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Embracing change, where might daring to think differently take us?

Gráinne Conole, Open University, UKThe Blended Learning EventMassey University, 10th- 14th December 2009

More info, slides and references:http://cloudworks.ac.uk/

+Outline Context

Recent key reports and research Convergence of technology and pedagogy? Paradoxes created by ‘digital’ and educational dilemmas The gap between the promise and the reality

Daring to think differently Designing for learning

Representing and guiding design Discussing and sharing

Drawing on related research

A framework for intervention Research evidence Policy direction The learner voice Academic practice

Grand challenges

The landscape of the web 2.0 world….

Exploring new digital territories

+ The broader context

+ Technologies: changing, evolving…

Ubiquitous & networkedContext and location awareMobile technologiesCloud computing

+On the horizon: Learning in the Cloud

Sclater, N. (2009)

Clouds are a large pool of easily usable and accessible virtualized resources (such as hardware, development platforms and/or services). These resources can be dynamically re-configured to adjust to a variable load (scale), allowing also for an optimum resource utilization. This pool of resources is typically exploited by a pay-per-use model in which guarantees are offered by the Infrastructure Provider by means of customized SLAs.

+Virtual learning

+Content, tools & designs free

New tools for sense-making & dialogue

Barriers to sharing & reuse

Redefining content

+Education for free: CCK08 & discourse

ltc.umanitoba.ca/blogs/futurecourse/

Did we change the world? No. Not yet. But we (and I mean all course participants, not just Stephen and I) managed to explore what is possible online. People self-organized in their preferred spaces. They etched away at the hallowed plaque of “what it means to be an expert”. They learned in transparent environments, and in the process, became teachers to others. Those that observed (or lurked as is the more common term), hopefully found value in the course as well. Perhaps life circumstances, personal schedule, motivation for participating, confidence, familiarity with the online environment, or numerous other factors, impacted their ability to contribute. While we can’t “measure them” the way I’ve tried to do with blog and moodle participants, their continued subscription to The Daily and the comments encountered in F2F conferences suggest they also found some value in the course.

+The learner voice Technologically immersed

Learning processes Task orientated, experiential,

cummulative

Attitudes and approaches group orientated, experiential,

able to multi-task, just in time mindset, comfortable with multiple representations

Disconnect between student & institutional approaches

Caution re: net gen claims, importance of taking account of student differences

Do seem to be age related changes taking place and these are strongly linked to social networking and the use of a range of new

Netgeneration, Digital Natives.... (Oblinger, Prensky, etc.), Ecar reports, Kennedy survey, Chris Jones, Mary Thorpe, JISC LEX projects, Sharpe and Beetham (forthcoming)

+Personalised and mobile Individualised Personal

Learning Environment

Synchronised information across devices

Location and context aware

Have we crossed a threshold?

The i-phone as truly transformative

….but what’s next?

+Reflection: e-portfolios

+New learning spaces

Combining the affordances of new technologies with good pedagogy

Taking account of context, location and time

SKG: Learning Spaces project, Australia

12 3

bac+

Inspire by Pea &Wallis, 2008

We can now interactat a distance, accessing complex & useful resources in ways unimaginable in early eras

What’s the next stage of the co-evolution?

Phases of development Tool-user co-evolution

Internet

Mobile devices

TV

Radio

Smart tools

Phone

+Converging practices

Modern technologies Modern pedagogy Web 2.0 practices

Location aware technologies

Adaptation & customisation

Second life/immersive worlds

Google it!

