from the computer screen, even out of the classroom into a design studio or agency. In fact the ‘Online’ card didn’t make it into the 16. Even though this is to develop skills in use of digital multimedia tools I felt I was organising a workshop for potters, painters and tapestry weavers i.e. there is a highly practical element to it and there’s nothing better than having a live guide at your shoulder … and if there has to be a compromise then it would be live or ‘as live’ instruction over the Internet.
My first career was in television – I got out of a graduate position in an advertising agency and became the ‘runner’ and ‘production assistant’ in a micro-production company. We were six and were down to three for most of the time. I learnt by latching onto an experience BBC Producer – so directing, producing and writing. Then on the job. In time I supplemented this with trade association workshops and some formal day or afternoon workshops. After four years I took a fulltime course. This exercise has made me see how much multi-media production is a craft skill – we may use keyboard and computer screens, but so do TV editors these days too. I’ve even used a broadcast video camera with iPad touchscreen like controls on the viewing monitor (nightmare!) … for someone used to buttons and knobs.
I have been hugely encouraged to get away from screens and be with people face to face despite believing in all things e-learning. Even major practitioners will talk about activities away from the screen, or phoning a friend or colleague … even expecting a phone call or a debriefing workshop. This is because those commissioning learning want results and will break away from the shoehorn of e-learning to do so … great for scale, great for compliance, but hardly ‘human’.
Perhaps the ‘e-‘ is coming detached from ‘learning’.
Learning is the thing, whether it is online, face to face, mobile or augmented. The ‘e’ has to stand for ‘effective’ – did it work! And student analytics and feedback will quickly tell you if you are getting it right or wrong.
What is learning design?
Learning design, indeed any design, is about problem solving. If there isn’t a problem there is nothing to do.
No need to create learning, to advertise, to change, to brainstorm … recognise the problem then resolve to fix it. If this requires problem solving techniques just to get the scope of the problem, or objective set down, so be it. Then set about solving the problem, not shoehorning a response whether it is e-learning, video, a job description … but looking for the best, most appropriate or right way forward.
E-learning is no panacea.
There are still leaflets, workshops, conferences … Then research, write and agree a creative brief.
Then cost, schedule and build your team.
Then get on with it.
You might end up with the equivalent of a chair, a house or a small town … but it is fundamentally problem solving.
Related articles
- Conole deakin seminar (slideshare.net)
Contemporary theories of learning. MAODE Students – All the Hs: H810, H807, H800, H808 …
Enlightened and loving the MAODE, but always keen to have a book on the side that I can read, take notes on, think about and share. This, I have come to understand, is largely because I was taught (or indoctrinated) to learn this way – books, notes, essay, exam.
Though never sharing – learning used to be such a secretive affair I thought.
How The OU has turned me inside out – the content of my mind is yours if you want it, and where we find difference or similarity let’s bounce around some ideas to reinvent our own knowledge.
As I read this in eBook form on an iPad I add notes electronically on the page, or reading it on a Kndle I take notes on the iPad – I even take notes on paper to write up later. I highlight. I also share choice quotes on Twitter @JJ27VV. Which in turn, aggregates the key ideas that I can then cut and paste here, with comments that others may add.
Simply sharing ideas in a web 2.0 21st Century Way!
Behaviourism, Cognitivism, Constructivism, Connectivism, Humanism and design based learning
Fig.1. The Contents of my brain
If I include ‘Humanism’ are congnitivism and constructivism subsets?
If I add ‘Design Based Learning’ as a learning theory is it a subset of ‘constructivism’?
Fig. 2. Grabbed from Edudemic – A Simple Guide to Four Complex Learning Theories
E-learning needs to be ‘my learning’ – m-learning by another name.
‘Time to see the individual needs in a personal way’
This is relevant to all learners, so perhaps provision for disabled students can put them in the vanguard – this is in theory where e-learning is taking us, reading Littlejohn and Pegler (2007) ‘Preparing for blended e-learning’
The authors predict that the shift is towards putting the needs of the learner first – I feel however we are a long easy from that – not least the inertia of the physical infrastructure, but the traditions, habits and ways of our educators too.
