E-Learning in the Disciplines| slide 1

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e-Learning in the Disciplines
John CookCentre Manager, Reusable Learning
Objects CETL Helen BeethamResearch Consultant,
JISC e-learning programme
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Aims

• Articulate the essential features of learning and
  teaching across different subject areas and
  educational approaches
• curriculum outcomes, challenges, learner
  characteristics
• Relate these to features of different e-learning
  technologies and applications
• to identify aspects of e-learning that may be of
  benefit to different communities
• Encourage discussion (this Symposium) around
• differences between disciplines and educational
  approaches
• similarities and what we can learn from each other

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Two key commitments

• e-learning is not a separate kind of learning
• we need to re-articulate learning in a new
  technological context
• People learn in a multitude of ways
• different subject areas and educational
  approaches rely on different capacities-to-learn
• different communities have evolved different
  cultures of learning and teaching
• we need to recognise these differences, while
  learning from one another

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Reflective tools

• Download a reflective questionnaire
• articulate educational priorities, outcomes and
  challenges
• consider relevant e-learning technologies and
  applications
• can be shared with your own and other communities
• View examples of completed reflections
• see summaries of previous cognate group
  discussions
• post your own completed reflection by emailing it
  to liz.pearce_at_heacademy.ac.uk
• NB these materials are no longer hosted by the HE
  Academy but are separately available on the
  Design Studio

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Useful questions

• In an ALT-C 2005 Symposium, Pearce, Gulc et al.
  asked Is subject difference a factor in the use
  and uptake of e-learning?
• Put another way What technologies and approaches
  are used in the different communities?

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Blinded by our paradigms?

• First ATM was located inside a bank and was
  available only during banking hours.
• Real innovation did not occur until ATMs were
  placed outside the bank

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Disciplinary patterns

• Academic tribes and territories (Becher and
  Trowler, 2001)
• definitions of knowledge, disciplinary
  organisation
• Teaching and learning regimes (Trowler and
  Cooper, 2002)
• tacit knowledge, troublesome knowledge
• ... need to develop genuinely shared language

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Disciplinary patterns of educational technology
adoption
Discipline differences appeared to be potential
barrier to the building of new communities of
practice around educational technology, and there
was a need to know more about how disciplinary
factors are influencing the early adopters who
form the core of our new communities. Carol
Russell (2005, p. 64)
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Knowledge territories
soft
understanding interpretation
processes protocols
art theory
education
english literature
sociology
information management
law
history
applied
pure
biology
medicine
chemistry
design
physics
engineering
maths
discoveries explanations
products techniques
hard
based on Becher and Trowler (2001), taken from
Russells ALT-C slides
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Disciplinary patterns of educational technology
adoption

• Note that the placing and configuration of the
  disciplines on the above model will vary between
  institutions
• Where do technologies and approaches fit in?
  Russell found the following.

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Common features of strategies forhard applied
disciplines

• External changes in profession/industry (industry
  and student context)
• Technology now essential in gaining core
  discipline knowledge
• Educational technology helps students learn
• more engaging or flexible

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Common features of strategies forsoft applied
disciplines

• Professional knowledge being redefined
• technology can help develop new skills
• Technology for skills and information transfer
• to free class time for developing core knowledge

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Common features of strategies forhard/soft pure
disciplines

• Technology can help students engage with core
  concepts
• when staff time and resources are limited
• Knowledge is created through research
• Technology can help develop research skills

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• Computers what are they good for?

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The new paradigm

• Digital computer marked a paradigm shift
• networked computer
• mobile and wireless networks
• But all learning involves ICT, broadly understood
• all learning is potentially e-learning
• Different technologies revolutionise different
  subject areas/approaches in different ways, at
  different moments in time
• ICT is having major impact on learning
  organisations
• centralisation/unification of admin systems
• differentiation of subject, department and
  individual needs
• continuous or whitewater change

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Narrative or representational uses

• ICT used to present information
• Potential advantages include
• Multiple media
• Rich media video, audio, animation, simulation
• Hypermedia multiple pathways
• (Interactive and adaptive media)
• Ubiquity and access
• Learner control of production and distribution
  file sharing, wikis

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Communicative or social uses

• ICT used for communication and to support
  collaboration
• Potential advantages include
• Multiple media
• Explicit nature of communication
• Learner control of pace and timing
• Recording, review, reflection
• Ubiquity, access and sharing

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Productive uses

• ICT used to manipulate data or information
• Potential advantages include
• Processing power text, images, numbers,
  scenarios, gameplays etc
• Automation of routine tasks focus on higher
  order skills
• Repetition and consistency

• Discipline-specific uses
• Enhanced skills for professional/research
  employment (e.g. using authentic tools)

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Interactive or Adaptive uses

• ICT used to adapt to, or return information based
  on, user input, e.g. computer games, simulations
  also search engines, database-driven resources
  and services, assessment systems
• Potential advantages include
• Active engagement
• Intrinsic feedback that is rapid and consistent
• Powerful, time-saving information management
• Low cost and risk simulations (compared with
  real-world interactions)
• Accessible and ubiquitous
• Learner skills (relevant to professional/research
  employment)

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Integrative uses

• ICT used to integrate or manage learning
• Potential advantages include
• Information relevant to learning can be
  efficiently organised, managed, captured, and
  presented for assessment/review
• Time savings for teachers, learners and assessors
• Reliability and transparency of information
  processes
• Consistent identity or brand for learners to
  relate to
• Improved monitoring
• Potential for learners to have greater control
  over their ownlearning, and records of learning

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Classification based on Laurillard (1992/2002)
Rethinking University Teaching

• Narrative
• Communicative
• Productive
• Adaptive/Interactive
• (Integrative)
• Could also think about uses of technology in
  terms of
• Access and accessibility
• Differentiation
• Learner control
• Collaboration and sharing
• ICT skills for professional/research practice

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Group work

• In subject groups (NB you may find as many
  differences as likenesses!)
• 11.30-12.00 Focus on key curriculum outcomes
  reflective question 2
• Identify at least 3 outcomes (areas of skill,
  knowledge or understanding) that are
  characteristic of your subject communities
• What new outcomes are emerging in response to new
  demands, including ICT?
• 12.00-12.30 Focus on key challenges facing your
  community reflective questions 2-4
• Identify at least 3 challenges (e.g. relating to
  learners, changing curricula etc) that are
  characteristic of your subject communities
• What new challenges are emerging, including those
  arising from ICT?
• (If time) identify any technologies, or uses of
  technology, that might help to address these
  outcomes and challenges
• Facilitator to feed back to the plenary session
  (5 mins)

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Reporting back to your community

• Share reflective document
• Communicate e-learning advantages in pedagogic
  rather than technical terms
• Discuss how e-learning support can be integrated
  with other activities of the Subject Centre or
  CETL
• Identify key priorities for e-learning support
• Identify key projects and developments in
  e-learning that may be of benefit to the
  community
• Identify gaps or biases in current e-learning
  developments that mean community needs are not
  being met