(Open)Textbooks, Educational Content & Knowledge

Norm Friesen &Irwin DeVries

Overview• What is educational content?• Challenges in thinking about educational

content• Textbooks and content: – Content structures and dynamics in textbooks– Series, Hierarchy, Network/CORE Cycle– Other design issues

• Two Examples: Elsevier versus Wikibooks

Content

"We learn anywhere, anytime, anyplace; there are opportunities to learn all around us everyday. We learn in the home, office, on the road. Likewise, educational content can be shaped to fit all kinds of useful delivery media that is convenient, user-friendly, and (most important) serves the educational need of members without the content being shortchanged or trivialized." Smith, J.(2001)

Constructivism

• Emphasize knowledge construction, not reproduction

• Providing complex learning environments that incorporate authentic (scientific) activity. 

• Support multiple perspectives and the use of multiple modes of representation.

• Case-based/problem-based learning• Represent the natural complexity of the

real world

Chambliss & Calfee Textbooks for Learning

• “textbooks come in layers, something like an onion. The entire book, the outer husk, as signaled in the table of contents seldom receives the attention it deserves.”

• How are the layers of the textbook constituted and combined?

• Through structures on the level of sections and rhetoric (“rhetorical patterns”)

How is this done?

• Connect: examples, relevant images, aesthetics, questions

• Organize: design - column(s), page, section, chapter, table(s) of contents; rhetoric: structures covered above

• Reflect: exercises, discussion, references and reviews, questions

• Extend: examples, exercises, questions

Conceptual Development

• First to Last

• Least to Most Important

• Known to Unknown

• Cause and Effect

• General and Specific Instances

• Problem and Solution

• Whole to Parts

• Concept to Description

• Similarities and Differences

• Spatial ordering

http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/explodedviews/280z/exploded%20l28.gif

http://www.scienceclarified.com/everyday/images/scet_01_img0015.jpg

http://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0014579305000104-gr1.jpg

These can all be combined:How many Dimensions are there?

Sample (e)Textbook features

• Instructor tools– Instructor support side– Presentation slides– Class outlines– Extended resources– LMS-like tools– Customization

• Learner tools– Discussion questions– Extended learning support– Exam prep– Flash cards– Mobile access– CD ROMs– Search– Note-taking– Highlighting– Bookmarking

Traditional textbookdevelopment processes

• Multiple authors• Editors/proofreaders• Media specialists• Art department• Designers• Reviewers• Production/technical• Copyright specialists

“Psychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior. Psych-ology also refers to the application of such knowledge to various spheres of human activity, including relating to individuals’ daily lives and the treatment of mental illness.”“Psychology differs from the other social sciences — anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology — in that psychology seeks to explain the mental processes and behavior of individuals.

Pedagogical Knowledge

Exhibits a number of characteristics distinguishing it from scientific knowledge. As a rule it ...•only looks at a part of the whole•(radically) simplifies this knowledge•integrates it into a logical-seeming context•avoids contradictions and exceptions•makes knowledge appealing by means of various tools (slides, films, experiments, murals)•is taught with maximum efficiency