Where is e-Pedagogy? Is technology a tool, a driver or a constructor of learning in the University of Aberdeen? Flexible Delivery Symposium May 2009 Do Coyle

Notice Board The traditional skill of content creation is redundant in the information-rich environment Guide on the side or sage on the stage? Contemporary learners do not need to be supplied with more information, they need to know how to select and use the vast amount of information available online. They need to acquire new literacies: digital literacy, media literacy and information literacy…. Harness the power of the crowd

Memorisation is valueless when students are one click away from Google and Wikipedia Problem solving is really done through memorisation

Articulating pedagogies

Frameworks Underpinning Schema Fitting together pieces of the jigsaw? Perspectives on Learning Universities must change from being one dimensional to multi-dimensional

Making connections Distributed cognition Learning as knowledge creation Collaborative meaning-making Net Geners & Millenials perspectives on Learning? Active, authentic learning Task-oriented Just-in-time learning Search not memorise Google first port of call

Digital forces Use Web Active learning Authentic tasks Goal oriented Search Google Collaborate Use books Passive learning Contrived tasks Process oriented Memorise Library Compete 20 th century approaches21 st century approaches

New types of knowledge? Knowledge consists of accurate inter- relationships among facts, based on unbiased research that produces compelling evidence about systematic causes… in the classical view there is only one correct answer Collective agreement about a description that may combine facts with other dimensions of human experience. The validity of knowledge in Web 2.0 media is peer review from people seen, by the community of contributors, as having unbiased perspectives Classical knowledgeWeb 2.0 knowledge

Scottish Qualifications Authority

A connectivist perspective Learning is a network forming process Capacity to know more is more critical than what is known Learning rests in aggregating diverse, often opposing, views Content is often the by-product of the learning process, not the starting point Connections, not content, are the beginning point of the learning process Decision making is in itself a learning process

Pedagogy ~ Pedagogies~ ePedagogy Learning is a process people do, not a process that is done to people Conventional pedagogical practices focus on the means and ends of delivery, with the emphasis on content management and information transmission. Connectivism may not be the answer…but it does add something to our thinking about teaching and learning in the 21 st century. All four traditional pedagogies can be complimentary – even evolutionary A comprehensive e-pedagogy would embrace online assessment

E-Pedagogues Todays teachers have to learn to communicate in the language and style of their students… going faster, less step-by-step, more in parallel, with more random access Prensky 2001 Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Olivers 2004 call for blended pedagogies An e-pedagogue is a teacher at heart, has a passion for learning, knowledge of learning theories and effective pedagogy, and understands the functionality of e-technology Mehanna, 2004 ALT-J

Conflict~ Confrontation ~Comfort zone memory v application Knowledge transmission v knowledge creation F2f lectures v vod-casts Do new technologies provide tools for learning OR do they shape learning? ? ? ?

Rewiring education I nstructional paradigms will have to shift (McClure, Cornell) – yes, but how?? Our challenge is to incorporate affordances of ICT within a new pedagogy for e-learning. This will involve new learning on the part of teachers, together with recognition, on their part, of the dynamic pedagogy in which a process of continual change must be Accommodated. J. Cuthell ICT enhances learning opportunities independent of the content Participatory pedagogy

Where is e-Pedagogy? Is technology a tool, a driver or a constructor of learning in the University of Aberdeen? Lived pedagogies lie at the intersection of the tutor-student interpretation of the interrelationship between knowledge & learning Participatory pedagogy

Pedagogies for effective course delivery and design No givens, uncertainty, pedagogies Communication/quality interaction at the core Student experience is the starting point Personalised pathways and learner involvement in course design-delivery Flexible, multimodal course content – one size does not fit all, baby and bathwater syndrome Equip students with the means to find and use their pathways, networks, experiences As university teachers we are learners. We need to network, share ideas, learn from each other and our students – the definitive answer does not exist ……..