Instead of seeing e-learning as a way to get one standardised module in front of 10,000 people it needs to be seen as a way of delivering 10,000 modules to 10,000 people with the vastness and complexity of their differing needs, interests, experiences, motivations, capacities, skills and so on.
How to improve retention – scaffolding, mentors, interaction and community
Fig.1. For online learning to work you need scaffolding – Drawing by Simon Fieldhouse
Levels of interaction and support
- Drop out rates from 20-50% for online courses … more than for traditional courses.
A full breakdown of the figures, how prepared, representing which institutions and student groups would be helpful. Anyone can use a statistic if they don’t identify its source.
Really this bad?
But if they’ve paid their fees the college has its cash and can free up resources. Do the bean counters recognise the contribution those quitting to make a course viable, let alone profitable? Educational Institutions should go to extraordinary lengths to attract and retain the right people to courses and to keep them on board and fully engaged.
A major issue is the degree of academic integration.
- Performance
- Academic self-esteem
- Identity as a student
Against sticking with a course are :
- isolation
- instructional ineffectiveness
- failing academic achievement
- negative attitudes
- overall dissatisfaction with the learning experience
Self-directed skill set:
- self-discipline
- the ability to work alone
- time management
- learning independence
- a plan for completing
Especially Self-directed learning skills … that are developed in a social context through a variety of human-oriented interactions with peers and colleagues, teams, informal social networks, and communities of practice.
‘These challenges to the retention of distance learners, interestingly enough, have something in common, they seem to hinge on learners’ need for significant support in the distance learning environment through interaction with others (e.g. peers, instructors, and learner support services personnel).’ Tait (2000)
The central functions of learner support services for students in distance education settings are:
- cognitive
- affective
- systemic
Scaffolding – ZPD (Vygotsky, 1934) Scaffolding involves providing learners with more structure during the early stages of a learning activity and gradually turning responsibility over to learners as they internalize and master the skills needed to engage in higher cognitive functioning. (Palinscar, 1986; Rosenshine and Meister, 1992).
Scaffolding has a number of important characteristics to consider when determining the types of learner support services distance students may need:
Academic course ‘scaffolding’:
- Provides structure
- Functions as a tool
- Extends the range of the learner
- Allows the learner to accomplish a task that would otherwise not be possible
- Helps to ensure the learner’s success
- Motivates the learner
- Reduces learner frustration
- Is used, when needed, to help the learner, and can be removed when the learner can take on more responsibility.
(Greenfield, 1984; McLoughlin and Mitchell, 2000; Wood et al., 1976)
‘Scaffolding is an inherently social process in which the interaction takes places in a collaborative context.’
In relation to learning with the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA)
- Are people coming onto the Level II course who are not yet suitable? Do they submit a learning orientation questionnaire?
- Is the candidate’s club or pool operator giving them ample assistant teaching opportunities and support?
Mentors utilise the items gathered during the admissions process – data from the intake interview, self-assessment, diagnostic pre-assessment, and Learning Orientation Questionnaire – to develop to Academic Action Plan, that provides a roadmap for the learner’s academic progress including information about learning resources and assessment dates.’ At WGU.
Learning is a function of the activity, context, and culture in which it occurs – i.e., it is situated (Wenger, 1998).
Successful completion of and satisfaction with an academic experience is directly related to students’ sense of belonging and connection to the program and courses (Tinto, 1975).
Social learning experiences, such as peer teaching, group projects, debates, discussion, and other activities that promote knowledge construction in a social context, allow learners to observe and subsequently emulate other students’ models of successful learning.’
‘A learning community can be defined as a group of people, connected via technology mediated communications, who actively engage one another in collaborative learner-centred activities to intentionally foster the creation of knowledge, while sharing a number of values and practices, including diversity, mutual appropriation, and progressive discourse.’
N.B. ‘Creating a positive psychological climate built upon trusting human relationships.’
REFERENCE
Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Newman, S. (1989). Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the craft of reading, writing, and mathematics. In L. Resnick (Ed.), Knowing, learning and instruction: Essays in honor of Robert Glaserm, 453-494.
