Transforming pre-service teacher curriculum: observation through a TPACK lens

This paper will discuss an international online collaborative learning experience through the lens of the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework. The teacher knowledge required to effectively provide transformative learning experiences for 21st century learners in a digital world is complex, situated and changing. The discussion looks beyond the opportunity for knowledge development of content, pedagogy and technology as components of TPACK towards the interaction between those three components. Implications for practice are also discussed. In today’s technology infused classrooms it is within the realms of teacher educators, practising teaching and pre-service teachers explore and address effective practices using technology to enhance learning

Teaching and learning in virtual worlds: is it worth the effort?

Educators have been quick to spot the enormous potential afforded by virtual worlds for situated and authentic learning, practising tasks with potentially serious consequences in the real world and for bringing geographically dispersed faculty and students together in the same space (Gee, 2007; Johnson and Levine, 2008). Though this potential has largely been realised, it generally isn’t without cost in terms of lack of institutional buy-in, steep learning curves for all participants, and lack of a sound theoretical framework to support learning activities (Campbell, 2009; Cheal, 2007; Kluge & Riley, 2008). This symposium will explore the affordances and issues associated with teaching and learning in virtual worlds, all the time considering the question: is it worth the effort

Tracing the creation and evaluation of accessible Open Educational Resources through learning analytics

The adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) has been continuously growing and with it the need to addressing the diversity of students’ learning needs. Because of that, OER should meet with characteristics such as the web accessibility and quality. Thus, teachers as the creators of OER need supporting tools and specialized competences. The main contribution of this thesis is a Learning Analytics Model to Trace the Creation and Evaluation of OER (LAMTCE) considering web accessibility and quality. LAMTCE also includes a user model of the teacher’s competences in the creation and evaluation of OER. Besides that, we developed ATCE, a learning analytics tool based on the LAMTCE model. Finally, it was carried out an evaluation conducted with teachers involving the use of the tool and we found that the tool really benefited teachers in the acquisition of their competences in creation and evaluation of accessible and quality OER.La adopción de Recursos Educativos Abiertos (REA) ha ido en aumento y con ello la necesidad de abordar la diversidad de necesidades de aprendizaje de los estudiantes. Por ello, los REA deben cumplir con características tales como la accesibilidad web y la calidad. Así, los profesores como los creadores de REA necesitan de herramientas de soporte y competencias especializadas. La principal contribución de la tesis es el modelo LAMTCE, un modelo de analíticas de aprendizaje para hacer seguimiento a la creación y evaluación de REA considerando la accesibilidad web y la calidad. LAMTCE también incluye un modelo de usuario de las competencias del profesor en creación y evaluación de REA. Además, se desarrolló ATCE, una herramienta de analíticas de aprendizaje que está basada en el modelo LAMTCE. Finalmente, se llevó a cabo un estudio con profesores involucrando el uso de la herramienta encontrando que ésta realmente benefició a los profesores en la adquisición de sus competencias en creación y evaluación de REA accesibles y de calidad

РОЗРОБКА ТА РЕАЛІЗАЦІЯ ДИСТАНЦІЙНОГО КУРСУ НАВЧАННЯ ІНОЗЕМНИХ МОВ ДЛЯ МАЙБУТНІХ УЧИТЕЛІВ

The article focuses on the architecture and key structural components of a foreign language distance course using as an example the course developed in Nizhyn State Gogol University to train high school graduates for external independent testing in English. The peculiarities and benefits of a modular structure of a distance learning environment are specified. The hierarchy and interoperability of the main levels of learning objects in a foreign language distance course are defined and analyzed. Special attention is paid to some possible ways of interactivity and feedback realization.В статье проанализированы архитектура и ключевые структурные компоненты дистанционного курса обучения иностранным языкам на примере курса для подготовки учащихся к сдаче тестов внешнего независимого оценивания по английскому языку, разработанного и реализованного в Нежинском государственном университете имени Николая Гоголя. Определены особенности и преимущества модульного построения дистанционной учебной среды. Рассмотрены основные уровни организации элементов дистанционных курсов, их иерархию и взаимодействие. Особое внимание уделено реализации таких характеристик электронной учебной среды, как интерактивность и обратная связь.В статті проаналізовано архітектуру і ключові структурні компоненти дистанційного курсу навчання іноземних мов на прикладі курсу для підготовки учнів до складання тестів зовнішнього незалежного оцінювання з англійської мови, розробленого та реалізованого у Ніжинському державному університеті імені Миколи Гоголя. Окреслено особливості та переваги модульної побудови дистанційного навчального середовища. Розглянуто основні рівні організації елементів дистанційних курсів, їх ієрархію та взаємодію. Особлива увага приділяється реалізації таких характеристик електронного навчального середовища, як інтерактивність та зворотний зв'язок

