Pedagogical infrastructure framework in a nutshell

The pedagogical infrastructure framework is a socio-constructivist model for designing and assessing a learning setting that makes use of ICT.

There are four components that form the infrastructure of an educational setting. The knowledge creation should consist of deliberately designed technical, social, epistemic, and cognitive support structures.

Techical component consists of devices, tools, infrastructure like wifi etc. Social component is about the interaction and community aspects of learning. Epistemic is about the nature and the processes of addressing the substance. Cognitive is how the learners become conscious about their own learning processes.

What makes this framework handy is the table that makes it handy to list the plans ("design features") and the reflection & evaluation. The table below is taken from this slide set for the Online Educa Berlin Learning Cafe. (Contrary to the Conference Highlights text our whole team is there to keep all six tables engaged.)

My research paper is more comprehensive on the framework and the unshortened table is on p. 15-16. The article by Lakkala et al. in Academia.edu is one of my original sources.

Aristotle has thought about the future of education

Hello Internet! My son shared an interesting video with me and I'll pass it on.
oh wow, how my young lad has matured, hmm :)

Three Converging Trends in Learning Environments

Remember this picture and you'll remember all three topics.

There are three learning environments and technologies that I expect to converge in the next ten years: tablets, virtual worlds and learning hubs.

Even though "mobile technology" has been part of mediated communication ever since papyrus (Farman, 2012; see Kindle edition), these tools and learning environments will give rise to a next step in the evolution of edtech and learning environments: augmented learning environment.

Tablets are the mobile devices that bridge the gap between computers and mobile phones; virtual worlds are 3D online communities accessed by an avatar; and learning hubs are physical communities of practice that combine formal and informal learning, offline and online, schools and working life.

Grab'n'go: tactile tablets

Tablets have already now proved they are an important class of their own. They have created a completely new culture of collecting, presenting and sharing information. Touch screen is a change of paradigm: user can feel they interact with the data when their fingers fly, swipe and pinch. From a grounded cognition perspective, the use of a multi-touch-screen versus mouse-input should yield better learning. (Black, Segal, Vitale, & Fadjo, 2012) Also the mobile interface is more focused and less cluttered than a typical computer interface. These affect the ways creating and presenting information. For example: instead of an essay written in Word and emailed to my professor, I blogged a set of entries and replaced four pages of concept definitions with a Popplet map with links to various online resources; instead of reading a sweeping machine manual the building maintenance students scan a QR code and watch the instructional video other students have made.

Tablets are handy for collaborating in authentic learning environments. In the institute I work for, learners grab their iPads and take notes on Evernote, learn languages on SonicPics, and make learning material and show their competence on iMovie. Nearpod lets the facilitators have control or give it to learners, just as they please.

There are some cons related to the school use of tablets. Some cloud services are still a bit clumsy (Wikispaces, certain features of GoogleDocuments), 1-to-1 is hard to reach in classrooms, and many ICT departments have been harnessed to take care of desktop pc's and they are not agile enough to manage mobile tools.

More on mLearning in my presentation: Vocational Learning On the Go

Engagement in immersive worlds

Virtual worlds like Second Life have turned out to be a great extension to real environments: identities and social networks have possibilities we do not encounter in "1st life"; it is easy to get hooked in and immersed into the reality so similar and yet so different from the physical one; and simulating things and real professional procedures in real environments is cost-effective and effortlessly repeatable. (Heiphetz & Woodill, 2010) I have seen all these positive outcomes materialize, and yet my experiences in facilitating VW learning has shown that there are certain challenging issues: deep technical learning curve and system requirements on the computer may turn the learner down early on, and in many cases the virtual communities of practice tend to die gradually out.

Not only fantasy: Yearning for distance learning is a short video describing the learning environment of Sotunki upper secondary school & Sotunki Distance Learning Centre that we created in the Second Life a couple of years ago.

Learning by doing and by experience in a virtual world is a short presentation I gave in Madrid last December about learning literature and about collaborative learning in the Sotunki VW.

