Learning | doug woods

Posts Tagged ‘Learning’

Lesson Plans or Learning Plans?

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

: Image via Wikipedia

In a previous post I mentioned the opportunity I had to observe a group of teachers doing team planning. As well as the observations I noted in that post, there was a further observation that I want to talk about in this post. It appeared to me that most of the teachers taking part in the team planning exercise were essentially still creating what I’d regard as an old style lesson plan. That is to say, it was to be a lesson that was to be delivered by the teacher and the planning focused more on what the teacher was going to do or what the teacher was going to get the pupils to do and what resources would be needed. The lesson, while not always a straightforward ‘sage on the stage’ approach, was certainly one that emphasised teacher direction or teacher facilitation, focused more on the teaching rather than the learning or the learner.

This type of planning was very familiar and would have been easily recognisable to a teacher 10, 20, even 30 years ago, it was only the resources available which were different; the approaches were much the same. This led me to wonder how might we change lesson planning to be more reflective of modern learning approaches?

It seems to me that the plan could be less about the structure of the lesson and more about the learning. I know they are called ‘lesson’ plans and in the past they have tended to describe the content of the lesson. Nowadays, though learning doesn’t just take place in the lesson; it can extend into the home and via out of school activities. There are also a wide range of informal learning opportunities which a learner can bring to contribute to their learning. So there is no need now for our planning to be restricted to a traditional lesson structure.

I know some people will argue, quite correctly, that we have always given homework to learners, where appropriate, to supplement their learning in school. However, the concept of ‘homework’ is quite dated now. It would be wrong, perhaps, to continue to think in terms of schoolwork and homework. It would be better to think simply in terms of ‘learning’ and what formal learning that takes place at home is an integral part of the ‘school’ work that takes place also in school.

So instead of presenting the learners with schoolwork in a lesson and then giving them homework to be done afterwards at home, a teacher would present learners with, say, an area or topic for study. A lesson or a series of lessons would be made available for the learners to study this in school, supported by the teacher, a range of resources and the face to face guidance of the teacher. In addition to these school sessions, a learner would be required to continue or extend their studies outside lessons, bringing in any experiences, resources available to them together with outcomes from any informal learning they may feel is relevant.

So Learning Plans would contain more than just plans for a lesson, they would seek to set out a number and range of ways in which learners could explore a subject area. Each of these ways would be designed to ensure the learner encounters particular objectives. Each of the ways could incorporate a different learning style, so as to appeal to different learners. There could even be discussion between teacher and learner as to what particular types of activities they would like the chance to explore.

In a way, I guess you could see a learning plan a bit like a treasure map but with different routes to the treasure, or maybe even several different treasure locations.

Developing independent young learners through learning how to learn (slideshare.net)
Diverse Children’s Learning Styles And Activities (brighthub.com)
Creating and Using a Learning Styles Chart (brighthub.com)
Lesson Plans Integrating Differentiation (brighthub.com)
Designing Informal Learning (elearningstuff.wordpress.com)
Learning Score, a lesson-planning tool. [Review] (dougbelshaw.com)

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Tags: Education, Educators, K through 12, Learning, Learning styles, Lesson, Lesson plan, Teacher
Posted in Transforming Learning | 2 Comments »

The Push and Pull Models of Education

Monday, December 19th, 2011

photo credit: squant

I think it would be fair to say that most of the education delivered to pupils in schools during the last couple of centuries has followed a ‘push’ model of delivery. That is to say that what is taught to pupils and the way(s) in which it is taught has been determined by a central body, usually the school, the teacher, perhaps the local authority or district or the central government.

That is not to say that there have not been elements of a ‘pull’ method of delivery; where the learner has the decision what they want to learn and, maybe, how they want to learn it. Such a system, though, has probably only been evident in Higher Education, where potential students have had the opportunity to decide which institution they wish to attend and base that decision upon which subject(s) are offered by the institutions.

It would be quite foolish to suggest that 20th century education was all ‘push’ and that 21st century education will be all ‘pull’ in design and delivery. Nevertheless, I do feel we shall see more of the ‘pull’ style entering our school systems in the coming years. I feel that schools would be foolish not to prepare for this; failing to do so will only lead to a reduction in enrolment numbers and the possible closure of schools.

So, to allow for a ‘pull’ system in which learners choose what they wish to learn, where and when they wish to learn and the method of learning, schools need to become adaptable and technology will be an important tool in this. Delivery of learning will not merely be in the classrooms but also via online and mobile delivery. It is quite possible that learners will no longer be enrolled only in one institution but will be able to join a number of institutions to study different subjects. Distance learning and non-timebased learning will become much more important.

