ProForMaC:

a systemic conceptual framework for learning with technologies

Carol Russell

eLearning use in UNSW

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Universities• supercomplex (Barnett)• internally diverse disciplinary

departments with different ways of thinking and organising (Becher)

• more like complex organic life than like a machine …

In HE, environmental change can bring systemic adaptation, or homeostasis, or often both at the same time.

The map is not the territory

life as a self-generating system

form(pattern of

relationships)

matter(material structure)

life process(self-directed

structural changes)

based on Capra, F. (2002) The Hidden Connections, Flamingo, London, p61-65

… forming part of an environmental context

form

material

process

context

applied to the organization of university teaching

form (patterns) of teaching strategies

material constraints and individual

resources

how teaching is developed and

maintained

relationship with university context

Ideas from research on organizations as complex

adaptive systems

The J-curve: If you change something in a complex and interconnected system, things get worse before they get better.Complementarities:Doing more of one thing increases the returns from doing more of another.

… in other words, any coordinated change will work better than an isolated intervention

ProForMaC model of university learning and teaching

contextual influences

for individual teachers

A metaphor

Plans for e-learning in UNSW (2004)

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L&T

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Copyright © University of New South Wales

?workarounds, problems,

compromises with admin. and IT support systems … continuing

continuing negotiation over technical change management processes

training and support consultations

some evaluation

early adopters

pilot

The process …in practice

Copyright © University of New South Wales

templates and new educational tools in use … in

places

continued growth in use … but

evaluation still individual, patchy

local admin support in place … central

support being restructured

the urbanization of university learning and teaching?

1st year physics labs

example

Implications• The ProForMaC framework can be used to build models

at the individual, department or at the institutional level• These models can inform strategies for developing

learning technologies, evaluation processes and forms of learning and teaching as a coordinated whole.

• Changes that do not allow for mutual adjustment across all four of aspects of a learning and teaching system will provoke a homeostatic (change resistant) response.And most importantly …

• Find out from people working on the ground what is influencing their decisions about adopting new learning technologies. What maps are they using?