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

An e-learning platform for delivering educational contents in a school environment

Learning is a continuous process, without end, which takes place throughout life, and is the result of the interaction of an individual with a physical external environment, a social context or with herself. In what new technologies may help improving and making more effective the interaction of an individual during his learning process? This paper describes the use of a platform for delivering educational contents to students, to put theories into practice through the use of an LMS and highlight the strengths and weaknesses that have these learning tools in a school environment, in which - besides its formative aspect - upbringing is important.learning management system, digital contents.

Recognizing risk-of-failure in communication design projects

The pace of commercial graphic design practice presents very few opportunities to conduct user research after a project’s launch. This makes the design team’s ability to anticipate and address risks during the design development phase even more important, recognized in the astute observation from Tim Brown, CEO of leading international design group IDEO, that sometimes you must “fail early to succeed early.” This paper presents the methods and strategies used by the Centre for Design Research’s (CfDR) creative team to mitigate risk during three communication design case-study projects. Elements of failure are identified in each of the three cases and presented, with discussion of where and why they occurred, and the possible approaches for reducing the risk of such problems re-occurring. To provide structure to the discussion, the paper frames each contributory issue as either a usability, communication or technical failing. The analysis demonstrates that the factors contributing to design process failures are often complex and multi-layered. To avoid a poor design project outcome, it is evident that consistent risk monitoring is present in all stages of a design project, but might be improved by better understanding how issues change their degree of importance and potential negative impact during the course of the project. Developing a mechanism to enable teams to objectively identify and manage these fluctuating project risks, will contribute to a more coherent and effective strategy for recognizing and managing future design projects

Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Abstracts 2005

Proceedings of the Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Regional Conference held at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 2005

Educators & The Judiciary History Center Website

Web site usability studyThe King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center (the Center) was designed to help the Hawaiʻi State Judiciary in its efforts to promote civic education for the public. The Center recognizes that field trips are an important part of learning that can deepen and enhance classroom study of civics-related matters. Through school tours of the Hawaiʻi State Supreme Court and First Circuit Court, the Center seeks to help the Judiciary fulfill its mission. The Center also provides classroom educational resources for teachers in the state, as well as professional development opportunities for Social Studies educators to promote civic engagement. A primary way that educators are made aware of the Center’s efforts are through its website. The Centers website is also used by local people and tourist to find information on the historic building within which the Center is housed – Aliʻiōlani Hale. This usability study was conducted to improve the ease of use of the Center’s website for educators seeking to engage with the Hawaii State Judiciary. The data generated has helped in crafting a website design the is functional and aesthetically pleasing

Cybersecurity for Middle School Teachers

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the landscape of middle school education. It influenced how educators teach in the classroom and increased the number of online tools and resources available for them to use. The educational technology (edtech) sector boomed with different applications designed to help educators instruct and assess their students in virtual learning environments. Though many edtech companies developed applications that were instrumental in helping students and teachers, some of these applications were designed to collect sensitive information (e.g., data habits, keystrokes, and contact lists). In addition, many edtech companies distributed or sold this sensitive information to third-party companies whose purpose may or may not have been for education. To address this complex issue, the author developed an instructional module designed to train middle school teachers about cybersecurity issues. The goal of the instruction was to help these educators protect themselves and their students from cyber threats. The instruction itself used a variety of instructional design principles, as well as digital safety models and teaching and learning strategies. Both a usability test and a learning assessment were conducted to show how effective the design of the instructional tool was for teaching cybersecurity. The results of the evaluation revealed that the instructional module was informative, engaging, and relevant, suggesting that the future development of this module could be used to train all educators in practicing safe cybersecurity habits

Digitized Local Folklores in EFL Reading Classroom

This study aimed at reporting the implementation of the use of digitized local folklores to empower reading comprehension skills of junior high school students. This classroom action study was applied to a number of grade VII junior high school students. It engaged two stories about Palembang City - the Origin of Musi River and the History of Ikan Belido (Chitala Lopis). Both stories were “packaged” digitally by the use of video, and extended with guided ICT based post-reading activities. Video as one medium of the learning activities could confidently intensify students’ interest in learning due to the fact that most students tend to be more visualized. The result revealed that the use of this digitized media positively enhanced the students on the extent of the pleasure, imaginative visual learning aids, and the involvement and touched upon cultural aspects of the students

Assessing ELLs in New Zealand primary schools: Gaps between the literature, policy, and practice

In February 2015, all New Zealand schools moved to assessing English Language Learners (ELLs) using the English Language Learning Progressions (ELLP) to determine eligibility for additional funding to support these learners. This paper firstly provides the background to the current assessment situation, and summarises the literature regarding key principles of assessment. It then describes key guidelines made available to schools by the Ministry of Education for using the new assessment system, particularly the use of Overall Teacher Judgements (OTJs). The paper then presents findings from interviews with three primary school English language specialist teachers regarding their experiences with using the new system, known as ‘ELLP assessment’. The gaps that exist between the literature, Ministry guidelines, and ESOL teacher practice are described, and recommendations are made for bridging these gaps. Currently little is known regarding teacher practice in regard to ELLP assessment, so this study fills a gap in the literature relating to the assessment of young ELLs in the New Zealand context