What is “content” and how might we (not) get beyond

it?

Norm Friesen &

Irwin DeVries

Overview

• What is (educational) content?

• Examples: What do they show about the learning in content and about its re-use?

• Possible ways of understanding learning or education re: content [discussion; slides as or if needed]

Content

"We learn anywhere, anytime, anyplace; there are opportunities to learn all around us everyday. We learn in the home, office, on the road. Likewise, educational content can be shaped to fit all kinds of useful delivery media that is convenient, user-friendly, and (most important) serves the educational need of members without the content being shortchanged or trivialized." Smith, J.(2001)

Common Perceptions and Complaints

Learning objects, OER, emerging pedagogies have raised new awareness and questions

about content• Final vs. emergent • Consumed vs. created• Conducive to teaching and learning as “transmission”• Reinforces instructivist teaching habits

• memorization & rote learning • Inert; unengaging• Locked up in copyright and proprietary formats• Owned vs shared• Driven by publishing industry

Beyond the Reusability Paradox

“If a learning object is useful in a particular context, by definition it is not reusable in a different context. If a learning object is reusable in many contexts, it isn’t particularly useful in any.” (D. Wiley, as summarized by D ’Arcy Norman)

But what is this “content”?

• The sum of qualities, notions, ideal elements given in or composing a conception; the substance or matter (of cognition, or art, etc.) as opposed to the form.

• The things contained or treated of in a writing or document; the various subdivisions of its subject matter.

• Form is general; content is specific.

What is (Educational) Content?

• It can be discussed generally only through form: textbooks, video clips, writing, podcasts

• We have generally thought of education and other issues in terms of forms (from Plato onwards)

• Often authorship is not important• Web and new forms reinforce this• Try to counteract this through examples:

this textbook, this clip, this podcast

Euclid’s Elements

• A line is breadthless length.• Rectilinear figures are those which

are contained by straight lines, trilateral figures being those contained by three, quadrilateral those contained by four, and multilateral those contained by more than four straight lines.

• In isosceles triangles the angles at the base equal one another, and, if the equal straight lines are produced further, then the angles under the base equal one another.

http://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0014579305000104-gr1.jpg

http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/explodedviews/280z/exploded%20l28.gif

http://www.scienceclarified.com/everyday/images/scet_01_img0015.jpg

Thoughts about Examples

• Organization is emphasized; are about organization

• Organization according to the specific subject matter and desired emphasis

• Is progressive and cumulative in particular ways: from basic to advanced, from fundamental to secondary etc. … (outward from centre, top to bottom)

• Method of progression; Engages reader or viewer from: – General to particular or particular to general

Recommendations re: Content

• Make connections among concepts explicit

• Explicitly highlight deep features• Use contrasting and boundary cases to

highlight organizing features• Expose students ’ knowledge

organizations• Analyze tasks to identify the

most appropriate knowledge organization

Not taking content for grantedContent in a c/x-MOOC world

E.g. c-MOOCsSupported by• Instructional videos • Guides to MOOCs• Syllabi• Aggregations• Wrapups or

summaries

x-MOOCsNeed for• Adaptation• Contextualization• Currency• Learning design

Text books are a ripoff…

• …but they’re more than just a ripoff• "A textbook is not merely a compendium of

knowledge. Rather, it is a assemblage of knowledge organised for educational purposes.  Textbooks, therefore, are not simply depositories of knowledge.  Through their chapters, headings. tables, illustrations, worked examples, homework exercises, and so on, they mediate the structure of knowledge on the one hand, and the performance of teaching and learning on the other.“

Peter Ramus and the beginnings of modern schoolinghttp://www.onlineassessment.nu/onlineas_webb/contact_us/Umea/David/ramustext030404.pdf

Pedagogical Knowledge

Exhibits a number of characteristics distinguishing it from scientific knowledge. As a rule it ...•only looks at a part of the whole•(radically) simplifies this knowledge•integrates it into a logical-seeming context•avoids contradictions and exceptions•makes knowledge appealing by means of various tools (slides, films, experiments, murals)•is taught with maximum efficiency

Daniel Tröhler“Pedagogical knowledge is derived from scientific knowledge through such actions as selection, condensation, composition, didactical structuring and streamlining for classroom instruction. Pedagogical knowledge is meant to be obvious, unambiguous, precise, ordered and interesting, and it is not supposed to take a lot of time to learn. It assumes a "dogmatic" character because it is primarily viewed as an object of teaching.”

Daniel Tröhler, con’tBy contrast, scientific knowledge is based on the assumption that knowledge is not so much an object of teaching as that of research. Knowledge is not a given, but is constantly reconstructed, questioned and examined to uncover its underlying premises. In contrast to pedagogical knowledge, advances are not logically structured, but more dependent on fundamental convictions as to how objects are to be handled.

Concluding Thoughts & Suggestions

• A BIG gap between content in general and any one example: “content” a dangerous word

• May be useful to bring “scientific” and “pedagogical” knowledge into some kind of balance: both “techniques” are needed

• Both stress connections between content, and making these as clear as possible

• These connections depend on perspective• Simplification / attractiveness / “type of

logic”