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Notions:
skill, organisation, referential meaning, whole, mental models, facts, connections, understanding, learning to learn, previous knowledge, experience, holistic, atomistic, completeness, approach, stress (emotion), context

Skill: the nature or quality of an interaction
Organisation: the aspect of the treatment of the learning material most closely linking the qualities of knowledge and outcome of learning and the approaches to learning.

1. Learning facts

Referential meaning is a basic characteristic of a stated fact. Organisation is fundamental in the learning of facts as it is bound up with referential meaning

Differences in understandings of a text is the consequence of 1) a fact and 2) the rest of the text and the previous knowledge of the learner
To learn to use previous knowledge, to organise and to extend meaning are important aspects of skill in understanding and learning. To develop these qualities is to learn how to learn

2. Learning for understanding (more complex learning)

The learning of the organised whole, through a grasp of the interrelation between the parts which make up that whole
Completeness: the degree of complexity and fidelity of an understanding (improving it means an improved analytical and interpretative skills)
The difference between a holistic and an atomistic approach is the most crucial difference between interactions with complex learning materials. The other being completeness.
There are also variations within both approaches

What may also be learned, in addition to a new understanding, is the skill of learning
To be skilled in learning, means to be deep, holistic and complete in approach and understanding. The most important aspect of this is the open exploration and use of the possibilities inherent in the material, allied to a consideration of relevant previous knowledge

3. Skill in studying

Relationship between skill in learning and skill in studying
It is in the interests of students to be selective and to focus their studying in accordance with the examination

www.tla.ed.ac.uk/...EoL4.pdf - Preview

e-learning ULOE_MSc idea connections context

Notions:
knowledge, learning, intuition, interest, patterns, competence, activities, commited learning, generativity, regime of competence

Knowledge and learning are almost always viewed in forms associated with current literacies.

Part 1: intuitive knowledge

It's what schools ought to supply but schooling is based on current literacies and on current popular prejudices about the forms of knowledge that are valuable.

Hidden knowledge, such as knowledge in forms we aren't used to recognise, is frequently assigned to the category of "intelligence"

Part 2: the structure of activities and "committed learning"

Theory of the structure and evolution of activites.

Interest (which is always contingent) is an important component of understanding the structure of activities.
Interest falls into patterns (groups inter-related activities that all belong to a broader family).
Interests evolve and give birth to new interests: generativity (as opposed to the stability in teaching/learning that occurs in schools)

Competence is the other component of understanding the structure of knowledge.

Competence (the motor to climb hills) and interest (speed gained going down the far side of the hill) work together something like a roller coaster.
Importance of the territory in which you find yourself.
Scientists are people who know how to manage a perpetual roller-coaster game.

Activities in which we engage to learn are at least as important as setting a knowledge-oriented specification of our curriculum.

A primary focus of "committed learning" is the "fabric of activities in which one learns".

Committed relationship entails a feeling of ownership, personal connections and competence such that engagement in activity is seen as an extension of ourselves.

Committed learning almost always happens in a "regime of competence" (unlike what mostly happens in schools).

We need to learn effective principles of committed learning and the design of learning environments to foster it.

Computers provide tremendous possibilities to engage

books.google.fr/books - Preview

e-learning ULOE_MSc connections

Notions:
inclusivity, accessibility, engagement, connections, identity, conceptions of and approaches to teaching, design

Students value teaching that recognises their individual academic and social identities and that addresses their particular learning needs.
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University teachers need to develop inclusive pedagogic practices and curricula that takeaccount of the diverse interests and needs of students in each class.

The dominant notion of traditional and non-traditional students creates over-simplistic understandings which limit the development of inclusive, engaging teaching.
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Academic developers should help create a more sophisticated understanding of diversity that reflects students’ range of social, culturaland educational backgrounds.

University systems designed to assure quality and maximise the economic efficiency of teaching constrain teachers’ capacity to create inclusive pedagogies.
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University leaders need to ensure that systems do not limit the learning of students from diverse cultural, social and educational backgrounds.

www.tlrp.org/...Hockings%20RB%2041%20FINAL.pdf - Preview

e-learning design OA_MSc accessibility connections self

Notions:
formative, summative, MCQs, self-assessment, connections

** Gives very interesting practical information **

More students, higher diversity, less resources, more support needed for students having higher expectations about formative feedback, especially because of other commitments (job, ...)

Changes implemented in a first year Biology course:

- summative and formative weekly quizzes
Commercial product has saved time and money
Benefits: instant feedback, control over order of questions, preference towards questions including diagrams, photo or graphs, multiple choice format, quick to complete

- mock exam to clarify what good performance is
Paper-based, marked by students in their own time from paper-based or web-based info, enter their answers in the web-based version which gives them feedback (helps them identify their understanding, which in turn might indicate the need for some remedial action). Depending on mark, they might be encouraged to use web-based revision materials

- self-assessment modules (SAMs) designed to draw together related parts of a course to help students make connections between topics and to promote a deeper learning strategy through feedback and reinforcement
Each SAM tests on 4 level of understanding of increasing difficulty, with students comparing their work with sample answers.
At the beginning of each SAM, students are directed to a statement of educational rationale (value of self-assessment mainly) and are informed of what each level is testing. They're encouraged to reflect on their experience.
Benefits: being able to choose the level of difficulty, receiving formative feedback even if they quit the module before the end, helps in revising, in understanding the material (especially for level 1 and 2 more concerned with content itself), in indicating areas of improvement, offering diagrams of ideas and being a different approach than the textbook, *relating concepts*

Mix of formative and summative assessment is recommended

(Most materials mentionned are accessible

www3.interscience.wiley.com/...abstract - Preview

e-learning self assessment connections tool OA_MSc feedback

Notions:
Metaphors, connections

Pedagogy is the art of teaching but there's no word about the art of learning. Let's introduce "mathetics" as this word.

