Group items tagged

Tan, Hu, Wong, Wettasinghe (2003) on Information Technology and Singapore Education, Instructional Framework, Instructional Strategies (Direct Instruction, SDL, Group Work, Computer-Mediated Communication, Constructivist Learning, Learning through Experience) Computer As an Administrative Tool - Blackboard ! Computer As a Presentation Tool - from PPT to Prezi? Computer As a Tutor - engage the learners in higher order thinking Computer As a Cognitive Tool - mindtools Conclusion: To successfully integrate IT into teaching and learning in schools is a challenging task that hinges on a lot of factors, including effective teacher training. Darling-Hammond (1994) describes the new paradigm of teacher learning as a place in which opportunities are provided for "learning by teaching, learning by doing and learning by collaborating." In our attempt to avoid reducing such training into teaching of discrete IT skills, or merely talking about it through lectures, we presented an approach that modeled various pedagogies, including direct instruction, self-directed learning, group work, computer-mediated communication, and constructivist learning. We also provided a holistic technology-enhanced environment, for the trainees to experience the use of the computer as an administrative tool, as a presentation tool, as a tutor, and as a cognitive tool. These strategies are built upon theories and studies of learning, as well as the use of IT in education. The results of the trainees' evaluation of the module indicated a generally positive reaction to the module and the perception that the instructional objectives have been achieved. These are encouraging indicators of the effectiveness of our instructional strategies, which we will build upon for further improvement in the subsequent delivery of the module.

For IDs and other CeLebs who want to read about e-learning and instructional design, here's a bunch of free e-books.

This magazine normally targets instructional designers but the advice here in this particular article is relevant to all in CeL.

When I think about "infrastructure", I normally think about roads, wires, sewerage and so on. But how about educational technology and instructional design? From reading Don Norman's musings about infrastructure, I realized that if we want our technological implementations to be successfully adopted, very often it's essential to also consider the infrastructure needed to support our tech designs and implementations. Personally, I think infrastructure for education and instructional design need not always be physical things. They could be intangibles such as having to update a database, notify the relevant people in charge, call this person or that to come unlock the computer lab, etc. My mum's been a teacher for 40+ years. She's great. But she really hates the computer. Not because of the learning needed to use Microsoft Word. She's quite fine with it. But it's all the non-Microsoft Word things that she has to do - reboot, turn the computer on, manage the files, etc... - that makes her scream.  "It is time to work on infrastructure. It threatens to dominate our lives with ugliness, frustration, and work. We need to spend more time on the designs for infrastructure. We need to make it more attractive, more accessible, and easier to maintain. Infrastructure is intended to be hidden, to provide the foundation for everyday life. If we do not respond, it will dominate our lives, preventing us attending to our priory concerns and interests and instead, just keeping ahead of the maintenance demands." - Don Norman Food for thought: What are some underlying "infrastructure" (tangible and intangible) that I may encounter in an educational technology project? Are there existing infrastructure that I can take advantage of to minimize time and $? How can we minimize the amount of infrastructure maintenance needed?

"Designing meaningful and engaging lessons (for any form of delivery, including eLearning) is a task that every good instructional designer seeks to master. Teaching lower-school students is a privilege that quickly makes you realize that the approach you take when conveying an idea is just as important as the idea itself. An approach that I have found most successful is threefold: Be clear and concise Use visuals Excite the imagination. Since migrating over to the "adult learning" spectrum, I've found this strategy to be just as applicable."

A free open course for those interested in exploring principles and pedagogies for designing mobile learning. Benji, Carolyn, Rachel, Fareed, would you guys be interested in this?

This article was written 5 years ago. Now, we have the benefit of ubiqutious mobile chat platforms e.g. Whatsapp, which can create small focus groups to talk about a particular topic. Not only so, besides the usual text, Whatsapp also allows participants to share mobile videos taken on the spot, share their geolocations with one another, share audio recordings and of course, images. A personal example of how I use Whatsapp for personal learning: I use Whatsapp regularly to practice reading and writing my Japanese with a few other friends, and when I make mistakes, they can quickly give me feedback in real-time. We also exchange photos of Japanese culture, food items and even on-the-spot videos from those who are in Japan. Some of us go for Japanese classes, some don't. But those who go for the classes share what they have learnt with those who haven't.  I'm not sure if this can be classified as a type of "flipped learning", but I realized that mobile chat makes an excellent real-time, yet highly personalized tool for e-learning in small group discussions. Perhaps this is one area we can consider next time as a way to do mobile learning that harnesses the social nature of us learners.

According to this article, the most significant factor is not the scaling of online instruction (which isn't a new thing already) _but_ the ability for educators to study how people learn in various environments. Timely and accurate feedback is an essential component, not only for students, but also for educators, in improving the quality and relevancy of education for smaller groups. Personally, I think that the rise of massively open online courses (MOOCs) will ironically lead to a huge increase in the number of customized and localized courses tailored for niche sub-groups. Instead of seeing a huge dissemination of one-size-fits-all education, we will see an increasing diversity of different educational strategies, similiar to how the diversity of an ecosystem increases when its geographic size increases. It's a very exciting time for educators out there indeed...

Something for the ETs and Jason to read and react to.

Interesting article! I think one reason why many teachers keep on sticking to the defaults is because _precisely_ BB can be so flexible and do so many things, and there's a lot of templates available. This panoply of choices leads to decision fatigue on the teachers' part: "Which features should I use for presenting to my students? how can I package and so on... arrrrh I'll just stick with the defaults and customize another day." (Can read more about decision fatigue at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html) So, I think our training strategies would have to recognize and take into account this human tendency to choose the easy defaults, especially when mentally tired.

Defaults are bad? hmmm... My son started using the kiddy skate scooter about 4 mths ago and he does it like a pro now. When I bought the scooter, it came with 'default settings', i.e. all fixed up and ready to use. He had a go at it and we adjusted the height and widen the handles along the way. He grew more confident and I removed the trainer wheels. I cannot imagine when the scooter came without any 'default settings', i.e. 4 wheels, 2 bars, rubber tubes, etc, I will be quite frustrated setting it up from scratch and my son will be climbing all over me. Defaults cannot be seen as something bad in my opinion. It gives new users or busy people something to start with, I personally appreciate that. When we design instructions, we provide foundations to get our learners started, building blocks or scaffolding their learning as they progress. A range of basic, intermediate or advanced instructional plans can also be presented later on. Essentially, what are the characteristics of our learners or the users of BB? What do you think they need? Demographics of our acad staffs for example are quite 'senior adult learners' (correct me if I am wrong). Do we think we want to present a blank BB page and tell them, 'hey, guess what? its all about customisation now, whatever you want, put it in.' No prize for guessing what their reactions will be. On the other hand, there maybe a group of people who do not want to conform to defaults but to change things or customise their experiences. Nothing wrong with that too. My point is, let's provide a range of options for users, we inform that there are default settings to get them started but there are also room for customisation for the adventurous. We want to be learner centric, hence customisation of experiences but we also do not want to leave anyone behind. That said, I am going to change all my default passwords and user ids of my mobile.... no wonder banks have been calling me to ask if I needed loans.

In 2002, I proposed two alternatives to Bloom's Taxonomy for classifying objectives in order to design appropriate instruction and assessment (Sugrue, 2002). One was based on Merrill's content performance matrix (Merrill, 1983). The other I called the "pure performance" alternative, which did not require any classification.

A very simple set of instructions which will be very handy for the video team, I think. An interactive video example for a possible project (Jason will know) can be viewed here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwCAeygp8uo

I tried it and its easy. Can be a new way of using videos for teaching and learning. Affordances? Checked!