Technological advances have enabled three generations of distance education pedagogies: 1) behaviorist/cognitive pedagogies emphasizing individual study, 2) constructivist pedagogies focusing on group learning, and 3) connectivist pedagogies based on network learning. Each generation is associated with different types of knowledge and technologies that both determine and are determined by the pedagogical approach. New technologies continue to enhance existing pedagogies while also enabling new forms of learning to emerge.

1. Technological Challenges and
Opportunities of Three Generations
of Distance Education Pedagogies
Terry Anderson, PhD and Professor

2. Overview
• Technological Determinism in Education and
Training
• Generations and Technologies of Distance
Training Pedagogy
• Type of Knowledge appropriate to each
generation
• Your Comments and Questions!

3. Why I am here!

4. Values
• We can (and must) continuously improve the
quality, effectiveness, appeal, cost and time
efficiency of the learning experience.
• Student control and freedom is integral to 21st
Century life-long education and learning.
• Continuous Education opportunity is a basic
human right

6. Traditional Technology
Generations of Distance Education

7. Learning as Dance
(Anderson, 2008)
• Technology
sets the
beat and
the timing.
• Pedagogy
defines the
moves.

8. Social Construction of Technology
Networked Education is, by definition, technologically mediated and
thus is influenced by technological determinism.
BUT….
• Interpretative Flexibility
– each technological artifact has different meanings and interpretations
• Relevant Social Groups
– many subgroups of users with different applications
• Design Flexibility
– A design is only a single point in the large field of technical possibilities
• Problems and Conflicts
– Different interpretations often give rise to conflicts between criteria
that are hard to resolve technologically
• (Wikipedia, Sept, 2009)
Bijker, W. (1999). Of Bicycles, Bakelites and Bulbs: Towards
a Theory of Sociotechnical Change.

9. Three Generations of
Distance Education Pedagogy
1. Behaviourist/Cognitive
– Self Paced, Individual
Study
2. Constructivist – Groups
3. Connectivist – Networks
and Collectives

10. 1. Behavioural/Cognitive
Pedagogies
• “tell ‘em what you’re
gonna tell ‘em,
• tell ‘em
• then tell ‘em what you
told ‘em”
Direct Instruction

11. Gagne’s Events of Instruction (1965)
1. Gain learners' attention
2. Inform learner of objectives
3. Stimulate recall of previous information
4. Present stimulus material
5. Provide learner guidance
6. Elicit performance
7. Provide Feedback
8. Assess performance
9. Enhance transfer opportunities
Basis of Instructional Systems Design (ISD)

12. Enhanced by the “cognitive
revolution”
• Chunking
• Cognitive Load
• Working Memory
• Multiple Representations
• Split-attention effect
• Variability Effect
• Multi-media effect
– (Sorden, 2005)
“learning as acquiring and using conceptual and cognitive
structures” Greeno, Collins and Resnick, 1996

13. Behaviourist/Cognitive Knowledge Is:
• Logically coherent, existing independent of
perspective
• Largely context free
• Capable of being transmitted
• Assumes closed systems with discoverable
relationships between inputs and outputs
• Readily defined through learning objectives

14. LMS as primary B/C Teaching Tool
• Secure – hackers, vandals
• Robust
• Custom designed for teaching
• Simple, consistent and adopted
• Supported and Integrated with other institutional
systems
• Tracking and recoding
• Sophisticated (branching, printing, permissions)

15. New Developments in
Behavioural/Cognitive Systems
• Reflection Amplifiers
• Social Indicators
– Global feedback
– Digital footprints
– Archives
– Competition and games
• Multiple Representations
• Student modeling and adaptation - analytics

16. Adaptivity in ubiquitous learning
Extensive modelling of learner’s actions,
interactions, “mood”, trends of
preferences, skill & knowledge levels,
implicit and explicit changes in skill &
knowledge levels
Real-time monitoring of learner’s
location, technology use, and change of
situational aspects
Slide 16

17. Open Student Models
• “the learner model now plays a new role – not
only can the learner contribute information to
help increase the accuracy and therefore the
utility of their learner model for adaptation
purposes, but the model can also become a
learning resource for the student in its own
right. “ Susan Bull et al. 2007
• removing the blindness that has to date
prevented educators from viewing and
learning directly from learner behaviours

18. 1st International Conference on
Learning Analytics and
Knowledge 2011
Learning Analytics
• Unlike traditional adaptive hypermedia and
intelligent tutoring systems that work on a
known closed corpus of material,
• Learning analytics is used across multiple,
unknown activities and interactions across the
net, mining information about patterns of
behaviour in order to extract useful
information about learning which can then be
applied to improve the experience.

