E-tivity 2.1

Constructivism

Constructivism is learning by ‘finding out’. Students are not just given facts to memorise, but asked to find the answers, analyse and/or draw conclusions. Wilson (2012, p.45) describes this as people learning by “making sense out of the world”. The learning can be from planned activities, or informally from any situation where a problem needs to be solved.

Clearly solving a problem requires critical thinking and higher-order cognitive outcomes. The learner must engage with the situation and bring together all the facts and issues in order to find a solution. Memorising a list of names and dates may be accepted as a form of learning – but to know how, why and when to use this data requires the higher order skills attained through constructivism. In Reiser’s video (2012), he specifies ‘complex problems’ to be solved. This means more than just answering simple questions.

I’ve always been of the opinion that the students learn more by finding the answers themselves, than just listening to me or ignoring the handouts they are given, I found this came unstuck when they had to apply their findings to other problems. They had just been copying and pasting and not fully comprehending what they had found. This is a small example of evidence for the theories which highlight the importance of informing the students of what they are expected to learn, and how they need to apply the learning to fully understand. This should help limit any confusion about ‘busy work’ versus appropriate learning. Before they embark on the larger problem we have a group discussion to ensure (for those who contribute and listen) that they have obtained the information they needed. This also meets with Reiser’s (2012) view about learner collaboration. Hearing other people’s views and debating understanding helps to clarify meaning to all concerned. Actively engaging with the learning activities usually means better learning results.Problem solving is more than just finding the answer. Future tasks will have to require that the students apply what they find straight away to encourage the higher order critical thinking skills. The scaffolding will have to change shape.

Wiki (2011)

The frontpage of this wiki suggests it is about digital story-telling. Therefore I assume the aim of this wiki was for students to create a digital story around one of many learning theories or situations (to judge from the variety of pages available). Since they probably had to research the theory before putting it on the wiki, there was more than one problem to solve. The students had to learn to make a digital story and contribute to a wiki, in the meantime learning something about whichever theme they were demonstrating. This makes it an effective piece of instructional design.

A wiki can reflect a constructivist approach when it is used to meet the following ideals. Some are automatically part of a wiki, others may need some introduction or scaffolding from an instructor. Reiser (2012) lists six components of what should be included in constructivist teaching methods:

1. Anchor instruction – place the learning in context. A wiki achieves this by providing a ‘tangible’ outcome for the research. The learners know why they are researching.

2. Authentic task – creating something akin to what would be done in the real world. The wiki is certainly authentic for learning about instructional design as it may well be a learning object which could be used.

3. Present complex problems – Combining several problems makes it complex, for example how to create a wiki as well as the topic under research.

4. Have learners take the lead – learners determine what will go into the wiki

5. Learner collaboration – this is the very basis of a wiki – that all the members can have authority to edit each others’ pages.

6. Encourage learner reflection. There is also a section on each wiki page for comments from others, so learners can comment on other pages and respond to comments on their own.

A wiki can be a useful tool for instruction if it is used  in the appropriate context and the learners are given direction and support in what they are learning.

References

Reiser, R. (2012) Ten Trends Affecting the Field of Instructional Design and Technology on Vimeo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgCmgpfjLFs#at=11

Wiki (2011) Constructivism as a Pedagogical Philosophy (accessed 7 July 2013)

http://ged578.pbworks.com/w/page/39338437/Constructivism%20as%20a%20Pedagogical%20Philosophy

Wilson, B.G. (2012) Constructivism is practical and historical content. In R. Reiser and J Dempsey (eds) Trends and issues in instructional design and technology  3^rd edn. Pearson : Boston pp45-52.

E-tivity 1.2

Instructing, teaching or training are all variations of meeting the same goal - to help someone to learn something. In my mind, training includes doing the work along side someone, (practical). Instructing is like giving a lecture, just providing the information, (theory). I think teaching involves both - the theory and the practical. This is just my simplistic view. Instructional design, is therefore providing material to help with the understanding of what is being learnt. As it has evolved from learning aids to whole learning systems with the use of computers, it has almost become a fully independent teaching system. When the instruction design includes devices which allow interaction with teachers/trainers or fellow students then it does become a full teaching process. I believe in interaction (preferably human) for really successful learning to occur.

Whether instructional design is a product or a process depends on whether the term is being used as a noun or a verb! Clearly I find the learning materials which have been created are the product; the creation of which is a process.The process needs to involve a subject expert who has knowledge of how people can learn, and therefore what would be needed in whatever media is being used to create the learning material. The instructional design could be more than just learning material. Designing the instruction could be akin to making a lesson plan - working out all that would be need for a learning outcome to take place. This may include classroom discussions, readings and anything else that may help someone learn.

Branch and Merrill (2012) describe instructional media as anything other than the teacher, chalkboard and textbook. This suggests that instructional design is not about designing a whole course or lesson, but material which would supplement the basic and traditional teaching methods.This is why I consider instructional design to be a type of creation of learning materials. I really like their description of learning design as a "pebble in the pond" - a method of instructional design which builds on problems or tasks (Branch and Merrill, 2012, p.12). Unless the problems are presented and resolved independently of teacher/instructor I see the instructional design as a supplementary product. If it involves the whole teaching/learning environment then it becomes a process.

I have enjoyed reading the history of involving various media in learning. It occurred to me as I was reading that training films, video and audio were all good media to provide alternative methods of learning. However, they didn't have room for feedback or discussion. In this way they could only be supplementary for really effective learning to take place. Hopefully now with Internet and all the technologies associated, there can be more interactivity and feedback, so people can have access to learning well and truly beyond the classroom.

Reference:
Branch, R. & Merrill, M.D. (2012) Characteristics of Instructional Design Models. Trends and issues in instructional design and technology. 3rd ed. Pearson, Boston.

E-tivity 1.1

Hi everyone
I am Narelle Bell. I have been a permanent teacher of library studies at Hunter TAFE for 2 years, having been part-time casual for the previous 8 years. Ever since I first started teaching I have dabbled in creating online resources and using technology such as video conferencing to reach students who couldn't attend classes in person. It's all been trial and error and getting ideas from other people. I am really looking forward to this subject as it looks like it will formalise the learning - rather than a bit here and there - and hopefully fill in gaps and offer some new ideas too. 

Our institute management wants to increase its online presence, so there is a push to put our library subjects online. We have a lot of material we have created for use in the classroom, but I don't believe in simply uploading this to moodle and leaving it at that. I would love to create material that can be interactive and instructive so that students learning on-line can be stimulated. I believe there is much more to learning than just reading information. This has become something of a mission for me - to find and/or create material to use in the e-courses we are being required to establish.