Teaching in a Digital Age (Discussion Board)
Topic outline
-
-
-
Welcome to this short course on "Teaching in a Digital Age". Before starting the course, do the following:
- Read through the course introduction
- Go through the Navigation document
- Complete the pre-course survey.
-
-
-
-
Compulsory Reading
-
Activity (Reflective Thinking, Note Taking and Discussion)
What skills are you developing in your students?
- Write down a list of skills you would expect students to develop as a result of studying your courses.
- Compare these skills to the ones discussed in this lesson. How well do they match?
- What do you do as an instructor that enables students to practice or develop the skills you have identified?
Share your reflection in lesson one Forum.
-
Knowledge Check
Link: Lesson One Quiz
-
Key Takeaways
Key takeaways from this lesson are:
- Knowledge involves two strongly inter-linked but different components, such as content and skills.
- The use of digital technology needs to be integrated with and evaluated through the knowledge base of the subject area.
- Most instructors, at least in universities, are well trained in content and have a deep understanding of the subject areas in which they are teaching. Expertise in skill development though is important.
- The content and skills are tightly related, and much attention needs to be given to skill development as well as a content acquisition to ensure that learners graduate with the necessary knowledge and skills for the digital age.
-
-
-
-
Compulsory Reading
-
Activity (Reflective Thinking, Note Taking and Discussion)
Where on the continuum are your courses?
- If you are currently teaching, where on the continuum is each of your courses? How easy is it to decide? Are there factors that make it difficult to decide where on the continuum any of your courses should fit?
- What kind of students do you have in each type of course?
Share your reflection in lesson two Forum.
-
-
Key Takeaways
Key takeaways from this lesson are:
- There is a continuum of technology-based learning, from ‘pure’ face-to-face teaching to fully online programs. Every teacher or instructor needs to decide where a particular course or program should be placed on the continuum.
- We do not have good research evidence or theories to make a decision on online learning, although we do have a growing experience of the strengths and limitations of online learning. What is particularly missing is an evidence-based analysis of the strengths and limitations of face-to-face teaching when online learning is also available.
- In the absence of a good theory, the suggested four factors to consider when deciding on mode of delivery, and in particular the different uses of face-to-face and online learning in blended courses:
- Student characteristics and needs
- The preferred teaching strategy, in terms of methods and learning outcomes
- The pedagogical and presentational requirements of the subject matter, in terms of content and skills
- The resources available to an instructor including the time
- The move to blended or hybrid learning in particular means rethinking the use of the campus and the facilities needed to fully support learning in a hybrid mode.
-
-
-
-
Compulsory Reading
-
Activity (Reflective Thinking, Note Taking and Discussion)
SAMR and Media Richness
- If you are using any technology in your teaching, where does it fit in the SAMR framework in comparison with in-person teacher-student interaction? What could you change to make the technology ‘move up the ladder’?
- What media are you using at the moment for teaching? Where would you place these on the ‘richness’ continuum? What benefits might there be to your teaching in changing your media to either increase or decrease the richness of media you are using?
- Do you have to exploit fully the affordances of a medium? If so, why?
Share your reflection in Lesson Three Forum.
-
Knowledge Check
Link: Lesson Three Quiz
-
Key Takeaways
Key takeaways from this lesson are:
- Technologies are merely tools that can be used in a variety of ways. What matters more is how technologies are applied. The same technology can be applied in different ways, especially in education. So, in judging the value of a technology, we need to look more closely at the ways in which it is being used or could be used. In essence, this means focusing more on media, which represents the more holistic use of technologies than on individual tools or technologies themselves. We should recognize the fact that technology is an essential component of almost all media.
- By focusing on media rather than technologies, we can include face-to-face teaching as a medium. It enables comparison with more technology-based media to be made along with a number of dimensions or characteristics.
