3 Generations of Distance Education Pedagogy Terry Anderson & Jon Dron 2011

Presented by Rose Wauchope & Cinzia Cursaro

Introduction

Distance education – educating OUTSIDE the classroom

Anderson and Dron explore distance education systems as they have evolved over three eras of educational, social and psychological development.

Each era developed distinct pedagogies, technologies, learning activities, and assessment criteria that reflected the time in which they developed. (p 81)

Distance Education theorists (Garrison, 1995; Nipper, 1989) Cited in (Anderson and Dron 2011), describe and define distance education by the predominate technologies employed for delivery.

Technology sets the beat and the timing.

The pedagogy defines the moves. (p 81)

COI – Community of Inquiry Model

COI – Community of Inquiry model of analytical structure (COI) model (Arbaugh, 2008; Garrison, 2009; Garrison, Archer, & Anderson, 2003) Cited in (Anderson and Dron 2011, p 81)

This model examines the three pedagogies of distance education using:

• Teaching presence – availability and interaction with the student

• Cognitive presence - the means and context through which learners construct and confirm new knowledge

• Social presence – Engagement with participants

Three Generations of Distance Education Pedagogy

Three different generations of Distance Education pedagogy

1) Cognitive - Behaviourist – latter half 20th century

2) Social Constructivist –latter 20th early 21st century

3) Connectivist-currentAnderson and Dron state that none of these generations are eliminated, rather all 3 models of Distance Education pedagogy are in existence today. (p81)

GENERATION ONE The Cognitive-Behaviourist Pedagogy of Distance Education

Cognitive and behaviourist pedagogies focus on how learning was defined, practiced and researched in latter half of 20th century

Behavioural Learning Theory: new behaviours, or changes in behaviour that are acquired as a result of an individual’s response to stimuli. Focus on individual learner and measurement. Skinner (rats), Thorndike and Watson (p 82)

Cognitive pedagogy emerged out of Behaviourist Learning theory to account for motivation, attitudes and mental barriers (Miller 2003) Cited in (Anderson and Dron 2011, p82)

Cognitive models were based on a growing understanding of the functions and operations of the brain, particularly the ways in which computer models were used to describe and test learning and thinking (p 82)

GENERATION ONE The Cognitive-Behaviourist Pedagogy of Distance Education

The CB model is teacher or instructionally designed

Formalized teacher guided instruction, teacher led and controlled – little interactivity

Isolated learning, this pedagogy was only based on the content delivered, it did not take into account the learner context

Examples of technologies used in Generation one Distance Education Pedagogy

print packages, mass media (radio, television) and postal correspondence

Cognitive-Behaviourist models are theories of teaching

GENERATION ONECognitive presence in Cognitive-Behaviourist Model

Focus on the importance of using an instructional systems design model where learning objectives are clearly identified and stated.

Tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em

Tell ‘em

Then tell ‘em what you told ‘em

‘Later developments in cognitive theory have attempted to design learning materials in ways that maximized brain efficiency and effectiveness by attending to the types, ordering, timing, and nature of learning stimulations’ (Anderson and Dron 2011, p83)

GENERATION ONESocial Presence in Cognitive-Behaviourist Models

Cognitive Behaviourist era was completely defined by isolated learning – learning was thought of as an individual process

Individual learning resulted in high levels of student freedom and learning pace and worked well with technologies available at the time

GENERATION ONETeaching Presence in Cognitive-Behaviourist Models

Teacher is removed because they are not in the classroom with the student learning

The learning experience is teacher driven and guided – isolated from student

Content is completely externally prescribed – very little interaction between teacher and student

Teacher presence is only felt through text or recorded sound (p 83)

GENERATION TWO Social-Constructivist Pedagogy of Distance Education

Social constructivist pedagogies, developed in conjunction with the development of two-way communication technologies.

The Constructivist model sprang from the work of Vygotsky and Dewey before it was largely developed by Piaget and Papert (p 84)

Technology became widely used to create synchronous and asynchronous learning, instead of just transmitting information

Social-constructivist pedagogy acknowledges the social nature of knowledge creation in the minds of individual learners (p 84)

Each learner constructs new knowledge by integrating and building on their prior knowledge

Learning environment is learner-centred and stresses the importance of group work

GENERATION TWO Social-Constructivist Pedagogy of Distance Education

The improvement of technologies that connected “many-to-many” enhanced Social-constructivists models. (p 85)

Enabled greater use of social-constructivist pedagogy in DE.

