Pass the SoLT

The recordings of last week's Learning Futures Festival are now able for open viewing. Over the two days of the event I managed to participate in many of the sessions and personal highlights include:

• Professor Grainne Conole - Digital Literacy Skills for Today's Participatory Culture
• Professor Terry Anderson - Following the Sun to Open Scholarship
• Professor Phil Candy - Boyer and the 5th Element
• Professor Gilly Salmon - Exploring the Future for Learning
• Donald Clark with further thoughts from James Morrison - Don't Lecture Me
• Stephen Downes with responses from Donald Clark and James Morrison - Long Live the Lecture!
• Profesor Ron Oliver - Learning and Teaching in the Digital World of the Future
• Professor Gilly Salmon - Hindsight, Insight, Foresight

Of the above presentations, Phil Candy's session stands out for his thoughtful account of Boyer's concept of scholarship in which he discusses how the wider context of new digital technology can be both an inhibitor and enabler for transformative change in university-level education. I encourage you to take a look at the 5th element of the scholarship of engagement.

I also enjoyed Terry Anderson's session on open scholarship where he started by reminiscing how he organized the first ever virtual conference as early as 1992 and last year wrote a book on this very topic. One of the key messages for me was a point about the need for educators to harmonize the disruptive effects of openness and the importance of balance and leadership in order to do so. Terry also reminded us in the context of the openness movement that 'Education for elites is not sufficient for planetary survival'.

In terms of the openess theme, Terry also asked: Do we define ourselves by the content we produce or the quality of the courses we offer? This question is particularly relevant to current discussions at Massey University as we work on the challenge of educating staff of how 'the game has changed' for traditional distance education providers. Therefore we need to define and adopt new models or designs of study materials for course delivery that recognize how content is no longer the preserve of higher education providers. In actual fact, I've been chairing a group that is doing some of this work and we hope to engage the wider university community in some valuable and potentially transformative discussions over the next few months.

In summary, the Follow the Sun Conference was very successful and attracted participants from throughout the world. The use of Adobe Connect was generally successful in delivering the presentations and helped to demonstrate how we now have new tools for new ways of learning and teaching. Congratulations to the event organizers and all the speakers who contributed to the event.

The National University Technology Network Virtual Event starts on Monday, April 18, 2011 (3:00 - 4:00 PM EDT - that's 8:00am Tuesday NZ time) with a keynote address by Professor Terry Anderson. I will have the pleasure of introducing Terry and facilitating his online presentation.

Then unlimited access to over 6 hours of on-demand presentations will be available anytime April 18 - May 16. The on-demand videos feature presentations from prestigious leaders in the field such as Dr. Peter Smith from Kaplan University and author of Harnessing America's Wasted Talent, Dr. George Boggs, immediate past president of the American Association of Community Colleges, Susan Patrick, president and CEO of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, and Kay Gilcher, director of accreditation for the U.S. Department of Education.

The virtual event includes four live chat sessions exploring the following themes:

1. Adapting the Plan: Stories of Institutional Transformation

DATE: April 25, 2011 TIME: 2:00-3:00 PM EDT via Adobe Connect

2. Adapting the Technology: Stories from Innovative Educators

DATE: May 2, 2011 TIME: 2:00-3:00 PM EDT via Adobe Connect

3. Adapting the Policies: Stories from Policy Shapers

DATE: May 9, 2010 TIME: 2:00-3:00 PM EDT via Adobe Connect

4. Adapting to Trends: Stories of Future Possibilities

DATE: May 16, 2011 TIME: 2:00-3:00 PM EDT via Adobe Connect

The NUTN Network is a professional development network for innovative leaders advancing teaching and learning in the distance education field. The Virtual Event will be free to all Massey staff.

This is a brief attempt to expand on Terry Anderson's three generations of Distance Education, which he recently described during a keynote presentation at the Education Summit 2011 - 2021. This is not the first time that I have heard Terry talk about the three generations as he also mentioned them at last year's DEANZ Conference. You can find out more information about the DE generations on the website of The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, including an audio recorded presentation.

In talking with Terry after the presentation, I suggested there is potential to link the generations to the three root metaphors of learning (Paavola et al., 2004). The concept of root metaphors was first introduced by Sfard (1998) in a seminal article published in the Educational Researcher on the dangers of single metaphor solutions to learning. Importantly, the article pointed out that as no two students have the same needs and because teachers arrive at their best performance in different ways, “theoretical exclusivity and didactic single-mindedness can be trusted to make even the best educational ideas fail” (Sfard, 1998, p. 11).

Sfard went on to claim that contemporary thinking is caught between the 'acquisition metaphor' and the 'participation metaphor' of learning. Although the metaphors are not equivalent to any single theoretical conception, any learning theory may be classified as acquisition-orientated or participation-orientated if it shows a clear preference for one of the metaphorical ingredients over the other.

