Group items tagged

Education, and in particular higher education, has seen rapid change as learning institutions have had to adapt to the opportunities provided by the Internet to move more of their teaching online1 and to become more flexible in how they operate. It might be tempting to think that such a period of change would lead to a time of consolidation and agreement about approaches and models of operation that suit the 21st century. New technologies continue to appear,2 however, and the changes in attitude indicated by the integration of online activities and social approaches within our lives are accelerating rather than slowing down. How should institutions react to these changes? One part of the answer seems to be to embrace some of the philosophy of the Internet3 and reevaluate how to approach the relationship between those providing education and those seeking to learn. Routes to self-improvement that have no financial links between those providing resources and those using them are becoming more common,4 and the motivation for engaging with formal education as a way to gain recognition of learning is starting to seem less clear.5 What is becoming clear across all business sectors is that maintaining a closed approach leads to missing out on ways to connect with people and locks organizations into less innovative approaches.6 Higher education needs to prepare itself to exist in a more open future, either by accepting that current modes of operation will increasingly provide only one version of education or by embracing openness and the implications for change entailed. In this article we look at what happens when a more open approach to learning is adopted at an institutional level. There has been a gradual increase in universities opening up the content that they provide to their learners. Drawing on the model of open-source software, where explicit permission to freely use and modify code has developed a software industry that rivals commercial approaches, a proposed

This article proposes a model to integrate the traditionally conflicting objectivism and constructivist approaches to curriculum design.It is argued that these two are not opposing paradigms, but complementing approaches.A number of analyses of learning programs are discussed to show that learning events contain both objectivist and constructivist elements. Plotting the two approaches at right angles to one another produces four quadrants of conditions of learning. These four quadrants are discussed together with the rationales for each.

The University of Zurich has been trying to build an editor for eLML for a long time (nearly since the beginning of the eLML project). After two unsuccessful approaches a third approach based on the Mozilla Firefox Plugin technology led to success. In summer 2008 the first beta version of the Firedocs eLML Editor was released. So what is Firedocs? Firedocs is a webbased XML editor for Mozilla Firefox that the University of Zurich has developed for both its Content Management System UniCMS and for eLML, the eLesson Markup Language. Both the UniCMS and eLML are XML-based strategic tools of the University of Zurich and needed an easy to use editor. The Firedocs project has now become an autonomous open source project but it offers extensions for both eLML and UniCMS. The editor provided on this website is already compiled containing the eLML extensions you will need to create and edit eLML lessons.

Many members of JISC Emerge community are active in exploiting the potential of various Web 2.0 technologies and approaches. But what if the Web 2.0 sceptics are right? What if Web 2.0 services aren't sustainable? What if the social aspect of social networking tools are too intrusive? How should we go about developing a sustainable approach to use of Web 2.0?

Spaces for Knowledge Generation is an ALTC project which was undertaken as a partnership between La Trobe University as lead institution, Charles Sturt University, Apple and Kneeler Design Architects. The context of the learning experience necessarily changes over time, with technological, economic and social developments influencing the types of learning spaces learners and teachers require to achieve their learning outcomes, and this $220,000 project was designed to inform, guide and support sustainable development of learning and teaching spaces and practices, maximising flexibility so as to be used by as many disciplines as feasible. The project was based on the philosophy that constructivist approaches to learning, as well as to research and study, should make use of technologies and approaches that students favour, and that learning spaces should therefore be organised to accommodate learner-generated aspects of learning. Spaces for Knowledge Generation provides a model for designing student learning environments that is future-focused and sustainable for the medium term.

Sugata Mitra (TED talks and hole-in-the-wall computer innovator) critiques traditonal 'pencil and paper' exams and learning and gives an alternative which is (I think) a problem-based learning approach which he calls SOLE (Self-organised learning environment). 

This web site synthesises outputs from the JISC Learner Experiences of e-Learning programme. The programme spanned two phases over four years from 2005-2009. It comprised nine research projects in total (two in phase 1 and seven in phase two), employed mixed method approaches, and had the sustained involvement of over 200 learners and more than 3000 survey respondents. The programme focussed on the learner voice. Learners allowed us into their worlds and showed us what it is like to study in a technology-rich age. The projects produced a huge collection of rich, detailed data that sheds light on what learners expect from the use of technology in post-compulsory education and the choices they make about using technology to support their study.

"To meet the goal of "preparing people for an ever-changing world", instructional programs need to apply strategies that focus on the development of critical thinking, problem solving, research, and lifelong learning. Those goals require a sociocultural approach to instruction emphasizing learning from experience and discourse. Sociocultural instructional designers question the applicability of traditional ID models because their molecular approach focuses on controlling the learner and environment, which often leads to inert knowledge. This article develops a sociocultural ID model and compares views of learning, roles of learners and teachers, instructional strategies, and the use of tools with the traditional ID approach."

Excellent story of the journey to openness and the hugely positive difference it made to this leading photographers business and approach to life.

FOE vs EDC moocs - a learning approach comparison.

Interesting approach! Google created video on various tech support things like changing your wallpaper or creating a strong password.

"If you want to find out why people might become engaged in OER and Open educational practices (OEP) then you might like to look at the Motivations section. If you are interested in looking at the range of models and approaches adopted for OER Release then the Models page may be useful for you. If you want to know about the impact of the HEFCE funding then we have an Impact section. We have drawn together some critical factors to support OEP for those that want some tips on how to go about this themselves. We have a section that highlights tensions and challenges around OEP and the OER journeys section provides an interesting look at the wider context and how the HEFCE-funded initiatives fit into that. We also offer recommendations. If you contributed to our surveys, polls and interviews then we have a series of supplementary appendices and you can look at out methodology and evidence pages - all available from the main report page http://bit.ly/HEFCEoerReview. We have also produced a summary briefing paper."

The Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) is designed to encourage a more sophisticated approach to recording student achievement, which acknowledges fully the range of opportunities that higher education institutions in the UK offer to their students. The HEAR has the potential to bring a wide range of benefits to students, employers and higher education institutions. The HEAR can also been seen as a symbolic and practical expression of the UK's student-centred and quality-focussed higher education culture. It is anticipated that the HEAR will become a key feature in differentiating and distinguishing the UK higher education system. This website is an information and resources portal for those involved in: * implementing and managing the HEAR at an institutional level; * creating and making the most of the HEAR at a personal level for students; or  * understanding and utilising the HEAR at a recruitment level for employers.

Describing a flipped approach to PD

Good list of alternative feedback approaches.

Short video on a connectivist approach in education.

Twenty-seven-year-old researcher, lecturer and journalist Jennifer Jones has a fluid but pared-down working approach. She openly conducts her work as a researcher and lecturer through her personal website, using her blog and Twitter, on which she has 3,000 followers. She works virtually as she travels between two university employers in the Midlands and the West of Scotland. Her inspiration comes from media activists and groups like Occupy, who use the free resources of the net to group like-minded people for action and discourse. All of her activity is open for scrutiny and for tracking - there are no pseudonyms - and she records everything she does on her website.

Twenty-seven-year-old researcher, lecturer and journalist Jennifer Jones has a fluid but pared-down working approach. She openly conducts her work as a researcher and lecturer through her personal website, using her blog and Twitter, on which she has 3,000 followers. She works virtually as she travels between two university employers in the Midlands and the West of Scotland. Her inspiration comes from media activists and groups like Occupy, who use the free resources of the net to group like-minded people for action and discourse. All of her activity is open for scrutiny and for tracking - there are no pseudonyms - and she records everything she does on her website.