Networked Learning Weaving connections between analysis, design - - PDF document

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Networked Learning Weaving connections between analysis, design and research Peter Goodyear

QUT HERN Symposium Nov 17 2015

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Networked learning and learning networks

Email for teachers involved in joint replanning of maths curriculum and assessment tasks (1986) MSc in IT and Learning (1989 onwards) email & computer conference via dial-up; 5 x intensive residential weeks (ie “blended”) JITOL project (1991-4) CMC/Groupware for continuing professional development, building and sustaining distributed communities of practice SHARP project (1997-99) “Shareable representations of practice” Making and sharing videoclips of working practices; discussion through annotation

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Starting out ...

Peter Goodyear (1981) A geographical perspective on the study of relative deprivation, Unpub. D.Phil. thesis, New University of Ulster

Goodyear, P. (1978) Relative deprivation and conflict in N. Ireland, invited paper, Conference on Radical Approaches to Irish Geography, University College Dublin, Ireland, July

Eddie Moxon-Browne (1983) Nation, class and creed in Northern Ireland, Gower

Goodyear, P. (1981) Quantitative methods and the ideology of social control, Annual Conference, British Educational Research Association, Alsager, Sept. Goodyear, P. (1981) Computer applications in social science teaching, Annual Conference, British Educational Research Association, Alsager, Sept.

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Pathway - 1984 and after ... (http://www.computinghistory.org.uk)

1984 1991 1996 2002 2004 2010 2014 2013 2016 2010

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NO# YES# YES# Pure#basic#research# (Niels#Bohr)# Use7inspired#basic# research## (Louis#Pasteur)# NO# ‘Bird#spo>ng’# (Gilbert#White)# Pure#applied#research# (Thomas#Edison)#

ConsideraFons#of#use#(pracFcal#applicaFon#etc)?# # Quest#for# fundamental# understanding#

(theoreFcal/#scienFfic# advances,#etc)?#

#

Research#in#‘Pasteur’s#Quadrant’#(Stokes,#1997)#

Alan#Schoenfeld#

(AERA#PresidenFal#Address#1999)#

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Improving the quality of educational research (in Pasteur’s Quadrant)

Quality## (fitness#for#purpose)# ConsideraFons#of#use#(pracFcal#applicaFon#etc)?# # Quest#for# fundamental# understanding#

(theoreFcal/#scienFfic# advances,#etc)?#

#

Considering how research-based knowledge becomes actionable

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Unpacking ‘quality’: who is educational research for?

Considera*ons+of+use+(pracFcal#applicaFon#etc)?#

#

Use#by#whom?# For#what#purposes?# How#do#they#work?# What#kinds#of#knowledge#can#make#a#difference#to#their#work?# # Quest+for+fundamental+understanding+(theoreFcal/#scienFfic#advances,#etc)?#

#

What#needs#explaining?# What#does#an#adequate#explanaFon#look#like?# What#kinds#of#facts,#principles,#models,#theories,#etc##are# suitable#for#our#domain(s)#of#study?# #

Lack%of%a(en+on%to%these%issues% has%undermined%general% percep+ons%of%the%usefulness%of% educa+onal%research%

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Use#by#whom?# # For#what#purposes?# # How#do#they#work?# # # What#kinds#

• f##

knowledge+# can#make#a## difference# #to#their# work?#

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Use#by#whom?# # For#what#purposes?# # How#do#they#work?# # # What#kinds#

• f##

knowledge+# can#make#a## difference# #to#their# work?#

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Use#by#whom?# # For#what#purposes?# # How#do#they#work?# # # What#kinds#

• f##

knowledge+# can#make#a## difference# #to#their# work?#

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Designerly Ways of Knowing

Use#by#whom?# # For#what#purposes?# # How#do#they#work?# # # What#kinds#of## knowledge+# can#make#a## difference# #to#their#work?#

Design Design Practice Designers

Design for Learning

Goodyear, P. (2015). Teaching as design. HERDSA Review of Higher Education, 2. http://www.herdsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/HERDSARHE2015v02p27.pdf

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The+Science+of+Design+(Cross,+2006)+

The ‘science of design’ is the systematic study of design – its goal is to study how people design, what they design, and what knowledge is drawn upon during design work. Cross identifies three broad sub-fields in the science of design:

• design phenomenology (the study of the form and

configuration of artefacts).

