JISC RSC Digital Creativity event February 2008

Reflecting on JISC funded DoL and LIN-R projects at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication

Compiled by Ruth Catlow, Miles Metcalfe and Roger Rees

Learning designs for constructivist, practice-based pedagogy

Constructivist, practice-based educationIn common with other HEIs

Mainly the issues we face are similar to other (higher) education institutions. We are trying to encourage: o     Deeper approaches to learningo     Reflective learning and practiceo     Greater integration of theory and practiceo     Collaboration (and enterprise)o     More independent and interdependent learning

Constructivist, practice-based education Issues more specific to design & communications

Some issues are more specific to practice-based design and communications education:-

o A constructivist and experiential model of learning and teaching: Learning comes mainly through student engagement in meaningful activity Often involving solving ‘real’ problems  Often in collaboration with peers – or at least together with them In their time as learners the students have an impact on the learning environment

o More direct connection to the industries our students will enter o Design and communications industries are being transformed / disrupted by developments in networked and digital media that we cannot ignore

E-Learning in Practice-Based Education

A QUEST for a coherent pedagogical approach to learning Themes from the Journey:

o From students’ private, individual learning experience to participation and developing reputation in professional communities of practice.

o Encouraging learners (staff and students) to take a dynamic, proactive and critical approach to their engagement with technology.

o Which technologies are used? When are they used? How does this change?

An ILLUSTRATED QUEST for a coherent pedagogical approach to e-learning in practice-based education

Some Landmarkso 2002-5: Supporting students’ development of e-portfolios: showcase, individual designs, using Dreamweavereg Fashion students’ e-portofolios: Rene Lang, Wing Tseo 2005-ongoing: A good institutional VLE Moodle implementation (cross-institutional discussion between stakeholders) e-champions etc o 2006-7: DoL JISC project came out of these struggles with Dreamweaver.o 2005- ongoing: E-portfolio development joining forces with new PPD programme; tensions between creating a public showcase of work and recognising the place of reflective and collaborative practice in the public domain. Questions of assessment.

An ILLUSTRATED QUEST (continued)

o 2006-7: Designs on Learning (DoL) JISC project. Developed framework and platform for supporting, documenting and evaluating the pedagogical value of lecturers’ practice eg Learning Designs

Blogging case study – Phat case study- Not so successful in terms of students’ experience of blogging. Informed integration of blogging into future learning activities

o 2007-8: Online profile building - A progression from earlier students’ e-portfolio development (individualised showcase) towards flexible Student Built PLE. Using Wiki and an aggregation of ‘free’ tools and services within a supported, college managed wiki. Examples: -- Experimental Online Profile: exploring possibilities of building galleries and aggregating, blog and image flows - Preliminary template for students’ online profiles within college wiki- Students Online Profiles: James Kay, Jo Tomkins

An ILLUSTRATED QUEST A Reversible Student Space

Student Showcase <------> Personal Learning Environment (PLE)

A Reversible Student Space like a reversible jacket for both learning and developing professional profile

Ongoing Issues: - o Delivery: a focus on keeping it tech-lite (where appropriate) and personal- learning-rich.o Making developments available to students and staff alike.

An ILLUSTRATED QUEST Some Conceptual Tools

Practice Based Learning and the Social Stack The Social Stack - a conceptual framework developed by Headshift

for understanding collaboration and social software. The Social Stack tools matrix developed at Ravensbourne- aims to make these tools and concepts accessible to all practice-based learners (students and lecturers) by relating tools to learning scenarios

E-learning in Context- in 6 steps A conceptual framework developed at Ravensbourne to support discussions with lecturers and students about the transition from private to public learning in the context of social software and communities of practice; individual learning to social constructivist learning within professional communities of practice.

Practice Based Learning and Headshift’s Social Stack

The Social Stack tools matrix - Relating tools to learning scenarios

E-learning in Context- 1/6Transition from private to public learning in the context of social software and communities of practice

E-learning in Context- 1/6Transition from private to public learning in the context of social software and communities of practiceE-learning in Context- 2/6Transition from private to public learning in the context of social software and communities of practice

E-learning in Context- 3/6Transition from private to public learning in the context of social software and communities of practice

E-learning in Context- 4/6Transition from private to public learning in the context of social software and communities of practice

E-learning in Context- 5/6Transition from private to public learning in the context of social software and communities of practice

E-learning in Context- 6/6Transition from private to public learning in the context of social software and communities of practice

THANK YOU!

With special thanks to The JISC

Staff and students of Ravensbourne and especially Remmert de Vroome