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Design-Based Research:A Decade of Progress in Education Research
I skim through the article Design-Based Research:A Decade of Progress in Education Research? by Anderson and Shattuck, noting in particular the section on iterative design
Bridging the chasm between design and execution
I found this article on design based research not only fascinating, but oddly synchronous with the MAODE (Master of Arts: Open and Distance Education) module I am currently doing – H809 Practice based research in educational technology – as my interest is in how we construct learning programmes for use through our various Internet connected devices.
‘DBR is a methodology designed by and for educators that seeks to increase the impact, transfer, and translation of education research into improved practice’. (Anderson and Shattuck, 2012. p. 16)
We are currently stripping down a couple of papers.
I can see that I will automate this process, do a review of who, what, when, why a paper is written. Then check as a skim read for other signs that make it credible for my interests (or creditable at all).
- Being Situated in a Real Educational Context
- Focusing on the Design and Testing of a Significant Intervention
- Involving multiple iterations
- Involving a Collaborative Partnership Between Researchers and Practitioners
- Evolution of Design principles
In action research, the educator is both researcher and teacher
(Kuhn & Quigley, 1997).
This becomes inevitable. And is played out in just about anything we do if we think either that there is a problem with it or that it can be improved and we want to improve it. On the one hand as player and participant we are in the best position to understand what is going on, on the other we may be so adapted to certain behaviours and to the familiarity of a situation that we cannot see it with either fresh eyes or the eyes of an objective observer. These are techniques and attitudes that can be taught.
Mingfong, Yam San, and Ek Ming (2010) identified four design characteristics that they suggest must be aligned to create effective interventions. These are:
- Frameworks for learning,
- The affordances of the chosen instructional tools,
- Domain knowledge presentation,
- Contextual limitations
(Mingfong et al 1020 p. 470).
Design practice—whether in the manufacture of cars or of fashions—usually evolves through the creation and testing of prototypes, iterative refinement, and continuous evolution of the design, as it is tested in authentic practice. (Anderson and Shattuck, 2012. p. 17)
“Research through mistakes.” (Anderson and Shattuck, 2012. p. 17)
I came across this in the OU MBA module B822 ‘creativity, innovation and change’ – where mistakes are recognised as a test and a way forward, rather than a barrier to change or innovation.
Grayson Perry – is one of several artists and creatives who talk positively of mistakes. It’s how we learn.
Martin Sorrell – on mistakes in business
There are many others – a search ‘mistakes’ in this blog will find more.
Further Reading
Journal of the Learning Sciences, vol. 13, no. 1; Educational Researcher, vol. 32, no. 1; and
Educational Psychologist, vol. 39, no. 4.
REFERENCES
Anderson, T, & Shattuck, J 2012, ‘Design-Based Research:A Decade of Progress in Education Research?’, Educational Researcher, 1, p. 16, JSTOR Arts & Sciences IV, EBSCOhost, viewed 8 February 2013.
Mingfong, J., Yam San, C., & Ek Ming, T. (2010). Unpacking the design process in design-based research. In Proceedings pedagogy
Kuhn, G., & Quigley, A. (1997). Understanding and using action research in practice settings. In A. Quigley & G. Kuhne (Eds.), Creating practical knowledge through action research (pp. 23–40). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Looi, C.-K., Chen, W. the 9th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (Vol. 2). International Society of the Learning Sciences.
‘Papyrus and paper chalk and print, overhead projectors, educational toys and television, even the basics technologies of writing were innovations once’.
An introduction to rethinking pedagogy for a digital age
Beetham and Sharp
This is my third, possibly my fourth read of the book Rethinking Pedagogy for a digital age. Now that I am in the thick of it working on quality assurance and testing for corporate online learning it has enormous relevance and resonance.
Reading this I wonder why the OU changed the MAODL to MAODE? Around 2000-2003? From the Masters in Open and Distance Learning to the Masters in Open and Distance Education.
Beetham and Sharpe have much to say about the relevance or otherwise of pedagogy and its teaching bias.
