Analysis of Digital Technologies: Blogs

As a non-creative person who will have to learn to be creative in the application of ICTs into my lesson plans, I found this week's reading materials a confidence builder.  The example provided on how an international school used a blog to create their own textbook was amazing.  What an amazing project, and what an amazing product that was the end result.

Now that I have more of an understanding on blogs than  I did seven weeks ago, I can finally see glimpses of the potential learning experiences that digital technologies can provide for me in creating learning experiences, both through using my own blog as a learning manager, and through students using their own blog to journal their experiences, etc.

Following is my SWOT on this issue:

SWOT Analysis of Blogs as a Teaching Tool to Facilitate Learning

STRENGTHS: 

• Easily accessible to all members of the activity
• Can be a vehicle for many teaching strategies:  SWOTs, PIMs, peer teaching, central point of access to materials for students
• Additional material of interest can be made easily accessible through including links to other websites on the blog
• Images and videos can be included on the blog

WEAKNESSES:

• Hard to see some comments in the context of previous comments
• Inaccurate information can be contributed through comments based on unresearched and unsupported opinion

OPPORTUNITIES:

• A blog places all contributors on the same level playing field - those who find it hard to speak up in class is able to more freely express their ideas and suggestions through a comment
• Students can collaborate on assignment topics with all students adding their area of interest or expertise to the one blog so that all information can be seen at the one place

THREATS:

• Inappropriate comments are able to be posted, eg libellous materials, threats or negative comments on others contributing to the site
• It may be necessary to scaffold questions to get students to start reflecting in a productive way, however by doing this there is some debate as to whether or not such reflections could be considered as blogging as blogging is supposed to be the unadulterated thoughts and reasonings of an individual (Downes, 2004)

I have found the creation of our own blog for the assessment purposes of this course to be quite a liberating experience.  I have often toyed with the idea of creating my own blog, but never had the impetus to do so.  I have found that having a space to write about my learning experiences to be quite liberating.  Knowing that not every blog entry is to be assessed means that I have had leeway to openly blog as I felt led.  I think that I personally understand what Downes (2004) saw as a downside to using blogs in an assessable arena.  As soon as I was preparing my blogs that would be assessed, there was an immediate constraint on what I was or wasn't writing.

I think that in my case, as a learning manager I would encourage students to use a blog to record their thoughts and feelings in relation to course material, but would not use the blog itself as an assessable tool; perhaps along the lines of the following:

• English:  record their thoughts on the experiences of the protagonist in a novel as they read the book chapter by chapter, and then use those thoughts to write an essay on the novel content; and
• History:  record their reactions to viewing artefacts on a field excursion, and then use those thoughts to write a creative piece on how citizens in a civilisation would routinely use those artefacts.

Downes, S. (2004).  Educational Blogging.  EDUCAUSE Review, 39(5), pp. 14-26.  Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume39/EducationalBlogging/157920

And this all means . . .

CONCLUSION

With society’s changing technological landscape there is no denying the increasing importance of technology within the learning environment.  This is reflected in the Department of Education, Training and the Art’s publication Smart Classrooms (2008, p. 1) which asserts that teaching has been irreversibly affected by the way in which learners interact with technology, and that the teacher’s role includes the facilitation of the learner’s ability to construct meaning of the world through technology through making Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) a fundamental part of the learning environment.

Learning facilitators need to ensure that ICTs are used in order to facilitate the desired learning outcomes of a lesson through the delivery of pedagogical content and not serve as a lesson purely on the technology itself.  Mishra and Koehler (2006, p. 1026) assert that while more traditional teaching strategies focused on pedagogy and content together as pedagogical content, it is important to include technology in a way that compliments the learning experience rather than giving a separate focus to the lesson.  Their term TPCK (or TPACK), technological pedagogical content, reflects this interlinking relationship. 

The right balance of ICTs and a careful approach to their use in the learning environment are vital.  While some researchers assert that learners today demand to be challenged in the classroom through the use of ICTs (Prensky, 2005, pp. 60-64), others such as Thrupp (2010, pp. 1-2) indicate that a blended approach is more appropriate as the learning manager will be confronted with learners with a range of abilities and interests in digital technologies.  Margayan and Littlejohn (2008, p. 1) emphasise that the way in which the learning manager approaches ICTs is greatly influential in the attitudes that learners adopt towards those ICTs.  A careful consideration of application and attitude towards ICTs then is essential to ensure that technologies can be utilised in order to ensure that meaningful knowledge is gained through their use.