“Expert badges”, World of warcraft

User-generated content

Blogging, peer critiquing

Cloud computing

From individual to social

Contextualised and situated learning

Personalised learning

Experiential learning

Inquiry learning

Peer learning

Open Educational Resources

Reflection

Distributed cognition

+Expansive knowledge domain

Death of expertise/everyone an expert

Hierarchy & control less meaningful

Multiple pathways/lost in cyberspace

Increasingly complex digital landscape

Beyond ‘digital space’/New metaphors

Content distributed, everything is miscellaneous

Multiple (co-)locations/loss of content integrity

Collective intelligence

Social collective/digital individualism

Free content & tools, open APIs and mash ups

Issues re: ownership, value, business models

Paradoxes created by the digital

+Expansive knowledge domain

Challenges the role of the teacher

Hierarchy & control less meaningful

Need for new learner pathways

Increasingly complex digital landscape

Widening skills gap between ‘tech savy’/others

Content distributed, everything is miscellaneous

Need to rethink the design process

Collective intelligence

Potential for new forms of learning

Free content & tools, open APIs and mash ups

Lack of uptake

Educational dilemmas

+Digital literacies

Jenkins twelve skills for participatory culture Play – experimentation/problem solving Performance – alternative identities Simulation – construct models of real-world processes Appropriation – sample and remix of media content Multitasking – scanning and then focusing on salient details Distributed cognition – interaction to expand mental capacities Collective intelligence - to pool knowledge with others Judgment – evaluation reliability of different information Transmedia navigation – follow the flow of stories across modalities Networking – search for, synthesize and dissemination information Negotiation – travel diverse communities, multiple perspectives Visualisation – different data representations for ideas, patterns,

trends

Digital literaciesSeely BrownJenkinsLea and GoodfellowLankshear

+The gap between promise & reality

Common reactions: “I haven’t got time” “My research is more important” “What’s in it for me?” “Where is my reward?” “I don’t have the skills to do this” “I don’t believe in this, it won’t work”

Common resistance strategies: I’ll say yes (and do nothing) Undermine the initiative Undermine the person involved Do it badly

Classic mistakes: Emphasis on the technologies, not the people and processes Funding for technology developments but not use and support

Free resources Little reuse

Array of technologies

Not fully exploited

+Daring to think differently

Can we develop new technology-enabled approaches to support ‘core’ learning and teaching? Finding (resources, information, tools,

expertise) Creating and adapting (resources) Designing/aggregating (learning activities or

pathways) Communicating (peer-peer, learner-teacher) Reflection (assessment, professional

development)

+Designing for learning

Empirical evidence:

Interviews, surveys, web stats, workshops

Representing pedagogy and designs

Guiding practice

Discussing and sharing

+OULDI….

Design methods:schema & patterns

Tools: Visualisation & guidance

Events:

Cloudworks: sharing & discussing

+Representation and guidance

Seeing curriculum differently Not content focused Different views to foreground different

aspects Recognising design at different levels –

from activity to whole course

Levels Micro: Individual learning activity (Task

swim line) Meso: A ‘block of learning’ (mapping

outcomes to assessment/activities etc.) Macro: Whole course level (Course map

and Pedagogy profile)

+Micro: Task swim line Based on:

Roles – student, tutor, etc. Tasks – read, discuss, etc. Tools and resources Outputs

Using CompendiumLD

Advantages Makes design explicit Maps out design Sharable with others Good at activity level

+CompendiumLD Visual maps with icons

+ connections

The method is an important as the tool

Multiple layers, maps within maps

Drag and drop different file formats (images, videos etc.)

In-situ design help

+Meso: Outcomes map

Based on: Can map learning outcomes

to activities, assessment or content

Can use connections to describe

Using Cmap

Advantages Makes design explicit Highlights any gaps Gives an overview of the

block

+Cmap

Concept mapping tool

Concepts with links

Links called propositions

Can add resources to concepts

Can export in a variety of formats

+Macro: Course map &Pedagogy profile

Course map Gives an ‘at a glance’ view Based on 5 mains aspects of a

course Can differentiate ‘real’ & digital

Pedagogy profile Maps to types of activities the

students do Can look at different timeframes

Advantages Profiles pedagogical overview Can compare with other courses

Guidance &support

Evidence & demonstration

Information & experience

Communication &interaction

Thinking & reflection

Course map

Gives an “at a glance view”

Five components to any course

Uses:

Represent a course

Compare

Design

Course map/At a glance representation

Guidance and support “Learning pathway”Course structure and timetableCourse calendar, study guide, tutorials

Information and experience “Content and activities”Could include course materials, prior experience or student generated contentReadings, DVDs, podcasts, lab or field work, placements

Communication and interaction “Dialogue”Social dimensions of the course, interaction with other students and tutorsCourse forum, email

Thinking and reflection “Meta-cognition”Internalisation and reflection on learningIn-text questions, notebook, blog, e-portfolio,

Evidence and demonstration “Assessment”Diagnostic, formative and summativeMultiple choice quizzes, TMAs, ECA

