In describing your educational challenge, it is also important to consider what learning theory or teaching approach might inform a response.
Your investigations on this aspect can shape the design you are developing, and also help identify the ideas about learning that underlie the case study account that you might be reading for Assignment 1.
Revision and further reading
Pick one: These chapters discuss and summarise learning theories and pedagogical approaches from the perspective of technology-enhanced learning. You may like to refresh your past reading on theoretical approaches by reading one of these accounts.
Bates, T. (2015). Chapter 2: The nature of knowledge and the implications for teaching. Teaching in a digital age: guidelines for designing teaching and learning. Available at https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/
Boettcher, J., & Conrad, R. (2016). ‘Learning theories and theorists’ (pp. 13-21).The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips (2nd ed.). Chichester: Wiley. Available from http://www.myilibrary.com?ID=952251
Chapter 1 of Boettcher and Conrad (2016) summarises some of the main figures in the different streams that have fed into the timeline of online learning development. These pages reference the site Instructional Design.org which gives handy summaries of many of the terms and ideas that you will meet in your reading in SoTEL.
Bower, M. (2017). Chapter 3: Pedagogy and technology-enhanced learning. Design of Technology-Enhanced Learning: Integrating research and practice (pp. 35-64). Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing.
Dabbagh, N., Marra, R. M., & Howland, J. L. (2019). Chapter 3: Instructional strategies for meaningful online learning. Meaningful online learning: integrating strategies, activities, and learning technologies for effective designs. Routledge (pp. 26-48).
Mayes, T. & de Freitas, S. (2013). Technology-enhanced learning: the role of theory, chapter 1 of Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age, H. Beetham & R. Sharpe (Eds.), Routledge.
Selwyn, N. (2017). Contemporary accounts of technology, information, knowledge and learning, (pp. 88-94), Education and technology: key issues and debates, 2nd edn, Bloomsbury. This is an update of the 2011 edition chapter 4 Does technology improve learning?
Estimated time to complete one reading: 60 minutes
Take-aways from these readings
Tony Bates centres his summary of learning theories on the nature of knowledge:
our choice of teaching approaches and even the use of technology are absolutely dependent on beliefs and assumptions we have about the nature of knowledge, about the requirements of our subject discipline, and about how we think students learn.
Terry Mayes and Sara de Freitas present a more complex view of TEL approaches than Bower, and go deep into the historical roots of ideas on learning. Their emphasis that more than one perspective can be valuable is an important take-away:
Most implementations of technology-enhanced learning will include blended elements that emphasize all three levels: learning as behaviour, learning as the construction of knowledge and meaning, and learning as social practice.
Portfolio activity:
- What is the pedagogical approach for your learning design? Add it into your learning design portfolio.
Estimated time to complete: 60 minutes
Further reading: Bloom’s and beyond
You can see how the theories of learning and pedagogical approaches you learnt in UNHE500 and UNHE501 are adopted and adapted in SoTEL literature. Here are two examples of SoTEL extensions to some foundation concepts.
Bower, M., Hedberg, J. G., & Kuswara, A. (2010). A framework for Web 2.0 learning design. Educational Media International, 47(3), 177–198. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523987.2010.518811
also Blooms Extended Digital Taxonomy: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~jmajor/blooms/index.html
optional activity. Estimated time to complete: 40 minutes