Schools should also consider that they can now use technology to attract distance learners from other countries, well beyond their traditional locality or catchment areas. In order to do this, the technology needs to be in place and staff have to be prepared fully to utilise it.

So, if I say that there is likely to be more ‘pull’ in the delivery of education in the 21st Century, what implications does that have for teachers? Well, it does suggest that teachers will need to become more savvy in their use of technology, it may also mean that they have to present their subject in new ways to help make themselves stand out from other teachers. Rather than the use of technology, though, or the choice of pedagogy, perhaps the biggest hurdle for current teachers would be the idea of marketing themselves and their approach to potential learners.

We have already started to see the emergence of ‘super teachers’ in some parts of the world, though this may just be one ‘extreme’ form of marketing for teachers. We see certain ‘star’ teachers presenting their lessons on websites such as educator.com or thinkwell.com . Again, many teachers may feel uncomfortable with this type of approach but, I feel, this could be the future direction. Even Sal Khan of Khan Academy has become well known as an educator and, to the best of my knowledge, he is not a fully qualified teacher.

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Tags: Education, eLearning, Learning, Salman Khan, Technology
Posted in elearning | 2 Comments »

Do Learners want Teachers?

Monday, December 12th, 2011

: Image via Wikipedia

Do Learners want Teachers?

It seems a strange question, doesn’t it, but do learners want teachers?

Over recent years there has been a shift in emphasis away from teaching and teachers toward learning and learners. This has been to such an extent that even a major quango spent thousands changing one of its departments from Teaching and Learning to Learning and Teaching.

I will say, though, that I think the change in emphasis is justified; learning is more important than teaching.

A teacher in a school can teach and teach as much as they can but if the people they are teaching do not learn, then the teacher has been wasting time; the role of the teacher is to enable and ensure that learning takes place. Of course, any and every teacher knows this and also knows different strategies and approaches to facilitate learning. At the end of the day, a school is judged on how/what the learners have learnt (or parts of what they have learned) rather than on what teaching took place.

Increasingly, we hear people say that the learner is responsible for their learning and that the role of the teacher is to guide the learner through their learning. The teacher standing in front of the class is something that is frowned upon nowadays, rather the teacher should be at the side of the learner to give support and direction; this is the ‘sage on the stage’ versus ‘the guide at the side’ argument.

While we can accept that the role of the teacher is changing, that learning is now seen as more important than teaching and that the learner now has responsibility for their learning, does this mean that teaching or the teacher are no longer valued?

I think not. It still seems that people want teaching and value good teachers. Let us consider an example; if you wanted to learn something completely new and, all things, such as price, being equal which approach might you choose? You could choose to learn from an online course, from text books or attend classes led by a teacher/tutor/facilitator.

Most people would appear to opt for an approach that involves a teacher over a completely self-learning approach. Even if the approach had just one session with a teacher, it would appear to be preferred over an approach that has no teaching element. It would seem, therefore, that learners do value being taught or, at least, having some teaching input.

Consider the training courses you have been on, though, and ask yourself what have been the most valuable parts of those courses. The chances are that you will say the most valuable parts have been those times when you have been allowed to trial, play, or explore for yourself. These have probably been the times when you have been able to learn what you have wanted to learn or to learn what appears most relevant to you or your work.

Other valuable parts may have occurred when you found yourself ‘lost’ or had made a mistake and called upon the teacher to help you fix the situation and to avoid it happening again.

How many of us, also, have been on a course that we initially thought would be a ‘waste of time’ only to have new light or new possibilities created because of the enthusiasm, passion or skill of the teacher?

So the value of having a teacher would appear to lie in having an expert on hand, in having someone to at least introduce an area of learning to us and in having someone open our eyes to new possibilities. So while it may be clear that the nature of teaching and the role of the teacher may be changing, it is also clear that teaching and good teachers are also highly valued.

Inspiring active learning with limited resources (guardian.co.uk)
Examples of Diverse Learning Styles (brighthub.com)
Reflections (gartmanbarryedm310.blogspot.com)
Fred Garnett on how to create new contexts for your own learning (alchemi.co.uk)

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Tags: Education, Educators, K through 12, Learning, Learning Theories, Methods and Theories, school, Teacher
Posted in Training INSET and CPD | 1 Comment »

The Purpose of Technology in Education is Not to Enhance, Extend or Support Teaching

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

Image by Scott Adams via Flickr

Thirty, Twenty, Ten, even perhaps five, years ago, if you had said to me that the purpose of technology in education is to enhance, extend or support teaching, then I would have said that that was a very perspicacious summary of the role of educational technology. Now, though, that view seems very old-fashioned and outdated.