Pedagogy = the science of teaching not the activity of learning. (L460: Kindle Reference)
The term ‘teaching; denies the active nature of learning an individuals’ unique capacities to learn (Alexander, 2002) L477
How does e-learning cater for the fact the learners differ from one another in the way that they learn? L477
Guiding others to learn is a unique, skilful, creative and demanding human activity that deserves scholarship in its own right. L477
This quote is relevant to H807 Innovations in e-learning and other MAODE modules:
‘Papyrus and paper chalk and print, overhead projectors, educational toys and television, even the basics technologies of writing were innovations once‘. L518
I like this too:
The networked digital computer and its more recent mobile and wireless counterparts are just the latent outcomes of human ingenuity that we have at our disposal. L518
- Learning resources and materials
- Learning environment
- Tools and equipment
- Learning activities
- Learning programme or curriculum
Designed for:
- Practice
- Feedback
- Consolidation
- Learning Design – preparational and planning
- Investigation
- Application
- Representation or modelling
- Iteration
- Teachers tailor to learner needs
- Tutors can ascertain who needs what
- Validation
- Process
- QA
- Review
Are there universal patterns of learning or not?
Pedagogical Thought
Constructivism – Jonassen et al 1999
Social Constructions – Vygotsky 1986
Activity Theory – Engestrom et al 1999
Experiational Learning – Kolb 1984
Instructional Design – Gagne et al 2004
Networked and collaborative work – McConnell 2000
Learning Design Jochems et al 2004
I was wondering whether, just as in a story, film or novel requires a theme, so learning asnd especially e-learning, according to Mayes and de Frietas ‘needs to be based on clear theoretical principles.
E-enhancements of existing models of learning.
Technology enables underlying processes common to all learning.
Cf Biggs 1999 Constructivist L737
Teaching for Quality Learning at University Buckingham SRHE OUP
Why does the OU put the novice and expert together in the MAODE?
Although I praise this approach and after two years have been a beneficiary I wonder if the research points to the need for greater flexibility and mixing, more akin to several cohorts of students being able to move around, between their own tutor group, contributing to discussions with the newcomers while also being able to hobnob with the experts?
The learning theory that I am coming to understand does not favour a fixed approach.
It isn’t simply a case of playing to the individual, though this is certainly very important as some people will favour being the teacher or the taught, or simply relish periods when they sit at the feet of the expert or stand up in front of newcomers. Rather it is apparent that people learn well within a peer group of like-minds, with people at a similar stage to themselves while having planned opportunities to hear and participate with ‘great minds’ while also from time to time contributing to the efforts and feeding off the enthusiasms of the ‘new minds’.
Nothing is fixed, neither learning vicariously (Cox, 2006), or learning from the periphery to the centre (Seely Brown and Duguid, 1999).
Stage one of my approach to reading these days is to highlight, even share quotes and notes on Twitter as I go through a book.
I then type up my notes and add further thoughts either by cutting and pasting from the aggregates notes in my Twitter feed (eBooks don’t allow you to cut and paste) or from handwritten notes I take on cards.
Then I share my notes here, tagged so that I can revisit and others can draw on my notes too or take the hint and read the chapter or book for themselves.
This too is but a stage – next step is to wrap up my developing thoughts, comments and other conversations and put a version of this entry into my external blog my mind bursts.
Sometimes an exchange here or elsewhere develops my thinking further – today I will be sitting down with a senior learning designer, one of five or six in the office of an international e-learning agency to talk learning theory and educational principles.
Chapter 2
Regarding Quality Assurance – there should be no inconsistencies between:
- Curriculum
- Teaching methods
- Learning environment
- Assessment procedures
So align assumptions:
- Learning outcomes
- Suitable assessment
N.B. Each outcome requires a different kind of theoretical perspective and a different pedagogical approach. L757
(Easy to say in theory, not so easy to deliver in practice?)
Three clusters of broad perspectives:
- Associationism
- Behaviourism
- Connectionism
Associationist: gradual building of patterns of associations and skill components. Therefore activity followed by feedback.
