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Albert Bandura (1977) combines behaviourist reinforcement with cognitive processes for understanding the behaviour of others.

Bandura empasises the importance of observing and modeling – his 2 key elements for learning are: experience and expectations

• Experience enables us to learn the consequences of our actions
• Expectations are formed by our experiences 

Four processes underlie this type of observational learning:

Attention: focus on the features of behaviour to be modeled

Retention: how well the behaviour is remembered

Reproduction: observed behaviour must be turned into action, practice and feedback

Reinforcement: to motivate learners to reproduce and perform the behaviours

 How could you apply Bandura’s Social Learning Theory in an e-Learning context?

Read: Social Constructivism

http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Social_Constructivism

Watch/listen to the brief lecture:

http://www.coe.uga.edu/epltt/impaticas/Social-Constructivism-PPT.html

Now – consider the learning theories in the context of  the technologies you have researched in Module 1.

Which theories are suited or more appropriate?

Bruner’s Constructivist Theory:

Bruner (1966) based his theory on learning by discovery – information should be organised in a spiral manner that allows the learner to re-arrange and re-assemble content to create new insights.

According to Bruner, discovery and meaningful learning enhances recall and transfer of learning. The main objective is to build upon knowledge the learner already has.

“By creating learning environments that foster the self-development of learners as they explore a situatio or problem, teachers can enable learners to arrange, rearrange, and transform evidence so they can gain new insights and experience a sense of achievement in making their own discoveries. The problem–solving strategies they develop are more transferable, as they have personal meaning and value in terms of the learner’s own purposes and intentions.”

Burns, R. 1995, The Adult Learner at Work, Business & Professional Publishing,

Sydney.

Applying principles of Bruner’s theory:

Instruction must be concerned with the experiences and context that make the learner willing and able to learn (readiness)

Instruction must be structured so that it can be easily grasped by the learner (spiral organisation)

Instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and/or fill in the gaps (going beyond the information given)

The Current Debate:

There is a great deal of current debate in education fields that can be summarized into distinct views:

Directed Instruction

Primarily the behaviourist and cognitive learning theories

Constructivist Learning

Characteristics of the 2 types of instruction:

Directed Instruction Constructivist Learning

How could you apply constructivist learning principles in an e-Learning environment?

Cognitive psychologists emphasize the role of experience, the development of meaning, and the use of problem-solving and insight as the sources of learning.
The individual learner will perceives organised wholes – rather than disconnected pieces.

Each person will behave and learn in terms of what is real for them.

Learning is therefore based on the re-organisation of experiences into systematic and meaningful patterns that lead to problem-solving and insight.
This will mean that interpretation is subjective – reality is what each of us perceives and understands at any given time.

TASK: Watch the following video from the Wharton University of Pennsylvania:

http://www.learningwiki.com/theory  

Part 2 – Cognitivism
Examples you may be familiar with:

Meaningfulness:
According to cognitive theory – our brains look for patterns and completion.
Our brains have the capacity to associate anything with anything else and will find associations if we allow it to! This allows us to be creative and problem-solve.
Each person will create their own meaning based on the current context and their past experiences.

Insight:
The sudden Blinding Flash of the Obvious!
The realization of how to solve a problem by a cognitive restructuring of the environment – looking at things differently!

Until we start thinking around the problem (restructuring and reorganising) we will not be able to gain any insight into how to solve the problem.

What effect might meaningfulness and insight have in e-Learning contexts?

Advance Organisers:

An advance organiser provides a scaffold for the ideas – or cognitive structure – which will bridge the gap for the learner between the content – what’s known and what they will need to know before new material becomes meaningful.

The scaffolding is intended to provide a higher level (more generalized) concept that will then allow the learner to incorporate more detailed and differentiated materials into the structure.

Advance organisers use current and relevant concepts that the learner already has – to make it possible to put new learning into the framework.

The sequencing of content must allow new concepts to be related to old ones.

How can we use Advance Organisers in e-Learning contexts?

Principles emphasised by Cognitive theory:

• The perceptual features of the problem as interpreted by the individual affect what is learned
• A learning problem should be structured by the teacher so that the essential features are open to the learner’s inspection
•   The organisation of knowledge should move from simple to complex to create a meaningful whole
•   Feedback as hypothesis testing is a basis for correcting faulty learning

Burns, R. 1995, The Adult Learner at Work, Business & Professional Publishing, Sydney

Behaviourists attempted to study behaviour and learning from a scientific approach – only observable and measurable behaviours are reliable.