In their early days, I would suspect that the role of chalk and blackboard would have been seen as enhancing teaching whereas when I was a pupil, they were seen as much more fundamental to teaching. The same may also be true for textbooks, at one time they may have been seen as enhancing teaching but by my time as a school pupil they were pretty much fundamental.

I would argue that the same is now true for technology, which was once regarded as an enhancement but which should nowadays be seen as fundamental to good educational practice.

I say it is fundamental for two reasons; firstly we have over 30 years of experience of using the technology, we have built up a great deal of insight and experience in using technology in a variety of ways. It is now commonplace and usual to see computers and other devices being used in our schools. As I have argued elsewhere in this blog, a good teacher who does not use technology is not a good teacher.

Secondly, there has been a subtle but fundamental shift in the way the use of technology is viewed in schools; in the past it has been regarded as a teaching resource ( a role it still fulfils) but in recent times it has become much more regarded as a learning resource. That is not just a play with semantics, it is a significant change; it means that technology is viewed more as a tool for pupils and students to capture, create and share their learning and experiences.

I have a third objection to the notion that the role of technology is still to enhance, extend or support teaching but this is one which is more difficult to express. If we accept that these three roles are the purpose of technology, then if the technology does not enhance, does not extend nor support teaching, then we have a reason for not using the technology. This then leads to teachers foolishly and narrowly planning or evaluating their use of technology based upon whether it meets one of these criteria or not. When planning a lesson, if the teacher does not know how the technology can be used to enhance, extend or support the lesson then they will not use it. Yet, this comes down to a lack of knowledge or experience on behalf of the teacher rather than a failing of the technology. It is often when they try to use technology or allow the pupils to use technology that the teacher learns how it can be used. Without that prior experience, experimentation and exploration, a teacher will often not know whether technology can be used. It is important that teachers are encouraged and supported to explore the uses of technology before they are allowed to reject it out of hand.

The world of education has moved on from where a single computer was the only piece of modern technology in the class. Nowadays we have to consider the world of e-learning, where learning is delivered online and the technology is not an enhancement or an extension but becomes a delivery system.

Okay, so this post risks becoming a bit of a rant but there are influential people in schools and in wider education who maintain that the role of technology is only to enhance, extend or support teaching and I sincerely believe that view is wrong and that it could hold back the future development of educational technology. To my mind, the future of educational technology lies not in regarding it as an add-on or enhancement but as being fundamental to education.

You Know You’re a 21st Century Educator When … (7 signs) (dougwoods.co.uk)
The Push and Pull Models of Education (dougwoods.co.uk)
The Future of Computer and Internet Use in Schools (education.com)
Tech and Teaching (leafturned.wordpress.com)
Adaptive Learning Technologies are the Future of Education (educationinnovation.typepad.com)
Education Technology; Teaching Tool or Learning Tool? [Douglas Woods] (ecademy.com)
How can new technology support teaching and learning? (joedale.typepad.com)
Effects of Technology on Classrooms and Students (maysayparn.wordpress.com)
21st Century Educating, Part 3: Innovation (azjd.wordpress.com)
How People Learn (and What Technology Might Have to Do With It) (education.com)

The Purpose of Technology in Education is Not to Enhance, Extend or Support Teaching

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Tags: Education, Educational technology, eLearning, K through 12, Learning, Technology
Posted in education, elearning | 8 Comments »

Lesson Capture : An Introduction for Teachers

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

photo credit: elliottcable

An Introduction to Lesson Capture

Lesson capture has been around for a wile, mainly in the US and in Higher Education, where it is known not surprisingly as Lecture Capture. I can see it becoming more widespread in schools, hence the change of term to Lesson Capture. The question I want to try to address in this article is, “What is lesson capture and why might one want to use it in school?”.

It is a question I want to try to answer more from a pedagogical viewpoint than a technical one but let me start by giving a simple technical explanation. Put simply, lesson capture is the recording of lessons by the teacher/department for pupils to later view to reinforce their learning.

So, essentially, we’re talking about videoing lessons to be viewed later but why would we want to do that, aren’t the pupils just viewing a repeat of what they’ve already done? Well, yes, in a way they are but I’m sure that as teachers we all know pupils who need things repeated (more than once) before they learn them. Traditionally, this has meant going over areas you’ve already covered in a previous lesson but, with lesson capture, pupils can watch the video and get the repetition they need.

