A fine balance

Who leads the learning in your institution? Is it the teachers, or students - or do both contribute equally to ensure the best possible conditions for learning? It's a fine balance.

Carl Rogers championed student centred learning, while John Dewey emphasised the importance of learner participation. Seymour Papert strongly believed that the best learning takes place when learners take charge. The Progressive Education movement holds that education is not something that should be imposed upon students, but instead should be a conscious consensual process with which each learner is actively engaged. Education is not done to us. Education is something we do. Education is at its strongest when learners are at the centre of the process, and can exercise their choices about what happens.

For students, education should be about taking control of learning, while for teachers it should be focused on letting go. But that can be a difficult proposition for some teachers, because we tend to teach in the same way we were taught. Perhaps the biggest objection traditional educators have about learners taking control is the argument that students don't really now what they want, so can't effectively direct their own learning. Progressives respond by pointing out that the most powerful learning occurs when it has personal meaning, and only the student can construct that.

The middle ground is that students can be given freedom to learn while they are scaffolded by experts within prescribed knowledge sets. What students learn is important, but so is the manner in which they learn. The big question all educators must answer in the coming years is how we create a fine balance where students have control of their own learning, and teachers provide the best possible support. One important movement will be from passive reception to active engagement. It will require effective management of expectations - of both students and teachers.

In Experience and Education, John Dewey highlighted the importance of students leading their own learning through active engagement: “There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of progressive education which is sounder than its emphasis upon the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his [sic] activities in the learning process, just as there is no defect in traditional education greater than its failure to secure the active cooperation of the pupil in construction of the purposes involved in his studying.” Unfortunately, students will be unable to do this if the school regime forbids a student voice in favour of teacher dominated pedagogy. We need to get the balance right. 

The last word should go to Paulo Freire: “The teacher is of course an artist, but being an artist does not mean that he or she can make the profile, can shape the students. What the educator does in teaching is to make it possible for the students to become themselves.” 

References
Dewey, J. (1983) Experience and Education. Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith Publishing.
Horton, M and Freire, P. (1990) We make the road by walking: Conversations on education and social change. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Rogers, C. R. (1983) Freedom to Learn. New York: Prentice Hall. 

Photo from the National Photo Company Collection via Flickr


A fine balance by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The imitation game

In my kitchen, my devices 'talk' to me. My American fridge lets me know if I have left the door open too long (which is often), and my microwave tells me if I have heated something up and then forgotten to remove it. I can communicate with my central heating wherever I am in the world via my phone. Siri and Cortana  talk to us through our mobile phones (but don't let them speak to each other - if they do, all you get is nonsense), and many people now also have conversations with their in-car Sat Navs. Just a generation or two ago, such experiences would have been science fiction. Now they are common place and we take our conversation with technology for granted.

I say conversations, but I really mean basic interaction.

With the best will in the world, you could never have an intelligent conversation with these tools - they merely alert you to what you need to know, or enable you to maximise your use of technology. You can have some fun though. Ask Siri what to wear for Halloween and you're likely to laugh out loud. It may respond with 'Go as an eclipse. Just dress in black and stand in front of people.' Or it may respond with 'Just go as yourself, pumpkin.' But Siri hasn't developed a sense of humour, nor is it about to embark on a lucrative career as a stand-up comedian. It's simply doing what its coders have told it to do.

Alan Turning

Such intelligent personal assistants blindly follow algorithms to function, and have been doing so for a long time. In the 80s I discovered a program called Basically Eliza (created by Joseph Weizenbaum) and obtained a version for the BBC Computer. It had been written to mimic a psychiatrist consultation - a sort of early artificial intelligence demonstration. The British computer scientist Alan Turing had argued that for a computer to be 'intelligent', it would need to imitate a human so well that people would believe they were conversing with a fellow human being.

Eliza responded to the questions typed into the keyboard by using a simple string matching algorithm. Eliza would first ask you to state your problem. Mainly, it reflected your statements back to you as questions. Occasionally it went a little further. If for example, if you told it you had a family problem, Eliza would ask how many brothers or sisters you had. Alternatively, it might ask about your marital status. But this wasn't a ghost in the machine - an emerging computer intelligence, simply Eliza following a random routine in its code. When I showed it to my nursing students back in 1985, such a semblance of artificial intelligence made quite an impression on them.*

So I rewrote the algorithm to be verbally abusive.

Instead of Basically Eliza, the psychiatric consultant, it became Dr Fraud, the psychiatric insultant. In itself, Dr Fraud was fairly meaningless. But my students loved it. They queued up to use it, and laughed as they were continually insulted by a machine. The more they sat there, the worse the insults became. Everyone was intrigued by this demonstration of artificial intelligence, and in turn, it switched them on to other, more educational programs on the menu. It was a gateway into computer supported learning. Soon, the computer suite had become one of the most popular places in the entire nursing college.

Personal assistant software is a little more advanced than it was in the 80s, but not that much. It leads me to wonder just how advanced it will need to be before it can convince us that we are talking to a human rather than a machine. But that's another discussion, another (Turing) test and something to look for in our future. How do you see personal assistants developing in the future? What are your thoughts? The comments box below awaits you (....and I will respond intelligently, I promise).