Contemporary researchers assert that today’s learning environments should focus less on acquiring knowledge and more on understanding and applying information so as to develop higher order thinking skills.  Nichols (2003, p. 4) claims that technology allows the student access to information as well as informs the student’s knowledge through constructivist processes.  Constructivism asserts that the meaning we gather from the world is informed by the learner, and that meaning is not a concrete construct that is imposed upon the learner (Duffy & Jonassen, 1992, p. 3).  They recognise that emphasis in classrooms has moved away from learning verbatim the content of a topic and towards allowing the learner’s knowledge through process to inform the lessons that are learnt (1992, p. x).  Scaffolding tasks through technology allows the learner to interact more intimately with the information available, and can assist them in making decisions as to how they will utilise this information.  Scaffolded activities using ICT can facilitate the learner’s application of higher order thinking as illustrated through Bloom’s Taxonomy, a model which presents a framework for the way in which individual learners expend differing amounts of time and energy in the process of learning, starting from Understanding and Remembering, moving though to Analysing and Applying, culminating with Creating and Evaluating (Clark, 2010).

The ICT exercises that we were required to complete as part of this assessment were an appropriate introduction to how ICTs can be incorporated into a learning environment, and focusing on developing lower to higher order thinking.  The first two exercises, those of creating a blog and a profile wiki, were based primarily on the learning theory of behaviourism (lower order thinking).  The way in which learners in the class were directed to follow specific instructions in order to create a desired outcome, in this case a blog or a wiki, fits the behaviourist learning theory in that the learner did not have to understand how the complete process works, only how to use the scaffolded product (Skinner, 1985 p. 292).  Such an exercise is a great tool to introduce a user with limited IT knowledge to the web, allowing a forum for thoughts and reflections that are easily accessible to many.  Once created, the use of these two technologies in the remaining tasks, first in collaborating and then in analysing and evaluating responses from other learners as guided by questions, fit more closely with constructivism (higher order thinking). 

These activities provided a valuable learning experience for those of us who are preparing for a role as a learning facilitator, and who seek to facilitate the development of lower through to higher order thinking in learners.  This activity required us to consider what we had discovered about Learning Engagement Theory and Bloom’s Taxonomy through our guided readings, and use this information to construct our own framework for elearning design.  Kearsley and Shneiderman’s (1999, p. 1) Engaged Learning Theory stresses the importance of ensuring that technologies in the learning environment are utilised meaningful so as to support the pedagogical content of lessons rather than serve as a distraction.  They also point out that the opportunity for learners to collaborate with others so as to share information and opinions can also be an important contributor to the developing of higher order thinking.  Some care needs to be taken however, as Little (2009, p. 11) points out that the success of the collaborative process is dependent upon participants to both accept that other members within the process possess the expertise to contribute, and that the process has the ability to produce a viable result.

In this particular case, the success of the exercises and their related processes were somewhat negated by technical issues faced by GDLT students.  Like the classroom, the elearning environment needs to be structured and managed so as to allow for a positive learning experience.  Frustrations with identifying the objectives of the end assessment and with non-functioning wiki sites necessary for some of the tasks led to focus deviating from the set tasks.  Learners began using the collaborative forum spaces, originally created to share information and opinions for developing higher order thinking, to voice fears and concerns in relation to their study programs as well as their diminishing confidence in the learning facilitator’s control of the learning experience. 

Upon completion of the tasks my confidence in the process and the facilitator has been restored through my development of a greater understanding of the ICTs involved.  This learning experience has provided me the opportunity to experience from the learner’s perspective what can happen when technologies, or our ability to use the technologies, fail.  The integration of ICTs to the learning environment can be a constructivist learning experience for teachers as well as for learners, where new technologies are not yet understood and mastered by the teacher (Donnelly and McSweeney, 2009, p. xix).  But where the teachers’ inexperience leads to the learners losing faith in the teacher as well as the ICT process then effective teaching cannot take place.