Even the most studious and attentive of pupils can sometimes find it difficult to maintain attention for a whole lesson; tiredness, weather, time of day, other pupils, etc. can all conspire against full attention. Hence, certain parts or key points of a lesson may be missed even by the most interested and academically inclined learner. Lesson capture affords all pupils an opportunity to catch parts and points they may have missed during the original lesson.

We all know that attendance is important for learning but there are times when attendance is not possible for a pupil; illness, bereavement and other family situations, can all lead to a pupil being absent from lessons for short or prolonged periods. As teachers, we know this can be frustrating but, with lesson capture, we can at least offer these pupils an improved opportunity to catch up on missed sessions.

As well as absence, we also have the issue of exclusion. Even though there may be justifiable reasons for a pupil being excluded, they still have a right to learn and, if they are on the school’s books then the school has an obligation to teach them. With lesson capture, the school has a way of presenting learning opportunities to excluded pupils, while still maintaining their exclusion. As an added benefit, when the pupil returns from exclusion, hopefully they may not have missed out on so much of their education.

So far I have spoken only of lesson capture as a way of enabling pupils to catch up on any learning they may have missed or which they need repeating. This aspect of lesson capture alone could have one important benefit for learners and their schools; increased learning. By overcoming lost learning, lesson capture could lead to better performance, test scores and exam grades for pupils. This may be particularly true for pupils with poor attention, numerous absences, or poor study skills. This is not to say that lesson capture is not also of benefit to the more capable pupil; it is, for it allows them to go over material several times as and when they feel the need, including for periods of revision.

You Know You’re a 21st Century Educator When … (7 signs) (dougwoods.co.uk)
Almost 900 pupils suspended from school each day for violence (guardian.co.uk)
Are schools putting kids off computers? (postgrad.com)

Lesson Capture : An Introduction for Teachers

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Tags: education technology, K through 12, Learning, lesson capture, revision
Posted in education, elearning | 2 Comments »

The Best and Most Rewarding Job?

Monday, July 18th, 2011

: Image via Wikipedia

You’d think that working with children and young people, helping them learn, grow and develop would be one of the best and most rewarding of jobs. Yet often it isn’t. Just ask any teacher about the stress, the long hours, the pressures of working in a school and you’ll begin to wonder if there isn’t someting wrong with our education system.

Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll uncover more of the story. Teachers will tell you that it isn’t working with the pupils that’s the problem; it’s all the extra bits! By which they usually mean the paper work, the long hours spent in school and at home on preparation or marking. This has long been the case in education but has it got any worse over the years and what role does technology play in this?

I believe that technology is both an aid and a culprit when we look into teacher stress. Let me give you an example, take lesson planning; lesson planning takes time, it takes time to identify the aims, objectives and outcomes of a lesson, to identify and plan the use of resources, to set evaluation and success criteria, to identify differentiation etc.. Using a computer may make it easier to draw up lesson plans in a common format or template, printing a lesson plan may well be easier than writing it out by hand but does this mean it takes less time to create a lesson plan? Not really, it is the thinking and the planning that goes into a good lesson plan that takes time rather than the writing, so typing and printing saves only a small amount of time compared to writing by hand.

So why, then, do we expect teachers to write more detailed lesson plans? By using computers, we are often asking teachers to spend longer doing lesson plans than they used to. Ironic isn’t it?

Some people, and I am not one of them, believe that the purpose of ICT in schools is to make admin tasks quicker and easier for teachers so that they can devote more time to teaching and learning. This may sound good but what is happening is that teachers are being asked to do more and more admin tasks that take them away from teaching and learning.

Few teachers come into the profession, if it can still be called a profession, to do paper work. Teachers are not office workers and should not be regarded as such. The professional teacher is concerned with pupil learning, getting the best out of their pupils. Professional teachers welcome technology into the classroom where it has a clear benefit for learning and that, I feel, should be the focus of using technology in schools.

I’m sure that if we focused our efforts in using technology in support of learning rather than emphasising its role in school administration, we could once again see a happy workforce of teachers and also see learners benefiting from working with happy school staff.

