The Dance of Technology and Pedagogy ICDE 2009

The Dance of Technology and Pedagogy in Self-Paced Distance Education

Terry Anderson, Canada Research Chair in Distance Education

• Why do distance educators continue to argue that pedagogical issues alone must define their instructional designs?”

• “Pedagogy is seen to be trailing behind technology in the sense that pedagogy is shaped by the existing technological tools instead of it dictating how technological advances have to support teaching and learning” Madiba & Mwamza-Simwami 2008

• Technology affords the interactions that create learning opportunities

• Pedagogies define the way that technologies are best used

Pedagogy

Technology

Dance Metaphors

• the technology sets the beat and the timing.

• The pedagogy defines the moves.

First generation of DE• Dancing alone

• Students are free to interpret the design and the content as they wished,

• the dance did not meet the need– of epistemologies based upon

community creation of knowledge,

– pedagogies based on collaborative, cooperative or connected interaction, nor

– the learning needs of individuals with low levels of personal autonomy

Postal Technology

2nd generation of distance education • Big Band Era• Broadcast, production values,

exposure• passive observations, rather

than active engagement

Broadcast technologies

3rd Generation: Conferencing

• Synchronized cohorts• collaborative and

cooperative distance learning pedagogies

Conferencing technologies

Now GenerationSelf-paced, Connectivist learning.

• Networked coordination and collaboration using social software,

• Global distribution and participation • Opportunities for individuals to:

– find each other, – study and work together, – support and challenge each other and– yet still retain the fundamental freedoms of pacing and start and

completion dates.

• This emerging generation of distance dance allows learners to create their own social and individual moves that meet not only their educational, but also their social, emotional and economic needs as they engage in the lifelong learning dance.

Self Paced Programming

• Continuous enrollment• Maximizes learner freedom• Most effectively meets demanding lifestyles of

mobile students• Challenged by collaborative pedagogies• Paulsen’s theory of Collaborative Freedom

(Paulsen, 2007)• Social Software as ‘Killer App’ (Anderson, 2004)

Connectivist Pedagogy

• Learning and knowledge rest in diversity of opinions • Learning is a process of connecting and coherently

organizing human and information sources • Capacity to know is more critical than what is currently

known • Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to

facilitate continual learning • Ability to make connections between fields, ideas, and

concepts is a core skill. • Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is a key

component of quality (from Siemens, 2005)

Connectivist Technologies

From Siemens and Tittenberger, 2009

Connectivist Dance

• Learning can be enhanced thought the connection of many networks and this “amplification of learning, knowledge and understanding through the extension of a personal network is the epitome of connectivism" (Siemens, 2004)

• Connectivism builds human capital:– “People who live in the intersection of social worlds

are at higher risk of having good ideas” R. Burt, 2005, p. 90

Conclusion

• Individual freedom and choice is critical to the connectivist dance

• Choice in even self-paced learning distance learning, involves choice to meet and ‘dance’ with others

• Social software and network technology allows and supports these connections.

• Slides available on Slideshare at http://www.slideshare.net/terrya/the-dance-of-technology-and-pedagogy-icde-2009

Terry Anderson

terrya@athabascau.ca

http://cde.athabascau.ca/faculty/terrya.php

Blog: terrya.edublogs.org