Abstract
This chapter provides an introduction to and rationale for the book. It begins by arguing that in today’s technologically rich context, where content and services are increasingly free, we need to rethink approaches to the design of learning activities and content. This chapter begins with an overview of the context of modern education, before looking at the characteristics of today’s learners and how they are using technologies. The concept of ‘learning design’ is introduced and, in particular, the notion that making design processes more explicit and shareable will enable teachers to develop more effective learning environments and interventions for learners. It will help learners to make more sense of their educational provision and associated learning pathways.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
References
Beabout, B. R., Carr-Chellman, A. A., Alkandari, K. A., Almeida, L. C., Gursoy, H. T., Ma, Z., & Pastore, R. (2008). The perceptions of New Orleans educators on the process of rebuilding the New Orleans school system after Katrina. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 13, 212–237.
Beetham, H., & Sharpe, R. (2007). Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age: Designing and delivering e-learning. London: Routledge.
Borgeman, C., Abelson, H., Dirks, L., Johnson, R., Koedinger, K., Linn, M., et al. (2008). Fostering learning in the networked world: The cyberlearning opportunity and challenge (Report of the NSF Task Force on Cyberlearning). Available online at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08204/nsf08204.pdf. Accessed 11 Aug 2011.
Castells, M. (2000). The rise of the networked society. In The information age: Economy, society and culture (2nd ed., Vol. 1). Cambridge, MA/Oxford: Blackwell.
Conole, G. (2008). Capturing practice, the role of mediating artefacts in learning design. In L. Lockyer, S. Bennett, S. Agostinhi, & B. Harper (Eds.), Handbook of learning designs and learning objects. Hershey: IGI Global.
Conole, G., & Alevizou, P. (2010). Review of the use(s) of Web 2.0 in Higher Education (HE Academy commissioned report). Available online at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/EvidenceNet/Conole_Alevizou_2010.pdf. Accessed 11 Aug 2011.
Conole, G., De Laat, M., Dillon, T., & Darby, J. (2008, February). ‘Disruptive technologies’, ‘pedagogical innovation’: What’s new? Findings from an in-depth study of students’ use and perception of technology. Computers in Education, 50(2), 511–524.
Cuban, L. (1986). Teachers and machines – The classroom use of technology since 1920. Amsterdam: Teachers Collage Press.
Dalziel, J. (2003, December 7–10). Implementing learning design: The learning activity management system (LAMS). ASCILITE Conference 2003, Adelaide.
Daniels, H., Cole, M., & Wertsch, J. V. (2007). The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
De Vaney, A., & Butler, R. P. (1996). Voices of the founders: Early discourses in educational technology. In D. H. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of research for educational communications and technology. London: Prentice Hall.
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. New York: Macmillan.
Dewey, J. (1933). The middle works, 1899–1924, in J. Boydston edited collection. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1976–1983.
Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Collier Books.
Dewey, J. (1949). Experience and existence in Boydston, J. edited collection, John Dewey the later works, 1949–1952 (Vol. 16). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Engeström, Y., Punamäki-Gitai, R. L., & Miettinen, R. (1999). Perspectives on activity theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Giddens, A. (1999). Runaway world: How globalisation is reshaping our lives. London: Profile.
Goodfellow, R., & Lea, M. (2007). Challenging e-learning in the university: A literacies perspective. Maidenhead/New York: McGraw-Hill/Society for Research into Higher Education, Open University Press.
Goodyear, P. (2005). Educational design and networked learning: Patterns, pattern languages and design practice. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 21(1), 82–101. Available online at www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet21/goodyear.html. Accessed 27 Jan 2007.
Grasser, A. C., Chipman, P. & King, B. G. (2008). Computer -mediated technologies. In J.M. Spector, M.D. Merrill, J. van Merrienbor and M.P. Driscoll (Eds), Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (3rd ed.) (pp 211-244). New York: Lawrence Erbaun Associates.
Hill, J. R., Hannafin, M. J., & Domizi, D. P. (2005). Resource-based learning and informal learning environments: Prospects and challenges. In L. Tan & R. Subramaniam (Eds.), E-learning and virtual science centres. Hershey: Information Science Publishing.
Januszewski, A. (1996). History of educational technology. In Proceedings of Selected Research and Development Presentations, at the 1996 National Convention of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, 18th Annual Conference, Indianapolis, IN.
Jenkins, H. (2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotma, R., Robison, A. J., & Weigel, M. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century (MacArthur commissioned report). Available online http://digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9C-E807E1B0AE4E%7D/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF. Accessed 11 Aug 2011.
Jones, C. (2011). Students, the net generation and digital natives: Accounting for educational change. In M. Thomas (Ed.), Deconstructing digital natives: Young people, technology, and the new literacies. Abingdon: Routledge.
Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2010). The teacher as designer: Pedagogy in the new media age. E-Learning and Digital Media, 7(3), 200–222.
Kennedy, G., Judd, T., Churchward, A., Gray, K., & Krause, K. (2008). First year students’ experiences with technology: Are they really digital natives? Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 24(1), 108–122.
Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2006). Digital literacies: Policy, pedagogy and research considerations for education. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 1(1), 226.
Laurillard, D., & Ljubojevic, D. (2011). Evaluating learning designs through the formal representation of pedagogical patterns. In C. Kohls & J. Wedekind (Eds.), Investigations of e-learning patterns: Contextual factors, problems and solutions. Hershey: IGI Global.
Lockyer, L., Bennett, S., Agostinho, S., & Harper, B. (2008). Handbook of research on learning design and learning objects. New York: Information Science Reference.
