New design approaches to repurposing open educational resources for collaborative learning using mediating artefacts

In spite of high expectations and the support given by prestigious funding and educational institutions, Open Educational Resources (OER) have not been adopted widely by teachers and learners in practice. From a cultural historical activity theory perspective, we argue that Mediating Artefacts (MA) such as OER learning design visual representations and rich narrative pedagogical patterns may enable a more effective OER cycle of creation, design, use and evaluation. More specifically, two main arguments are analysed in this paper: first, that making the inherent design of OER more explicit will make them more understandable and hence reusable; second, that offering a small set of simple patterns will encourage new ways to interpret OER and inspire re-purposing in new challenging contexts. A series of successful workshops was carried out and qualitative data gathered which provide initial evidence that a set of CSCL pedagogical patterns were found very suitable in order to repurpose resources intended for individual use and adjust the focus to make them suit new collaborative learning contexts. Interpretation of the data will form the basis for further workshops that aim to extend the idea of using targeted mediating artefacts to guide the design and repurposing of OER

Changing Tools Changing Attitudes: Effects of introducing a computer system to promote learning at work

The use of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) tools to manage and support learning at work offers a lot of advantages, such as the increase in the availability and access to knowledge. However, computer systems also introduce new ways of doing things, which may impact on their acceptability and usage in an organisation. The study considers the issue of re-mediating human activity through the introduction of a CSCL system to support collaborative organisational learning (COL) activities as a way of promoting learning at work. A comparative study into the effects of remediating work practices in an organisation was conducted 'before' and 'after' the introduction of a CSCL system using three selected constitutive elements of COL namely: collaboration, knowledge sharing and interactivity. The study used activity theory as a framework for examining the support mechanisms for the selected elements of COL from a social and cultural perspective in terms of how they occur, and how they are supported in context. Findings highlighted the importance of accounting for social and cultural issues relating to the tool user, prior to the introduction of a CSCL system to support learning at work, as these could impact on the usage and acceptability of such a tool

Dialogical identities in students from cultural minorities or students categorised as presenting SEN: How do they shape learning, namely in mathematics?

Portuguese schools are multicultural. Diversity is their main characteristic. Portuguese policy documents assume inclusive principles (Ainscow & César, 2006). Students categorised as presenting Special Educational Needs (SEN) attend mainstream schools. Multiculturality and diversity are challenges to the educational system. We assume that teachers need to (re)construct the curricula, conceiving it as a mediating tool (César & Oliveira, 2005). Collaborative work facilitate students’ knowledge appropriation, the development of competencies (Elbers & de Haan, 2005), and the emergence of a learning community (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Students can be empowered and (re)construct their identities, including students whose voices are usually silenced. Identities are conceived as dialogical and conflictive (Hermans, 2001), particularly when the students’ cultures are far away from the school’s cultures, and transitions between them are difficult (César, 2003). These data are from the Interaction and Knowledge project whose main goal was to study and promote collaborative work in formal educational settings. It lasted 12 years, including classes all over the country (5th - 12th grades, 9/10 - 17/18 years old). It had two levels: (1) quasi experimental studies where different types of dyads were studied (César, 1994; Carvalho, 2001); (2) action-research studies based on interpretative/qualitative approaches, inspired in ethnographic methods; collaborative work was implemented during at least a school year (César & Santos, 2006). A ten years follow up was implemented. The cases in discussion were from two 9th grade classes, in two schools near Lisbon. Participant observation (different observers, including external evaluators; audio and/or videotaped), questionnaires, interviews, instruments inspired in projective tasks, students’ protocols and several documents were the data collecting instruments. The data analysis was a systematic and recurrent content analysis. The inductive categories and the interpretations that emerged were then discussed among the participants and by the project research group. The results illuminate that collaborative work and being part of a learning community can be powerful tools that allow students to (re)construct their identities, namely their identity as (mathematics) students. Collaborative work empowered students and had an impact in their life paths even many years after leaving the project. The participants’ accounts illuminate the role of teachers’ practices in their identities, as well as the conflicts these students had to face, namely the ones related to their cultures and to the experiences related to their categorisation as presenting SEN. Learning how to deal with these conflicts is an essential step to school achievement and to avoid exclusion