Implementing a Mobile Social Media Framework for Designing Creative Pedagogies

The rise of mobile social media provides unique opportunities for new and creative pedagogies. Pedagogical change requires a catalyst, and we argue that mobile social media can be utilized as such a catalyst. However, the mobile learning literature is dominated by case studies that retrofit traditional pedagogical strategies and pre-existing course activities onto mobile devices and social media. From our experiences of designing and implementing a series of mobile social media projects, the authors have developed a mobile social media framework for creative pedagogies. We illustrate the implementation of our mobile social media framework within the development of a new media minor (an elective set of four courses) that explicitly integrates the unique technical and pedagogical affordances of mobile social media, with a focus upon student-generated content and student-determined learning (heutagogy). We argue that our mobile social media framework is potentially transferable to a range of educational contexts, providing a simple design framework for new pedagogies

Design of Instructional Modeling Language for Learning Objects and Learning Objects’ Repositories

The advancement of technology has provided tools to write instruction in every discipline. However, the concepts of automation in the field of instruction is still not used. Teachers around the globe spend countless hours in editing lengthy texts in creating syllabi and reusable components, which are the Learning Objects (LOs). The software developers also experience time-consuming process to decipher the concepts of instruction before it is written. LOs provide a potential mechanism for the educators and software developers to refine curriculum development that uses common components such as exams or syllabi. While the concept of LOs came from software engineering, there is no object modeling language, as it exists in the form of Unified Modeling Language (UML) in the field. UML has been widely used in the field of software engineering for decades. It uses notations to depict the complex objects thus making it easier for the developers to understand the requirements of a software. A similar instructional modeling language (IML) designed by the author is introduced in this dissertation with the purpose of establishing a proof of concept regarding the IML and web repository. IML makes use of acronyms and notations to depict tasks, such as creation of syllabi, reusable components such as exams, exercises, and homework. A software idea using IML is proposed as a tool for the future for educators across the globe in this research. The research also investigates the concept of the use of LOs’ web shared repository. These concepts were demonstrated with a prototype for a proposed software to high school teachers. Teachers shared positive feedback about the proposed software and thought it will eliminate many hurdles in the design of instruction, save time, and provide enormous opportunities to share LOs through web repositories

