Week 18 Activity a1: The challenge for educational institutions

The challenge for educational institutions

Weller (2009) ‘Using learning environments as a metaphor for educational change’, in On the Horizon

In this article Weller suggests that the use of Learning Management Systems (LMS) is an old fashioned way to use very new technology. The uptake of new technologies is organic and built on the perceptions of old techniques- thus LMS are built which represent standard formal red brick university structures. With the advent of Web 2.0 technologies this is a fundamental problem. Web 2.0 technologies mean the way information is generated is fundamentally different from these traditional approache, it has become more democratic, participatory and user driven (bottom up). One way of overcoming this is for universities to provide only the tools for participation, but allow students to control the outcomes. The Open University iniative Social Learn http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/sociallearn/ was used as an example of a new paragidm shift in pedogogy where the students are in control of their own learning outcomes and learn in an undirected way throuhg collobration with their peers. BUT how can students who learn in this way prove they have the knowlegde if they are applying for a job, etc?. And where is the accountability?

In this course H800 the use of meta-blogs and wikis has been one way in which information and learning has been sourced from the bottom up. However because this has been directed by the course content, even these tools are not really bottom-up iniatives. Students feel inclined to use the meta-blogs and the wikis because they are directed to do so. Perhaps a better example is the H800 cafe forums which are to a large extent self regulated by the students (unlike the tutor group forums which are regulated by the tutor.

But even this is not really bottom-up learning as the fundamental theme of H800 is that of participation. You must participate. This is the fundamental problem of Wellers article, the asumption that students want to participate and are confident to do so. I would argue this is not the case- some students would just prefer to read a book on their own. By making the assumption that it is preferable to participate it could lead to the situation where students have to participate...

Key quotes

'The conclusion from this analysis is that there is a conflict between the centralised learning management system (LMS) and the requirements of online pedagogy. The traditional LMS can be seen as embodying the wrong metaphor, that of the traditional classroom.'

'It has often been noted that when a new technology arrives we tend to use it in old ways (eg Twigg 2001), before we begin to understand what it really offers'

This true of Facebok for instance which started out just as a 'fun' website for university networking. Another example would also be twitter. These were grown from 'below' in the sense that the increase in each media's users, meant the media became more important. Only much later corporations would use this social media as a tool to promote their products. You can also see many instances in history where this has occurred; for instance the mplications of the printing press was not realised until the Guttenburg bible- some may say it has not been fully realised yet. Also some cultures do not see the potential of new technology. China invented gun powder but used it for only fireworks.  Weller also uses the example of the TV intially being considered the 'radio with pictures'. 'This is a sensible way to proceed, since the uptake of technology is rarely a revolution, and more of an evolutionary approach'.


Yet the process is not always so natural a process.

Heppell (2001) argues that “we continually make the error of subjugating technology to our present practice rather than allowing it to free us from the tyranny of past mistakes".

In elearning terms, current LMSs can be seen as the embodiment in code of the

physical structures of learning'."

So if the new technologies are used in an old fashioned way based on principles set in physicalk school environments this means the potential full spectrum  uses of this technology is not realised. These include:

Increase of curriculum. Traditional red-brick educational institutions have overheads to pay and are confined to a geographical location. Therefore, they have a bums on seats policy which means they cannot introduce niche subjects for fear of there unpopularity. Funnily enough the Open University, which has over 200,000 students does not introduce niche subjects!

Personalisation of in the choices of tools you use to learn. Still students follow age old techniques as universities seek enculturation of students into their higher education community,

Meeting changing demands: for instance an e-skills report for the European Union (COM 2007) suggests that conventional higher education is failing to meet the needs of the workforce

Availability of informal learning.