Designing for innovation around OER

This paper argues that designing collections of 'closed' educational resources (content and technologies) for use by specific student cohorts and collections of open educational resources for use by any 'learner' require different design approaches. Learning design for formal courses has been a research topic for over 10 years as the ever growing range of digital content and technologies has potentially offered new opportunities for constructing effective learning experiences, primarily through greater sharing and re-use of such content and technologies. While progress in adopting learning design by teaching practitioners has appeared slow so far the advent of open educational resources (OER) has provided a substantive boost to such sharing activity and a subsequent need for employing learning design in practice. Nevertheless there appears to be a paradox in that learning design assumes a reasonably well known and well defined student audience with presumed learning needs and mediating technologies while OER are exposed to a multitude of potential learners, both formal and informal, with unknown learning needs and using diverse technologies. It can be argued that innovative designs for formal courses involve creating structured pathways through a mixture of existing and new content and activities using a mixture of media and technologies in the process. This type of 'configurational' design that blends together given items to meet a particular need, rather than designing something fully de novo is typical in many areas of work and not just teaching. Such designs work very well when there is a small set of users of the innovation or their use of the innovation is narrow. However many innovations in information, communication and computing technologies often have multiple types of users and many more layers of complexity. In these cases, rather than heavily pre-define an innovative solution just to meet certain user requirements, it is necessary to design for greater flexibility so as to allow the users to adapt their use of the innovative solution for their own requirements once it has been deployed. The use of such an 'innofusion' approach for OER is highlighted using the case study of OpenLearn (www.open.ac.uk/openlearn)

The mediating effect of task presentation on collaboration and children's acquisition of scientific reasoning

There has been considerable research concerning peer interaction and the acquisition of children's scientific reasoning. This study investigated differences in collaborative activity between pairs of children working around a computer with pairs of children working with physical apparatus and related any differences to the development of children's scientific reasoning. Children aged between 9 and 10 years old (48 boys and 48 girls) were placed into either same ability or mixed ability pairs according to their individual, pre-test performance on a scientific reasoning task. These pairs then worked on either a computer version or a physical version of Inhelder and Piaget's (1958) chemical combination task. Type of presentation was found to mediate the nature and type of collaborative activity. The mixed-ability pairs working around the computer talked proportionally more about the task and management of the task; had proportionally more transactive discussions and used the record more productively than children working with the physical apparatus. Type of presentation was also found to mediated children's learning. Children in same ability pairs who worked with the physical apparatus improved significantly more than same ability pairs who worked around the computer. These findings were partially predicted from a socio-cultural theory and show the importance of tools for mediating collaborative activity and collaborative learning

Mediating between practitioner and developer communities: the Learning Activity Design in Education experience

The slow uptake by teachers in post‐compulsory education of new technological tools and technology‐enhanced teaching methods may be symptomatic of a general split in the e‐learning community between development of tools, services and standards, and research into how teachers can use these most effectively (i.e. between the teaching practitioner and technical developer communities). This paper reflects on the experience of transferring knowledge and understanding between these two communities during the Learning Activity Design in Education project funded by the UK Joint Information Systems Committee. The discussion is situated within the literature on ‘mediating representations’ and ‘mediating artefacts’, and shows that the practical operation of mediating representations is far more complex than previously acknowledged. The experience suggests that for effective transfer of concepts between communities, the communities need to overlap to the extent that a single representation is comprehensible to both. This representation may be viewed as a boundary object that is used to negotiate understanding. If the communities do not overlap a chain of intermediate representations and communities may be necessary. Finally, a tentative distinction is drawn between mediating representations and mediating artefacts, based not in the nature of the resources, but in their mode and context of use

Mediating between Services and Learning Activities – the User Perspective

We reflect upon the LADIE project’s experience of migrating a concept of user requirements from the teaching practitioner community to the technical developer community in the light of literature on ‘mediating representations’ and ‘mediating artefacts’. We show that the practical operation of mediating representations is far more complex than previously acknowledged. We suggest that communities need to overlap, allowing reciprocal communication, to migrate concepts via a representation. If they do not, a chain of intermediate representations and communities may be necessary. Finally, we draw a tentative distinction between mediating representations and mediating artefacts, based not in the nature of the resources, but in their mode and context of use