Simple tasks prerequisites to more complex.
Gagné (1985 and 1992)
- Instructional task analysis of discrimination, classifications and response sequences.
- Simpler tasks built step by step followed by coordination to the whole structure.
Instructional Systems Design
- Analyse the domain into a hierarchy of small units.
- Sequence the units so that a combination of units is not taught until its component units are grasped individually.
- Design an instructional approach for each unit in the sequence.
Then add:
- Immediate feedback
- Individualization of instruction
Behaviourism: active learning by design. Immediate feedback on success, careful analysis of learning outcomes, alignment of learning objectives.
The Cognitive Perspective
- Attention
- Memory
- Concept Formation
Knowledge acquisition as the outcome of an interaction between new experiences and the structures for understanding that have already been created. Therefore building a framework for learning vs. learning as the strengthening of associations.
Piaget (1970) Constructivist Theory of Knowledge.
‘Conceptual development occurs through intellectual activity rather than by the absorption of information’. L819
Vygotsky (1928:1931) Importance of social interaction.
Interactions – that e-learning teams call ‘interactivities’.
The Situative Perspective
- Learning must be personally meaningful
- Authentic to the social context
(problem-based learning and cognitive apprenticeship). L862
The concept of community practice
Wenger (1998) identify as a learner derived from the community. (Aspires, defines, accredited).
Mayes et al (2001) learning through relating to others. E.g. Master Class
Social-anthropological belonging to the community. L882.
Beliefs, attitudes, common endeavour, also ‘activity systems’ Engestrom 1993
Learning relationships
Identify, participate, individual relations. Dependent on: context, characteristics and strength of relationships in the group (Fowler and Mayes, 1999) L902
What was exotic in 2007 in common place today?
See Appendix 1 L912
Learning as a cycle through stages.
- J F Vernon (2011) H809 assignments and end of module assessment. The concept of riding a thermal of gently rising circles.
- Various references L923.
- Fitts and Posner (1968)
- Remelhart and Norman (1978)
- Kolb (1984)
- Mayes and Fowler (1999)
- Welford (1968)
If ‘as it proceeds from service to expert, the nature of learning changes profoundly and the pedagogy based on one stage will be inappropriate for another’. L923
Fowler and Mayes (1999)
Primary: preventing information
Secondary: active learning and feedback
Tertiary: dialogue and new learning.
REFERENCE
Beetham, H and Sharpe, R. (2007) Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age: Designing and delivering e-learning.
Cole, M and Engestrom, Y (1993) A cultural-historical approach to distributed cognition. In G.Salmon (ed.) Distributed cognitions: Psychological and Educational Considerations, New York, CVP.
Cox, R. (2006) Vicarious Learning and Case-based Teaching of Clinical Reasoning Skills (2004–2006) [online], http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ esrcinfocentre/ viewawardpage.aspx?awardnumber=RES-139-25-0127 [(last accessed 10 March 2011).
Gagné, R (1985) The conditions of learning. New York. Holt, Rhinehart and Wilson.
Jonassen, D.H. and Rohrer-Murphy, L (1999) ‘Activity theory as a framework for designing constructivist learning environments’. Educational Technology Research and Development, 47 (1) 61-80
Seely-Brown, J.S and Duguid, P. (1991) ‘Organizational learning and communities-of-practice: toward a unified view of working, learning and innovation’, Organizational Science, 2 (1): 40-57
An introduction to rethinking pedagogy for a digital age
Beetham and Sharp
This is my third, possibly my fourth read of the book Rethinking Pedagogy for a digital age. Now that I am in the thick of it working on quality assurance and testing for corporate online learning it has enormous relevance and resonance.
Reading this I wonder why the OU changed the MAODL to MAODE? Around 2000-2003? From the Masters in Open and Distance Learning to the Masters in Open and Distance Education.
Beetham and Sharpe have much to say about the relevance or otherwise of pedagogy and its teaching bias.