Models for Learning (Mod4L) Final Report: Representing Learning Designs

The Mod4L Models of Practice project is part of the JISC-funded Design for Learning Programme. It ran from 1 May – 31 December 2006. The philosophy underlying the project was that a general split is evident in the e-learning community between development of e-learning tools, services and standards, and research into how teachers can use these most effectively, and is impeding uptake of new tools and methods by teachers. To help overcome this barrier and bridge the gap, a need is felt for practitioner-focused resources which describe a range of learning designs and offer guidance on how these may be chosen and applied, how they can support effective practice in design for learning, and how they can support the development of effective tools, standards and systems with a learning design capability (see, for example, Griffiths and Blat 2005, JISC 2006). Practice models, it was suggested, were such a resource. The aim of the project was to: develop a range of practice models that could be used by practitioners in real life contexts and have a high impact on improving teaching and learning practice. We worked with two definitions of practice models. Practice models are: 1. generic approaches to the structuring and orchestration of learning activities. They express elements of pedagogic principle and allow practitioners to make informed choices (JISC 2006) However, however effective a learning design may be, it can only be shared with others through a representation. The issue of representation of learning designs is, then, central to the concept of sharing and reuse at the heart of JISC’s Design for Learning programme. Thus practice models should be both representations of effective practice, and effective representations of practice. Hence we arrived at the project working definition of practice models as: 2. Common, but decontextualised, learning designs that are represented in a way that is usable by practitioners (teachers, managers, etc).(Mod4L working definition, Falconer & Littlejohn 2006). A learning design is defined as the outcome of the process of designing, planning and orchestrating learning activities as part of a learning session or programme (JISC 2006). Practice models have many potential uses: they describe a range of learning designs that are found to be effective, and offer guidance on their use; they support sharing, reuse and adaptation of learning designs by teachers, and also the development of tools, standards and systems for planning, editing and running the designs. The project took a practitioner-centred approach, working in close collaboration with a focus group of 12 teachers recruited across a range of disciplines and from both FE and HE. Focus group members are listed in Appendix 1. Information was gathered from the focus group through two face to face workshops, and through their contributions to discussions on the project wiki. This was supplemented by an activity at a JISC pedagogy experts meeting in October 2006, and a part workshop at ALT-C in September 2006. The project interim report of August 2006 contained the outcomes of the first workshop (Falconer and Littlejohn, 2006). The current report refines the discussion of issues of representing learning designs for sharing and reuse evidenced in the interim report and highlights problems with the concept of practice models (section 2), characterises the requirements teachers have of effective representations (section 3), evaluates a number of types of representation against these requirements (section 4), explores the more technically focused role of sequencing representations and controlled vocabularies (sections 5 & 6), documents some generic learning designs (section 8.2) and suggests ways forward for bridging the gap between teachers and developers (section 2.6). All quotations are taken from the Mod4L wiki unless otherwise stated

Spartan Daily, May 16, 1995

Volume 104, Issue 70https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/8714/thumbnail.jp

Spartan Daily, May 16, 1995

Volume 104, Issue 70https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/8714/thumbnail.jp

Detecting Communities and Analysing Interactions with Learning Objects in Online Learning Repositories

The widespread use of online learning object repositories has raised the need of studies that assess the quality of their contents, and their user’s performance and engagement. The present research addresses two fundamental problems that are central to that need: the need to explore user interaction with these repositories and the detection of emergent communities of users. The current dissertation approaches those directions through investigating and mining the Khan Academy repository as a free, open access, popular online learning repository addressing a wide content scope. It includes large numbers of different learning objects such as instructional videos, articles, and exercises. In addition to a large number of users. Data was collected using the repository’s public application programming interfaces combined with Web scraping techniques to gather data and user interactions. Different research activities were carried out to generate useful insights out of the gathered data. We conducted descriptive analysis to investigate the learning repository and its core features such as growth rate, popularity, and geographical distribution. A number of statistical and quantitative analysis were applied to examine the relation between the users’ interactions and different metrics related to the use of learning objects in a step to assess the users’ behaviour. We also used different Social Network Analysis (SNA) techniques on a network graph built from a large number of user interactions. The resulting network consisted of more than 3 million interactions distributed across more than 300,000 users. The type of those interactions is questions and answers posted on Khan Academy’s instructional videos (more than 10,000 video). In order to analyse this graph and explore the social network structure, we studied two different community detection algorithms to identify the learning interactions communities emerged in Khan Academy then we compared between their effectiveness. After that, we applied different SNA measures including modularity, density, clustering coefficients and different centrality measures in order to assess the users’ behaviour patterns and their presence. Using descriptive analysis, we discovered many characteristics and features of the repository. We found that the number of learning objects in Khan Academy’s repository grows linearly over time, more than 50% of the users do not complete the watched videos, and we found that the average duration for video lessons 5 to 10 minutes which aligns with the recommended duration in literature. By applying community detection techniques and social network analysis, we managed to identify learning communities in Khan Academy’s network. The size distribution of those communities found to follow the power-law distribution which is the case of many real-world networks. Those learning communities are related to more than one domain which means the users are active and interacting across domains. Different centrality measures we applied to focus on the most influential players in those communities. Despite the popularity of online learning repositories and their wide use, the structure of the emerged learning communities and their social networks remain largely unexplored. Our findings could be considered initial insights that may help researchers and educators in better understanding online learning repositories, the learning process inside those repositories, and learner behaviou