Reenergising professional creativity from a CHAT perspective: Seeing knowledge and history in practice

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2011 Regents of the University of California.This article offers a critical examination of aspects of a practice- and theory-developing intervention in the teacher education setting in England designed as a variation of Developmental Work Research. A positive case is argued for the distinctiveness of such cultural-historical activity theory [CHAT-] informed interventions and some points of contrast are drawn with the British tradition of educational action research. In describing the practice-developing intervention, the twin focus on seeing knowledge and history in human activity systems is advanced as two dimensions of CHAT's distinctive approach, with the goal of stimulating and studying the emergence of professional creativity. Creativity under this interpretation is defined as the perception and analysis of opportunities for learning within the social situation of development and the production of new conceptual tools and approaches to the social organisation of work. Professional creativity is advanced as a much needed capacity among teachers in industrial workplaces influenced by the techniques of New Public Management. Common ground between CHAT and action research approaches is seen in their optimistic and modernist commitments to progress, and CHAT-framed interventions, like action research approaches, are presented as part of an evolving intellectual project

Renewable energy project success in malaysia: the influence of stakeholder engagement indicators with the moderating effect of renewable energy policy implementation

Renewable energy (RE) has grown at a rapid pace in delivering sustainable and clean energy. However, the transition to RE and the development of RE projects are not without challenges, including in Malaysia. The current statistics data reports that the status of RE projects in Malaysia remains underperforming. Therefore, researchers and practitioners are focusing on stakeholder engagement as the enabler towards delivering RE project success. Nevertheless, there is inconsistency in stakeholder engagement practices towards the RE project's success. Thus, this study integrates stakeholder engagement and RE policy implementation in order to identify the interrelationship between the variables in delivering RE project success. Specifically this research empirically examines: (1) the current extent of stakeholder engagement practice in RE projects in Malaysia; (2) the relationship between stakeholder engagement indicators and RE projects' success; (3) the mediating role of stakeholder integration between stakeholder communication, stakeholder learning, and stakeholder relations towards RE project success; and (4) the moderating role of RE policy implementation between stakeholder engagement indicators and RE project success. The methodology adopted in this study is the quantitative method. A total of 309 survey questionnaires were sent out to RE firms registered with the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA), and 122 completed questionnaires were collected and analysed. This study uses IBM SPSS Ver. 28 and SmartPLS Ver. 3.0 to analyse the data. Based on the findings, it shows that stakeholder engagement indicators have a positive effect on RE project success. The mediating effect of stakeholder integration was found to be partially mediated by stakeholder learning and stakeholder relations towards RE project success. It was further found that the moderating effect of RE policy implementation partially moderated the relationship between stakeholder engagement indicators and RE project success. These findings contributed to the project management literature by integrating stakeholder theory and public policy implementation theory to achieve project success. The introduction of stakeholder engagement indicators guides the RE firms in delivering the stakeholder engagement practice. In addition, the mediating effect of stakeholder integration and the moderation effect of RE policy implementation to improve the RE project's success have also been documented in the literature. Overall, the findings revealed that the relationships among stakeholder engagement, RE policy implementation, and RE project success were strongly significant. These relationships provide great insight to the RE firms, especially for the project management professionals, in strategizing the development of RE projects that result in improving the national target of achieving a sustainable and clean energy country

The human side of leadership: Inspirational leadership effects on follower characteristics and happiness at work (HAW)

Leadership has received significant attention over the past years. Now is the time to refine how leaders impact on followers and their attitudes. This study examines how inspirational leaders influence follower characteristics (FC), and in turn, their happiness at work. In this study, the mediating effect of follower characteristics in the relationship between inspirational leadership and happiness at work was specifically examined. Data was gathered from 389 frontline banking employees working in Italian and Spanish banks. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed a positive partial mediating role of follower characteristics in the relationship between inspirational leadership and happiness at work. Results showed that inspirational leadership exerts a more positive influence on followers' happiness at work when follower characteristics are more positive. Our discussion highlights the importance of understanding the role of the follower characteristics that are involved in the effectiveness of inspirational leadership