Learning on the web

Learning on the web Professor Paul Maharg 1

Introductions why we’re here... are you happy using technology in your teaching? ✦ what technologies would make life easier for you? for ✦ your learners? are you looking forward to distance-learning - or ✦ looking back and wishing it would go away? what do you want to learn? ✦ 2 2

the basics: VLE tools questions for discussion in small groups: how do you use your VLE? ✦ how does it affect the way you work with ✦ students? what do you need that isn’t there? ✦ 3 3

CATfeed model a way of: designing web learning ✦ creating effective and thoughtful tasks ✦ planning your time as a teacher ✦ 4 4

CATfeed model Context of learning information, comms, timelines, trust, conﬁdence, ✦ enthusiasm, commitment, social responsibility, guidelines, standards (by which their work will be judged), standards (by which you will be judged), assessment, links to other modules, links to wider community of learning 5 5

CATfeed model Affordances books, handouts, library research, their ✦ colleagues, your colleagues, you, web resources, internal dialogues, themselves 6 6

CATfeed model Tasks big or small, when, links to what affordances in ✦ the module, links to which other tasks, individual or collaborative or both, assessed, if so why & how, high-stakes or formative only, one-off or developmental 7 7

CATfeed model feedforward on tasks advance organizer, explain, contextualise, set ✦ standards, set expectations, enthuse, set strategy & tactics, set habits, checklists & protocols, forward diagnostic thinking feedback on tasks performance indicator, assessment of ✦ understanding, one-off or redrafting, one-off or developmental curve, reﬂective space, gathering experience 8 8

Web writing general guidelines See: Web Writing that Works! ✦ http://tinyurl.com/a2zdfe Trim that text! ✦ Make text scannable ✦ Cook up hot links ✦ Write chunky paragraphs ✦ Reduce cognitive burdens ✦ Make meaningful menus ✦ 9 9

and student academic writing...? style sheets are helpful. See Zeugma blog for ✦ example... They: reassure students ✦ give benchmark standards ✦ can open up parts of the academic writing engine ✦ to students commented examples are better. ✦ best are style sheets + commented examples + use in ✦ classes as learning objects10for feedforward + back 10

discussion forums useful for constructed online discussions ✦ not email or f2f tutorials ✦ must be embedded securely in a learning context ✦ will fail if students can get the same information more ✦ easily via another location see handouts on being a discussion forum tutor, and ✦ (nearly live) examples from GGSL 11 11

email feedfoward / back more work for a tutor ✦ more difﬁcult to control than forums ✦ can be awkward if some students receive feedback ✦ from this channel, and others don’t can support students with private problems at crucial ✦ moments 12 12

remote working if students can work remotely, so can you ✦ more structure required to keep in contact with ✦ students - when will you be available, how, what you’ll do, what they need to do, peer group support BUT ✦ careful forward planning is needed ✦ constant monitoring of your schedule and the ✦ student schedule use a task matrix & timeline to plan spaces ✦ 13 13

Into Web 2.0 14 14

simulations... are close to the world of practice, but safe from the possible realities of ✦ malpractice & negligent misrepresentation enable students to practise transactions, discuss the transactions with ✦ tutors, students, and use a variety of instruments or tools, online or textual , to help them understand the nature & consequences of their actions facilitate a wide variety of assessment, from high-stakes assignments with ✦ automatic fail points, to coursework that can double as a learning zone and an assessment assignment encourage collaborative learning. Cf guilds of hunter-players in multi- ✦ player online games students begin to see the potential for the C in ICT; and that technology is ✦ not merely a matter of word-processed essay & quizzes, but a form of learning that changes quite fundamentally what and how they learn. 15 15

transactional learning is active learning, 1. is based on doing transactions, 2. involves reﬂection on learning, 3. enables deep collaborative learning, 4. requires holistic or process learning, 5. facilitates ethical and professional learning 6. encourages immersion in professional role play 7. develops task authenticity 8. 16 16

aims of the SIMPLE platform personalized learning in a professional environment ✦ collaborative learning ✦ use of simulation spaces in programmes of study ✦ use of rich media in online sims - video, graphics, text, ✦ comms, etc. authenticity in the design of sim tasks & effective ✦ assessment of professional learning 17 17

what has the SIMPLE project done? provided academic staff in UK universities with ✦ software tools to design & build sims, and collate the resources required designed teaching, learning & assessment templates & ✦ curriculum guidelines provided tools to create a map & directory for a virtual ✦ town enabled comms & monitoring/mentoring between ✦ staff, students & virtual characters ✦ 18 18