Duguid, Paul (2005). “The Art of Knowing: Social and Tacit Dimensions of Knowledge and the Limits of the Community of Practice”. The Information Society (Taylor & Francis Inc.): 109–118.
Ludwig-Hardman & Dunlap. (2003) Learner Support Services for Online Students: Scaffolding for success in The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol 4, 10, 1 (2003)
Palincsar, A.S. (1986). Reciprocal teaching. In Teaching reading as thinking. Oak Brook, IL: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.
Rosenshine, B. & Meister, C. (1992) The use of scaffolds for teaching higher-level cognitive strategies. Educational leadership, 49(7), 26-33.
Seely Brown, John; Duguid, Paul (1991). “Organizational learning and communities-of-practice: Toward a unified view of working, learning and innovation”. Organization Science 2 (1).JSTOR 2634938.
Tait, J (2004) The tutor/facilitator role in retention. Open Learning, Volume 19, Number 1, February 2004 , pp. 97-109(13)
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Vygotsky. L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of the higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: The Harvard University Press Vygotsky, L. S. (1998a). Infancy (M. Hall, Trans.). In R. W. Rieber (Ed.), The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky: Vol. 5. Child psychology (pp. 207-241). New York: Plenum Press. (Original work written 1933-1934)
Wenger, Etienne (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-66363-2.
Use of mobile devices in e-learning
The Kukulska-Hulme et al 2011 report ‘Mature Students using mobile devices in life and learning’ may be a recent publication (International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning Jan-march 2001) but draws its conclusions on research undertaken in between May 2008 and April 2009.
Technologically and in relation to the potential for e-learning a great deal has happened since then.
In industry would we not expert a report, say from Nielsen or Monitor, to have been done in the last six months?
In the technology sector old news is redundant.
By 2009 PDAs were virtually extinct and we were about to experience the launch of the iPad. Since 2009 smart phones have graduated – they’re bright in many ways.
Like their users?
Bright people with the means quickly find ways to put these tools to work, extending their reach to their online course, for materials, forums and assessment alerts, to organise their study time around their diary.
FROM THE ABSTRACT
‘In today;s global marketplace, educators must know the technology habits and expectations of their students, including those from other countries.’ (Kukulska-Hulme et al, 2001:18) FROM THE INTRODUCTION “Learners can be active makers and shapers of their own learning. They should be supported in using technologies of their own choice where appropriate”. (JISC, 2009, p.51) Mobile (as they were) will not necessarily be readily adapted for learning. Ergonomic, pedagogical, psychological and environmental facts and the issue of cost (Stockwell, 2008) More widespread adoption by students and teachers is likely to follow. (ibid 2011:19) A convenient and powerful tool for learning. In an age when “communities are jumping across technologies” as needs and trends evolve (Wenger, 2010), educators and researchers also have to stay informed about how learners use personal technologies as members of communities that may be social, work-related or educational’. Decreasing institutional control Jones, Ramanau, Cross and Healing (2010) have critiqued the ‘new generation’ arguments, concluding that “overall there is growing theoretical and empirical evidence that casts soubt on the idea that there is a defined new generation of young people with common characteristics related to their exposure to digital technologies through-out their life (p.6) Notable minorities- Internet to download or upload materials
- Contribute to blogs and wiki and engage with virtual worlds (ibid p.21)
- Learning
- Social Interaction
- Entertainment
- Work
- About yourself
- use of mobile devices
- Being part of groups and communities
- Specific uses for mobile devies
- Mobile devices for learning
- There are receptive, productive and communicative uses
- Respondents are using mobile devices to capture ideas and experiences
- Mobile devices have a useful function as tools that remind he user about what she/he has to do.
- Respondents make use of a range of applications for informal learning.
- One function of games is to fill gaps ion the day.
- Some respondents appear to be drawing boundaries around disparate uses
- The mobile phone features as an alternative means of communications and to spport physical mobility, e.g. as an alternative to having a land line or when work involves travelling.
