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Teaching with emerging technologies in higher education:
facilitating a short course across institutional boundaries
Dick Ng'ambi University of Cape Town Vivienne Bozalek
University of the Western Cape Daniela Gachago
Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Presentation Outline
• Introduction o Challenges facing SA HE
• Why we did it o Shared challenges across
institutions
• What we did o Conceptualisation of the module o Designing for 21st century
learners
• Methodology o Theory-based framework o Description of Case Study
• What we learnt o Cloud-based tools over LMS o Design for flexibility o Design for meaningful learning
• Analysis of results o Positive/Negative participant
experiences
• Did we succeed?
• Ongoing work • Conclusion
Introduction
Mission: Four institutions convening a single module for educators drawn from these institutions with a shared goal of modeling teaching with emerging technologies to improve teaching & learning practices.
disrupting existing institutional practices
The South African higher educa2on landscape is s2ll affected by the historical inequi/es of past policies, and many students and Higher
Educa2on Ins2tu2ons (HEIs), par2cularly the Historically Disadvantaged Ins2tu2ons (HDIs) are affected by scarce resources and poverty. Higher
educa2on ins2tu2ons themselves are also unequally placed with regard to resources and the students that they enroll (Bozalek & Boughey, 2012)
☜
Challenges facing SA HEIs
• Too much time wasted in reinventing the wheel - in Silos • Best practices are 'locked up' in walls and not shared
Why we did it
Objective: to create a conducive learning space where participants could be free to share ideas and experiences with peers and facilitators from other HEIs.
What we did
Source: http://checet.blogspot.com/
Conceptualisation of the module
Approach: As a practice-based module, participants were
encouraged to focus on their own practice in their respective disciplines, think about their students' learning needs, and to develop practices that they could apply/use with their students.
Learning for use, learning for relevance and learning to change how I currently teach - situated learning (Brown et al., 1989)
Designing learning for 21st century learners
Challenge: Participants from diverse disciplines had a shared
challenge of designing meaningful learning for 21st century learners
We did not want to teach colleagues but wanted them to learn, not to learn
about tools but how to teach with tools So...
We de-emphasised teaching to foreground learning and de-emphasised tools and
emphasised practice
Methodology
Meaningful learning and interaction
Theory-based design framework
Pedagogical Model
Learning Strategies
Pedagogical tools
Theory: a tightly coupled relationship between pedagogical model (learning objective), learning strategies (activities) and pedagogical tools (appropriate technologies) is required for meaningful learning (Adapted from: Dabbagh, 2005)
1
2
3
Description of case study
Description of Case Study
Institution 2011 2012 Total
UWC 8 8 16
CPUT 3 3 6
UCT 3 3 6
SU 6 7 13
Total 20 21 42
Challenge: four institutions, four LMSs! Case Study 1: a LMS of one institution was used. Reviewed and adjusted. Case Study 2: focus was on cloud-based tools.
Shared challenges across institutions
Case Study 1: All four participating institutions each had a different
LMS which meant that for some participants: i) the LMS was new to them, ii) experiences might not be meaningful in their respective
contexts Case Study 2: We decided to focus on cloud-based tools. So re-
designed to model best practices for empowering educators on teaching with emerging technologies.
What we learnt quickly
Cloud-based tools
Generic tools become pedagogical tools when wrapped around pedagogy and learning strategies
How we designed for flexibility
Private Law Medical
biosciences
Psychiatry
Pathology
Civil Eng
Agriculture
Languages
Women & gender
Nursing
Education
Sports Science
Educational Technology
Flexible design of module's building blocks
Designing for meaningful learning
Adapted from: Dabbagh (2005)
We used this approach to facilitate the module, participants used it to design learning for their students. The application of the framework by participants was assessed. In the next slides, we present how participants appropriated it (framework) for their students.
Analysis of results 1/2
Observation 1: Student engagement + participative creation of content + using Wikispaces = meaningful learning (ml) Observation 2: Collaborative learning + development of e-portfolios + Facebook group = ml
Analysis of results 2/2
Observation 3: foster interaction + peer assessment + blogs = ml Observation 4: improve attention span + interact with peers & content + polleverywhere = m Observation 5: enhance collaboration + collaborative writing + wiki = mll
Technology was less emphasied and largely ‘invisible’
"For me it was a firsthand experience using a network-
communication environment. I found it greatly engaging and there were so many valuable comments made online that really helped to shape my assignment ... which, I believe would not all have been forthcoming in a face-to-face session..."
Positive participant experiences 1/2
Learning through reflection on practice I had never really spent so much time reflecting on my
teaching and what I'm doing in the lecture room. It was a great and sometimes a sobering experience. I just did not find the blogs too helpful to write the assignment.
Positive participant experiences 2/2
Pedagogical model
tool
A typical example of foregrounding learning through emphasing practice
Some educators didn't like being lectured to I did not like the focus on the first day on
pedagogy and the use of jargon. While I do like the focus on the best use of a tool for learning rather than the learning, not having previously been exposed to pedagogy (despite 15 years of teaching) I found this put me off a lot.
Negative participant experience
Modeling practice I loved how you guys designed the structure of the entire
course ... how each exercise led to next and eventually each exercise combining into a finished tool combined with a thought out assignment ... excellent , Although I did not notice this on the first day ... it eventually was like a little adventure ride :)
participants also reported on integrating what they had
learnt into their own practice
Did we achieve the modeling of practice goal?
Still being learnt is how...
....to explore an effective collaborative model for designing and facilitating inter-institutional modules that minimizes possible intellectual tensions yet fostering collegiality and expansive knowledge sharing community.
Ongoing work
Conclusion
• Policies that discourage inter-institutional competition and encourage collaboration are needed
• Cultures that values and recognises innovative teaching and learning are required
• Uses of ET for transforming T&L ought to become a strategic goal for institutions
• Funding, evaluation and reward for inter-institutional educational initiatives that promote innovative pedagogical practices must be sought
Anderson, T., & McGreal, R. (2012). Disruptive Pedagogies and Technologies in Universities. Educational Technology & Society, 15 (4), 380–389.
Bozalek, V. & Boughey, C. (2012) (Mis)Framing Higher Education in South Africa. Social Policy & Administration, 46(6):688-703.
Bozalek, V., Ng’ambi, D. & Gachago, D. (in press) Transforming teaching with emerging technologies: Implications for Higher Education Institutions, South African Journal of Higher Education
Brown, J. S., Collins, A. & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning Educational Researcher, 18 1, 32-42.
Dabbagh, N. (2005). Pedagogical models for E-Learning: A theory-based design framework. International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning, 1(1), 25-44.
Veletsianos, G. (2011). Designing Opportunities for Transformation with Emerging Technologies.Educational Technology, 51(2), 41-4
References
Any questions or comments?
Thank you!