#topic/teaching #topic/learning #topic/education

Learning and Teaching

Add: History, Definitions, Best practice, my experiences. Learning design & tools may need to be a new page because I'll have a lot to say.

Quotes

Learning tools

from Managing Technology in Higher Education: Strategies for Transforming Teaching and Learning by A. W. (Tony) Bates, Albert Sangra (published in 2011)

Learning should include the ability to use information and communications technologies integrated with the content and skills needed within an area of study.

Technologies are not pedagogically neutral. Teachers must decide which tools are more likely to suit a particular approach.

Traditional universities and colleges seek ways to integrate new technology within the parameters of the traditional model, and look for changes at the margins, in a slow and incremental manner, that sustain the existing goals and values of the organization.

We should think of lectures not as the default model for teaching, but just as one tool of many.

from Learning with E’s: Educational Theory and Practice in the Digital Age by Steve Wheeler (published in 2015)

The institutional learning platform–the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) or Learning Management System (LMS)–is a classic case of decisions being made about learning without consulting the learner, or indeed, even the practitioner.

The architecture of the standard VLE/LMS requires that knowledge is offered in homogenised format, and there is little space for personalisation of content. It offers students no possibilities of customising their experience inside the VLE/LMS and the design of the user interface is overcomplicated.

It’s more important for us to recognise the significance of each tool, and how they can be used effectively in all their variations, and also in the combinations. Ultimately, transliteracy should be about using whatever media and communication tools are at our disposal, and also being able to discern which tools will be the most effective and appropriate in any given context.

The Web is a large learning space where we encounter others also interested in the same topics. It is a limitless place where people create and share knowledge, and it is a space in which we can have conversations that can continue almost indefinitely, drawing others into the dialogue from diverse interests, cultures and backgrounds. Content is merely one facet of the Web.

Technology, just like any other set of tools, is there to help the user perform. In the case of learning technology, it fulfils the function of supporting learning... Technology that frames learning so we can see ‘through it’ to engage and explore is more effective than technology that is the centre of attention.

If students study exclusively or predominantly away from the traditional campus, their prime connection to peers, experts and content will be through their personal devices. If the infrastructure to support this fails for any reason, students are suddenly separated from their resources and expert support. Universities must therefore ensure that institutional services such as Learning Management Systems and the provision of other centralised software remain stable and accessible at all times.

The manner in which all technology has been deployed in schools tends to perpetuate the control teachers hold over the learning process.

UK teacher Drew Buddie recently stated: ‘It’s not about just shifting traditional lessons onto screens–it’s about allowing pupils to make use of their devices to truly enhance their learning while giving teachers better ways to track individual achievement and personalize lessons.

I believe that for educators everywhere, the challenge is to take devices that have the potential for great distraction and boldly appropriate them as tools that can inspire learners, focus their minds, and engage them in learning.

It’s important for teachers and learners that tools are transparent–they should be so simple to use that the user thinks more about learning than they do about how they will operate the tool. It’s a complete waste of time if a student spends more time trying to figure out how to navigate a website than they do focusing on its content.

Learners and learning

Ivan Illich: ‘Most learning is not the result of instruction. It is rather the result of unhampered participation in a meaningful setting.’

from Managing Technology in Higher Education: Strategies for Transforming Teaching and Learning by A. W. (Tony) Bates, Albert Sangra (published in 2011)

To be a scholar now means knowing how to find, analyze, organize, and apply digital information.

Learning occurs best when learners are engaged and motivated to learn, when they are active during the learning process, and when they have some control over the learning context.

from Learning with E’s: Educational Theory and Practice in the Digital Age by Steve Wheeler (published in 2015)

When a learner starts to blog, they start to think for themselves. They have to consider the audience of more than one (the teacher) and they are required to be masters of their own journey.

Self-determined learning pathways are crucial for individual learners as well as learning communities and they are by their very nature beyond the control of universities and schools. Schools and universities cannot (and should not attempt to) harness these processes, but they can facilitate them.

In his theory of constructionism, Seymour Papert argued that we build mental representations of what we learn, and that the situated nature of where we learn influences and strengthens that representation. In other words, we learn by doing and building within relevant environments, and that authentic tasks can be very powerful in support of that situated learning.

Students’ ability to be flexible and responsive to change, and their skills of ‘learning how to learn’ will be just about all they have to help them survive. They will need to be digitally ready and technologically literate, probably beyond the experience and knowledge of their teachers and tutors.

Learning by making causes abstract ideas and concepts to become concrete because they are situated in real life contexts.

Teachers and teaching

from Managing Technology in Higher Education: Strategies for Transforming Teaching and Learning by A. W. (Tony) Bates, Albert Sangra (published in 2011)

It is not sufficient just to teach academic content. It is equally important to enable students to develop the ability to know how to find, analyze, organize, and apply information or content within their professional and personal activities, to take responsibility for their own learning, and to be flexible and adaptable in developing new knowledge and skills.

from Learning with E’s: Educational Theory and Practice in the Digital Age by Steve Wheeler (published in 2015)

Teachers need to wake up to the fact that they don’t teach subjects, they teach people.

No amount of technology, self-study or user-generated content can ever replace a good teacher. Educators will still be there to motivate and give impetus, and they will act as pedagogy experts to facilitate and support quality learning.

Every successful teacher must also be a professional learner. The essence of good teaching is to get students to fall in love with learning.