Pedagogy = the science of teaching not the activity of learning. (L460: Kindle Reference)
The term ‘teaching; denies the active nature of learning an individuals’ unique capacities to learn (Alexander, 2002) L477
How does e-learning cater for the fact the learners differ from one another in the way that they learn? L477
Guiding others to learn is a unique, skilful, creative and demanding human activity that deserves scholarship in its own right. L477
This quote is relevant to H807 Innovations in e-learning and other MAODE modules:
‘Papyrus and paper chalk and print, overhead projectors, educational toys and television, even the basics technologies of writing were innovations once‘. L518
I like this too:
The networked digital computer and its more recent mobile and wireless counterparts are just the latent outcomes of human ingenuity that we have at our disposal. L518
- Learning resources and materials
- Learning environment
- Tools and equipment
- Learning activities
- Learning programme or curriculum
Designed for:
- Practice
- Feedback
- Consolidation
- Learning Design – preparational and planning
- Investigation
- Application
- Representation or modelling
- Iteration
- Teachers tailor to learner needs
- Tutors can find out who needs what
- Validation
- Process
- QA
- Review
Are there universal patterns of learning or not?
Pedagogical Thought
Constructivism – Jonassen et al 1999
Social Constructions – Vygotsky 1986
Activity Theory – Engestrom et al 1999
Experiational Learning – Kolb 1984
Instructional Design – Gagne et al 2004
Networked and collaborative work – McConnell 2000
Learning Design Jochems et al 2004
I was wondering whether, just as in a story, film or novel requires a theme, so learning and especially e-learning, according to Mayes and de Frietas ‘needs to be based on clear theoretical principles.
E-enhancements of existing models of learning.
Technology enables underlying processes common to all learning.
Cf Biggs 1999 Constructivist L737
Teaching for Quality Learning at University Buckingham SRHE OUP
Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age: Designing and delivering e-learning
Beetham, H and Sharpe, R. (2007) Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age: Designing and delivering e-learning.
Notes from Kindle version on an iPad. Bias for H800 ECM with the emphasis on Forums and Mobile forms of learning.
Forward
Phase between ‘ICT-free’ past and its ‘ICT-aware’ future. L.289 Laurillard (2007)
Education is currently learning and adapting to the opportunities afford by information and communication technologies. Laurillard (2007) Laurillard (2007)
There are learning objectives, on the one hand, to be achieved by the student, but also objectives set by society regarding higher education: ‘personalised learning, higher attainment standards, wider participation and improved retention in further and higher education, closer relationships between education and the workplace, lifelong learning, a more highly skilled workforce for our knowledge economy.’ L.295. Laurillard (2007)
The problem is that transformation is more about the human and organisational aspects of teaching and learning than it is about the use of technology. L322 Laurillard (2007)
REFERENCE
Laurillard, D. (2007) in Beetham, H and Sharpe, (6) ‘Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age: designing and delivering’.
Chapter 1
‘Blurring of the boundaries between school and college, formal and informal education, learning for work and learning at work.’ Beetham & Sharpe (2007:01)
Do we want to teach students, or for students to learn ?
N.B. ‘Pedagogy before technology’ i.e. don’t use the technology for the sake of it. Beetham & Sharpe (2007:02)
What are the fundamental truths about how people learn?
New forms of literacy over ‘the acquisition of a stable body of knowledge.’ Beetham & Sharpe (2007:05)
Design involves:
· Investigation
· Application
· Representation or modelling
· Iteration
· Set clear expectations
· Provide engaging activities
· Key elements of practice, feedback and time for consolidation
· Assessment
· Simpler tasks prerequisites for more complex tasks
· Review
Beetham & Sharpe (2007:08)
Behaviourism = active learning-by-doing with immediate feedback on success, the careful analysis of learning outcomes, and above all with the alignment of learning objectives, instructional strategies and methods used to assess learning outcomes. Beetham & Sharpe (2007:16)
Not just activity, but ‘intellectual activity’ REFERENCE Piaget (1970) rather than by the absorption of information. Beetham & Sharpe (2007:17). NOT by osmosis, if on the periphery (Seely Brown) or learning ‘vicariously’ (Cox) it has to be with some level and kind of intellectual participation.