19. Open Open Content and Open
Educational Resources
Because it saves time and money!!!

20. Are you More than Your Content?
• lack of motivation for distance education
content developers to use OERs ??
• Many DE developers and Faculty define
themselves by the production of quality
content – not by the consumption and
customization of content created by others.

21. Technology in use to Create C/B
conten
Dyck and Carey ID Model:
specialized expertise
team work
division of labour

22. Cog/Behteams demand
• Effective Project Management
• Synchronous and asynchronous distributed
communications
• Archiving, and version control
• Interoperability
• Reuse
• Distributed

23. Many ways that technologies
enhance production and learning
of 1st generation
Cognitive/behaviourist pedagogy.

24. 2nd Generation DE
Constructivist Pedagogy

25. Constructivist Learning Pedagogy
• New knowledge is built upon the foundation of previous
learning
• The importance of context
• Errors and contradictions are useful
• Learning as an active rather than passive process,
• The importance of language and other social tools in
constructing knowledge
• Focus on negotiation, meta-cognition and evaluation as
a means to develop learners’ capacity to assess their
own learning
• The importance of multiple perspectives - groups
• Need for knowledge to be subject to validation and
application in real world contexts
– (from Honebein, 1996; Jonassen, 1991; Kanuka& Anderson, 1999)

26. Constructivist Knowledge is:
• Learning is located in
contexts and relationships
rather than merely in the
minds of individuals.
Greenhow, Robelia & Hughes
(2009),
Kathy Sierra http://www.speedofcreativity.org/

27. Constructivist learning is based on
Group Learning Providing:
• Motivation
• Feedback
• Alternate and conflicting viewpoints

28. Why Groups?
• “Students who learn in small groups
generally demonstrate greater
academic achievement, express more
favorable attitudes toward learning,
and persist …
• small-group learning may have
particularly large effects on the
academic achievement of members of
underrepresented groups and the
learning-related attitudes of
women…”
• Springer; Stanne, & Donovan, (1999) P.42

29. Impact (Mean effect size) of
Cooperative versus Individualistic
Learning contexts
Dependent Variable
Achievement .64 -88
Interpersonal Attraction .67-82
Social Support .62-.83
Self-esteem .58- .67
Time on task .76
Attitudes towards task .57
Quality of reasoning .93
Perspective taking .61
From Johnson and Johnson (1989).
Cooperation and competition. Theory and research

30. Advances in Constructivist
Learning Tools
• Collaborative tools
– Document creation, management, versioning
– Time lines, calendars,
– Strong notifications
• Security, trust
– hosting on institutional space?
– Behind firewalls, away from search engines
• Decision making and project management tools
• Synchronous and asynchronous
conversations/meetings

31. User Model & Adaptation
for Groups:
TRAC system “extract patterns and other
information from the group logs and present it
together with desired patterns to the people
involved, so that they can interpret it, making use
of their own knowledge of the group tasks and
activities” (Perera, 2009).

32. SNAPP Moodle analytics

33. Gestures, body language rich
human presence tools
• Avatar Kinect

34. Asynchronous Voice technologies

35. Problems with Groups
• Restrictions in time, space, pace, &
relationship - NOT OPEN
• Often overly confined by leader
expectation and institutional
curriculum control
• Usually Isolated from the authentic
world of practice
• “low tolerance of internal difference,
sexist and ethicized regulation, high
demand for obedience to its norms and
exclusionary practices.” Cousin & Deepwell 2005
• “Pathological politeness” and fear of
debate
• Group think (Baron, 2005)
• Poor preparation for Lifelong Learning
beyond the course

36. Constructivist learning in Groups is necessary,
but not sufficient for advanced forms of
learning.

37. 3rd Generation - Networked Learning using
Connectivist Pedagogy
• Learning is building networks of information,
contacts and resources that are applied to real
problems.

38. Connectivist Learning Principles
George Siemens, 2004
• Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or
information sources.
• Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
• Capacity to know is more critical than what is currently
known.
• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to
facilitate continual learning.
• Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and
concepts is a core skill.
• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge)
is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.