They explain human behaviour in terms of cause and effect – therefore learning is a modification of behaviour by application of stimuli, shaping of responses and the provision of reinforcement.

Learning is demonstrated in the response or behaviour of the learner.\

TASK: Watch the following video from the Wharton University of Pennsylvania:

http://www.learningwiki.com/theory

Part 1 – Behaviourism

Examples you may be familiar with:

Classical Conditioning – Pavlov’s Dogs

The learner (dog) is conditioned (learns) to emit a response (dribble) which was originally a natural response to another stimulus (food) to a new stimulus (a bell).

Classic conditioning can also be demonstrated by our ability to generalize our responses to stimuli.

Eg. A household drill may cause a reaction for a person that has had an experience with a dentist’s drill!

What effect might generalizing have in e-Learning contexts?

Operant Conditioning – Skinner

Skinner argued that people learn to behave in ways that help them obtain things they want or avoid things they don’t want.
Reinforcement is used (money, promotions, success, praise etc) to increase the likelihood of the desired response being repeated.
Skinner believed that by ignoring a response, without reinforcement the behaviour will die out.

• Negative reinforcement – knowing how to avoid unpleasant or dangerous circumstances.
• Punishment – creating unpleasant situations to decrease unwanted behaviour.
• Feedback – is used to reinforce behaviour and let learners know how they are doing.

Principles emphasised by Behaviourist theory:

• The learner must be able to respond actively
• Frequency of repetition of responses is important in acquiring skill
• Reinforcement is vital to obtain repetition of required or correct behaviour
• Generalisation suggests the importance of practice in varied situations
• Immediate feedback of results is strongly motivating
• Shaping behaviour by the reinforcement of approximate responses is essential in learning new skills

Burns, R. 1995, The Adult Learner at Work, Business & Professional Publishing, Sydney

What is learning?

“The best definition is to conceive of learning as a relatively permanent change in behaviour with behaviour including both observable activity and internal processes such as thinking, attitudes and emotions.”

Burns, R. 1995, The Adult Learner at Work.

What is your definition of learning?

• Is a process of forming understanding from acquiring new knowledge
• Knowledge obtain by study
• Retaining and applying
• Building on existing knowledge
• Meaning making
• Understanding

1. What is learning?

• Is a process of forming understanding from acquiring new knowledge
• Knowledge obtain by study
• Retaining and applying
• Building on existing knowledge
• Meaning making
• Understanding

2. How does learning occur?

• Creating meaning and connecting that meaning to the correct schema, through understanding and practice
• Teaching and experience
• Self exploration
• Practice with feedback
• Repetition

3. What factors influence learning?

• Motivation
• Facilitation – of a conducive learning environment
• Definitions of outcomes or goals
• Feedback
• Attitudes
• Content
• Learning Styles, age, learner characteristics, demographics

Personal Epistemology – your own perception on learning.

It impacts on how you will design your learning programs.

By:

Examples of Games and simulations:

• PC gaming and simulations Support Training.
• Sims
• Learn or Die
• Virtual Reality Bronchoscopy Simulations – medical industry
• Innovative Simulation technology breathes life into digital human models – medical industry

Benefit of Educational Technology

• Increase enjoyment levels
• Boost motivation
• Skill development
• All interrelated
• Disadvantages:
• Expensive – Set up cost and maintaining technologies
• Insufficient computer skills/unfamiliar with technology
• Narrow mindedness
• Some skills cannot be effectively taught through technological means

Simulations and Games are currently being used in the following fields in Education purposes

• Military, Air Force, NASA
• Medical Fields
• Architecture and Engineering
• Trades
• Online learning – eg. games are used to learn languages typing, how to use design programs etc

Recommendations

• Integration of technology for primary school children, maths, spelling, grammar, games etc
• Integration of technology into training tradesman to shorten the length of apprenticeships, eg, Plumbing, electricians, mechanics

By: Maddie, Antika, Theresa and Samantha.

