Ownership of learning: Students as producers of digital

learning resources

Geir Petter LaingenSHU LTA 2013

Research contextPhD project (still in progress)

Focus on several modules in ACES , where –• Production of digital artefacts is incorporated into assessment regime• The brief is to create a “resource for other learners”

Data collection: • Interviews with student producers and staff• Textual analysis of produced resources• Focus groups with potential users of such resources

FOR THIS PRESENTATION –• two first-year modules in Media Arts • work produced in semester 1 by new students• (first year has specific challenges and benefits)

Outline of presentation

• Open Educational Resources (OER)• Examples of student work

• Learning and teaching context• Student interviews (so far)

• Summary of benefits and challenges• Discussion

Sustainable Open Educational Resources (OER)

Rather than thinking that this is something done for learners, we need to think that this is something that

learners do for themselves

“We need to rethink the idea of ‘producing’ OERs at all […] The distinction between producers and consumers needs to

be collapsed. The use of a learning resource, through adaptation and repurposing, becomes the production of

another resource” (Downes 2006:14-15)

Big and Little OER framework‘BIG OER’ ‘LITTLE OER’

initial funding/high quality low production valuesconsistent style / brand individual / ad hocexplicit teaching aims not always intend to teach

intended audiences (learners) no explicit intended audience

focused project produced for various purposes

official portals and repositories

Youtube, SlideShare and other third-party sites

“Little OERs may be created from a variety of motivations, but can have an educational intention ascribed to them by someone else”

(Weller 2010:7)(Adapted from Weller 2010 and Weller 2012)

View extracts explaining the following:

Extract 1. Animation Theory – ‘Walk cycle’Extract 2. Game Design Theory - ‘Game camera’Extract 3. Animation Theory – ‘Colour systems’

Examples of student work

Theoretical underpinning for LTA• Dewey (2011)

– Learning - a social function– Emphasis - Activity, Participation and Democracy

• Sfard (1998):– Acquisition and Participation

Transformative learning

Mezirow (2006) - Learning as transformation of meaning schemes

1. Within existing schemes2. Creating new schemes 3. Transforming schemes

From Information to Understanding

• Information to knowledge

“To formulate requires getting outside of it, seeing it as another would see it, considering the what points of contact it has with the life of another so that it may be got into such form that he can appreciate its meaning” Dewey (2011:7)

• Information transformed to understanding by reshaping and communication

Participatory digital culture

• Content sharing and ‘Produsing’ (blurred boundary between media production and consumption)

• New distribution channels (Youtube / social networking sites)

• Digital Natives and the Digital divides

Interviews: Visual vs verbalThe digital resources created are multimodal in its nature.

Benefits of multimodality for learning.

“I think that an image you can memorise better than what you read, when you read you forget easily… it sticks in your mind”

Interviews: Ownership• Perceived as a tangible product (unlike essay or presentation)

• Showcasing work– Self distributed / Institutional– Digital distribution– Pride– Conscientious – Peer feedback

“I think they are quite good, because as opposed to doing a presentation you get something in the end”

“I was definitely checking everything a lot more as it was going to stay there, it is going to go on my YouTube channel now, and… making sure I did a lot more research”

“but this stay with you, so people can re-watch it so it matters more what you are saying and how you are saying it. “

Interviews: Knowledge creation • Information transformed into the shape they would like to receive it

– creating knowledge?

• Thinking about material in a different, and practical, way

“I need to clearly understand what I want to say […] It helps to clearly understand and produce what I want other people to learn. “

“I think you… you actually need to learn it, because then you are able to teach someone. Because if you don’t know what you are trying to teach the person, then you have no chance to getting your point across. So it is much… I think it is … much better for me learning the subject that I am learning as well as the people watching… just at an earlier time.”

Interviews: BenefitsResources created for the specific modules according to what the students

– need– are doing– are missing– find enjoyable

“Especially for my class mates, I hope my screencast will be useful for them. Because I am planning to talk about some new things we […] talked about in class before. So yes, for me it is important my screen cast to be useful for my classmates”

“You are doing something a little more interactive, you are making a product to show to people who don’t know how to do this. You are learning about what you are writing about, as well”

Interviews: Engagement• “Boring” and “tedious” research phase elated by knowing there is a design

/ production phase • Benefits for students with LC’s

– Anxiety – Dyslexia– ETC

• Enjoyment of creation • Knowing it can be used • Peer feedback

“ So far, I have really only done the writing. But it is… I am looking forward to actually doing some design work, because that’s what I did in college, I look forward to kind of getting back into that, and… kind of igniting my creative side, because that is not something I have done with this project so far”

Interviews: Ownership and IP

• Making using of existing work

• Student authorship, rights and control

Interviews: Quality and Authenticity

• Assessment regime

• Quality control

• Student Voice Institutional Voice

“the students they had research about what they do. If there is any mistakes, if a student makes any mistakes then the teacher can tell us about the mistakes”

Interviews - Content• Timing – limits are difficult

• Not all subjects seems fitting

• Balancing - “Style over substance”?

• Authenticity

“my essay is between 15 and 18 hundred words, and the screencast is 5 minutes. I think I wrote 800 words for the screenplay. So maybe in my essay I will be able to talk about more things”

Interviews – Time and incentives

Generally a time consuming process. All interviewees expressed time concerns

To expand into institutional depository– Coproduction, editing and quality adjustments of

resources can only be done after assessment – incentive and time for students?

– Extra time and resources will be needed – from where?

Interviews - Assessment

• How to assess?

• Style and substance?

• Form and meaning?

• Ethical issues for assessment and repurposing?

References Charamz, K. (2006) Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide through Qualitative Analysis, Sage

Cohen L, Menion L and Morrison K (2000) Research Methods in Education: 5th Edition, Routledge Falmer

Coutinho, C. P. And Rocha, A. M. M. (2010) Screencast and vodcast: An experience in secondary education.

Dewey, J. (2011) Democracy and Education, S&B

Downes, S. (2006) Models for Sustainable Open Educational Resources, NRCC

Haythornthwaite, C. (2007a). “Digital divide and e-learning”, in Andrews, R. and Haythornthwaite, C. (eds.)(2007). The SAGE Handbook of E-learning Research, Sage

Illeris, K (2009) “A comprehensive understanding of human learning” in Illeris, K. (ed.) (2009) Contemporary theories of learning, Routledge

Jenkins et al (2009) Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century

Kegan, R. (2009) “What ‘form’ transforms? A constructive-developmental approach to transformative learning” in Illeris, K. (ed.) (2009) Contemporary theories of learning, Routledge

Kress, G. and van Leuween, T. (2001) Multimodal Discours, Bloomsbury

Mezirow, J. (2006) “An overview of transformative learning” in Sutherland, P. and Crowther, J. (Eds.), Lifelong learning: Concepts and context, Routledge

Moreno, R., and Mayer, R. E. (1999) "Cognitive principles of multimedia learning: The role of modality and contiguity effects", Journal of Educational Psychology, 91

Sfard, A. (1998) “On two metaphors for learning and the dangers of choosing just one”, Educational Researcher, Vol 27(2)

Shafer, K. G. (2010). “The proof is in the screencast” Contemporary issues in technology and teacher education, 10 (4), 383-410

If you would like further information on this project, please

contact:

gp.laingen@googlemail.com