- Media differ in terms of their formats, symbols, systems, and cultural values. These unique features are increasingly referred to as the affordances of media or technology. Thus different media can be used to assist learners to learn in different ways and achieve different outcomes. It also helps in individualizing learning more.
- The Internet is an extremely powerful medium. Through a combination of tools and media, it can encompass all the characteristics and dimensions of educational media.
- 5Learning goals that are appropriate for learners in the digital age need to be set. The skills students need should be embedded within their subject domain, and these skills should be formally assessed.
- There is increasing pressure from employers, the business community, learners themselves, and also from a significant number of educators to develop the type of knowledge and the kinds of skills that they will need in the digital age.
- To develop such knowledge and skills, teachers and instructors need to set clear learning outcomes. They should select teaching methods that will support the development of such knowledge and skills. Since all skills require practice and feedback to develop, learners must be given ample opportunity to practice such skills. This requires moving away from a model of information transmission to greater student engagement, more learner-centered teaching, and new methods of assessment that measure skills as well as mastery of content.
- Governments, institutions, and learners themselves can do a great deal to ensure success in teaching and learning. But in the end, the responsibility and to some extent the power to change lies within teachers and instructors themselves.
-
-
-
-
Compulsory Reading
-
Activity (Reflective Thinking, Note Taking and Discussion)
Dealing with diversity
- What changes if any have you noticed in the students you are teaching?
- Whose responsibility is it to ensure students succeed? To what extent does the diversity of students place more responsibility on teachers and instructors?
Share your reflection in Lesson Four Forum.
-
Knowledge Check
Link: Lesson Four Quiz
-
Key Takeaways
Key takeaways from this lesson are:
- We have to encourage students to use their technological devices to find, analyze, evaluate, and apply their knowledge.
- If learning outcomes are focused on skill development, then the activities should be designed in such a way that they provide opportunities for students to develop or practice such skills.
- Providing students with a structure for learning and setting appropriate learning activities are probably the most important of all the steps towards quality teaching and learning. But it is least discussed in the literature on quality assurance.
- It is essential right at the start of a course for the instructor to make it clear to students what is expected of them when they are studying online whether in a blended or fully online course.
-
-
-
-
-
Compulsory Reading
-
Activity (Reflective Thinking, Note Taking and Discussion)
Choosing a Theory of Learning
Entwistle (2010) states:
‘There are some important questions to ask when considering how much weight to place on evidence or how valuable the theory will be for pedagogy. For example:
- Is the theory derived from data or observations in an educational context?
- Is the theory presented in language that is readily intelligible to teachers?
- Can the aspects identified as affecting learning be readily changed [by the teacher]?
- Does the theory have direct implications for teaching and learning [in the particular context in which you are working]?
- How realistic and practical are the suggestions?
- Will the theory spark off new ideas about teaching?
It is not sufficient for a pedagogical theory simply to explain how people learn; it also has to provide clear implications about how to improve the quality and efficiency of learning.‘
Using Entwistle’s criteria and your own knowledge and experience of teaching, answer the questions below.
- Which theory of learning do you like best, and why? State what main subject you are teaching.
- Does your preferred way of teaching match any of these theoretical approaches? Write down some of the activities you do when teaching that ‘fit’ with this theory.
- Does your teaching generally combine different theories – sometimes behaviorist, sometimes cognitive, etc.? If so, what are the reasons or contexts for taking one specific approach rather than another?
- How do you think new digital technologies, such as social media, affect these theories? Do new technologies make these theories redundant? Does connectivism replace other theories or merely add another way of looking at teaching and learning?
Share your reflection in Lesson Five Forum.
-
Knowledge Check
Link: Lesson Five Quiz
-
Key Takeaways
Key takeaways from this lesson are:
- Teaching is a highly complex occupation, which needs to adapt to a great deal of variety in context, subject matter and learners. It does not lend itself to broad generalizations. Nevertheless, it is possible to provide guidelines or principles based on best practices, theory and research, that must then be adapted or modified to local conditions.
