This document discusses revisiting educational theories to inform learning in media-rich environments. It argues that while the fusion of education and technology is presented as new, distance education has long attempted to bridge gaps between learners and teachers via media. It also notes that some proposed changes to education are not truly new. A theoretical lens is needed to identify real innovation and understand transformative learning processes. The document advocates for Bildung, a process of self-formation, as a framework and discusses how open educational resources could play a role in Bildung, including enabling social Bildung through sharing content. It raises questions about how Bildung relates to open complex contexts and how Bildung can be ensured in its pure meaning beyond economic principles.

1. Revisiting educational theories to inform
learning and education in media rich
environments
Markus Deimann | FernUniversität in Hagen

2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mawari/3165432915/sizes/m/in/photostre
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Education is about to take off to a new and exciting journey
Destination: ??
Flight time: ??
...so please fasten your seat belts and stay tuned!

5. Don’t Lecture Me: Rethinking How
College Students Learn
● Most of the students in his lecture
classes were not motivated to learn
physics, and they didn’t seem to be
learning much.
● “With modern technology, if all there
is is lectures, we don’t need faculty Physicist Joe Redish
to do it,” Redish says. “Get ‘em to do University of Maryland
it once, put it on the web, and fire
the faculty.”

6. Open Educational Resources
“The open provision of educational resources, enabled by
information and communication technologies, for
consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users
for non-commercial purposes.”

7. New practices?
For a MOOC (#change11):
„You are NOT expected to read and watch everything.
Even we, the facilitators, cannot do that. Instead, what
you should do is PICK AND CHOOSE content that looks
interesting to you and is appropriate for you. If it looks
too complicated, don't read it. If it looks boring, move on
to the next item.“

8. But is this really new?
● Fusion of education and technology is proclaimed as a
new dimension
● Yet, Distance Education has attempted to bridge the gap
between learners and teachers via media
● “to provide access to education for all learners, no
matter how dispersed or disadvantaged by economic,
personal, or political situations“ (Feasley & Bunker,
2007, p. 25)

9. More teaching and learning
go on – throughout life –
outside the classroom than
in; yet the myth persists

10. A good educational system
should have three purposes:
1. provide all who want to learn
with access to available
resources at any time in their
lives
2. empower all who want to
share what they know to
find those who want to learn
it from them
3. furnish all who want to
present an issue to the public
with the opportunity to
make their challenge known.

11. Stopover
● Education changes in various ways and there is a non
linear relation to technology
● Some changes are not new
● Theoretical lens needed to detect innovation
● “In important transformations of our personal lives and
organizational practices, we must learn new forms of
activity which are not yet there. They are literally
learned as they are being created. There is no
competent teacher. Standard learning theories have
little to offer if one wants to understand these
processes” (Engeström, 2001, p. 138).

12. Bildung and Learning
● Learning follows inter-related steps:
– Step I: classical stimulus-response
– Step II: context matters
– Step III: traditions, cultures, patterns etc. become
fragile
→ new frameworks to engage with yourself and the world
need to be generated, i.e. new skills and competencies to
master the challenges, especially in open complex
environments
● It is not a learning process, it is a process of Bildung

13. Classical and modern Bildung
● unique in the world and originated in
Idealism (philosophical roots)
● reflect conditions of society
● Humboldt's educational ideal was entirely
coloured by social considerations
● Bildung as a transformation of current
problem solving patterns

14. Theses
● A theoretical foundation is urgently needed to reconcile
the open education movement
● Increasing diffusion and availability of open material
leads to an increase of potentials for Bildung
● “Share alike” adds a new dimension to Bildung → social
Bildung
● OER can play an important role for transformative
processes of Bildung

15. Questions for discussion
● How is Bildung related to open complex contexts (e.g.
MOOCs)?
● How can Bildung in media-rich open settings be
investigated?
● How can we ensure that Bildung takes place in its pure
meaning? (not limited to economic principles)
● How and what can Bildung “learn” from a transatlantic
dialogue?