CCK08 - week 7 – Instructional design and connectivism

Readings
New Schemas for Mapping Pedagogies and Technologies
Cloudworks: Social networking for learning design .doc file
Instructional Design and Connectivism (George Siemens) 23 minute presentation

Other useful resources for this week:
n/a

Notes from readings:
New Schemas for Mapping Pedagogies and Technologies – Gráinne ConoleSchema (approaches or ways of thinking)- an outline or image universally applicable to a general conception, under which it is likely to be presented to the mind; en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schema

There is an inherent tension between the rhetoric of Web 2.0 and current educational practices. For example, today’s digital environment is characterised by speed and immediacy; the ability to access a vast amount of information at the click of a mouse, coupled with multiple communication channels and social networks. This seems contradictory to traditional notions of education; the need to reflect, to build cumulatively on existing knowledge and develop individual understanding over time.

‘slow learning’ as in ‘slow food’ movement

if information is abundantly available, surely assessment processes which focus primarily on knowledge recall are inappropriate?

user-generated content, user-added value and aggregated network effects … the impact of Web 2.0 on education has been less dramatic than its impact on other spheres of society – use for social purposes, supporting niche communities, collective political action, amateur journalism and social commentary. … Web 1.0 tools: whereas businesses transformed their systems and practices through embracing the potential of technologies, educational systems did not. This difference is due to a complex set of factors – technological, organisational and pedagogical.

A pedagogical framework for mapping tools in use – individual vs social; information vs experience; passive vs active ie … An e-portfolio used as part of a nurse-practitioner’s course as evidence of the students’ work-based experience, would be individual, active and experience-based.Mapping pedagogical principles - thinking and reflection; conversation and interaction; experience and activity; evidence and demonstration.

personalised tools verses institutional tools, between having integrated institutional systems and loosely coupled systems

we need new ways of thinking, not just to map tools to pedagogy, but to think about institutional structures and processes, to map changing roles, and to guide new thinking on strategic policies to guide the direction of change

Cloudworks: Social networking for learning design .doc file – Conole
one of the key challenges in encouraging more innovative uses of technologies is getting teachers to share designs … a social networking site for design – Cloudworks – which is built on the notion of ‘social objects’ associated with design and is applying web 2.0 principles to encourage widespread use and sustainability

Cloudworks - ‘object-orientated social networking’, for sharing learning ideas and designs
A key issue is sustainability, end-users rarely add resources; the sites usually require an investment in terms of someone entering resources and maintaining the repository.
teachers lack the necessary skills to assess the value of different technologies and then incorporating them into their teaching practice.

methodology consists of four interconnected facets:

• understanding design - through gathering empirical evidence about design,
• visualising design - as a means of articulating and representing,
• guiding design - with appropriate scaffolds and support,
• sharing design - to inspire and encourage uptake and reuse.

social networks consist of people who are connected by a shared object.

Cloudworks is built on the premise that there is a network of social objects associated with learning design – tools, resources, approaches to design and people and the site is designed to facilitate connections between these objects. There are five types of objects within Cloudworks:

- clouds – the practice of learning design
- stormclouds – request for help
- resources – actual resources to use in the learning design
- tools – learning design tools – guide through design process
- people & communities – the network

Tagging occurs around pedagogy, tools and discipline … and using RSS feeds

Engeström’s definition of the term social objects and his arguments for the importance of social objects as the key mediating artefacts that make social networks work. … ‘object orientated sociality’ … Knorr-Cetina argues that objects have become increasingly important in today’s society and that objects are increasingly replacing and mediating human relationships.

Weller (2008a) provides a useful definition of a social object as: “something (it can be real or virtual) that facilitate conversation, and thus social interaction” … He argues that in education the primary social object is content and that the educational value is not in the content itself but the social interaction, which occurs around the content. … make the activities of uploading, viewing and sharing as easy as possible … Profiles ARE social objects. They're not a real person - they're a constructed representation around which interaction takes place - a specific kind of social object.