- Our underlying beliefs and values, usually shared by other experts in a subject domain, shape our approach to teaching. These underlying beliefs and values are often implicit and are often not directly shared with our students, even though they are seen as essential components of becoming an ‘expert’ in a particular subject domain.
- No single method is likely to meet all the requirements teachers face in the digital age.
- Nevertheless, some forms of teaching fit better with the development of the skills needed in a digital age. In particular, methods that focus on conceptual development, such as dialogue and discussion, knowledge management (rather than information transmission), and experiential learning in real-world contexts, are all methods more likely to develop the high-level conceptual skills required in a digital age.
- Traditional classroom teaching, and especially transmissive lectures, were designed for another age. Although lectures have served us well, we are now in a different age that requires different methods.
- The key shift is towards greater emphasis on skills, particularly knowledge management, and less on memorizing content. We need teaching methods for teaching and learning that lead to the development of the skills needed in a digital age.
-
-
-
-
-
Compulsory Reading
-
Activity (Reflective Thinking, Note Taking and Discussion)
Building learner support
- Do you think it is possible to design an effective course or program without the need for high levels of learner support? If so, what would it look like?
- How can you integrate learner support in your course?
- What are the learner support in this course?
Share your reflection in Lesson Six Forum
-
Knowledge Check
Link: Lesson Six Quiz
-
Key Takeaways
Key takeaways from this lesson are:
- Many of the strengths and challenges of collaborative learning apply both in face-to-face or online learning contexts. It could be argued that there is no or little difference between online collaborative learning and well-conducted traditional classroom, discussion-based teaching.
- Learner support focuses on forms of assistance to learners beyond the delivery of content, skill development, or formal assessment.
- Scaffolding is usually a means of individualizing the learning, which enables student differences in learning to be better accommodated as they occur.
- It is essential right at the start of a course for the instructor to make it clear to students what is expected of them when they are studying online whether in a blended or fully online course.
-
-
-
-
-
Compulsory Reading
-
Activity (Reflective Thinking, Note Taking and Discussion)
Using media to promote student activity
- Go to YouTube and type in your subject area into the ‘search’ box.
- Choose a YouTube video from the list that comes up that you might recommend to your students to watch.
- What kind of interaction would the YouTube video require from your students? Does it force them to respond in some way (inherent)?
- In what way are they likely to respond to the YouTube on their own, e.g. make notes, do an activity, think about the topic (learner-generated)?
- What activity could you suggest that they do, after they have watched the YouTube video (designed)? What type of knowledge or skill would that activity help develop? What medium or technology would students use to do the activity?
- How would students get feedback on the activity that you set? What medium or technology would they and/or you use for getting and giving feedback on their activity?
- How much work for you would that activity cause? Would the work be both manageable and worthwhile? Could the activity be scaled for larger numbers of students?
- How could the YouTube video have been designed to generate more or better activity from viewers or students?
Share your reflection in Lesson Seven Forum
-
-
Key Takeaways
Key takeaways from this lesson are:
- Technologies are merely tools that can be used in a variety of ways. What matters more is how technologies are applied. The same technology can be applied in different ways, even or especially in education. So in judging the value of a technology, we need to look more closely at the ways in which it is being or could be used. In essence this means focusing more on media – which represent the more holistic use of technologies – than on individual tools or technologies themselves, while still recognising that technology is an essential component of almost all media.
- There is a very wide range of media available for teaching and learning. In particular: text, audio, video, computing and social media all have unique characteristics that make them useful for teaching and learning.
- The choice or combination of media will need to be determined by:
- The overall teaching philosophy behind the teaching;
- The presentational and structural requirements of the subject matter or content;
- The skills that need to be developed in learners; and
- The imagination of the teacher or instructor (and increasingly learners themselves) in identifying possible roles for different media.