Rapid development of multimedia and hypermedia in the 1980s and 1990s.
Then delivery.
Since the Web, converged on communications ‘as a key-enabling construct’. Beetham & Sharpe (2007:18)
Situated and constructivist:
Learning must be personally meaningful. Beetham & Sharpe (2007:18)
Community of practice and the individual’s relationship with a group of people. Beetham & Sharpe (2007:18)
Learning as a cycle through stages with each cycle focusing on different perspectives. (Fitts and Posner 1968; Rumelhard and Norman 1978; Kolb 1984; Mayes and Fowler 1999) And iterative. Welford (1968)
As ‘Learning’ proceeds from novice to expert, the nature of learning changes profoundly and the pedagogy based on one stage (learning as behaviour, learning as the construction of knowledge and meaning, learning as social practice) will be inappropriate for another. Beetham & Sharpe (2007:21) Wherein lies the problem regarding use of technology, as students will often be at very different levels of expertise regarding the use of the tools.
Learners in the role of teachers of their peers. Beetham & Sharpe (2007:22)
Dichotomy: standardization through an institutional virtual learning environment (VLE) compared to empowering learners to take responsibility ‘to the point that they make their own design decisions’. Beetham & Sharpe (2007:21)
+Meaning through ‘engagements with the social setting and peer culture surrounding it’. Beetham & Sharpe (2007:22)
The internet gives every course in every institution a potentially global span. Beetham & Sharpe (2007:23)
REFERENCE
Piaget, J. (1970) Science of Education and the Psychology of the Child, New York: Orion Press.
Fitts, C.J.H. and Posner, M.I. 1967 Human Performance, Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Rumelhard, D.E. and Norman, D.A. 1978 ‘Accretion, tuning and structuring: three modes of learning’, in J.W. Cotton and R.I. Klatzy (eds) Semantic Factors in Cognition, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Kolb, D.A. 1984 Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Mayes, J.T. and Fowler, C.J.H. 1999 ‘Learning technology and usability: a framework and usability: a framework for understanding courseware’, Interacting with Computer, 11:485-97.
Welford, A.T. (1968) Fundamentals of Skill, London: Methuen.
JV Assessment should be in line with the individual’s learning objectives. How many of us are learning to be the writers of academic papers? Most are practioners, many managers, I am a commentator. I want to be journalistic.
Chapter 2 Beetham
Associative
Constructive
Situative
With the central importance of acitivity on the part of the learner.
‘Several decades of research support the view that it is the activity that the learner engages in, and the outcomes of that activity, that are significant for learning (e.g. Tergan 1997) REFERENCE Sharpe (2007:26)
Learners need opportunities to make a newly acquired concept or skill their own: to draw on their own strengths and preferences, and to extend their repertoire of approaches to task requirements. Beetham & Sharpe (2007:26)
A learning activity is an entity that is meaningful to the learner, given his or her current level of expertise. Beetham & Sharpe (2007:27)
JV You don’t hand someone, who has never played an instrument, a flute and put them in an orchestra. Nor do you take a Grade 8 qualified flautist, hand them a Kazoo and put them in a marching band, yet when students today are given the opportunity to bring the technologies they use into learning these disparities occur, with some having considerable levels of experience and expertise, while others may have only a passing knowledge if any at all.
Authenticity of the activity
Formality and structure
Retention/reproduction versus reflection/internalization
The role and importance of other people
Locus of control
INSERT CHART Beetham & Sharpe (2007:29)
Fig. 2.1 An outline for a learning activity
Loosely derived from Engestrom 1999
Learning outcome: some identifiable change that is anticipated in the learner.
Individual learning logs and e-portfolios allow learners to collate evidence towards broadly defined learning goals, and to reflect on their progress. Beetham & Sharpe (2007:30)
Problems with technology:
Frustration and alienation
Time management
Gender
Culture
First language
Tasks experienced quite differently based on the technology used and the social and cultural meanings these carry.