Demsey (2008): The linking theme is that people connect and share themselves through 'social objects', pictures, books, or other shared interests, and that successful social networks are those which form around such social objects

Stutzman’s (2007) distinction between ego-centric and object-centric networks; myspace and facebook are ego-centric, where flcikr and Youtube are object-centric. … there needs to be a reason for people to connect together and to want to continue connecting.

McLeod (2007), who argues that sharing is a fundamental human activity … The most important word on the internet is not "Search". The most important word on the internet is "Share". Sharing is the driver. Sharing is the DNA. … The interesting thing about the Social Object is the not the object itself, but the conversations that happen around them.

Engeström - forward five principles for design
i. Clearly define the social object your service is built around. ie designs, resources, tools and user profiles.
ii. Define the verbs that users perform on the objects, so that is it clear what the site is for. ‘find’ and ‘share’.
iii. Make the objects shareable. easy to use; there encourage users to input social objects, link to other related social networking sites. interactive design widgets ad runnable learning design sequences. social objects be virally spread through different communication channels and to different communities. deep-level integration with a number of other sites/communities and dynamic sharing across the sites appropriate objects. Tagging
iv. Turn invitations into gifts. fun interactive sessions - user generated favourite designs and linking to other events and activities - prizes for the best entries, - dynamically added to the users profile.
v. Charge the publishers, not the spectators.

Cavalho (2007) comes up with a related set of ten principles for social design (KISS – Keep it Social Stupid, Define the objects of sociality, Objects invite play, To play, to stroke, Multiply the actions, Asynchronous interaction, Mind the bacon, Set the ‘dun’ bar higher, Reputation display and Building social capital).

Bouman et al. (2007) have developed a design framework based on sociality: accommodate both the evolution of practices and the inclusion of newcomers; individual identity is also important so there needs to be a mechanism to enable the development of identities; people are more inclined to use software systems that resemble their daily routines, language and practices; metaphors and structures that mimic real life practices are likely to be more successful. … The framework is based around four design domains: enabling practice, mimicking reality, building identity and actualising self.

Bouman et al. (2007) users value social software that adds value in terms of enabling or creating practices that are important to them … use of mechanisms and metaphors associated with ordinary real life … building identity social criteria are important – in terms of building trust and creating a sense of belonging. … ‘what’s in it for me’ … aligning individual interests … there is also a needs to shift and change practice

Instructional Design and Connectivism (George Siemens) 23 minute presentation
The primacy of the connection - Learner has greater control over content.

Understanding how and why connections form

How attributes of connections reflect learning

Neural, physical and social connections

Designing learning – historically - sequence of content, interactions, space/ecology of learning – teacher centred rather than learner centred – with a content focus –

The context of the learning will dictate how the learning will be designed. Systemic issues of timetabling, funding etc will also influence the learning design.

Capacity to adapt – the way we approach learning, how we stay up to date with ever changing – keeping current

Chaos and complexity – metaphors to think about the learning – learning is a lot more chaotic and complex than what traditional learning systems imply/design for – need to overcome the linear nature of traditional instructional/educational design

Patterning – quickly recognize patterns
Wayfinding – finding your way
Sensemaking – making sense of the information/learning

Connecting with learning through a variety of distributed approaches

Linear vs distributed learning design –

Focus on content, context and connections

Domain 1 - Analysis and validation – learning development cycle – stages – 1. Analysis 2. Evaluation & Representation 3. Validation
Domain 2 - Ecology design and network fostering – ecology, content, networks – design, develop, pilot, evaluate
Domain 3 - Adaptive Learning – skills/process for adaption – currency, developing skills, situated, tools, needs
Domain 4 - Review and Evalation – assess/evaluate – design, learning, content, process, revise/adjust

Impacting factors: context, readiness, tools, concepts, resources, change management, strategy, time

Cloud model of design -

WIIFM – designing learning around web 2.0 principles – self sustaining learning and development –