Merlot 2006 Key Note - Working with and Learning from Pedagogical Expertise

Merlot 2006

Opening General Session, Diana Laurillard, Chair of Learning with Digital Technologies, London Knowledge Lab.

“Faculty who want to re-use shared digital resources for innovative learning and teaching are often working in an environment with limited pedagogical support. They need practical assistance in how to best use such resources in activities for their learners, given the intended outcomes, defined in terms of the curriculum skills, knowledge and expected progression; the student body, defined in terms of learners’ needs, prior experience, expectations, skills and competencies; and the learning environment, defined in terms of human, physical and digital resources, tools and services.”

This presentation explored the Learning design issues practitioners are confronted with in their transition from traditional teaching and learning to e-Learning.

Some of the principles underpinning the UK experience are

• There is a need to personalize teaching & learning
• All teaching and learning needs to be inclusive
• Flexibility is critical but there also needs to be room for blended learning models
• Improve productivity can result if effort and commitment are recognized and rewarded

The principles were developed and applied to all sectors of education in the UK. It was to be totally inclusive. At the same time it challenged

• low ICT skills in staff and students
• weak content that had evolved early but now provides valuable lessons for needed transitional pedagogy and cultural changes.
• Lack of infrastructure, infrastructure management and infrastructure support.

This enable 6 key developments

• Needed integrated online e-Iearning resources
• Online personalal support for learners
• Collaboration of all practitioners and support staff
• ICT training for all
• Leadership to enable people to do their best work
• Common digital infrastructure and digital resources that enable interoperability

eLearning begins and ends with strong innovative educational leadership in all speres; that is pedagogy, infrastructure, support and Professional Development.

Drivers

• Plans
• Funding
• Learner needs
• Stakeholders
• Career opportunities that reward effort
• Curriculum that supports a variety of options options.
• Curriculum requirements demanded by eLearning

Enablers

• Training & Development
• Information guidance
• Shareable resources/designs that can be re-contextualised or re-purposed
• Online communities to support peers.

Teachers needs, see Diana Laurillard’s slides at http://www.merlot.org/ on the teachers needs and challenges

• Which Included IP&C support as teachers are ore vulnerable in the new environment
• Career opportunities
• Information advice and economic modeling to support investment in development

JISC role – a pedagogy planner

• Offers assistance for eLearning quality and re-use
• Blended learning options beyond eLearning options
• Iterative design will be ongoing
• Enabling collaboration
• Implementation environment for testing
• User organizing test environment and practicing here before release

Lecturers needs

• Give me ideas
• Help me design
• Make it easy
• Help me plan my work
• Need flexibility to start small or large
• Link activities to resources
• Try one objective per week
• Mind manager and module genie are planning tools used

LD Information flow – see slides

• Think about the basic information they already have
• Decide study hours for balancing - could be very challenging but it is focusing on student to ensure teachers manage expectations and curriculum needs; that is don’t over or underestimate students study time to achieve the learning.
• Assign learning activities – see the planner on slides
• Then develop calendar to inform students of the course expectations.

The pedagogy planning

• Work on an objective (2 Student Contact Hours) per week, this equates to perhaps a competency or element of the competency per week in our Training Package framework.
• Refine learning objectives to enable student understanding of what is to be learned
• Define learner difficulties with this objective
• Pedagogical Patterns site http://www.pedagogicalpatterns.org/ is worth looking at
• Seek out reusable LO’s
• Sequence the deign – UK using LAMS for this
• Adapt a related learning activity sequence
• Scaffold the sequence
• Ask, how then is this assessed, and plan appropriate assessment
• Finally publish the model knowing and encouraging taht it can be changed
• This model could then be adapted for other areas of study/construct promoting re-use of learning design
• Start at the specific and then adapt for generalization of a learning sequence

Will this meet the drivers

• This is tested in the http://www.lamscommunity.org/ as a published learning sequence (action research) that can lead to career opportunities for the teacher by being innovative teacher which equates to action research – publishing in The Learning Edge provide this opportunity

See Diana Laurillard’s References slide for useful links

Summary

• Education planning and strategies are critical
• Practitioners (teachers and technical) need support if they are to succeed
• eLearning demands flexibility whilst using blended methodologies
• Innovation in teaching is action research and must be recognized as research
• Learning design must support the action research but the learning design will be an iterative process
• eLearning must capture relevant pedagogy
• There is no alternative to effective exploitation of technology.