The main intrinsic benefits of digital resources are their greater flexibility of access, reproduction and manipulation. Simply being able to study at a time, place and pace to suit them can profoundly change learners’ relationships with conceptual material.
Beetham & Sharpe (2007:34)
Research tasks
Searching databases
Evaluatiung online resources
Comprehension tasks
Answering questions
Note-taking
Mind-mapping
N.B. No technologies should be introduced to the learning situation without consideration of learners’ confidence and competence in their use.
Beetham & Sharpe (2007:36)
N.B. Vygotsky (1986) argued that learning is a socially mediated activity in the first instance, with concepts and skills being internalized only after they have been mastered in a collaborative context.
At more advanced levels learners may prefer to learn alone. Beetham & Sharpe (2007:36)
REFERENCE
Tergan, s. (1997) ‘Misleading theoretical assumptions in hypertext/hypermedia research’, Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 6 (3-4): 257-83.
EMA ACTIVITY IDEA
Students are expected to use online discussion forum to work collaboratively on their answers before the next lecture, which is run in a question and answer format.
Conole and Oliver (2002) requires practioners to describe their own uses of technology (giving a situated and provisional account) and then formalizing this. Sharpe in Beetham & Sharpe (2007:44)
Sharpe in Beetham & Sharpe (2007:47) Design as re-design/
Engestrom, Y. (1999) ‘Activity theory and individual and social transformation’, in Y.Engestrom, R.Mittinen and R.-L, Punamik (eds) Pers[ectives on Activity Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 19-38
CHAPTER 4
Encouraging students to be active agents in their own learning. Masterman and Vogel in Beetham & Sharpe (2007:58)
Social-constructive model of learning
N.B. Introducing a new tool has the potential to change the structure of the learning activity (cf. Vygotsky 19811a; 1981b; Saljo 1996) REFERENCE
Evolution not revolution, ‘step-wise adoption of new activities, which individually may not signify much’. Masterman and Vogel in Beetham & Sharpe (2007:60)
Engestrom (1999) the creative act, rather than the product of that act, is the key to an individual’s development.
CHAPTER 5
Designing for learning is ‘creating a learner workflow’. Britain (2004) Oliver, Harper, Wills, Agostino and Hedberg in Beetham & Sharpe (2007:65) Well-designed workflows can cater for the needs of individual learners.
From Boud and Prosser (2002)
1) Learner engagement
Taking on what they already know and their expectations
2) Acknowledgement of the learning context
And the broader programme of study
3) Learner challenge
Seeking active participation of learners, encouraging learners to be self-critical and supportive of learners’ ampliative skills.
4) Provision of practice.
Articulate and demonstrate what they are learning.
Oliver, Harper, Wills, Agostino and Hedberg in Beetham & Sharpe from Boud and Prosser (2002) (2007:66) Also Sharpe and Oliver in Beetham & Sharpe (2007: Chapter 3)
CHAPTER 6
Grainne Conole
The gap between the potential for technologies to support learning and the reality of how they are actually being used may be due to a lack of understanding about how technologies can be used to afford specific learning advantages. Conole in Beetham & Sharpe (2007:81)
Shift from a focus on information to communications, a shift from passive to more interactive engagement, and a shift from a focus on individual learners to more socially situative learning. Conole in Beetham & Sharpe (2007:81)
Littlejohn et al (forth-coming)
· Digital assets
· Information objects
· Learning activities
· Learning design
Conole in Beetham & Sharpe (2007:82)
Task types Laurillard (1993):
Assimilative
(read, view, listen)
Information handling
Adaptive
(modeling or simulation) (Water poured over sand)
Communicative
(talk about it)
Productive
(essay)
Experiential
Laurillard in Conole in Beetham & Sharpe (2007:84)
Assessment
Diagnostic, formative or summative in nature.
Kolb (1984)
Learning by doing:
Experience
Reflection
Abstraction
Experimentation
REFERENCE
Kolb,D. (1984) Experiential Learning; experience as the Source of Learning and Development, Englewood Cliffs. NJ; Prentice Hall.
