the critical role of teachers in optimizing technologies for open learning

The critical role of teachers in optimizing technologies for open learning

Diana LaurillardLondon Knowledge LabInstitute of Education

Sydney17 Feb 2011

February 2011 cc: by-nc-sa

The givensReducing the per capita cost of wider participation

Need for flexible supported open learning

Large scale requires institutional collaboration

OERs are needed, but under-used

Acknowledge teacher workload, teacher resistance

www.lkl.ac.uk

Reducing the per capita cost of wider participation

Need for flexible supported open learning

Large scale requires institutional collaboration

OERs are needed, but under-used

Acknowledge teacher workload, teacher resistance

http://www.lkl.ac.uk/


Outline

Teachers’ development needs for TEL

Models of innovation

Supporting academic collaboration in teaching Analysing costs and learning benefits

www.lkl.ac.uk

http://www.lkl.ac.uk/


Teacher development in use of TELTeachers need to have - support from their institution

… awareness of students’ capabilities and needs in ICT

… professional development

… peer interaction

“Faculties should have innovation funds to support academics in developing new ways of using ICT”. (Student perspectives on technology, NUS, 2010)

“students are appropriating technologies to meet their own personal, individual needs – mixing … ICT tools and resources, with official course or institutional tools and resources” (Conole et al, Student experiences of TEL Report, JISC, 2006)

“in institutions where student engagement and educational gains are found to be high, one finds a higher than average investment in resources… such as faculty development” (UK HE survey of quality in teaching, Gibbs, 2010)

“faculty members recognize… that peer interactions and collegiality are significant in helping them learn new innovations and strategies” (US survey, 117 staff in 3 colleges. Nicolle, 2008)


Teacher development challengesCore self-improvement principles for FE“No one has more knowledge of further education and skills training than the huge number of practitioners, support staff, managers and leaders in the sector” (A new NIS for the Learning and Skills Sector, July 2009).

Difficulties for Academic and Support Staff using TEL:

• Using learning technology to supplement rather than transform learning and teaching practices

• Lack of time to devote to pedagogy

• Lack of time to reflect on learning and teaching practice.

• Lack of confidence to change learning and teaching practices.

• Need for practitioner case studies to inspire others (Project on Transforming Student Experience via Pedagogy, JISC, 05-07)

(i.e. no funding)


Teacher development challengesDifficulties for teachers:Many studies of educational innovation have concluded that the key factors needed to change teacher behaviour are

• additional time, • additional training, • cultural change, • senior staff involvement, • a link to personal reward

For example• Maths in schools, UK- Dowker 2009 • Maths in schools, US - Griffin 2004 • Higher education, UK - Knight, Tait, and Yorke 2006• Higher education, US – Dobbins 2008


The dilemmaPoor teacher development practices Poor transfer of educational research to mainstream practice

of T&L Learning technologies unable to achieve their potential to

improve the quality and reach of education


Top-down - Strategies and policies? – Rhetoric is good, but no follow-through

Bottom-up – Technology will drive innovation? Users will discover solutions for themselves? the Market will provide? – Activity is plentiful, but not improving

Alternative approach – Middle-out:- Learn from the scholarship of innovation- Adaptive iteration: top middle bottom

- Trust the professionalsFocus on supporting teachers as collaborating innovatorsGive them a Learning Design Support Environment

What to do?


Expanding knowledge

Sharing Innovating Evaluating

ImplementingValidating

Knowledge management to support innovation

(Nonaka 1994)


Expanding knowledge



Innovation in teaching and learning


Expanding knowledge



Knowledge management to support innovation in teaching and learning


Expanding knowledge of

T&L

Sharing learningdesigns

Innovating pedagogic patterns

Evaluating learning designs

Implementing course

Validating course

Knowledge management to support innovation in teaching and learning

LDSE project

OER content

resources

Theory into practice

Student feedback

Implementing courses

Existing pedagogical

patterns

Research findings, design advice, patterns

Adapt patterns

Analyse patterns


‘Adaptive professional development’

Teachers are best placed to design good pedagogy

Provide tools for design, development and sharing

Give them time to invest in learning about technology

Promote teacher collaboration

Make teaching innovation like science

“scientific criticism is the engine of science … the criticism of teaching practices is the engine of progress in teaching” (Benedet, 2010)


Requirements analysis for a design toolExpanding knowledge – encouraging progression to new methods

“It encourages thinking outside the teaching box”

“Good to have the prompt for learner needs. I’ve been thinking about this ever since”.

