In leading up to a design for a learning sequence with a technology-enhanced component, we have completed several components of an analysis: we have
- described and considered a specific educational challenge
- noted the opportunities and constraints of the teaching context, and
- sought out scholarly models or investigations to help inspire possible solutions.
Each of these steps is expected to help you arrive at a possible solution. You can put this solution to the test by making a sequence of learning resources and/or activities, a sequence which for this unit, UNHE505, needs to include technology of some kind, for learning, teaching or learning design. By developing and ‘building’ the learning sequence as a rough model, or prototype, you can do at least two things:
- provide your colleague, students, outside expert, or unit tutor with something to review, and
- learn a new technology for learning or stretch your capacity in using technology in your teaching.
The later stages of the design cycle – prototyping, evaluation and reflection – are part of this ‘testing’. In this progression, as Beetham and Sharpe point out (2013, p. 53), we can see the praxis of teaching with technology as design:
like pedagogy, design is a term that bridges theory and practice. It encompasses both a principled approach and a set of contextualised practices that are constantly adapting to circumstances. In other words it is a form of praxis, both in the widely used sense of iterative, reflexive professional learning (e.g. Kolb 1984) and in the more radical sense of developing a critical awareness in action, in order to bring about transformation (e.g. Freire 1996).
The extract from Bower below notes initially that design for learning “is chiefly concerned with the design of good learning tasks”, with four general goals for most designs.
Reading: Bower (2017), chapter 6
Bower, M. (2017). ‘Designing for learning’ (pp. 129-133), part of Chapter 6: Design thinking and learning design. Design of Technology-Enhanced Learning: Integrating research and practice (pp. 65-92). Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing.
Reflection on this reading:
In this reading Bower points out that educational design “not only involves designing learning tasks but also supportive learning environments”. In developing your learning sequence as a solution to an educational challenge, you may be concentrating on technology-based activities or resources.
Resources? You may want to design a technology-enhanced learning component which focusses on presenting material to your students. In this case there would be a sequence to the content that you were authoring, and you would need to be able to explain or justify why the content was ordered in this way. You would also need to outline what came before and after this content, how each of these components contributed to the teaching goal and/or learning outcome, and how you would check that the resources were supporting student learning.
Activities? You may want to encourage students to undertake a range of activities that build their skills and knowledge for a particular stage of achievement of a learning outcome. To structure the activity sequence, you might want to centre it on a teaching strategy or pattern such as:
- pre-test / experience / post-test
- predict / observe/ explain
Where will you focus your solution?
Estimated time to complete: 20 minutes
If you are wanting some more suggestions for some TEL solutions, you might like to browse one or more of these collections of teaching ideas listed below.
Portfolio activity:
- We suggest that you start the plan/design part of your portfolio with a brief summary statement about the proposed solution that you wish to develop.
The details of your solution can be presented when you articulate the instructional strategy (strategies), learning activities, and technology (technologies) that you have selected.
Estimated time to complete: 30 minutes
Resources on learning sequences
- Guidelines to construct a learning design sequence (University of Wollongong. Note their example (figure 2) is a design for a whole semester.)
- Understanding routines (Visible thinking) — generic structures for activities to be the basis for learning sequences
optional activity. Suggested time: 60 minutes
an initial version or model which demonstrates how a finished item is going to operate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praxis_(process)