implementations... discipline degree programme institution Architecture BSc (Hons), year 3 Strathclyde U. (1) Management BA (Hons), year 1 Strathclyde U. (1) Science Social Work MA (Hons), year 2/3 Strathclyde U. (1) Law LLB, year 1 Glamorgan U. (1) Law LLB, year 2/3 Stirling U. (2) Law LLB, year 3 Warwick U. (1) Law LLB, year 3 West of England U. Diploma in Legal Law Strathclyde U. (6) Practice 19 19

narrative event diagram enables academics to build sim ‘blueprint’ and collate ✦ all resources required for the sim tool & process allows for highly structured, closed- ✦ boundary sims, as well as loose, open-structured sims sims can be imported, exported ✦ tool has developmental potential ✦ 20 20

example of a NED 21 21

correspondence ﬁle 22 22

Ardcalloch directory 23 23

map of Ardcalloch 24 24

personal injury negotiation project Admin: 272 students, 68 ﬁrms, 8 anon. info. sources (PI ✦ mentors) 68 document sets, 34 transactions ✦ each scenario has embedded variables, called from a ✦ document server, making it similar but also unique in critical ways students have 12 weeks to achieve settlement ✦ 25 25

teaching...? introductory lecture, ﬁnal feedback lecture ✦ discussion forums ✦ FAQs & transaction guideline ﬂowcharts ✦ voluntary f2f surgeries with a PI solicitor ✦ ... and nothing else ✦ 26 26

assessment criteria bodies of evidence: ✦ fact-ﬁnding - from data sources in the virtual ✦ community professional legal research - online + paperworld ✦ resources formation of negotiation strategy ✦ performance of negotiation strategy - correspondence ✦ + optional f2f meetings 27 27

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(some of) what students learned extended team working :: real legal fact-finding :: real legal research :: process thinking in the transaction :: setting out negotiation strategies in the context of (un)known info :: writing to specific audiences :: handling more than one transaction :: structuring the argument of a case from start to finish :: keeping cool in f2f negotiations :: more effective delegation :: keeping files :: taking notes on the process :: 31 31

what students would have done differently ‘The ﬁrst [mistake]was in approaching the task as law students as opposed to Lawyers. By this I mean we tried to ﬁnd the answer and work our way back. Immediately we were thinking about claims and quantum and blame. [...] Our group knew what area of law and tests to apply yet we ended up often being ahead of ourselves and having to back pedal.’ 32 32

tempo and complexity 33 33

tempo and complexity 34 34

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SIMPLE evaluation methodology: integrative evaluation used mixed methods and multiple data sources to ✦ develop and overall picture of each participant’s use of SIMPLE highlighted issues, drivers and barriers ✦ allowed for the emergence of unanticipated aspects ✦ 36 36

evaluation of SIMPLE as transformative three levels: what role did professional learning play within the ✦ participant institutions and how did SIMPLE contribute? how do we address curricular issues in the design and ✦ implementation of innovative practices, and SIMPLE in particular? what are the wider systemic and institutional factors that ✦ affect this form of learning? 37 37

level 1: student experiences SIMPLE: enhanced professional skills ✦ heightened awareness of client care ✦ improved understanding of subject matter ✦ encouraged peer review ✦ Students: welcomed the authenticity ✦ wanted regular feedforward + back ✦ assessment results improved over a number of projects ✦ 38 38

level 1: staff experiences different expectations in look & feel ✦ some technical skills required - ✦ some found tools clunky ✦ most managed to operate the tools after training ✦ welcomed enhanced monitoring functionality of ✦ student work concerned about front-loading of work to create the ✦ sim blueprint initial difﬁculties in sim design & platform hosting ✦ 39 39

level 2: curricular themes open sims vs bounded sims ✦ staff control: disruptive sims vs convergent sims ✦ identity exploration (personal + professional) vs conventional learning ✦ (personal + professional) knowledge object-forming via play vs knowledge resumption by ✦ traditional means transactional learning vs conventional teaching ✦ interactive mentor roles vs conventional lecturer/tutor roles ✦ curriculum organised around spaces & resources vs curriculum ✦ organised around teaching interventions & resources replay / remix / feedforward assessment culture vs snapshot ✦ assessment culture 40 40