RE: LEARNING
- Contact with others
- Access to information and answers
- Reading e-Books
- Listening to Podcasts
- Scheduling
RE: MORE UNUSUAL USES:
- Recording one’s voice
- Replay on iPod
- Taking photos
- Contacting experts in other fields
- Uploading notes to blog
- Windows Live Messenger
- MSN
- Sky[e
- Lamnguage learning
- Finding information
- Headphones to shut out distractions
- Productive activities
- Permanency of taking notes: paper is easily lost
- Multipurpose; yo can take your work/entertainment with you
- Can combine work with a run with listening to a podcast
- Podcasts give access to unique historical/scientific content
- Suits auditory learners
- Closer relationship between students and teacher
- Multimedia in one small device is a timesaver for teachers
- Instant documentation of whiteboard notes
- Taking photos of overhead slides
- Help with learning disabilities
- Alternative news source/breaking news/immediate first hand reports
- Helps maintain a public diary with a community dimension
- Quick way to learn
- Gets you outdoors
- Field trips become more fruitful and challenging
- Using apps on the phone incluuding Facebook and MSN
- Using GPS to find places
- Wathing movies, TV, shows, vodcasts
- Listening to audio book,s podcasts
- Being part of microblogging communities e.g. Twitter
- Browing websites
- Using location-based services, e.g. to find nearby taxis, banks, restaurants, etc.
- No longer having a land line.
Mobile device use is a fast-changing field that reflects rapid social changes as well as the increasing availability and smarter marketing of new devices. (ibid, 2011:32)
Micro-blog – are becoming more widespread, and we wold expect these uses to figure more prominently in the future. (2011:32)
Slate devices Apple iPad.
Several universities now offer ‘apps’ for smartphones using platforms such as Campus M.
Our findings indicate that institutions planning to offer mobile apps should buld on the existing perfernces of studens for social communication. listening to aduio, watching video andreading short texts if the apss are successfully to enhance the learning experience. (2011:32)
When students are offered appropriate mobile resources then they will use them. (2011:32)
We agree with Kennedy et al (2008) that ‘an evidence-based undersstanding of students’ technological experiences is vital in informing higher education policy and practice.’ (p. 109)
Pressures of study and assignment deadlines lead them to seek effective solutions to immediate needs on the go. (2011:33)
Avoid a ‘proadoption bias’
Futhermore, since the use of a mobile device represents a new technological means of reading books, articles and news, this might have an impact on how, and how much, students read, however frther research would be needed. (2011:33)
The landscape of mobile devices has changed since our survey with some devices (standalone PDAs) beoming almost extinct and others (handheld GPS) endangered. (2011:33)
In favour of smart mobile phones and tablet devices.
REFERENCE Bruns, A. (2005) ‘Anyone can edit’: understanding the produser. Retrieved from http;//snurb.info/index. php?q=node/s86 Conole, G (2007) Describing learning activities: Tools and resources to guide practice. In Beetham, H, & Sharpe, R (eds.), Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age: Designing and delivering e-learning (pp.81-91) London, UK: Routledge
Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes, John Pettit, Linda Bradley, Ana A. Carvalho, Anthony Herrington, David M. Kennedy, and Aisha Walker. “Mature Students Using Mobile Devices in Life and Learning.” IJMBL 3.1 (2011): 18-52. accessed (May 22, 2011)
JISC. (2009). Effetive Pratice in a Digital Age: A guide to technology-enhanced learning and teaching. Retrieved from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/programmerelated/2009/effectivedigital-age.aspx
Rogers, E.M. (2005) Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.) New York, NY: Free Press
Jones, C.R., Ramanau,R., Cross, S., & Healing, G. (2010) Net generation or Digital Natives: Is there a distinct new generation entering university? Computers & Education, 54(3), 722-732. doi. 10.1016/j.compendu.2009.09.022
Stockwell, g (2008) Investigation learner preparedness for and usage patterns of mobile learning. ReCALL, 20(3), 253-270. doi.10.1017/S058344008000232.
Trinder,k., Guiller,j., Margaryan,A., Littlejohn,A., & Nicol,D. (2008). Learning from digital natives: bridging formal and informal learning. Retrieved from http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents?LDN%20FINAL%eport.pdf
Wenger, E (2010). SIKM community presentation online. Theme: REthinking Ourselves (KM People) as Technology Stewards. Retrieved from http://technologyforcommunities.com
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