Success of Generation Two DE pedagogies depended on the widespread availability of the internet / supporting technologies

Examples of technologies used in Generation Two Distance Education Pedagogy

world wide web, mobile technologies, email, skype, facebook, instagram, twitter etc,

Social-Constructivist models are theories of learning

GENERATION TWO Cognitive presence in Social-Constructivist Pedagogy

Cognitive presence in social constructivist pedagogy resonates with DE, much of which takes place in the workplace and other real-world contexts outside of formal classrooms (p 85)

Learners are actively engaged

Learning on the job – role modelling and imitation

This rich student, and student-teacher interaction constituted a new era – new learning environment

GENERATION TWO Social presence in Social-Constructivist Model

Social interaction is a defining feature of constructivist pedagogy

Requires motivation, feedback and alternative viewpoints

Active and collaborative learning

‘It is likely, as learners become more acclimatized and skilled in using ever-present mobile communications and embedded technologies, that barriers associated with a lack of social presence will be further reduced, allowing constructivist models to thrive.’ (p 86)

GENERATION TWO Teacher presence in Social-Constructivist Model

‘The educator is a guide, helper, and partner where the content is secondary to the learning process; the source of knowledge lies primarily in experiences.” (Kanuka and Anderson (1999) Cited in (Anderson and Dron 2011, p 86)

Teacher provides on-going guidance and interventions

Teacher sets content and enriches the educational experience by choosing the learning environment

‘Teaching presence in constructivist pedagogical models focuses on guiding and evaluating authentic tasks performed in realistic contexts.’ (p 86)

GENERATION THREE Connectivist Pedagogy of Distance Education

The third Generation of distance education introduced interactive technologies – audio, text and web and immersive conferencing. Siemens, Downes and Castells are the main contributors of this pedagogy

Connectivist pedagogy assumes that information is plentiful and that the learner’s role is not to memorize or even understand everything, but to have the capacity to find and apply knowledge when and where it is needed. (p 87)

‘learning may reside in non-human appliance’ (Siemens’ 2005) Cited in (Anderson and Dron, 2011, p 87)

Connectivist pedagogy was developed in the information age of a networked era (Castells, 1996) Cited in (Anderson and Dron, 2011, p 87)

Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning

GENERATION THREE Connectivist Pedagogy of Distance Education

The ability to see connections between fields, ideas and concepts is a core skill Currency (accurate, up-to date knowledge) is the objective of all connectivist

learning activities Connectivist models rely on networked connections between people, digital artifacts

and content which would have been inconceivable pre the internet(p87) Is enhanced by the focus on reflection and sharing of these reflections in blogs,

twitter posts and webcasts (p88) Moves beyond CB and SC pedagogy Examples of technologies used in Generation Three Distance Education Pedagogy

Blogs, Social media, voiceThread, wiki, web conferencing – Webnair, MoodleMoocs (Massive online Open Courses) Interactive user forums

Connectivist models are distinctly models of knowledge

GENERATION THREE Cognitive presence in Connectivist Model

Assumes that learners can access networks and are able to use these networks to complete tasks

Connectivist learning happens best in network contexts, as opposed to individual or group contexts (Dron & Anderson, 2007) Cited in (Anderson and Dron, 2011, p 87)

Members interact and filter information for relevance and contribute in order to improve their knowledge, creation and retrieval skills – results in creating their own networks = increased social capital (p87)

GENERATION THREE Social presence in Connectivist Model

Is only successful through the development of social presence and social capital and network creation

Others are able to observe, comment and contribute

“The activities, choices, and artefacts left by previous users are mined through network analytics and presented as guideposts and paths to knowledge that new users can follow” (Dron, 2006) Cited in (Anderson and Dron, 2011, p 88)

GENERATION THREE Teacher presence in Connectivist Model

‘Unlike earlier pedagogies, the teacher is not solely responsible for defining, generating, or assigning content. Rather, learners and teacher collaborate to create the content of study, and in the process re-create that content for future use by others.’ (p 88)

Assessment combines self-reflection with teacher assessment of the contributions to the current and future courses.

Teaching presence in connectivist learning environments also focuses on teaching by example.

Teachers, who often struggle with IT are challenged by rapidly changing technologies, so connectivist learning includes learners teaching teachers and each other. (p 89)

Group Activities

Group 1

Riccardo

Brendan

Yox

Bronwyn

Catherine

Group 2

Tara

Jan

Ian

Karen

Joyanne

Michael

Group 3

Daina

Taresa

Jess

Andrew

Kate

GENERATION ONE GENERATION TWO GENERATION THREE

Group Discussion Questions….

What are the strengths and weaknesses of each generation?

Do you use any of these pedagogies in your teaching today?

What will we see develop in future generations of distance education?

Strengths and Weaknesses of the models

Future Generations of Distance Education

The nature and mode of communications although more refined will not change much with emerging technologies

Our networks will become more varied and specialized

Connectivist approach must become more intelligent and this will come from: data mining and analytics, and from the CROWD itself

It will move towards more object-based contextual and activity based models of learning

Many-to many communication with a more targeted audience (collectives) who can then respond directly back to us

‘The PageRank algorithm behind Google takes multiple intelligent choices and combines them to provide ranked search results (Brin & Page, 2000)

Wikipedia includes many crowd-based or collective elements to help others guide our learning (p91)

Next generation of DE pedagogy will be enabled by technologies that make effective use of collectives

Summary

Anderson and Dron conclude by stating,

‘… all three current and future generations of DE pedagogy have an important place in a well-rounded educational experience. Connectivism is built on an assumption of a constructivist model of learning, with the learner at the centre, connecting and constructing knowledge in a context that includes not only external networks and groups but also his or her own histories and predilections. At a small scale, both constructivist and connectivist approaches almost always rely to a greater or lesser degree on the availability of the stuff of learning, much of which… is designed and organised on CB models…Cognitvist, behaviourist, constructivist, and connectivist theories each play an important role.’ (Anderson and Dron, 2011, 92)