level 3: learning, institutions, practices there is no such thing as experiential learning. ✦ learning is distributed among expanded environments, ✦ tools, roles, tasks, social relations. there is no spoon: curriculum is technnology. ✦ the role of the institution changes. ✦ the question is no longer why conventional learning vs ✦ sim, clinic, PBL, etc; but, in an era where Wikipedia & SourceForge ﬂourish against all odds, why are we not collaborating at all levels in teaching and learning? 41 41

there’s no such thing as experiential learning we don’t learn from experience ✦ we learn by working to interpret experience, given that, when learning: ✦ we have different prior knowledge ✦ our aims are always different in subtle ways ✦ we learn different things from the same resources ✦ ‘resources’ means symbolic objects like books & web pages, but also people ✦ we can learn intimately and deeply from any resource ✦ teachers & students need to encode those interpretations as complex memories, ✦ habits, skills, attitudes or knowledge objects if they are to re-use them Schratz, M. & Walker, R (1995) Research as Social Change: New Opportunities for Qualitative Research. London: Routledge 42 42

curriculum is technology curriculum is multiple distributed technologies and ✦ practices, eg timetables, course teams, notepads, learning spaces, tutorial tasks, computers, forms of speech, writing - all existing in time spans some technologies are ancient (lectura, glossa), some ✦ new (SIMPLE, standardized clients, mobile phones) success in learning involves: ✦ for staff, the need to compose & orchestrate the ✦ curriculum for students, the tools, support & spaces to manage ✦ their own curriculum 43 43

the institution will change still focused on: organizations, ie VLEs, silos of knowledge ✦ products, ie handbooks, CDs, closely-guarded ✦ downloads content, ie modules, lock-step instruction ✦ Stephen Downes, http://www.downes.ca/ 44 44

the institution will change focus shifts to: organization with weak boundaries, strong presence ✦ through resource-based, integrated learning networks, with open access (open courseware initiatives, etc) web-based, aggregated content, not static content ✦ e-learning as integrated understanding & ✦ conversation, just-in-time learning assessment of situated learning ✦ Stephen Downes, http://www.downes.ca/ 45 45

Standard classroom c.1908. Would you like to learn about measurement & volume this way...? Thanx to Mike Sharples, http://tinyurl.com/6bzdgx 46 46

... or this way? (Dewey’s Laboratory School, U. of Chicago, 1901) http://tinyurl.com/6onvjp 47 47

Would you like to learn about history & town planning this way...? 48 48

... or by building a table-top town for a social life history project? (Dewey’s Lab School, http://tinyurl.com/59c93q) 49 49

signature pedagogies (Lee Shulman) Tacit Surface structure structure •!Values and •!Observable, dispositions that behavioural the behaviour features implicitly models Sullivan, W.M., Colby, A., Deep Shadow Wegner, J.W., Bond, L., structure structure Shulman, L.S. (2007) •!Underlying •!The absent Educating Lawyers. Preparation intentions, pedagogy that is, for the Profession of Law, rationale or theory or is only weakly, Jossey-Bass, p.24 that the behaviour engaged models 50 50

Transforming Legal Education Experience of… Ethics in… •!law in the world •!an integrated curriculum •!interdisciplinary trading zones •!habitual action •!creative, purposeful •!reclamation of moral acts spaces in the curriculum Technology Collaboration Maharg, P. (2007) for… ✦ between… Transforming Legal Education. •!our discipline, our •!students Learning and Teaching the law curricula •!institutions •!learner-centred in the Early Twenty-ﬁrst Century, •!academic & control professional learning Ashgate Publishing •!transactional •!open-access cultures learning 51 51

SIMPLE project conclusions sims can enable more engaged & deeper learning in ✦ undergraduate & postgraduate levels they can be used to learn and assess conceptual and ✦ second-order symbolic knowledge, practice-based skills and personal achievement of integrated skills students adapt best to new learning environments ✦ when they are aware of the expectations of them in the new arena simulation is a disruptive heuristic and requires ✦ support there are serious implications for institutional change ✦ and innovation 52 52

future directions for SIMPLE improvement of the interface ✦ further research - areas include: ✦ variation of student learning in simulations ✦ nature of ‘long conversations’ between students and between students and ✦ facilitators effect of disciplinary content on sim design ✦ variation of local professional/educational practices in the international ✦ arena on sim design collaboration across disciplines & internationally ✦ http://simplecommunity.org 53 53

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Learning on the web

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