“…encouraged reflection and changing practice in terms of mix of delivery/pedagogic methods.”

Sharing – building on the work of peers

“ community needs useful resources that are easily searchable and adaptable.”

“… there is this desire to edit it and make it yours because your areas of focus will be different”

“There’s sort of an increasing need as well, in terms of developing a design, to do it as a community practice, to share and critique ideas and to get the students’ feedback on those”


Supporting teacher collaborationA Learning Design Support Environment (LDSE) for teachers

Building on the work of othersImport existing ‘pedagogical patterns’ of good teachingSearch for OER ‘content resources’ to populate the patternsAdapt to own context – Test – Redesign – Re-test - Publish

Expanding knowledge of using TELOffer TEL versions of conventional designsModel pedagogical and logistical benefits/disadvantages

A microworld for teachers to adopt, adapt, test in theory, experiment, test in practice, redesign, and share designsSupported by a learning design ontology, structured pedagogical patterns, and a self-configuring system to represent the developing community knowledge base

Ends

Means


Tutorial: The water cycleLearning Outcome: A clear understanding of the

role of the critical factors in the systemSummary: through preparing their own animation

of the water cycle, to demonstrate the role of the critical factors, using their lecture notes; presenting it to their group; defending it against questions and comments; and revising their account in the light of the tutor’s summary of the discussion

Tutorial: Using a search engineLearning Outcome: A clear understanding of the

role of the critical factors in the systemSummary: through preparing their own account

of using a search engine, to demonstrate the role of the critical factors, using the Library guidelines; presenting it to their group; defending it against questions and comments; and revising their account in the light of the tutor’s summary of the discussion


role of the critical factors in the systemSummary: through preparing their own animation

of the water cycle, to demonstrate the role of the critical factors, using their lecture notes and book; presenting it to their group; defending it against questions and comments; and revising their account in the light of the tutor’s summary of the discussion




Pedagogical patterns: Form and ContentContent




‘capturing pedagogy’ (Laurillard, 2008)

Black text is pedagogyColoured text is content-specific


OE Patterns library




Sharing pedagogical patterns

Tutorial: On a system or processLearning Outcome: A clear understanding of the


of the system/process, to demonstrate the role of the critical factors, using the resources provided; presenting it to their group; defending it against questions and comments; and revising their account in the light of the tutor’s summary of the discussion


role of the critical factors in the systemSummary: through preparing their own

animation of the water cycle, to demonstrate the role of the critical factors, using the OER cycle; presenting it to their group; defending it against questions and comments; and revising their account in the light of the tutor’s summary of the discussion











Sharing pedagogical patternsTutorial: On a system or processLearning Outcome: A clear understanding of the


of the system/process, to demonstrate the role of the critical factors, using the resources provided; presenting it to their group; defending it against questions and comments; and collaborating to produce a better animation to post on their website









animation of the water cycle, to demonstrate the role of the critical factors, using the OER cycle; presenting it to their group; defending it against questions and comments; and collaborating to produce a better animation to post on their websiteTutorial: The water cycle

Learning Outcome: A clear understanding of the role of the critical factors in the system

Summary: through preparing their own animation of the water cycle, to demonstrate the role of the critical factors, using the OER cycle; presenting it to their group; defending it against questions and comments; and collaborating to produce a better animation to post on their website

and collaborating to produce a better animation to post on their website



of using a search engine, to demonstrate the role of the critical factors, using the Library guidelines; presenting it to their group; defending it against questions and comments; and collaborating to produce a better account to post on their website