* The full story about my work programming BBC computers can be read here.

Photos by N3WJack and Parameter_bond on Flickr


The imitation game by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

New learning environments

Our final #EDENchat of 2015 focused on new learning environments, namely MOOCs, flipped classrooms and blended learning methods. It was one of the busiest we have seen, and the archive of the conversation can be viewed here. Those who participated shared their experiences of MOOCs and flipped learning both as teachers and as learners. One of the key discussion points was around the nature of these approaches and their effectiveness as learning environments. Some debated the merits of MOOCs, high attrition rates and the legitimacy of participating without completing a course. An inevitable comparison was made between the earlier cMOOCs (which were largely connectivist and student centred in their ethos) and the later xMOOCs (which are more commercially oriented and arguably less student centred). The merits and limitations of these are debated in finer detail here.

Other issues were raised around student motivation and the impetus required to sustain focus when away from tutors/parent institution. There were calls to provide students with incentive to persist in their studies through enhanced forms of interaction (with content, other students and teachers) and more authentic learning and assessment activities. Some raised the issue of lurking and peripheral participation, but the point was also made that wherever there are open and free events, we will find those who lurk in the background.

The final question asked whether new learning environments such as MOOCs, flipped classes and blended learning represented a new or emerging pedagogy. Opinion was divided on this, but what do you think? You views are welcome in the comments box below.

Generally the Twitter timeline was fast moving and thought provoking. We plan to continue to momentum of this chat series and have already started putting together a programme of #EDENchat sessions for 2016. The dates and topics will be announced on this blog and on the EDEN website soon.

Photo by Mark Brannan on Flickr

NB: #EDENchat is supported by the European Distance and E-learning Network


New learning environments by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

They'll believe they can fly

This image was sent to me by my university colleague Will Barlow. It is clearly an illustration from another age, but the sentiments are as true today as they ever were: If you constrain a child's creativity and imagination, don't be surprised if they begin to lose their curiosity and passion for learning about the world around them.

It was wonderful earlier today to see almost 2000 very excited school children witnessing British astronaut Tim Peake's launch into space. They were watching the live TV coverage from the Science Museum in London, and I couldn't help but wonder whether that excitement will be transformed into a lifelong passion for scientific discovery. They are certainly in the right place to learn about science. One would hope that those teachers in charge of them will allow them to spend some time walking around exploring the exhibits, and focusing their attention on what scientists have achieved. The Science Museum has a particularly good display of space memorabilia, including a full scale replica of the Apollo lunar landing craft. Those children might also be encouraged to follow the 6 month long mission by Major Tim and his two fellow spacetravellers - they will be back on earth again just in time for the end of the summer term. How many projects can the kids complete in that time that will help them to learn more about subjects such as the environment, physics, biology and technology?

It only takes one person, one event, one experience, to create a spark of passion in a child. My own lifelong passion for technology and learning began on a school trip to a science museum (the full story is here). Sadly, it also takes just one person, one event or one bad experience to turn children off for life. Let's not clip the wings of our children. Instead, let's give them the space to believe they can fly.

Image source


They'll believe they can fly by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

New learning environments: The challenge and the promise #EDENchat

In recent years, education has evolved to the point where learning can take place anywhere and at any time, usually beyond the walls of the traditional learning space. There are all sorts of possibilities thanks to new technologies. Although distance education has been in existence for more than a century, the various technological means by which it can now be conducted have advanced quickly. The last two decades alone have seen a rapid rise in popularity of the World Wide Web, smartphones, social media, social networks, augmented reality, wearable technologies and user generated content sites. New trends have emerged including blended learning, personalised learning environments (PLEs) Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), mobile learning and the flipped classroom. Although it could be argued that some of these are not new concepts, in combination they have become a phenomenon that has occupied and exercised the minds of educators worldwide.

What are the challenges of these new learning environments? What do new learning environments promise in terms of new learning, new pedagogy and new opportunities? What are the issues we need to address to make new learning environments a success? And what new skills and knowledge do educators need? These and other questions will be addressed at the final Twitter #EDENchat session of the year on Wednesday 16th December, when we will discuss issues, challenges and benefits of the new learning environments mentioned above. As ever, the session will be one hour in duration, and will start at 20.00 GMT (21.00 CET). Please join us, and come prepared to share your expertise, ask questions, challenge others and be challenged, and generally learn together as we head towards 2016. I hope to see you there!

NB: All previous #EDENchats can be found here as Storified archives

NB: The next series of #EDENchat will start on 13 January, 2016. Further details will be posted about the schedule on this blog and also on the EDEN NAP website later.

Photo by Sarah Macmillan on Flickr


New learning environments: The challenge and the promise #EDENchat by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Going off road

Veering off the beaten track is something I often do. Beaten tracks are too 'safe' and restrictive for me. I like to go off road and explore, and I often find myself down some backstreet in a city I've never visited before, chatting to locals or taking photos of strange new sights.

