Re-designing for change: A New surge for e-learning(?) Betty Collis Moonen & Collis Learning...

Re-designing for change: A New surge for e-learning(?)

Betty CollisMoonen & Collis Learning Technology Consultants20 March 2007, Leicester, UK

It’s been a long journey…

And I’m glad it is not over!

Surges

billow: rise and move, as in waves or billows; "The army surged forward" soar: rise rapidly; "the dollar soared against the yen" rush: a sudden forceful flow a sudden or abrupt strong increase; "stimulated a surge of speculation"; "an upsurge of

emotion"; "an upsurge in violent crime"

an abnormally high voltage lasting for a short period of time an oversupply of voltage from the power company, lasting as long as several seconds. A

strong surge can damage electronic equipment

And in connection with education: the sudden displacement or movement of water in a closed vessel or drum see one's performance improve; "He leveled the score and then surged ahead"

Short-livedRise rapidly Aftermath

Snapshots from the journey

Surge 1: Computers for everyone!

Surge 2: Computer-aided communication for everyone!

Surge 3: The Web: Information access for everyone!

Surge 4: VLEs for everyone(?)

Surge 5: Learning objects for everyone!

Surge 6: Web 2.0 (the Participatory Web) for everyone!

Surge 1

Computers for everyone!

Revolutionize education

Replace the teacher

How? Educational software, intelligent tutoring systems, drill & practice, programming, computer literacy

Surge 1

Computers for everyone!Revolutionize educationReplace the teacherHow? Educational software,

intelligent tutoring systems, drill & practice, programming, computer literacy

Aftermath in education…Tool use was the software

winner (1st place: word processing)

Computers are ubiquitous and indispensable in home, work, play, business, society…everywhere except formal education

Why? Complexity and social nature of learning, programming too difficult

Surge 2

Computer-aided communication for everyone!The world becomes a global

village

Instant communication, anytime, anywhere

How? E-mail, discussion boards (forums), bulletin boards, chat

Surge 2

Computer-aided communication for everyone!The world becomes a global

villageInstant communication,

anytime, anywhereHow? E-mail, discussion

boards (forums), bulletin boards, chat

Aftermath in education:E-mail is ubiquitous but its

use is unstructured One-to-many

communication (see VLEs, Web sites)

Why not more use of discussion tools, personal reflection tools (blogs)? Management, assessment issues, perceived lack of relevance

Surge 3

The Web: Information access for everyone!Interconnectedness,

hyperlinking, non-linear, multi-media

Personal Web pages let anyone be a publisher

How? Browsers, servers, search engines, bookmarks, html editors

Surge 3

The Web: Information access for everyone!Interconnectedness,

hyperlinking, non-linear, multi-media

Personal Web pages let anyone be a publisher

How? Browsers, servers, search engines, bookmarks, html editors

Aftermath for education:Unstructured use of the Web is

ubiquitous, structured use in education tends to be limited to systems maintained by the organization (VLEs, administration systems, library systems, portals)

Why? Education is organized around linear, pre-structured material and events and assessment; Creating personal Web pages via programming is too complicated

Surge 4

VLEs for everyone (?)Definition: “a software

system designed to facilitate teachers in the management of their courses. The services generally include access control, provision of content, communication tools, and administration of user groups”

How? Costly organizational decision, not motivated by pedagogy

Surge 4

VLEs for everyone (?)Definition: “a software system

designed to facilitate teachers in the management of their courses. The services generally include access control, provision of content, communication tools, and administration of user groups”

How? Costly organizational decision, not motivated by pedagogy

Aftermath for education:(Almost) ubiquitous in higher

education; used predominately as bulletin board and content provision, perhaps for management of student submissions

Organizational decisions, not based on “winning hearts and minds”; relevance acknowledged for distance education

(Projected) Surge 5

Learning objects for everyone!Back to the ideas motivating

educational software in the 1980s but overcoming the access barriers

Quality-controlled content, “beads on a string” individualization

How? Metadata, ontologies, standards, national/international projects

(Projected) Surge 5

Learning objects for everyone!Back to the ideas motivating

educational software in the 1980s but overcoming the access barriers

Quality-controlled content, “beads on a string” individualization

How? Metadata, ontologies, standards, national/international projects

Aftermath for education:Turns out not to be a surge

after all…Little or no use in practice

Why? Based on a supply side view of learning; does not fit the complexity, social and personal aspects of learning and teaching, nor the organizational aspects

(Potential) Surge 6

Web 2.0 for everyone!“You control the Information

Age” (“You” are Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2006); “Web 2.0 is all about empowering individuals”, “prosumers”

“You make it” (user generated content), “You name it together”(folksonomy), “You work on it together”, (crowdsourcing), “You find it” (the long tail)”

Example: An online book asks users to submit ideas

for each page/section.

Example: eMusic celebrated its 100-millionth music download by asking the group who recorded the song to write a song about the person who bought it. The song is available for free for a month.

Blog aggregators compile 1000s of related blog posts.

Video toolkits are freely available to help fans make their own movies with artifacts from existing movies.

Phone with digital camera and YouTube: surveillance system, spotlight, microscope, soapbox (65,000 new user-made videos uploaded each day)

Source: Time Magazine, December 25, 2006-January 1, 2007, Vol. 168, No, 26, p. 60.

Other names:Social software

Participatory Web

Collective authoring

Crowdsourcing

Blogger

Virtual Worlds (Second Life)

Users as experts

“An army of Davids”

Power to the People

“A tool for bringing together the contributions of millions of people and making them matter.”

“A massive social experiment with no roadmap”

Source: Time Magazine, December 25, 2006-January 1, 2007, Vol. 168, No, 26, p. 61.