System Requirements 

• Microphone and headphone audio parts
• Install sound card
• Memory capacity to save and run appropriate  programs
• Recording and editing software
• Better audio editing programs : normalise sounds, remove noise, multiple track editing and compress audio into various formats (mp3, wav)
• File transfer protocol (FTP) program
• Downloading capacity
• RSS/aggregator
• Content management software, eg. iTunes, window media player

Case Study

• LTRI – Learning Technology Research Institution, London : accessibility
• National Institute of Health – NIH, health research, roles to inform the public, conduct programs via podcast and their research findings
• Caption One
• Impala Projects -Kingston University – cheap and popular, convenient

Benefits

Podcast

• Easy of access
• Appeals to mass audience
• Cheap and cost effective
• Good promotion
• Create your own content
• Provides you with the opportunity to review
• Offer a variety of teaching medium

Challenges

Podcast 

• Decrease in class attendance
• Problems using technology due to lack of experience

Vodcast 

• limited amount in navigation
• legal requirements

Recommendations

• Effective in blended learning
• Popular for commercial use, however still new in education; implications for educations are yet to be fully experienced
• Useful tools
• Integrating them into learning as support tools is feasible
• Must suit the learning styles of different individuals
• Should encourage to participatory learning
• Can be a distractions – need infrastructure and structure

By: Gabriel, Michael, Andrew and James

Q. What is mobile e-learning?

A. Mobile e-learning is when individuals use mobile technologies to improve, enhance or develop their learning experience.

Keegan’s 5 important factors:

• Trust in the efectivness of the techonolgy
• Freguent use
• Easy to use
• Cheap
• Fashionable
• Mobile technologies are increasingly integrated with the social needs of consumers.

History:

More and more intergrated into the society. Companies now realise that mobile learning will be part of the future’s learning.

Systems Reuirements:

• Devices
• Infrasturcture
• Softwear/Content intergration
• Reception/Bandwidth (if wireless connectivity required)

Mobile phones could be use in the wrong way, in the classroom, distracting, ring tones, sms.. etc
Personal Digital Assistant -(PDA)

Out in the field

Positive:

• Student learn in actual context
• Flexible curriculum
• Fun, different, Social Engaging

Negative:

• Difficult to recieve immediate guidance – far from teachers
• Expensive, delicate instruments – can break, drop it, mugged if use out in the fields.
• Not used outside class (unlike iPods and Mobiles)

Other usage of PDA

PDA – use are to help slow readers and dyslexics improve their learning capabilities

On the spot guiedance

Technology – Capture Talk – full demo

Benefits: on the spot guidance, excellent interface
iPod

• Most popular device now for students, for entertainment and learning
• Easy to dipserse information
• Student can informally learn while being away from their computers and classroom
• ‘anywhere, anytime”

Apple voted most recognised brand in 2008

Duke Case Study

• pedagogical tool – was one of the first to see the potential of the ipod
• appox 1.650 freshmen students were given iPods

Use in primary areas:

• Recording too in the classroom and in the filed
• Listen to content outside the classroom, normal periods, eg while traveling to universtity

Benefits of Mobile E- Learning:

• Access
• Engaging, appealing – Motivating
• Changing attitudes
• Collaboration
• Context – Practical, mobile – out in the field.
• Independence – Control, learn whenever and whatever you want, sense of responsibility to self to learn and empowerment to have the control.
• Educators stay updated – always updated and recent

Disadvantages and challenges of Mobile e-Learning:

• Content transfer/ Softwear
• Distractions
• Evaluation
• Breakage/theft
• Disorganised – it must be facilitated correctly and organised well
• Older generations/ Acceptance -may not know how to use the technology
• User interface (limited space on display, small key, etc)
• Data privacy

Trends

• Alot of confidence in students and learners – in universities and higher educations
• Organisations not implementing mobile learning in the workplace settings

Recommendtations of Intergration

• Not the primary function but to enhance leraning
• Do not realy on heavy visual information – use other method like audio
• Use audio learning
• Insure solid connections between learner and teacher guidance, motivation etc
• Implement methods of evaluation that is relevant to the learning
• Make it fun
• Short modules
• Structured information
• Easy navigation
• Ownership/independence
• Responsibility

By Grace, Jack, Julie, Pj and Caitlin

 http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9251704191