Laurillard, D. (1993) Rethinking University Teaching: A Framework for the Effective Use of Educational Technology, London: Routledge.
Littlejohn, A., Falconer, I. and McGill, L. (forthcoming) ‘Characterising effective eLearning resources’, Computers in Education.
CHAPTER 9
Show and tell
Case studies
Eruat (1994) and Knight (2002) both emphasise the importance of informal, social networks that allow for direct access to the tacit knowledge of colleagues.
Mutual accountability in a community of practice (Wenger)
Eraut, M. (1994) Developing Professional Knowledge and Competence, London: Falmer Press.
Knight, P. (2002) ‘A systematic approach to professional development: learning as practice’, Teaching and Teacher Education. 18:229-41.
Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chapter 14
Designing for mobile and wireless learning
Agnes Kukulska-Hulme and John Traxler in Beetham & Sharpe (2007:180)
Greater engagement?
More flexible?
Design for learning, which plays to the strengths of mobile and wireless technologies (learning that is essentially situated, spontaneous, personalized, inclusive, and so on).
Design of aspects of learning such as content, activities and communication.
N.B. matching the technology and the learning it is intended to support.
Market forces drive improvements in interface design, processor speed, battery life and connectivity bandwidth. Agnes Kukulska-Hulme and John Traxler in Beetham & Sharpe (2007:181)
Authentic learning using mobile around ‘content creation, data capture, location-awareness and collaborative working in real-world settings (Chen et al. 2003 and Hine et al. 2004 describe this approach in natural history).
Suggestions
Agnes Kukulska-Hulme and John Traxler in Beetham & Sharpe (2007:187)
Open-endedness – construct some content on location
Personalization – receive, assemble and carry around resources.
Time-critical – content updates
Portability – portfolios in your pocket
Measured delivery – little by little
Aural Medium – listening
Prioritizing – fresh content on the mobile supercedes other
Alternative medium – away from the desk
Naismith et al (2004) in Agnes Kukulska-Hulme and John Traxler in Beetham & Sharpe (2007:180)
Six different types of learning
‘Categories of Activity’
Behaviourist-type
Constructivisit
Situated
Collaborative
Informal and lifelong
Support or coordination
Spontaneous communication and collaboration, e.g. one-to-one or one-to-may by texting or mobile phones, by sending a message to a forum or blog while travelling.
e.g. Childhood journeys. Taking octagenarians home through mobile devices.
REFERENCE
Naismith, L., Lonsdale,P., Vavoula, G. and Sharples, M. (2004) Literature Review in Mobile Technologies and Learning, Report 11 for Futurelab. Online. Available.
An abundance of learning and the world wide Web 2.0 changes everything
A pedagogy of abundance
Spamish Journal of Pedagogy, 249′ pp223-236
Boyer (1990)
What scholars do
1) Discovery
2) Integration
3) Application
4) Teaching
Compared to traditional economics
From an economics of scarcity to an economics of abundance.
Chris Anderson (2008) You give away 90% of a product to earn 1 %
Or giving away the digital object while making money on the physical.
Freemium
The long tail
Traditionally education was like music with the expert scarce …
An instructivist model
While access to expertise remains rare, we have access to journals, videos, blogs, podcasts, slidecasts, also discussion forums, Comments, and blogs.
Siemens (2005) shift to greater control by the learner rsther than the institution. Constructivism, social constructivism and connectivism.
Dialogue, reflection, critical analysis … The essence of learning.
Conole (2008) Web 2.0 the collective and the network. Web 2.0 = niche communities, social purposes, collective political action, amateur journalism, social commrntary.
Seely-Brown and Adler ( 2008) shift to participation and demand-pull.
Free
Abundant
Varied
Easy
Socially based
Connections light
Organisations (Shirky 2008)
User generated content
In a world of abundance the emphasis is less on the creation of new learning materials than on the selection, aggregation and interpretation of existing materials.(Weller 2011) i.e. New learning content becomes the remit of students who through the abundance of stuff and connectivity generate new content. (JV)
Barrows and Tamblyn (1980) problem based learning.
