The Dance of Technology and
Pedagogy in Self-Paced Distance
Education
Terry Anderson, Canada Research
Chair in Distance Education

• Why do distance educators continue to argue
that pedagogical issues alone must define
their instructional designs?”
• “Pedagogy is seen to be trailing behind
technology in the sense that pedagogy is
shaped by the existing technological tools
instead of it dictating how technological
advances have to support teaching and
learning” Madiba&Mwamza-Simwami 2008

• Technology affords the interactions that
create learning opportunities
• Pedagogies define the way that technologies
are best used
Technology
Pedagogy

Dance Metaphors
• the
technology
sets the
beat and
the timing.
• The
pedagogy
defines the
moves.

First generation of DE
• Dancing alone
• Students are free to interpret
the design and the content as
they wished,
• the dance did not meet the
need
– of epistemologies based upon
community creation of
knowledge,
– pedagogies based on
collaborative, cooperative or
connected interaction, nor
– the learning needs of
individuals with low levels of
personal autonomy
Postal Technology

2nd generation of distance education
• Big Band Era
• Broadcast, production values,
exposure
• passive observations, rather
than active engagement
Broadcast
technologies

3rd Generation: Conferencing
• Synchronized cohorts
• collaborative and
cooperative distance
learning pedagogies
Conferencing technologies

Now Generation
Self-paced,Connectivistlearning.
• Networked coordination and collaboration using social
software,
• Global distribution and participation
• Opportunities for individuals to:
– find each other,
– study and work together,
– support and challenge each other and
– yet still retain the fundamental freedoms of pacing and
start and completion dates.
• This emerging generation of distance dance allows
learners to create their own social and individual
moves that meet not only their educational, but also
their social, emotional and economic needs as they
engage in the lifelong learning dance.

Self Paced Programming
• Continuous enrollment
• Maximizes learner freedom
• Most effectively meets demanding lifestyles of
mobile students
• Challenged by collaborative pedagogies
• Paulsen’s theory of Collaborative Freedom
(Paulsen, 2007)
• Social Software as ‘Killer App’ (Anderson, 2004)

Connectivist Pedagogy
• Learning and knowledge rest in diversity of opinions
• Learning is a process of connecting and coherently
organizing human and information sources
• Capacity to know is more critical than what is currently
known
• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to
facilitate continual learning
• Ability to make connections between fields, ideas, and
concepts is a core skill.
• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is a key
component of quality (from Siemens, 2005)

Connectivist Technologies
From Siemens and Tittenberger, 2009

Connectivist Dance
• Learning can be enhanced thought the
connection of many networks and this
“amplification of learning, knowledge and
understanding through the extension of a
personal network is the epitome of connectivism\"
(Siemens, 2004)
• Connectivism builds human capital:
– “People who live in the intersection of social worlds
are at higher risk of having good ideas” R. Burt, 2005,
p. 90

Conclusion
• Individual freedom and choice is critical to the
connectivist dance
• Choice in even self-paced learning distance
learning, involves choice to meet and ‘dance’
with others
• Social software and network technology
allows and supports these connections.

• Slides available on Slideshare at
http://www.slideshare.net/terrya/the-dance-
of-technology-and-pedagogy-icde-2009
Terry Anderson
terrya@athabascau.ca
http://cde.athabascau.ca/faculty/terrya.php
Blog: terrya.edublogs.org