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Information & experience

PDF resources

Links to e-journal articles and other websites

Evidence & demonstration

6 TMAs – submitted online (505 of overall score)

3hr examination (50% of overall score)

Thinking & reflection

Activities throughout learning guides (4-7 per guide)

5 website ‘interactives’

Journal space in MyStuff

Core questions, thinking points and summaries in course books

Communication & interaction

Course-wide Café forum

Tutor group forums with sub-forums for each block

F2F tutorials near beginning, middle and end of course (some regional variation)

Guidance & support

Study planner

20 Learning guides

General assessment guidance

TMA questions

Course guide

Study calendar

KE312 Working Together for Children60pt course over 32 weeks3 blocks/20 learning guidesWhole weeks devoted to TMAsConsolidation week (week 22)

• Practice related• Aligned to latest prof framework for mult-agency working• Rich case studies• Read – relate to practice – reflect – write

3 co-published course books (21 chapters/ 960pp)

DVD – videos of 3 practice settings + interviews (XXmin)

Plus own experience and practice

Tutor support – 1:20; 21 contact hrs; band 7

Course map 31

Mick Jones, Associate Dean, HSC, OU

+Pedagogy profile

Map of student tasks to time periods (weeks, semesters, etc)

Six types of student tasks + assessment

Each cell indicates the amount of time spent in that period on each type of task

Widget provides graphical view

32

+Cloudworks: the dialogic element Issues

Lack of uptake of technologies for learning and teaching New skills needed for engaging in a participatory digital

landscape Teachers say they want examples/want to share/discuss

Aim To bridge the gap between the potential of technologies and

their actual use in an educational context

Research question Can we harness web 2.0 practices to foster better sharing and

discussing of learning and teaching ideas and designs?

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+Key concepts

Clouds: core objects in Cloudworks

Cloudscapes: collections of clouds

Activity streams: dynamic filters of new activity

Follow and be followed: Personal activity stream

and peer recognition

+Putting it all together

The learning design toolbox Pick and mix of tools, resources, activities, methods

and templates

Tailored workshops and events Working with new MBA programme at OU Brunel Blended Learning Design Challenge Reading and Southbank events in development Educational Technology User Group (Canada)

Workshops

Integration with other research

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Design for learning

Open Educational Resources

Pedagogical patterns

Guiding the design processRange of representationsDialogue around designs

Free resourcesInherent designsStudent view

Abstracted best practiceSolutions to a problemLanguage as related problems

Building on other research….

+OLnet: Open Learning network

Network

Research

Fellowships

From producing open resources to use of open resources•Build capacity•Find evidence•Refine the issues

Process designPrior designs & resources New designs

Content (OER repositories, etc)

Methods (Pedagogical Patterns)

New OER & designs

Visualisation (CompendiumLD)

Sharing (Cloudworks)

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Policy

Research & development

Teacher practice

The learner’s experience

A framework for interventionInstitutional & national fundingEmbedding in strategyAligning to technology trends

Changing user behaviourDrivers and challenges

Actual use in practiceWhat’s in it for me?

Evidence of impact

+Final thoughts Students increasingly digital – demands on institutions?

Students and teachers - personalised environment of tools vs. institutional tools?

What new forms of blended learning spaces are needed?

How do we support new approaches to design and delivery of courses to make more effective use of technologies and lead to an enhance student learning experience?

How do we take account of a digital divide that is ever narrower but deeper?

What new digital literacy skills will learners and teachers need ?

What new pedagogical models are needed to marry the affordances of personalisation with the best affordances of technologies?

How do we account for blurring boundaries (real/virtual, formal/informal, etc)?

+Grand challenges

Digital divide is ever increasing. How do we deal with this?

Are we seeing Jenkin’s 12 digital literacies skills? How can we help those in education develop these more?

How can we study these complex, fast evolving technological systems ? New methodologies?

What theoretical insights should we draw on?

Is there evidence of new pedagogies emerging?

Are we capable (and willing) to rise to the challenge?

+Flickr images

Treasure island 1 http://www.flickr.com/photos/tontoncopt/2075310775/

Web 2.0 city http://www.flickr.com/photos/4everyoung/313308360/

Grand challenges http://www.kamaelia.org/GrandChallengesCover.png