Any kind of "playing with problems" will enhance the abilities that lie behind their solution.
Anyone who is not mentally defective can solve any problem if they are willing to take the time.
Many examples of why school in general don't follow the right principles.
Importance of talking about the problem and taboo associated with our own difficulties in understanding.
Making connections between "the thing to learn" and one of our personal interests as an essential steps towards learning.
The deeper I got into my "affair" with flowers, the more connections were made; and more connections meant that I was driven in all more strongly, that the new connections supported one another more effectively, and that they were more and more likely to be long lasting. Morevoer, the content of my learning spread in many directions".
Learning explodes when you stay with it. Some domains of knowledge are especially rich in connections and particularly prone to give rise to explosions of learning.
"It affected my stream of consciousness as I moved about the world. The world is more beautiful".
"Recently, I have surprised myself by enjoying systematic books on botany and having no trouble remembering what I read".
Metaphors such as the one of "constructing" one's own knowledge.
All this suggest a strategy to facilitate learning by improving the connectivity in the learning environments by actions on cultures rather than on individuals.

books.google.fr/books - Preview

e-learning self connections ULOE_MSc

Notions:
patterns, connections, immersion, brain-based learning, holism, orchestrated experience

Chapter 1: Making connections

Brain-based learning involves acknowledging the brain's rules for mearningful learning and organising teaching with those rules in mind

Because the brain is constantly searching for connections on many levels, educators need to orchestrate the experiences from which learners extract understanding

Student learn fromtheir entire ongoing experience. In many ways, content is inseparable from context.

Primary focus for educators should be on expanding the quantity and quality of ways in which a learner is exposed to content and context (immersion).

Surface vs meaningful knowledge

Almost all our testing and evaluation is geared toward recognising surface knowledge. Testing and performance objectives generally fail to capitalise on the brain's capacity to make connections.

Details of the features of brain-based learning.

Examples of program highly succesfully implementing such approaches.

Many teachers who are aware of the complexities of learning and teaching have intimidated into ignoring what they know.

California example seems to indicate that things are starting to change

Chapter 2: Questioning fundamental assumptions about education

1. The factory model is an appropriate model for the organisation and operation of schools
2. Stimulus-response theory is an appropriate model of how people learn
3. Schools respond adequately to, and are sufficiently in touch with, the needs of this generation
4. Current approaches to research in education are sufficient and appropriate

eric.ed.gov/...detailmini.jsp - Preview

e-learning ULOE_MSc connections

NOT WELL UNDERSTOOD

Successful uses of hypertext for teaching must allow learner to develop higher level skills, rather than making them passive recipients of the medium. Assignments must therefore emphasise those qualities and features of hypertext that furnish the greatest educational advantage: making connections.

An assignment example:
- asking students to open a hypertext document and follow various links
- asking them to record what they encounter
- asking them suggestions of additional links or material
After having understood that they had control over the materials and could contribute to it, students gradually became contributors of the materials by creating links and other materials

The In Memoriam project
Hypertext exercise encourages students to connect their knowledge.
The hypermedia materials show students possible connections and furnish the information with which to make their own connections

Hypertext, allows collaboration not only among those of equivalent academic rank or status but also among those of widely different rank or status

Networked hypermedia systems, in contrast to paper, record and reproduces the relations among texts, one effect of which is that they permit the novice to experience the reading and thinking pattern of the expert.

Once placed within a hypertext, a document no longer exists alone

Several projects where students creating hypertext essays about an author, which was then used as the basis for subsequent courses and so on... All those contributions ended up in The Postcolonial and Postimperial Web (visible online)

"Wreaders" for students interacting with hypertexts

Hypertext inevitably stiches together lexias ("hot" media acting as hypertext links) written in different modes, tones, genres...

Many original students uses of hypertext described

To assess such work, the author combines a combination of:
- the old (accuracy, quality of research, rhetorical effectiveness, ...)
- the new (visual literacy, skillful linking, clear and effective organisation, ...)

www.eastgate.com/...LandowHypertext.html - Preview

e-learning web multimedia connections collaboration tool assessment

Scientific progress may occur because of the emotional beliefs and attachments to people but the irony is that the science of human cognition ignores the very things that make human progress so exciting and interesting.

We are social, interactive and higly emotional creatures.

The power of our mind is in is representational capacity

Differences between humans and animals in terms of our capabilities, esp. the development of self-awareness and consciousness.

We are excellent perceptual creatures. Experiential mode is our preferred way of working. See a pattern, immediately understand it. But when we get it wrong (our memorys is flawed), it's often quite hard to discover the error.

Stories are marvellous means of summarising experiences. Stories and logic take into account very different elements of an experience.

We make errors partly because the machine-centered tasks imposed upon us through our technology ask us to behave in ways incompatible with our fundamental capabilities.

Failure to correct a misdiagnosis (tunnel vision/cognitive hysteresis): we tend to focus unpon the active hypothesis, and, once focused, find it very difficult to change, even in the face of contradictory evidence (discrepant information is explained away). We need to be assisted, reviewed in our thinking: intelligent machines would be useful for this.

Notions:
human cognition, animal, errors, machine, pattern, connections, perception, senses, representation, emotion

portal.acm.org/citation.cfm - Preview

e-learning cognition connections ULOE_MSc