Trends in Digital Learning

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Trends in Digital Learning

• Dr. Vanessa Dennen
• Presentation to IPST
• 24 July 2008

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Whats the latest in

• Content development?
• eLearning?
• Technology integration in education?

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Its not

• Sophisticated media design
• More realistic simulations
• New forms of information dissemination

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So what is the current trend?

• New ways of thinking about
• Content
• Technology
• The student role
• Assessment

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Driving force Web 2.0

• Web 1.0 delivery and consumption of content
• Web 2.0 co-creation, sharing, and repurposing
  of content
• A natural, organic transition
• Driven by Internet users

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Ian Davis writes

• Web 2.0 is an attitude not a technology. Its
  about enabling and encouraging participation
  through open applications and services.
• From http//iandavis.com/blog/2005/07/talis-web-2
  0-and-all-that

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What is content?

• Old view Content is a commodity
• Those who have the content have the power
• The lucky are given content
• New view Content is a catalyst
• Having content is not enough we must know what
  to do with it

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What is technology

• Old view Technology is a delivery medium
• It enables us to provide content in new ways to
  new audiences
• New view Technology is a transformative tool
• It enables us to take content and find new uses
  for it, make synergistic pairings, etc.

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What is the student role?

• Old view Passive learning, recipient of content
• Teacher-centered, traditional instruction
• Intermediate view Learner-centered movement
• Learners explore hands-on
• New view Learner-creators
• Within guidelines, learners synthesize and create

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What is assessment?

• Old view Assessment is a test of knowledge,
  focused on content
• New view Assessment starts with tests of
  knowledge (content), then looks for ability to
  apply that knowledge in novel ways (skills)

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21st Century Challenges

• New jobs are information focused
• The information landscape is a vast place
• No authoritative map
• Plenty of dead ends
• Everyone has more information to manage than in
  the past
• More people are empowered to create and
  distribute information to a wide audience
• New information is created at a faster pace than
  we can keep up with

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Are we teaching to the future?

• Are we helping students navigate the information
  landscape?
• Where do they look for knowledge?
• How do they know what is accurate?
• Are we developing innovators?
• Can students develop their own solutions to
  problems?
• Are students consumers or (co)creators?

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21st Century Skills

• Information access
• Information evaluation
• Information classification
• Information repurposing
• Virtual collaboration
• Technology-mediated communication
• Identity management
• Multitasking, critical thinking

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What does this mean for content development?

• Look beyond just presenting content
• Create learning settings for students to practice
  evaluating, classifying, and repurposing content
• Integrate content with transformative tools
• Recognize competing content and the ever-changing
  nature of content
• Draw on repositories

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What does this mean for eLearning?

• Teacher preparation is more critical than ever
• Good content is not enough
• We must help teachers learn how to
• Effectively integrate digital content
• Assess new kinds of student work

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What does this mean for eLearning?

• Student publishing should be encouraged
• Students must learn to manage online information
  and identities
• Classrooms can provide scaffolded, safe
  experiences for navigating the information
  landscape

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Transformative Tools

• These tools help take content to the next level
• Hylighter hylighter.com
• Collaborative commenting and editing
• Diigo diigo.com
• Shared bookmarking and annotations
• del.icio.us
• Social bookmarking

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Repositories

• Many sources of useful images, video and audio
  are on the web if only you can find what youre
  looking for
• Flickr flickr.com
• Photographs
• YouTube youtube.com
• Videos

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Publishing tools

• Blogs
• Wikis
• Discussion boards
• Repositories

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Identity and Interaction Tools

• Facebook myspace (and new ones that pop up
  every day)
• Also, identities via blogs, discussion boards,
  repositories

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Classroom Technology

• Needs to be in student hands, student-driven
• Time for exploration is important
• A return to Montessori thought? Give students the
  environment and they will discover and learn
  through their activities

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Learning and Assessment via Gaming

• Todays youth are gamers
• About 25 of Thai youth play video games each day
• Look to todays games for
• Motivating themes
• Ways to adapt favorite games for instructional
  purposes
• Integrate learning content and cognitive
  challenges into game play

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Next Generation Gaming

• Extended role-playing games addressing complex
  concepts and relationships
• Simulated real-world interactions through the
  computer
• One game shell and avatar (identity) might be
  used to support diverse learning experiences in
  one virtual environment
• Collaborative, open source development of
  learning tools and experiences

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Summary of Big Issues

• Knowledge ownership is open and distributed
• Information access and problem solving skills are
  critical for success
• Repurposing is valued over repeating
• Learning is everywhere school should teach you
  how to more effectively do it on your own

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A final thought

• The digital divide will have a 3-way split
• Those who dont have access
• Those who are passive consumers
• Those who engage, collaborate, and co-create

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The End

• Questions?