The next step in the design process outlined by Mor and Mogilevsky (2013, p.4) is to articulate the features of your teaching context that are relevant to your challenge: “the material, social and intentional factors which define the environment” of your teaching.
Contextual elements might include:
Faculty/ school: what you teach, and your role in teaching
Is your challenge related to one or more unit learning outcomes, or a professional requirement or hurdle?
Learners: Who are your learners? – for example, their stage or year; their English language proficiency, if relevant
Are diversity perspectives relevant for your learners (e.g. students with a disability; Indigenous student groups; first-in-family; mature-age)?
Institutional: Are any university policies or Mission values important to your challenge?
You can look at the ‘Perspectives‘ section of this learning guide for other components of the context that may be shaping your teaching challenge.
Changes in technology in society and the workplace and the technologies that your institution makes available may also be part of your context.
Recommended reading
Selwyn, N. (2011; or the 2nd edition, 2017). Conclusions (pp. 16-18) to Chapter 1: ‘What do we mean by “education” and “technology”?’. Education and technology: key issues and debates, Bloomsbury Publishing.
Take-away from this reading:
Selwyn’s definition of ‘context’ for technology is as part of three interconnected things:
- “artefacts and devices: that is, the technology itself and how it is designed and made;
- activities and practices: that is, what people do with technologies (including issues of human interaction, organizing, identity, cultural practices);
- context: that is, social arrangements and organizational forms that surround the use of technologies (including institutions, social structures and cultures).”
Estimated time to complete: 10 minutes
Further reading
(Note on ‘further readings’ in this unit: these are optional only readings for when you get to a topic that is useful to you or interests you and you want some pointers to articles that take the topic further.)
Bower, M. (2017). Chapter 1: Technology integration as an educational imperative. Design of Technology-Enhanced Learning: Integrating research and practice (pp. 1-14). Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing.
Reflection on this reading:
This is a good overview of how institutions at the national and international level are pushing teachers to integrate technology into their teaching.
In the next chapter of the book, Bower reports on the broadest idea of what might be included in the idea of educational context (p. 20):
- macro-level elements: social, political, technological, and economic
- meso-level elements: institutional and community
- micro-level elements: class conditions; mindsets
Estimated time to complete: 40 minutes
Portfolio activity: Context
- Complete a brief summary of your teaching context in your learning design portfolio to highlight any aspects relevant to your teaching challenge.
- For example, are there institutional requirements around what you are teaching?
- What level of experience do the learners have?
- Are you working with others?
- (optional) Link in any work from UNHE501 that you might need to develop or explain your learning
optional activity. Estimated time to complete: 90 minutes