Learning Conversations

It’s interesting to think about potential possibilities that current and future technologies might bring to Education. For example, Annie points out exciting ‘hardware’ on the horizon while Miriam discusses a current Web2 technology. As educators, I think we have a ‘2nd sense’ for what technologies might support the active, constructive, cooperative and authentic nature of ‘meaningful learning’ (as defined by Jonassen, 2008). Web2 tools, for example, usually have an inherent collaborative nature & could easily be used to support authentic K-12 tasks (like Miriam, Voicethread also captured my attention, as did Thinkature.) Indeed, online communities soon build up to allow educators to discuss ideas and showcase examples of using these valuable tools (e.g. see here ). Educator polls can also be a useful way to stay in touch with current trends. E.g. see this top tools for learning poll.

Where might new technologies take us in the near future? Collaboration, communication and connection are usually amongst the key themes in discussions of what a ‘Web 3 world’ might look like (e.g. see Kelly’s interesting talk) and indeed, what new directions educational technologies might take (e.g. see The Horizon 2008 report ).

(Graphic by Jim Nuttle & displayed here with his approval. See full sized version)

However, as Maree concludes in her recent posting, teachers and pedagogical approaches will always be the crucial factor. Regardless of the symbol systems and capabilities of these exciting ‘horizon’ learning technologies, HOW learning technologies are used (by students & teachers), should determine their influence on learning outcomes.

Educause (2008). The 2008 Horizon report. Retrieved 3rd Nov., 2008 from
http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2008-Horizon-Report.pdf

Jonassen, D. et al (2008). What is meaningful learning? In D. Jonassen et al.(Eds).Meaningful learning with technology. 3rd Edtn. pp1-12. Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, N.J.

Made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Available here.

One interesting aspect of the learning design field is the flexible roles of new media. Various genres of video, for example, offer exciting new opportunities for learning. Teachers may use or adapt existing footage in a range of ways from either commercial hosts such as Discovery Education or free libraries such as the Open Video project. For instance, video-based demos can be used as stimuli in POE designs or in many other ways. Burden and Atkinson (2008) are exploring a framework for using existing video from repositories such as the News galleries. An exciting part of their project is the creation of a community resource of focused and specialist exemplars. Teachers will be able to comment on exemplars and upload their own video in a Youtube-like community.

In terms of learner-produced video tasks, an exciting genre of video production that is enjoying widespread popularity in all levels of education is digital storytelling . For instance, student teachers at UTS recently made some powerful stories Such stories can either be published in user-created web2 outlets such as a class wiki or VoiceThread and/or can be published on existing media communities such as SchoolTube , TeacherTube or the Apple Student Gallery .

Burden, K. & Atkinson, S. (2008). “Beyond Content: Developing Transferable Learning Designs with Digital Video Archives.”. In Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2008 (pp. 4041-4050). Chesapeake, VA: AACE

Made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Available here.

An exciting area of research and development at the moment is in the area of ‘learning designs’. Sites such as the Learning Design website have documented exemplary technology-mediated learning designs and more recently, organic communities such as the LAMS community have evolved into valuable places for both documenting, sharing (and quite easily enabling) learning designs. There has been some concern about the ‘practitioner-friendliness’ of some of these spaces (e.g. see Manuel’s recent posting) … two UK projects, the Phoebe project and the Cloudworks project , are exploring exciting solutions

Made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Available here

Assoc. Prof. Sandy Schuck and I have had some input into 3 recent mass media items discussing technology in schools. Sandy was involved in a SMH article and amongst other valuable comments, mentioned two popular but in some ways contrasting current uses of technology in classrooms: the use of student-generated video and e-whiteboards. She also was involved in a discussion about laptops in schools on 2BL radio.

Made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Available here

I was involved in an article from last weekend’s Australian that discussed the influence of technology on schools. I mentioned the potential role of technology to support teacher learning and the wonderful opportunities available to extend the ‘professional development circle’ beyond traditional boundaries through online communities such as EdNa, Tapped In & the LAMS community and also less formal spaces such as TeacherTube, teacher podcasts and blogospheres. Teachers’ contributions to spaces like Merlot and TRE (UK) (especially contributions rated highly by peers!) may help develop professional identities & possibly carry ‘status’ when applying for jobs or promotions.

Just explored this commentary about educational YouTube videos … according to the blogger, there is ‘intelligent life on YouTube’! It seems that not a day goes past without hearing this type of hype about the Internet in 2008 … especially in relation to the quite exciting range of media freely accessible to teachers and students. Whether it’s the latest instructional video site, online video rental sites or YouTube collections, this hype seems easy to promote ‘web 1.0′ mindset of educational technology; a traditional ‘one way’, information delivery view of learning. In the case of video, this would involve the notion of learners passively viewing instructional videos. This is valuable of course but in my opinion, they ‘miss the mark’ in terms of the ability of web 2.0 technologies to support ‘learners as publishers’ and media creators. (Even on TeacherTube, there is only one channel devoted to student-generatated products!) Hence, it was refreshing to read Emma’s recent posting about the real affordances of Web 2.0 for children’s learning. She cites Freedman’s publication on Web 2.0 in Education (see paper in the Social Software folder in our Literature section), which contains many convincing and creative ‘case stories’ of teachers allowing their children to be creative with these new tools.

Image Source: http://www.terry-freedman.org.uk/db/web2/

Prompted by a YouTube video, Shirley posts her thoughts on collaborative projects – a great focus for her work this week! Wikispaces OR a classs blog is a great way for kids in ’sister schools’ to share these kind of products, utilising the ‘comments’ feature for other kids to converse and critique (otherwise, try the new Apple Student Gallery).
Anothere exciting possibility is the collaborative (online) creation of artefacts such as video projects. For example, Jumpcut (yes, it’s free!) allows people to collaborativly build a video together, despite being in different parts of the world. A child-friendly version of such a facility will add an extra dimension to these types of collaborative projects.