• design praxiology (the study of the practices and processes
• f design),
• design epistemology (the study of ‘designerly ways of

knowing’)

Cross, N. (2006) Designerly ways of knowing, Berlin, Springer.

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Design+phenomenology+

(the form and configuration of artefacts) Designer Designed artefact(s) User/Learner

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Design+praxiology+

Different from general problem-solving or simple choice

• involves both problem-formulation and problem-solving, using

early candidate solutions to help achieve a better understanding of needs

• ften involves reframing the presented problem, seeing it as an

instance or a symptom of some larger problem

• ften involves reconciling competing forces, rather than
• ptimising on a single goal

Some work on design for learning blurs the distinctions between (a) that which has been designed and (b) the activities in which people engage, through which they learn

In medias res: reframing design for learning Peter Goodyear and Yannis Dimitriadis

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Design+epistemology+

Epistemic+fluency+in#design## …#architecture#has#someFmes#found#ways#of#ge>ng#on#with#the#job#when# educaFon#freezes#in#the#headlights#of#epistemological#or#moral#uncertainty.# EducaFonalists#talk#about#the#dangers#of#combining#contradictory# epistemological#posiFons#…##while#architects#combine#ideas#from#mechanics,#

• pFcs,#acousFcs,#economics,#aestheFcs,#human#biology,#social#psychology#and#

history.#They#can#combine#mathemaFcs#and#astrology#without#blushing.#They# build#terrible#buildings#and#some#great#ones.#They#someFmes#ignore#crucial# human#needs#and#wants,#but#the#best#of#them#do#tend#to#show#an# understanding#of#human#nature#and#its#relaFonship#to#the#material#world#that# is#subtle#and#profound.##

Knowledge: of how a specific (learning network) functions

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Researching+the+work+of+teams+engaged+in+design+for+ learning+

praxiology+phenomonology+epistemology

Extracting reusable design ideas (eg analysing learning networks) Supporting design processes (eg empirical studies of designers)

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Outcomes# Ac*vity# People# Tools,+artefacts# Tasks+

Ac*vityKcentered+analysis+and+design+(ACAD)+

Ac*vity+as+emergent+&+situated;+design+as+indirect; + + students+coKconfiguring+epistemic,+physical+&+social +

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Outcomes# Ac*vity# People# Tools,+artefacts# Tasks+

Mapping+familiar+HE+research+topics+to+this+framework+

The#nature#of#valued# learning#outcomes# Reliable#links#between# acFviFes#and#

• utcomes#

Factors#affecFng#the# translaFon#of#tasks# into#acFviFes#(deep,# surface#&#strategic# learning…)# The#ergonomics#of# learning#environments# Effects#of#grouping# strategies;#CoP7based# approaches#

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From networked learning as an educational approach to learning networks as complex objects of study

• NL as learning with/through others; (much) interaction through

(digital) communications media

• Learning network as a stable instance of NL (stable enough to

warrant/allow analysis)

• Personal LNs are a subclass of LNs: but not our focus
• Not just the people but also the tools & other artefacts,

practices, tasks-activities, roles, divisions of labour etc: heterogeneous; complex situated activity; connections

• Designed and emergent: alive

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The physical: artefacts, tools, places etc

Physical: material and digital and hybrids (accelerating interpenetration of the material and digital) The materialist turn isn’t yet very good at the digital, or even at materials per se Artefacts, tasks, users & practices co-evolve Analysis needs to be able to deal with single artefacts and complex assemblages (ecologies of things; meshworks etc) Analysis needs to inform the creation of representations that design teams (teachers:designers:analysts) can use to make sense of a complex system/network and commit to action to improve it.