Encounterings in a learning hub

InnoOmnia, part of vocational institute Omnia, is a good example of a learning hub. It is a new, out-of-the-box solution to vocational education and training. Students, staff and entrepreneurs representing over ten different fields of business mix and mingle. The brand new facility is built for collaborating and encountering people, both familiar and extraordinary. Cloud-based web platforms and mobile technology are natural extensions to everyday life in InnoOmnia. The focus is on lifelong learning, building career, innovation and ICT skills.

The Learning Solutions team which I belong to, designs, carries out and evaluates new kinds of projects on learning and technology. (Lius, 2012) The support of the community, the benefits of having entrepreneurs under the same roof, and technological possibilities along a building that represents new thinking in school architecture form a wonderful and authentic framework - or a hub.

As a new and creative department, there are some things to be ironed out: information flow is not always adequate, best practices are not documented and a smoother way of dealing with a traditional ICT department is to be found.

Click here to reach the shared Popplet map.

The future of learning environments

I see the future of learning tools and environments converging: the immersivity and simulations-capacity of virtual worlds, the ease of use and mobility of tablets and the importance of networking face-to-face will be united.

Nowadays we speak about augmented reality. Google is pushing its "Glasses" to the market right now, and a couple more years afterwards we wonder why there ever was a frame between our learning environment and the digital data. So, augmented reality may be the weak signal – or a clear trend already – of a megatrend that leads way to the learning environments we find a commonplace in 2020 or 2030.

Of course, as such not even a versatile and rich learning environment can substitute, if pedagogy or communication is lacking. Some ideas about how to pave the way can be found from my presentation Changing the Way We Learn.

Bibliography

Black, J. B., Segal, A., Vitale, J., & Fadjo, C. L. (2012). Embodied Cognition and Learning Environment Design. In D. Jonassen & S. M. Land (Eds.), Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments (2nd ed., pp. 198–223). New York / London: Routledge.

Farman, J. (2012). Mobile Interface Theory: Embodied Space and Locative Media (Kindle ed.). London and New York: Routledge. Retrieved from Amazon.

Heiphetz, A., & Woodill, G. (2010). Training and Collaboration with Virtual Worlds: How to Create Cost-Saving, Efficient, and Engaging Programs. McGraw-Hill.

Lius, E. (2012). Four Components of 21st Century Learning. October 2012. University of Helsinki. PDF here.

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This was originally an assignment for the MOOC 'Designing a New Learning Environment' in Stanford University Venture Labs.

Components of 21st Century Learning as a tanka poem

Now, there it finally is: Four Components of 21st Century Learning (pdf). Done and sent!

Here's the complete study, crystallized in a tanka poem:

Nature of edtech 

has components like seasons: 

technical, social, 

epistemological, 

and cognitive. Use em all!

Here's a longer version, shortened from the Abstract:

As the Learning Solutions team that I work in was to arrange a new course called "Edutech bootcamp" for teacher trainees at the time of finding a research subject for this study, I felt it fitting to apply a pedagogical model and to evaluate how it would help us in planning and analysing the course. 

I ended up using the pedagogical infrastructure framework developed by Minna Lakkala in her dissertation. I decided to study the framework itself: How practical and comprehensive would this model be in planning the course? What is my opinion of Lakkala's model compared to other similar models like TPACK and Learning by Design? 

The pedagogical infrastructure framework is a useful all-around tool that pays attention to all the essential spheres of a socio-constructionist learning process. It is particularly useful in pinpointing the areas in need of improvement, like the cognitive component in this case of Edutech bootcamp. 

All in all, the teacher's experience and didactic competence are more essential factors for a successful course than choosing the right model or framework.

Future of education right here, right now

I'm reading this a forum discussion about the future of education while watching presentations by groups of teacher trainees on a course on special education & multi-cultural issues in the Uni of Helsinki.

E.g. this presenting group played a difficult situation at school but finding the solution was left for the audience (other students) by making them to choose a solution from a matrix of nine approaches. Audience votes were added to Excel and the pie diagramm showed the popularity of solution alternatives immediately. That was completed with further discussion.