Wenger (1998) the social role of learning and apprenticeship as ‘legitimate peripheral learning’
Bacon and Dillon (2006) Communities of practice.
Siemens and connectivism.
The real issue is user-based content. Eric Schmidt, CEO Google.
REFERENCE
Weller, M (2011) The abundance of learning
What’s your take on social media marketing?
Pic from MMC Learning
‘An approach to learning activity design (Sharpe et al. 2005) concluded that, as well as ICT skills, key issues were learners’ emotional relationship to the technologies they were offered – especially feelings of frustration and alienation – and issues around time management.’
In our tutor group and module forums we’ve gone through time management at length.
Understandably.
Though I suspect that for many of us time passing is the only certain thing in our lives. It has required therapy for me to downplay events when they DON’T go to plan … that life as a Dad, husband, parent, portfolio-worker person, studying (two courses, this and sports related), as well as feeding the guinea-pigs, putting out the rubbish, sorting the recycling, putting air in the tyres on the car, fixing the fence … collecting children from an event, taking them to the station … let alone the other generation, four relatives in their 80s and 135 and 210 miles away.
I’m exhausted just thinking about it.
No schedule set for the morning, let alone the day or the week can be followed. (Which is why I get my hours in 4.40 am to 7.00am each early morning … more pleasant with the sun joining me at last)
So, to the emotional response to technology.
I’ve come to apply the same kind of thinking to technology, yet more technology, especially if I don’t like the look of it, as something that WILL, in the fullness of time, have value.
There is no point putting off engagement with it.
The same applies to a difficult to read text (there has been plenty of that lately). It WILL become clear, it just may take three or more attempts, could involve getting advice from others in the peer group, a search on the web and dare I say it a BOOK. I actually pick up copies of ‘Facebook for Dummies’ and ‘Blogging for Dummies’ as a matter of standard practice from the library (remember them?). These books are authentic, scurrilous and engaging. The body and mind enjoy the break from the computer screen.
I got ‘Digital Marketing for Dummies’ for my Kindle though … how else can I read it in the bath while holding a coffee in my right hand (I am right handed) and ‘the book’ in my left, perfectly able to flick on through pages with my thumb.
Design isn’t just programming when it comes to software.
Compare Mac to PC. Mac not only works, but it is obvious, intuitive and often beautiful to look at.
We are so used to the extraordinary simplicity of Google, YouTube and Facebook that we baulk if a piece of software, perhaps Open Source, doesn’t have the look and feel of the familiar. It IS a DESIGN issue, as in creating a love affair with the object that has both form and function, rather than function alone.
Compendium; it is versatile, engaging and intelligent … but could it dress better and be more intuitive and less ‘nerdy’ ?
More from Sharpe and Beetham:
‘The use of technologies can compound existing differences among learners due to their gender, culture and first language’. Beetham and Sharpe (2007)
I like this too:
Learners cannot therefore be treated as a bundle of disparate needs: they are actors, not factors, in the learning situation. (ibid)
And this:
They make sense of the tasks they are set in terms of their own goals and perspectives, and they may experience tasks quite differently if digital technologies – with all the social and cultural meanings that they carry – are involved. (ibid)
Perhaps we should be seeking advice on these feelings too, how they can get in the way of us tackling technology or a tough read/assignment. After all, if motivated, people will overcome such problems, but if we become demotivated it is habit forming.
REFERENCE
Beetham, H and Sharpe, R ‘Rethinking Pedagogy for the digital age’. (2007)
p.s. This book needs an emotionally appropriate cover. Might I suggest a design from Helen A Dalby. Personally I’d like to see academic publishers make all book iPad friendly with illustrations throughout, maybe video and some interactivity too. Why stick with the rough, when you could make it smooth and cool. Video introduction from each of the authors please … and links to their blog.
Sharpe, R, Benfield, G., lessner, E. and de cicco, E. (2005) Scoping Study for the Pedagogy strand of the JISC e-Learning Programme, Bristol: JISC. Online. Available. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name+elearning pedagogy
Mind Bursts 