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Analytical Framework: focus on physical (today)

(Emergent) Activity Tasks Artifacts, tools, texts, etc Dyads, groups, teams; roles; divisions of labor

Physically Situated Socially Situated

Outcomes

(Goodyear & Carvalho, 2014, p. 59)

Epistemically Situated

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(Emergent) Activity Tasks Artifacts, tools, texts, etc Dyads, groups, teams; roles; divisions of labor

Physically Situated Socially Situated

Outcomes

(Goodyear & Carvalho, 2014, p. 59)

Goal-directed action (intentions formed in the mind precede and direct selection of tools, actions etc) Embodied cognition, extended mind, intermingling of mind-body-world (tool-using action brings forth intention)

Analytical Framework: focus on physical (today)

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Analytical Framework

Metaphors for learning

Learning to participate involves understanding the properties of tools (etc); incorporating them into your activities (instrumental genesis); using them to create new tools

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Networked learning comes naturally

– “Human-machine symbiosis, I believe, is simply what comes naturally. It lies on a direct continuum with clothes, cooking (‘external, artificial digestion’), bricklaying and writing. The capacity to creatively distribute labour across biology and the designed environment is the very signature of our species, and it implies no real loss of control on our part. For who we are is in large part a function of the webs of surrounding structure in which the conscious mind exercises at best a kind of gentle, indirect control. ”

– (Andy Clark, 2003, p174, emphasis added)

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#1: Affordance, scaffolds and cognitive load

– Affordance – what the environment offers the animal – Directly perceived; not dependent on mental processing

“the terms ‘afford’ and ‘affordance’ are lazy terms … these terms merely paper over deep cracks in our understanding … of why, given the extraordinary interpretive capabilities of humans, anything affords any one interpretation better than any other … something hidden and mysterious is going on whenever the terms ‘afford’ and ‘affordance’ make their appearance” Harry Collins (2010, 36) Tacit and explicit knowledge. Crafting of affordances Design for interpretive work Primary, ‘fast’, system 1 X Secondary, ‘slow’, system 2 X

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#2: Affordance as relational

Case: Leading Curriculum Change (Ch6)

Title Title Title Title Title Title Title Title Title Title Title Title Home page for module selection

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#3 Materiality of boundary objects

– Case: Leading Curriculum Change (Ch6)

H T

Online course/project site (professional learning site) School site (workplace/application site)

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#4 Scale: the learning network as city not classroom

Ana Pinto, AlphaPlus

Imagining design for learning at the scale of a museum, gallery, campus rather than a virtual classroom or course module or collaboration tool

• r single screen

Insights from geography, urban studies, environmental psychology

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Analysis for design

A key aim, underpinning such work, is to move beyond simplistic understandings about how to improve learning as just a case of implementing better technologies or innovative learning spaces. By getting under the surface of the multiple spaces of different participants (both human and non-human) as they enact the everyday social and material practices of learning and subject, I suggest that we can produce much more detailed and sophisticated understandings of how we learn, and that we can take better account of the complexities of our everyday entanglements across both conceptual spaces and actual – situated – places. (Jos Boys, 2016)

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But how is this different from?

Action Research

– The significance given to constructing shared representations of complex systems/networks as resources for joint decision making – Soft Systems Methodology – The focus on design as the core way of moving forward

Design-Based Research (DBR)

– Explanatory focus is on how the local system/network functions not contributions to general learning theory – DBR isn’t very interested in design

Formative Evaluation

– especially utilisation-focussed, theory-based evaluation

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I don’t want to be critical, but ...

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Key points

– Learning networks as objects of inquiry; analysis for design: looking for reusable design ideas; architectural arrangements not standalone pieces – Activity-centric analysis: distinguishing between designable and emergent elements (activity as emergent & key; design as indirect) – Connecting constructs: what constructs can be used to provide the design logic linking physical entities to activity? Affordance? Plus what? – Consider the way we are framing both learning activity and the physical ‘stuff’ – Take-away: most of what we care about in NL involves entanglements of brains, bodies & things and we can’t understand this very well if we ignore the peculiar qualities of things and of people: – materials (not just materiality & abstraction) brain science, grounded cognition (not just minds & introspection)

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Further Information

http://petergoodyear.net peter.goodyear@sydney.edu.au @petergoodyear