And now, the next presentation is an entertaining video juxtaposing Indiana Jones and ordinary teachers that the students have interviewed. (great editing!) Question is, are teachers the heros who have to solve the problems alone? 

A very student-centric way, and a most suitable way to organize a mass course on a topic that requires personal involvement. So, right now I feel that this is the future of higher education happening today. What surprises me most, is that we're studying in this old-fashioned learning environment.

Four Components of 21st Century Learning

Now, I've written and revised it. Phew! Must take a break now and place it far off for a few days before the final round.

Here's a link if you are eager to read it now when your comments might make a change:

Four Components of 21st Century Learning: Applying 'Pedagogical Infrastructure Framework' on a Course on Educational Technology (pdf in my Dropbox via bitly, updated 16th Oct)

It's about the Edutech bootcamp that I wrote about three weeks ago.

Mediakasvatusta epäonnistumisen päivänä

Internet on toisenlainen hiekkalaatikko kuin hermeettinen tutkijankammio. Olen kirjoittanut tekstejä tähän blogiin tunnisteella Ainedida2. Niiden piti muodostaa verkkoessee uuslukutaitojen ja käytäntöyhteisöjen samankaltaisuuksista ja siitä miten näitä kaltaisuuksia voi hyödyntää mediakasvatuksen opetuksessa.

Aloitin kirjoittamalla monta liuskaa käsitejargonia, joka vaihtui miellekartaksi. Aloitin tieteellisen diskurssin englannilla, mutta ensimmäinen postaus olikin arkisuomea. Toivoin vuorovaikutusta lukijoiden kanssa – ei tullut ensimmäistäkään kommenttia.

Eilen – sopivasti kansallisena epäonnistumisen päivänä – päätin vaihtaa näkökulmaa vielä kerran. Totesin, että koulutehtävävastauksen tyyli ja rakenne oli täysin epäonnistunut valinta. Sen sijaan tästä setistä tulee reflektiivinen analyysi siitä, mitä itse opin, miten mediakasvatus osuikin omaan nilkkaan.

Hyvänä esimerkkinä toimii teksti Medialukutaitoa ovia avaamalla. Kirjoitin sitä varten kolme liuskaa käsitteiden ja toimintakentän määrittelyä. Tehtyäni sen tajusin, että käsittelytapa oli blogiin aivan väärä. Se ei kiinnostaisi ketään, ja minulle, omalla oppimisprosessilleni, se oli jo tehtävänsä tehnyt: olin hahmottanut toimintakentän tekstiä laatiessani. Niinpä tulostin käsitykseni käsitekentästä visuaaliseen muotoon miellekartaksi.

Mediakasvatus on kuin ameeba, joka valejalkojen ansiosta näyttää muuttavan muotoa koko ajan. Tilanne, väline ja muut vuorovaikutuksen osatekijät vaativat notkeutta – ja välillä myös nöyryyttä tunnustaa, että ohi meni.

"Who needs a university when we have Google?"

 "Who needs a university when we have Google? All the world's digital knowledge is available at a search."

Jeff Jarvis wrote a few years ago an interesting book What Would Google Do? Among other spheres he googlefies education.

"We can connect those who want to know with those who know. We can find experts on any topic."

This is easy, to shoot down Jeff's ideas. It's sufficient to say that not everyone has a trustworthy friend who's a pro in the field that one wants to learn. And finding some other expert... well, the web is packed with experts of everything...

And yet, as Jeff continues painting a picture on new educational ecology

"where students may take courses from anywhere and instructors may select any students, where courses are collaborative and public, where creativity is nurtured as Google nurtures it (...) where universities teach an abundance of knowledge to those who want it rather than manage a scarcity of seats in a class."

I feel at home on this MOOC on current/future higher education. I bet that there will be opportunities to return to Jeff's thoughts along the course.

Higher education and radical equality

The MOOC on current/future state of higher education started with presenting two current trends that were said to be opposing: there's a need for bigger and better universities but for smaller costs.

Without profound changes they are of course incompatible. It's like Encyclopedia Britannica would have wanted to double its volume (or amount of sold books) without adding costs. We know how the story wound up.