Despite the technical problems that were encountered, the three wiki exercises did allow an insight into how the collaborative process and the scaffolding of learning activities can be powerful tools.  The profile wiki was, I think, designed to show how the collaborative process can begin.  By being able to view other learners’ profiles it is possible to identify those who you feel would most closely share similarities with you, and who you may feel comfortable sharing with.  This gives collaborators the confidence that those they are collaborating with have both background and goals which would validate them as members of the collaborative process.  The learning theories, and mobile phones and six hats wikis provided examples of how learners can be guided through a learning experience and how learners’ understanding of an issue can be influenced and broadened through the sharing of information through the collaborative process.  The ways in which these two exercises were scaffolded ensured that contributions to the wikis were focused on discussing specific scenarios rather than merely opinions.  By applying Edward de Bono’s Six Hats Thinking model in order to explore whether or not mobile phones have a valid educational value in the classroom, collaborators who had a very strong feeling for or against the proposition were forced to considered other aspects of the conversation that they otherwise might not have considered through the virtual role play of thinking as a particular character based on the colour of the hat.  Even those who emphatically denied any value in mobile phones in the classroom at all were able to contribute one or two other responses to the scaffolded questions.  And where collaborators may have had difficulty in forming a response to a particular coloured hat, being able to read contributions from others helped facilitate the generation of new ideas and opinions.  This process leads to the developing of higher order thinking through the scaffolded activities enabling learners to collect knowledge and evaluate its value.

Clark, D. (2010).  Bloom’s taxonomy of learning domains:  the three types of learning.  Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#cognitive.

Department of Education, Training and the Arts.  (2008).  Smart Classrooms.  Retrieved from www.education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms

Donnelly, R. & McSweeney, F. (Eds.) (2009), Applied e-learning and e-teaching in higher education.  Hershey, NY:  Information Science Reference.  Retrieved from http://megapustaka.info

Duffy, T.M. & Jonassen, D.H.(1992).  Constructivism and the technology of instruction:  a conversation [Routledge Version].  Retrieved from http://books.google.com.au/books

Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999).  Engagement theory:  a framework for technology-based teaching and learning.  Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 Information Communication Technologies, http://e-courses.cqu.edu.au

Little, S. (2009).  “Oily rag” or “winged messenger”:  the role of the developer in multiprofessional teams.  In Donnelly, R. & McSweeney, F. (Eds.), Applied e-learning and e-teaching in higher education, (pp. 1-17).  Hershey, NY:  Information Science Reference.  Retrieved from http://megapustaka.info

Margayan, A. & Littlejohn, A. (2008, December).  Are digital natives a myth or reality?:  students’ use of technologies for learning.  Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 Information Communication Technologies, http://e-courses.cqu.edu.au

Mishra,P. & Koehler, M. (2006).  Technological pedagogical content knowledge:  a framework for teacher knowledge.  Teachers College Records, 108(6), 1017-1054.  Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 Information Communication Technologies, http://e-courses.cqu.edu.au

Nichols, M. (2003).  A theory for elearning.  Educational Technology & Society, 6(2), 1-10.  Retrieved from http://74.125.155.132/scholar?q=cache:6iY-dhH04qwJ:scholar.google.com/+elearning&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5

Prensky, M. (2005).  Engage me or enrage me.  In Educause Review pp. 60-64.  Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 Information Communication Technologies, http://e-courses.cqu.edu.au

Skinner, B. F. (1985).  Cognitive science and behaviourism.  British Journal of Psychology, 76, 291-301.  Retrieved from http://behaviorscience.org

Thrupp, R. (2010, April).  ICT created diversity in the classroom:  the contemporary learner.  Paper presented at the ACEC2010 Digital Diversity Conference, Melbourne, VIC.  .  Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 Information Communication Technologies, http://e-courses.cqu.edu.au

U2 can use de Bono's Hats (that's Edward's hats, not Paul Hewson's)

MOBILE PHONE WIKI FORUM

This task served as a scaffold for guiding the thought processes of learners through different considerations of a particular issue, in this case, the issue of whether or not mobile phones have a place in the classroom.  For digital immigrants, who remember a time when (gasp!) phones were not even cordless let alone mobile, it is hard to visualise mobile phones as having a legitimate place within the learning environment.  Traditionally, the telephone is used to hold conversations with other people; if you want to watch a video use a television, if you want to send a message use Australia Post and if you want to look up information go to the library.  This is a far cry from the experience of the digital natives of today who view the confiscation of their mobile phones as the equivalent of dismembering a limb.

This wiki forum was an effective way in which to consider viewpoints that individuals may or may not have thought of themselves in relation to this contentious issue.  Edward de Bono’s ‘Six Thinking Hats’ process, as outlined on the de Bono for Schools website, suggests that the visualisation of six different coloured hats can help learners to think about an issue in a particular way.  In summary:

White hat     Encourages the learner to view the facts surrounding the issue and to enquire as to what further information is needed

Black hat       Asks the learner to consider the problems surrounding the issue and to ask what these specific problems are

Yellow hat    Asks the learner to identify the benefits of the issue

Red hat          Asks the learner to identify what they like or dislike about the issue

Green hat     Encourages the learner to explore new ideas surrounding the issue

Blue hat         Asks the learner to reflect on the issue in the context of where it currently lies and what the next step will be

This constructivist exercise allowed learners to participate in a kind of ‘role play’ where they would play different characters based on the colour of the hat they (figuratively) wore.  By posting their individual responses to the scaffold they took part in a collaborative process which allowed differing viewpoints to converge, differing ideas and suggestions to be considered, and different questions to be asked.