Mayes, T., & De Freitas, S. (2004). Review of e-learning frameworks, models and theories. JISC e-learning models desk study. Available online at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/Stage%202%20Learning%20Models%20(Version%201).pdf. Accessed 11 Aug 2011.
Molenda, M. (2008). Historical foundations. In M. J. Spector, M. D. Merrill, J. van Merrienboer, & M. P. Driscoll (Eds.), Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (pp. 3–20). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Available online at http://www.aect.org/edtech/edition3/ER5849x_C001.fm.pdf. Accessed 11 Aug 2011.
Oblinger, D. G., & Oblinger, J. L. (Eds.). (2005). Educating the net generation [Online]. An Educause ebook publication available at http://routes.open.ac.uk/ixbin/hixclient.exe?_IXDB_=routesand_IXSPFX_=gandsubmitbutton=summaryand%24+with+res_id+is+res19283. Accessed 11Aug 2011.
Prensky, M. (2001a). Digital natives, digital immigrants (Vol. 9, No. 5). On the Horizon. Lincoln: NCB University Press. Also available online at http://pre2005.flexiblelearning.net.au/projects/resources/Digital_Natives_Digital_Immigrants.pdf. Accessed 11 Aug 2011.
Prensky, M. (2001b). Digital natives, digital immigrants, Part II: Do they really think differently? (Vol. 9, No. 6). On the Horizon. Lincoln: NCB University Press. Also available online at http://www.acpinternational-dc.org/articles/digitalnatives2.pdf. Accessed 20 Dec 2010.
Reigeluth, C. M., & Carr-chellman, A. (2009). Instructional-design theories and models (Vol. III). New York: Routledge.
Reiser, R. A. (2001). The history of instructional design and technology: Part 1. A history of instructional media. ETRandD, 49(1), 53–64.
Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusions of innovation (4th ed.). New York: The free press.
Segal, D. (2008). Using computer-simulated case-based scenarios to improve learning. Educause. Available online at http://www.educause.edu/Resources/UsingComputerSimulatedCaseBase/162765. Accessed 11 Aug 2011.
Sharpe, R., Beetham, H., & De Freitas, S. (2010). Rethinking learning for the digital age: How learners shape their own experiences. London: Routledge.
Siemens, G. (2004, October 18). Categories of e-learning, blog post. Available online at http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/elearningcategories.htm. Accessed 11 Aug 2011.
Sims, R. (2005). Beyond instructional design: Making learning design a reality. Journal of Learning Design, 1(2), 1–9. Available online at http://www.jld.qut.edu.au/publications/vol1no2/documents/beyond%20instructional%20design.pdf. Accessed 11 Aug 2011.
Spector, M. J. (2008). Theoretical foundations. In M. J. Spector, M. D. Merrill, J. van Merrienboer, & M. P. Driscoll (Eds.), Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (pp. 21–27). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Tapscott, D. (1998a). Growing up digital: The rise of the net generation. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Tapscott, D. (1998b). The net generation and the school [online]. Milken Family Foundation. http://routes.open.ac.uk/ixbin/hixclient.exe?_IXDB_=routes%26_IXSPFX_=g%26submit-button=summary%26%24+with+res_id+is+res19300. Accessed 11 Aug 2011.
Tapscott, D. (1999). Educating the net generation. Educational Leadership, 56(5), 6–11.
Tapscott, D. (2008). Grown up digital: How the net generation is changing your world. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Tedman, R. A., Alexander, H., & Loudon, R. (2007). Problem-based learning in an e-learning environment – A case study at Griffith University School of Medicine. In L. Jain, R. Tedman, & D. Tedman (Eds.), Evolution of teaching and learning paradigms in intelligent environment (pp. 31–46). Heidelberg: Springer.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society, the development of higher psychological processes. Oxford: Harvard University Press.
Wills, S., Leight, E., & Ip, A. (2010). The power of role-based e-learning. London: Routledge.
Acknowledgements
The ideas described in this book build on an established area of research, which I have been involved with over the past 10 years or so. In particular, it follows on from the development of a learning design toolkit, called DialogPlus,Footnote 8 as part of a NSF/JISC-funded project and more recently the OULDI work at the Open University.Footnote 9 In particular, I would like to acknowledge the contributions of this work from the following people: Andrew Brasher, Simon Cross, Paul Clark, Juliette Culver, Nick Freear, Richard Lovelace, Rebecca Galley and Paul Mundin. Aspects of the work described here are related to the Design-Practice, OLnet and OPAL projects; it has been a pleasure working with colleagues on these, both across the UK and Europe. I would also like to thank colleagues who provided comments on the draft chapters on Cloudworks and Dropbox. There are too many people to name individually, but at the risk of offending anyone, particular thanks to Alejandro Armellina, Rory Browne, Simos Retalis, Martin Weller and Sandra Wills. Funding for this work is gratefully acknowledged from the JISC/NSF digital libraries programme, OU strategic funding, the JISC Curriculum Design programme and the EU Commission.
Aspects of the work have been published in chapters and journal articles, but this book provides a synthesis of the work to date and provides a clear position/‘take’ on the field. In addition, it aligns this work alongside related learning design research and more broadly research in closely aligned areas (such as instructional design, the learning sciences, pedagogical patterns and OER research). The aim of the book is to provide a synthesis and coherent overview of learning design as a research area, within an educational context that is technologically rich and increasingly open. The learning design approach described aims to enable teachers to create pedagogically effective learning interventions for their learners, which make innovative and appropriate use of technologies, with the ultimate aim of enhancing the learner experience.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Conole, G. (2012). Introduction. In: Designing for Learning in an Open World. Explorations in the Learning Sciences, Instructional Systems and Performance Technologies, vol 4. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8517-0_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8517-0_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-8516-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-8517-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)