There are several thousand classmates attending this CFHE12 course. Input-wise: so far so good. How about quality of learning? How about dropouts? If there are enough (and free) raw materials to be spared, does it matter in the end of the production line?

The fundamentals of higher education lay on hierarchies. Now, the model of crowd-sourcing knowledge like Wikipedia did is a very different one.

What would a university be like, if it was not based on line organization but on something else, like matrix organization or perhaps a neural network? Would that change the way you defined "higher" education?

–

PS. Radical equality in the title refers to Juha Suoranta's and Tere Vadén's article in Learning the Virtual Life: Public Pedagogy in a Digital World.

What's the recipe for a community of practice?

Last week's Friday afternoon at InnoOmnia, Espoo. Small groups of adult students wandering around the vocational institute. They had gotten keys to access almost any space to watch and observe, to ask and interview, to learn and to get a grip on the community.

These teacher trainees were on Edutech bootcamp, a part of their vocational teachers' pedagogical studies. They had been learning education technology and pedagogy for two days, and this was their concluding task.


The trainees formed groups of three, got a key and an iPad, and started by consulting the course blog about what does "community of practice" mean, how can it be used as a support in learning, and what they are exactly expected to dig out in their own task.

There were two questions the students had to find answers for:

• How do CoP principles show up in InnoOmnia? 
• How does technology support the CoP in InnoOmnia? 

By letting the students do their learning in an authentic context, by letting them decide over their task management themselves we wanted to get them engaged, and to take the ownership of their own learning. By making them to analyze and evaluate InnoOmnia's practices and to create an unconventional learning outcome, we wanted them to use also their higher-level thinking skills (as they are classified in Bloom's taxonomy).

As their just-started studies are mainly carried out as distance learning, by such a procedure we wanted to support the creation of their own common practices, and their own community of practice.

Three groups interviewed students, entrepreneurs and teachers in InnoOmnia on video (above and eg. this and this). One group took pictures and made blog entries, another a Facebook page, and yet another a comic strip.

Further reading on communities of practice in education and on using technology to support them: 

• Barab, S. A., & Duffy, T. (2012). From Practice Fields to Communities of Practice. In D. Jonassen & S. M. Land (Eds.), Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments (2nd ed., pp. 29–65). 
• Hoadley, C. (2012). What is a Community of Practice and How Can We Support It? In Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments, see above (pp. 286–299). 
• Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2011). New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning (3rd ed.). See example pp. 232-245.
• Lloyd, A. (2010). Lessons from the workplace: Understanding information literacy as practice. In Practising Information Literacy: Bringing Theories of Learning, Practice and Information Literacy Together (pp. 29–50). 

Get engaged like auntie Tabby!

Recently, I've read from many sources how 'learning to be', to become a full member or participant in the field, is so essential in one's learning. In New Literacies (3rd ed) Colin Lankshear and Michel Knobel tell a story about Tabby Lou, spelled out originally by Elizabeth Hayes & James Gee.

Tabby – game-playing grandma turned into a Sims designer

Tabby is a grandmother with a health issue that confine her to home. She then learns to play The Sims with her grandchildren. One of those said she'd like a purple potty for her Sims house, and Tabby decided she would create one.

Tabby did find tools for doing the job, but couldn't understand how to use them. Gradually she got help, learned more, got in contact with designers, and after all, became a Sims designer herself, too.

There's a genuine Tabby pot above. Not the pot, but a later production among her approx. 9,000 (!) creations.

"Yeah, I am in my 62nd year on this earth. Wow!! Didn't think I'd make it this far. AND, I hit 6 and a half million downloads on my Birthday, How Cool is that!" (from Tabby's page)

What a nice story about "learning to be", about becoming a member "in a community in which expert practices are central", like Chistopher Hoadley puts it in his article 'What is a Community of Practice and How Can We Support It?', here.

This has a lot to do with media education

Of course the community of practice can be put at work to support learning. And of course passion, engagement, community, and technology can be harnessed for this purpose.