- Content is now increasingly open and freely available over the Internet; as a result learners can seek, use and apply information beyond the bounds of what a professor or teacher may dictate.
- The SECTIONS model provides a set of criteria or questions, the result of which can help inform an instructor when making decisions about which media or technologies to use.
-
-
-
-
-
Compulsory Reading
-
Activity (Reflective Thinking, Note Taking and Discussion)
What skills are you developing in your students?
- Do you agree that computer-based multiple-choice tests are a must in online teaching?
- Are there other methods that are equally as economical, particularly in terms of instructor time, that are more suitable for assessment in a digital age? For instance, do you think automated essay grading is a viable alternative?
- Would it be helpful to think about assessment right at the start of course planning, rather than at the end? Is this feasible?
Share your reflection in Lesson Eight Forum
-
Knowledge Check
Link: Lesson Eight Quiz
-
Key Takeaways
Key takeaways from this lesson are:
- Online learning is a continuum of teaching. Every instructor and every institution now needs to decide where a particular course or program should be placed on this continuum of teaching.
- As more academic content is openly and freely available, students will look to their local institutions for support in their learning, rather than for the delivery of content. This puts a greater focus on teaching skills and less on subject expertise.
- Faculty and instructors need a strong framework for assessing the value of different technologies, new or existing, and for deciding how or when these technologies make sense for them (and/or their students) to use
-
-
-
-
-
Compulsory Reading
-
Activity (Reflective Thinking, Note Taking and Discussion)
Quality in teaching and learning online
- What do you think of the current system of institutional accreditation and internal quality assurance processes (in your own context)?
- Do these current processes guarantee quality in teaching and learning for a digital age? If not, why not?
Share your reflection in Lesson Nine Forum
-
Knowledge Check
Link: Lesson Nine Quiz
-
Key Takeaways
Key takeaways from this lesson are:
- In this course, quality is defined as, “Teaching methods that successfully help learners develop the knowledge and skills they will require in the digital age.”
- Formal national and institutional quality assurance processes do not guarantee quality teaching and learning. In particular, they focus more on past ‘best’ practices, processes to be done before actual teaching, and often ignore the affective, emotional, or personal aspects of learning. Also, they do not focus particularly on the needs of learners in the digital age.
- New technologies and the needs of learners in the digital age require a re-thinking of traditional campus-based teaching, especially where it has been based mainly on the transmission of knowledge. This means re-assessing the way you teach and determining how you would really like to teach in the digital age. This requires imagination and vision rather than technical expertise.
- Blended and especially fully online learning require a range of skills that most instructors are unlikely to have. Good course design not only enables students to learn better but also controls faculty workload. Courses look better with good
graphic and web design and professional video production. Specialist technical help frees up instructors to concentrate on the knowledge and skills that students need to develop.
- Make the optimum use of existing resources, including institutionally-supported learning technologies, open educational resources (OER), learning technology staff, and the experience of your colleagues.
- Regular and on-going instructor/teacher presence, especially when students are studying partly or wholly online, is essential for student success. This means effective communication between teacher/instructor and students. It is particularly important
to encourage inter-student communication, either face-to-face or online.
- The new learning goals of re-designed courses should be aimed at developing the knowledge and skills needed in the digital age. The re-designed courses should be carefully evaluated in their goal achievement and the ways in which the courses could be improved should be identified.
-
-
-
-
-
Compulsory Reading
-
Activity (Reflective Thinking, Note Taking and Discussion)
What skills are you developing in your students?
Deciding on use of OER
- Have you used OER in your own course(s)? Was this a positive or negative experience?
- If you have not used OER, what is/are the main reason(s)? Have you explored to see what is available? What is the quality like? How could they be improved?
- Under what circumstances would you be prepared to create or convert your own material as OER?
Share your reflection in Lesson Ten Forum
-
Knowledge Check
Link: Lesson Ten Quiz
-
Key Takeaways
Key takeaways from this lesson are:
- Open educational resources (OER) offer many benefits, but they need to be well designed and embedded within a rich learning environment to be effective.
