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Lecture-5:The history and development of e-learning pedagogy
week 5- Semester-1/ 2009
Dr. Anwar Mousa
University of Palestine Faculty of Information Technology
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e-Learning and pedagogy
• In any list of the problems of e-learning – and there are plenty of them – two issues stand out.
– The first is that many e-learning materials are unattractive and non-compelling (مقنع ).
– The second, is the poverty of pedagogies for e-learning.
• These two issues are not unrelated. What is perhaps surprising is the limited attention paid to the issue of pedagogies for e-learning.
• Dazzled by the technology we hope the problem will somehow sort itself out.
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e-Learning and pedagogy
• Of course pedagogy cannot be separated from technology. • Whilst there is nothing inherent in the technology to limit
pedagogic approaches, the development of complex Learning Management Systems has closed down on those possibilities.
• One key is that many technology developers – take the people behind the SCORM standard for an example – claim that their e-learning applications are pedagogy free or pedagogy neutral.
• However, All learning technology development – consciously or otherwise – supports or inhibits the deployment of particular pedagogical approaches to learning (Attwell, 2004a).
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e-Learning and pedagogy
– We will look at the history of the development of pedagogies for e-learning and will suggest directions for future exploration and development.
– In so doing we will try to explore the three way relationship between technology development and implementation, pedagogic approaches and the management and organisation of learning.
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The history and development of e-learning pedagogy
– In the early days of e-learning we did not have the web – or even the term e-learning.
– Learning materials were distributed by disc and later by CD-ROM.
– There were some experiments with interactive satellite television.
– ICT supported learning was initially seen as an extension of distance learning –as a new means for distributing materials which had previously been sent in a print form by post.
– Students read the material, completed an assignment and returned it to a tutor for marking.
–
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The history and development of e-learning
pedagogy – The accent was on facilitating access to university level
education by those disadvantaged for social, economic or geographical reasons.
– Whilst in the US distance learning colleges and certification flourished, in Europe the approach was more often what we would today call blended learning, with telephone and face to face meetings with tutors.
– In pedagogic terms the idea was to essentially by-pass the teachers through programmed learning.
– Learners would interact directly with the learning materials through completing a sequence of programmed exercises.
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The history and development of e-learning
pedagogy – Did it work? The behaviourist or ‘Skinner-box’ training
approach has had impact and influence, especially in larger enterprises and industries, for example in car manufacturing or in the aircraft industry.
– However, it has not been successfully translated or transferred to state or vocational or higher education systems.
– It only works within the limitations of the specific industrial applications for which it is developed.
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The history and development of e-learning
pedagogy • Even then, it only works when embedded within the community
of practice of the particular trade and industry.
• Technology shook up the e-learning world with the arrival of the web.
• It was an era of promise. The web would allow e-learning to move out of its previously specialised markets and become a mainstream part of education.
• With the widespread availability of Personal Computers and the development of the Internet and, (in particular) the world wide web, technology became ubiquitous.
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The history and development of e-learning pedagogy
• Pedagogy was subsumed within the principle of Instructional Design (ISD) – which Stephen Downes (2003) describes as the “educational equivalent of dictatorship, every idea, is carefully guided and nurtured”.
• Sadly managers and administrators had failed to notice that most learning took place outside the lecture room.
• That is not to say there were not other pedagogic ideas.
• But the opportunities provided by the typical LMS were limited.
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The history and development of e-learning pedagogy • The mainstream LMS offered little in terms of interactivity.• The main emphasis was on providing tools for lecturers to
transfer their notes for the web, with, typically, the provision of chat-rooms for discussion of notes and assignments.
• Interactivity was a big aim for the edutainment industry.
• Although there was little underpinning pedagogic theory – enjoyment and engagement being the main aims .
• In reality the edutainment industry has grown hugely, but has had little impact on education.
• In the same way that radio and television had been predicted to transform education, with in reality a limited impact, the affect of ‘edutainment’ on education has been very limited
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Exploring new approaches – the vision
• The third, and emergent, phase in the development of e-learning and ICT applications is once more charactised by innovation (Attwell, 2004a).
• One of the main driving forces for change is widespread disappointment with the results of phase two development.
• Central is the emergence of two technological developments, open source software and standards.
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Exploring new approaches – the vision
• Open Source Software (OSS) and standards – LMS, SCORM and particularly Learning Design - allow the accumulation of innovation and facilitate creativity, activity and innovation within an administration and learning environment.
• Enthusiastic amateurs, with strong motivation and a deep interest in learning innovation, drove phase one of the development of e-learning.
