Digital Literacies Thesis and Coursework module

Models of learning – should they change in digitally mediated

settings?

Karin Tusting

Models of learning

• Drawing on Tusting and Barton 2003/6, Models of Adult Learning, NIACE

• Produced to inform adult literacy and numeracy research

• Revisit in relation to digital literacies • Importance of making underlying models of

learning explicit

Models from psychology

• Learning in the individual mind – Behaviourism – Cognitivism – Cognitive constructivism – ‘Staged’ developmental models

Models from psychology

• Learning as socially situated – changing participation – Activity theory (social constructivism)

• Mind develops through engagement in – Goal-oriented activity – In interaction with others – Using mediating tools – material and cultural

– Situated cognition – Communities of practice

Models from adult education

• ‘Andragogy’: characteristics of adults learning, different from children – Learn when there is a reason for learning – Self-directed – Problem-centred, not subject-centred – Have extensive real-life experience to draw on – Learning in relationship to tasks associated with

social role / stage of life – Internal, not external motivation

Models from adult education • Humanistic psychology

– Intrinsic drive to growth and self-actualisation • Once more basic needs are fulfilled (Maslow)

(image from simplypsychology.org)

– Learning as personally / socially transformative

Models from adult education

• Development of various elements of andragogical model – Self-directed learning

• Self-directed style, vs. Self-directed activities

– Learning to learn – Informal learning

– Reflective / experiential learning (Dewey) • Learning cycle (Kolb)

(image from ldu.leeds.ac.uk)

• Learning styles

– Transformative learning

Models from adult education

• Postmodern theories of learning – Rejecting notions of ‘truth’ and progress narrative

towards integration / actualisation – Experience as an open text – Learning as a process of creative meaning

construction

Summarises key points about adult learning

• Adults have their own motivations for learning • Adults have a drive towards self-direction and

autonomy in learning • Adults can learn about their own learning processes,

explicitly • Adults learn through participation and engaging in

practice • Adults reflect on and learn from their real life

experiences • Reflective learning is unique to the person; a lot of

learning arises from situations and can’t be planned • Adult learning is potentially transformative, as people

reflect on experience and see situations in new ways

> Distinctiveness of learning digital literacies – or not?

Models of learning digital literacies?

• Learning in the digital age – How the affordances of digital contexts shape the

sort of learning that happens – How the digital context highlights more general

principles about learning – How the digital context offers possibilities

different from traditional educational institutions – Implications for learning of young people as

‘digital insiders’

New models of learning in digital spaces?

• Haythornthwaite et al. 2007 – claim that there is a need for new theories and models for the online learning environment – Formal and informal learning – Individual and community learning – New practices

Impact of computer media on communication

– Possibilities for anonymity of individual and audiences, and / or invisibility of physical attributes, local setting, side activities (though – changing with more multimodal activities, video chats?)

– Persistence and retrievability of conversational text – living repository for group norms, expertise and identity, enactment of ‘community of practice’

– Attention can be divided between local and remote – eg juggling learning with family and work

Models proposed – Living technologies (Bruce) – Co-evolution of technology and learning practices

(Andrews) – Technology and social tie formation

(Haythornthwaite) – Community-embedded learning (Kazmer) – Learner-leaders (Montague) – Braided learning (Preston)

• > All address themes of emergence, complexity, embedding contexts – technology and practices co-evolving as living, active system

Resonances with existing models

• Psychology – Constructivism – Activity theory / situated learning – Experiential learning

• Adult education – Self-directed – Reflective / experiential – Problem-driven – Drive to move to next stage of development

Over to you

• Do we need new theories to describe learning in digital environments, or can existing models account for what is going on?

• Which of the models of learning in the report you read ‘fit’ with learning in digital environments? Which ones don’t fit well?

• Do you have other models or metaphors which help you understand learning in digital environments?

Activity: Your own learning histories • Produce a ‘timeline’ of your own personal life history of

learning which has engaged in some way with digital technologies. You can do a general life history timeline, or focus in more closely on how you have learned to engage with a particular platform (Facebook, Twitter, Moodle (!), ….)

• For each ‘point’ on your timeline, try to identify which of the models discussed here represents your learning in the most appropriate or useful way.

• Upload a representation of this timeline to the discussion section on the Moodle site. You can – Use the affordances of the Moodle site; – Produce a document and attach it, using software of your choice

(make sure it is in a form we can all read though!); – Use a dedicated ‘timeline’ producing site (eg tiki-toki, capzles,

dipity) and upload a link to Moodle.