Conole al din_he

New ecologies of learning: design, digital literacies, spaces and metaphors

Gráinne Conole, University of Leicester ALDinHE conference, Leeds

2nd April 2012

Outline• Technologies trends• Learner experience• Open practices• Teacher practice and paradoxes• Strategies for change– The VLE as a Trojan horse– New approaches to design

• Metaphors

Technological trends• Mobiles and e-books• Games-based learning &

learning analytics• Gesture-based learning &

the Internet of things• Personalised learning• Cloud computing• Ubiquitous learning• BYOD (Bring your own device)• Digital content• The flipped classroomhttp://learn231.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/trend-report-1/

User generated content

Peer critiquing

Networked

Collective aggregation

Personalised

Open

Social media revolutionThe machine is us/ing us

www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/EvidenceNet/Conole_Alevizou_2010.pdf

Gutenberg to Zuckerberg

• Take the long view• The web is not the net• Disruption is a feature• Ecologies not economics• Complexity is the new reality• The network is now the computer• The web is evolving• Copyright or copywrong• Orwell (fear) or Huxley (pleasure)http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/2617472088/

http://memex.naughtons.org/

• Technology immersed• Learning approaches: task-

orientated, experiential, just in time, cumulative, social

• Personalised digital learning environment

• Mix of institutional systems and cloud-based tools and services

• Use of course materials with free resources Sharpe, Beetham and De Freitas, 2010

Learner experience

http://www.educause.edu/studentsAndTechnologyInfographic

Promise and reality

Social and participatory media offer new ways to communicate and collaborate

Wealth of free resources and tools

Not fully exploited

Replicating bad pedagogy

Lack of time and skills

8

Pandora’s box

Open resources Open courses

Open scholarship Open research

Open practices

Open resources

http://www.oer-quality.org/

Open courses

http://mooc.ca/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW3gMGqcZQc

MassiveOpen Online Course

Open accreditation

www.p2pu.org/en/

Peer to Peer University

wikieducator.org/OER_university/

OER University

• Exploiting the digital network• New forms of dissemination

and communication• Promoting reflective practice• Embracing the affordances of

new technologies

Open scholarship

Weller: http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/

Open research

Citation indicators

15

•Technologies not extensively used (Molenda)

•Lack of uptake of OER (McAndrew et al.)

•Little use beyond early adopters (Rogers)

•Despite rhetoric and funding little evidence of transformation (Cuban, Ehlers)

Pandora’s box

Teacher practices: paradoxes

The VLE as a Trojan horse

• VLE as a safe nursery slope• Shift from content to

activities• Promote reflection and

collaboration• Mobile VLE• Integration with cloud

computing

Blackboard audit

• Data– Online survey (260 returns)– Departmental visits

• Key findings– Used as content repository and

administration– Pockets of innovation– More support needed on

effective design strategies– Tension between teaching and

research– Usability issue

Blackboard+ at Leicester

BB plus Google+Maths video-lets

Prof-casts

History conundrum Voicethread

LearningDesign

Shift from belief-based, implicit approaches to design-

based, explicit approaches

Encourages reflective, scholarly practices

Promotes sharing and discussion

Learning DesignA design-based approach to creation and support of

courses

http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/OULDI/

ConsolidateEvaluate and embed your design

ConceptualiseWhat do we want to design, who for

and why?

http://beyonddistance.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/carpe-diem-the-7cs-of-design-and-delivery/

Carpe Diem:7Cs of learning Design

How to ruin a course

http://linoit.com/home

Course features

Group A – not includedGroup B – used to some extentGroup C – significantly present

Course map view

Pedagogy profile view

• Assimilative– Reading, viewing, listening

• Information handling– Manipulating data

• Communicative– Dialogic interactions

• Productive– Creating an artefact

• Experiential– Practicing, mimicking

• Adaptive– Modeling or simulation

http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/2459

Metaphors

EcologiesSpaces

Memes Rhizomeshttp://e4innovation.com/?p=489

Ecologies

• Co-evolution of tools and users

• Niches colonisation of new habitats

• Survival of the fittest

MemesAn internet meme is somethingThat spreads like wildfire on theWeb (Blackmore)

To describe the interactionwith digital technologies

What makes us different Is our ability to imitate

The Internet allows forThe unprecedented Spreading of ideas

Issues in terms of convergence of thought

Spaces

Rhizomes

A rhizome is a stem of a plant that sends out roots as it spreads. Describes the way that ideas are multiple, interconnected and self-replicating. A rhizome has no beginning or end like a learning process

http://davecormier.com/edblog/2011/11/05/rhizomatic-learning-why-learn/

MSc in Learning Innovation

Technology-Enhanced Learning

Learning Design

Research Design and Methods

Case Studies of Innovation

Dissertation

Conole, G. (forthcoming), Designing for learning in an open world, New York: SpringerChapters available on dropbox

grainne.conole@le.ac.uk