pedaspectsoflearntechn kak6003a

Pedagogical aspects of learning technologies

Lecture for KAK6003

Kai Pata

Contents

Leading questions: •  What proverbs and metaphors have been used

for describing learning? •  Which learning theories are behind these

proverbs and metaphors? •  How are learning theories related with

instructional designs?

Estonian proverbs about learning •  Kes õpib, see ka teab. – Who will study that

will know. •  Tarkust ei saa kulbiga päha tõsta. _You cannot

put wisdom into the head with the ladle. •  Harjutamine teeb meistriks. – Practicing makes

you a master. •  Töö õpetab tegijat. – Work teaches the doer. •  Töö õpetab iseennast. – Labour teaches itself.

Estonian proverbs about learning •  Ela õppimise tarvis ja õpi elamise tarvis. –

Live for learning and learn for living. •  Inimene õpib hällist kunni hauani. – Man

learns from cradle to the tomb. •  Mida Juku ei õpi, seda Juhan ei tea. – What

Juku does not learn, Juhan will not know.

Some metaphors about learning •  Planting flowers - A seed is planted in my mind

which I nurture with water and sun in the faith that it will sprout and grow.

•  Being a detective - It's all about uncovering the facts, looking for clues and asking the right questions until the whole mystery makes sense.

•  A quest - I'm searching for that illusive something and every step I take brings me closer to what I need to know, but I never get there ... it's a continuous journey.

Discussing proverbs and metaphors of learning

•  Think of one proverb from your country, that describes Learning.

•  What is your leading metaphor for learning? •  Write each of them on the paper clips.

•  We will organize them according to the learning theories later on.

Learning theories – why and how we learn?

•  Learning theory is the set of principles about learning: –  consisting of the descriptions what initiates learning –  how learning process proceeds, –  and what is the result of learning (Driscoll, 1994).

•  Learning theories describe the essence of learning and predict the results of learning.

But… •  Learning theories are general and give few concrete

guidelines how to implement these in certain situations.

Behavioural learning

Harjutamine teeb meistriks. – Practicing makes you a master. Töö õpetab tegijat. – Work teaches the doer. Töö õpetab iseennast. – Labour teaches itself.

“Black box” metaphor Skinner (1950) introduced behavioural learning theory: “A science of behavior must eventually deal with behavior in its relation to certain manipulable variables.

Principles of behaviourism

Pavlov dog

‘conditioning reflex’

Pavlov provided the basis of behaviourism highlighting the importance of stimulus for learning.

Neutral Stimulus (NS) => No Response (NR)

NS + Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) => Unconditioned Response (UCR)

Conditioned Stimulus (CS) => Conditioned Response (CR)

Principles of behavioural learning

Skinner box

Skinner, 1950: 1. Behaviour that is positively reinforced will reoccur; intermittent reinforcement is particularly effective 2. Information should be presented in small amounts so that responses can be reinforced ("shaping") 3. Reinforcements will generalize across similar stimuli ("stimulus generalization") producing secondary conditioning

1900-1950 Learning as response strenghtening

Teacher gives punishment and rewards, student reacts with teacher defined behaviour

Drill, tutorial, assessment test centered learning

“Response strenghtening”metaphor

General educational implications of behaviorism

Emphasis on behavior: students should be active respondents…

…people are most likely to learn when they actually have a chance to behave.

Student learning must be evaluated…

…only measurable behavior changes can confirm that learning has taken place.

Drill and practice •  Repetition of stimulus-response habits strengthens those

habits. •  …Promotes the acquisition of knowledge or skill through

repetitive practice. •  …Refers to small tasks such as the memorization of spelling or

vocabulary words, or the practicing of arithmetic facts and may also be found in more complex learning tasks or physical education games and sports.

•  …Involves repetition of specific skills. •  To be meaningful to learners, the skills built through drill-and-

practice should become the building blocks for more meaningful learning.

•  Drills are usually repetitive and are used as a reinforcement tool.

Proverbs about behavioral learning

•  Harjutamine teeb meistriks. – Practicing makes you a master.

•  Töö õpetab tegijat. – Work teaches the doer. •  Töö õpetab iseennast. – Labour teaches itself.

•  Which of your proverbs and metaphors are associated with behavourism?

Advantages of drill programs •  personalized •  help learners master

materials at their own pace •  mainly for the beginning

learner •  for students who are

experiencing learning problems

•  interactive nature

DRILL program ABC •  recognition of the type of

skill being developed •  use of appropriate

strategies to develop competencies

•  use of games to increase motivation

•  provide feedback to students

Cognitive learning

Kes õpib, see ka teab. – Who will study that will know. Tarkust ei saa kulbiga päha tõsta. - You cannot put wisdom into the head with the ladle.

“Information processing” metaphor

1960-1970 learning as information processing (Mayer,1996).

Teacher is transmissing knowledge, students are receivers of knowledge

Textbooks and other content management systems.

“Knowledge acquisition” metaphor

•  According to the “knowledge-acquisition” metaphor learning is the construction of well-organised knowledge structures that provide students with the means of interacting with the important aspects of the problem situations.