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Exploring new approaches – the vision • Phase two saw the domination of e-learning enterprises, both
application developers and content producers.
• The importance of the OSS and standards developments is that they open the door to creators and innovators who no longer have to develop complex learning environments and comprehensive administration functionality.
• With limited knowledge of software and systems, teachers and learners themselves can produce content.
• OSS has also contributed to a social recognition of the potential for sharing and co-development of learning applications.
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Exploring new approaches – the vision • More importantly, the emphasis on life long learning is driving
awareness of the importance of different types of knowledge and of developing software to support wider forms and contexts of learning.
• There is a realisation that it is necessary to refocus on the learner and on the needs of the learner.
• There is also an acknowledgement that not everything can be learned through a computer.
• The invention of ‘blended learning’ recognises face to face and work based learning as playing an important role.
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Exploring new approaches – the vision • There is also a very interesting change regarding attitudes to
teachers and trainers.
• Whilst in previous phases there was great hope that’s significant cost savings could be made by bypassing the need for a teacher – through provision of sequenced learning, there is increasing awareness that teacher may have a critical and central role to play in scaffolding and supporting learning.
• The new focus is on the enhancement extension of teachers’ roles and occupational profiles.
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Dreaming of the future • First, look at what new pedagogies we could develop and
second, ask if the technology is with us or against us? • How the ubiquitous use of ICT is leading to changing ways of
learning.• Three different ways in which learning is changing.
– 1. There is a new literacy of information navigation - to know how to navigate through, confusing and complex information spaces.
– 2. There is an increasing use of discovery-based or experiential-based learning especially using the web.
– 3. Young people, learn by absorption and trying things or action, rather than attending a training course or consulting a manual.
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Dreaming of the future • The Web becomes not only an informational and social
resource but it could also become a learning medium where understandings are socially constructed and shared.
• Learning becomes a part of action and knowledge.
• This is the key to the pedagogy mystery.
• Learning has to become a part of action and knowing and pedagogies using the web are about exploring, acting, making or constructing and developing knowledge.
•
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Dreaming of the future • Students working with e-learning can exchange ideas and in
this way gain control of their own abilities as users, and thinkers.
• Here teachers play an essential role, not only planning and embodying tasks in an integrated curricula approach, but also guiding students’ reflection and understanding in a way that actual learning can take place.
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Is the technology with us or against us?
• If we want to transform e-learning we have to ask if the technology is with us or against us.
• Many educationalists have had great pedagogic ideas for the use of e-learning, only to be frustrated by the limitations of the technology applications.
• In this regard we are increasingly optimistic.
1. The promise of open source software
2. The nascent partnerships between technology developers and educationists.
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Is the technology with us or against us?
3. The social development and Open Courseware initiative. This is the growing movement of open contents, the idea that resources can and should be shared.
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eLearning Context
– Moore (1996) states that distance education (eLearning) is a complex system of
• institutional, individual, technical and social components.
– The eLearning experience is an integrated whole of all related components.
– A change in one part affects the whole system (Garrison D. 2004).
– Another approach to looking at eLearning under the umbrella of distance learning is to cluster its evolution through ‘generations of development’.
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eLearning Context
– The following Table allows us to compare and contrast the growth of technology in relation to pedagogy.
– It is valuable to remember that these are not ‘hard’ barriers between the generation descriptions.
– A VLE may have elements of different generations.
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Emerging eLearning theory
– Moore (in Bonk C. 2006) reminds us that one can, and should, study the concept (of eLearning) from the point of view of the classroom teacher and the pedagogical theories underlying classroom practice.
– Pedagogies are connected with students’ learning outcomes, and have been widely accepted for empirical reasons.
– In this way, the issue of integrating eLearning into the pedagogical system has recently emerged as an important and pressing focus for research (Mehanna W 2004).
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Emerging eLearning theory
– Mayes (2004) states that for good pedagogical design, there is simply no escaping the need to adopt a theory of learning.
– Privateer (1999 in Garrison D. 2004: p. 77) says that digital technologies (eLearning) require radically new and different notions of pedagogy.
– It makes little sense for academia to continue a tradition of learning significantly at odds with technologies that are currently altering how humans learn and interact with each other in new learning communities.
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Emerging eLearning theory
Constructivism is currently seen as a dominant theory to support VLE design.
– Mayes (2004) summarises this view of learning as a process which is cumulative, goal-orientated, self-regulated and dependent on prior knowledge/experience through active construction of understanding.
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Emerging eLearning theory
Zone of Proximal Development, ZPD is the distance between learner’s current conceptual development (as measured by independent problem solving) and that of their potential capability (measured by what can be accomplished through collaboration with more capable peers).
