Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning

George Siemens and Peter Tittenburg have released their “Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning” both as a Wiki and as a PDF as a resource for educators planning to incorporate technologies in their teaching and learning activities.

Introduction

Over the next decade, a duality of change - conceptual (new models of education) and technological (elearning, mobile devices, and learning networks) - offers the prospect of fundamental change in the practices of teaching and learning.

Information can now be acquired in any manner desired by the individual. Learners piece together (connect) various content to create an integrated network of information. Our learning and information acquisition is a mashup.

Change Pressures and Trends

We can add almost indefinitely to the list of theorists, activists, politicians, and business people calling for education reform (Toffler and Gates, for example, both suggest education is fundamentally flawed in its architecture).

Universities are at a historical juncture, transitioning from the industrial era to the information era, and from a national prospective to a globalised one.

As opposed to expert-produced information, amateur-produced information is generally easily accessible (in language and format). Wikipedia is one of the most popular web sites.

Hierarchical command-and-control models are limited; networked models of learning will replace existing curricular models.

Harvard's new core curriculum focuses on attributes and qualities of learners, rather than particular knowledge elements.

What We Know About Learning

Since the mid 20th century, cognitivism and constructivism have developed as learning theories to address the weaknesses of behaviourism. Literature on learning reveals the following four components:

1. Social - Learning is a social process. Knowledge is an emergent property of interactions between networks of learners.
2. Situated - Learning occurs within particular situations or contexts, raising the importance of educational activities mirroring actual situations of use.
3. Reflective - Learners require the opportunity to reflect on, defend, and share what they have learned.
4. Multi-faceted - Learning incorporates a range of theory, engagement, tinkering, and active construction.

The importance of engagement and motivation cannot be overstated as foundational to learner retention.

The full spectrum of learning must be attended to be the educational process:

1. Formal
2. Informal
3. Simulation
4. Mentoring
5. Performance support
6. Self-learning
7. Communities

Connectivism has been suggested as a model of learning in an age defined by networks. Connectivism is the view that knowledge and cognition are distributed across networks of people and technology and that learning is the process of connecting, growing, and navigating those networks.

A node in a neural network is a neuron. In a conceptual network, a node is an idea or collection of ideas. In an external network, a node is a person or information source.

Technology, Teaching, and Learning

Through the use of Google Docs, Skype, blogs, wikis, podcasts, flickr, YouTube, del.icio.us and other tools, academics can provide a rich learning experience often exceeding the static experience of an LMS.

Chickering and Ehrmann advocate for seven key good practice elements in online instructions:

1. Encourage contact between students and faculty
2. Develop reciprocity and cooperation amongst students
3. Encourage active learning
4. Give prompt feedback
5. Emphasise time on task
6. Communicate high expectations
7. Respect diverse talents and ways of learning

Effective learning online requires an instructor to focus less on lecturing and content presentation, and more on assisting learners in creating personal learning or knowledge networks.

New Learners? New Educators? New Skills?

Even though technology enables greater learner control and autonomy, learners generally value social contact and faculty guidance, especially when entering a new field or course of study.

Implementation

The use of technology for learning can be seen as a continuum with three key marking points:

1. Augmented - the course takes place in a traditional classroom setting, but technology is used to enhance the learning experience. E.g. podcasts, online quizzes.
2. Blended - the course takes place partly face-to-face and partly online.
3. Online - the course takes place entirely online with no face-to-face contact. E.g. blogs, wikis, online lectures.

Tools for creating content for online learning have improved significantly over the last few years. Articulate Presenter, Audacity, Engage, Flash, Jing, and Camtasia are tools that novice users can master in a short period of time.

Management of digital resources is an important consideration often overlooked by elearning developers.

Tools

• Blog
• Wiki
• Social bookmarking
• Audio and podcasting
• Image sharing (Flickr)
• Video
• Open education resources
• Microblogging
• Social networking software
• Web conferencing
• Aggregation
• Games, virtual worlds, and simulations

Conclusion

The use of technology for learning is influenced by developments in technology itself, global trends (economy etc.), societal trends, and trends within educational research. Greater use of emerging technology can serve as an important bridging process between the traditional role of education and the not yet clearly defined future.