- The increasing availability of OER, open textbooks, open research, and open data means that in the future, almost all academic content will be open and freely accessible over the Internet.
- As a result, students will increasingly look to institutions for learning support and help with the development of skills needed in the digital age rather than with the delivery of content. This will have major consequences for the role of teachers/instructors and the design of courses.
- OER and other forms of open education will lead to increased modularization and disaggregation of learning services, which are needed to respond to the increasing diversity of learner needs in the digital age.
- MOOCs are essentially a dead end with regard to providing learners who do not have adequate access to education with high-quality qualifications. The main value of MOOCs is in providing opportunities for non-formal education and supporting communities in practice.
- OER, MOOCs, open textbooks and other digital forms of openness are important in helping to widen access to learning opportunities. But ultimately, these are enhancements rather than a replacement for a well-funded public education system, which remains the core foundation for enabling equal access to educational opportunities.
-
-
-
-
-
Compulsory Reading
-
Activity (Reflective Thinking, Note Taking and Discussion)
Designing MOOC
- When is a MOOC a MOOC and when is it not a MOOC? Can you identify the common features? Is MOOC still a useful term?
- If you were to design a MOOC, who would be the target audience? What kind of MOOC would it be? What form of assessment could you use? What would make you think your MOOC was a success, after it was delivered? What criteria would you use?
Share your reflection in Lesson Eleven Forum
-
Knowledge Check
Link: Lesson 10 Quiz
-
Key Takeaways
Key takeaways from this lesson are:
- MOOCs are forcing every higher education institution to think carefully both about its strategy for online teaching and its approach to open education.
- MOOCs are not the only form of online learning or open educational resources (OERs). It is important to look at the strengths and weaknesses of MOOCs within the overall context of online learning and openness.
- There are considerable differences in the design of MOOCs, reflecting different purposes and philosophies.
- There are currently major structural limitations in MOOCs for developing deep or transformative learning, or for developing the high-level knowledge and skills needed in the digital age.
- MOOCs are still at a relatively early stage of maturity. As their strengths and weaknesses become clearer, and as experience in improving their design grows, they are likely to occupy a significant niche within the higher education learning environment.
- MOOCs could well replace some forms of traditional teaching (such as large lecture classes). However, MOOCs are more likely to remain as an important supplement or alternative to other conventional education methods. They are on their own not a solution to the high cost of higher education, although MOOCs will continue to be an important factor in forcing change.
- Perhaps the greatest value of MOOCs in the future will be for providing a means for tackling large global problems through community action.
-
-
-
-
-
Compulsory Reading
-
Activity (Reflective Thinking, Note Taking and Discussion)
Using Artificial Intelligence in education
- Do you agree with the three minimum requirements for modern AI: large data sets, powerful computing capacity, and powerful algorithms? Are there other possible applications of AI that do not need to meet these three criteria?
- Think of areas of teaching and learning that could generate large data sets even in a class of 30?
Share your reflection in lesson one Forum.
-
Knowledge Check
Link: Lesson Twelve Quiz
-
Key Takeaways
Key takeaways from this lesson are:
- The Gartner’s Hype Cycle is best considered as a way of thinking about emerging technologies, rather than as a factual representation of their development.
- The Digital Education Strategies’ report suggests a workshop approach to serious games design, in which all the key stakeholders are involved.
- Serious games are relatively high risk and high return activity for teaching in the digital age. Success in serious games means building on best practices in games design, both within and outside education. This approach helps to share the experiences and costs, between educational institutions and game development teams or organizations.
- Every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to stimulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves.
- We need to consider the general characteristics of new technology is its design and application in education; or how does it perform as an educational medium? Technology has become a big success in the financial sector does not mean that the technology will be successful in education also. The technology may need some modifications to be used in the educational sector.
-