Scaffolding, building connecting links between the points of understanding.
• Tutors need expert domain knowledge to judge individual needs to switch between novice and experienced student perspectives.
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Emerging eLearning theory
• In a VLE context then, online tutors need guidance in the art of scaffolding (سقالة) as they learn to use online support tools such as email, discussion boards, web video conferencing, etc. (Mayes T. 2004).
• Jonassen (1998) sees scaffolding as a type of ‘mind tool’ which support different forms of reasoning about content.
• That is, they require students to think about what they know in different, meaningful ways.
• Expanding on this, Brown (in Mayes 2004) sees concepts as tools to be understood through use, rather than as self-contained entities to be delivered through instruction.
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Emerging eLearning theory
• In this context, VLE tools, such as, physical (books, software) and cognitive (memory, concepts, language) tools enable and constrain activity through their affordances (Mayes T. 2004).
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Emerging eLearning theory
Student-centred VLEs are moving away from a ‘Transmission Model’ (Generation 1 – Table 1) to take on a problem-based approach.
This requires enquiry-oriented pedagogies according to Mayes (2004).
A small sample of exemplars is offered here and expanded by Horton (1999?):– problem based learning– Anchored (fix, fasten) instruction– Goal-based scenarios– Project-based learning
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Emerging eLearning theory
• This study explores the online social community aspects of eLearning through the web-based video conference.
• Through the appropriate use of e-Communication tools and supportive pedagogic design networked learning communities can be forged.
Critical thinking and discourse are central to the eLearning theoretical framework according to Mayes (2004 p. 57 & 59, Figure 6.1 & 6.2) who summaries the process as a six-stage cycle
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Emerging eLearning theory
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Emerging eLearning theory• Thinking skills (like eLearning) are not unified by any
single psychological (learning) theory. • It includes: strategies, habits, attitudes, emotions,
motivations, aspects of character or self-identity and also engagement in a dialogue and in a community of enquiry.
• A VLE has ‘transformative potential’ which should support analytical and flexible learning capabilities, confidence, self-discipline, communication, an ability to collaborate, reflexivity and questioning attitudes (Mayes T. 2004).
• Through using these skills the academic building a VLE can generate an overall profile of their teaching and learning system.
• In turn, the VLE can then promote critical thinking by its users.
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Emerging eLearning theory
In/formal learning is the last aspect of learning theory that should be noted, as not all education takes place in a formal academic setting (face-to-face or virtual).
• VLEs should support in/formal learning, differentiating between formal instruction and that type of spontaneous and undefined learning associated with information retrieval and display.
• Work Based Learning recognises the value of in/formal (or spontaneous, unplanned) learning.
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Emerging eLearning theory
A transitional learning theory• Learning can be seen as a change in the state of
understanding.
• Growth implies learning as a positive move towards completion of a goal (Wegerif R. 2002).
• Adaptable design principles are needed to accommodate the pedagogical structure of a VLE to deal with the transitional nature of the ‘state of the learner’ and the appropriate online tools to support the educational process.
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VLE design principles
• A crucial stage in the design process (of a VLE) is where the learning theory is unpacked into a detailed pedagogical approach (Mayes T. 2004).
• A VLE design should support the connection between participant and the VLE purpose via mediating tools.
• • The relationship between these components should be
linked by a set of rules (Mayes T. 2004).
• Garrison (2004) suggests some design principles that can be adapted and applied to a VLE context:
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VLE design principles
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VLE design principles
• The suggested VLE guidelines and design principles are not meant to act as a constraint to eLearning pedagogical design creativity.
• A VLE architect is not required to use all of the suggestions above.
• This encourages the learning technologist to select guidelines appropriate to the context and level of the knowledge domain.
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VLE design principles
• The challenge is to design and create a context, with appropriate levels of social presence, which is congruent with the content and the reinforcement of the educational goals that will enhance cognitive presence and the realisation of higher-order learning outcomes (Garrison D. 2004).
• Mayes (2004) encourages a blending of elements that emphasise all three perspectives of learning: as behaviour, as construction of knowledge/meaning and social practice.
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VLE design principles
• Based on these design principles these categories of blended (Transitional) learning systems (VLEs) are possible:
Enabling Design:• VLE provides additional flexibility to learners or blends that
provide the same opportunities or learning experience but through a different modality
Enhancing Design:• Incremental changes to pedagogy but do not radically
change the way teaching and learning occurs.Transforming Design:• Radical transformation of pedagogy makes a change in a
model where learners are just receivers of information to a model where learners actively construct knowledge through dynamic interactions (Bonk C. 2006: Chapter 2).