In Praise of Entropy (ictineducation.org)
An Education Website Review of LessonSnips.com (brighthub.com)
Welcome to my dream school (guardian.co.uk)
Would More Time in the Classroom Help Our Education System? (triplepundit.com)
About My Job: The Teacher (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
What Teachers Learn (socyberty.com)
Pupils do better at school if teachers are not fixated on test results (guardian.co.uk)
Does skills-based learning face a lean future? (guardian.co.uk)
Young, gifted and likely to suffer for it (guardian.co.uk)

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Tags: Education, Educators, Information and communication technologies in education, K through 12, Learning, Lesson plan, Teacher, Technology
Posted in Classroom Technology | 1 Comment »

The Key to Successful Elearning

Monday, May 16th, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

In the last few weeks I have been asked 3 times by different people what do I regard as the most important aspect of successful elearning. This is quite surprising as people dont talk to me that frequently about elearning, so maybe there’s a bit of a trend or bandwagon developing somewhere. I’m sorry to say that in each of the 3 cases, I was unable to give a succinct, or glib, response (which is also somewhat unusual). In each case, I said I’d go away, think about it and get back to them later.

This post is a consequence of my thinking about it. I have thought about it and drawn from my own observations as to what makes a successful elearning session. It has not been easy to narrow it down to identifying just one aspect that seems to be key to good elearning. However, when I reflect back on those times when I feel I have observed the best examples of online learning, there does seem to be one point of commonality among them. So what I’d like to do is to take this and present it as my suggestion for a ‘golden key to successful elearning.’

If you are a teacher or a designer of elearning courses, my golden rule for you is to ask yourself; “What am I asking the learners to do?”

There are so many elearning courses in which the learner merely sits in front of a computer screen reading text or listening to a teacher’s voice.

Let me put this into perspective. If you were a school inspector or a head teacher observing an hour long lesson in which the class teacher stood at the front talking and writing on a board while all the learners do is sit, watch and maybe copy what is written on the board; you would probably mark down that lesson or that teacher as being poor.

So why is it that something that is not acceptable in a real classroom should somehow become acceptable online?

Quite simply, it isn’t. Or, should I say, that I don’t think it is for the best examples of elearning that I have observed have been when the teacher has required the learners to engage in some activity rather than being passive recipients.

I’m obviously looking at this from the perspective of a school teacher and we need to be aware that elearning is very much more in use within higher education and in industry training. What might work for school students might not necessarily work with Higher students or adults in industry. Nevertheless, if made relevant and appropriate to them, I feel that learners at all levels would become more engaged if involved in learning activities rather than passively sitting on their backsides.

Now, before online teachers and instructional designers start ganging up on me, I do have some sympathy with you. I am aware that many systems chosen to deliver elearning do not provide learners with the tools or facilities to become engaged in activities we’d like to use. I have also discovered when attending the Learning Technologies show in London that there can be a huge chasm between what is envisioned for elearning in the conference and what is being marketed as elearning in the sales exhibition. It is quite evident that what is being offered to us to support elearning seems light years away from what we want to deliver.

On the other hand, I have seen teachers use the tools that are available in new and imaginative ways to engage and present to their learners. So maybe, the first point is for teachersd and designers to use the tools, or get the learners to use the tools, which are available.

Surely, though, the time has come when we cannot allow a program to restrict and define the learning opportunities we offer to our learners. If a package cannot deliver the learning activities we want to offer, then we must consider rejecting that package and either look to other packages and systems or consider breaking away from proprietary delivery systems and make more use of individual specialised online tools which are better able to allow learners to participate in ways that promote active learning.

So, there you are, maybe I’ve ranted on a bit too much but I do believe that when delivering or designing elearning courses, it is really important to consider what you are asking the learner to do. Come to think of it, that is probably very important in all lesson planning, not just online.

E-learning, Why does it have such a Bad Name? (dougwoods.co.uk)
10 Tips for Effective eLearning (dougwoods.co.uk)
Free eLearning for charities (raceonline2012.wordpress.com)
Shift up a gear: work with me from September 2011! (dougbelshaw.com)
Using teaching as inquiry to guide an eLearning action plan (freetech4teachers.com)

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Tags: Distance Learning, Education, Educational technology, eLearning, instructional design, Learning, online learning
Posted in elearning | 3 Comments »

Posts Tagged ‘Learning’

Lesson Plans or Learning Plans?

The Push and Pull Models of Education

Do Learners want Teachers?

The Purpose of Technology in Education is Not to Enhance, Extend or Support Teaching

Lesson Capture : An Introduction for Teachers

The Best and Most Rewarding Job?

The Key to Successful Elearning

Contact me

Follow us on Twitter

Doug Woods

Posts Tagged ‘Learning’

Lesson Plans or Learning Plans?

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The Push and Pull Models of Education

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Lesson Capture : An Introduction for Teachers

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The Key to Successful Elearning

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Contact me

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Doug Woods