Sean Tangey's List: edu5112

• Networked learning and connectivism

   

   

   

  Networked learning is a subset of connectivism, which consists of eight attributes: 

   

  Principle 1: Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.

   

  
  Principle 2: Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.

   

  
  Principle 3: Learning may reside in non-human appliances.

   

  
  Principle 4: Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known

   

  
  Principle 5: Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.

   

  
  Principle 6: Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.

   

  
  Principle 7: Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.

   

  
  Principle 8: Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.

• The creation and diffusion of knowledge are increasingly important factors in economic competitiveness.
• n knowledge as a commodity itself, manifested in forms such as intellectual property rights or in the tacit knowledge of highly mobile key employees.
• Creating networks, practices and incentives to facilitate person to perosn knowledge transfer where the focus is on the unique solution.

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• and saw ICT as a ‘driver’ for transformative change in school education.
• Phase 3, where the curriculum clearly includes topics of study that would not exist without information and communication technologies and schooling for most students no longer fits the traditional group-instruction model.
• It demonstrates the importance for teacher professional development to include training in virtual teaching and the evaluation of digital materials. In particular, there is a need to examine the alignment between conventional learning outcomes, policy and practice when ICT is much more available to students outside school than within.

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• Gage (1985) defines pedagogy as the science of the art of teaching. In describing what a teacher does as an art, Gage (1978) uses terms such as “intuition, creativity, improvisation and expressiveness” (p. 15). Teachers are similar to artists because they are not bound by strictly laid down rules or processes, and are renowned for their capacity to grab ideas and make it up as they go along (Lankshear, Snyder, & Green, 2000). This is what Schmidt (2000) calls adjusting your repertoire in the midst of action.

• Approaches to teaching associated with constructivist-compatible theories of learning are based on the following premises.

  1. Content is based on children’s interests, prior experiences, and current understandings (Ravitz et al., 2000, p. 4).

  2. Knowledge is built through class and group discussions.

  3. Students need to find answers to their own questions and problems.

  4. Students construct concepts for themselves.

  5. Learning focuses on sense making and guided inquiry.

  6. Tasks are authentic and integrated.

  7. Students are involved in diverse classroom projects (Becker, 1998, p.17).
     

  Teaching practices associated with a constructivist philosophy include:

  1. designing activities around teacher and student interests rather than in response to an externally mandated curriculum.

  2. having students engage in collaborative group projects in which skills are taught and practised in authentic contexts rather than in a sequence of textbook exercises.

  3. focusing instruction on students’ understanding of complex ideas rather than on definitions and facts.

  4. teaching students to self-consciously assess their own understanding, in contrast to multi-choice testing.

  5. modelling learning, rather than presenting oneself as fully knowledgeable (Becker & Riel, 1999, p. 11).
• Finger et al. (2007) list a number of these groups of theories of how students learn as: behaviourism; cognitivism; instructivism; constructivism; social constructivism; constructionism; and connectivism.

• In 1997, Scheerens and Bosker conducted a search of all the literature on this subject, and came up with the following list.

  1. Effective learning time, e.g., time on task;

  2. Structured instruction, e.g., well-prepared and well-controlled teaching;

  3. Independent learning, e.g., use of meta-cognitive skills and learning embedded in authentic assignments and ‘real life’ situations;

  4. Differentiation, e.g., instruction that is adaptive to the specific needs of subgroups of pupils; and

  5. Reinforcement and feedback, e.g., cognitive and motivational implications (pp. 125–134).

• Look at the way Loveless et al. (2001, pp. 80–81) see the differences in managing knowledge in the table below.

  Old pedagogy	New pedagogy
  Know as much as there is in the book and as much as the teacher says	Decide what is worth knowing in the head and what needs to be stored
  Teacher uses lecture to pass on his or her knowledge to the students;	Teacher helps students access, select, evaluate, organize, and store information from a range of sources
  Students put information on paper for the teacher to see	Students publish for a wider audience to see
  Paper journals and books as the source of knowledge	Online journals and books
  Texts are set	Texts are editable
  Students have limited choice of sources	Students’ personal choices are expected
  Goals using technology are not integrated or not present	Classroom goals are integrated
  Intellectual products are fixed on paper and finished	Intellectual products are revisable living documents
  Neat hand written reports appear to be produced by students	Intellectual product has a professional look printed with colour and attention to design
  Students hide papers from each other	Students exchange tips about their products
  Knowledge is displayed in one form only	Knowledge is written in a range of forms such as web pages, paper reports, and PowerPoint presentations
  Knowledge is displayed only in a linear form	Knowledge is displayed in linear and hypertext formats
  Students who don’t use technology at a young age	Students use technology early and often.

• Ertmer, Gopalakrishnan, and Ross (2000, p. 33) were also interested in the differences between traditional classrooms and classrooms that integrated ICTs, and they considered the following list.