For example, any learning theory – behavioral, cognitive, or constructivist – that focuses on the acquisition of knowledge and development of concepts, by either passive reception or an active and constructive process, can be conceptualized in terms of the acquisition metaphor (Sfard, 1998). This view of learning embodies the idea that knowledge is a property of the mind, and the individual is the basic unit of knowing (Brown, 2008).

In contrast, the participation metaphor views learning as a process of participation in shared learning and cultural practices rather than something that merely happens inside the head. The learner becomes a member of a community by gradually moving from peripheral to full participation, and in so doing acquires the skills to communicate and act according to its socially negotiated norms (Sfard, 1998). This view of learning focuses on knowing and not so much on knowledge in the traditional sense (Brown, 2008).

The key point that Sfard (1998) emphasizes is to make progress in understanding (distance) learning, with or without technology, familiarity, and appreciation is required of both metaphors. Each has something to offer that the other cannot provide and relinquishing either may have grave consequences. Thus one metaphor is not enough.

But importantly another metaphor still needs to be added to the mix. Paavola et al. (2004) argue that we need to include a knowledge creation metaphor alongside of Sfard's original metaphors. This metaphor proposes a trialogical approach where learning is a process of knowledge creation by which common objects of activity are developed collaboratively through mediated processes. In this sense, learning focuses on interactions through these objects of activity – not just between people or within the mind (Brown, 2008).

The key point is that rather than arguing one learning perspective, one teaching approach, one instructional design model, or one metaphor is better than another, a variety of methods and perspectives is required. Indeed, the implication is that each metaphor has an important place, which contributes to the interconnectedness of the whole. A more complete understanding of (distance) learning requires a trialogical model in which the acquisition, participation, and knowledge creation metaphors are viewed as both competing and mutually complementing discourses.

This returns me to Anderson's three generations of distance education in which he makes precisely the same point. There are problems and issues with the theories, methods and technologies of each generation, and they all have something to offer. With this point in mind, the following venn diagram is a quick effort to illustrate how the generations and metaphors can be integrated within an overarching framework. There are striking similarities between the two descriptions of the evolution of thinking about (distance) learning.

Obviously more work is needed to flesh out the nature of the links and relationships between each of the concepts and hopefully I'll be able to devote more thinking time to the integrated diagram over the course of the year. I also hope to continue the conversation with Terry. In the meantime, please feel free to comment on the synergies (or not) that I've identified between these two lines of theoretical work.

References

Brown, M.E. (2008). Interactive Learning Environments (pp.231-248). In J. Voogt & G. Knezek (Eds.). International handbook of information technology in primary and secondary education. New York: Springer International.

Paavola, S., Lipponen, L., & Hakkarainen, K. (2004). Models of innovative knowledge communities and three metaphors of learning. Review of Educational Research, 74 (4), 557–576.

Sfard, A. (1998). On two metaphors for learning and the dangers of choosing just one. Educational
Researcher, 27 (2), 4–13.

The latest issue of The Internet and Higher Education (Vol13, 1-2) is devoted to reflecting on the Community of Inquiry Framework first published by Randy Garrison, Terry Anderson and Walter Archer (2000) tens years ago. The special issue claims to celebrate the Community of Inquiry Framework for the major contributions it has made and/or made possible to our understanding of online and blended learning. The three principle elements identified by the CoI Framework are social presence, cognitive presence and teaching presence.

The journal begins with an interesting retrospective piece from the aforementioned authors and seven related articles follow looking at different aspects of the Framework, including:

• A re-examination of the community of inquiry framework: Social network and content analysis

• Student ratings of the importance of survey items, multiplicative factor analysis, and the validity of the community of inquiry survey

• Exploring causal relationships among teaching, cognitive and social presence: Student perceptions of the community of inquiry framework

• Subject matter effects and the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework: An exploratory study

• Supersizing e-learning: What a CoI survey reveals about teaching presence in a large online class

• Investigating students' level of critical thinking across instructional strategies in online discussions

• A blended community of inquiry approach: Linking student engagement and course redesign

The article on supersizing elearning makes interesting reading as applying contemporary constructivist pedagogy to large groups of students remains a challenge. In a similar vein, the final article by Norm Vaughan is particularly relevant to the work currently going on at Massey University as we attempt to renew and redesign the curriculum through a new model of blended learning. Vaughan discusses how the CoI Framework has been used to guide faculty development as they redesign courses for greater levels of student engagement.

The special issue concludes with an eclectic mix of short articles from the trenches. Two good reads so far that underscore the influence and importance of the teacher include:

• The effect of learning management systems on student and faculty outcomes

• Facilitating discourse and enhancing teaching presence: Using mini audio presentations in online forums

In sum, this issue of The Internet and Higher Education has something for everyone. I haven't had a chance to read everything but so far the issue has my recommendation as essential reading for both scholars and teachers alike. And I look forward to talking with Professor Terry Anderson about his personal reflections on the Framework when he visits Massey at the end of April.