39. Connectivist Knowledge is
• Emergent
• Distributed
• Chaotic
• Fragmented
• Non sequential
• Contextualized

40. Networks add diversity to learning
“People who live in
the intersection of
social worlds are at
higher risk of having
good ideas” Burt,
2005, p. 90

41. Connectivist Learning is Emergent
• the very uncertainty and lack of predictability
of learning outcomes will be the key factor
that adds value to a learning community
• emergent systems will provide the necessary
triggers to enhance knowledge and
understanding
• emergent learning will be one of the critical
triggers to unleash individual creativity (Kays&
Sims, 2006,p. 411)

42. Connectivist Learning designs
Connection forming
Selection
Filtering
Awareness and Contribution and
Receptivity Involvement
Reflection and
Metacognition
Pettenati, M. (2007).

43. Special Issue of IRRODL on
Connectivism coming Feb. 2011
Free Subscriptions at www.irrodl.org

44. Networks
Communities of Practice
• Distributed
• Share common interest
• Mostly self organizing
• Open – Learning beyond the course
• No expectation of meeting or even knowing all
members of the Network
• Little expectation of direct reciprocity
• Contribute for social capital building, altruism and
a sense of improving the world/practice through
contribution.
• Increases exposure to the adjacent possible
(Brown and Duguid, 2001)

45. Transparency, Persistence
• “shared awareness allows
otherwise uncoordinated groups
to begin to work together more
quickly and more effectively
(forming networks)” Clay Shirky
2008 p. 162
• “adjacent possibilities” Stuart
Kaufman – ideas sufficiently
close geographically or
conceptually to propel adoption

46. How do we Build Networks of Practice ?
• Motivation – learning plans, self and net efficacy,
net-presence, modeling and exposure
• Structural support
– Exposure and training
– Transparent systems
– Wireless access, mobile computing
• Cognitive skills – content + procedural, disclosure
control
• Social connections, reciprocity
– Creating and sustaining a spiral of social capital building
• Nahapiet&Ghoshal (1998)

47. What does the Research literature have
to say about Networked Learning?
• Most reports by early adopters and innovators
with potential bias
• As always in education, too few studies and
especially too few focusing on learning
outcomes.
• Tremendous variation in learning context
• “The question on whether the use of wikis can
improve learners' outcome such as writing
ability is unresolved” Hew & Cheung, 2009

48. Challenges of Connectivist Learning
Models
• Privacy
• Control
• Dealing with disruptive change
• Institutional Support
• Sustaining motivation and
commitment

49. Access Controls in Elgg

50. Leveraging the Collective
Group Network
Sets Set
Dron and Anderson,
2011 50

51. Anderson, Krathwohl et al (2001) revision of
Bloom’s (1956) model of the cognitive domain
Graphics from Atherton (2010)

52. Connectivist.
3st Gen
Constructuvist.
2st Gen
Cog/Beh
1st Gen

53. Ist Gen Cog/Behav is Hard
• Rigid Structures
• Increased transactional distance
• Scaleable
• Reduces choice,
• Reduces Insecurity
Jon Dron 2011

54. 2nd Gen Constructivist is Softer
• Less Structure -> more dialogue (Michael Moore)
• Doesn’t scale

55. 3rd Generation Connectivist
• Emergent, soft
• Scalable
• Forces learner
control

56. 3rd Generation Connectivist
• Emergent soft

57. 3rd Generation Connectivist
• Emergent soft

58. Connectivism Connects
Formal and Informal
• Selwyn, 2009 examined the log activity of over 900 UK
undergraduates to identify their use of Facebook appears to
– a space where the 'role conflict' that students experience in their
relationships with university work, teaching staff, academic
conventions and expectations can be worked through in a relatively
closed 'backstage' area.
– So rather than enhancing directly participation in formal learning, the
social networking services to help learners develop, reflect upon and
share their identify grow and conflicts.
• “positive relationships between intensity of Facebook use and
students' life satisfaction, social trust, civic engagement, and
political participation” Ellison Steinfield&Lampe 2007.

59. 2010 Survey of 125 US learning and training leaders - CARA

60. Recommendations for teachers
• Be as fearless as your students.
• Seek out or create opportunities to
collaborate with and learn from your peers.
• Develop your own personal learning system
• Explore, experiment and have fun

61. Conclusion
• Behavioural/Cognitive models are useful for
memory and conceptual knowledge acquisition.
• Constructivist models develop group skills and
trust.
• Connectivist models introduce networked
learning and are foundational for lifelong
learning in complex contexts
• 21 Century Literacy's and skills demand effective
use of all three pedagogies
Anderson & Dron (in press) 3 generations of DE Pedagogy. International
Review of Research in Distance and Open Learning (IRRODL)

62. Slides available at
http://www.slideshare.net/terrya/hub-de-summit-sydney
Your comments and questions most
welcomed!
Terry Anderson terrya@athabascau.ca
Blog: terrya.edublogs.org