Santally Mohammad IssackAssociate Professor

Centre for Innovative & Lifelong LearningUniversity of Mauritius

A Model for the Transformation of the Mauritian Classroom based on the Living Lab

Concept

UNIVERSITY OF MAURITIUSRESEARCH WEEK 2014

Project Aim

• Engage in a reflexive practice on the activities of the Centre for Innovative and Lifelong Learning and to situate them in the context of a possible Living Lab setup with respect to the classroom of the future for the educational system in Mauritius.

The Living Lab

A Living Lab is an environment for user-centered innovation, based on the observation of every-day user practice and experience for solving problems, but also based on their active participation, with an approach that facilitates their influence in the open and distributed innovation process (participatory design).

The ENOLL Network

• is the international federation of benchmarked Living Labs in Europe and worldwide with 300 accredited LLs

• Defined a 4P innovation (public – private – people – partnership)

• Driven by 4 major elements namely Co-Creation, Exploration, Experimentation and Evaluation (ENOLL)

Living Labs according to eNOLL• Co-Creation is mainly about user involvement in the elaboration of

innovative products and services.

• Exploration is about research and discovery of new markets, usage of existing services and alternative behaviors of consumers and users.

• Experimentation is about the testing in real-world contexts of the products and services.

• Evaluation relates to the assessment of the products and services from usability/ergonomics perspective, socio-economic implications and other related and pertinent criteria.

What is innovative in LL?The aim is to take out the research of laboratories to make it come down in the daily life… (concept)

All this takes place in cooperation between local authorities, companies, research laboratories, as well as potential users, via helping platforms for designing innovative services and analyzes of their usages. (process)

It is a question of favoring the culture of opening (open innovation), of sharing its networks and of involving the users from the beginning of the conception. (model)

LLs related to Education and ICT

LLs related to Education and ICT

LLs related to Education and ICT

LLs related to Education and ICT

Our LL Model – Theoretical Foundations

LL components

• Innovative Teacher Education Model• Research & Development Model• Field Application and Practice Model• Reflexive Practice Model

LL MODEL

VCILT (CILL) and Teacher Education

• Established in 2001 with the mandate to promote the use of ICT in the teaching and learning system

• 2004 - the first online course, a Masters in Educational Technology (formerly the Computer-Mediated Communication and Pedagogies) was launched, mainly targeting educators

VCILT and Teacher Education

• 2009 - another innovation in the teacher training system by introducing the Honours Bachelor online degree in Educational and Instructional Technology

• a first step towards the implementation of a formal recognition of prior learning as an alternate entry route to University studies.

Educational Philosophy

• Time for Radical Change in Teacher Education – Bob Moon (2010)

• time to implement new technologies in teacher training courses so as to focus on the continuous professional development of educators.

• Moon (2010) highlights “there is absolutely no way the bricks-and-mortar institutions of teacher training created in the last century will be adequate for the 21st century needs”.

Model of online instruction

Knowledge acquisition phaseKnowledge application phase

Knowledge construction and reflective practice phase

Role of the teacher/lecturer undergoes a paradigm shift from the know-it-all to the

manager, orchestrator and facilitator

The Transformative Approach

• inculcate new educational culture in aspiring educators who are embarked in a university degree course of study…

• provide a route for in-service educators to upgrade their qualifications through an innovative degree in education technology by transforming them into digital migrants..

• influence policy makers by demonstrating that technology has increased access to education and has transformed traditional practices.

The ProjectsSIDECAP

• European Union (EU) funded project as part of its ACP-EU Cooperation Programme in Higher Education (EDULINK)

• A lifecycle model for the repurposing of OERs was proposed which has been applied to the design and development of online programmes

• Online continuous professional development course for Mauritian Educators. The course which can reasonably be considered a μOOC (Micro Open Online Course) attracted about 300 educators in 2010.

Rapid e-Learning Methodology

• creating video lectures through the integration of two simple technologies namely Microsoft PowerPoint and Text-to-Speech.

• rapid e-learning methodology allowed for the development of interactive learning materials in reduced time period and with minimal technical computing skills.

• disseminate the technique in workshops to educators and education practitioners

Microsoft Partners in Learning

• rapid e-learning project created a link tunnel between the SIDECAP project, the in-service educators and the Microsoft Partners-in-Learning (PIL) Program (www.pil-network.com) in Mauritius.

• rapid e-learning methodology relies intensively on Microsoft PowerPoint as the prototyping and development workbench.

• The idea is to decentralize the content development process to enable educators to develop curriculum related materials in a shorter time-span than it would normally take a small-dedicated team of content developers, as is currently the practice under the Sankoré Project

The Classroom Environment(i) Fun Learning

• Learning by gaming

The Classroom Environment

• Learners as co-creators of knowledge

The Classroom Environment

Living labs are emerging as a new model to support co-creative, human-centric and user-driven research, development and innovation in order to better cater for people’s needs. Our LL has evolved with respect to the environment and the approach (methodology), and how this is affecting the Community namely academics, students, educators and policy-makers. The work is still in progress and the Centre aims to consolidate these axes with the main aim to join the ENoLL network membership to earn the Living Lab label.

Conclusion