  Classroom practice	Traditional setting	Integrated setting
  Classroom focus	Teacher centered (didactic)	Learner centered (interactive)
  Teacher role	Present information Manage classroom	Guide discovery Model active learning Collaborator (sometimes learner)
  Student role	Store information	Create knowledge Collaborator (sometimes expert)
  Curricular – Depth characteristics	Breadth Fact retention Fragmented knowledge and disciplinary separation	Depth Application of knowledge Integrated multidisciplinary themes
  Classroom social organization	Independent learning Individual responsibility for entire task	Collaborative learning Social distribution of thinking
  Assessment practices	Fact retention Product oriented Traditional tests Norm referenced	Applied knowledge Process oriented Alternative measures Criterion referenced
  Role for technology	Drill and practice Direct instruction Programming	Exploration and knowledge construction Communication (collaboration, information access, expression)
  Technology content	Basic computer literacy with higher level skills building on lower level skills	Emphasis on thinking skills and application
• Working as part of a team, working to achieve a vision, communicating with others, and working productively with others are skills that teachers need to model and incorporate in teaching strategies.
• Authentic pedagogy tends to be multi-disciplinary
• A number of teaching approaches have been generated in an attempt to enhance authenticity. These include: Inquiry Learning Approach; Problem Based Learning; Activity Based Approaches; Guided Design; and Project Based Learning.

• Otto (2008) adapted the work of David Jonassen (1999) to recommend the following elements of a CLE.

  Elements of a Constructivist Learning Environment
  	Element One: The Issue
  		The issue that is driving the learning is presented in a way that perturbs, stimulates, and engages the learner.

• Element Two: Related Cases

   

   

  1. Learners have access to cases in the form of stories or images that record how other learners and experts have solved the issue. The learner can see then solutions they may not have considered (multiple-perspectives).

  2. Cases provide learners with a measure of their progress and reassure them that what they are doing is appropriate.

  3. Using cases to solve a problem is part of an important learning process called Case Based Reasoning, which means reasoning based on previous cases or experiences, and applying remembered cases to suggest a way of solving new problems. There are four steps.

     Retrieve: Access a case that demonstrates a solution to a problem similar to the one encountered.

     Reuse: Apply the solution in the case and one’s own experience to solve the problem.

     Revise: When the problem is solved, a new case has been created.

     Retain: Store the new case for other learners to access.

  4. Cases contribute to organisational memory, so that what is achieved is retained for future use.

• Element Three: Information Resources

   

   

  1. Learners search for and select the information they need. Teachers can provide a suggested list of resources to get them started.

  2. Learners need to access information whenever and wherever they are engaged in learning.

  3. Learners may need support in understanding the information.

• Element Four: Tools

   

   

  1. Learners use tools to support their learning, and may need support in learning how to use new tools.

  2. Physical Tools: Objects used to perform a task, e.g. sporting, science, mathematics, or manual arts equipment, library resources, art materials, and ICTs.

  3. Thinking Tools: Help to visualize, organize, automate or think about new practices, e.g., a mind map, a wall chart, a set of steps, a contents page, and an index. Thinking tools also enhance performance and information gathering, e.g., word processor, data base, spread sheet, the Internet, library, scanner, camera, and calculator.

  4. Communication Tools: Enable communication when face-to-face meetings are not possible or convenient, e.g., email, email discussion groups, letters and notes, video links, telephone, telephone conferencing, tape recorders, and video recorders.

• Element Five: Support

   

   

  1. Solving problems involves taking risks because the learner may be uncertain of the processes and results.

  2. Learners do not have to “do it alone”, and are more effective if they work as a team. They need to be encouraged to seek support and to support others by collaborating with peers, teachers, and experts.

  3. ICTs may assist communication and collaboration processes.

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• Australian Bureau of Statistics (2008) reports that household ownership of computers has increased from 29% in 1998 to 73% in 2006–07. During the same period household access to the Internet increased from 16% to 64%
• the Queensland government is spending $70 million over three years for its teacher laptop program and the 13 400 laptops that had been disbursed at the time of writing only represent a little more than a quarter of the state’s teachers (Education Views, 2008).
• Word processing and basic-skills practice are the most frequent uses of computers in instruction, whereas the use of applications that engage analytical thinking and problem solving through simulations and other media is relatively infrequent” (Lawless & Pellegrino, 2007, p. 580).
• • important!
    
• The only way to respond to this situation is to provide a certain amount of information related to key concepts, and allow students to decide for themselves what is important for their contexts and for the issues they are trying to resolve.

  • Content becomes superseded by what is constructed.
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• There are multiple literacies that are facilitated by ICTs and repertoires of everyday practice need to be taken into account.
• the focus should be on higher order thinking and problem-solving skills, designing authentic and real world tasks for students, being aware of and facilitating greater depth in learning and understanding, and allowing students to have a role in their learning rather than just absorbing material that is important to the teacher.
• linking standards and competencies to student performance and ultimately salaries.

  • Eek! I always find these discussions worrying as they seem to discount so many other variables (student interests, demography, resources etc.)
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• t is the final stage of teacher development described by Finger et al. (2007).

  The five stages are:

  1. Inaction

  2. Investigation

  3. Application

  4. Integration

  5. Transformation
• By the fourth stage, ICT integration or ICT curriculum integration, teachers have devised ways to seamlessly combine ICT-based elements with all the other elements of the curriculum. Until recently, this may have been considered quite an acceptable goal. ICTs in this stage have become a part of the every day activity of the classroom, and this in itself, is quite a significant goal to be achieved.
• However, the fifth stage, transformation, implies change to the way we go about the task of teaching, and more importantly, altering how schools are organised and structured. This strikes at the heart of curriculum reform, with ICTs being the catalyst for changing both how students learn and what students learn.

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