Without collaboration, those who are polarised by the strength of their view of the matter one way or the other face the danger of missing out on the benefits of a learning experience simply because they have not identified opportunities and benefits that exist.  If we are able to get past our assumptions of what gives a thing value or purpose, it is possible that new opportunities will become evident to us.

Unlike the previous wiki task, this learning experience worked smoothly with no access issues for learners within the ICT class.  There was a high concentration of responses in the emotions / feelings section (Red hat) however which strongly asserted that, regardless of what the other hats said, they felt that there was absolutely no place for mobile phones in the classroom.  While the scope of this task did not include the resolution of this particular issue, it is a strong possibility that these people may not be open to the other side of the discussion at all.  And there is also the chance that such emotive statements can unduly influence other users of the wiki.

On the whole however, a  list of genuine responses to each of the hat scenarios resulted in much fodder for the individual to consider in weighing up where they now stand on the issue of mobile phones in the classroom. 

de Bono for Schools, Six thinking hats:  increase collaboration skills.  Retrieved at http://debonoforschools.com/asp/six_hats.asp.

Learning from those who know

FRAMEWORK FOR eLEARNING Design

Both Learning Engagement Theory and Bloom’s Taxonomy relate to learning and how the collective body of knowledge is revised and expanded.  This activity required us to consider what we had discovered about Learning Engagement Theory and Bloom’s Taxonomy through our guided readings, and use this information to construct our own framework for elearning design. 

Bloom’s New Taxonomy (Clark, 2010) presents a framework for the way in which individual learners expend differing amounts of time and energy in the process of learning, starting from Creating and Evaluating, moving though to Analysing and Applying, culminating with Understanding and Remembering.  This framework is a well accepted framework for the learning process.  Kearsley and Shneiderman’s (1999)Learning Engagement Theory, on the other hand, presents a framework for the learning process that a collaborative group of peers might follow.  It is based on the progression of the learning journey through members Relating, Creating and Donating ideas, resulting in a clearly defined end result of the process. 

The task of coming up with my own learning theory framework seems a little out of my realm of ability.  However, with an understanding of these two learning frameworks I can see how they can be complimentary to each other.  There is no doubt that the collaborative team process of the Learning Engagement Theory is indeed a powerful thing; drawing on the opinions and experience of many provides opportunities that the individual may not consider.  To my way of thinking, the effectiveness of this framework, coupled with the well accepted Bloom’s Taxonomy could possibly enhance both frameworks.  A suggestion for the way in which they could be integrated is as follows:

COLLABORATIVE TEAM MEMBERS ê
	ç              è		ç              è		ç              è

ê

RELATE                                 ç         é                                                      ê
	Creating Evaluating Analysing Applying	CREATE	é
	Understanding Remembering	DONATE	é
	ê Project Completed? ê                    ê Yes                         No ê                    ê   è Product of Process Available for Application	è          è	é é é

Clark, D. (2010).  Bloom’s taxonomy of learning domains:  the three types of learning.  Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#cognitive.

Kearsley, G., & Shneiderman, B. (1999).  Engagement theory:  a framework for technology-based teaching and learning.  Retrieved from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm.

Wiki Wisdom . . . and Woes

LEARNING THEORY:  ‘CONSTRUCTIVISM’

The scope of this task entailed setting up a wiki profile of yourself, indicating interesting things about yourself such as family, interests, goals, etc, identifying another person through their wiki profile who you felt you could work with, and collaborate with that person to produce an end goal.  The goal in this case was to provide a PMI analysis of a learning theory, be it behaviourism, constructivism, cognitivism or connectivism.

All started well with my wiki profile done and dusted promptly.  As with the blog task, this task was completed by following a set of guided instructions.  I don’t know how to completely set up a wiki list, however I do know now how to use one, and I can imagine some applications for how I as a learning manager may utilise such a list in a learning environment.

What started off as a positive experience however very quickly turned into a learning disaster.  Working with ICT’s is kind of like the teaching world’s equivalent of ‘never work with animals or children’ . . . you never know what may happen.  As with a lot of technology that we use today, it is possible for things to go wrong and plans to go astray.  With the collapse of the online wiki website that we were to use for the second half of our task, that of collaborating and posting our PMI analysis of a learning theory, went the confidence of the learners in the ICT class.  With only an operational knowledge of the technology we were using, panic set in rising to a state of mild mass hysteria!

