Learning by Design: Changing Landscape in Digital Space, Place and Future Prof. KARANAM PUSHPANADHAM Ph.D Professor of Educational Management Faculty of Education and Psychology The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda pushpanadham@gmail.com INDIA

SETTING THE STAGE How would you like to be described? How do people learn best? What follows for planning and instruction? “Am I doing ‘best practice’? Or am I stuck in unhelpful habits?” What do our goals demand of our methods of instruction? If genuine understanding is the long-term goal, what follows for my learning and teaching?

The Rules are Changing The internet has changed notions of place, time and space Emerging new methods of teaching and learning based on an improved understanding of cognition Effect of demographic changes on learning population Changing financial context for education: increased competition, pressure on resources Impact of changes in government policy: funding, participation, research strategy Blending of living, learning, working and leisure

“Thirty years from now the big university campuses will be relics “Thirty years from now the big university campuses will be relics. Universities won’t survive.….” “…the cost of higher education has risen as fast as the cost of healthcare…. the system is rapidly becoming untenable. Higher education is in deep crisis.” Peter Drucker, Forbes magazine, July 1997

“The pressure of change is on the classroom; it is utterly unthinkable that it can continue to be built, structured and equipped as it has been for all these decades. It is rather grotesque that societies which essentially depend on and intently strive for innovation and progress should try to source the power and energy for their innovative and progressive future from the physical and conceptual conditions of the educational mills of the 19th century.” Andreas Schratzenstaller (2010)

“How learning takes place” Learners come to the classroom with preconceptions and prior knowledge gained through various learning experiences.

To develop competence, students must: Have a deep foundation of factual knowledge Understand facts and ideas in a conceptual framework Organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application

Students develop flexible under-standing of when, where, why, and how to use their knowledge to solve new problems if they learn how to extract underlying principles and themes from their learning exercises.

To develop competence, students must: Have a deep foundation of factual knowledge Understand facts and ideas in a conceptual framework Organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application

To develop competence, students must: Have a deep foundation of factual knowledge Understand facts and ideas in a conceptual framework Organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application

For example, many of us too often – We all have a few habits that are neither helpful nor in line with ‘Best Practice’ For example, many of us too often – Confuse the textbook with a valid syllabus based on transfer goals Confuse fun activities with learning “Teach” without checking for understanding early and often enough Test what is easier to test and grade rather than what is most in line with our personal and institutional long-term goals

Learning by design” characteristics (from 8000+ educators) Clear goals and explicit performance requirements Models and modeling provided A genuine challenge/problem/question frames work that stretches you - real, meaningful tasks Lots of focused practice, feedback, and opportunities to use it built in - not over-planned and taught Trial and error, reflection and adjustment are expected, encouraged and ‘designed in’ The teacher is more of a facilitator, coach There is a safe, supportive environment for risk-taking, trying out new learning ‘Designed in’ variety, choice, and attention to difference A good mix of collaboration/solo work Immersion, active, hands-on - and earlier than typically done

Research on classroom teaching “The single most important variable in promoting long-term retention and transfer is "practice at retrieval." This principle means that learners need to generate responses, with minimal cues, repeatedly over time with varied applications so that recall becomes fluent and is more likely to occur across different contexts and content domains. Simply stated, information that is frequently retrieved becomes more retrievable. In the jargon of cognitive psychology, the strength of the "memory trace" for any information that is recalled grows stronger with each retrieval.”

Research on classroom teaching “The single most important variable in promoting long-term retention and transfer is "practice at retrieval." This principle means that learners need to generate responses, with minimal cues, repeatedly over time with varied applications so that recall becomes fluent and is more likely to occur across different contexts and content domains. Simply stated, information that is frequently retrieved becomes more retrievable. In the jargon of cognitive psychology, the strength of the "memory trace" for any information that is recalled grows stronger with each retrieval.”

Varying the conditions under which learning takes place makes learning harder for learners but results in better learning. Like practice at retrieval, varied learning conditions pay high dividends for the effort exerted.

Learning is generally enhanced when learners are required to take information that is presented in one format and "re- represent" it in an alternative format.

UbD big idea Why important? If not… Backward Design Plans need to be well aligned to be effective Aimless activity & coverage Transfer as goal It is the essence of understanding and the point of schooling Students fail to apply, poor results on tests Focus on big ideas that’s how transfer happens, makes learning more connected Learning is fragmented, more difficult, less engaging Meaningful learning that’s what is most engaging and inviting You lose many kids over time

Adjust Apply Get Feedback Evaluate Transfer Transfer Goal: autonomy & fluency of performance in increasingly complex and novel situations, on worthy tasks

Purposeful Learning, aligned with goals The essence of backward design ALIGNMENT of learning with goals and evidence: Determine how to teach and what to teach by the demands not habit or comfort level of the approach The key question, then: what learning is needed? How can the needed learning best occur? Think of “teaching” and “content” as resources, not the causes of learning. Think of textbook as resource, not the syllabus

Transformation not extinction: New space models • Traditional categories of space are becoming less meaningful as space becomes less specialized, boundaries blur, and operating hours extend toward 24X7 Space types designed primarily around patterns of human interaction rather than specific needs of particular departments, disciplines or technologies New space models focus on enhancing quality of life as much as on supporting the learning experience

Supporting new ways of learning Collaborative, active learning with hands-on experiences Integrated, multidisciplinary Distributed, learning takes place anywhere/anytime, mobile technology with social activity Immersive with simulated or real-world experiences Blended activities, online with face-to-face, mixed

The future learning experience Layered experience Creation of flexible activity zones to support learning, living and working Users choosing appropriate settings and technology for the tasks they want to achieve Blending of physical and virtual research areas Blurring of learning with working, living and leisure Sharing of facilities with other institutions/ uses • Thinking beyond the campus – the wider learning landscape