Some tested and tried methods that Hoadley calls C4P: Linking people with others with similar practices and interests. Facebook pages. Sharing resources and information. Wikis like OpiToinenElämä. Tools for communication and discussion. BBS, chat, Skype, virtual world... you name it... Meta-level mechanisms showing twhat others are doing or what they've done. Wiki history, Amazon recommendations.

Mendeley, my true friend

Dear Reader, may I introduce: This is Mendeley, my friend. We co-operate daily nowadays, as I've got three research papers in the works at the same time.

Mendeley is a great application for managing and sharing research papers. On a computer the desktop application hogs all your article pdf files in drag-and-drop style, and extracts the metadata automatically. All my data is stored in the cloud, so I can access it anywhere.

Mendeley is such a treasure, that I even ended hostilities with MS Word and returned using it for writing my papers. There's a handy plug-in for Word, and whenever I need a citation, I select the plug-in which opens a pop-up window, start writing the title/author name, and there I'll have it. It is pasted in the right place, formatted just the way I need (APA, in this case). 

Getting the reference done couldn't be easier: articles, books, web pages... Mendeley scans my text, knows what citations have been added, and makes the Bibliography section in a snap. Pure APA-style, hassle-free. Wow!

I can also read and annotate those pdf-based articles in Mendeley – also on my iPad.

Like a true friend, Mendeley doesn't charge for it's services. The free account holds for 2 Gb data, and I've used only 42 Mb.

One thing that I'd like my friend to learn: to accept bar code or ISBN when adding a book. Nowadays I must type every field manually. There are already many handy apps for iPad that make adding books as effortless as Mendeley's pdf process. Hope the folks get this feature right soon.

They say that Mendeley's also for collaborating online. How's that to be done? If you collab in Mendeley, share your secrets.

PS. I robbed AJ Cann's pic, so that's not my beard. Book your time if you want to whip me for that.

2000-luvun kansalaistaidot ja muita koukuttavia käsitteitä

Jari Laru väittelee Oulu yliopistossa 12.10. mobiililaitteiden käytöstä oppimisessa. Väitöskirjan (osin lyhennetty) pdf-versio on jo saatavilla.

Edelliseen postaukseen liittyen bongasin väitöskirjan tiivistelmästä kiinnostavia suomennoksia, jotka olivat itselleni vieraita:

• 21st century skills - 2000-luvun kansalaistaidot
• scaffolding learning - pedagoginen vaiheistaminen

Olisi kiinnostava seurata väitöstä, mutta eipä satu olemaan muuta asiaa Ouluun juuri nyt.

Tästä tuli puolestaan mieleen OAMK:n JanneL, joka perjantaina valotti yhteisille opiskelijoillemme käsitettä CSCL.

Käsitteen alusta voi ottaa määritteen kerrallaan pois, ja itse ydin pysyy silti vakaana:

computer-supported collaborative learning

supported collaborative learning

collaborative learning

learning

Lisäys 10.10.: Jarin väitöstä voi seurata streaminä osoitteesta http://connectpro.oulu.fi/let/ 

Medialukutaitoa ovia avaamalla

Mediakulttuuri kasvattaa ihmisiä kuin itsestään. Tällaisen väitteen pudotteli Juha Suoranta kirjassaan Kasvatus mediakulttuurissa (pdf).

Mihin sitten tarvitaan mediakasvatusta tai uusien lukutaitojen opettamista? Eli sekö siis riittää, että avataan ovi ja astutaan sisään käytäntöyhteisöön?

Juha väitti myös, että sikäli kun ihmiset oppivat erilaisia mediataitoja, voivat he myös kasvattaa medialla ja mediaa. Katsotaan, saa nähdä mitä tapahtuu. Tai ei vain katsota, vaan toimitaan. Tällä ja siihen liittyvillä tulevilla bloggauksilla on nimittäin tarkoitus sorsastaa ja saada yhteistyöllä todistettua, että uusien lukutaitojen omaksuminen on käytäntöyhteisöön astumista. Aika lähellä Juhan pointtia, siis.

