Technology-enabled learning communities

Elizabeth Jones from The British School in The Netherlands shared an example from her recent practice on the Technology Outdoors MOOC. She ran a ’Follow the Panda’ challenge day with the aim of building shared understanding of the new Canvas VLE for 200 year 6 students and 20 staff across 4 school sites.

In this column a range of literature sources have been explored which offer definitions pertinent to the themes of this Mesh Guide (and associated article).  This serves to provide context for the other columns and to create a secure base for the argument put forward for the role of social learning in teacher collaborations, in particular in blended and online learning environments.  

Summarising this column about pedagogy is perhaps the most complicated of all, with a huge range of strategies, ways working, pedagogical tools and more to consider.  In this respect the reader is best advised to read the items in the column with an informed eye, based on their current knowledge, interest and context.

‘It is important that teachers  do not get seduced by the power or novelty of the technology or us it for its own sake. That will be obvious to most teachers, but the investment in new technology, the enthusiasm many students show for digital tools and media, and the temptation to be seen to be up-to-date and following educational trends, can all act as seductive drivers.’

Ideas from the DLaB community for using technology to collaborate with other classrooms around the world on the theme of technology outdoors:

Post and respond to photo writing prompts on a set of Interactive drawers using Thinglink.
Make virtual sculptures and 3D models using Greenscreen by DoInk and placing them in different environments.
Collaborate on eBooks using Bookcreator.

• Repurpose time and restructure delivery methods using technology in favour of collaborative, problem-based learning

• Use online tools such as communities, blogs, forums and  collaborative documents to create an online classroom where interactions occur rather than just a static website

Substitution: a substitute for what you might do already, with no functional change.

Augmentation: improvement over what you did without the technology.

Modification:  significantly redesigning the task.

Redefinition: allowing you to do what was previously not possible.

The read, reflect, display and do model (Bonk and Zhang, 2006) provides one way of creating a constructivist learning environment. It suggests that we should draw from an array of technology options available to online learners through a range of media for accessing information and expressing ideas, and give learners an option to apply their learning to a real life context.