•  Acquiring scientific knowledge takes place through conceptual change where intuitive knowledge is replaced/modified with scientifically correct knowledge.

•  “Knowledge acquisition” metaphor is based on the idea that our brain is a container and the learning process is filling this container (Bereiter, 2002).

Anna Sfard 1998

“Brain as the computer” metaphor Computer has information inputs and action outputs similarly as we receive signals from the environment with our sensory organs and react with behavours that emerge in response to the outside signals

Information is recorded, decoded and processed both inside the computer and the brain, this processing provides the output behaviours. information

reaction

Model of cognitive architecture

“Dual-coding” theory

A dual coding theory of learning from visual and verbal materials. (Mayer, 1993)

“Cognitive load” theory •  Provides guidelines to assist in the presentation of

information in such a way that helps learners to optimize their intellectual performance.

•  Is based on the assumptions of: –  an effectively unlimited longterm memory and –  a limited working memory

(e.g., Baddeley, 1986), •  Aims at designing

instructions that do not overburden the learners’ cognitive capabilities.

Proverbs about cognitivel learning •  Kes õpib, see ka teab. – Who will study that

will know. •  Tarkust ei saa kulbiga päha tõsta. - You cannot

put wisdom into the head with the ladle.

•  Which of your proverbs and metaphors are associated with behavourism?

Constructivist and social-constructivist learning

Ela õppimise tarvis ja õpi elamise tarvis. – Live for learning and learn for living. Mida Juku ei õpi, seda Juhan ei tea. – What Juku does not learn, Juhan will not know.

“Knowledge construction” metaphor 1980-1990 learning as knowledge construction (Mayer,1996).

Student is constructing knowledge on the basis of earlier knowledge in real situations, teacher is guiding the learning process

guided inquiry discussions

•  Discovery learning is based on the "Aha!“ method.

•  Dewey wrote: "There is an intimate and necessary relation between the processes of actual experience and education".

•  Bruner believed that students learn best by discovery and that the learner is a problem solver who interacts with the environment testing hypotheses and developing generalizations.

“Discovery” metaphor

“Experiental learning” metaphor

•  The foundation of learning is experience. •  Learning is the transformation of our experiences

into knowledge, skills, attitudes, values •  Reflection

helps to transform the experiences. (Kolb)

“Inquiry learning” metaphor

“Anchoring” metaphor •  Anchored instruction is a major paradigm for

technology-based learning that has been developed by the Cognition & Technology Group at Vanderbilt (CTGV) under the leadership of John Bransford.

•  Learning and teaching activities should be designed around an 'anchor' which should be some sort of case-study or problem situation. Adventures of Jasper Woodbury http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/projects/funded/jasper/preview/AdvJW.html

KNOWLEDGE

“Knowledge building” metaphor Scardamalia and Bereiter (1994)

•  Knowledge building refers to collective work for the advancement and elaboration of conceptual artifacts (product plans, business strategies, marketing plans, theories, ideas, and models) (the world of cultural knowledge).

•  An important aspect of Bereiter’s theory is to make a conceptual distinction between learning, which operates in the realm of mental states (Popper’s World 2), and knowledge building, which operates in the realm of theories and ideas (Popper’s World 3).

Knowledge Forum (KF, see www.learn.motion.com)

“Negotiations” metaphor Since 1990…

The social-constructive learning has been illustrated with the “negotiations” metaphor (Mayer,1996).

According to this metaphor knowledge is always built in the dialogue where the actors create shared knowledge of each others’knowledge, that enables shared activity and supports individual knowledge creation.

Community role in learning •  The development of content alone does not lead to

more effective learning and there is the need to structure and foster learning environments to enable communities to develop.

•  Learning happens through mediating artefacts within a framework of activity within a wider socio-cultural context of the rules of the community.

“Participation” metaphor •  Social-constructivist learning has been illustrated

with the participation metaphor (Sfard, 1998) that suggests that all learners are part of communities of practice that have certain common knowledge and skills (Lave ja Wenger).

•  Learning in the communities of practice is directed from the older members of the community towards the new members who as a result of learning move from the peripherial areas of the system towards the core of the community and become themselves the experts who can transfer the community practice.

“Communities of Practice”

Raub, S. (2002). Communities of Practice: A New Challenge for Human Resources Management, Research and Practice in Human Resource Management, 10(2), 16-35.

Knowledge is “embedded in practices” Engeström, 1999

•  Human beings do not live in a vacuum but are embedded in their sociocultural context, and that their behavior cannot be understood independently of that context.

•  Human activity is mediated through the conceptual and material cultural artifacts people use.

•  The participants focus on reconceptualizing their own activity system in relation to their shared objects of activity, both the objects and the existing scripts are reconceptualized; the activity system is transformed; and new motives and objects for the activity system are created.

•  Knowledge is always embedded in practices, in contrast to the mentalistic tradition of “knowledge in the head”.

“Innovative learning” •  Innovative learning and knowledge advancement are

characterized as cyclical and iterative processes, which have several implications.

•  Knowledge creation often requires sustained periods of time and is not correctly described by traditional narratives of heroic individuals making ingenious discoveries through sudden moments of insight.