I can't help it. I have never been comfortable when I'm confined. Nor have I been happy simply 'towing the line' where important things like teaching and learning are concerned. I suppose that's also why I've always been uncomfortable with lesson plans. I always have an idea of what I'm going to cover in my lectures and seminars, but I rarely write anything down, preferring to keep several ideas in my head so that I can respond quickly and flexibly if the situation demands it. As a result, my teaching is now more responsive than it was when I was less experienced, and used strict frameworks and defined resources to conduct my lessons.

This kind of free-wheeling approach to teaching isn't for everyone, of course. We show our education students how to create lesson plans, schemes of work and other closely defined documentation to track and manage teaching, and they are trained to adhere to these. I wouldn't encourage any teacher to depart from them... unless of course they see a need to do so. In such cases, I advocate flexible, agile lesson plans from which teachers can change direction, when they need to, or when they sense they have to. That flexibility should extend to the introduction of ideas you may not be familiar with (learning together with your students), the sequence of the content, and also the learning outcomes you have identified. Ultimately, it should also embrace assessment of learning. If you come up with a better (or more appropriate) way to assess than the method you have outlined in your lesson plan, do it.

Lesson plans are a little version of the curriculum. They are created to provide suggestions and should not be treated like stone tablets. They should be used to interpret content and activities, and as a guidelines rather than as rules to follow regardless of whatever is happening. Ultimately, it's your students' learning that is the most important element of teaching, and if the lesson plan gets in the way of that, ditch it.

Image/graphic text by Miot Sheremeti


Going off road by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Technology makes a difference

Interactive tools engage learners

I have often heard the argument that there is no evidence that technology improves learning. This is a vacuous claim that is either a) based on ignorance of the available research literature, or b) possibly the result of a deep seated fear, mistrust or dislike of technology in general. My usual response to such a claim is that children with special educational needs are a classic example of technology improving learning. For children with special educational needs, especially those with physical disabilities such as deafness or vision impairment, technology not only improves learning, it actually enables it to happen. Without adaptive technology, many disabled children could not access certain types of education and would be marginalised from learning.

But there is a larger mass of evidence to show that technology is not only making the difference for all learners, it is actually creating new and previously unattainable opportunities for learning. Technology does make a difference. Let's start with widening access. Children (and adult) learners all over the globe are accessing content that allows them to learn. Even if we disregards the highly successful phenomenon of Massive Open Online Courses, there is an ever expanding menu of content that covers just about every subject and theme under the sun, available for free online. Further, social media and social network services can connect anyone with internet access to experts in any academic discipline for real time content sharing and discussion.

But what about the question of whether technology improves learning? There is a wealth of evidence that indicates technology can make a positive impact on learning outcomes. Below are just two of the available research reports (you can search for others on the Web).

A research study at Durham University in the North East of England suggests that multi-touch, multi-user surfaces can improve the learning of mathematics. 400 children were involved in the study, which demonstrated that 'smart tables' enabled better collaboration and problem solving during maths lessons. Class teachers receive a live feed of output from the children's interactions on the surface, and can intervene when necessary. Research has shown that the touch surfaces enable children to discover a range of alternative solutions to maths problems, simply through interacting with each other in new ways.

A meta-study from ARCC in the United States reveals that technology, when appropriately used can make a significant difference in learning outcomes in all subjects. The evidence from the various studies has a recurring theme: that technology can make improve student achievement if they are integrated appropriately into teaching and learning. When what technology can do best - offering online access, interactive capabilities and a vast range of options on content - is made available and meaningfully integrated into teaching, the results are undeniable.

Photo by Edward on Wikimedia Commons


Capturing the moment by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Capturing the moment

It was a great pleasure to give the opening keynote at the Social Science special interest group Higher Education Academy conference yesterday in Manchester. You can look up the Twitter hashtag for the two day event which is #HEASocSci15. The audience were a group of academics from across the UK and Ireland who specialise in social sciences. In the room there were lecturers in economics, politics, sociology, psychology and education. I had some very interesting, and at times intense conversations with a number of delegates as between us we tried to navigate the future of higher education from our various perspectives. Perhaps the standout part of the day for me though, was to see the wonderful artistic skills of Simon Heath, as he captured the essence of my keynote (illustrated above). As a consulting artist, Simon is incredibly talented because it's a rare skill to be able to listen to a speech, fillet out the key elements and then render them in real-time as a collage of images and words. He also live tweets from the conference as the images take shape!

On the left is Simon's later cartoon development of the strange pairing of Mickey Mouse and Superman - an example of the #twistedpair blogging challenge I instigated in the summer. He captures the idea perfectly, and adds the caption 'pedagogy of the unlikely', which perfectly captures what the blogging challenges were all about - finding meaning and learning together through seemingly bizarre and disassociated pairings of ideas, characters or objects.

I'm sure you will agree, his work is pleasing to the eye as well as informative. We need more of this at conferences! The title of my keynote was 'Learning in the Digital Age - Theory and Practice'. Just in case you want more detail though, the entire slide deck from my HEA Social Science conference keynote is below.

Learning in the digital age - theory and practice from Steve Wheeler

Photo by Steve Wheeler
Graphic by Simon Heath


Capturing the moment by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.