Kristoffer Greaves Reflection on Masters of Professional Education & Training, Semester 1, 2009

What is “FODE”?FlexibleOnlineDistanceEducation

 Teaching what students/clients want

 Teaching what students/clients want, in the ways they want it

 Teaching what students/clients want, in the ways they want it.  1990s – ‘Client-focused’ competency based training (CBT)

 Teaching what students/clients want, in the ways they want it.  1990s – ‘Client-focused’ competency based training (CBT) with flexible:

 Teaching what students/clients want, in the ways they want it.  1990s – ‘Client-focused’ competency based training (CBT) with flexible:  Delivery Modes

 Teaching what students/clients want, in the ways they want it.  1990s – ‘Client-focused’ competency based training (CBT) with flexible:  Delivery Modes  Delivery Venues

 Teaching what students/clients want, in the ways they want it.  1990s – ‘Client-focused’ competency based training (CBT) with flexible:  Delivery Modes  Delivery Venues  Assessment Practices

All emerging digital forms of:  Teaching  Learning  Support  Administration in education

 institution-based, formal education  where the learning group is separated, and  where interactive telecommunications systems are used to connect learners, resources and instructors...  “telecommunications systems” includes electronic media Simonson et al 2009 p. 32

Technology, interaction & learners’ contexts Historical and political foundations Flexible delivery Online, e-learning and the virtual campus Education futures: technologies, contexts, distances

‘Technology’  traditional, behaviourist approach, focused on production process to program learning compared to  broader contemporary view, tools that mediate interactions

‘Interaction’  necessary constituent of all learning  many interactions (not just f2f):  Learning materials (print/online/digital/LMS)  Administrative sub-system (enrolments etc)  Academic sub-system (lecturers, tutors, etc)  Other learners (group work, discussions, etc)

Learners’ contexts  personal worlds: family, friends, home & community  professional worlds: professional colleagues, managers, memberships  interactional distances:  Intimate: home, family, friends  Effective: work, shops, college, etc  Nominal: world at large

 Religious letters and texts  Correspondence - penny post – Britain 1681; Pitman –shorthand lessons 1837  School of the Air – Australia 1951  Open university – UK 1960s  Teletutoring – Australia 1970s  ‘Distance Education’ – growth in 1980s

 Otto Peters: “industrialised education”  Holmberg: “guided didactic conversation”  Traditional assumptions - distant student necessarily ‘disadvantaged’?  Education as text – is ‘conventional’ education inevitably ‘distant’?  Creative approaches to serve learners’ needs

 Industry’s demands – flexible workforce essential to improved productivity  TAFE delivery of VET seen as costly & non- responsive to industry change  CBT and recognition of prior learning (RPL) – demonstrated competencies  Training packages & self-directed learning  Australian Flexible Learning Network

Effects of online learning –  changing pedagogy underlying technological developments  transition from ‘autonomous learner’ to ‘electronically connected learning community’  Knowledge construction - a dialectic process where one tests & negotiates constructed views on & with others

Potential attributes of online learning ‘+’  ‘Equal’ medium  Collaborative learning  Flexibility of time and place  Access to mentor  NES have time to reflect  Reflective communication  Overcome isolation

Potential attributes of online learning ‘-’  Learners need IT equipment  Information overload  Online learning curve  Typing skills important  Missed communication cues; ‘flaming’  Dominant personalities  Non-participating lurkers

Appropriate pedagogical models?  One-alone – online databases & journals  One-to-one – learning contract,  One-to-many – lecturer, symposium, podcast  Many-to-many – discussion, group work, debate, synchronous or asynchronous

Attributes of collaborative learning & social construction of knowledge :  Share diverse perspectives of group  Clarification of ideas  Feedback on ideas  Group solutions  Sharing resources  Practicing language of knowledge group  Power of group discussion

 Distance education and technology interrelate and mutate synchronously  Theory & research has to keep up  Tension between public and private  Post-Fordism – technology permits affordable production of non-identical units  Diversity of learner needs + mentor skills

 Social presence in a virtual environment  Flexibility = overload?  Reallocation of workloads  Implications for instructional design  Implications for training and regulatory policies