The presentation discusses the complexities of digital learning, emphasizing the distinctions between formal, informal, and nonformal learning. It highlights emerging concepts like rhizomatic learning and connectivism as alternatives to traditional learning theories, suggesting that digital tools empower students and foster active, student-led experiences. Key takeaways include the necessity for academic understanding of learning technology and the importance of leveraging digital tools to meet the needs of learners.

1. The digital learning journey:
going in expected
and unexpected directions
Terese Bird, Educational Designer
University of Leicester
Panopto Users Conference, London, 21 November 2017

2. Learning does not happen the way
we think or plan
Image courtesy of manpreetdhuffar
https://manpreetdhuffar.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/the-lonely-and-
withdrawn-self-during-phd/comment-page-1/#comment-12

3. Formal learning
• What we pay for
• What gets accredited
• Linear
Courtesy of Maha Abed on
Flickr CC-BY-ND-2

4. Informal learning
• No set learning outcomes
• Natural, spontaneous, unintentional
• Communities of practice

5. Nonformal Learning
• Structured learning situations
• Not the level of accreditation or curriculum
that formal learning has
University of 3rd Age Freshers Fair

6. Unexpected emergent learning
From structured formal…

7. To unexpected nonformal learning

8. Rhizomatic learning (Cormier, 2008)
• A rhizome is a plant with no traditional stem
• By Kenraiz (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA
4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-
1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

9. “Rhizomatic learning is an epistemological
alternative to Western rationalism.”
(Genosko, 2001) (Bogue, 2008)
By Alain Van den Hende - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.
org/w/index.php?curid=61640131

10. Journey of Learning Theory
• Behaviourism – black box
• Cognitivism – linear computer
program
• Constructivism
– Take what you know, construct
further through discussion and
experimentation
– Social constructivism
– Community of practice (Wenger,
1998)
• Connectivism (Siemens, 2005)

11. Connectivism:
“Learning theory for a digital age”
• Disputed
• Distributed
networked learning
• Nodes can be digital
tools
By Houl0078 - Own work, CC0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?c
urid=14975106

12. Learning as distributed network
The internet is a distributed network
By The Opte Project - Originally from the English Wikipedia; description
page is/was here., CC BY 2.5,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1538544

13. Digital learning distributes the power
• Digital tools give the student more agency
• Digital tools have agency
• The better the digital tool, the greater the agency

14. A student’s drawing of her learning journey

15. A student’s drawing of her learning journey

16. A teacher’s drawing of her learning
Learning medicine, and what I say to encourage students

17. Examples of digital tools enabling
new growth, new direction

18. Threshold Concepts

19. Drawing while lecturing
…and the students draw too

20. “The unexpected” from Panopto
• Students picked up recording via Notability
and it got added into Panopto
• Short descriptive problem-solving videos
• Imagine: contoversial questions embedded in
Panopto, to answer without peer pressure
Courtesy
of
ilovetheeu
Wikimedia
CC-BY-SA-4

21. Subversive Learning
• Learning material not originating from the
course author
• Students do what they think they must do
• Cautionary tales
By Hariadhi, myself (Own work) CC BY 2.5
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via

22. “Needs must” Learning
https://www.createful.com/2016/about-that-design-vs-user-
experience-image/

23. “Needs must” Learning
https://www.createful.com/2016/about-that-design-vs-user-
experience-image/

24. Students know more about their
learning than we (or they) think
• Cognitive
congruence
(Lockspeiser et al.,
2008)
• Example of
TeachMeAnatomy
student-created
website

25. 2nd year students lecture to 1st year
students and record the lectures

26. Students filming mock ward rounds, add
in Panopto ‘What would you do next?”
Image courtesy of United States Air Force
http://www.keesler.af.mil/News/Art/igphoto/2000080164/

27. “Create” is at the top of the Bloom’s

28. Take home message 1:
Enable active learning
& student-led learning

29. Take home message 2:
Leverage the agency of good digital tools
• Panopto is a good digital tool with agency
• Encourage free-flow development, follow the
learning needs with a “needs must” spirit

30. Take home message 3:
The case for Learning Technology
• Learning Technology is an academic field, not
a pay grade
• We need to hire and position people who get
how technology advances learning
• Let those who understand learning guide the
use of digital tools
• Association for Learning Technology

31. Empower the journey
expected and unexpected

32. References
• Bogue, R. (2008) Deleuze and Guattari, Routledge.
• Cormier, D. (2008) ‘Rhizomatic Education: Community as Curriculum’,
Innovate: Journal of Online Education, 4(5), p. 6, [online] Available from:
http://nsuworks.nova.edu/innovate%5Cnhttp://nsuworks.nova.edu/innov
ate/vol4/iss5/2.
• Genosko, G. (2001) Deleuze and Guattari, Taylor & Francis (ed.).
• Lockspeiser, T. M., O’Sullivan, P., Teherani, A. and Muller, J. (2008)
‘Understanding the experience of being taught by peers: the value of
social and cognitive congruence’, Advances in Health Sciences Education,
13(3), pp. 361–372, [online] Available from:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17124627 (Accessed 31 December
2016).
• Siemens, G. (2005) ‘Connectivism: A learning theory for the Digital Age’,
International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2,
pp. 1–8, [online] Available from:
http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm.
• Wenger, E. (1998) ‘Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and
Identity’, Systems thinker, 9, pp. 2–3.