Tässä on näillä näkymin edessä ainakin neljä postausta. Meinasin ensin kaataa tähän aloitukseen käsitteenmäärittelyä muutaman liuskan verran, mutta meni omakin naama vihreäksi, joten piirsinkin käsitteistä karttaa. Popplet-tunnarit omaavat kansalaiset voivat vapaasti tuunata tätä alla olevaa (tästä) ja lisätä samalla myös minun ymmärrystäni aiheesta.

Kuten näkyy, en oikein edes tiedä mitä käsitettä pitäisi käyttää. Koska aion seuraavaksi puhua käytäntöyhteisöistä ja siitä, miten samat lainalaisuudet toimivat myös livenä, ei medialukutaito toimi. Sama juttu näiden käsitteiden kanssa, joihin sisältyy "digitaalinen".

Yksi oivallinen lähestymistapa on Howard Rheingoldin "21st century skills = skills+community." Kannattaa katsoa Howardin keynote-esitys Reboot Britain -konferenssista vuodelta 2009.

Edutech bootcamp: Studying learning, or learning to study

As the teacher trainees start the Edutech Bootcamp tomorrow, they will participate a course that is both thoroughly planned and quite out of the box.

I'm happy and proud of having a major share of designing and carrying out this course on educational technology. It's not only my work but it also doubles as my advanced practice teaching, it triples as a topic for my seminar work, and furthermore, I'll squeeze my subject didactics coursework out of this.

Currently, I'm doing a seminar work at the Uni of Helsinki about applying a model called "pedagogical infrastructure framework" on our bootcamp. This is what my initial research plan looks like now.

The pedagogical infrastructure framework is elaborated in Minna Lakkala’s thesis. Here in Google Docs you can check out how I've thought we'll apply technological, social, epistemological, and cognitive approaches to the course.

Learning to be a participant, or new literacies in a world of digital sharing

Colin Lankshear & Michele Knobel don’t let it rust. After having their first edition of New Literacies published in 2003, they have been active in updating it, getting the 3^rd edition to the bookstores last year. The subtitle of the newest edition is Everyday Practices and Social Learning.

Reading New Literacies 3^rd ed. is one of those rewarding learning experiences. It is a well structured and lucidly written book full of interesting examples.

New Literacies is divided into three parts: Concepts and theories, Everyday practices and examples, and finally, building upon these, New literacies and social learning.

I found 'New literacies and social learning' the most valuable part. There’s a lucid chain of reasoning from the change of the global world, from the new requirements in the working life, to the informal participatory digital culture and how these urge the learning and teaching to change.

Learning in the current society has to happen as an active process of the learner, where he/she becomes a full participant in a community of practice. That means that learning is not so much “(educators) pushing decontextualized abstract knowledge” but “(learners) pulling meaningful and contextual skills”. When learning is contextual, authentic, and makes a connection to the life outside school, it can touch emotions, too. As best, that can lead to passion-based learning.

Not only do Lankshear&Knobel theorize about it, but they give us plenty of examples as well. There’s the granny who decided to learn to be a Sims designer. There’s the community building up The Secret Life of Toys. And what is of the most essential, there’s the authors’ own (authentic!) experience with teacher education students and their team-based learning, producing both research and new media.

This quote sounds like a motto of our Learning Solutions team at InnoOmnia: 

“The efficacy of social learning is predicated on the fact that it immerses learners in processes of induction into the ‘ways’ of becoming ‘full practitioners’ and acquiring their appreciative systems, as well as getting hands-on practice with their mental and material tools within authentic contexts in which they are employed by successful practitioners from the outset.” (220)

The strength of part 1 and part 2 lies in the vast array of interesting examples of current digital culture. They range from auctioning one’s soul in Amazon.com, to the shoe throwing meme, to writing fanfiction, and to producing machinima video at school.  

The writers have organized their book to serve as a course text book by providing questions and topics for discussion in the end of the chapters. Chapter 7 is also available online at the writers’ site. 

In Facebook terms, I ‘like’ this book. “This [liking on Facebook] creates text, makes meaning, does identity work, expresses solidarity, sends signals, instantiates one’s sense of ‘cool’ or insiderliness, and so on. It is writing by clicking.” (196) 

So, if you liked this review, share it and ignite your own social network of meanings.