What can be learned?  It is always possible that things might go wrong, and if they do, we need to equip our learners with resilience to deal with such an eventuality.  As learning managers, we should embrace ICTs, however we should also be aware of the limitations of our own knowledge about the technologies that we are utilising so that, should things go wrong, we can control the situation and maintain a good learning environment for our learners.

All this aside, following is my PMI analysis of constructivism . . .

Constructivism as a scaffolded learning model through digital activities offers advantages for both the learner and the learning manager in a number of ways.  The constructivist activity allows the learner more than the opportunity to acquire new factual information to be associated or assimilated into schemas; it provides opportunities for the learner to gain a greater understanding of the information through a guided learning experience (Kelly Lein).  The scaffolded learning exercise offers a number of additional benefits to both the learner and the learning manager.

Using the guided wiki exercise example of this course, the learning manager is able to guide the learner along a specific path of knowledge through a guided scaffolded experience.  The learner takes part in the learning journey, along with their colleagues, in a way in which their knowledge of the process they are undertaking is learnt through experience, not just through the acquisition of facts.  Learners feel a degree of control through the exercise in that they are able to converse electronically with peers, networking and collaborating in order to reach a level of understanding that is reinforced through thoughts and ideas contributed by their peers as well as their own discoveries.

PMI of Wiki Activity

Plus	Minus	Interesting
·    Learning experience is guided by the learning manager through a scaffolded exercise ·    Factual information gathered through cognitivism is further enhanced through scaffolded activities ·    Personal understanding is enhanced through opinions / thoughts of peers ·    Learners feel a sense of ‘ownership’ of the process ·    Digital forum allows an opportunity for all students to take part and share an opinion they may not feel comfortable sharing in front of a class	·       Both learner and learning manager are restricted when technical issues arise	·         Scaffolded activities provide a ‘blue-print’ or record of the learner’s journey which captures a record of the experience (visible trail of emails, texts, wiki entries, etc)

Lein, K. Constructivist approach.  Retrieved from http://elearningpedagogy.com/constructivist.html). 

Continuing the journey . . . I can blog now!

My favourite quote is an ancient Chinese proverb; "knowledge is a gift which will follow its owner everywhere".  Nothing we learn is ever a waste of time, but rather enriches the person that we will ultimately become at our journey's end; that person who is the culmination of all our learnings along life's path.  The value of some lessons we learn is not always as apparent as the value of others, however they all contribute towards us becoming the people we are at any given time. 

Started as a scaffolded learning task for my graduate studies program, this blog is a forum for the examination of some of those lessons I find myself learning over the foreseeable future.  You are welcome to read my postings as well as offer your own insights and comments.

My initial reaction to this task is one of enthusiasm.  Everyone blogs these days . . . except me it appears (and possibly some of my ICT peers).  I have friends and colleagues who blog, and I have always been dazzled by their ability to perform such a thing!  Very much a digital immigrant, the idea of my grasping how one goes about setting up such a thing as a blog has always been one of those things on my bucket list, but further towards the bottom next to the 'too hard basket'.

Thanks to this first task of my GD, that of creating your very own blog, I am now a member of the ether-world!  My pride in myself is only negated by the fact that, when it comes down to it, setting up a blog is really a very easy thing to do.  How many times do we find this out in life though?  That something that we have been avoiding or putting off because of its seeming insurmountability, when finally tackled is really more of a mole-hill than that mountain you had been strapping on your climbing gear in preparation to deal with.

But does the relative ease of an accomplishment make it any less important?  I may not understand the invisible coding which constructs the blog, or understand how the templates are set up, but I do understand that by using the constructs that have been provided for me by someone else who does understand these things, I now have access to a tool the benefits of which I am only starting to experience for myself now.

For a visual learner such as myself this was an ideal way to introduce me to a concept that I had virtually already convinced myself of being unable to complete.  Yes, this exercise was based on the learning theory of behaviourism, meaning that I have only produced an end goal by following a set of step-by-step set of instructions requiring no understanding of processes outside of those instructions.  However I can envisage the way in which this tool can fit into a constructivist learning framework as an example of how we can have access to information and tasks that we don’t know even if we ourselves don’t possess that knowledge initially.

So, is my blog achievement worth (small) celebration?  Yes it is.  I have learned something new, and this can only enrich my overall learning experience.