(Potential) Surge 6

Web 2.0 for everyone!“You control the Information

Age” (“You” are Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2006); “Web 2.0 is all about empowering individuals”, “prosumers”

“You make it” (user generated content), “You name it together”(folksonomy), “You work on it together” crowdsourcing), “You find it” (the long tail)”

Aftermath for education???Likely to be totally ignored in

formal education…But, maybe individuals can

have the same collective power to make a difference?

How: Re-designing for change

How can we start to tap this phenomena into education? By designing

assessed activities built around this philosophy and dynamic, and using its tools

How can we start to tap this phenomena into education?

By designing assessed activities in our courses built around this philosophy and dynamic, and using its tools

And how do we do this?

Put learner activity at the core of your course, activity based on “You make it” (user generated content), “You name it together”, “You work on it together”, “You find it” (the long tail)

A taxonomy for redesignBy designing assessed activities built around this philosophy, dynamic, and using its toolsTypes of activities

1.1 Find, contribute 1.2 Adapt or create, contribute

2. Build on contributions

2.1 Locate something

specific within contributions

2.2 Compare

and contrast,

contribute results

2.4.1 For one-time use, within the course

2.4.2 For multiple reuse, within, across

or outside of the course

2.3 Add to, update, extend

contributions

2.4 Combine

contributions to

create a product

Examples, Level 1

Types of activities

1.1 Find, contribute 1.2 Adapt or create, contribute

2. Build on contributions

2.1 Locate something

specific within contributions

2.2 Compare

and contrast,

contribute results

2.4.1 For one-time use, within the course

2.4.2 For multiple reuse, within, across

or outside of the course

2.3 Add to, update, extend

contributions

2.4 Combine

contributions to

create a product

Examples, Level 1

Find and contribute:

•Appropriate Weblinks or references to extend the study material

•Examples of concepts or issues

Do/Capture and contribute:

•Interview results

•Summaries of readings

•Questions that arise during project work and discussions

•One’s own reflections, concerns, ideas

•Video/audio clips

Examples, Levels 2.1-2.2

Types of activities

1.1 Find, contribute 1.2 Adapt or create, contribute

2. Build on contributions

2.1 Locate something

specific within contributions

2.2 Compare

and contrast,

contribute results

2.4.1 For one-time use, within the course

2.4.2 For multiple reuse, within, across

or outside of the course

2.3 Add to, update, extend

contributions

2.4 Combine

contributions to

create a product

Examples, Level 2.1 and Level 2.2

Use and reuse Level 1 contributions in order to:

•Find groupings and trends; visualize them in a concept map or other sorting scheme

•Identify particular contributions that best illustrate or extend the study materials

•Compare and contrast your own entry with those of others; identify similarities and differences

•Select key themes that emerge from the personal reflections or interviews and discuss

Examples, Level 2.3

Types of activities

1.1 Find, contribute 1.2 Adapt or create, contribute

2. Build on contributions

2.1 Locate something

specific within contributions

2.2 Compare

and contrast,

contribute results

2.4.1 For one-time use, within the course

2.4.2 For multiple reuse, within, across

or outside of the course

2.3 Add to, update, extend

contributions

2.4 Combine

contributions to

create a product

Examples, Level 2.3

Add to collections of:

•Frequently asked questions (with answers)

•Practice exam questions (with explanations)

•Index terms, glossary entries

•Weblinks (adding something that can update, expand upon or replace a previous entry)

•Add comments or extensions to previously submitted items (such as to Wiki entries)

Examples, Level 2.4.1

Types of activities

1.1 Find, contribute 1.2 Adapt or create, contribute

2. Build on contributions

2.1 Locate something

specific within contributions

2.2 Compare

and contrast,

contribute results

2.4.1 For one-time use, within the course

2.4.2 For multiple reuse, within, across

or outside of the course

2.3 Add to, update, extend

contributions

2.4 Combine

contributions to

create a product

Examples, Level 4.2.1

Contribute to a collection of:

•Hints and tips for others studying the same materials

•Resources for peer coaching during the course

•Case studies from participants’ own work and experience to be studied by others during the course

•Video/audio clips of interviews or examples to illustrate and extend the study materials

Examples, Level 2.4.2

Types of activities

1.1 Find, contribute 1.2 Adapt or create, contribute

2. Build on contributions

2.1 Locate something

specific within contributions

2.2 Compare

and contrast,

contribute results

2.4.1 For one-time use, within the course

2.4.2 For multiple reuse, within, across

or outside of the course

2.3 Add to, update, extend

contributions

2.4 Combine

contributions to

create a product

Examples, Level 2.4.2

Create a resource for use by others beyond only the course participants such as:

A resource collection for practitioners, available via the Web

A collection of information for a community or for local industry

Materials for students in local schools to interest them in an area of study

The result is the starting point of someone else’s learning

Types of activities

1.1 Find, contribute 1.2 Adapt or create, contribute

2. Build on contributions

2.1 Locate something

specific within contributions

2.2 Compare

and contrast,

contribute results

2.4.1 For one-time use, within the course

2.4.2 For multiple reuse, within, across

or outside of the course

2.3 Add to, update, extend

contributions

2.4 Combine

contributions to

create a product

Challenges: For learners, instructors, technical support, the organization

Hopefully, Surge 6

Web 2.0 for everyone!“You control the Information

Age” (“You” are Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2006); “Web 2.0 is all about empowering individuals”, “prosumers”

“You make it” (user generated content), “You name it together”, “You work on it together”, “You find it (the long tail)”

Aftermath for education???

Individuals can have the collective power to make a difference

How: Re-designing for change

Prof. dr. Betty CollisBetty.Collis@Utwente.nl

bettycollisjefmoonen@gmail.com

For more…

Collis, B., & Moonen, J. (2005). An on-going journey: Technology as a learning workbench. Available via http://bettycollisjefmoonen.nl