the Problem of Learning in the
Post-Course Era
Randy Bass, Georgetown University
MAALT-SEALLT ConferenceMarch 11,2010
What’s the problem?
Writing technologies
Wikis
blogs
microblogging
Social bookmarking
Data visualization
Video conferencing
Social networking
Virtual worlds and serious games
Online chatrooms
E-portfolios
Digital storytelling
Self-assessment practicesTask-based
instruction
Non-linear learning
Multiple modalities
Authentic audience
From static to dynamic learning
learning environments perpetually in motion
a deeper sense of cultural understanding and language learning
Writing technologies
Wikis
blogs
microblogging
Social bookmarking
Data visualization
Video conferencing
Social networking
Virtual worlds and serious games
Online chatrooms
E-portfolios
Digital storytelling
Self-assessment practicesTask-based
instruction
Non-linear learning
Multiple modalities
Authentic audience
From static to dynamic learning
learning environments perpetually in motion
a deeper sense of cultural understanding and language learning
Writing technologies
Wikis
blogs
microblogging
Social bookmarking
Data visualization
Video conferencing
Social networking
Virtual worlds and serious games
Online chatrooms
E-portfolios
Digital storytelling
Self-assessment practicesTask-based
instruction
Non-linear learning
Multiple modalities
Authentic audience
From static to dynamic learning
learning environments perpetually in motion
a deeper sense of cultural understanding and language learning
Writing technologies
Wikis
blogs
microblogging
Social bookmarking
Data visualization
Video conferencing
Social networking
Virtual worlds and serious games
Online chatrooms
E-portfolios
Digital storytelling
Self-assessment practicesTask-based
instruction
Non-linear learning
Multiple modalities
Authentic audience
From static to dynamic learning
learning environments perpetually in motion
a deeper sense of cultural understanding and language learning
The Post-Course Era
“You know. It was taught as a Gen Ed course and I took it as
a Gen Ed course.”
Georgetown student, end of first year, focus group: reflecting a particular course in which, he claimed, he was not asked to engage with the material.
High Impact Practices (National Survey of Student Engagement--NSSE)
• First-year seminars and experiences
• Learning communities
• Writing intensive courses
• Collaborative assignments
• Undergraduate research
• Global learning/ study abroad
• Internships
• Capstone courses and projects
High Impact Activities and Outcomes High Impact Practices:
• First-year seminars and experiences
• Learning communities
• Writing intensive courses
• Collaborative assignments
• Undergraduate research
• Global learning/ study abroad
• Internships
• Capstone courses and projects
Outcomes associated with High impact practices
• Attend to underlying meaning
• Integrate and synthesize
• Discern patterns
• Apply knowledge in diverse situations
• View issues from multiple perspectives
• Gains in Skills, knowledge, practical competence , personal and social development
High Impact Practices (National Survey of Student Engagement--NSSE)
• First-year seminars and experiences
• Learning communities
• Writing intensive courses
• Collaborative assignments
• Undergraduate research
• Global learning/ study abroad
• Internships
• Capstone courses and projects
So, if high impact practices are largely in the extra curriculum (or co-curriculum), then where are the low-impact practices?
formal curriculum=
low-impact practices ?
Are we then entering the “post-course era”?
2/16/10 13
If the formal curriculum is not where the high impact
experiences are then there are three options
(1) Make courses higher impact
(2) Create better connections between courses and the high impact experiences outside the formal curriculum
(3) Start shifting resources from from the formal curriculum to the high impact (experiential) curriculum
All of the above…
Range of responses
courses designed as inquiry-based and problem-driven
Using social tools at scale
Design courses for depth and engagement (writing intensive, project-based, team-based, etc)
2/16/10 16
Participatory Culture
Features of participatory culture Low barriers to entry Strong support for sharing one’s contributions Informal mentorship, experienced to novice Members feel a sense of connection to each
other Students feel a sense of ownership of what is
being created Strong collective sense that something is at
stake
How do we make classroom learning more like participatory culture?
Jenkins, et. al., The Challege of Participatory Culture
Six Characteristics of high impact practices AND features of participatory culture
Features of participatory culture (on the Web) Low barriers to entry Strong support for
sharing one’s contributions
Informal mentorship, experienced to novice
Members feel a sense of connection to each other
Students feel a sense of ownership of what is being created
Strong collective sense that something is at stake
High impact experiences (co- curriculum)
Attend to underlying meaning
Integrate and synthesize
Discern patterns
Apply knowledge in diverse situations
View issues from multiple perspectives
Skills, knowledge, practical competence , personal and
social development
2/16/10 18
Looking from the Web in…
How do we make formal learning environments more like informal learning?
How do we make classroom learning more like participatory culture?
The Formal Curriculum
InformalLearning
Participatory culture
High impact practices
Experiential Co-curriculum
2/16/10 20
the end of the course as a bounded experience
John Seely Brown: Practice to Content
content
practice
The Formal Curriculum
InformalLearning
Participatory culture
High impact practices
Experiential Co-curriculum
2/16/10 23
Three Challenges
Intermediate processes (“thin slices” of practice)
Reflective judgment, uncertainty
Embodied learning
Thin Slices
Participatory learning + Web 2.0 tools
Student work is in process, in practice—not just in summative work
NOVICE MIRACLE EXPERT
product product
Connecting Intermediate Processes to Practice
Bass & Elmendorf, 20092/16/10 26
NOVICEprocesses
EXPERTpractice
LEARNINGprocesses
LEARNINGprocesses
How can we better understand these intermediate processes?
