Teaching with emerging technologies in higher education:

facilitating a short course across institutional boundaries

Dick Ng'ambi University of Cape Town Vivienne Bozalek

University of the Western Cape Daniela Gachago

Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Presentation Outline

•  Introduction o  Challenges facing SA HE

•  Why we did it o  Shared challenges across

institutions

•  What we did o  Conceptualisation of the module o  Designing for 21st century

learners

•  Methodology o  Theory-based framework o  Description of Case Study

•  What we learnt o  Cloud-based tools over LMS o  Design for flexibility o  Design for meaningful learning

•  Analysis of results o  Positive/Negative participant

experiences

•  Did we succeed?

•  Ongoing work •  Conclusion

Introduction

Mission: Four institutions convening a single module for educators drawn from these institutions with a shared goal of modeling teaching with emerging technologies to improve teaching & learning practices.

disrupting existing institutional practices

The  South  African  higher  educa2on  landscape  is  s2ll  affected  by  the  historical  inequi/es  of  past  policies,  and  many  students  and  Higher  

Educa2on  Ins2tu2ons  (HEIs),  par2cularly  the  Historically  Disadvantaged  Ins2tu2ons  (HDIs)  are  affected  by  scarce  resources  and  poverty.  Higher  

educa2on  ins2tu2ons  themselves  are  also  unequally  placed  with  regard  to  resources  and  the  students  that  they  enroll    (Bozalek  &  Boughey,  2012)  

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Challenges facing SA HEIs

•  Too much time wasted in reinventing the wheel - in Silos •  Best practices are 'locked up' in walls and not shared

Why we did it

Objective: to create a conducive learning space where participants could be free to share ideas and experiences with peers and facilitators from other HEIs.

What we did

Source: http://checet.blogspot.com/

Conceptualisation of the module

Approach: As a practice-based module, participants were

encouraged to focus on their own practice in their respective disciplines, think about their students' learning needs, and to develop practices that they could apply/use with their students.

Learning for use, learning for relevance and learning to change how I currently teach - situated learning (Brown et al., 1989)

Designing learning for 21st century learners

Challenge: Participants from diverse disciplines had a shared

challenge of designing meaningful learning for 21st century learners

We did not want to teach colleagues but wanted them to learn, not to learn

about tools but how to teach with tools So...

We de-emphasised teaching to foreground learning and de-emphasised tools and

emphasised practice

Methodology

Meaningful learning and interaction

Theory-based design framework

Pedagogical Model

Learning Strategies

Pedagogical tools

Theory: a tightly coupled relationship between pedagogical model (learning objective), learning strategies (activities) and pedagogical tools (appropriate technologies) is required for meaningful learning (Adapted from: Dabbagh, 2005)

1

2

3

Description of case study

Description of Case Study

Institution 2011 2012 Total

UWC 8 8 16

CPUT 3 3 6

UCT 3 3 6

SU 6 7 13

Total 20 21 42

Challenge: four institutions, four LMSs! Case Study 1: a LMS of one institution was used. Reviewed and adjusted. Case Study 2: focus was on cloud-based tools.

Shared challenges across institutions

Case Study 1: All four participating institutions each had a different

LMS which meant that for some participants: i) the LMS was new to them, ii) experiences might not be meaningful in their respective

contexts Case Study 2: We decided to focus on cloud-based tools. So re-

designed to model best practices for empowering educators on teaching with emerging technologies.

What we learnt quickly

Cloud-based tools

Generic tools become pedagogical tools when wrapped around pedagogy and learning strategies

How we designed for flexibility

Private Law Medical

biosciences

Psychiatry

Pathology

Civil Eng

Agriculture

Languages

Women & gender

Nursing

Education

Sports Science

Educational Technology

Flexible design of module's building blocks

Designing for meaningful learning

Adapted from: Dabbagh (2005)

We used this approach to facilitate the module, participants used it to design learning for their students. The application of the framework by participants was assessed. In the next slides, we present how participants appropriated it (framework) for their students.

Analysis of results 1/2

Observation 1: Student engagement + participative creation of content + using Wikispaces = meaningful learning (ml) Observation 2: Collaborative learning + development of e-portfolios + Facebook group = ml

Analysis of results 2/2

Observation 3: foster interaction + peer assessment + blogs = ml Observation 4: improve attention span + interact with peers & content + polleverywhere = m Observation 5: enhance collaboration + collaborative writing + wiki = mll

Technology was less emphasied and largely ‘invisible’

"For me it was a firsthand experience using a network-

communication environment. I found it greatly engaging and there were so many valuable comments made online that really helped to shape my assignment ... which, I believe would not all have been forthcoming in a face-to-face session..."

Positive participant experiences 1/2

Learning through reflection on practice I had never really spent so much time reflecting on my

teaching and what I'm doing in the lecture room. It was a great and sometimes a sobering experience. I just did not find the blogs too helpful to write the assignment.

Positive participant experiences 2/2

Pedagogical model

tool

A typical example of foregrounding learning through emphasing practice

Some educators didn't like being lectured to I did not like the focus on the first day on

pedagogy and the use of jargon. While I do like the focus on the best use of a tool for learning rather than the learning, not having previously been exposed to pedagogy (despite 15 years of teaching) I found this put me off a lot.

Negative participant experience

Modeling practice I loved how you guys designed the structure of the entire

course ... how each exercise led to next and eventually each exercise combining into a finished tool combined with a thought out assignment ... excellent , Although I did not notice this on the first day ... it eventually was like a little adventure ride :)

participants also reported on integrating what they had

learnt into their own practice

Did we achieve the modeling of practice goal?

Still being learnt is how...

....to explore an effective collaborative model for designing and facilitating inter-institutional modules that minimizes possible intellectual tensions yet fostering collegiality and expansive knowledge sharing community.

Ongoing work

Conclusion

•  Policies that discourage inter-institutional competition and encourage collaboration are needed

•  Cultures that values and recognises innovative teaching and learning are required

•  Uses of ET for transforming T&L ought to become a strategic goal for institutions

•  Funding, evaluation and reward for inter-institutional educational initiatives that promote innovative pedagogical practices must be sought

Anderson, T., & McGreal, R. (2012). Disruptive Pedagogies and Technologies in Universities. Educational Technology & Society, 15 (4), 380–389.

Bozalek, V. & Boughey, C. (2012) (Mis)Framing Higher Education in South Africa. Social Policy & Administration, 46(6):688-703.

Bozalek, V., Ng’ambi, D. & Gachago, D. (in press) Transforming teaching with emerging technologies: Implications for Higher Education Institutions, South African Journal of Higher Education

Brown, J. S., Collins, A. & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning Educational Researcher, 18 1, 32-42.

Dabbagh, N. (2005). Pedagogical models for E-Learning: A theory-based design framework. International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning, 1(1), 25-44.

Veletsianos, G. (2011). Designing Opportunities for Transformation with Emerging Technologies.Educational Technology, 51(2), 41-4

References

Any questions or comments?

Thank you!