EDEN 2012 - The Last Day

Now, we are about to close the EDEN conference. We have just provided our two presentations. Eventhough, there were about untraditional DE - we have contributed to the conference with an important perspective - from my point of view.

In this moment, I listen to a UNESCO-representative. He claims that students are driven by realism.  A survey, he presents shows that students prefer to learn in groups, with practical problems together with peers. The same survey demonstrates that they are actually using their time at school copying from the board and listening to the teacher.

Key-factors in attracting students to HE are:

• Engagement
• Convenience
• Productivity

Ingeborg mentions MobileSage http://www.mobilesage.eu/ and a dilemma formulated by
Sherry Turkle in Alone together: "Why we expect more from technology and less form each other"

Experience from medical school in Porto is presented - including three concrete projects:
Serious Learning Game (Virtual Quizzz) : a tool for active learning and assessment in Clinical Analtomy - it is developed in Moodle.

EDEN 2012

Yesterday, the conference opened. Now, we are waiting for the first presentations. The conference hall is amazing.
Morten Flate Paulsen, President of EDEN gives a short introduction to why the theme for the conference has been chosen: "Closing the gap from generation Y to the mature lifelong learners".

Hegyi presents interesting projects:
Portuguese Platform of Age-Friendly Cities - http://europa.eu/ey2012/ey2012main.jsp?catId=975&langId=da&mode=initDetail&initiativeId=9&initLangId=en
Grandparents and grandchilden http://www.geengee.eu/geengee/index.jsp

Bob Fryer presents - how can we make the right changes - illustrated with a project WebWise http://projekte.hs-magdeburg.de/whole/course/view.php?id=97

Joachim Stolter presents profiles of non-traditional students (Open Distance Learners) definede as students studying part-time, distance or parallel with work.  According to Stolter's research, there is a convergence of student profiles between traditional campus-based and open and distance learning students.

"Yesterday's non-traditional studens are tomorrows's lifelong learnger" (Schütze and Slowey, 2002)

Haaga-Helia University of Applied Science uses inquiry based learning. They have a new modern campus which is shared with Laurea University of Applied Science. They have developed a digital tool: Leap-environment. It provides the students with.:

• a platform where students find projects that enhance their studies
• learning projects, thesis, and workplacement
• a tool for project management
• a place where own learning and development can be followed up

For the partners and entrepreneurs the platform is:

• a place for seeking students for new projects
• networking
• possibility to find future employees and a new way of promoting own business
• a tool for following up the development of projects

The teachers use the platform as

• a tool to facilitate teachers' own wokr, supervision of student development
• a system for imrpoving communication between students, lectures, and researcher
• a database

Every student has their own profile so that the entrepreneurs can see the skills of the students.

In Norway, they speak of merging classrooms: doing homework at school and working with the lectures at home.

Perception of progress, is the theme of the third and last presentation.Following examples from other domains are presented:

•  Productivity (RescueTime) http://www.rescuetime.com/
• Running (RunKeeper) http://runkeeper.com/

OpenBadges.org http://openbadges.org/en-US/ - an interesting way of thinking and acting
Check my activities - a tool for the students to check their activity compared with other students and to increase selfawareness about learning http://navigator.nmc.org/project/umbc-check-my-activity-tool-students
Open Learning Initiative, Carnegie Mellon University - the students is guided through the materials and they can predict some of the most common problems https://www.google.dk/search?sourceid=navclient&hl=da&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4SKPT_daDK430DK431&q=Open+Learning+Initiative%2C+Carnegie+Mellon+University

Goal-oriented visualizations - the students' progress is vizualised
Society for Learning Analytics Resarch (SOLAR) http://www.solaresearch.org/ - very interesting

Blackboard also provides a tool for analytics for learn: from the student view
LearnSmart - gamebased strategies can be a strong driver for students http://www.mhhe.com/learnsmart/

Right now, my colleague Anna Maj and I attend a session we have chosen because researchers from South and North Korea should present. However, it was a mistake. It is only a South Korean study based on a Delphy Study of teachers' competencies for the future in South Korean Schools.

Second presentation in the session focuses on professional learning for adult on the move. The project is called: On the move http://move-on.exodussa.com/ecportal.asp?id=32&nt=19&lang=1

The next project focuses on digital literacy in a doctor project about Strategic Project Management Tool- kit for creating Digital Literacy Initiatives (SPreadD) http://www.spread-digital-literacy.eu/index.php?id=1664&L=3

Meishar Tal: Learning with facebook group - points out three functions:

• Repository
• Interaction
• Assessment tools

Differences between facebook and LMSs:

• Ownership
• Entry
• Creation of collaborative knowledge
• Managing cont vs managing interaction
• Like
• Organization of content
• Synctronic interaction

Two different personal learning styles were identified: a proactive style and a reactive style.

Next presentation is also about facebook. FLIP-classes: the lecture is at home and the studywork is at school. A very interesting presentation
Przybylska's roles of the teacher were used as the pedagogical framework.

Higher Order Thinking Strategies in the work with blogs. The students have to train the writing reflecting post. Another great presentation. Thanks

Now, I listen to an interesting doctoral study of a Norwegian (Ole Christian Brudvik)  from NKS Nettstudier based on design-based research. Diigo - a social content network   http://www.diigo.com/ - a small scale research.
When I evaluate todays blogging, I am quite sure you can not talk about Higher Order Thinking Strategies. However, I might sum up later today or when the entire conference is over. I think, it is important to maintain the concrete activities and impressions. So, I did today.