•  Moreover, knowledge creation is not linear (Engeström, 1987) but a process of ambiguity and “creative chaos” (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995), involving the sense of progress.

•  Knowledge creation does not start from scratch but is a process of transforming and developing— sometimes in a radical way— existing ideas and practices.

Hakkarainen et al., 2004

Knowledge creation in organisations

Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995)

Principles of social-constructivist learning environment

•  Learners build their own mental structures by interacting with the real environment.

•  Learners have access to resources and expertise and they can sequence the learning activity according to their own needs.

•  This enables to develop more engaging and student-centered, active and authentic learning environments.

•  Toolkits and other support systems guide and inform users through a process of activities. (Duffy and Jonassen)

Principles of social-constructivist learning environments

•  Learning takes place in communication acts where the information is transmissed, processed, recombinated, contrasted in problem-solving situations.

•  The cognition is always distributed, this leads to the construction of shared knowledge between individuals and the surrounded information-rich environment of resources and relationships.

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Cases and problems shared knoweledge

construction and expertise inquiry and decision-making

Behavioural learning

Cognitive learning

Social-constructivist learning

conditioning

Self-directed and lifelong and networked learning in digital

open ecosystems

•  Inimene õpib hällist kunni hauani. – Man learns from cradle to the tomb.

“Self-directing” metaphor

•  ’Self-directed learning’ describes a process by which individuals take the initiative, with our without the assistance of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identify human and material resources for learning, choosing and implement appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes. (Knowles, 1972)“

“Connectivist knowledge” metaphor

•  A property of one entity must lead to or become a property of another entity in order for them to be considered connected; the knowledge that results from such connections is connective knowledge. The act of learning is one of creating an external network of nodes – where we connect and form information and knowledge sources.

•  The pipe is more important than the content in the pipe. ‘Know where’ and ‘know who’ are more important today that ‘knowing what’ and ‘how’ (Siemens, 2006).

“Free-floating” metaphor by Steven Weinberg

Constructivism has been illustrated by using the “free floating” metaphor that emphasises that the rules to construct individual knowledge as well as the paths of learning are unpredictable in advance.

The “free-floating” idea has recently been used in elearning to describe the knowledge- management: “this is the beast that is combining the e-learning practices with the free-floating knowledge created and shared by learning organisations during their activities (Barron, 2000)”

“Rhizomic” metaphor •  Rhizomic metaphor describes the endless connections in the

structure of knowledge, culture, language, and thinking that is common to social-constructivist learning.

•  Differently from the roots of the tree that serve as the controlling spot for the whole tree, the rhizome has many connection-points, it has no starting- or endingpoint, it is an intermediate being, always in between two spots, describing the alliance, the connection with the idea: ..more..and more..and more…

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari: "Rhizome" (1976), “A Thousand Plateaus” (1980)

Ecosystem metaphor and adaptive learning

•  Learning in open learning ecosystems is the process in which learner and the system (community, culture) detects and corrects errors in order to fit and be responsive.

accumulation

Knowledge, ideas, PLE-configurations and learning approaches LEARNER NETWORK OF LEARNERS

adaptation

Learning niche for a community/culture

Ubiquity is the ability to be present everywhere or at several places at once. The term is derived from Latin ubique which means everywhere.

Mobile learning has ubiquitous ("anytime, anywhere“) nature.

“Ubiquitous learning” metaphor

Wikipedia

Possibilities for ubiquitous learning

(Patten et al., 2006)

Individual in digital ecosystem

SOFTWARE 1

SOCIAL NETWORK

SOFTWARE 2

DIRECT PATHS TO COMMUNITY MEMBERS AND KNOWLEDGE

PERSONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

PARTICIPATORY SURVEILLANCE

SEMANTIC NAVIGATION COMMUNITY BROWSING KNOWLEDGE NETWORK

INTEROPERABLE TOOLS

ADAPTING TO THE COMMUNITY NICHE

SWARMING

REMIXING MASHING

SOCIAL NAVIGATION

NAVIGATING IN NICHE

COMMUNITY

CO-CREATING

Pata, 2010

Principles of learning technologies in open digital ecosystems

•  facilitating learning as a process of navigating, growing and pruning connections and interactions within distributed networks, and generating coherence, resonance and synchronization in knowledge (Siemens, 2012).

•  engaging self-directed and self-organized learners and leading practitioners in the field

•  fostering open enrollment, open curriculum, open and partially learner-defined learning goals and -outcomes, the usage of open resources and open learning environment, and the enabled open monitoring of learning activities (Kop, 2011)

Changes in the focus of learning technologies

Reconstructing knowledge Being embodied into self-organizing knowledge ecosystem

Acquiring knowledge

Predetermined closed learning environment Self-organizing open learning environment

Other-directed learning

Memorizing alone Constructing socially

Personal learning environments Personal networks Communities Virtual worlds

Forums, learning management systems

Authentic simulations

Drill programs and tutorials

Self-directed learning

Institutionally owned Public

Adapting to the community

1975 1990 2005 1985

Learning in authentic context De-contextualized knowledge