Albert Sangra is UNESCO Chair and Faculty Member at the eLearn Center at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain. See his presentation at the #EDEN2015 Annual Conference here. His talk is captured on video and will be published on the EDEN Youtube channel. Read about EDEN: http://www.eden-online.org

1. Expanding Learning
Opportunities for the Last
25 years … and Beyond
Prof. Albert Sangrà, Ph.D.
Academic Director, UNESCO Chair in Education and Technology for
Social Change, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)
Barcelona, 12 June 2015

2. • EDEN and UOC in the timeline
• Drivers of change
• Learning ecologies
• Challenges
• Final remarks
Content

4. Forerunners
• Paul of Tarsus (5-20 aC – 57-
68 aC)
• Seneca (6 bC – 65 aC)
• Caleb Phillips (1782)
• Sir Isaac Pitman (1843)
• University of London (1858)
(External Programmes)
• Anna Ticknor (1873) (Learning
at Home)
• International Correspondence
School (1888)
• University of Chicago (1892)
(Satellite Campuses)
• Penn State (1922) (Radio
courses)
• Iowa, Purdue and Kansas
State Universities (1938) (TV)
• Articulated Instructional Media
Project (Wisconsin) (1964)
(Integration of technologies)
• Stanford Instructional
Television Network (1968)
• ARPAnet (1969)
• Open University UK (1971):
other Open Universities
followed
• World Wide Web (1989)

5. EDEN
First conference
(Krakow, 1992)

6. Historical challenges of DE:
•To reach large numbers of students
•To provide a high quality learning experience
•To do it at a sustainable cost
•Always the same goal: creating opportunities for
learning.

7. Universitat Oberta de
Catalunya (UOC)
Universitat Oberta de
Catalunya (UOC)

8. Source: http://allfunnyimages.com

9. Educational model

10. The importance of having
a MODEL
The importance of having
a MODEL

11. Source: http://blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca/lifeatuoft/files/2014/06/DSCF3401.jpg
Would be it enough?

12. Font: http://digital.library.upenn.edu

13. Font: http://wisconsinmontessori.com

14. Font: http://parentables.howstuffworks.com
The importance of method

15. • Competency-based
approach in which the
activity, and all what it
needs around to be carried
out, is the core
Activity-based learning model

16. Drivers of evolutionDrivers of evolution

19. It is not about distance …

20. … but FLEXIBILITY

21. • Flexibility
• Personalisation
• Collaboration
• Informalisation
(Redecker et al., 2011)
Main pillars for the future of learning

22. Flexibility

23. Personalised learning means
ensuring that individual
differences are acknowledged

24. PersonalisationAge
Gender
Working
situation
Family issues
Other personal
circumstances
Prior
knowledge
Professional
experience
Socio-cultural
context
Professional
interests
Working
expectations
Estudiante

25. Student
Student
Student
L
E
N
A
G
N
IR
Student
Collaboration

26. Interaction
Teaching and learning process
Interaction ...
Student-student
Student-teacher
Student-group
Teacher-group
Student academic life
Interaction ...
Student-community
Student-institution
Institution-community

27. Informalisation

28. From content-based to activity-based design
0
100
Activity-based
approach
Content-based
approach
Self-content materials
Subsidiary
associated
materials

29. Superficial learning
Deep learning
An actual challenge

30. Transformation
Wisdom
Knowledge
Information
Data
C
O
M
M
I
T
T
M
E
N
T
An actual challenge

31. Learning EcologiesLearning Ecologies

32. Learning Ecologies

33. “A set of contexts made up of configurations of
activities, materials, resources and relations
generated in physical or virtual spaces, which
provide opportunities for learning”
(Barron, 2004)
Learning Ecologies

37. • Beyond CoP, IG, or
learning communities
• ICT extend the potential
of the learning ecologies
• Every individual may
develop a personal
strategy for professional
development and
relations
Learning Ecologies
Cosmovision
Reflexive
thinking
Information
Professional
environment
ExperiencesTechnology
Social
interactions

38. Learning
Ecology

39. Learning
Ecology
(both physical
and virtual)

40. • Teachers & their professional development
– Be aware of taking advantage of your whole learning ecology
– Improve your professional development more efficiently
• Instructional Designers
– Create new learning opportunities
– Advice new resources
• Higher Educaton Institutions
– Consider the future will no loner be as it used to be
– Become more granular and a quality node
Implications

41. ChallengesChallenges

42. Learning
is changing
http://www.slideshare.net/courosa/why-social-networks-matter

43. “If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then your better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.”
Bob Dylan

44. Aprendizaje formal, no formal e informal
A lo largo ... y a lo ancho de la vida
(The LIFE Center, 2007)
18,5% 7,7%

45. [Son nativos digitales]
http://www.slashgear.com/babys-first-ipad-24121114/

46. From economy
• Massification of
access
• Openness
• Disruptive business
models

47. Massification of access
Quality
CostAccess
TechnologyTechnology

48. Openness

49. Disruptive business models
(Christensen, 2011)

50. Quality
CostAccess
TechnologyTechnology
OpennessOpenness
Recognition
Recognition
Methodology
Methodology

51. Source: www.quotessays.com
Source: www.carpaintrepairinfo.com

52. Source: emilianoperezansaldi.com

53. - “My teacher told
me I’ve improved
my writing since I
do my homework
with a laser
printer …”
Quality
CostAccess
TechnologyTechnology

54. “Foodies are reactionaries”
“Rinehart criticized people who eat regular food as
being “reactionary.”
He thinks that his own industrialized food product
is going to save the world, and that “new” and
“different” are necessarily better.”
(http://www.returnofkings.com, June 1, 2013)
SOYLENT
The need of humanistic competencies for technologists
“… if we say that reality is one, we also know that it is complex and if we don’t
collaborate between disciplines, from science and art, we will live a partial
reality.” (Aymerich, Ara, 7/6/15)
Technology should support, but not shape life.

55. “I will set up the University XXXXXXXX, but I want
to be able to extend the University to people
outside the University through the latest
technologies.”
“Between conventional university and learning at
a distance, they need not be competition or they
need to be polarised, each has its own place and
each can fulfil its own mission to the advantage of
both.”

56. “I will set up the University of Chicago, but I want
to be able to extend the University to people
outside the University through the latest
technologies.”
“Between conventional university and learning at
a distance, they need not be competition or they
need to be polarised, each has its own place and
each can fulfil its own mission to the advantage of
both.”
William Rainy Harper (1896)
President, University of Chicago

57. Final remarksFinal remarks

58. • Distance and online education should keep going
increasing learning opportunities based on
sustainability and quality criteria.
• This goes beyond technology. Pedagogical and
organizational issues have to be primarily
considered.
• Decision making is being moved towards the
individual. Institutions have to realize they should
soften the control they use to have. Relationship
between institutions and individuals is yet to
change.

59. • Data on interactions (opportunities provided for a
good learning experience)
• Guarantee of well-trained and competent group of
teachers in online education
• Resources for learning available to the students
• Basic and applied research, particularly in online
education methods and the results achieved by the
students (student performance)

60. “It is not because
things are difficult we
don’t try them ... It is
because we don’t try
them they become
difficult”
Seneca
(4 bC - 65 aC)

61. I
M
P
E
G
N
O

62. Thank you very much
asangra@uoc.edu
http://edulab.uoc.edu/
twitter: albert_sangra
http://unescochair.blogs.uoc.edu/blog/