Just come out of the session at the Moodle Moot 2008 - had an audience of about 60 people, and they were a very different audience to ones that I am used to. A lot more techie folk, some people from industry, training, student support etc, as well as a few academics (from primary/secondary/tertiary), ICT advisors.

The introduction went well - I mentioned what ICT enhanced learning and teaching means to me through an annecdote from things I had been listening to and had found meaningful on podcasts I'd been listening to on the walk to EIT. The first one was about 'new' teachers who had just been trained, who were able to use the technology but were not sure how they were going to use it to enhance the learning experiences of their students. The second was about a police commissioner who was talking about how the police were using ICT  - and he said, "It is not the ICT it is the behaviour around the ICT"...and went on to describe the collaboration and sharing that was enabled through the technology that was not possible previously. This had got me thinking.

So, the presentation went well - people were very interested in what I had to say about Dubai and the experiences there, and then we moved on to the interactive bit. I was a bit deflated...I'm not sure yet if I hadn't set up the activity well (will go and listen to the podcast :-), or if it wasn't quite what people expected. Anyhow, a couple of people left immediately, and a couple of people left about 5 mins into filling in the framework with a partner.

So, I wrapped up about 7 or 8 minutes earlier that I had planned, and threw the question out - "did you find the framework useful?", "any comments or feedback" (and explained it was a pilot project still). Wow - superb feedback. The first comments were about the 'barrier' created by asking people filling in the framework to 'name' their theory(ies) of learning - rather, it was suggested, perhaps people could be asked to describe their own practice - reflect on how they felt their learners constructed knowledge. Also, it was suggested that the 'language' was de-academised to make it accessible to a wider audience, for example some trainers in industry.

One audience member was very supportive and we exchanged the following emails:

"Hi Walt

It was excellent to meet you too. Many thanks for the feedback on the

presentation.

I really appreciate your suggestions, and really like your idea of a

checklist - I was thinking, maybe, with say, a half day planning session

where people group up and start by talking about their best / worst

'teaching' experiences (could be as a student, online, or as a

teacher/trainer/facilitator). This could be followed by a  focus session

that listed the reasons why things did or did not work - which could

then feed in nicely to a checklist approach and then the framework

itself. (The checklist could be expanded by participants perhaps, as

well, giving them more 'ownership' of the whole process). The "problems

learner may face" step sounds great, and I could develop something to be

sited in Moodle with pop up windows (the checklist items listed, and

then when you run your mouse over them a box pops up listing the main

issues/considerations of each of the different approaches). Hmmm - food

for thought!! :-)

The glossary in Moodle is an inspired idea, especially if people were

encouraged to add terms/definitions as well.

All very much a work in progress! Thank you for the ideas and

suggestions - it's been really helpful. I'll let you know how it goes.

Hope to start using it with staff in a pilot in the next couple of

months, or maybe in the new academic year.

Kind regards

Hazel"

"Dear Hazel,

Nice to meet you the other day, I enjoyed your presentation which I feel underscored the real need to know what you want to do in course design before jumping in boots and all.

Referring to my suggestion regarding the development model you suggested it was really the word ‘theory’ that put many people into a spin i.e. typical Q’s : what do you mean?, do I know one?, what theory describes my practice? etc

To get round this I suggest you develop a short checklist or series of Q’s that help the course planner determine what theories actually underpin their teaching or intended delivery method.

The checklist could be based on the sample provided :

Do you intend to use :

• Scaffolding 
• Guided discovery
• Investigating
• using prior knowledge
• Group work
• Peers instruction etc etc

NB : One possible problem here could be that many tertiary teachers are not  trained and / or knowledgeable of common educational terms, a solution to this could the provision of a glossary (maybe Moodle based)

The next stage could be something like : to all the methods / Q’s  you answered ‘yes’ to consider the key problems that learners might face.

The rest of the model would flow naturally.

Hope this helps you in some way.

Regards

Walt"

ICT Enhanced Learning and Teaching Framework and Model by Hazel Owen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 New Zealand License.