19

Education as a learning system

Teachers must be able to ‘learn by doing’ – to experiment, share and collaborate

Collaboration on form (pedagogical patterns) should generate a demand for collaboration on content (OERs)

Teachers need the means to experiment, share and collaborate on using ICTs – a knowledge-supported microworld for learning design


A Learning Design Support Environment A prototype for LDSE – a TLRP-TEL project

Build on the work of others – import

relevant designs and patterns


A Learning Design Support Environment A prototype for LDSE – a TLRP-TEL project

Edit properties of the learning design

Drag and drop sample learning

outomes


Types of ‘Session’

Choice of teaching

and learning activities

Carrying out a learning design

Tutor-supported class

Tutor-supported group work

Tutor-supported individual work

Independent group work

Independent individual work

Summative assessment

Dragged and

dropped onto a

timeline

February 2011 cc: by-nc-sa[Laurillard 2006]

Analysing costs and learning benefits

Teacher time = 125 hours Learner time in class = 50 hours Other contact = 5 hours

Personalised

Social

Standard

The designed learning experience

Acquisition

Inquiry

Discussion

Practice

Production

Effect of design on the learning experience, andthe cost of teaching

Modelling costs and benefits of teaching

Define TLAs Set group sizes Set teacher times

Plan learner hours for each teaching-learning activity

Analysing costs and learning benefits

Adaptive tool


Personalised

Social

Standard


Acquisition

Inquiry

Discussion

Practice

Production

- a microworld where teachers can learn, design, test and share ideas



Personalised

Social

Standard

Acquisition

Inquiry

Discussion

Practice

Production


Structure of a pedagogical pattern

TimingsTeaching-learning activities

Short description

Learning outcome

Colour-coded

content


From Conventional lab to Virtual lab

Evolution of a pedagogical pattern

topic

outcome

resource


Capturing pedagogical patterns

thor.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/projects/LDSE/Dejan/ODCTest/ODC.html


Capturing pedagogy

To compare the effects of group sizealternative teaching methodsuse of TELon the learning experiencetypes of learning,teacher time, learner time in class, independent learning…

to focus attention on the quality of learning design and the appropriate use of TEL

to model the benefits and costs of face-to-face/blended/open learning


Expanding knowledge of

T&L

Sharing learningdesigns

Innovating pedagogic patterns

Evaluating learning designs

Validating course

OER content

resources


patterns


Adapt patterns

Analyse patterns

Conceptual model of innovation

Community knowledge of

T&L

OER library of learning

designs and ontologies

Teachers innovating pedagogic patterns

Teachers evaluating learning designs

OER content

resources

Institutions validating courses


Student feedback

Implementing courses

Teachers implementing

courses

The LDSE project


Conceptual model of innovation

Community knowledge of

T&L

OER library of learning

designs and ontologies

Teachers innovating pedagogic patterns

Teachers evaluating learning designs

Teachers implementing

courses

Institutions validating courses

The LDSE project

OER content

resources


patterns


Adapt patterns

Analyse patterns

Student feedback



Summary: Supporting teachers in optimising TEL for open learning

Teachers also need to ‘learn by doing’

Need to become a collaborative community of experts

Give them tools to design and share new teaching

Use structured pedagogical patterns to exchange good ideas

Use quality OERs to populate the well-designed pattern

Improve the use of blended and distance learning

https://sites.google.com/a/lkl.ac.uk/ldse/Home

http://thor.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/projects/LDSE/Dejan/ODCTest/ODC.html

https://sites.google.com/a/lkl.ac.uk/ldse/Home




Some issues for discussion How best to index and search for pedagogical patterns?

What constraints do they place on teachers’ designs?

Could this process help teachers to adapt conventional

teaching to online teaching appropriately?

How do teachers feel about this sharing of ideas?

Will teachers be able to innovate more easily in this way?

How does our community learn how to support them?

the critical role of teachers in optimizing technologies for open learning

Education

learning technology

higher education academyo

scholarship of teaching

faculty development

ncsa3teacher development

teacher workload

teacher resistance

support staff