How might we design to foster and capture them?
evidence of process
Connecting Intermediate Processes to Practice
LEARNINGprocesses
2/16/10 27
NOVICEprocesses
LEARNINGprocesses
EXPERTpractice
evidence of
Process
LEARNINGprocesses
LEARNINGprocesses
“Thin slices” of online discussion or blog
Traces of collaborative practice
Micro-reflections on the cutting room floor
ePortfolio samples: drafts, reflections
Connecting Intermediate Processes to Practice
#1: Social Pedagogies and a Large Lecture Course
Foundations of BiologyBIOL-103
1st year Biology course
250 students
science majors& pre-meds
Heidi Elmendorf, Georgetown University
Learning and Feedback from
Multiple Perspectives
Flexibility with
knowledge
in open-ended contexts
Dee
pen
ing
Dis
cip
linar
y
Un
der
stan
din
g
Sen
se of P
erson
al and
Intellectu
al Sig
nifican
ce
Student Learning Goals (Students develop…)
A Sense of Audience and Voice
SocialPedagogies
Participatory learning
Course Design Elements
Readings & On-line Conversation
Class & Think-Pair-Share
Lab & Partnered Inquiry
Problem Sets & Group Effort around Authentic and Challenging Problems
Research Paper & Shared Steps
Exams & Room for UncertaintyHeidi Elmendorf, Georgetown University
•Communicate about the reading. One of the best ways to learn something is to talk about it. Air your bafflement, express your wonder, ask your questions, try out a new idea of your own…And while I hope you will talk often about biology this semester with your classmates, I want to be sure you have an official forum for these conversations – and that you are rewarded for the effort you will expend having them.
Prof Elmendorf’s Instructions to her Students for the Discussion Board
Holding Conversations
Online Conversation
Jose Feito, on the importance of “not knowing”
“The theme of not-knowing [has] emerged as a key factor in the maintenance of a truly collaborative intellectual community within the classroom.
In order for a shared inquiry to proceed productively, the participants must be able to regularly acknowledge their lack of understanding, offer partial understandings, and collectively digest the resulting discourse.
Not-knowing is characterized by a group’s ability to defer meaning, tolerate ambiguity, hold divergent perspectives, and postpone closure. In order to develop, it requires a relatively non-judgmental classroom atmosphere, but not an uncritical one.”
Jose Feito, St. Mary’s University (Moraga, California, U.S.A.)
Michael Smith & Ali Erkan, Ithaca College
Using Wiki’s to teach history
Students work in collaborative teams to write history wiki-texts on subjects that interest them in historical context
Michael Smith & Ali Erkan, Ithaca College
Not just about knowledge to be acquired, but
Ways of thinking
Ways of acting (practice)
Ways of talking
A sense of identity
Embodied
Not just knowing, but the experience of knowing (and coming to know)
Social Pedagogies and an Introductory Writing Class
Writing, Invention, MediaHUMW-011
1st year writing course
20 students
Gen Ed
Randy Bass, Georgetown University
Humanities & Writing 011
First-year required writing course
Section theme: “Writing, Invention, Media”
Core concept: “writing is a social act”
Core theme: Changes modes of learning, the participatory culture of Web, and the nature of the University
CORE
Important
Worthwhile
Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe,
Understanding by Design
What is worth knowing and doing?
What is important to know and do?
What is a core or enduring understanding?
CORE
Important
WorthwhileOpening Day exercise:
Writing in school?
Writing on the Web?
HUMW011: Writing, Invention, Media
Core Values of Writing in School: Week One
Cor
e
Imp
orta
nt
Wor
thw
hile
Core Understandings--writing in school (week one)
Core Understandings--digital, Writing on the web (week one)
Networked research group
Networked research group
Yahoo Pipes
Networked research group
Participatory Culture and Formal Learning
Student team
Student team
Student team
Shared course blog or teacher / tutor space
Any mechanism for aggregating, feeding, filtering, tagging…
Rajagopalan Balaji, Capstone Course in Engineering (University of Colorado)
(Design competition)
70+ students 12 teams two projects
Central RSS feed
Team blogs
Central RSS feed
Team blogs
Teacher watches, coaches
(key source of capture for intermediate processes)
thin slices of practice
reflective judgment
embodied learning
If we are to connect courses to the “holistic self-portrait” of the learner, then we not only to link out but in..
Designing for the post-course era
Learning and Feedback from
Multiple Perspectives
Flexibility with
knowledge
in open-ended contexts
Dee
pen
ing
Dis
cip
linar
y
Un
der
stan
din
g
Sen
se of P
erson
al and
Intellectu
al Sig
nifican
ce
Student Learning
Goals
A Sense of Audience and Voice
PRACTICE:Features of Participatory
Process
•Help students create markers of certainty and
uncertainty
•Provide opportunities for relearning
•Design opportunities for meaningful reflection on
Practice and integration of experience
Tim Kastelle University of Queensland, “Successful Open Business Models”
“Successful Open Business Models on the Web” (e.g. Journalism, Music)
Aggregate
Filter
Connect
Tim Kastelle
Tim Kastelle, “Successful Open Business Models”
“Successful Open Business Models” (higher education)
•Aggregate•Information resources
•Filter•Knowledge (what knowledge is worth knowing)
•Scholarship (peer review)•Graduates (employability)
•Connect•Ideas, experiences, people
Shift in How We Add Value
AGGREGATE
FILTER
CONNECT
Shift in How We Add Value
AGGREGATE
FILTER
CONNECT
COURSE ERA
POST-COURSE ERA
Sir Ken Robinson, “How Education Kills Creativity”
ted.com
Sir Ken Robinson, “How Education Kills Creativity”
ted.com
“What we need is a new conception of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our conception of the richness of human capacity.”