aace global learn 2011
TRANSCRIPT
Educating Teachers for the Knowledge SocietySocial Media, Authentic Learning & Communities of Practice
Hanna Teräs & Marjatta MyllyläTampere University of Applied Sciences / School of Vocational Teacher EducationFinland
Image: andy.wolf
Thursday, March 31, 2011
What is this presentation about?
• Why is a new approach to teacher education needed?
• What are 21st century skills and how to teach them?
• What is our teacher training program like?
• How have we combined inquiry-based learning, authentic learning principles and social media?
• What have we achieved with it?
Image: maxroucool
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The time of individual performances is over.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
We live in a global, networked knowledge society.
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• Core competencies of the knowledge society expert, independent of subject matter
• Numerous definitions, e.g Trilling & Fadel (2009): 21st Century Skills - Learning for Life in Our Times
21st Century Skills
what are professionals of today made of?
Image: Seier & Seier
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Learning and innovation skills
• Critical thinking
• Problem solving skills
• Collaboration
• Creativity and innovativeness
Image: theonlyone (Flickr)
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Digital literacies: media literacy and ICT skills
(More advanced than e-mail.)
Image: Cristobal Cobo Romani
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Career and life skills
• Flexibility
• Adaptability
• Initiative
• Social skills
• Intercultural skills
• Responsibility
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But...how can I teach these?
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You can’t.These skills can only be acquired when the learning environment supports their acquisition and rewards from it. (Ruohotie 2002)
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New approachto teachereducation
Open, social mediaenvironments
Inquiry-based learning
Networking
Team learning and facilitation
Principles of authentic learning
Ongoing dialogic assessment - no
exams
Mission: help teachers acquire 21st century skills and build a knowledge society professional identity
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Authentic context
• Non-linear: beware of oversimplification!
• Second Life instead of LMS: less control, more surprises -> more like real life
• Helping the students to cope with complexity rather than making it too simple
Image: vgm8383
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Authentic tasks
• Real-life relevance
• Ill-formed and complex - students won’t love them!
• Inquiry-based learning: defining one’s own goals and questions
• Using students’ own work as a starting-point
Image: Bodum
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Access to expert performances
• Second Life: observing expert teachers worldwide, e.g. Harvard
• Networking and social media: significantly vaster scope of expertise available.
Image: Destiny’s Agent
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Linear format offers inadequate experience in complex problem solving!
Image: Brian Hatchcock
Inquiry-based learning +
social media collaboration
tools = multiple perspectives
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• Team learning.
• Central element in inquiry-based learning: a reflective process on individual and collaborative level.
• 3D worlds proved to be effective in collaborative knowledge construction in distant learning: sense of community facilitates team work.
Collaborative knowledge construction
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Image: Minette Layne
Blogging about the observations and
experiences gained e.g. in Second Life
Social media offersversatile tools for
Reflection
Assess one’s actionand skills, relate new
skills to previous knowledge, attend to feelings, learn from
others
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Online discussion: ideas are visible for everyone, available for discussion and further
development... the thinking processes of learners are displayed, enabling individual &
collaborative reflection
Blogging offers a channel of
articulation to enable
tacit knowledge to become more explicit
Image: Robert Higgins
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Scaffolding and coaching are vital elements of authentic learning.
A common feature of a traditional LMS-based
course is the absence of a teacher.
Image: James F Clay Image: Bernzilla
An aspect SL students value most is the
participation, presence and support of the teacher.
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Many e-learning courses use conventional assessment methods.
Higher education assessment still largely measures relatively easily acquired cognitive skills: remembering, understanding and applying, instead of analyzing, evaluating and creating.
These methods assess individual performance and focus on competition
rather than collaboration.
Image: ccarlstead
image: william & mary law library
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enables dialogic reflection, produces new, contextual understanding
Ongoing, dialogic assessment
Image: clairity
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What is a good teacher like?
• Competence is historically and socially defined -> interplay with experience.
• Experience that doesn’t fit the current practice of the community -> learning takes place. (Wenger)
• Need to shake the practices and mental models, give new experiences, offer plenty of opportunity for sharing & discussion.
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• Interacting in virtual worlds broaden worldviews and provide access to alternative viewpoints (Steinkuhler & Williams 2006)
• Increased awareness of one’s own and others’ perspectives (Jarmon et al 2009)
• Experiences in VW have affect attitudes and behaviors irl (Kapp & Driscoll 2010): beware with classroom simulations!!
Why do this with the help of Second Life?
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What are the results?
Global networking with the help of social
media
Team learning and dialogue: diversity
and shared expertise
Collaborative knowledge construction: from consumers of knowledge to co-creators
Freedom of choice in one’s learning path and working methods: initiative and self-direction
Openness and defining one’s goals:
creative solutions and innovative
methods
Kuva: Ruff Life (Flickr)
New conception of expertise and teacher’s work
Thursday, March 31, 2011
