‘Innovating e-Learning’ Online Conference 2006 Pedagogical Vocabularies – a discussion issue? Lisa Corley CETIS, University of Bolton Sheila MacNeill CETIS, University of Strathclyde

‘Innovating e-Learning’ Online Conference 2006 Outline of presentation Details of JISC Pedagogical Vocabularies Project undertaken by CETIS (plus context of work) Information about recommendations & next steps Use of pedagogical vocabularies – arguments ‘for’ and ‘against’ Discussion issues

‘Innovating e-Learning’ Online Conference 2006 JISC Pedagogical Vocabularies Project  Short project (August - December 2005)  Outputs:  Pedagogical Vocabularies Review  Vocabularies Management Technologies Review  Recommendations to JISC

‘Innovating e-Learning’ Online Conference 2006 Context of work Emerging requirement for ‘common language’ coming from a number of JISC programmes and other initiatives In particular the eLearning and Pedagogy strand of the JISC eLearning Programme increasingly highlighted needs of various communities involved to be able to use appropriate pedagogical vocabularies in the following areas: Application and tool development Articulation Cross domain communication Conceptualisation Personalisation Resource description and discovery

‘Innovating e-Learning’ Online Conference 2006 Pedagogical Vocabularies: different uses - different strokes for different folks Vocabularies intended for indexing - search & discovery Vocabularies developed to guide practice - designing for learning

‘Innovating e-Learning’ Online Conference 2006 Recommendations raise 2 key questions: What use might vocabularies be in the context of current JISC strategies ? How might JISC support these uses more effectively, through further investigation and/or development?

‘Innovating e-Learning’ Online Conference 2006 Pedagogical Vocabularies - what use are they? 2 opposing viewpoints: For: Pedagogical vocabularies are needed so that we can talk to each other (lecturers, learning technologists, developers etc) Against: It’s just a displacement activity and they don’t want to talk to each other anyway- what’s the point in looking at Pedagogical vocabularies? Can they ‘bridge the gap’? And, do we want to?

‘Innovating e-Learning’ Online Conference 2006 ‘For’ Pedagogical Vocabularies “Original consultation (2004) emphasised need for: ‘a common language for describing all this’. We know there are problems translating between research projects, developer requirements, and real examples of practice… really important (question) ‘What would you want or need to use a pedagogical vocabulary for?’ We really need to understand more about the ways in which educational vocabularies, and other structured accounts of pedagogy, might be useful.” Helen Beetham,JISC eLearning and Pedagogy Programme

‘Innovating e-Learning’ Online Conference 2006 ‘Against’ Pedagogical Vocabularies “…the 121 pages that comprise the first two survey reports, the Pedagogical Vocabularies Review and the Vocabulary Management Technologies Review, seem hardly to justify the tepid 7 page 'Recommendations' document that follows. Study study study, disseminate, more study, pilot a bit, repeat. Sorry guys, I wish I could be more enthusiastic about this; I want to take succour in the belief we can control the growing chaos, find sense through old patterns and methods, but you know what, I can't do it anymore, I have seen the light, and this is not it.” Scott Leslie, EdTechPost

‘Innovating e-Learning’ Online Conference 2006 Discussion Issues What are your views on Pedagogical Vocabularies – are they any use? Are the recommendations made by this report an accurate reflection of practitioner needs and capabilities in terms of using and creating using vocabularies within the field of e-learning? We invite further discussion around issues already raised within the working group of the project and external audiences (see slide notes) Priorities, Issues and Recommendations to JISC’ report can be found at: