TeleLearning ‘98

TeleLearning in Practice

What is the Business Case?

Sylvia Currie, scurrie@sfu.caResearch AssociateTeleLearning•NCESimon Fraser University

Why me? Work life

Post Secondary Administration curriculum developmenteducational advisingadmissions and transfer (residency requirements, prior

learning assessment)

Educational Technologytechnicianinstructional support research and development

changed jobs 7 times in past 10 years

Why me? Student life

TeleLearning reason I returned to SFU to pursue graduate work

First hand experience using as a student using online technologies enrolled in first SFU FirstClass course enrolled in first SFU Virtual-U course (1995)

Research Associate - Virtual-U Project

Virtual-U Project

Field trials began in 1996 across Canada Data collected from 14 sites, 229 courses

Virtual-U web-based software Tools and resources to design, manage, and

evaluate online courses Supports active, collaborative learning Designed by educators

What is unique about Virtual-U?

Flexible framework to support varied content and instructional approaches

Emphasis on user involvement in designing learning environments

Focus on understanding new roles, techniques, and teaching models

Environment for design, management, and evaluation

Consequences of not involving educators

Technology designed to teach specific skills or content

Cookie-cutter approach to online course design

All resources devoted to software

Educators not involved in research and design

Teacher replacement

No flexibility of use

No pedagogical support

No advancement of use

My observations

Focus on consumer model of telelearning (quantity, convenience, access, cost)

Focus on specialized training for job-related skills

Not enough focus on telelearning as a new environment to improve quality of learning

“...relentlessly inelastic packing-case”

“We seem to have multiplied [universities] greatly in the past hundred years, but we seem to have multiplied them altogether too much upon the old pattern”

H.G. Wells (1938) World Brain

“Current” Problems with Universities

Levels of Intellectual Development of Adult Learners

1. Keeping up-to-date

2. Learning with initiative and from new experiences

3. Accumulate, rectify, and change human experience

H.G. Wells (1938) World Brain

Socialization(tacit to tacit)

Internalization(explicit to tacit)

Externalization(tacit to explicit)

Combination(explicit to explicit)

Nonaka’s Spiral of KnowledgeThe Knowledge Creating Company

Downfalls: Traditional Models

People deluged with highly specific information Individuals discouraged or inhibited to share

knowledgeMeasurement of success is quantitativeEquate information flow with solution for a

knowledge society Focus on “know what” instead of “know how”Private nature of work Inequality among participants

What works? Socialization

“Combination” is not sufficient Many new technologies attend to individuals and explicit

information that passes between them Ease of creating and sharing knowledge is a reflection of

its social context Online environment contributes to more reflective and

in-depth discourse For organizational knowledge to be created, tacit

individual knowledge must be shared Equity in participation / freedom to articulate ideas

What works? Externalization

Multimedia representationsPortfolios of workDocumentation of experiences (writing as a

heuristic)Translating knowledge in understandable

formats“Repurposing” (I repurposed this word

from Curtis Bonk’s presentation)

What works? Strategic rotation

Exposure to multiple perspectivesUnderstanding contributions of others

to achieving goalsRely on individual expertise in new

situationLogic of redundancy

What works? Team Approach

Develop different approaches to same problem

SynthesizeParticipation not limited to project

membersParticipants take on more responsibility

What works? Changing Roles

Instructor (manager) as facilitator Participant rather than providerAsk questions rather than give answersProvide conceptual frameworkEquity in participation Increased expectations of participants

What works? Add Value to Information

Enhance “combination” typical of traditional models

Store and reconfigure informationSort and categorizeAnnotate Information distributed in a purposeful wayNo discrimination in access of informationLeads to new knowledge (e.g. CSILE)

“Current” Solutions

“I imagine…something added to the world network of universities, linking and coordinating them with one another and with the general intelligence of the world”

H.G. Wells (1938) World Brain

Summary: Learning Networks

Challenge existing organization boundaries and hierarchies

Make knowledge accessible within and outside of organizations

Provide equity of access to all participants Support sustained engagement for knowledge creation

to occur Enable external input to propel knowledge creation Prepare learners with a different set of skills

to communicate, work collaboratively, solve problems, think critically, and cope with change

Provide unique opportunities for lifelong learning