References

Przybylska, I. (2011). Role of Teacher in a Modern World
Schuetze, H. G., and Slowey M. (2002). Participation and Exclusion: A Comparative Analysis of Non-Traditional Students and Lifelong Learners in Higher Education Higher EducationVol. 44, No. 3/4, pp. 309-327.

Seminar May 2012

Today, I am going to VejleFjord together with 35 dedicated lectures, researchers and consultants from UCL. Hopefully, we will learn a lot and provide each other with new inspiration and perspectives. I will try to blog during the seminar to point out some of the contributions and perspectives.

UCL's new R&D-director presented his visions for our work in the next years. First, he emphasized the fact that there will be fewer resources and we therefore have to focus our work with R&D.

Secondly, he highlighted the need to consolidate and we therefore have to strengthen our focus on research and especially the effects of research. One of the important challenges is to make a strong profile and provide a clear description of our repertoire in relation to applied research.

Finally, he underscored that we still have to work with quality in applied research in our kind of institution. However, we have to act as "society-helpers" which means that we can never act in an exclusive way such as a traditional research university and private consultants can.

Birgit Heimann Hansen presented an analysis of how students participate in R&D-activities. Then, Torben, Lisbeth and Bente told us about an analysis of how we work with municipalities - and a new web-site is created where we can get an overview.

Now, the Operation-Move is on the stage!

We worked for more than two hours with Operation-Move. It was my impression that many of the participants found it interesting and engaging. After that we had a wonderful dinner and a nice chat in the bar.

Today, we will start the program with evaluation of yesterdays activities and discuss our assumptions and experience related to empowering of the citizens. I look forward to a new day with my inspiring colleagues from University College Lillebaelt.

VIDA

Today, I participate in the VIDA-conference http://edu.au.dk/en/research/research-projects/vida/vida-conference-2012/program/. The Minister for Children and Education openes the conference.

In the project , one of the perspectives is the leadership impact on the social inclusion in daycare.
Melhuh, Birkbeck, University of London quotes James J. Heckman and Espen-Andersen - their research shows that investment in the early year is essential for the children and society. It is an interesting point that all most all research in this area is from UK and USA. Both countries have very few regulations on staff qualification
Melhuish's research shows that it is more important for children from unskilled families to attend pre-school than for any other groups of children.

Tarjei Havnes from University of Oslo present an economic view on child care and development. Experimental data with random assignment is provided.The research illustrates that there is a correlation between the years of schooling and participation in daycare.

Dr. Jan Peeters from Ghent University spoke about competence requirements in early childhood education and care. A literature review, a survey and case-studies conducted for the EU show that well-educated, experienced staff is important. However, it is also important with continous training and reflection on practice. An example from Italy with a very theoretical master education shows that the staff leaves the profession because they cannot manage practice.

Twitter

Now, I am on Twitter! Encouraged by my two oldest sons! I have posted two tweets and experience quite a new universe! Wondering how it can be used in social life as well as in work life. At risk for information overload. Of course I can stop "playing" Twitter in the same way as I can stop blogging and "playing" with Facebook. However, it is interesting how it make me think of and act in the world. It might be more than a playful game.

Design Based Research

According to Bereiter (2002), design based research is defined by its goal not by methodology or the research methods used.  

Bereiter emphasizes the focus on sustained innovation. The awareness of potential has, Bereiter states, been the important drivers in the innovation of the automobile, airplane and computer. Innovation in education is however characterized by another complexity. In education, the potential of innovation is social and personal changes and it is more difficult to imagine these kind of changes than the potentials of the automobile. However, only rather clear visions can provide the essential drivers for sustained innovation. So, it is the challenge and part of the explanation why design based research has been more dominant in medicine and engineering than in education.

As mentioned above, Bereiter defines the approach by the purpose: sustained innovative development. Furthermore, he adds four characteristics constituting design research.Firstly, the collaboration with designers is mentioned as a constituting principle. Second, Bereiter points at intervention as an essential part of the researchers work. The design researcher acts within the context and therefore crosses the traditional boundary between observation and intervention. Third, the goal of design research is to solve authentic problems in a concrete context focusing on both the positive and negative consequences of the changes. Fourth, emergent goals drive design research in a process characterized by shared visions in a dynamic community focusing on the potentials.

Reference

Bereiter, C. (2002). Design Research for Sustained Innovation. Cognitive Studies, Bulletin of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society, 9(3), 321-327.

Educational Design Research

Yesterday, I read a very interesting paper about Educational Design Research (EDR)

First, I was supprised to read the following claim in Reeves, McKenny and Herrington's (2011) paper:

"Perhaps with the exception of a few nations such as Singapore, Finland and South Korea, most countries have an insufficient basis to be satisfied with the educational attainment of their primary, secondary, and post-secondary educational systems today." (p.55)

Actually, I thought that the educational problems were global. However, the paper provides no references to research confirming that Singapore, Finland and South Korea have no problems in their educational systems. So, it is interesting to find evidence and to look closer into possible explanations. I will try to find documentation for this claim in future readings.

Second, EDR is characterized as an educational research approach which links directly to practice and enables concrete educational changes and theoretical development.

"Unlike other forms of educational research, educational design research provides a direct link between research and practice, and thus the chances that it will have a meaningful impact are greatly enhanced." (p.58)

Finally, the paper provides a clear distinction between action research and educational design research. It is indirectly stated that EDR aims for constructing theory, models, or principles which can lead new design initiatives in contrast to action research where the focus is on solving concrete problems in practice.
In the future studies, I will look for other distinctions between EDR and action research. I am not sure that all action researchers will argue the way Reeves, McKenny and Herrington do.

References

Reeves, T.C., McKenny, S., and Herrington, J. (2011) Publishing and perishing: The critical importance of educational design research. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology , 27(1), 55-65