Digital Learning

Ecosystems:rethinking virtual

learning environments in the age of social media

Conceptual mess

Educational software Virtual classroom Virtual Learning Environment Course/Learning Management System E-learning platform Problems:

disconnected from pedagogical theories, praxis and practices

Pedagogical neutrality Infertile research programme

Generations of learning technology

Internet has changed

Web 2.0: read-write Web Social media Quickly evolving and integrated

services Business ecosystems in digital world:

Apple, Google

The role of language in social construction of reality

Heidegger: language is a house of being

Gadamer: language speaks us Implicit structures and values within a

language (vocabulary) affect the social reality constructed with this language

Example: the concept of ‘e-learning’ Proposed by Jay Cross (a business

consultant) as a metaphor (cf. e-mail) Picked up by EU policymakers in 2000 Forsaken by policy discourse by 2007

Languages of education

Languages of „theorists“ and „practitioners“ in education

Examples: instructional design vs. Didactics, competencies, learning goals and effectiveness, strategies & tactics, andragogy, learning as curing from stupidity, teacher as project manager, psychologist, service provider

„Civil war“ between educational paradigms

R.Rorty: researchers as heroes-poets

Heroes (turn-makers) in the domain of research are the poets who are able to re-describe the field in a new way, with new “powerful” words

Evolution of a vocabulary: from metaphors to strict terminology (encyclopedias and handbooks as graveyards of metaphors)

Contingency and incommesurability of vocabularies

Survival of vocabularies is partly dependent on fruitfulness of research programmes based on them

How about vocabulary shift: Digital Learning Ecosystems

Digital Learning Ecosystem: an adaptive socio-technical system consisting of mutually interacting digital species

(tools, services, content used in learning process) and

communities of users (learners, facilitators, experts) together with

their social, economical and cultural environment.

Questions to discuss

What are advantages and disadvantages of Digital Learning Ecosystems approach in contrast with traditional views on virtual learning environments?

To what extent the DLE researchers can borrow the concepts and research methods from ecosystems ecology?

Which are the main research problems, the big research questions and appropriate methods for DLE-focused research programme?

Key concepts in ecosystems ecology

Ecosystem: a community of living organisms (plants, animals and microbes) in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (things like air, water and mineral soil), interacting as a system.

Nutrient cycle, energy flow Self-regulation Biota, niche, habitat Biodiversity, disturbance, succession

Concept mapping task

Ecosystem Digital Ecosystem Digital Learning Ecosystem Species Services Users Communities What are the advantages and

disadvantages of DLE approach? How much concepts and relations can we

project from biological to digital world?